Three New Essays in Verbal

December 30, 2004 by Eric Richardson

One last bit for the night, then I'm off to bed: I've just posted three new essays up in verbal intercourse. I think I have a few more sitting on my computer in LA, but it's off right now so I can't get to those. What's new:

All three are from film classes, as you can probably see.

Downtown: Urban Life vs. the Automobile

December 30, 2004 by Eric Richardson

My normal routine each day is to read the California, Business, and Sports sections of the LA Times. Leaving some sections out means I sometimes miss stories like the one that ran Monday titled "Give Up the Suburb? Yes. Give Up the Car? No Way".

People are moving downtown, all right. But this is L.A. So they're bringing their cars with them.

And now local officials, who just a few years ago stopped requiring developers to build parking spaces in most loft buildings, are scrambling to accommodate automobiles — and their owners — downtown.

The article's interesting, though not necessarily all that informative for those who are already downtown and deal with these sorts of problems everyday... — Continue Reading...

One Big Backyard

December 30, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Today's (well, yesterday's... I'm slow) absolute understatement of the day comes to us by way of a Daily News piece talking about how the Sepulveda Basin dam handled this week's rain. The article helpfully tells us that:

The Valley's largest recreational park doubles as its flood-control system - one that can hold thousands of gallons of water, then slowly release the flow into the Los Angeles River after the storm has passed.

So, here's the thing: I'm sure the basin really holds somewhere up around a million gallons. "Thousands of gallons" is tiny. This pool site tells me that a 4' deep pool with a 24' diameter holds a touch under 12,000 gallons. I'd really like to think that the Sepulveda Basin holds more than a small swimming pool or two.

The Hand Deceives

December 30, 2004 by Eric Richardson

I drove over to Grand Rapids, MI, this evening to meet up with Shmuel and Brian Tol. It was a good time, hanging out talking about computer stuff at one of GR's numerous coffee shops with free wifi (It's a Grind/Urban Mill). Afterward, driving across town to go to World Market, I noticed something: Grand Rapids has some horrid lights. — Continue Reading...

My Most Popular Days

December 29, 2004 by Eric Richardson

I was just fixing up the styles for the "On This Date" feature and got curious about how many days of the year I've posted on in the 6+ years this blog's been running. A simple MySQL query later*, I had the answer: 348. So out of the 366 possible days of the year, I've missed 18. The most popular day, with 10 posts:

Fascinatingly, I implemented "On This Date" on Dec. 11, 2003. Close behind, with 9 posts: