Chesapeake Facts May Not Be Ones We Need

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has one reporter who has never managed to annoy me, with either misinformation or by writing something ridiculous or by acting like a shill for the Chamber of Commerce and Fort Worth's Ruling Junta.

In other words there's this guy who writes for that paper, named Mitchell Schnurman, who rather pointedly takes on some of the little issues that many of us in the Fort Worth zone make note of, but which are not much examined by the local paper of record.

A couple weeks ago, Schnurman was appalled, as were many, by the bizarre turn of events that had Tarrant County College abandoning their ambitious, likely to have been quite an impressive addition to Fort Worth, that being a new college on the banks of the Trinity River, to buy Radio Shack's Corporate Headquarters, which Radio Shack built just a few years ago. This boondoggle is costing the taxpayers a lot of money.

In today's Star-Telegram, Schnurman takes on the Chesapeake Energy/Tracy Rowlett controversy. Chesapeake Energy has many people here shaking their heads in bewilderment at their bizarre ad campaign.

Here's a blurb of what Schnurman had to say....

"Capitalism is driven by self-interest, even in journalism, but is Chesapeake’s goal to enlighten the public or keep the gas flowing?

It may hope to accomplish both, but no one should doubt Job No. 1 in North Texas. Chesapeake is making billions by pumping natural gas, not producing news shows.

Rowlett says the Barnett Shale is the biggest story since the Stockyards a century ago. The natural gas play is boosting the local economy in a significant way and is an important piece of the energy puzzle. I’ll even buy Chesapeake’s argument that drilling is worth the "short-term inconveniences" of noise, construction and truck traffic (although that’s easy for me to say because no pipelines are being buried in my yard)."

Click here to read the entire column.

Schnurman's honest, opinionated, factual style is more what one would usually find in FW Weekly, than the Star-Telegram. Maybe none of the powers that be at the Star-Telegram and the Ruling Junta get around to reading what he writes, maybe that's how he is getting away with telling the truth...

Bravo's Project Runway 5 & CBS's Big Brother 10

I tried to make it all the way through the first episode of the new season of Project Runway, really I did. I made it as far as the point where the Top 3 and Bottom 3 were singled out.

But, unfortunately, Project Runway had not hooked me and I did not care who won that episode or who got the boot. So, I bailed. By this morning I don't even remember a single one of the dressmakers. Maybe I was too tired to be watching TV. I had had a long day of working at the computer and staring at a monitor.

I think what non-plussed me about this Project Runway show is that it is about making dresses, near as I can tell. I know for a fact I will live my entire life without ever making a dress. Or caring how one is made. Or knowing if one is fashionable. One of the reasons I find a similar Bravo show, Top Chef, interesting, is that it is about cooking food.

Cooking food. And eating it is something I actually do. So, at times I actually learn something from watching Top Chef.

But watching men and women, or semblances thereof, make dresses, was like watching someone knit. The only minor entertaining part of it was how goofy the dresses were and what they were made of.

The challenge was the group of dressmakers were let loose in a grocery store to find something to make a dress out of.

One of the dressmakers made his dress out of blue plastic cups. The judges liked that one. Another dressmaker made her dress out of black garbage bags. The judges didn't like that one. Only those two were retained in my memory.

Another thing I do remember is the Guest Judge. His name is Austin Scarlett. He was the winner from a previous season of Project Runway. I found him sort of scary. That's him in the photo. Actually I'm not totally certain he's a him, I guess I'm assuming that due to the "Austin" name.

Now, why did I mention Big Brother 10 in the title to this blog? Well, some cruel person calling himself "dvrgasm" commented on what I said about Big Brother, telling me...

"Sorry to tempt you, but it has just gotten started and it is already soooooo good. You are missing out..."

Well, despite the temptation I have continued, and, as God is my witness, will continue to resist the temptation to watch Big Brother.

DaFoWo Show & The Big Cheese Rodent Factory

Below is this week's DaFoWo Show. A Fort Worth Star-Telegram production. The show uses the Big Cheese Rodent Factory stinking story as humor fodder. My one longtime reader may remember me blogging about this a few weeks ago. There is also an amusing bit about Exorcism. DaFoWo had to use subtitles so we could understand one of the Texans being interviewed.

