mjh's blog

News Flash! “GOP thinking is stuck in the past.” – David Brooks

hat tip to @jfleck

America Is Europe – NYTimes.com

Republicans are perpetually trying to do what Ronald Reagan did. But top tax rates today aren’t as onerous as they were in 1980, so lowering them won’t produce as many benefits. Imagine if Reagan ran for office promising to recreate the glory days of Thomas Dewey and you get a sense of how much G.O.P. thinking is stuck in the past.

America Is Europe – NYTimes.com

Railrunner will continue to run on weekends – Huzzah!

ABQJournal Online » Breaking: Board Votes To Continue Weekend Trains

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer on Fri, Jul 15, 2011

Weekend service on Rail Runner Express will continue after August, through Saturday train service will run less frequently during winter months and some weekday service will be trimmed after Labor Day, a board voted today.

The Rio Metro Regional Transit District board reversed its decision in June to end Rail Runners’s weekend service in mid-to-late August to cover a $1.2 million shortfall in the commuter railroad’s budget.

The board voted 14-1 on Friday to enact an alternative schedule will save an estimated $2 million during the current fiscal year, which began July 1, according to Rio Metro staff estimates.

The changes in weekday schedules will substitute bus service for two weekday trains. They are: a daily northbound train that departs Downtown Albuquerque at 4:02 a.m. to Santa Fe that served 36 passengers a day; and a daily southbound train that departs U.S. 550 at 4:32 a.m. to Downtown Albuquerque that served 46 passengers a day.

The changes also consolidate two southbound trains that depart Santa Fe at 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. for Downtown Albuquerque, replacing them with a single train that departs Santa Fe at 9 p.m.

ABQJournal Online » Breaking: Board Votes To Continue Weekend Trains

[hat tip to John Fleck - https://twitter.com/#!/jfleck]

Fleck!

Our neighbor, John Fleck, lookin’ good.

I was walking with Luke around Altura Park when John paused to say hey. He saw my camera and asked if I had taken any interesting photos – I had not, to that point. I raised my camera hand a little, pointed, clicked – all with no idea if the shot would work (the camera was nowhere near my face). I think it turned out great – praise be for autofocus.

Twitter Twaddle

I’ve been curious about Twitter for quite a while. Mind you, I am naturally averse to the mob and its fickle fancies. I don’t march to any drummer, not even my own. However, I am a computerist and technologist and curious.

I started to explore Twitter by looking at the "tweets" I might actually follow. If you follow these links,  you see what tweets look like, albeit outside of the normal flow of Twitter.

• Name jfleck
• Web http://www.inksta…
• Bio New Mexico print journalist, desert water geek

168 Following
259 Followers

jfleck (jfleck) on Twitter

* Name Ed Bott * Location Santa Fe, NM * Web http://edbott.com… * Bio award-winning author, tech journalist, Windows geek 193 Following 976 Followers

• Name Ed Bott
• Location Santa Fe, NM
• Web http://edbott.com…
• Bio award-winning author, tech journalist, Windows geek

193 Following
976 Followers

Ed Bott (edbott) on Twitter

• Name Netflix
• Location Los Gatos, CA
• Web http://netflix.com
• Bio Official Netflix twitter channel.World’s largest online movie rental service.For customer service on twitter:Netflix Helps. We want to hear from you.

17 Following
4,651 Followers

Netflix (netflix) on Twitter

Twitter / KOB.com Albuquerque: #ABQ – City looking into a …

My impression of this is that if you enjoy listening to the conversations going on around you in a crowded restaurant, you will love Twitter. I prefer context and quiet. peace, mjh

Flickr

I have posted just under 1,000 photos on Flickr over the past few years. According to Flickr’ stats, my photos have been viewed just under 35,000. If that seems like a lot, consider that isn’t 35,000 people, that’s 35,000 views (average = 35 views per photo). Odds are that no more than two dozen people have seen most or all of my photos. (And anyone who hasn’t seen them all never will at this point – can you imaging how long it would take.) I consider a good ‘audience’ around 50 people. One hundred views is a lot.

However, I have a few photos that have been seen by a much higher than average number of people. For the longest time, my most-seen photo was one I half-jokingly call Albuquerque Wetlands: lush greenery in the bottom of a concrete arroyo near the Big-I. I attribute most of those viewers to John Fleck, because he highlighted that photo.

Two photos have started moving up this year. A photo of a pasque flower started climbing this spring and surpassed Abq Wetlands handily. Then, even more surprising, a photo of a big brown spider jumped in the past month or two, each day gaining more than a dozen views. Spider has now eclipsed pasque flower and all others as my most seen photo. (For the record, I have far better photos of spiders and flowers.) I don’t know if someone has linked to each of these photos, but I can’t imagine people are searching every day for these images.

What People Are Looking For

This is the current ranking of my flickr photos in terms of number of times viewed. Just in the last week, pasque flower shot ahead of the long-time leader, Albuquerque Wetlands. Strangely, I don’t know why people are suddenly interested in pasque flowers (other than the recent occurrence of Easter). It is not my favorite pasque flower photo. (My favorite sightings of pasque flowers have all occurred above 11,000 feet.)

It is more than likely that Albuquerque wetlands was the leader thanks to John Fleck, my virtual and physical neighbor. (Well, stretching physically, but not in the least, virtually.)

Ironically, two of my most widely viewed photos aren’t even mine, except as subject. (I’m not sure who took The Big Day; Merri took After the Kiss.) I like the others, but don’t love them as I do most of these and many others.

What do you think?

peace,
mjh

Around the ‘sphere

Been catching up on some blog reading and, in the custom of our cohort, have some recommendations for you.

I feel for the sense of injustice over at ABQrising (http://abqrising.wordpress.com/). As one listed twice (in your face!) in the Alibi’s recent list of local blogs, I extend a welcoming hand to another local blog with potential. This, even though none of my blogs appear in its blogroll. (Is there a blogroll big enough for me and Mario Burgos?)

It says something that I enjoyed the cartoons more than anything else at irReligion.org (particularly, Jesus – Meet Prometheus from russellsteapot.com). Unlike Believers, atheists don’t seem to congregate, even virtually. This site looks like it gets a lot of visits, FWIW.

This one is just too cool and I wonder how long it can keep it up: strange maps (hat tip to my homie jfleck).

Harry Potter: Pronunciation Guide | Scholastic

http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/books/pronunciation.htm

GRE Vocabulary Word Scramble

http://www.studystack.com/wordscramble-9097

National Novel Writing Month – National Novel Writing Month

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Finally, via Albloggerque, a Sunday Poem. I was ready to forget this until I read the last 4 lines. Damn, that’s fine. mjh

Found Letter, by Joshua Weiner

What makes for a happier life, Josh, comes to this:
Gifts freely given, that you never earned;
Open affection with your wife and kids;
Clear pipes in winter, in summer screens that fit;
Few days in court, with little consequence;
A quiet mind, a strong body, short hours
In the office; close friends who speak the truth;
Good food, cooked simply; a memory that’s rich
Enough to build the future with; a bed
In which to love, read, dream, and re-imagine love;
A warm, dry field for laying down in sleep,
And sleep to trim the long night coming;
Knowledge of who you are, the wish to be
None other; freedom to forget the time;
To know the soul exceeds where it’s confined
Yet does not seek the terms of its release,
Like a child’s kite catching at the wind
That flies because the hand holds tight the line.