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I don't initiate Hangouts, but will attend if invited.
Yeah, gri, I do mean Toogrians too. You love Putin so much I'm sure I don't have to twist your arm to get you on board with this...or any of your Toogrians, either. Come on, everybody. Let's do this.
Monday UPDATE: People associated with NATO said that Anonymous should leave these actions to the professionals...but we've already seen just how effective the professionals have been; it's a matter of poor track record. And this morning, Twitter chimed in about how the Anonymous list of Twitter accounts were wildly inaccurate, whatever that means. Here's a link to an article on Daily Dot, which will cause the Firefox browser to choke, proclaiming that it's an insecure connection: Daily Dot article
T-DAy Eve mini-UPDATE:Forecasters call for an ice storm tomorrow thru Friday. Got my batteries & camping gear all prepped, so if we're gonna be without electricity for a solid month like we were the last big blaster ice storm a few years back, I'm READY this time. Bring it.
I went all Snowden on those Linux trackers, pretty much miffed that every move was followed by pairs of Linux machines, and yanked 'em around for fun at first, and it is true that this blog is also generally Muslim friendly--but make no mistake: I'm all in favor of tracking whomever it is that have other nefarious interests and I hope they get caught.
It's true that my friendships have also attracted the wrong kind of Sunni evangelicals out my way and I hope they get caught too. Linux guys, if you're going to catch the bad guys by staking out this blog, then I roll out the red carpet of welcome to you now. Go get 'em!!!
My biggest problem with the Linus trackers is that they keep triggering Blogger stats and give me a false count of actual readers. Could I talk you guys into some kind of "silent mode" to where my stats don't count you guys? I mean really--if you're just tracking activity, quit meddling with the stats fer cryin' out loud. I thought you blithering idiots were smarter than that. If you're not smarter than that, then fercrissakes get a eddikashun.
Effing blithering IDIOTS.
Refugee Act of 1980 (PDF) means that governors can't say their states won't take in refugees, and that includes those governors who genuflect to Saint Bonnie Ronnie Reagan.
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I'm just now hearing about the manhunt in progress for that Belgian linked to the Paris attacks. Police found him, let him go, and resume looking for him. Inspector Clouseau LIVES.
And there is NO doubt whatsoever that M. Clouseau employs those clowns with the Linux machines.
If you have used Google to search that term inside quotation marks, this blog post should be right up at the top of your search as an exact match. The second should be the site number 2519 on the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project's website. Why? Because...
Right now I have 3 very late straggler monarch larvae that pupated in the first week of October, meaning that when they emerge as adults, it'll likely be close to November and the big monarch migration will be over. An expert tells me they won't make it through the winter because of their late start--at least, they won't make it to Mexico. Purchasing Monarch Watch tags for this year is out of the question according to the website of THOSE folks, so I've made my own tags out of repurposed plastic produce labels which I've chemically wiped clean, and with acetate-capable india ink, inscribed "MLMP 2519" on each of 3 such tags.
When the monarchs emerge, I will tag each one with one tag each, but if you're reading this because you have recovered one of my butterflies, there's something else you should know, too--the tags are tint coded, too. The number in black ink indicates point of origin, but the tint identifies the individual. Individual number 1 died, so there is no brown-tinted tag, but individual number 2 will sport a red-tinted (rose?) tag, individual number 3 will sport the orange-tinted tag, and the last individual will be wearing plain white.
When they emerge, get tagged, and get released, I'll post pictures here. I have my email in the header of this blog so you can contact me if you catch one of my kids, but know ye that the color tint of the tag is just as important as the number. Thank you.
Larvae 1 and 3 pupated first; 1 was a casualty. This is 3 and when it emerges, will get the orange-tinted wing tag.
In order from front to back (or right to left if you're counting 1 dimensional placement--don't do left to right, that would be wrong) pupa number 2, which will get the rosy tinted tag, and pupa number 4, which will get the white tag.
Below is a shot of the stickers I described, but the swirly background came about by my chemically wiping the original stickers, which were sitting atop other stickers salvaged from purchased produce, so it got a bit messy. India ink is supposed to adhere to plastic, but you can see here that it looks chipped in places, so I might have to re-do that. And then again I might not. We'll see when the time comes.
Monday Monarch UPDATE: pupa 3 has just completed pupation as of 10:15 this morning, and it looks like it's a girl!
I can now confirm with certainty that this one is a female. And it gets the orange wing tag.
Here she is this afternoon, tagged and ready for take-off:
Change of tag plans for larva 2, and it's because of a tagging complication I encountered. They're all girls except this one, and it was the last to emerge an adult, and it just didn't like the tag. Wing tags didn't bother the girls, they went ahead and figured out that flying stuff, but this guy just didn't even want to try. He sat on a stalk of tall phlox like a bump on a log for hours. Released him in the morning and by mid afternoon, he hadn't budged from the spot.
I took him back in and verrrrrrrrrry verrrrrrrry carefully used the tip of a sewing needle to gently remove the wing tag--which took nearly all of the colorful wing scales with it--and I just took a Sharpie to write "2519" on the bald spot where the sticker had been. Miracles of miracles, he then decided he could figure out how to fly after all.
My youngest (larva 4) matured before this guy did even though he turned pupa before the youngest did. The youngest didn't play by any of the rules set forth for how monarchs are supposed to go through their assigned stages, and zoomed through the process at a remarkably rapid pace. Here she is, perched on my pecan-stained finger:
Here's what Mr. Slowpoke looked like last night. The youngest was already out of her chrysalis (that dangly thing on your left) and I thought his emergence was imminent...but...my battery pooped out before he emerged, so I didn't catch it on video despite best efforts. He's still quite a dark handsome thing in this form, though...
