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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 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.