SOLD

After 10 years, it is time to say good bye to the Austin house. We had many good times there and worked so hard to fix it up. I'll never forget the deck that we built and all the fun parties we had every Spring.

Good bye front yard and the native Texas plants and wildflowers:

Good bye back deck and the numerous parties with Austin friends that we had on that deck:

Good bye Little Walnut Creek and the spring flash flooding in Texas:

Onward to Arkansas, y'all

A Geography of the Unemployed

"more than 31 Million"

Exaggerations can exist in percentages. Nonetheless, this animated map presents some interesting an alarming results of the change in unemployment history since January 2007.

Interesting Areas of Higher Unemployment:
Southwest South Dakota - Pine Ridge & Rosebud Reservations
North-central South Dakota - Standing Rock Reservation
Michigan- Auto.

Interesting Areas of Lower Unemployment:
Travis County, Texas - Austin
Washington D.C. Metroplex
New Orleans - Rebuilding? Low Populations?
Most of New Hampshire?
Northern Alaska - Oil.

How Americans Spend Their Day...

Which Americans? While the NY Times presents a nifty little interactive table showing how Americans spend their day, they don't specify where polling took place. While likely a random poll, the vast socio-economic differences across the US make me skeptical... although the results seem fairly typical.

At 9 p.m., nearly two-fifths of people are in front of the television. But at almost any hour of the day, a larger share of unemployed people are watching television or movies.

Only one in six unemployed people looks for work on an average day. Those who do spend about three hours on activities like filling out applications or researching jobs.

For every hour Americans over age 15 spend in class for a degree, they spend about 35 minutes on homework.

Life of a Graduate Student

... captured in two pictures.

Well, I must admit, the beer filled refrigerator is a little exaggerated since this was when friends were in town over New Year. Unfortunately, the empty refrigerator is a reality and was taken this afternoon as I debated on what to have for lunch - will it be toasted english muffin or toasted bread?

George Herbert Walker Bush

Former President Bush (the older one) came to lecture at the University of Arkansas campus last Monday evening. At first, I wasn't going to go. I was never a fan of Bush Sr. policies. So much so, I used to drive around with shoe polish on my back window that said in big bold letters, "NO WAR!". That seems so long ago, but interestingly, we are still at war... but that is for a different post.

At the last minute I decided to go hear Bush speak simply because it is not often that one has an opportunity to see a former president speak, regardless of his policies and political affiliations. I had high hopes for a message of motivation, you know, how most distinguished guest speakers lecture. Instead, I watched a very old man ask people to do their part with community service (in a not so motivating way) mixed in with painfully boring quirky anecdotes about him and Barbara. Overall, it was narcissistic and boring. The whole lecture felt like he didn't even want to be there. There was no motivational epiphany. Almost half way through (in about 5-7 min. - he only spoke for 20 min.) I was thinking, damn, why did I sit in the middle of this row? I knew I should have sat on the end of the row. Now, I'm trapped here.

Red River of the North

Well.. this is a little late. I had hoped on posting this two weeks ago when the Red River was cresting but just didn't get around to it. Interestingly, any news of the outcome of homes and businesses that were damaged by the river flooding is no longer headline news. Basically, as with most disaster related news, the event happens and gets full coverage but after its' climax news coverage just "dwindles away". It's like it didn't even happen to the world outside of the area of devastation. I wonder what happened in Fargo/Moorhead after the waters receded. How much damage?

Anyway, I'll post these now because I need to get them off my desktop.

Before is the left image. During is the right image.

Inauguration Day Crowds in Washington, D.C.

A friend sent this link to me several weeks ago and I am just now getting around to posting here. I've seen this image on various websites but the Earth Observatory site has the full resolution image.

"Despite the blustery weather, more than a million people gathered in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2009, to witness and celebrate the inauguration of the forty-fourth president of the United States. The commercial satellite GeoEye-1 captured this high-resolution view of the crowds that morning."

Click here for a link to the NASA Earth Observatory site with the full resolution image. Humans as ants... even with millions gathered... how small we really are.