Now here's a pic of Little Miss Get 'Er Done Yesterday next to Mr. Slow As Cold Molasses:
October 26 UPDATE: Finalized the images of monarchs in various stages to put on a calendar, folks. Also usable for greeting cards. Now I need to find a reasonably priced printer to do the job. mini-UPDATE, printer edition: Decided on PDQ Printing, and though the cost of producing calendars proved out of the question (for now) greeting cards are being printed up as I write this update. WOOT!
September Up-Top UPDATE, AlterNet Edition: About the position City governments take that amount to I'll-Bend-Over-So-You-Can-Screw-Me-It-Ain't-My-Money-Anyway position we've just witnessed in the City Commission as they picked which bank to bend over for while a slick eastern seaboard muny bond broker advertises all over Oklahoma and then some on radio and television. Well, major television. Oh, is AlterNet too liberal for you? If you tuned in to the September 1 Study Session on cable, you'll already have a clue just how flipped this stuff about liberals and conservatives have gotten, with a guy from the liberal party schooling the so-called conservatives on matters of private property ownership and rights that go with it. I mean, if you want government in your property usage business as if they own your place, you're better off in Russia. Please.
I'll point out once again that NOBODY on the City Commission brought up the matter of fees and service charges--the ONLY thing they looked at were interest rates. NOBODY brought up the matter of bank fees, not even Mayor Shewey, who IS a banker. The following screenshot of a portion of the AlterNet article should ring a bell deep down in you when you see how Los Angeles acknowledges the fee problem of getting into municipal debt and, having recognized it, is attempting to get the hell out of that kind of bind...
Recently, the City Commission got schooled by financial wonks about how important past spending encumbrances and commercial viability into the future impact its liquidity index. One of the facets of that addressed specifically was about a what-if: if major commercial entities leave in the future, how does Enid plan to mitigate the loss of that taxable commerce?
We've lost Harold Hamm and picked up StarTek, a company with other offices elsewhere and with the attitude that as long as the other offices are always open, Enid is just an overflow option rather than one of its important offices. Oh, I know--another call center opened up after StarTek closed for the second time, but the point is whether or not that's a comparable size or bigger, and how steady is it? Under Bill Gamble, we were supposed to get a Bell call center, and we all know how well THAT worked out. Enid interests iffy operations like StarTek but not big dogs like Bell. Triangle has been sold, too.
On the win/lose balance sheet, the best Enid has been able to attract is Walmart. Enid has lost Baskin Robins, Denny's, and there's a rumor out there that Staples stays only because it's being paid to. Enid used to have an actual TV station, KXOK-LP, and you could actually tune in and watch actual local programming, complete with its own meteorologist once upon a time. It changed ownership, with the owners in Ponca City but was a rent paying tenant of Broadway Tower downtown. Remember that, City of Enid?
One less tenant in Broadway Tower, and only sporadic infomercials when you're lucky to catch something other than a "NO SIGNAL" icon. Enid, that's not going to make you look good, especially after the financial wonks find out what a big wad you're blowing on your PEG channels just to pat yourselves on the back with. The issue is credibility, and face it--the more you brag about yourselves on your PEG channels, the less credibility you're going to have with the folks looking at your books, given that the City's commerce can't even keep a LP TV station commercially viable as the City, with Enid Public Schools, hogs up all the bandwidth and sponsorship dollars that SHOULD be going to a commercial establishment instead of your bloated government.
You can manipulate ETN all you want to, but you're not going to hide what KXOK looks like.
Yes, the above footage was recorded in late April, but there has been no change throughout May to this point, other than the feeder channel occasionally and briefly running nation-wide infomercials, not any local content whatsoever.
Pretty much an accurate reflection of Enid's economic health when it can't even support the operation of its only TV station, transmitter of which is located atop Broadway Tower downtown. All of Main Street Enid's horses and all of Ward 5's men seem to have high difficulty putting Enid's downtown back together again...
Tuesday June 2 UPDATE, Muny Bonds Edition: Earlier this morning I was listening to Enid's KXLS FM station when I heard a commercial about a firm's focus on providing quality municipal bond portfolios for its clients, soliciting anyone interested in this sort of investment portfolio. I didn't catch the name of the company at the time, but I was able to research the phone number and arrived at Hennion and Walsh. Did some more digging and it turns out they're located not in Enid or anywhere in Oklahoma--they're in New Jersey. Well, +cityofenid , these are the big dogs I was describing when last I described how porch pups were trying to run with the big dogs but whining about how they can't afford to get off the porch. Yes, they will be the quality of Enid muny bonds if/when the City is successful in getting a loan that way, and it's by the bond rating system that all that st00pid spending on its PR department and so many other fru fru projects is going to come home to roost on your porch. In short, the porch pups need to show that they've been weaned, and they have major issues on that front.
Late Tuesday June 2 UPDATE, City Commission Edition: Permanent ETN cameras were installed but not in operation in the basement at City Hall where the Study Session was conducted, and in that Study Session, Whocares Vanhooser suddenly got the Public Opinion religion as well as dropping the Kaw Pipeline as a priority, if you can imagine that after he ran with that as a plank in his platform--in previous sessions, actually called it foolish spending! WOW!!
I've got the footage...but I already have tons of footage to wade through at this point, so your patience on posting that would be greatly appreciated. The footage includes the peculiar placement of the cameras (there are 2 of them) and one of 'em is aimed straight at where the Men's Room door opens. I was told that that's the camera position when it's OFF, but we can believe that? Really? I definitely intend to have fun with that part of the footage in Punched Out Judy, you can bet on it!
