She is Expected to be OK

A Los Angeles television reporter was struck in the hand by a BB gun pellet Saturday afternoon while delivering a live weather report, officials said.

Two teenagers were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the shooting, Fontana police told The Los Angeles Times.

Yes, I suppose you could conceivably kill someone with a BB gun. If you were to swing it by the barrel and repeatedly strike them on the head, for example.

... Police arrested two boys, ages 16 and 17, for assault with a dangerous weapon, a felony, KABC said. The boys, whose names were not released, were released to their parents.

Uh, so which is it?
Are the police trying to cover all eventualities or is this simply the media doing it's usual bang-up job.

How about just laughing the matter off or, if you're really peeved, chasing the ruffians them around the block shouting empty threats? Well, no. Can't be too cautious: they may have also had slingshots.

Thankfully,  we read:

KABC-TV Channel 7 reporter Leanne Suter was taken to a hospital after she was hit about 6 p.m. while standing on Summit Avenue near Interstate 15, KABC said, adding she is expected to be OK.

And, naturally, the Sheriff's department was mobilised:

Police, with the assistance of a San Bernardino Sheriff's Department helicopter, pinpointed a house possibly involved. Officers found several BB guns inside the house, KABC said.

No word on whether the SWAT team was called out too.

On a camping vacation many long years ago, my dear old Dad bought me a Daisy BB rifle and I spent a week tramping around the woods, shooting holes in leaves, trying to ping empty cans and the like. After returning to suburban New Jersey, I gave up trying to potshot squirrels in the back yard, and the rifle languished for decades in some damp corner of the cellar.
Until recently. My mother, trying to reduce a half century's worth of useless stuff, came upon my trusty Red Rider and panicked! You see it is now a felony to possess such an unlicensed weapon in that state too.
Rest assured, several lawyers have been retained and we are researching all options and I feel certain that we can come to some accord with the ATF and NJ Firearms and Compressed Air Authority that will not require excessive jail time.

These are the times in which we live.

Great Opening Paragraph...

People smell all kinds of ways before they have burned, but only one way afterwards. As the Army boys lead Waterhouse down into the darkness, he sniffs cautiously, hoping he won't smell that smell.
...and Neal Stephenson saves it for chapter 89.

Kirsten's Creative Clutter

How can she work like this? How can she live like this?
Surprisingly, not as poorly as one might imagine; unsurprisingly, not as well as she might aspire to.

Picture if you will a 100 m2 square or slightly rectangular workspace: Three walls painted snow white support birch-wood bookshelves.
A pale hardwood floor, charme perhaps or white maple.
The remaing wall consists of floor to ceiling windows leading out to a shaded terrace. Dead center of the room, a large uncluttered, square birch worktable of the simplest design stands on a square seagrass rug. There is ample space to circumnavigate the work area unimpeded and a golden retriever colored square cotton mat off to the side, also a cream leather sofa, floor lamp and glass-topped coffee birch table.

This is my ideal zen workspace.

My actual workspace resembles nothing like this, of course: Extension cords and USB cables snake through sheaves of dusty scribbled notes circa 2008, widgets and doodads cover all horizontal surfaces and beneath the furniture lies dog hair so thick and matted that I could cold-press it into the purest of Qwlghmian blankets.
En somme, it looks an awful lot like the photo above.
I call this leading by example.

Dog in the Path of Unintentional Street Art

Unintentional Street Art

Finger Painting

So I installed Autodesk SketchBook Mobile on my new Galaxy SII. The big, bright screen makes SBM a surprisingly fun and usable app although it will take some practice drawing with fat, greasy digits on a plate of glass.








Hmm... that does bring to mind this:




...which I suppose might be something to shoot for.

First mobile post

With photo.

Street Art on a wall - rue des Cinq Diamants.

First

first!