POTD: Mount Conner

From 2018 03 21 Alice Springs

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Outback, on the highway south of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia, on the way to Uluru (aka Ayer's Rock). No, that's not Uluru in the background. It's Mount Conner, or as tour guides sometimes have to tell tourists, Mount "No, not Uluru". The soil here shows why pictures of Uluru often show it as bright red.

POTD: Lot for Sale

From 2018 03 21 Alice Springs

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Outback, on the highway south of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia, where an optimistic real estate developer looks to have marked out lots for sale. This really should have been a 360 degree photo, as the landscape is the same in all directions. If you dream of a house without having to put up with neighbors, this could be the lot for you to build on.

POTD: A Town Like Alice

From 2018 03 21 Alice Springs

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia. The distance from my home to Alice Springs is 9,300 miles. It's a little farther to Jakarta, Indonesia, and farther still to Perth, Australia, but that's about it. South Africa, India, China, even Antarctica are not as far away. Besides actually being so far away, Alice Springs also seems so far away because it's so isolated even from other Australian cities. If you want to get away from it all, it would be hard to find a better place than Alice Springs.

POTD: The Great Ocean Road

From 2018 03 15 Melbourne

If you visit Australia, you have to see the four greats: the Great Barrier Reef (sadly, a victim of global warming), the Great Dividing Range (more like hills, but you can ski there in winter), the Great Australian Desert (aka the Outback), and the Great Ocean Road (one of the world's most scenic ocean highways on the south coast of Australia).

Bonus photos after the jump.

POTD: Cowes, Australia

From 2018 03 15 Melbourne

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Cowes, Victoria, located on Phillip Island in southern Australia. It's a seaside town, similar to seaside towns the world over, popular as a summer getaway for residents of Melbourne, two hours away by car. The tree, which is my favorite thing in the photo, is a Golden Cypress, aka Monterey Cypress, a native of California, but introduced to Australia in the 1800s. At least I think that's what it is. I'm no botanist.

POTD: Obligatory Koala Photo

From 2018 03 15 Melbourne

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Maru Koala and Animal Park, located on the Bass Highway in southern Victoria, Australia. No trip to Australia is complete without seeing a koala, preferably in the wild, but in an animal park if necessary. We were fortunate to see both, but close-up only in nature parks.

Bonus photo after the jump.

POTD: Melbourne

From 2018 03 15 Melbourne

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was taken from the Shrine of Remembrance, a war memorial built to honor Australians and New Zealanders who fought in World War I.

Bonus photos after the jump.

POTD: St Patrick's Cathedral

From 2018 03 15 Melbourne

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Specifically, the Roman Catholic St Patrick's Cathedral. "St Patrick's has the distinction of being both the tallest and, overall, the largest church building in Australia."

Bonus photo after the jump.

POTD: Fitzroy Gardens

From 2018 03 15 Melbourne

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Specifically, the Conservatory in Fitzroy Gardens. The park is full of surprises, like Captain James Cook's boyhood home (relocated from England), the model Tudor Village, the Fairies Tree, and, of course, the Conservatory. This photo illustrates how we can take thousands of photos on one of our trips.

RISD TRE Information Meeting #1

The Richardson ISD held the first of many information meetings about the upcoming Tax Ratification Election. The meeting was held at the Richardson YMCA. I was there live-tweeting the show. What follows are my tweets, with only the most cursory proofreading. If I heard wrong or garbled what I heard, that's on me. Don't blame the RISD without checking your own sources first. Here, you get what you pay for.

The Most Unknown (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Most Unknown (2018): Documentary of scientists in diverse fields talking to each other about their work. Good to inspire kids about the cool places science is done (caves, oceans, mountains, etc.) but doesn't explain the science (dark matter, time, consciousness, etc.) C-

POTD: Melbourne's St Kilda Beach

From 2018 03 15 Melbourne

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Specifically, the St Kilda beach. One doesn't usually think of Melbourne as being an ocean town. It's located at the head of enormous Port Phillip Bay, with its business center located a few miles up the Yarra River even from that bay. But take a short tram ride from the center of the city to St Kilda and, there it is — a beach, an historic pier, a classic amusement park, an historic yacht club, and an esplanade that hosts a popular weekend market.

Bonus photo after the jump.

Repeat Tweets: Car chases, Fist fights, Shootouts

Repeat tweets from August, 2018:

• Aug 2 2018: Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018): Much better stunts than script. The mission is to recover stolen plutonium. The "plan" constantly goes wrong and needs improvisation: car chases, fist fights, shootouts and everybody changing sides. Tom Cruise shows his age. C-
• Aug 3 2018: Warlight: A coming-of-age novel set in London after WWII, where a boy is left by his parents "in the care of two men who may have been criminals". Why leads to a life-long quest of self-discovery. Along the way, some great adventures. B+
• Aug 3 2018: What's new? A foreign country inflicted upon our election system systematic violations of democratic norms, and not only did we *not* consider it an act of war, our government can't stop praising the hostile foreign country responsible. Where's the outrage?

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

Review: This is How You Lose Her

Amazon

From This is How You Lose Her, by Junot Díaz:

Your girl catches you cheating. (Well, actually she’s your fiancée, but hey, in a bit it so won’t matter.) She could have caught you with one sucia, she could have caught you with two, but as you’re a totally batshit cuero who didn’t ever empty his e­mail trash can, she caught you with fifty! Sure, over a six­-year period, but still. Fifty fucking girls? Goddamn. Maybe if you’d been engaged to a super open-minded blanquita you could have survived it—but you’re not engaged to a super open­minded blanquita. Your girl is a bad­ass salcedeña who doesn’t believe in open anything; in fact the one thing she warned you about, that she swore she would never forgive, was cheating. I’ll put a machete in you, she promised. And of course you swore you wouldn’t do it. You swore you wouldn’t. You swore you wouldn’t. And you did."

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes

BlacKkKlansman (2018): Undercover cops infiltrate Klan in 1970s. A broad satiric look at America's dark history, but Spike Lee slips in a word or scene now and then to show he's more interested in today than the 1970s. And he connects with a gut punch by the end. B+

POTD: Hosier Lane

From 2018 03 15 Melbourne

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Specifically, Hosier Lane, one of the lanes and arcades of central Melbourne that make it such a fun city to walk. "The graffiti-covered walls and art-installations have become a popular backdrop for fashion and wedding photography."

Bonus photo after the jump.