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Aug. 31st, 2017 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Cranky, haven't been sleeping well. Hoping to get to bed around 9:30/10PM tonight and maybe read a bit. Did laundry tonight, and had to work around someone who beat me to it, which also made me cranky. Other than that it's been wonderfully mild here weather wise.
2. Did a little research on Houston. Houston is the fourth largest city in the US, after NYC, LA and Chicago. It has 2.3 Million people and a bit of a sprawl. To put this in context? Imagine Liverpool under water. Because Houston is also an industrial city with chemical plants, oil/gasoline plants, and NASA. Or Vancouver. Or Cannes.
Most of the city is underwater. And it's a city that's not done a good job with zoning, so there's a lot of concrete. And no place for the water to go, no green spaces. The devastation is worse than Hurricane Sandy and closer to Hurricane Katrina. Having seen the cost of Sandy on infrastructure and how long it takes to recover -- they are going to be at this for years and the cost is going to be in the billions. [Hmmm.. Costliest disaster in US history with a price tag of $160 Billion With Hurricane Sandy, we're still digging our way out of it. [Meanwhile the Doofus wants to cut disaster funds to pay for a border wall. Yeah, good luck with that. I have a feeling if things continue down this road, there will not be a GOP by 2020.]
You can most likely find links to all this online, just don't feel like taking the time to hunt them down.
Other than Houston, I've been avoiding news for the most part. I don't know what it is like elsewhere? But here, it's just toxic. And I've discovered when I avoid it, I'm happier and less angry and cranky. In short, we do what we can to maintain our mental health. The news makes me feel helpless and angry.
3. Someone wrote a book based on a urban legend about a Catholic School Girl running a banned book library out of her locker. It's entitled "Ban this Book by Alan Gartz".
4. Great British Bake-Off still a Treat for Viewers - thnanks to petz for the link, but alas it may never make it across the pound. Dang it. The main critique of it? Too many commercials. LOL! Yeah, cry me a river. Why do you think I prefer streaming? You think you have too many commercials.
Although, will state that back in the 1980s I was amazed that the British had commercials prior to their movies, but seemingly no commercials with many television shows. Back then the US did not have commercials prior to movies, just previews. (Then apparently some movie theater owners went to Britain and discovered you could do that...and ah, those were the days, because now, we have them, along with thirty minutes worth of previews. I remember watching Wonder Woman, and thinking, okay, is the movie ever going to start? Because I've been sitting here for thirty minutes now and just watching movie trailers.)
5. Reading meme?
Finished reading The Wicked Duke by Madeline Hunter, which contained a mystery and took place right after the death of King George the III, or rather during it. At least I think it was George, might have been Charles. Can't remember. And I can barely keep track of all of the US presidents, let alone England's Kings and Queens, who for some reason, many of which have exactly the same names much like the Popes. Why they did that never made sense to me. I guess to avoid having a Queen Nancy, or a King Beauregard? (shrugs). Doesn't matter, it's a historical romance. Although Hunter tends to do research. There was a mystery, which I figured out in the first three chapters. I thought it was obvious, but none of the reviewers did.
It was okay. The sex scenes were better than the last one I read, as was the plot and execution. But the heroine got on my nerves.
Started reading The Windflower by Laura London, which is a psuedonyme for a husband/wife writing team, Tom and Sharon Curtis. They too did their research, and the wife apparently has a degree in history, and lived in London. While the husband was a television writer. Their book was written in the 1980s or thereabouts. So, it's more realistic, better character development, not as politically correct (ie. the men are tad more roguish, and less civilized), and better development of supporting characters not to mention more plot, less sex. Romance novels written prior to 2000, seem to have less sex and more plot for some reason. Anywho...it's about a young woman who gets swept up by Pirates en route to England from the US with her Aunt during the War of 1812. One of the Pirates is a British Spy during said War. Interesting, don't often get romance novels that start in the States during the War of 1812, with someone who actually feels a need to relate the history.
It's highly rated by folks. A lot of people say it's the best romance novel they've read. (Eh, I don't know...I don't think I have a best or most favorite book. There's books I've loved, whether they are well-written...is up for discussion. And there are books that I thought memorable. And one's that I thought were extremely well-written, but can't say I loved. I honestly think its in the eye of the beholder.)
