www.tulok.net : Earlier Entries
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Entry 18 November 1, 2002 12:00 am |
One of the road-related websites that I frequent, OKroads, has a section where the author
puts forth his idea for a major beltway completely
encircling Oklahoma City, which he called I-635. I thought I'd try the
same thing for Tulsa. If we consider the I-44/244 combo the Inner Loop (which would make the Inner-Dispersal Loop around downtown more of a "Loopette", and make the Creek Turnpike and (once it's completed) Gilcrease Expressway a weird-looking Central Loop (my suggestion for I-644; see Entry 16), this road would most definitely be The Outer Loop. Or as I refer to it in the newly-posted Sidetrip #2, The Big Outer Beltway. Have a look.
Chandler's still in Tulsa on Friends, and they actually showed the Golden Driller for the scene's opening shot. Makes sense: in retrospect I think it's the biggest thing we've got that's easily capturable in one camera shot that has "Tulsa" easily visible on it (belt-buckle). Those buildings out the boardroom window, however--not Tulsa. And as anyone downtown can tell you, our smoking policies are not that lax.
Followup 17A: my best friend called me tonight, inviting me to come over and see their Halloween decorations. She said she didn't want to bum me out by talking to me. So instead she bums me out by not talking to me. But at least we're talking again, and soon everything will probably be back to normal. She told me that she and some friends of ours were at dinner the other night and Doug Dodd came over and talked to them for about twenty minutes. Apparently won them all over. And if these guys can be swayed, he's gotta be the right choice.
Independent gubernatorial candidate Gary Richardson actually had the gall to say that polls aren't accurate at all when there's a third candidate, and that he's still gonna surprise everyone and win the race.
Hey, Gary: after that Largent stunt you pulled everyone's gonna be surprised if you come in second! 4:04am
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Entry 19 November 5, 2002 12:00 am |
Well, I wasn't disappointed. Got home from work and, lo and behold, over a dozen political signs in my yard, every one of them posted without my permission. And not surprisingly (as this has usually been the case in the past), every one for a democratic candidate. And I don't care if I'm a registered Democrat or not (I only picked that party because I had been a registered Independent but was tired of being left out of the primaries, and as a protest for how the Florida republicans stole the 2000 presidential election), you don't go puttin' signs on my yard without my permission!
And by the way, I don't buy that "The signs are on the city easement so they're fair game" argument. All that means is I'm not allowed to build anything on it. If the city makes ME responsible for mowing it, then dammit, it's MY property! (Also, I've talked to television reporters in the past, who have time and time again informed me the posters have to have permission of the property owner.)
The Democratic party is not going to make people believe that I in any way endorse all those candidates. The signs have been removed, except for the Dodd & Henry signs: since I had already decided to vote for them, I retroactively give my permission for those signs to be there. But not the others. Moreso, except for Dodd & Henry, I will be voting for all the Republican candidates. That's what you get for not asking permission. 6:06am
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Entry 20 November 8, 2002 12:00 am |
I gotta admit, when the election returns had come in Tuesday night and Brad Henry had just barely beaten Steve Largent, and Largent refused to concede, I said to myself "Here we go again: welcome to the Florida of 2002." But then next day, when Largent finally did concede and Henry admitted that if the situation had been reversed he would have been hesitant as well, I had to admit I was very impressed. Largent was just waiting to make sure the count was right, and I guess I can't blame him.
I also have to say it was very refreshing to have two political competitors who seem to actually like & respect each other. If you take Gary Richardson's dirty tactics out of the mix (and believe me, I am SO trying) I don't recall a single negative word said by one side about the other. Henry has even said he would like to offer Largent a position in his administration. I hope Largent takes him up on this. Non-partisan bickering is such a nice change of pace.
Then again, the TU football team could use a new coach...
It's interesting that the whole reason Henry was able to pull off the win in the first place was the high number of rural voters attempting to keep cockfighting. They might not have succeeded there, but they sure helped getting Henry in office.p,hjv
Sorry, just saw a story on the news: somebody doused a small dog with gasoline, set him on fire then threw him out the window of a moving car. Another person saw it happen, got to the dog, put out the fire & took him to the vet, but they say the dog has serious burns and may die.
As someone who owns four cats and love them more than I could possible express, I get very emotional whenever I hear stories like this. It's the main reason I voted to ban cockfighting. Anybody willing to harm such a beautiful animal so maliciously is just one step away from doing the same to another human being. 5:31am
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Entry 21 November 9, 2002 12:00 am |
Another neat pic from the NASA people: a cloudless
night view of the entire earth, obviously a mosaic of hundreds of pictures
taken over several months. (Click here for the original
NASA web page, which will link you to a gigantic version of the picture
at left. If that picture's too big for you, you can get a smaller one
by clicking the above left picture.) Every one of those lights that
you see is a sign that humanity exists. Nice to know there are still several
large areas that mankind hasn't urbanized yet.With a simple gif-animator program, I was also able to turn the image into a sphere, to show how such a sunless, cloudless earth would look spinning through space (program wouldn't let me change the outline of the image from its original shape, hense the blackness on both sides; just imagine a bunch of stars there). Click on the spinning globe at above right for a larger image.
OK, I'm startin' to get tired of this. I realize most people
in those big cities of New York, Chicago & L.A. may think all Oklahomans
are a bunch of backwater yokels, and I'm just about fed up with the
way they're portraying us on Friends.First of all, our accents are not that pronounced; at least not in the urban areas like Tulsa. I think we actually sound more like Chicagoans than Houstans or Arkansans-who-buy-a-house-in-New-York-just-so-they-can-be-elected-to-the-Senate.
