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Thursday, August 30, 2012

August 30, 2012 Michigan Transportation Town Hall





Michigan Transportation Town Hall Meeting held in the Southfield Public Library with Michigan State Representative Rudy Hobbs, Kurt Coduti, MDOT Deputy Region Engineer, and other MDOT and Oakland County Road Commission Employees.

Northland Mall Crime Statistics

Recently Southfield's City Council has been discussing the need to clean up the Northland Center Mall.



Note: A roughly a 10 minute portion of this video has been edited to consolidate the related discussion of Northland. The edit can be detected through an audio fade out.


During the tail-end of 2008 the Mall was sold
from Jager Management Inc. to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. which prior had also acquired Eastland Mall.

Here are relevant crime statistics regarding Northland Mall obtained from the Southfield Police Department through FOIA.















Correction: A previous version of this post said the mall was purchased in 2009.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

August 27, 2012 Southfield City Council Meeting

City Council Meeting held in Southfield, Michigan on August 27, 2012

Topics Include
  • A Tax Abatement for CBS Radio
  • A Fireworks Permit for Lawrence Tech University for it's anniversary proceedings


An agenda and related documents can be found here.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Doctor Who River Song Fix Fic Ideas

As new Who comes along I have to deal with an elephant in my TV Room. I hated "The Wedding of River Song", last season's finale. I hated it largely because it changed the dynamic between River and The Doctor that I loved.

Most of The Doctor's personal relationships in New Who are defined by the fact that he has more knowledge in his head than just about anyone around him. As a result when he says to do stuff his companions just stare, nod and do it. Heck even Donna to a degree was like that.



Not River, because she comes from his personal future and is a quasi-timelord adventurer not unlike himself. She is an equal to him and on occasion even more than his equal. She doesn't just argue with him; she debates with him. She knows most of what he knows and on top of that has knowledge of where he's headed.

But the wedding spent most of its climax having him lecture her about blowing a hole in the universe and having her look sad about it. That's not the River I know and love, the River who takes none of The Doctor's crap and shoots Daleks while dealing with the universe going caploee.




After much thought I have my own ideas on what I would have done for the finale

The Arc of River
First of let's be honest. The entire season was building up to some big story surrounding River. The finale has to be that. My idea is basically to explain and deal with the consequences of a being living her life out of order and interacting with "The Lord of Time"

River Rules: Quantum River

The crux of my episode deals with explaining and dealing with what River is, "the quantum child." Very few Doctor Who characters interact with the doctor out of chronological order. (Well there' s Sally Sparrow. Shut it!) Even Jack's interactions with him are synched ... at least from the perspective of the audience. That's partially what made River so interesting, and it it's what can blast a whole in the universe for a kick ass finale.

This is going to take a while to rap your brain around. River's identity is only what is currently observed; nothing more and nothing less. We see her from different points in her timeline, but due to her weird nature her timeline is in flux. None of what we've seen of River in any episode other than the one we are presently viewing is certain to have happened or certainly will happen because of her nature. We the audience assume baby Melody will grow into River but it's not a given. We also assume that Ten uploads her to the library. But that hasn't happened yet from her perspective either. We the audience can't assume anything about her back-story or forward-story because from a "non linear, nonsubjective perspective" all are happening and not happening at the same time. As such the only thing we can take for granted about any version of River is... well that version of River.

Okay think Back to the Future. Remember all the different versions of Biff. Yeah well River's got an infinite number of those running around. The only thing holding the universe around her together is that she hasn't directly interacted with any of them. Oh wait? Didn't she shoot at her younger self. What's to say she didn't get a lucky shot. River's existence is causing the universe to collapse in on itself. The plot is basically that the Doctor has to find some way to codify and fix her timeline. And in doing so maybe he cannot bite the big one.

Versions of River
Okay to keep the episode straight lets get all the versions of River lined up
  • Baby Melody- Awe
  • Kid/Impossible Astronaut River
  • Mels - What can I say? I thought her actress had great energy. I just wanted to see her again at least on the screen in my head.
  • Assassin River - Yeah the brainwashing took.
  • Stormcage River
  • Grad School River
  • Primetime River - This is just a stand in for all the Rivers we see in her timeline between "Time of Angels" and "Forests of the Dead". River as we the audience expect her.
  • CalRiver - Stuck in the wi-fi of the Library.
  • Madam Kovarian - I keep getting the feeling that's where the writers were headed but too many people guessed it.
Well that's River. And her existence breaks the time travel foreknowledge paradox rules of Who.
What's holding the universe together and keeping it from exploding is that none of these different versions of River directly physically interact with one another.

The Plot
After spending an untold amount of time "stuck in the wi-fi" of the library. CalRiver sends a message to the then drifting Doctor. They find some way to communicate (holograms, the flesh, haven't decided yet.) And she tells him she's figured out her quantum status and she tells him he has to go to Utah. We've all seen this part so yeah. The Doctor does die, but River's gun shots blast a whole in space and time that needs to be fixed. Timmey wimmy.

Madam Kovarian wanted to destroy the universe to get revenge on the doctor (it was a real bad break up and I can think of no worse way to hurt him than have someone he cares about betray him so completely) and going back in time and putting herself in a position to kill ...herself was it.

