Twittering & The Michael Jackson Memorial Service

The Michael Jackson Memorial was all over the TV during lunch. FOX News was my viewing choice. I find Shepard Smith to be amusing.

A few days ago I watched a fast police chase in Dallas during lunch via the point of view of a chasing helicopter. That chase was narrated by Shepard Smith.

Today, lunch started with a slow funeral procession, from the point of view of a slow moving helicopter, following the procession from a private service to a public one at Staple's Center, also narrated by Shepard Smith.

The memorial at Staple's Center was slow to start, and then, when it did start, it seemed to have hiccups. Quincy Jones read letters from Dianna Ross and Nelson Mandela. Then we went silent for quite some time. Then a choir sang a song about the coming of a king while Michael Jackson was delivered to the front of the stage in a shiny gold coffin.

Mariah Carey and some guy I didn't recognize sang "I'll Be There". I'm not a Mariah Carey fan.

Then Queen Lafitah, who I like, paid tribute and read a poem by Maya Angelou.

Then Lionel Richie started singing.

The memorial was to be, at least, 3 hours long. I have other things to do, so I hit the record button and proceeded to do other things, like Twittering about hitting the record button because I have other things to do. But, Twitter seems to be not working right now. I suspect its servers have melted down again due to too many people Twittering about Michael Jackson.

The Silence Of The Cicadas & Mark Twain

Yesterday I blogged about the epidemic of noisy cicadas. This morning I was in the pool soon after the sun arrived. There were no cicadas making noise. I have the windows open right now, due to it being a chilly 73 out there. I hear birds chirping, but no cicadas cicadaing.

Yesterday Mister Twister commented on my Blogging about the cicadas, including a link to the picture you see here. I think I have seen these on the ground, dead. They are big. They sort of remind me of my pet cockroaches.

I wonder if it is the chilly temperatures that have rendered the cicadas mute?

I get to go to West Fort Worth today, well, west of downtown, to some place on University Drive. I think I'll go to Forest Park and take a picture of Mark Twain. I don't think I'll be riding the miniature train at Forest Park today.

Over and over again this Blogger thing is flagging words as being misspelled that are correct. This started a couple days ago and is very annoying. One of my few thrills is to get a "No Misspellings Found" message, and now I'm being robbed of that. It just told me I misspelled "robbed".

Twittering Conundrums Over Miley Cyrus Being Pregnant

My kind therapist, Dr. L.C., shares my Twitter conundrumming and empathizes with my confusion. All day long, today, I got more followers following my totally uninteresting Twittering. Real Housewife of New York City, Bethenny Frankel, is now one of my Twitter Followers. Why? I have no idea.

I got a Twitter Follower from Iran today, too. I have no idea if she really is from Iran.

There does not seem to be much information about whoever the Twitterer is. I think I could say I was from the Moon and that would be fine. Or I could say I'm from Iran, and just got back from a riot where crazed government goons were smashing heads.

Speaking of making up stuff on the Internet. This morning, when I checked Google Trends, the #1 thing being searched for was "Miley Cyrus Pregnant". Along with some searching things like "Jonas Brother Father". Clicking on these brought me to websites with quite detailed stories about Miley Cyrus being 3 months pregnant, knocked up by one of those purity pledger Jonas Brothers. One of the websites had the Jonas Brother breaking up with Miley due to getting some other girl, I've never heard of, in the Family Way.

Turns out it was all bogus, near as I can tell. There is like a sub-industry on the Internet of people putting out fake news, like fake celebrity deaths, like this week Brit singer Rick Astley was widely reported as dead, this then got picked up by some legit media, before the rumor gets killed.

If I could figure out an angle that made it make sense I could see having fun having a fake news site or blog. This really could be a forte of mine that is currently being untapped. I must give it some serious thought.

Jungle Walking With Cicadas At Veterans Park & Getting Followed By Bethenny Frankel

The Cicadas are being real plentiful this year. Everywhere I go it seems I am hearing them. They are busy chirping, or whatever you call the noise, outside my window right now.

This morning in the pool the Cicadas were busy making their racket. Then when the sun came up and the birds added their chirping, well, it sounds like a jungle out there.