Here we go--
It's strange how the Commission whines about being cash-strapped, and then gives incompetent people raises, isn't it. And then there's this, no doubt gonna show up on the City's accounting books when it goes begging to banks for a loan...
Late May UPDATE, Richard Prince Edition: Seriously countering the Beeb's complaint about my YouTube video explaining the actual science of bigger-on-the-inside, transdimensional engineering that has been on Earth for centuries long before the Beeb even existed, which uses a short clip from a Tom Baker episode of Doctor Who to make the point...(whew!)...is the recent "landmark decision" in the favor of Mr. Prince, who borrowed the works of others to make his own collages with, and who successfully claimed Fair Use protection to use others' images in his collages, entirely to my own astonishment.
I had long considered collages to be a legit art form, but more that didn't fall under Fair Use. My video clearly falls under fair use the same way that book and movie reviews fall under that when they quote or show clips with the aim toward public discussion thereof, and any adverse decision by the court in my direction would put the BBC above the law covering all public discussion or criticism altogether...which put the odds of the BBC winning an actual lawsuit against me somewhere between slim to none. As of the Prince decision, the BBC's odds don't even reach slim anymore.
May UPDATE: Second round of appeals initiated and it looks like we might actually be going to court. Anybody who is weary of copyright troll bullying may feel free to donate to the defense fund because a win for me in this case will change the copyright troll world forever as a precedent. Donate HERE <<< I removed the link because GoFundMe took it down, no doubt because of inactivity for so long. The update on this end is that Auntie Beeb hasn't sued me yet, and no news is good news. SO FAR. With the Prince decision, the old girl is more certain now that she's going to lose than she was before, so I'll bet she doesn't think that a law suit would be a smart thing to spend tax money on doing, especially in the face of a budget cutting Parliament. Just speculation on my part, anything can happen without a doubt, but Auntie Beeb's odds of prevailing went down further than the bottom it had already hit under ordinary Fair Use rulings.
Me & Auntie Beeb's World Service go 'way 'way back, and it's how I was first introduced to Douglas Adams, and via Douglas Adams, became acquainted with Doctor Who in its heyday in the form of one Tom Baker. Then the BBC yanked the plug on the World Service to North America and kept sliding downhill from there.
So Auntie Beeb revived the Doctor, and yeah, I watch on a regular basis, sort of, but that's after figuring out the time travel thing myself, being the Impossible Person I always was. Well, it's come to pass that this blog has been getting a lot of hits from the UK, and judging from the stats, it looks like the minders I have aren't all Chinese. I'm thinking that perhaps Autnie Beeb is getting cross over all the similarities between myself and Clara Oswald--none of my doing, of course; it's how Auntie Beeb designed Oswald and via whom. Isn't that right, Tom Baker?
Well, we can start this dance by my showing how TARDIS, short for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, can't be either copyrighted or trademarked because it's generic science. I might play with crayons and get artsy-fartsy on occasion, but I'm a woman of science first, and I can make the case.
I'm about to upload the video to YouTube first, though, so since this post automatically circulates on the Google Plus community (where there are several Doctor Who groups), and since an upload to YouTube *also* automatically gets posted to G+ as well as to Twitter, just consider this a preliminary heads up on what's coming, though not too much later. When that's done, I will then imbed the video in this post. Later.
Ah! Here we go!
Oh-ho, a quick question right outta da gate: where's the sound track from? This should interest my Chinese minders considerably, as they should find that sound track quite familiar--they use it to jam radio stations they don't like, on shortwave. Here in the States and elsewhere, we call it a "firedrake".
Auntie Beeb very quickly filed a dispute with YouTube about this video, quite predictably claiming copyright infringement, and I very quickly filed a dispute with the Beeb's claims. Check.
Proudly AMERICAN, not British. Get it? Got it? GOOD.
As I stated in my rebuttal, neither the BBC nor any other entity can claim copyright on physics, and the clip was used solely to illustrate science for public discussion and that falls withing the Fair Use copyright section. You know--that pesky Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. Now then--until YouTube decides the matter, here's the Blogger-sized low res vid so that you can see for yourself that the Beeb's claims are false:
Contained within the video is the nature of the challenge to any claim the BBC might have on "transdimensional engineering" because dating all the way back to Gutenberg, it has been PUBLIC DOMAIN PHYSICS. Science isn't copyrightable--it falls under patents, ON THE CONDITION that it is NOT already in the public domain, as this science is.
The video itself makes the case that the Beeb can NOT copyright generic science, and I'm sure the Beeb prefers to quash the argument's persuasion more than it wants to quash any (bogus) copyright infringement claim. En garde, Beeb.
Mini-UPDATE 2: Just as soon as I put this post out on Twitter, I got Followed by @engproblem_s
and for that, I'm greatly honored. Fact remains that while the Beeb
might whine about copyrights, its biggest problem is that it doesn't own
any patent for time and relative dimensions in space physics. And via G+, I just got Notified that +eLibrary - Open eBooks Directory added me to its Circles.
Hey--y'all
KNOW I'm right--books have always been bigger on the inside than on the
outside, and the Beeb doesn't own any exclusive patents on the design
of the book. Dear Auntie Beeb--copyrights don't protect science. You need patents. Show us your patents or STFU
Mini-UPDATE 3: Answering a challenge--I never said that I never used books for time travel. I just don't rely on them exclusively; I use them primarily for navigation, and the book I used in the video does indeed come from my core's navigation system. Am I an historian? Not only no, but hell no. Am I an amateur historian? Chautauqua scholars know in their bones I'm beyond amateur, and they know for a fact that I'm no "scholar" either. Am I a history buff? That would be true if we left out the future part of things; I'll take it, but it's a vast understatement. What's left? Time traveler.
