OTBR: California Redwoods

Latitude: N 37° 24.270
Longitude: W 122° 21.288

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".

15 Highway Projects North Texas Needs

Not really. More like 15 highway projects the highway industry and their lobbyists want. The list is offered unquestioningly by Dallas Business Journal's Nicholas Sakelaris.

There are two numbers buried in this story that suggest to me that maybe we ought to be rethinking our dependence on highways to, as Sakelaris puts it, "keep the economy rolling."

Interstellar (2014)

IMDB

Interstellar (2014): Wormhole shows humans way off dying Earth. Mishmash of ideas. Explains plot with dialog not action. Waste of talent. D+

Repeat Tweets: No Higher, No Wider US 75

Repeat tweets from April, 2015:

• Apr 1 2015: "What happened to 'no-higher, no-wider' for US 75 through Richardson?" For once I agree with Rodger Jones. dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com
  
• Apr 3 2015: Force Majeure (2014): Different reactions to skiing avalanche split family. Not a disaster movie, but OK psychological study of stress. C+
  
• Apr 8 2015: Headline: "Denver Broncos CB Aqib Talib Involved In Dallas Nightclub Incident." Berkner grad. So sad. dfw.cbslocal.com
  
• Apr 11 2015: Birdman (2014): Pretentious. Over-acted. Movie and theater-industry navel-gazing. Oscar mistake. C+
  

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

POTD: Young Friends

From 2015 03 11 Jakarta

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Jakarta, Indonesia, specifically the steps of the National Monument, a 433 foot tower in central Jakarta built to commemorate the struggle for Indonesian independence. I don't have a story to go with this photo. I just like the image. The white clothing. The green space in an urban setting. The photo is not even of the monument itself. It's of school children sitting together on the steps of the monument. Their backs are towards the monument. To me the image symbolizes the limitless possibilities of youth and the universality of friendship. Good things to contemplate after the discouragements of the last few days. Don't ask about those. I'd rather think about young friends.