Every time I read a bad review of a book, I try to get a feel for what other things the person has read and what they like. It seldom helps. People are frighteningly inconsistent regarding their likes and dislikes.
2. Did a little research on Houston. Houston is the fourth largest city in the US, after NYC, LA and Chicago. It has 2.3 Million people and a bit of a sprawl. To put this in context? Imagine Liverpool under water. Because Houston is also an industrial city with chemical plants, oil/gasoline plants, and NASA. Or Vancouver. Or Cannes.
Most of the city is underwater. And it's a city that's not done a good job with zoning, so there's a lot of concrete. And no place for the water to go, no green spaces. The devastation is worse than Hurricane Sandy and closer to Hurricane Katrina. Having seen the cost of Sandy on infrastructure and how long it takes to recover -- they are going to be at this for years and the cost is going to be in the billions. [Hmmm.. Costliest disaster in US history with a price tag of $160 Billion With Hurricane Sandy, we're still digging our way out of it. [Meanwhile the Doofus wants to cut disaster funds to pay for a border wall. Yeah, good luck with that. I have a feeling if things continue down this road, there will not be a GOP by 2020.]
You can most likely find links to all this online, just don't feel like taking the time to hunt them down.
Other than Houston, I've been avoiding news for the most part. I don't know what it is like elsewhere? But here, it's just toxic. And I've discovered when I avoid it, I'm happier and less angry and cranky. In short, we do what we can to maintain our mental health. The news makes me feel helpless and angry.
3. Someone wrote a book based on a urban legend about a Catholic School Girl running a banned book library out of her locker. It's entitled "Ban this Book by Alan Gartz".
4. Great British Bake-Off still a Treat for Viewers - thnanks to petz for the link, but alas it may never make it across the pound. Dang it. The main critique of it? Too many commercials. LOL! Yeah, cry me a river. Why do you think I prefer streaming? You think you have too many commercials.
Although, will state that back in the 1980s I was amazed that the British had commercials prior to their movies, but seemingly no commercials with many television shows. Back then the US did not have commercials prior to movies, just previews. (Then apparently some movie theater owners went to Britain and discovered you could do that...and ah, those were the days, because now, we have them, along with thirty minutes worth of previews. I remember watching Wonder Woman, and thinking, okay, is the movie ever going to start? Because I've been sitting here for thirty minutes now and just watching movie trailers.)
5. Reading meme?
Finished reading The Wicked Duke by Madeline Hunter, which contained a mystery and took place right after the death of King George the III, or rather during it. At least I think it was George, might have been Charles. Can't remember. And I can barely keep track of all of the US presidents, let alone England's Kings and Queens, who for some reason, many of which have exactly the same names much like the Popes. Why they did that never made sense to me. I guess to avoid having a Queen Nancy, or a King Beauregard? (shrugs). Doesn't matter, it's a historical romance. Although Hunter tends to do research. There was a mystery, which I figured out in the first three chapters. I thought it was obvious, but none of the reviewers did.
It was okay. The sex scenes were better than the last one I read, as was the plot and execution. But the heroine got on my nerves.
Started reading The Windflower by Laura London, which is a psuedonyme for a husband/wife writing team, Tom and Sharon Curtis. They too did their research, and the wife apparently has a degree in history, and lived in London. While the husband was a television writer. Their book was written in the 1980s or thereabouts. So, it's more realistic, better character development, not as politically correct (ie. the men are tad more roguish, and less civilized), and better development of supporting characters not to mention more plot, less sex. Romance novels written prior to 2000, seem to have less sex and more plot for some reason. Anywho...it's about a young woman who gets swept up by Pirates en route to England from the US with her Aunt during the War of 1812. One of the Pirates is a British Spy during said War. Interesting, don't often get romance novels that start in the States during the War of 1812, with someone who actually feels a need to relate the history.
It's highly rated by folks. A lot of people say it's the best romance novel they've read. (Eh, I don't know...I don't think I have a best or most favorite book. There's books I've loved, whether they are well-written...is up for discussion. And there are books that I thought memorable. And one's that I thought were extremely well-written, but can't say I loved. I honestly think its in the eye of the beholder.)