Mini-UPDATE 4: Surprised at the claim of navigating the future? Most of us are doing that already, only we don't recognize that as such. Chess masters do it all the time, and people who think navigating the future is a matter of following a time line (when time isn't linear) to stuff that hasn't happened yet but it's carved in stone that it will happen. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the future isn't pre-destined and there's no such thing as predestination. If there were, we could all sit back and just let time happen without trying. You people know better than that.
Seriously--the next generation, now being trained from kindergarten about coding, will acquire an intuitive feel for time travel both ways, for they will have intuitively mastered the IF THEN ELSE branching, map it out, and be able to see that the path from START to any single possible END out of a flow chart full of ENDs, will understand how the illusion of time being linear came about, as well as the illusion of time flowing came about. That's why it's called a FLOW CHART. And the elite few who programmed Big Blue to play tournament quality chess know this for a fact already. Figuring out how many bazillion possible moves exist from START obscures the FACT that not all of the possible moves are possible given certain conditions, which is how a chess master knows at his first move, how many moves he'll arrive at a check mate in. IF the opponent moves to permit that ELSE Plan B which results in a check mate in a few more moves. And so on. Certain moves will result in certain END OF GAME in short order IF those conditions exist.
That's how it's done, people. And, seriously, Auntie Beeb--you need to step aside and stop your impediment of real science with your imaginary bullpucky. You're holding humanity back, and here's a reminder of why you and your government were apt models for Douglas Adams' Vogons. Auntie Beeb, if anybody can serve well as a model Vogon, it would be YOU.
This warrants a separate post because the content of the email has been echoed by more than one person, personal security vs personal identifying data online & such.
First, the name on this account is a pen name used by one person since 1973, and has been in publication back then, so you won't find much, if any of the early writing, online or republished recently. Because CL got launched as a lampoon of another CL, there's a schtick that goes with the pen name, and you can read my full G+ profile for the details of that. The accent I have when I speak is not southern, it's Ozark. Ozark East, specifically. I do not identify the Oklahoma accent as "cowboy", but as Ozark West. It's New Mexico, Texas and Arizona that speak "cowboy". Southern is southeast, as in east of the Mississippi. Ozarks East is my native tongue.
Second, every address of every FCC license holder is public record, and I hold an FCC amateur radio license. My address is also public record by other governmental departments as well. Anybody can find it rather easily at any time with minimal effort.
Third, I mentioned that, since moving to Enid OK, I've been inactive because of the Hoenigsberg Barrier, and that has to do with local ass-kissing ARES to the exclusion of SkyWarn, and though it's true that I kiss nobody's ass, there's more to it than that, and that has to do with FCC regulations for license class. I'm a Tech Plus, meaning that phone operations by me are restricted in the bands that ARES operates, and Hoenigsberg's ass stands in the way of every Tech ham, Plus or not. (For those who want an explanation of FCC license classes, Tech is a grade above Novice, with more electronics and regulation knowledge tested for, but there's no Morse Code test. A Tech Plus has passed a Tech test and a Morse Code test for a minimum of copying code 5 words per minute.) Due to the Honigsberg problem, I've been inactive for years, therefore also have been stuck with the Tech Plus class license for the same number of years I've been inactive. I'll reactivate and then work on upgrading my license in celebration of Honigsberg's permanent departure.
Correction: since the date of this posting, Honigsberg and I have had direct contact via which things were worked out and the problem seems to have been the misinformation conveyed to me by EARC, which is still a functionally closed old boys club which favors males while discouraging females despite their claim that they do not discriminate. Important update to the above comment about Hoenigsberg: we had a discussion about the above situation and I'm to visit with him in about 2 weeks about re-certifying, so it looks like I'll reactivate. However, NOT via the Enid ARC. I attended the last EARC meeting and that lot was just as frigid as the first time I showed interest in joining, and the number of YLs in that club remained the same since the last time I attended: NONE. They claim, on their website, that they don't discriminate and I guess, on paper, they don't. In person, they do--they showed all kinds of enthusiasm toward a young BOY who was there to get into amateur radio, and all I got were two hellos and a question as to whether or not I plan to renew my license. That's it. Hell with 'em.
I've explained this many times to deaf ears in Enid, and so I do not plan to reactivate unless and until Hoenigsberg gets gone, and I ain't holding my breath til that happens, even if I have been certified to run an emergency network. I keep my license and my station just in the event of an emergency, and I remain proud to have been a member of SARA (Shawnee Amateur Radio Association), as well as the Phoenix Coffee Clutch Net. Via SARA I was an official in the legendary River to River Relay and worked the Herrinfest Marathon (Herrin, IL).
Oh, another Clarafication----People familiar with amateur
radio callsigns know that the number 7 designates the region where I was
licensed, and it's not Illinois--that would be 9. As long as I
continue to renew, I keep the 7 designation where ever I go regardless.
By golly, one of these days I otta post a gallery of prized souvenir tee shirts, huh. Anyhoo, just on Herrin's outskirts (actually Energy, IL) is a World War II vintage restaurant that first introduced soy-based "mystery meat" when rationing made it necessary, and is still serving up victory burgers: the Polar Whip ( Neslar's Polar Whip on Facebook) ( On G+). I can personally attest to the fact that they are indeed yummier than they sound, and were this not the case, they would have gone belly-up a long, long time ago. Conveniently located not far from the Herrin/Marion airport. At the bottom of the tee, note the salute Herrin gives to the River to River Relay.
Actually, that Maytag factory is an historic Norge factory prior to Maytag's takeover.