I believe the Cicada noise is some sort of mating mechanism. If so I fear there is way too much Cicada mating going on. The Cicadas have been being real loud on the Tandy Hills.

And then today on my way to Chinatown to go to the Hong Kong Market I stopped to walk at Veterans Park in Arlington with the cicadas being their loudest yet. So, as I walked through the Veterans Park Jungle I turned the video recorder on to see if I could capture the noise for you who live in Cicada-free lands. That video is being processed, by YouTube, even as I type.

In other exciting news, my Twitter befuddlement continues, but in the midst of the befuddlement I got an email telling me that Bethenny Frankel is now one of my Twitter Followers. Why, I do not know. All I Twitter about is not understanding why anyone Twitters and that it would seem to be to be rather telling that the #1 Twitterer is the well-known Twit who calls himself Ashton Kutcher.

Bethenny Frankel is my favorite New York City Housewife. She is very funny. And she makes Skinny Girl Martinis. I believe Bethenny Frankel is on Facebook. Maybe she'll Facebook Friend me now that she is one of my Twitter Followers.

Due to last night's rain it was a bit on the humid side, while out and about today, adding a bit of a Heat Index factor to the base temperature which is in the pleasant mid 80s.

That's the lone soldier who stands guard, 24/7, over the memorial at Veterans Park in the picture.

After I was done in Chinatown I choose the route home that goes by the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium, intending to get on I-30 via Collins Street.

This will mean nothing to non-locals, but those new bridge projects across I-30 have gone into on steroids mode. Part of the new Center Street Bridge is open. The west bound entry off Collins Street is no more. A huge, deep canyon has been dug east of the Collins Street Bridge. The temporary westbound entry has you getting on the freeway west of the new Center Street Bridge. It was quite a confusing maze. I would not want to drive it after the sun goes down. That huge looping old Collins Street cloverleaf is totally gone.

Methinks this is going to be quite the improvement when it all gets done. Let's hope that is sooner than later.

Okay, YouTube is done processing, I'm going to go Twitter something for Bethenny now...

Monday Morning Twittering Texas Blues

I've decided that Twitter is beyond the capacity of my ability to comprehend. This morning I found myself with several new followers. All trying to sell something in one way or the other. I'm thinking this Twitter thing is one of those things where I will continue to fail to see the point.

Like what is the fascination with text messaging? What's wrong with talking on the phone? That seems so much easier. Sending photos via the phone, that I get. My dad is both a texting wizard and a phone photo taker and sender. I have my phone set to not receive incoming photos. Instead, I get a weird text message directing to me to an AT & T web address where I enter a password and get to view a little itsy bitsy version of the phone photo. I bothered to do this one time only.

I got up real early again. As in some time after 4. It rained overnight and got chilly. It is half past 9 and only 75 out there. I got a message this morning from a Washingtonian all hot and bothered because it got to 81, making everyone miserable, sweaty messes.

Due to the cloud cover it was extra dark in the pool, as you can see from the photo. Every time I see these taken-in-the-dark photos it reminds me of that infamous Paris Hilton video. I don't know why.

Due to the rain I am avoiding the Tandy Hills today. Instead I'm going to go to Arlington, to Veterans Park and the Hong Kong Market in Chinatown. I am out of Sweet Chili Sauce. I am sort of addicted to the stuff.

Twittering Tootsie Tonasket At Oakland Lake Park

That is the noon view in the picture, this first Sunday of July, looking across Oakland Lake at the tower on the summit of Mount Tandy in the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

As you can we are cloudy today, here in North Texas. The prediction was for rain, possibly heavy, with possible thunderstorms, starting last night.

So far the only rain I've seen was a little dripping when I was in the pool around 7 this morning. We are not getting anywhere near 100 today. It's barely into the 80s coming up on 3 in the afternoon.

Twister sent me a Twitter help link this morning. I could tell it had a lot of good info, but the website kept hanging up, trying to download something from another website. It was frustrating. I saw enough of it to see there is more to this Twitter thing than my simple mind realized.