Secondly, we have strict smoking policies here, too: just ask anybody forced to go outside in a driving January sleetstorm just to light one up. In fact, some restaurants in the state have taken the state Health Department to court for trying to make the rules too strict.
And lastly, I may not be able to speak for anyone else on this one, Chandler, but I, who have lived in Tulsa all my life, have never once uttered the word "y'all" (except for times like this when I say I never say it.)
The show was go great last year; it's embarrasing that they have to spend this year alienating a whole group of people, much the same way Italian-Americans in New York are fuming at the way they're being portrayed on "The Sopranos."
I'm not going to boycott the show, it is supposedly in its last year, after all. And nobody in any official capacity ever asks me what I watch, so it won't matter one way or the other. (Although much more of this year's viewing has been with the sound down.) The second I become an official Nielsen family, however, Friends will not be seen on my TV for the duration. 3:53am
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Entry 22 November 14, 2002 12:00 am |
Well, it didn't take long for my Side Trips to
spinoff an entirely new subdomain. Taking my I-844 plan, as well as
a plan to assist Eric Stuve, the guy in charge of OKRoads.com, I spent all last weekend
taking pictures of a bunch of street corners in Sapulpa and presto, roads.tulok.net was born.I'm really starting to get into the swing of this. I've already come up with a new design for state highway markers (the plain, round shield is just so bluh), which will be my in my next update on that site, I've already made plans to go all around this part of the state during my vacation next month and just snap pictures of highways. And for a very nice change of pace, I'm actually having a lot of fun doing it. I just wish I knew a more politically-correct term for 'roadgeek'. The closest thing my English/Latin Dictionary would give me is viagrapher, which if mispronouced would suggest something TOTALLY different!
Anyway, I'm gonna try to constrain my road topics to that section as much as possible, although I will mention it here whenever I make any major updates there. And essays and long rants will still be duplicated in Side Trips.
Oh, and a couple of unrelated follow-ups: the abused dog I mentioned in Entry 20 was in so much unrecoverable pain that she had to be put to sleep. And it shouldn't matter that it was "just a dog" and not a person: it should still be treated as First Degree Murder.
And on much lighter notes: What's New, Scooby-Doo has already been picked up for a second season, while in prime time, junior-network show Smallville (one of the shows I don't miss each week) came in third in the ratings this week, beating not only ABC's stupid sitcoms, but Fox's supposedly-acclaimed 24 as well. Yay! 6:04am
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Entry 23 November 15, 2002 12:00 am |
A news report today said the Oklahoma Highway
Patrol is advising people to watch out for deer crossing the roadway,
as mating season has begun.Now they tell me. I was out yesterday taking pictures for my highway terminus gallery and saw two deer crossing highway 151 just north of Keystone Dam. The deer were moving, therefore so was the camera so excuse the blurriness, but at left is a snap I got off of the second deer as it was crossing the road (don't know how deer-chasing goes during mating season, but if it's anything like the human variety I would assume this one's the male). Click on the picture to see an expanded view, showing where the deer was with relation to the road. Both were such beautiful creatures.
Ah, the best--and in my view, ONLY--way to shoot deer. With a camera. 6:35pm
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Entry 24 November 23, 2002 12:00 am |
Sorry I've been away for so long, but I've been
spending most of my free time updating my road website, which I have just
retroactively rechristened "Roadklahoma!" Catchy, ain't it? Anyhoo, I've
taken pictures of just about every state highway endpoint that I can
get to in the few hours of sunlight I have remaining after I get up (currently
working a graveyard shift). Next week, however, my vacation starts, and
this entire quadrant of the state is fair game!In the meantime, here's a pic I took on the way back from one of my jaunts. A night shot of the Golden Driller (click on the pic for a larger view). Why they decided to shine the main spotlight on that particular part of his anatomy I'm scared to speculate.
Anyway, before football season gets away from us entirely, back in Entry 1 I said that I'd get around to explaining how it's determined which network gets which NFL games on Sunday afternoon. So, here we go. It's really very simple:
--CBS is the primary network for the AFC, Fox for the NFC. Any afternoon game between two AFC teams will be on CBS, between two NFC games will be on Fox.
--If it is an interconference game, the network covering the conference of the visiting team gets the game. That way, for example, CBS will get to cover 1-2 games at Texas Stadium, while Fox gets 1-2 games in Foxboro.
--Every Thanksgiving Day the two games that are played involve Dallas and Detroit, both playing at home. Since each network gets a game, and both teams are in the NFC, one of the games will be against an NFC team (carried by Fox), and the other game will be interconference (carried by CBS).
--If both New York teams are playing on Sunday afternoon, one game is played early, the other is played late. And the schedule is set up so that each network is covering one of the games.
--And since the Giants and the Jets share a stadium, the only way they can both have home games the same week is if they play on different days (i.e., one Sunday, one Monday).
--If a game does not sell out within 72 hours of kickoff, the Blackout Rule goes into effect and the game cannot be shown in the television market where the game is being played (check my DMA Market Map, Entry 8). If the game can be seen locally, the network not broadcasting the game is not allowed to air another game in the same time period.
--Not sure if this is still the case, but it used to be, and still makes sense: between the other NFL networks, ABC & ESPN, and their prime time games, every team must appear at least once during the season.
--Since ESPN is a cable outlet, a local broadcast station in each market the two teams are based is allowed to carry ESPN's feed of the game, so that those without cable can watch it, too. (Subject, of course, to blackout rules.)
And there you have it. More than you ever wanted to know about how it's decided who gets to show what. (Except for how ABC & ESPN's games are selected, and I'm not about to go into that one.) 6:24am
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