Speaking of prized souvenir tees, and having already spoken of the legendary 1993 NBA Finals complete with ball cap...
...particularly his claim that Chautauqua isn't censored. Catch that on a repeat on ETN or online. The bullshit runs thick.
On the sorta-bright side, I was advised to resubmit Punched Out Judy and Summer Chautauqua 2014--Edith Wharton. Instead of thumb drive submission this time, it's gonna be hard-copy DVD. Saturday mini-UPDATE: Looks like Facebook decided I was a real enough person for THEM, months after I kept telling 'em to eff off each time they sent me an email notification, cuz they kept denying me access. Well, Facebook can STILL kiss my ass. G+ is still better. "People often find it easier to be the result of a past than a cause of the future." --anonymous
Oooooops--I plumb fergot to mention that I took down big-spending leading-in-the-polls-at-60-percent Vanhooser for a lousy $180-ish bucks. $100 of that was the registration fee. 60 some-odd was for the PDQ printing order and the rest was 300-for-a-buck index cards marked with Sharpie markers.
Total handbills (cards plus door-hangers) distributed: a little over 1,000 and there are over 3,000 registered voters in Ward 5, so distribution total rather closely matched the votes I got--damn amazing level of productivity, that. If/when I run again, that same strategy will be the method of choice, as I'm certain that if I had distributed twice that many, I would have gotten 2/3 of the vote. Vanhooser blew a wad on buttons, signs, newspaper stickers, radio spots and robo-calls, and yet didn't get anywhere close to that nearly 1:1 ratio of productivity that I got.
Okay, so a lot of strategic legwork went into that, too, and for that, I thank my volunteers profusely. Yes, I lost for a reason...but so did Vanhooser, and he lost a whole truckload lot bigger than I did, ha.
Oh, the irony-------the irony! The bonus was how little was spent and yet produced almost one third of the Ward 5 vote. By all means, call this the new low in politics!
And now my supporters understand why I wasn't asking them for money. But this I ask again: Tammy who? Who's Tammy?
#LoserVanhooser
I had to chuckle when someone pointed out that a 1:1 ratio of production would be 1000 flyers = 1000 votes, and what I got was 1000 flyers = 200-ish votes. Well, that statement would be true if all 3000-ish registered voters in Ward 5 turned out, and they didn't. Most of Ward 5 didn't turn out to actually vote for Wilson or for me, so that's what tosses this argument into a cocked hat. It's also a fact that makes the Eagle's claim that Wilson's win was impressive completely bogus. What happened was a typical turnout, and that's why I was saying all along that I would have been successful if I could have raised the turnout numbers, and that the public opinion that the City wouldn't change no matter who is elected was deeply ingrained over decades of neglect.
It is also the case that Vanhooser's massive throw-lots-of-money-at-it didn't drive turnout, and this is something I knew at the outset: yard signs, buttons, mailers, robo-calls, ad buys on radio and newspaper do not drive turnout and so I was not about to raise money for any of that--it would have been a waste, and that's a lesson Vanhooser is just now learning. What we're actually looking at is a percentage of the percentage that turned out, so we need to get beyond basic 7th grade math to correctly analyze what happened. What happened was numbers that told me what the size of the Wilson machine is, and her yard signs informed me exactly who belonged to that machine, particularly the commercial membership, therefore it informed me (albeit too late for this election) where and how best to turn that around (targeting), but for the future.
What happened was numbers that confirmed my evaluation of the futility of blowing money on yard signs, buttons, and all the typical nonsense that political campaigns blow money on. What the numbers told me was that driving voter turnout involves ground work during a time period that exceeds the months between filing for office and the election, so the serious work toward a serious run for office doesn't end now--it begins now. And it begins with a fresh record of taking down Vanhooser, compared to which, Wilson's just chump sofa cushion coin. Betting on a rookie politician to make a big difference is a bet with bad odds, but now I have a record: this rookie can and does make a huge difference.
What I have now is 4 years to cultivate my voter base into a movement.
By all means make a point to read 'em on the Route 60 Sentinel because I understand that this questionnaire has been given to all the candidates.
1. What economic factors do you see as being the main players in Enid’s future growth?
There are a good number of them in play in Enid, like a traffic-friendly downtown area. Another is the fact that a number of Oklahoma's major routes set Enid at their crossroads in essentially one location. Route 60 is an outstanding example; it's how I got to Enid from Phoenix AZ, and when my parents were on their final stretch of their life's journeys, it's how I got here from southern Illinois.
This fact is also a growth asset In terms of getting Oklahoma commodities to market, with an almost straight shot to Tulsa and then to Port Catoosa. Oklahoma has already been doing grain business with Cuba, and now that Cuba has opened up wider, Enid stands to gain a lot with that fact in mind, thus putting Enid on the international map.
Manufacturing like the Koch nitrogen plant might be primarily a fertilizer concern, but there's also a demand for nitrogen in other forms, like liquid nitrogen but that would be up to the firm to decide whether or not to diversify in that direction. Koch Nitrogen could be key in expanding Enid's economic growth if it could be persuaded that a reliable local source of raw water is in its best interest because in the form of an industrial use lake, it could also be designed to be desirable to the professional bass fishermen who regularly hold lucrative tournaments. Enid has lakes, but not professional sports quality, and so a triple-purpose lake would attract sportsmen of all varieties and host our local favorite sport, quail hunting. Not to mention a scenic camping facility.
The Kaw Lake Pipeline leaves Kaw Lake to benefit Ponca City and is just an added overhead cost burden to the City, subject to renewal by powers outside of City control, whereas a local lake is not subject to permit renewals by outside entities and brings added local resources. The one demographic that the City has been overlooking for far too long is our game (wildlife) sportsmen, local and regional.