I talked to Tootsie Tonasket while I walked around the lake today. Awhile back I told my one longtime reader the story of Tootsie finding her long lost sister, finding her in Florida. Tootsie lost her sister about 50 years ago. Tootsie has an older sister who lives in Illinois. That sister has arranged to have the new found lost sister come up from Florida for a visit, twice now. The most recent time was for the 4th of July. Tootsie's cruel sister called Tootsie the day before the 4th, inviting Tootsie to come for the 4th to see her sister she's not seen in decades.

Tootsie is in the middle of a nasty divorce, living in a small town in Eastern Washington, writing her own Peyton Place script in the soap opera she enjoys living.

Rainbow Lounge Police Brutality In Fort Worth

There have been a few times since I quit getting a daily local paper when I have found I missed an item of local news. Usually I learn this when someone makes mention of something with me having no clue what they are talking about.

The latest instance of me being in the dark is in regards to an incident in Fort Worth that has turned into a national story that has Fort Worth not looking so good, with me learning about it via the New York Times.

A few weeks ago a new gay bar called the Rainbow Lounge opened in Fort Worth. On June 28, about an hour after midnight, the bar was raided by Fort Worth Police and agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

June 28 was the 40th anniversary of the infamous Stonewall riot in New York City that sparked the gay rights movement.

The Fort Worth raid turned violent, leaving one man in a hospital with a serious head injury. The man with the head injury is Chad Gibson, 26, from Euless. He has a concussion, a fracture to his skull and internal bleeding. Another man had his ribs broken and another had his thumb broken.

The police entered the bar without saying who they were or why they were there. Witnesses described the police as acting "hyped up." More than 20 men were rounded up and taken outside where they were handcuffed and forced to lie face down on the parking lot.

The police continued their harassment for about a half hour. When Gibson was attacked he was sitting on steps at the back of the bar, holding a bottle of water. The cop tapped him on his shoulder, Gibson then turned and asked, "Why?" The cop then twisted Gibson's right arm behind his back, grabbed him by the neck, swung him off the steps and slammed his head into a wall. Then the cop threw Gibson to the floor.

One witness, Lindsey Thompson, said she saw the cop slam Gibson's head onto the floor after his hands were cuffed.

Reaction to the police brutality was swift. Within hours 100s were protesting at the Tarrant County Courthouse. When the police report came out it drastically did not match what observers say actually happened. This further inflamed the protesters. After a week of bad publicity, making Fort Worth look worse than usual, Mayor Mike Moncrief called for a Federal Investigation.

I Am All A Twitter In Texas

Yesterday Twister put Twitter on my mind. I'd been intending to check out Twitter after it seemed to be playing such a role in the recent Iranian upheaval.

Well, it is easy to set up a Twitter account. It is not quite so easy to figure out why in the world this Twitter thing is so popular.

Twitter marks the 3rd time I've been baffled by the popularity of one of these social networking devices. The first one was MySpace. When I first saw MySpace I was appalled at what a junked up mess most of it was. MySpace lets its users customize their MySpace space, thus allowing people with absolutely no sense to make ridiculous noisy messes.

And then there was Facebook. Facebook is like Twitter. It is always asking you what is on your mind. Which seems so absurd, due to the fact that if you are reading "what is on your mind?" then that is what is currently on your mind. Facebook has this message system where you get sent a regular email with the message. But you can't reply via your regular email method, you have to log into Facebook and reply.

From what I've seen of it, Twitter is way simpler than MySpace or Facebook. There are no photo albums. As near as I can tell all Twitter consists of is people writing short descriptions of what they are doing. Or thinking. Or thinking of doing.

Due to the name I'm suspicious that some cynical savvy guy came up with Twitter just to see how low the lowest common denominator really is. As in how many Twits are out there, hence the name. It sorta speaks volumes that the #1 Twitterer is Ashton Kutcher with a couple million people following his utterances.

By this morning I was stunned to see I already have 4 followers. All spam.

Here is what one of my Twitter followers spammed to me....

"@durangotexas and you have a cute asian follower. she wants to tell how you to make a lot of money. her last name is spammalot."

