POTD: Idle Oil Rigs

From 2015 11 13 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Galveston, Texas. It shows idle oil rigs in the Galveston Channel. Now I don't know anything about the oil industry, but I know that gasoline prices are below $2/gallon, the lowest they've been in a decade. That can't be good for the oil industry. I wouldn't be surprised if these rigs stand idle for a while longer.

The Sad State of Suburban Office Parks

In a story titled, "The Sad State of Suburban Office Parks", CityLab sounds a warning that ought to resonate in Richardson.

So-called Class A office space is in transit-oriented areas that are at least close to highways. These offices don't need to be in walkable, urban neighborhoods -- though that's ideal. At the very least, today's workers want to get lunch or maybe even a workout without firing up an engine.
...
There are models that developers are using to transform older office parks throughout the country, to measured success. They mostly involve turning definitely-suburban office parks into urban-like, albeit still isolated, office “cities.” (It is worth noting that many of these projects involve extensive rezoning efforts.)

Source: CityLab.

Winter on Fire (2015)

IMDB

Winter on Fire (2015): Documentary of Ukraine revolution. Can't praise these people enough for their courage & determination. Stunning. A+

POTD: "World's Only Corn Palace"

From 2015 08 15 South Dakota

Architects call them the "Big Three" -- the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, and the Corn Palace. Today's photo-of-the-day is from Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the "World's Only Corn Palace." A bonus in the photo is the 1959 Pontiac Bonneville, Motor Trend Magazine's "Car of the Year" for that year. It's fitting that it's in the photo, given that my only previous visit to the Corn Palace was in the late 1950s, when many similar vintage cars filled the streets.

Big Eyes (2014)

IMDB

Big Eyes (2014): Biopic of Margaret Keane. Art or kitsch? Innocent fib or fraud? Trapped or complicit? Portrait of a bad marriage. B+

POTD: Classic Road Picture

From 2015 08 15 South Dakota

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Badlands National Park. It's the South Dakota version of the classic road picture. The original classic road picture, from Monument Valley on the border of Utah and Arizona, is after the jump.

George Clayton is Running for School Board

George Clayton says he is running for RISD school board. You remember him, right? He's a one-term Republican member of the State Board of Education. He lost his re-election bid in the GOP primary. Then, as a Democrat, he lost his race for Texas State Representative to Linda Koop. Currently, he says he's the co-chair of the Trump for President Campaign for Congressional District 32. And now he says he'll be running for Richardson ISD board of trustees.

POTD: The Badlands are Amazing

From 2015 08 15 South Dakota

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The Great Plains stretch forever, endless grasslands from Canada to Texas and from the Rockies to the Mississippi. South Dakota is in the middle of all that nothingness. You drive for hundreds of miles on I-90 through flat grasslands, then turn off the interstate and within a few short miles you are faced with the scene in this photo. The Badlands are amazing.

Even More About Enrollment Growth

I had three takeaways from the Richardson ISD's 2016 Bond "listening tour."

• Those multipurpose facilities (MPFs) seemed expensive. Comparisons with similar facilities in other school districts were lacking.
• There wasn't enough in the bond to address anticipated enrollment growth over the next five years.
  
• There appeared to be no way to avoid a tax rate increase, even if only maintenance and construction for enrollment growth were addressed.
  

The RISD school board addressed the first two of my takeaways at their December 7th meeting. What I said then:

It's too bad that the scheduled enrollment growth study couldn't have been accelerated so its results could have been presented to the public on this "listening tour." It's too bad that a placeholder for additional expansion wasn't included in the 2016 bond proposal so the public would know that the school board is aware of the need. But that's water under the bridge. I'm confident that by the time the school board signs off on any bond package that projected enrollment growth will be comprehended in it.

Source: The Wheel.

Now at their January 5th meeting, the school board took further steps to address my second takeaway, and in the process, my first takeaway as well. I consider those steps to be steps back in the right direction.

OTBR: Trail of the Tough in Estonia

Latitude: N 58° 28.584
Longitude: E 022° 12.060

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".