Chesapeake Energy: In The Pipeline---Fresh News From Dirty Ol' Town

Don Young, also known as the chief rouser of the group known as the Eastside Rabblerousers has taken to calling Fort Worth "Dirty ol' Town." I don't know if this is a reference to dirty politics, dirty gas drilling, dirty air, or what. Maybe it's a combo of all three. And more.

So, I just got email from Don Young, up to his usual Rabblerousing Duties. The subject line of the email was the same as the title of this posting, minus the Chesapeake Energy part.

The email contained several links to websites and blogs with articles about recent Chesapeake Energy and other gas driller's shenanigans and Monday night's protest in Fort Worth.

Here's a blurb from the West and Clear article about the Monday night Chesapeake Energy event at which Fort Worth protesters tried to be heard....

"The whole thing had this tense, antiseptic quality. Everyone seemed nervous and concerned about staying on message. Why? Why was everyone gripping it so tight?"

Read the entire West and Clear take on what sounded like a bizarre Chesapeake Energy event on Monday.

The July 9, 2008 edition of FW Weekly, Fort Worth's real newspaper, had an interesting article about the Chesapeake Energy/Tommy Lee Jones/Tracy Rowlett/Shale.TV controversies.

Here's the first paragraph from the FW Weekly article....

"For the past few months, North Texans have been listening to Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones spew about the wonders of the Barnett Shale natural gas drilling. Come fall, we might be hearing about similar wonders from beloved North Texas newsman Tracy Rowlett. Or, we might be hearing about the darker sides of the huge drilling boom."

Read the rest of the FW Weekly article here.

Another FW weekly blurb in their Blotch section, took on Tommy Lee Jones and his two-faced hypocrisy. Here's a Blurb from Blotch...

"...he stares at the camera and says with all the charm of a manic depressive serial killer, “Let’s get behind the Barnett Shale.” He spoke a different tune during a Parade magazine interview in 2006 when he described his high school summers spent working on oil rigs as “dirty, noisy, and dangerous.”

Read the rest of the Blotch here.

Meanwhile, the community newspaper of the community I sort of live in, Meadowbrook Today, had its own detailed take on Monday's Chesapeake Energy protests. Here's the blurb...

"Residents crowded into the Sycamore Community Center with questions for Chesapeake/Texas Midstream but the answers they received did not please all the attendees."

Click here to read all the Meadowbrook Today info about the battles with Chesapeake Energy and pipelines running through yards.

And then Wise County's wisest, and might I be a sexist pig and add, most beautiful Blogger, Texas Sharon, aka Bluedaze, blogged in her usual sharply pointed and well-aimed manner at that shooting fish in a barrel target known as Chesapeake Energy. Here's a Bluedaze blurb...

"The comments indicate that the Barnett Shale Honeymoon is over in Fort Worth. Residents are not thrilled with Tommy Lee Jones telling them to "Get Behind the Shale" or the propaganda thrown at them 24/7 from Chesapeake."

Read the rest of what Bluedaze had to say about Chesapeake Energy in her blog here.

Meanwhile, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, known to many as being the mouthpiece for Fort Worth's Ruling Junta, does not report much about Fort Worth's citizen's growing discontent over being the first urban zone in America to experiment with drilling thousands of gas holes and running hundreds of miles of gas pipes, piping odorless gas inside a city limits, under people's yards.

However, today the Star-Telegram did advise us that ozone levels are high and to stay inside if you have allergy or respiratory problems. I won't bother with a blurb or a link to the Star-Telegram.

Project Runway Tonight On Bravo

Awhile back I realized my favorite TV shows are all on Bravo. Top Chef and Flipping Out and Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List are my favorites. Top Chef is about cooking. Flipping Out is about an over the top guy with a severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, flipping expensive houses in Southern California. Kathy Griffin's show is about, well, Kathy Griffin. She's a funny vulgarian with a hilarious elderly mother.

Tonight is the first episode of Bravo's Project Runway's 5th season. I did not know til reading it this morning, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, that Project Runway was the first of what has become a Bravo TV staple, that being several shows using the same formula, those being the aforementioned Project Runway and Top Chef, and also Sheer Genius.

Each of these shows starts with a short competition, the person who wins that usually wins immunity from being kicked off the show or some other advantage. After that the chefs, haircutters or clothesmakers get their big task for that week's episode. That's the interesting part, watching all the drama and comedy as they rush to get their tasks done. Then, usually, a bottom 3 is singled out, along with a top 3. One gets the boot, one gets the win.

I think there is a 4th Bravo show that follows this formula, but I can't remember what it is.

I've not watched Project Runway before, except for short bits during lunch. Watching weird people with serious personality disorders make clothes didn't seem very interesting to me, but that's what I thought about the haircutting Sheer Genius show and it turned out to be very funny. Tacoma Dumpster Diva, Lulu, claims Project Runway is one of her won't miss it shows. Lulu usually has good taste, though that has come into question of late, what with her declaration that the Golden Corral is her all time favorite buffet.

So, maybe I'll watch Project Runway tonight.

Heidi Klum is the host. She's a model. She is watchable, but she is paired with a co-host named Tim Gunn. He seems to be a bit of an odd duck with an unnatural interest in clothes. It'd be interesting to see Tim Gunn paired up with Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis.

All these type Bravo shows have guest judges. Project Runway has some sorta odd ones. Like Apolo Ohno and RuPaul and Sandra Bernhard. Brooke Shields I get, but an ice skater, a drag queen and Sandra Bernhard? I don't mean to be rude, she may be funny, but she is sort of hard on the eyes. Is she known for dressing well?

But, aside from any other reason I may have to watch Project Runway, the primary reason was provided by this morning's Star-Telegram, with its latest Texas connection to a tv show.

Here's the quote---

"There's only one Texan in it to win it. He's 28 year old Jerell of Houston, though he now lives in L.A., according to the network. Remember, it was Houstonian Chloe Dao who won PR's big prize on season two. Texas represent!"

Geez, that is so pathetic. Why do I keep reading this idiotic paper? Let alone pay for the privilege.

The Seven Regions Of Texas

This Blogspot Blogger thing has a serious malfunction this morning, in that it goofs up when I try to upload an image.

Well. The image that I can not upload is a map of Texas divided into 7 regions. Why would I want to show such a thing?

Well. Yesterday I finished the first stage in a huge expansion of my Eyes on Texas website. I've been sort of stuck with my Eyes, for the most part, only looking at the zone of Texas I primarily roam in, with short forays to Houston and Galveston and Amarillo and a few other places.

Some of the Regions of Texas are obvious, like the Gulf Coast Region. Others not so easy to see why its a special region.

The aforementioned Amarillo is in the Panhandle Plains Region. It's called that, I guess, because that rectangular shaped part of Texas that sticks up into Oklahoma and New Mexico sort of looks like the handle of pan.

Some of the Regions of Texas are less obvious, like where I live, in the D/FW Metroplex, this region is called Prairie & Lakes. Texas has only one natural lake, that being Caddo Lake. But Caddo Lake is not in the Prairie & Lakes Region.

To the east of my location there are a lot of pine trees, so it is called the Piney Woods Region. Sometimes this is called East Texas. The aforementioned only natural lake in Texas, Caddo Lake, is in the Piney Woods Region, not the Lakes Region.

The center of Texas, where Austin is, is called Hill Country, for obvious reasons, because, well, it is hilly down there.

Big Bend Country is sometimes called West Texas. It's called Big Bend Country because this is where Big Bend National Park is located. El Paso is also in Big Bend Country.

The South Texas Plains Region is where San Antonio is, and Laredo, on the Mexican border.

Texas is divided up into regions like this, I think, to make it easier to describe the state for tourism purposes. Looking at the map I realize I've actually been to every region of Texas, but just barely into the South Texas Plains Region, that being a visit to San Antonio at the north end of that region.

I need to explore Texas in more detail.

North Cascades Highway With The New York Times

A fellow Washington Exile living in Texas is always sending me things he thinks I'll find interesting that he finds in the New York Times. Usually I don't find these things at all interesting. This afternoon was an exception to the rule.

A New York Times correspondent, William Yardley, took a photographer, named Stuart Iselt, with him and traveled the North Cascades Highway, in Washington, from Sedro Woolley on the west side, to Twisp on the east. That is a screen shot, above, of the article in today's NY Times.

The North Cascades Highway opened in 1972. A northern pass across the Cascades had been in the planning for years. It was a major engineering feat. It connected the west side with an isolated part of Eastern Washington. This changed both sides. My side of the mountains, the west side, in the Skagit Valley, sort of boomed in the following years. My old hometown of Burlington got a huge regional mall, called, appropriately, The Cascade Mall, the design sort of replicating Cascade Mountain peaks, in sort of the same way Denver's new airport's look is inspired by the Rockies.

The New York Time's article consists of a very well done interactive map. Go here and start the tour. Click next to go to the next stop. At each stop there is a video that gives you a good idea of what that stop is like. The first stop on the tour is Sedro Woolley. Sedro Woolley is where my longtime fun friend, Tacomaite, Lulu's first husband grew up. I'll see Lulu in a few days. If I'm lucky my contact with her first husband will be limited. Like we who lived in the Skagit Valley often said, those Sedro sorts are difficult. Sedro Woolley is known for its Tarheels. I think that means hillbillies from North Carolina, but I'm not sure.

I remember going over North Cascades Pass the September before I moved to Texas. I doubt I will get that far north when I'm up in Tacoma for a month in about 5 days. But you never know.

Big Brother 10 on CBS

I did not realize Big Brother was back on. I did not watch a single second of last winter's Big Brother 9, that CBS quickly threw on the air during the TV writer's strike.

But, I will, with some sense of slight embarrassment, admit I have gotten hooked on 4, or is it 5, of the 10 seasons of Big Brother.

I am fairly certain I will not get hooked on the current version, that being Big Brother 10. One thing is it can be too addictive. It's on 3 nights a week. That's 3 hours a week.

And then there is the live feed. I watched the Big Brother 2 live feed, because it was free. And I watched a lot of the Big Brother 6 live feed, because that was a summer I was in Tacoma and Lulu paid to watch the live feed.

I remember when I first saw Lulu watching the live feed she was viewing it in this little postage stamp size window and holding a speaker to her ear. I did a one button click and the live feed became full screen, to Lulu's amazement. She'd pretty much strained her eyes to borderline blindness watching that little picture. Then I fixed her speakers so Lulu could listen without holding the speaker to her ear.

On the live feed you see stuff you'd never see on network TV. Most of the good stuff ends up on YouTube. Like on Big Brother 4: The X Factor, everyone was in the house with someone they had a prior relationship with. It was on Big Brother 4 that Big Brother history was made, as in the first time the Big Brother cameras filmed a couple doing that thing that in olden days you were supposed to wait to do til you were married. And then the next day the guy in that coupling voted to evict the girl he'd been coupling with. Appalling.

That was Big Brother 6 that Lulu had the live feed for. That was probably the best Big Brother ever. The house split between the Good People and the Nerd Herd. The Nerd Herd were deluded, they thought they were the good people, but they were despicable and really easy to hate. The Nerd Herd was led by the worst case of Little Man Syndrome I've ever seen. The Good People were led by a Marilyn Monroeesque beauty named Janelle.

Big Brother 2 was also very entertaining. Big Brother 2 produced the guy who many consider to be the #1 Reality TV star of all time. Dr. Will Kirby. You started off thinking he was totally nuts. And evil. And then it became obvious he was very conniving and clever. And then he became one of the funniest characters ever on TV.

Dr. Will and the aforementioned beauty, Janelle, were on Big Brother 7: All Stars. That was an unfortunate season of Big Brother. It could not be Big Brother without Will Kirby. But he insisted the disgusting person known as Mike Boogie, a creature who for reasons no viewer could understand, became Will Kirby's best friend. Boogie was hated by the viewers on BB2. No viewer considered him an All-Star. And then he won the thing and the half million bucks that go with it. Beating everyone's favorite, the beauty Janelle. It was appalling. Afterwards Boogie was harassed in public, and by Rosie O'Donnell on The View. Boogie being on BB All-Stars and winning tainted the whole thing.

I swore I'd never watch again after the All-Stars debacle.