I already have a cute Asian follower, named Wee Cheng. I don't need anymore. I'm sure anyone reading this will want to be one of my legion of Twitter Followers, I think you can do that by going here.

Happy 4th Of July America

That's the Statue of Liberty, in Dallas, at Fair Park. She is smaller than her sister in New York City, but still casts an impressive shadow as she towers over the Red, White & Blue.

Texas Hot 4th Of July Hiking With No Fireworks Or Orcas

The red, white and blue of the stars and stripes were providing the best color on the prairie this afternoon at the Tandy Hills Natural Area. That's the flag waving in the slight breeze on its pole high atop Mount Tandy.

I slept in to the unprecedented hour of 7 this morning. This had me in the pool way later than usual. Which pushed breakfast off til 10, which pushed going hiking off til 1, giving the air plenty of time to get HOT, which it did.

It was 98 when I left here to go hiking. By the time I got back here I jumped in the pool. I didn't care that I was in my hiking cargo shorts. I wanted to get wet from something other than being drenched in sweat. This morning when I went swimming the pool was warmer than the air. By this afternoon that condition had reversed, which was a good thing.

It is the 4th of July. I have not heard a single firecracker. Texas is such a repressive state. Due to running their Indians out of the state, or killing them off, Texas has only 2, very small, Indian Reservations. In my old state of Washington we liked our Indians and made them our friends. The Indians help Washingtonians participate in the 4th of July by providing fireworks supply areas, with names like Boom Town. Boom Town is huge. It is run by the Tulalip Tribe. The Tulalip also have what may be the best casino in Washington. I liked the big Orca out front with the giant Indian getting ready to spear a salmon. Just a sec, I'll see if I can find a picture I took of the Orca.

That picture took way too long to find. The Tulalip Casino is, for want of a better word, cool. You've got that splashing Orca, the Tulalip Indian spearing giant salmon, a lot of water, sound effects, and when you walk into the casino there are waterfalls on either side of you. Inside the casino the effect is that you are underwater, in an aquarium. I've been told the buffet is really good. The slightly nearby Swinomish Casino, just a few miles from my Washington abode, had the best seafood buffet. Oysters just like mom makes them.

In my old neighborhood, known as Thunderbird, in the town known as Mount Vernon, all the streets are named after tribes. I lived on Pawnee Lane. Pawnee connected to Apache. (Go here for a virtual visit to where I used to live, where you'll see my cat Hortense reading the morning paper with me and the deepest snow in all my years of living up north) In the valley in which I lived, Skagit, there are several tribes, the Skagit, the Samish and the Swinomish. The Skagit Valley tribes have nice reservations. Two of the tribes have built casinos in the valley. The little valley I lived in has 2 huge casino complexes. There are none of those anywhere in Texas.

The Washington casinos are not like those goofy ones up in Oklahoma where it's like a pretend casino, the Washington casinos are just like what you find in Nevada, minus topless girls and strip shows. And free drinks.

Anyway, the tribes in Washington make a lot of money selling fireworks. Tonight my old neighborhood will become like a war zone. It was fun to watch and would go on for hours. One group would launch a display, then another would try and out do them. The area where my house sat was heavily wooded with huge fir trees. I was ready with a hose should a firework go awry. I had several land on my roof, which was flat. No fires ever started though.

So, what was I saying, oh yeah, in Washington, by now, I would have been hearing firecrackers going off for days. With today almost non-stop, with all hell breaking loose once it got dark.

When I moved to Texas, the first location was in far north Fort Worth, with the mailbox in Fort Worth and the house in Haslet. We all anticipated a very wild 4th. We were in Texas, for gawdsakes, everyone packs heat here, they're big on their cowboy, wild west past. So, as the sun began to set, we sat outside waiting for something to happen. There were a few random noises, but we were all in WTH? mode. Now I live deeper into the urban zone. I suspect I will not hear a single firecracker tonight.

What happened here that has these people so stifled? Was there some sort of silent coup that took away some basic freedoms that the rest of America enjoys? It perplexes me. It would likely really perplex a lifelong Texan if he/she were to find him/herself in my old neighborhood tonight.