Battle In Seattle & G-20 Pittsburgh Protests

I turned on the TV to see what appeared to be a lot of agitated people. They were being agitated in Pittsburgh. Some of their agitation was due to getting hit with tear gas and pepper spray.

Apparently a few hundred malcontents were making their way from a Pittsburgh park, to the location of the G-20 Summit. President Obama touched down in Air Force One a few minutes ago. I don't know if he is off the plane yet. I turned the TV off before Barack got off.

The Pittsburgh Protesters are a mixed up group of groups with various causes. There is even a group of Buddhist monks among the tear gassed and pepper sprayed.

If the protesters are unable to disrupt the G-20 meeting, their plan, according to what I heard on MSNBC, is to go around town doing damage to businesses like Starbucks and McDonald's.

When I heard about the protesters going after Starbucks I remembered the Battle in Seattle. That Battle took place in November of 1999. If you'd asked me 3 hours ago where I was in November of 1999 I would have said I was in Washington. But I was in Texas when the Battle of Seattle took place, watching live on CNN and getting eye witness reports from people in Seattle, including a very panicked Wanda who was watching the Battle from high up in the AT & T tower. She watched in horror as her favorite Starbucks was destroyed. She was trapped in her building well into the night. Eventually police came to the rescue.

Realizing the Battle of Seattle took place in November of 1999 made me realize I moved to Texas in December of 1998, not 1999. Meaning I have been in exile here a year longer than I realized. I remember being up in Seattle a month after the Battle. There was still a lot of damage to be seen, but most of the mess had been fixed.

Watching the Battle in Seattle, from here, was one of my strangest experiences since I've been in Texas. Another happened in 2001 when I was watching CNN, around noon, when Breaking News said a big earthquake had struck the Northwest. CNN had footage of a panicked Bill Gates stopping in the middle of a speech, fires and a lot of damage. I remember calling people in the northwest and getting a message saying "an earthquake has struck the area you are calling, phone service is temporarily disabled." Or something like that.

Anyway, below is a YouTube video about the Battle in Seattle, the movie...

Scottish Twittering & Quivering To Texas

I tell you, between Twitter, Facebook and Blogging it's always something interesting. A couple hours ago I blogged about my latest Twitter follower, he being a Scottish inventor named Kieran McCrorie.

I verbalized wondering what caused Kieran to become one of my growing legion of Twitter followers. I speculated that the connection might have something to do with hiking naked, due to Kieran having Tweeted about a new German naked hiking trail.

Soon after I Blogged and Tweeted about Kieran and the naked Germans I heard from Kieran via a comment to the blog post about Kieran.

I commented on Kieran's comment. An hour or so passed and I saw a message from Kieran via Twitter. That somehow led me to click on a link to Kieran's Quiver blog where I saw that Kieran's latest blog post is about my blog post about Kieran with the title of Kieran's post being, "The Blogger Becomes The Bloggee."

This social networking media thing is very very circular.

Durango Jones Scottish Twitter Follower & Naked Germans

That is Kieran McCrorie. Kieran is my latest Twitter Follower. Each day I have more Twitter Followers than the day before. Why? I still don't know.

Kieran is located in Glasgow in the UK. I think Glasgow is in Scotland. I guess that would make Kieran a Scot. Kieran is the Design Director at Quiver. He has designed a new type of insulated bottle and wants to know what the world thinks.

I have not seen Kieran's bottle, so I don't know what I think about it.

I don't know why Kieran is following me on Twitter. It may have something to do with me long ago Twittering about Naked Hiking. One of Kieran's Tweets is "Gotta love the Germans and their naked ambition. Germany's First Nudist Hiking Trail Opens."

Kieran included a link to an article in Der Spiegel online about Germany's First Nudist Hiking Trail. Don't click on the link if seeing naked humans is upsetting to you. Or if you are one of the Fort Worth Gestapo. This website would likely trigger a Fort Worth Gestapo thug's write a stupid citation impulse.