Every time I read a bad review of a book, I try to get a feel for what other things the person has read and what they like. It seldom helps. People are frighteningly inconsistent regarding their likes and dislikes.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-01 01:09 pm (UTC)All this may be true, but dump 50 inches of rain on any city in the world in one storm, and no amount of green space is going to handle it. New York City which gets a lot of rain doesn't average that much in a year. The heaviest rain from Hurricane Sandy was only a little over 10 inches.
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Date: 2017-09-01 01:29 pm (UTC)Oh, I'm not saying NYC was any better. (at least not when Sandy hit, we are now). If anything we were worse -- that was our problem, no green spaces. Since Sandy, we've put in a lot of green spaces, built up hills, and borders of land between city and the sea as a sort of natural levee. There's more parks since Sandy hit. Since Sandy, NYC has taken huge steps to fix the infrastructure issues. (I know because I sit next to and work with people who have worked on Sandy Infrastructure projects.)
South Carolina and Florida have more green spaces.
The cities that don't, with a ton of rain, tend to get flooded more easily. Houston did set up freeways that would easily drain...but unfortunately, put in too many concrete parking lots, strip malls and developments...and it's flat, so ...if you get 10 inches it will flood. 40-50 inches? You have a major catastrophe.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-01 01:32 pm (UTC)So where you're off, is that actually green space does help. The ground soaks it up. The water has a place to go. With concrete, it can't go anywhere. Just becomes like a big water tank, that's what NYC figured out during Sandy, and why there's been a huge push to add green spaces in NYC.
Like I said above, I work with a lot of structural engineers.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-01 02:49 pm (UTC)Houston didn't even get the brunt of the storm surge from Harvey. When you hear them talking on TV about relieving pressure on dams, it's way beyond what green space will effect.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-01 05:01 pm (UTC)I didn't mean to state that it was the perfect solution. Just that it didn't help that it didn't have any. To clarify?
Mother: and it didn't help that Houston has relatively little green space so there is no where for the water to go, just concrete, due to the zoning. Me: Oh, NYC ran into that problem and has remedied it by adding green space around the city as an added deterrent.
Are you suggesting doing nothing is best? Or that cities shouldn't spend money on green space to help with Hurricanes?
no subject
Date: 2017-09-02 01:44 am (UTC)http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_HARVEY_BAYOUS_TXOL-?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Nearly any city would be overwhelmed by the more than 4 feet of rain that Hurricane Harvey has dumped since Friday, but Houston is unique in its regular massive floods and inability to cope with them. This is the third 100-year-or-more type of flood in three years.
Experts blame too many people, too much concrete, insufficient upstream storage, not enough green space for water drainage and, especially, too little regulation.
"Houston is the most flood-prone city in the United States," said Rice University environmental engineering professor Phil Bedient. "No one is even a close second - not even New Orleans, because at least they have pumps there."
The entire system is designed to clear out only 12 to 13 inches of rain per 24-hour period, said Jim Blackburn, an environmental law professor at Rice University: "That's so obsolete it's just unbelievable."
Also, Houston's Harris County has the loosest, least-regulated drainage policy and system in the entire country, Bedient said.
It's not that any city wouldn't have this problem, it's that Houston has it magnified by a 100. So, if this had happened somewhere else...say NYC, it may not have been as bad.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-02 02:14 pm (UTC)The entire system is designed to clear out only 12 to 13 inches of rain per 24-hour period,
This is very telling. How many inland cities have a system to clear out that much rain? Probably none. So Houston, and other Gulf Coast cities, regularly get that much and more rain in big storms. Bad zoning habits you see in virtually every city get magnified: building too close to stream beds, not paying attention to natural drainage patterns away from streams, opening new areas to development without a care for how they drain or how they might affect drainage downstream. Add that to the fact Houston seems very flat, and their magnified problems are very understandable.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-02 06:34 pm (UTC)This happened in NYC as well. And NYC had the added problem of the subways and underground tunnel system, which we've spent a boatload of cash fixing. We also put in a new plan in place -- any time there's a whisper of major storm coming, they shut the system down 48 hours ahead of time, and transfer all the trains to higher ground. They've also spent a lot of money on better drainage systems. Because the city has crappy drainage.
