Weekend Reading: Thank Goodness for Time Off Edition

San Diego Unified takes the entire week of Thanksgiving off from school, and this year, I have decided to take the entire week off from work. I have just wrapped up work for the week and am now looking forward to an entire week off. I really need this break!

I started shifting into break mode with a really nice, if somewhat windy, rollerblade. It was my first outing of the season in long sleeves. We may even need to turn our heater on before too long. In preparation for that, we had the heater serviced and discovered that it is pretty much at the end of its life and we should replace it soon. It isn't dangerous, just increasingly inefficient. SIGH. There goes another chunk of money.

Anyway, on to the links. I don't have many, because I have been really busy at work and at home (hence the need for the break).

I found this interesting: a note from a TPM reader about the advantages of going ahead to the Senate trial without getting House testimony from the reluctant witnesses.

Good job, Seattle!  They saw the largest drop in single occupancy car commutes in the nation. I wish San Diego had done better on this metric!

Gretchen McCulloch's series on Weird Internet Careers looks really interesting and I hope to read all of it next week. I have only read the first post so far.

If you haven't listened to this clip of Dr. Hill at the impeachment hearings, you should listen now. It is very good:

Hill’s striking answer when asked by GOP why she was “upset” with Sondland — in 79 seconds, she moves between how female anger is handled in the workplace to the difference between Sondland’s “domestic political errand” and her own work on national security. pic.twitter.com/szYrABv5XQ

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) November 21, 2019

In recommended listening:

Ezra Klein's interview with Elizabeth  Currid-Halkett about class and group membership was really good and thought-provoking.

Here is an awarding winning photo of bunnies!

And here's another bunny:

pic.twitter.com/MhWnVvTHwa

— うさぎ島の写真bot (@rabbit_isle_bot) November 22, 2019

Happy weekend, everyone! I won't be posting links next week because of the holiday. I don't know if I'll manage to post something else since I won't be working. We'll see!

Weekend Reading: A Low Level Whine Edition

The Komen Three Day walk is this weekend in San Diego, so my usual rollerblading route was blocked off. I tried a new spot which was... not as a good. It wasn't even as good as my usual fallback spot, but I thought I'd try a new place because my usual fallback spot isn't great. Oh well.

I also lost two whole evenings this week due to a migraine. I went down with a migraine Wednesday after dinner (I was in bed before 8!) and I had the post-migraine fog Thursday. I made it through my work day, but wasn't up for much more.

I was supposed to be submitting some ads for the latest Annorlunda release! I'll do that this weekend. But you can buy the release now! The Boy Who Was Mistaken for a Fairy King came out on Wednesday. Here's a nice review at Tangent Online, and a nice (but spoiler-filled!) review from Fill Your Bookshelf. There are also some good reviews on the Goodreads page. You can get yourself a copy at the usual spots:

• Amazon
• BN.com
• Gumroad
• iBooks
• IndieBound
• Kobo 
• Smashwords

In other news:

My local bookstore is at risk of closing. Pumpkin is taking this news particularly hard and thinks I should buy it. I do not think I have the sort of cash needed to buy it! I hope someone who does have that sort of cash steps in and saves Mysterious Galaxy. It is a great store.

This article about what happens in small Texas towns when the local hospital closes is sad and infuriating. Medicaid expansion would help save those hospitals (among many other benefits).

I found this article about how electric cars change the economics of fleet management really interesting.

Separated bike lanes make city streets safer.

I am somewhat tempted to go searching for crested saguaros after reading this article.

Josh Marshall's post on how the collusion never stopped - the GOP just got on board - is worth your time.

Once I saw a picture of Tufty the Triangular, how could I pick any other bunny for this week?

She may have entered the building as "hunny bunny" but she was immediately rechristened "Tufty the Triangular" pic.twitter.com/NRKroIT7R6

— Officer Edith (@OfficerEdith) November 9, 2019

Happy weekend, everyone!

Weekend Reading: The I Don't Really Have Time to Write This Edition

Ooph, I've had a week. I've got a big project milestone coming up and there have been lots of issues to work through ahead of that. On top of that, I have been super tired. I don't know if it is the time change or if I'm not sleeping well for some reason (asthma? hormones? who knows?) but I've been exhausted in the evenings. Of course, we had our school's Dia de los Muertos festival on Wednesday and Petunia wanted to work on robotics stuff other nights... so as much as I wished I could spend my evenings crashed on the sofa, I didn't get to.

I'm only on temporary break from work tonight, too - I'm monitoring the project right now, will take a break to go get my kids and make dinner, and then will get back online. So this post might be a little more terse than usual.

I did get out for my rollerblade today. I thought work might prevent me from going out, but there was enough of a lull that I decided to go out. I had to handle one work call about 2/3 of the way through, but it was still a nice outing. I'm glad I made it out.

Anyway, on to the links.

I have two local stories to share. First, our local paper reported on a rise in smuggling by ocean, which is honestly not a surprise. The existence of our big coastline is one of many reasons I think the border wall is a waste of money.

Second, remember the transit survey I shared earlier? There was an article about the feedback they're receiving via the survey.

Josh Marshall's post about how we should describe the President's crimesis worth your time.

I found this article about the policy opinions of undecided voters in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania really interesting.

This ProPublica article about Anna, IL, and its inability to shake its past as a sundown town, is really good.

A health insurer is giving some people apartments because it makes their healthcare cheaper. I think this is a good program, but reading about making decisions about who gets a home based on whether it will "pay off" for the insurer is a bit rough. In the end, I think the existence of this program is an indictment on how we've organized our society.