The Dallas Space Needle At Texas State Fair Park

The Dallas Morning News, this morning, had an interesting article about the State Fair of Texas. Apparently the State Fair of Texas is one of the few state fairs in America that shows a profit and gets no state government subsidy. I suppose it helps the State Fair of Texas make a profit by being the biggest state fair in America.

Another interesting bit of news, in this article, was that in 2011 the fair plans to "launch a 500-foot tower reminiscent of Seattle's Space Needle."

By 2012 the fair hopes to open Summer Place Park, turning the State Fair's midway into an amusement park, with the new needle, called Texas Centennial Tower and a new roller coaster.

I was impressed with Fair Park from the first time I saw it. But perplexed as to why it seemed to be so underutilized most of the time. It is a sprawling complex with several museums and an aquarium, open all year. I used to frequently go roller blading all over the Fair Park grounds, often seeming to have the place to myself.

From the first time I saw Fair Park it reminded me of Seattle Center, without a Space Needle. Seattle Center evolved from the Seattle World's Fair in 1962. Fair Park evolved from the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition.

A DART rail line recently extended to Fair Park. It seems this should make it a much more popular destination.

At the top of Texas Centennial Tower there will be an observation deck. I don't know if there will be a rotating restaurant. At the base of the tower there will be a museum with State Fair and Centennial memorabilia. Seattle's Space Needle also has a museum, almost at its base, called EMP, the Experience Music Project.

I'm guessing Dallas will have a lot more luck building a tower reminiscent of Seattle's Space Needle than Fort Worth had building a public market that was propagandaized as being modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market.

I hope I get to go to the State Fair of Texas this year. My last visit had to be cut short due to a variety of woes. I want some of that Deep Fried Butter.

The Lush Green Jungle Of Fort Worth's Serene Fosdic Lake

I have never seen Fosdic Lake at Oakland Lake Park look so calm, serene and green as it did this morning about 10. I have known a clueless type or two, up north, who think all of Texas is brown. I remember going to see the X-Files movie. It opened in Dallas, but somehow managed to make it look like Dallas was situated in the West Texas desert. I remember leaning over to my fellow movie goer and whispering, "it's not really like that, it's green." She had the gall to reply, "yeah, right."

I would venture to guess that right at this point in time on the 2nd day of Fall, that North Texas is being a lot greener than the Western side of the Cascade Mountains of the State of Washington, a state known as the Evergreen State. My last 2 visits back to the Pacific Northwest have been during lean water times, with a lot of formerly green stuff turned nice shades of brown.

See that lady jogging across the Fosdic Lake dam? She was pushing a kid in a stroller. I saw her jog all the way around the lake, a distance of about 2 miles, I think. She was even jogging on the uphill parts.

That jungle like scene above is what you see on the north side of the Fosdic Lake dam. It looks like an Olympic Rain Forest, without moss or moose.

Swimming, Shivering & Twittering In Texas

59.7. That is my temperature this morning, coming up on 7 am. Under 60 degrees. Brrrrr. I had to close the windows last night due to the frigid cold. No fan whirring overhead, no A/C cycling on and off, no earplugs to block the noise.

In other words I slept very peacefully, so much so that I woke up at 4 am and got up. Sometime before 6 I went down to the pool. The water was warmer than the air. But it still felt cold and once again had me wondering how I managed to get in that thing all last winter.

Even though I think I understand the use of Twitter better than I did a month ago, it still perplexes me. I keep getting Followers. Why? I do not know. Some of them are obviously some form of spam. Due to what motive, I do not know.

This morning I got a new Follower named Sarah. When I clicked Sarah's Twitter link I was brought to a page telling me that Sarah had been banned due to some nefarious activity. Twitter told me "There is nothing to see here, so move along."

So, I moved along like Twitter told me to. I am always very obedient.

I am not quite sure where today is going to take me. I suspect I may see downtown Fort Worth at some point in the coming hours.

Happy Days Are Here Again In Texas

I have finally had a Happy Day, here in Texas, in this Hell that I am living. I'm not quite certain if Happy Days are here again. But it has been nice to have this one Happy Day, today.

I suspect tomorrow will be a Happy Day, too. And maybe the day after that.

Friday, I'm not so sure about. But I'm optimistic...