Superstorm Sandy was a big wake up call. I'm thinking Hurricane Harvey will be similar to Houston. The problem is with climate change...we're just going to have more of these storms and more frequently.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-01 02:05 pm (UTC)There are moments where I wish I hadn't tossed out my guidelines from various romance lines from the 1990s; you can see the evolution toward the sexier books, but there was clearly an emphasis on "story first, sex second." Then the pendulum swung the other way and ten years ago, the big push was "sex, sex, sex -- unless you're writing inspirationals." Of course, that was when folks were making good money off Ellora's Cave books, so lots of folks wanted to write for them. Now, we seem to be swinging back to the middle. If you've got sex in the book, it needs to be hot, but it doesn't have to be the focus.
And no place for the water to go, no green spaces.
As a former resident, I can tell you that there are some major green spaces in Houston. Two things, though: they're all in the older area of the city -- near downtown, Medical Center, the area known as West University, etc. And those green spaces flood. Badly. We're talking heavy rain, not even tropical storm. Hermann Park, which is a major green area, is especially prone to this and always has been. I have a number of memories of when I was a kid with my mother trying to get us out of the park in her '66 Ford Fairlane and having difficulty because the park roads were flooded and drainage was crap.
Some spots are better than others. The West University area historically doesn't flood, which is why my brother chose to move there when he settled in Houston and my parents eventually moved over by him. The family home was originally in the Rice/Medical Center area and we were used to "oh, can't get out of the driveway with this rain."
Outside the Loop, though, as the city expanded out, yeah, not a lot of attention paid to green areas except where forced to by the flow of the bayous. Which flood.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-01 02:44 pm (UTC)Outside the Loop, though, as the city expanded out, yeah, not a lot of attention paid to green areas except where forced to by the flow of the bayous. Which flood.
To clarify, and I should have clarified with cactuswatcher on this as well.
My mother, who apparently visited in the 1960s and later, was telling me that it was the outlying areas that were the problem. (Mom went to college in Texas during the 1960s, although she's been back since then, and knows the state, apparently. I visited a friend there in 1990.) Over the phone last night, she said that the problem Houston had was the sprawl and the lack of zoning regulations, so too many strip malls and concrete. While my friend who is from Houston, told me it was the Bayous mainly, which flood. And the freeways were set up to drain. But the main problem, according to my friend was too much rain and nowhere to go.
My memory of Houston is admittedly vague, but it is designed similarly to Kansas City and LA in that it is a sprawl...with a lot of streets, and highways. While there are green areas, they tend to be parks and not quite what I'm talking about or what my mother was talking about.
It's hard to explain -- I'd have to show you. But in NY they built what amounts to small hills with trees. Sort of akin to green dirt sand dunes. Pushing the city and houses back a bit. They bought up land in Long Island, and did the same thing, putting in sand dunes or hills. This is what saved Hilton Head last year when it was hit by a major Hurricane. The sand dunes and hills between the settlements and the sea. There was still flooding, but it wasn't quite as bad.
Not sure if the same principle works with rainfall or not. Also not sure if Houston got the storm surge which is what did in NYC and New Orleans.
There are moments where I wish I hadn't tossed out my guidelines from various romance lines from the 1990s; you can see the evolution toward the sexier books, but there was clearly an emphasis on "story first, sex second." Then the pendulum swung the other way and ten years ago, the big push was "sex, sex, sex
Oh that explains a lot. Because I've noticed that the amount of sex depends on when it was published. So, the marketing people set guidelines based on what they think will statistically sell? Ugh. I feel for romance novelists.
50 Shades probably pushed it towards the sex, sex, sex, less plot for a bit at least with the contemporaries. Which may explain why the contemporaries seem to have more than the historical romances at the moment. I'm glad they are drifting in the opposite direction finally...not that I mind the sex, it just gets a bit repetitive and the plot suffers. (Noticed that occurring in fanfic as well.)