And then Big Brother 8 came along. And I got hooked again.

And now Big Brother 10 is under way. I don't know if Lulu is watching it. I am going to resist her attempts to get me to watch, if she is hooked again. When I was up in Tacoma in July of 2004 Lulu was already hooked on Big Brother 5. She talked me into watching an episode. By the first commercial break I was hooked and asking all sorts of questions so I could understand what was going on.

Internet Addiction Woes

I got up early today. I finished reading the paper, that being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in about 5 minutes. It does not take long to read the Tuesday edition of this ever shrinking newspaper.

Today's TV section had fresh goofy Texas connections to people on TV. Apparently some comic named Bill Engvall is on something called Celebrity Family Feud, against somebody called Larry the Cable Guy. We Texans are told we need to root for Engvall because he did his comic act at some point in time in North Texas.

No, I do not make this stuff up.

We are also told there are some Texans on tonight's Big Brother on CBS. I won't further bore you with the towns in Texas the Texans are from or have visited or have a relative living in or would like to visit, because I've not heard of these towns, so I'm sure it'd mean nothing to you either.

Now, when I finished reading the paper, if I'd had an inclination to make fun of this paper, that I continue to buy and complain about, in a similar manner to complaining about Wal-Mart, while I continue to shop there, well, I could not have blogged about it.

Because, apparently my Internet connection stopped working about 10pm last night. Well, actually it was my network router that went into malfunction mode.

When this type thing happens, with either an equipment malfunction or the cable being down, it is quickly appalling to me how dependent and virtually addicted I am to the Internet. My first reaction was to Google for router woe info. Ooops, can't do that, can't connect.

Then I thought, well, til I get to Fry's to buy a new router, I'll just work on a website project I'm in the middle of. Ooops. Can't do that, because I need to access info via the Internet.

Then I thought, maybe I can find a wireless connection. I turned on the wireless connector. There were 3 connections available. All requiring a key. Why are people here so stingy and paranoid? Up in Washington, at my sister's last time I was up north, there were several neighbors I could connect to. Ironically I could not connect to my sister's wireless connection because she did not know the key. Some State of Washington tech guy had set her computer up. My sister assured me she now knows the key, so I won't have to be stealing neighbor's bandwidth.

So, I called my local Miss Puerto Rico to ask her if I could come blog on her computer and get info off the Internet. She said yes, like she always does.

Then, slow-witted dimwit that I am, it dawned on me that I could just plug the router cable that runs to my computer directly into the cable modem.

And that worked. So, I'm not in a rush to get to Fry's now. And my panic attack symptoms have subsided. For now.

Chesapeake Energy Protest Meeting In Fort Worth Tonight

A large crowd is expected to be present and protesting at a meeting tonight in Fort Worth. The protestors are trying to stop Chesapeake Energy gas lines from running under their homes.

Which reminds me of something.

First they drilled near a home out in the country, but I didn't speak up, because it was far from me. Then they drilled in my city, but I didn't speak up, because it wasn't in my neighborhood. Then they drilled in a park, but I didn't speak up, because I didn't use that park. And then they drilled by me and I'm speaking up before they run a pipeline under my house. Speak up before they are under you.

Fresh incoming, below,
from Fort Worth's #1 Rabble Rouser,
Don Young.

---

THIS IS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD TODAY,
IT WILL BE IN YOURS SOON!!!
CHESAPEAKE
"STOP"
THE CARTER AVE. PIPELINE
AND THE SCOTT AVE.
"HIGH IMPACT GAS WELL"
***************************************
Please attend in Protest!!
Kathleen Hicks will be in attendance. She needs to see signs of community involvement and support.

COMMUNITY MEETING
***********************
Carter Avenue Gas Pipeline

It is VERY important that you attend this meeting!!!
If you have any questions and/or concerns regarding Chesapeake's plan to place "GAS PIPELINES" under our lawns and neighborhood streets.
JUST SAY NO!!! This is the time to address your concerns.

Meeting will be held at the:
Sycamore Community Center
2522 East Rosedale Street
Fort Worth, TX 76102
Monday July 14th, 2008 @ 6:30 PM

STOP
THE SCOTT AVE.
"HIGH IMPACT GAS WELL"