2. How do you feel the City can help attract and, just as if not more importantly, keep talented young professionals?
The answer to that question is a tough one that media-obsessed Enid culture isn't going to like, and that is to change its priorities from liberal arts to manufacturing science, an area deliberately downplayed in error by Engage! at the last Enid Public Schools summit. Enid makes a big deal of all our oil and gas interests, but both those interests are dependent on skilled geologists, sophisticated mechanics, roboticists, and specialty welders, which liberal arts/media programs don't produce, thus making it necessary for oil and gas interests to seek staffing support elsewhere. Our cheers for our energy industries are naught more than empty lip service. Enid Public Schools shouldn't have been saddled with the expense of media production in the first place. 3. What issue first made you think about running for office, and what was your position on the issue?
There were two issues that first caused me to consider running for office: the City government's hostile take-over of the corporation called PEGASYS and its yanking of cable access to the colleges when it handed over the education channel exclusively to Enid Public Schools...and the only access the colleges had was Chautauqua. The platform about potholes was added as the result of a number of Letters to the Editor following those events. My position on all those issues haven't changed, and with EPS paying an attorney to file a lawsuit against the State because it thought it deserved more tax money than was collected solidified my position on ETN and the exodus of downtown business led by the Ward 5 incumbent, exacerbated by the failure of Mainstreet Enid to pick up the ball where the incumbent dropped it added other planks to my platform.
I remain firm on the principle that neither the City nor the school system has any business going directly into the broadcasting business, directly competing with our commercial entities who would better employ the advertising resources now drained by EPS in the form of sports broadcast sponsorship. We have a perfectly good local TV station, KXOK-LP, which hasn't run programming for months now, that would be a better facility for broadcasting local school sports but aren't afforded the sponsorship resources now demanded by EPS.
4. If every ingredient were available to you, what would you put on your dream sandwich?
Oh dear, my dream sandwich would be a Dagwood. I'd permanently prohibit any City government entity from attempting any project which directly competes with our commercial entities and that would include prohibiting self promotion. It directly competes with the Chamber of Commerce who has done a fine job of promoting Enid without that "we're big government and we're here to help" attitude, favored particularly by Dr. Vanhooser who has stated that he wants people to talk to the Mayor about issues. When it came to PEGASYS, that was his principle: government can do a better job than a corporation. That means that another thing I'd put on my dream sandwich is keeping Mayor Shewey. I'd have to write at greater length to mention all the other things I'd like on that sandwich.
5. What would you say is your leadership style?
Paying close attention to constituents and then making a compelling case, in contrast to, say, Dr. Vanhooser's exhibited style of looking like he's listening and then does what he wants to anyway (as what occurred during Public Discussion on the subject of killing PEGASYS. Many people showed up, and, to a man, all spoke out against the idea while not one person made the case in its favor. The same can be said for the other Commissioners who voted in favor of killing PEGASYS, which include Ron Janzen and Tammy Wilson, with Ben Ezzel and Mayor Shewey voting against). Further, if any constituent in any Ward outside Ward 5 get this kind of deaf ear treatment, they can talk to me and I myself will talk to the deaf Commissioner.
6. What types of businesses would you like to see more of in Enid?
Manufacturing and retail.
7. Do you feel that the current minimum wage is adequate, and would you be in favor of raising the City’s minimum wage?
That simple question doesn't have a simple answer due to the exemptions enjoyed by the restaurant sector regardless of what the minimum wage might be. What needs the most reform is the wait staff exemption from minimum wage requirements because tips are expected to be part of that income. When those people who are not even paid current minimum wage get mandatory minimum wage, then we can talk about other aspects of whether or not to raise minimum wage.
8. Which historic figure would you want to meet and why?
Leonardo DaVinci because he was one of the rare few who knew how arts and sciences dovetailed.
9. If you could wave a magic wand and make one change in Enid during the last 5 years, what would that be and why? I would change the rules about matching funds projects while protecting the Streets and Alleys fund more aggressively, I wouldn't have bought that monster fire truck which broke the bridge on Randolph because it's also too big to navigate our inner city streets in a timely manner, and I certainly would have a different City Commission in place, because in retrospect, we got snookered into electing the big spenders we have who think that big government is the answer even for local sports teams. 10. While the Koch Nitrogen plant expansion is great news, what else can we do to attract NEW industry to our town?
Partner with the Koch plant to create a professional quality hunting and fishing facility from which it gets its much needed water without burdening our potable water needs.
11. And lastly, the Route 60 Sentinel standard question: What’s your favorite beer?
It depends on what I'm in the mood for, actually, and I'll do a Guinness Stout on St. Patrick's Day. The one I purchased most frequently isn't made anymore: Stroh's.
Hello, Eagle! Getting into time travel now, are ya? XD You might want to do some "investigative reporting" on the fans I have at Chautauqua. From the questions I've asked, I'm sure some of them are convinced of the time travel bit. Yes, I have fans at Chautauqua. More than once I've been asked if I'm paid to be part of the performances. Once, I was called a plant. Once.
I'm just gonna say, for now, keep yer eyeballs peeled for the Letters to the Editor section of the paper. And if the paper's circulation goes up as the result, somebody over there owes me. Caution: sharp turn of phrase ahead!
To a certain somebody out there who refused to hear what I was wanting to say about audiences: if I win the election, you're gonna owe me a modicum of credit at the very least--mainly because I'm heavily relying on a demographic gambit, which is also keeping campaign costs 'way down. Somebody besides you knows a little something about that topic.
