Fufu and Juju

My nephew has just taken up a year-long assignment running a private, non-profit, fee-free secondary school in a village in Ghana. The coastal setting is Club Med spectacular. The living conditions... not so much.

Judging from the few emails he's managed to send, it sounds like he will have plenty of stories to tell. I hope he decides to write a book. After the jump, an excerpt, just a small part of a larger story, from one email. It's been lightly edited for clarity and anonymity (best let students themselves tell these stories to their parents).

OTBR: A View of Ballarat's Mt. Helen

Latitude: S 37° 38.394
Longitude: E 143° 48.414

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".

Richardson's Budget - Black or Red?

If you've been a regular reader of this blog for more than a couple of years (I'm deeply sorry) then you know of my quest for a "balanced budget." Each year, Richardson claims to have a "balanced budget," yet often expenditures exceed revenues. What gives?

Last year, when I last explored this subject, I came to two conclusions.

First, that Richardson considers the budget to be balanced if expenditures are less than revenues plus reserved fund balance, and other financing sources.

Second, that over a multi-year cycle that reserved fund balance sometimes has a surplus that can be drawn down, and sometimes it doesn't. So, even with the more common dictionary definition of balanced budget, one that doesn't consider reserved fund balances, Richardson's budget is cyclically balanced, even if year by year it might run slight deficits or surpluses.

Still, my hope each year is this will be a year in which Richardson doesn't rely on reserved fund balances to make up for an excess of expenditures over revenues. Whether or not it deserves as much attention as I give it, I can't help taking a sneak peek at those bottom line revenue and expenditure numbers.

After the jump, that sneak peek. Revenues vs expenditures. Black or red. Which is it?

No Storming the Castle in Richardson

King Arthur: If you will not show us the Grail, we shall take your castle by force!

French Soldier: You don't frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottoms, son of a silly person! Ah blow my nose at you, so-called "Arthur Keeeng"! You and all your silly English Knnnnnnnn-ighuts!!!

Source: Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

If you substitute a Richardson rental house inspector for King Arthur and a give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death type renter for the French soldier, you'd have pretty much the scene that played out in the courts and the Richardson city council recently.

After the jump, the city council's retreat.

Detropia (2012)

IMDB

Detropia (2012): Scenes from the hollowing out of a great American city, Detroit. No politics, no preaching, no prescriptions, no hope. C+

Repeat Tweets: "A Bucket o' Business"

Repeat tweets from July, 2013:

• 2 Jul 2013: RT @AngieChenButton: "Perry to announce future plans on Monday." Future plans. That's the best kind of plans.
  
• 8 Jul 2013: "No rocky coast, no sylvan hiking paths, no loons, whales, etc. Just a bucket o' business and a booming economy." globalperspective.bangordailynews.com
  
• 8 Jul 2013: What's it say about me that Facebook suggests I might like the TV show, "My Favorite Martian?"
  
• 8 Jul 2013: RT @BudKennedy: "@TomPauken says @GregAbbott_TX is from an 'Austin that has grown stale with insiders.'" If anyone knows stale, it's Pauken.
  
• 8 Jul 2013: Headline: "Stefani Carter announces bid for Railroad Commissioner." That's why she favored gas fracking near homes. trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com
  

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

S2L77: Peshawar

From 1977 03 17 Pakistan

We were back on the road ever westward after a relaxing (!) stay in Pakistan's Swat Valley (!!). Do a Google search -- the only time the words "Swat Valley" and "relaxing" are used together any more is when the military relaxes a curfew there. It only gets worse to the west. There's not much room between the Swat Valley and Afghanistan. All roads funnel through Peshawar, the capital of what used to be called the North-West Frontier Provinces. This is at the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, the key point on the strategic route connecting Central Asia and South Asia.

After the jump, Peshawar today... and in 1977.