Friday, November 8, 2013

S2L77: Turkey's Aegean Coast

Kusadasi, Turkey
April 14, 1977
First sight of the sea since Kota Bharu, Malaysia.
Source: Personal travel notes.

From 1977 04 08 Turkey

Finally, in Kusadasi, Turkey, on the Aegean Sea, after more than 7,500 miles and eight countries, I saw the sea again for the first time since standing on the beach of the South China Sea in Kota Bharu, Malaysia.

The history of the area around Kusadasi goes back 5,000 years. Everyone sooner or later had some reason to come to here -- the Aeolians, Ionians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Christians, Byzantines, Venetians, Ottomans, the modern Turks, and, in 1977, yours truly.

More photos after the jump.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

OTBR: Autumn Leaves on Utah's Mt. Nebo

Latitude: N 39° 58.104
Longitude: W 111° 41.442


A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

"The Primal Scream of Suburbia"

Eric Nicholson nails it in Unfair Park: "The Opposition to New High-End Apartments in Richardson is the Primal Scream of Suburbia."

Eric Nicholson just saved me the trouble of blogging about the public hearing before Richardson's City Plan Commission (CPC) regarding the proposed Palisades Village development.

After the jump, some speculation and gaming this out.

Autumn in Breckinridge (2013)

From 2013 11 03 Breckinridge Park
More photos after the jump.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Election Day: Can You Prove You Are You?

McLovin
Source: Superbad.

It's Election Day. Thank God, for the first time ever you have to show a photo ID to vote in Texas, the way the Founders intended. No more Democrats stealing elections. Finally, at long last, we'll be able to elect a few Republicans here.

It's a well known fact that photo IDs are difficult to forge. If not, kids would be using forged IDs to buy beer. It's also a well known fact that the desire to vote illegally is much stronger than teens' desire to consume beer, so much so that there have been ten cases of voter impersonation nationwide since 2000. But now, with the new photo ID laws, those ten cases in the last decade are about to be reduced to at most single digits in the next decade. What's not to like?