And speaking of campaign costs, it's all pretty clear who the big spender on political bling is: Mr. Pounces-On-Shiny-Objects Vanhooser. I guess he took that turn of phrase during a study session seriously: "you can buy an election later".
No church should ever feel that it's necessary to put itself in a position like this.
I was out making a video of a walk-around at Exchange Park with the purpose of ending the walk at the big sign that announced a faith-based community improvement project, and I was going to title the video "City of Enid's Tax on Church", basically because that's the City's responsibility, not any church's. Turns out that this was a gift that kept on giving. In my driving away, I discovered a couple of whopper pothole farms, too, and in Ward 6--Vanhooser's badly neglected Ward. Remember that previous post where I announced the campaign kick-off with a Welcome to Ward 5 sign next to a pothole farm? Only the side of the road that the sign was is Ward 5. Across from that sign is Ward 6, where I didn't show footage that I took of Vanhooser Ravine on Cherokee, just off of Railroad Ave. I revisited the site to get updated footage (I removed my sign quite some time ago, right after the Commission announced that it was closing "alleys" when it meant those particular streets. Fancy that--it took an election to get Vanhooser to get off his hinney to close off what should have been closed off years ago). Well, just cuz he closed the roads near my sign doesn't mean that he's paid attention to his other pothole farms, and I've got 'em on video. Stay tuned. Yup, he's trying to re-write his piss-poor record at the last inning, and it's a hoot.
Ah, I've got it! Ward 6, The Movie: Vanhooserville. Trailer preview follows. Some wardsmen claim that there's a woman to blame, but we know (da-da da-da da) it's their own damn fault.
It's no surprise, is it, that when public officials have things they don't want people to see, they think all people with cameras are creepy. Even when they're attention-hogs presenting public events. In public, too. No wonder such people didn't allow cameras in on the study sessions until the last two. Typically scurry when the light of day shines...right, Eric Benson? Of course. Me, I don't mind cameras, but the big question is...can the camera stand it. Yeah, I'm very much aware of the fact that I have a face that looks like a fugitive from a horror show......oh, wait....I am, actually. I'm definitely certain Commissioners' worst nightmare.
Aim a camera at me and I'll even do an Edith Piaf impression, with all due apologies to +KYLE DILLINGHAM . No, I regret nothing. XD
I note a more journalistically proper article in the paper and noted that it was written by a different reporter. There's just one teensy-tiny misquote in there, though--I didn't say that my dad was a pilot. I didn't specify.
For the record, though, Julien Levesque was called a "radio man" at the time, teaching electronics communications to the Scott AFB military students in WWII. He remained a civilian as he was also a Roman Catholic cleric (not a priest--a brother, which is sort of like a friar). He's the primary reason I got into electronics technology and amateur radio (KC7LJG is the callsign).
Also wanted to put up a shout-out to gri, and mention yet again that I'm not in agriment with what continues to go on in Ukraine. Gri, I've been 'way too busy to drop by your website, but as soon as I come up for air, I'll make a point of it.
P.S. Gri, you posted a link to my blog on your site?! Well I'll be danged! And I'm flattered!
...to my Enid local regulars, there's going to be a formal debate moderated by Frank Baker in the City council chamber on January 28. Tentative time set at 6 pm, possibly subject to change. Will keep you posted.
Saturday UPDATE:Heard some most excellent City political scuttlebutt whilst at Winter Chautauqua workshops this AM. Because it's scuttlebutt, I won't repeat it, but I will say this: The City has recognized some complaints as actual threats to incumbents, not just the Ward 5 incumbent, and has made moves to mitigate those conditions complained about. Nice try, Team Wilson-Vanhooser, but your record remains carved in stone and if you're doing an about-face on your previous positions, it only means that your record is indefensible. You can't re-write your record.
And so I am commencing to be insufferably smug for the rest of the day. Monday UPDATE: A supporter has stepped forward to pay for the printing of some mini hand bills. It's January and the campaign is...well...snowballing. It's all good.
After the door-hangers ran out, a lot of people around Ward 5 got some version of this under the windshield wiper:
It's not all about just the Ward 5 incumbent, Dale--it's all about that base. You know--the base that Vanhooser gave me. You're not even close to objective, are you. Pay attention, son.
Today, it's getting typeset and machine printed. Message: never spend money you don't have but always work with what
you have already paid for...then spend the money that *does* come in on
exactly the thing it comes in for.
The cost of the campaign so far is still under $200 which includes the $100 filing fee.
The cost of the unlined index cards used for the above hand bill = going-back-to-school deal of 3 packages of 100 cards for $1. Staples Rewards discount was used to buy the Sharpies, also on back-to-school sale when purchased.
Staples "cover stock" (not card stock) purchased for making DVD envelopes with was reg. price of $11 and change, on sale for $9 and change, purchased during their "everything that fits in the bag is 20% off" sale. When the DVD envelope material was cut and set aside, the left over cuttings were used to make the door hangers. The work and effort put into all of it: priceless. ;)
As Paul Harvey would have said, "Now you know the rest of the story."
And a huge thank you to the volunteer ground troops out there. You're better than any purchased advertising because you're not just getting the word out, you're also making the case. You're the greatest! I see a victory party in your future!
For the pro-Koch Nitrogen people regarding the water issue, I come with unique skills that the incumbent does not have, and we can talk water processing in detail. I've run and maintained polishers at the Illinois Power Company's Baldwin generating station and I come in knowing more about treatment steps all the way from the initial screen, chlorination (yes, I'm hazmat qualified, and I'm talking about chlorinators fed with straight chlorine gas from railroad tanker cars), floc, mechanical de-aeration (necessary for boiler tube circulation water as well as for turbine steam), and the cation bed, the anion bed, and the mixed bed. (The most fun I had was checking the control calibrations of a radio operated train, and I'm not talking about the kind of train you find under your Christmas tree. This was a full sized locomotive which brought coal in from the coal yard and loaded up the crusher hoppers).