But here is the kick she is only one possibility of River as is CalRiver. Think Return of Ben 10,000.
er

P.S. It also explains the Pandorica Tardis explosion.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

If I Were A Rich Man #1:Home Automation




Keep in mind almost all of the this stuff exists. Making my Jarvis.



General Stuff
  • Storage Server
  • Secure Wifi
  • Windows Server Edition on All Computers (They will duel boot)
  • Vertical Space Utilization (Up Not Out)

Media
  • Media Servers Connected Across all devices and computers (for movies, and music)
  • Wireless Digital Picture Frames
  • Wireless Set Top Boxes and Internet Connected TVs
  • Wall Mounted Displays For Larger Art (If I were a rich man)
  • DVR recording to media server
  • Music Content
  • Audio Levels on Music
  • Voice Activation on all of the above
  • Digital Radio Receiver
  • Speakers in every room

Workstations

  • Top of the Line Computers (I'm not going into specs they always change anyway)
  • Multiple OS Booting on each computer. (I keep saying I'm going to slap linux on each new computer I get and doing it on one with the hard drive mostly filled is a b... you know.)
  • Multiple Large Touch Screen Monitors surrounding me (I've been checking out monitor clamps)
  • 5.1 Surround Sound in each room
  • Wireless Monitor Cables so what's on the screen can be transmitted to other places in the house.
  • Bluetooth
  • Siri

Mobile Computing (All containing various network and automation software)

  • Laptop (Duel Booting, networked, blady blady bla)
  • Iphone and / Android Phone (Same Dealie)
  • I-pad

Actual Automation and Macro Programing. (Controlled by Smartphone, tablet,laptop.. okay any computer and automated through integration with Google Calender or Microsoft Outlook)

  • Digital Thermostat
  • Sound Dampening Technology
  • Self Cleaning Literbox (Don't like cats but if I did...)
  • Automated shower cleaner
  • Garden and Lawn Irrigation System
  • Roomba Vacuum
  • Sprinkler Fire Suppression
  • Doors
  • Curtain and Blinds
  • Speaker Control
  • Windows
  • Blinds
  • Lighting,dimmers and colored lighting (measured in frequency and intensity)
  • Music (All sound volumes shall be measured in decibels not the arbitrary units of manufacturers)
  • Television
  • Washer/Dryer
  • Sleep Number Bed or Air Mattress
  • Picture Frames
  • Voice Activation across the board
  • water temperature, timer,volume,nozzle,flow and, pressure controls (Okay I thought the Dilbert tech was cool.


  • Humidity control
  • Infrastructure sensors (Energy Auditing, bandwidth,water pressure, ect)
  • Air quality control and filtration (If it isn't clear by now I have allergies okay)
  • Some sort of personalized alarm (I liked the scene in Zenon
Hell I don't know why I don't do it now. I have the tech.)

Kitchen (Better Cooking Through Science!)

  • General Equipment Integrated into system (I have an Amazon wishlist okay)
  • Temperature Sensors integrated into stove as well as wireless cooking thermometers
  • Smart Refrigerator that can interface with I-pad
  • Grocery Inventory Program and Scanners at cabinet and fridge
  • Laptop/I-pad for recipes
  • Interfaced Wall Monitor for kitchen
  • Timers that interface into all other household devices
  • The Ability to Turn off but not on (safety) stove and oven from automation program
  • Dishwasher and Garbage Disposal
  • Vacuum Sealing (The Foodsaver)
  • Water volume sensors
  • Automated Drink Mixer (Who likes margaritas.)
  • Electronic Cooking Scale
Security (Lock it down!)
  • Standard Antivirus, Firewall, and Encryption Tech (Yeah I'll probably need more than that.)
  • Security camera's recording to media server.
  • Door Camera and Speaker
  • Electronic Locks (Okay that might just be overkill)
  • Motion Detectors
  • Exterior Lights
  • Alarm
  • Weight Sensors at door (You steal; I know.)
  • Electronic bolt and strike locks...multiple ones... at all points of entry including windows
  • Automatic Alarms sent to cell phone in case of home intrusion (You steal; I know.)
  • Door Reinforcement (Nothing like 5 inches of steel and concrete to keep intruders out, though now I think I'm just getting paranoid.)
  • Blast doors (Since I've tiped the paranoid scale already)
  • GPS on high value items.
  • The voice activated key beeper (not technically security but damn it how many times have I lost my keys?)

Communications

  • Voice Activated Speaker Phone Integrated with Outlook and Google Contacts.
  • Integrated Caller ID
  • Skype Integration
  • Pamela for recording phone calls
  • Video Phone (with ability to overlay levels and switch to other video feeds)
  • All ready went into the smart phones
  • Text to speech software to read emails as well as speech to text to dictate them
  • Satellite dish (Eh why not.)
  • Twitter and facebook integrated into monitors (Xbox already does it)


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Southfield August 13, 2012 City Council Meeting

Topics Include
  • The Fire Insurance Withholding Program
  • Coasting the Baseline Art Project
  • Municipal Complex Front Lawn Policy



An agenda and related documents can be found here.

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