In recommended listening: I found Ezra Klein's conversation with Michael Lind really interesting and thought-provoking.

This whole thing is perfect - the embedded video and Inslee's reaction to it:

I’m a Boomer and it’s time for our generation to do our part to defeat climate change. Ok, Boomers?

(Did I do that right?) https://t.co/qimzF2yN92

— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) November 8, 2019

Honestly, the inter-generational warfare on Twitter is getting very annoying. There are people working for solutions in every generation, and every generation has faced challenges. I wish we'd start learning from each others' perspectives and experiences instead of screaming at each other online.

Bunny!

📅 2nd November 2019
🏷 Instagram/pocoyo_bun pic.twitter.com/IRzlUMYhxe

— Rabbit of the Day 🐰 (@RabbitoftheDay) November 2, 2019

Happy weekend, everyone!

Weekend Reading: The Is This a Cold or Not Edition

I may or may not still be fighting off the cold my older daughter caught at school. It never bothered her much, so maybe it just isn't a very bad cold. I don't know. I'm feeling run down and my nose is a little runny - but I also let my nose spray allergy medicine run out, so who knows.

I still went out for my rollerblade and am glad I did, but now I just want to lie down and not do much.

So this won't be a very long post tonight!

But I wanted to share this fabulous piece by Dahlia Lithwick about why she hasn't been back to the Supreme Court since Kavanaugh took his seat. And when I say "fabulous" I mean in it really captures some of the despair I feel in this historical moment as a woman, which is not "fabulous" at all, but the ability to articulate it is.

Continuing on in that theme a bit... here's another Slate piece that's really worth your time, about the bad faith of the people who took Rep. Katie Hill down.

This article about the new cystic fibrosis drug treatment is a reminder of the good that pharmas and biotechs do. We can - and should - critique the bad aspects of some pharma company practices. But we shouldn't lose sight of the benefits the industry brings.

This article about the effects of traumatic brain injury is beautifully written and haunting.

In recommended listening, I have two podcasts about the environment.

First, Matt Yglesias' discussion with Gretchen Goldman about clean air and particulates is really good and I learned a lot from it. I firmly believe that someday people are going to look back at the fact that we drive around in these machines that basically emit poison into the air we all breathe and feel sorry for us and our ignorance.

Second, Ezra Klein had an excellent interview about climate change with Kate Marvel that was sobering but also inspiring.

Sleepy bunny!

📅 29th October 2019
🏷 Instagram/lastalladeiconigli pic.twitter.com/F8G8k2Ft2E

— Rabbit of the Day 🐰 (@RabbitoftheDay) October 29, 2019

Happy weekend, everyone.

Thoughts about Transportation

A friend sent me a link to this nifty website San Diego's transit system is using to collect public feedback about how it should spend money allocated for transit improvements. You get 1000 "coin" and you allocate them to different projects, which all cost different amounts. I spent a little time reading about the options and the pros and cons for each and made an allocation - but I didn't submit it yet. I want to think about it a little more and maybe read up on some of the options. Any transit nerds out there who want to tell me what they think about any of the options are welcome to do so in the comments!

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I am still enjoying driving the Tesla. We're planning to drive it over to Arizona for a visit soon. I'll report back in about how we find that experience. The drive over will be no problem: there are superchargers at all three spots we've been known to stop to break up the drive. I'll be interested to see how we find the experience of keeping it charged up for city driving (and a side trip we have planned) without our home charging set up.

I can definitely say that if you're considering an electric car as a commuting car - GO FOR IT. You won't miss stopping for gas! And even with a car with a relatively short range (e.g., ~120-150 miles), I think you'll get past range anxiety pretty quickly. Once you get in the habit of plugging in your car at night, you realize that 100+ miles range is actually pretty huge. I only plug in the Tesla every third night or so, and even that is only because we want to keep the charging in the "super off peak" hours. Our Tesla has a 300 mile range, but for daily use we only charge to about 260 miles. When I charge after three days I am almost never below 100 miles, and am usually at about 120-150 miles.

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Speaking of the Tesla, a funny/annoying thing happened on my way back from my beach walk on Friday. I was driving out of Pacific Beach at about 4 p.m., so there was a fair amount of traffic. The main road out of PB does not have a high speed limit, and there were enough other cars around that no one was going much over the speed limit. At one point, I notice a big black truck riding my tail. It had raised tires and sometimes those higher vehicles tailgate almost by accident - they can easily see over a little car like mine, so there's a tendency to creep up. But this guy was driving somewhat aggressively and was clearly antsy. I couldn't really have gone faster even if I'd wanted to, so I assumed he just hated traffic and ignored him.

But then, when we got to the freeway on ramp, he aggressively pulled around me to get into the carpool lane ahead of me (I've got my clean air stickers, and leaving PB on a Friday afternoon is just about the only time I use them).

As he passed me, I saw the sticker in his window. It said "F*** your hybrid."

So I guess he was extra-pissed to be stuck in traffic behind an electric car.

I have never wanted to use the Tesla's rocket car acceleration as much as I did right then. It would have been delicious to zoom past him... but it wouldn't have been safe in so much traffic, so I didn't try.

I really, really don't get the mindset of guys like that. Fine, drive your big, gas-guzzling, jacked up truck. I don't know - maybe you have a reason you need it. I don't drive around judging other people's car choices. But why put a sticker on your car like that? That's telling me that you are an asshole, and also makes me suspect that your asseholeishness is the only reason you "need" that jacked up truck. People like that make me wish there really was some giant cosmic counter tallying up points to determine where we'll spend eternity.