At Motorola, it was "DI" water, as in de-ionized water. And if you think that was all fun, just imagine how much fun it was working on those massive boiler feed pumps. Speaking of pumps, nitrogen as a fertilizer isn't the only nitrogen I'm familiar with. There's the liquid nitrogen required for cryo-pumps, which produce vacuum measured in Torr rather than in inches of mercury column. Koch folks who want to talk details of water with a City official, you'll get somebody more literate in that field with me than with the incumbent.
I would be able to read the entirety of a FEMA flood study and actually understand it.
I am also familiar with wiring codes, residential and industrial, 3 phase, and I would actually enjoy talking to and working with the City engineering department.
Speaking of Levesques, I hope the relations out by the Cape Cod and Fall River vicinities are safe. Tuesday mini-UPDATE, You-Can-Bet-On-It Edition: I looked up WGBH, clicked on their Contact Us link, and fired off a communique regarding THIS American's Experience doing patent research, and how they got a few things wrong about the phonograph according to patents filed and granted.
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If you make a habit out of tuning in to cable channel 12 for the usual live airing of the City Commission, you missed a major study session on cable camera, surprise surprise!
Make a point to catch the repeat sked and be sure to tune in earlier than usual. For the first time, there was something akin to a teleconference, and the topic was Big Ideas. As in a long-term master plan for future Enid growth and infrastructure.
Yes, I took my camera there tonight like I have been to every City study session of late, and yes, I have footage of the whole thing, but up until this point, there's never been a study session on City camera before. Ever.
Some of this stuff included a few things I was already campaigning on (like the City doing a better job of including the colleges in stuff) and stuff I was going to make an issue of (potholes vs shiny-object grand projects like the hiking trail, the bike trail, the failed parks overhaul, additional dog parks...anything requiring matching funds for which the Streets and Alleys Fund was always raided to provide for) just got a whole lot bigger. Vast plans with vast Big Ideas footnoted by an "education program" to "educate" the public as to how good these vast plans are gonna be when we all embark on the journey to the sky-resident pie.
Everything I thought I was gonna say at the Friday luncheon at the Y just got tossed out the window.
Well, almost. We're gonna be in for a wild, wild ride. Then again, I wouldn't be me if I wasn't just chock full of surprises from having to think on my feet, now, would I. Never say never. When situations warrant change, so changes the charted navigation.
Oh. I have to add that there is one thing the City did that was smart. Hiring Jerald Gilbert as City Manager. Nobody's better in that position, especially after the last two products of a Manager Farm we got in a row just prior. There's hope.
Here's the first 15-ish minutes of that study session...sorry, but better quality is not possible on Blogger, currently...
Higher res version is now up on YouTube. Seriously, people--somebody needs to be elected to the City Commission who will pull a Tom Coburn on many of these #vast-plans #half-vast-plans just like the voters did with the City's half-vast mega-plan for our parks.
The second 15-ish minutes are now available with a warning about my strange sense of humor, which explains some of the odd focus shots I take from time to time, and I acknowledge up front that they're cringe-worthy. XD
Wednesday UPDATE: I hope good Enid citizens caught these articles in today's paper:
That second article admits that this big government overreach was Benson's Big Idea. Trouble is that he had big government overreach Commissioners who also thought this was a good vast idea...which would explain the half-vast execution. While we were moaning and groaning about the big government overreaches in Washington, look at the big government overreaching coyotes we let into city government to raid the hen house in our own back yard. How about this Big Idea? Give the job of promoting Enid back to the Chamber of Commerce, whose job it always was. Government doesn't need to be spending big bucks going into the broadcasting business in competition with our commercial entities and we don't need to be paying a PR guy to run interference between the public and their publicly elected Commissioners. Let's be commercial City of Enid instead Government-Is-Here-To-Help City of Moscow.
Yeah, I know--I should post something about how Je Suis Charlie and a cartoon to show my own support of the First Amendment in this country and Liberte Expression abroad, but I'm a person who knows the history of this oft-cited French tradition of lampooning. It's actually against the law in this country. Take a wild guess where the term "libel" originates. Libel, my friends, is the time honored French tradition referred to, and France is where the U.S. legal system got that term from.
Thursday miniUPDATE: Sorry you didn't win the Pillar of the Plains award, Frank Baker--I was pullin' for ya. I'm still a big fan of "It's Mostly News".
A most worthy gentleman won, though, and I can't imagine the anguish the judges have to go through to pick the winner. Congrats, Mr. Allen!
Each one of those campaign signs your team took down are hand-crafted works of art that have a commitment to a private collection. Of course it's a misdemeanor to remove your general usual average cheap campaign signs, but it's quite another to be an art thief, with the theft being artifacts of a private collection. If they were destroyed, there's an additional vandalism charge that goes with that.
Now then--this situation was turned into an advantage when knocking on doors, asking as to whether or not anyone saw anything regarding sign removal. You can remove signs, hon, but you can't un-ring a door bell.
And what has been seen cannot be unseen. People who saw the signs also see that they've been removed by somebody who isn't the candidate whose name was on the sign. While you and yours might like to think people are that stupid, I can tell you that they're not--I've talked to them, and so I know better than that.
Almost forgot to mention that the signs have been photographed for insurance purposes. Ever hear of the saying, "six feet deep and still digging"? You might consider putting your shovel down.
