1. Intern with county government for years.
2. Take “natural step” to build skills learned there and work in industry.
3. Be surrounded by / working with drill rigs constantly.
4. Quit industry.
5. Drill rig housing destroys bridge half mile from county building.
I can’t quite read these chicken entrails but it sure is an entertaining ride.
With a title that sexy, you knew it had to be something boring.
I was really glad the Citizens United thing didn’t take me by surprise (thanks, Warren). Between the initial comments on the Burlington Coat Factory Mosque and the willingness here to call Citizens United the big stinking pile of shit it is, I’m happy to see that the Fierce Advocacy of Every Now and Again isn’t getting buried on the way to midterms.
Speaking of which— my folks didn’t sound too down about the recent primary, but it was a fair sight scarier everywhere but Seattle. Round these parts, our incumbent D (and chair of the State’s Ways and Means Committee) is advancing in second place, while Rick Larsen looks vulnerable to ultraconservative John Koster, a no-abortion-even-for-rape-and-incest sort with really irritating deficit hawk-baiting signs peppering I-5. I’d say I hope more folks read sentences like the below between now and the election but, well, clearly, it didn’t help Stan Rumbaugh.
John Koster physically flinches when asked about the prospect of two gay men kissing at the altar.
Last night, as the sun went down on Sam and I’s Perseid perch, I tried guessing where on our eastern skyline the sun was going to rise. I had thought the Perseids would be the astronomical wonder of the night; I had no idea the Stonehenge-like precision I was in for.
After rousing a somnolent Sam, we headed east for an odd view of Interstate 5 near Alger.
On the way down, I stopped the car to check a tall till outcrop for, I don’t know, mammoth teeth. Sam told me she heard a menacing dog nearby; I told her it was a squawking bird in the tree above. She told me it was probably a killdeer and that I was harassing their ground-based nest. I snarked back that it sounded like my bigger threat was a kill-joy. Two big dogs came bounding out of the underbrush fifteen meters distant, teeth bared and snarling. I raised my rock hammer to a defensive position and they retreated back into the bushes while I returned to the car, appropriately cowed.
She found this guy and a friend waiting on our porch at home for us. I think I’m going to name him Odin.
Here’s another cool movie of the recent complex solar eruption.
For the post I put up the other day about it, I uploaded a video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory that I couldn’t find on YouTube yet. This morning, I got this email from everyones’ friends in Mountain View:
Your video August 1 Coronal Mass Ejection might be eligible for the YouTube Partnership Program, which allows you to make money from playbacks of your video.
Making money from your video is easy. Here’s how it works: First sign into your YouTube account. Then, review and complete the steps outlined here…
…If your video is approved, we’ll start placing ads next to the video and pay you a share of the revenue as long as you meet the program requirements.
We look forward to adding your video to the YouTube Partnership Program.
Thanks and good luck!
The YouTube Team
First time I’ve had something get enough hits to trigger their automatic moneygrubber— it’s an odd feeling. Kind of makes me feel like I need a shower. Video’s ineligible anyway, I think, since it’s publicly (i.e., government) produced footage.
Keep your eyes peeled tonight and tomorrow for more aurora! The second, slower coronal mass ejection is still arriving and I noticed earlier tonight that the Space Weather Prediction Center has extended its geomagnetic storm watch through Friday. I’m heading to Eastern Washington this weekend and am hoping against hope the ionosphere is still willing to put on a show that far out.
Oh and, here’s what Monetitizing looks like, if you were wondering:
I’m not one of those Generalized Liberal Anxiety Disorder types and have, frankly, little fear about Dino Rossi beating Patty Murray.
Rossi’s desperate refrain that he’s “not running on those issues” to minimize discussing his views on abortion, the environment and evolution won’t fly now that he’s running for the Senate. (Fun fact— Rossi worked on the campaign against I-210, the 1991 initiative to make Roe v. Wade state law!)
I heard on KUOW’s The Conversation today that one of the Rossi campaign’s strategies is to make a stink out of Murray’s earmarks. This post owes its entire existence to the fact that the Conversation didn’t use the one-liner I emailed them:
If Dino Rossi thinks complaining about money coming into Washington state is an effective campaign strategy, I wish him the best of luck in his personal campaign to prove that the third time may, in fact, not be the charm.
Sam and Devin dot com 