Showing posts with label Photo_Granddaughters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photo_Granddaughters. Show all posts

Friday, August 21, 2026

The Walt Disney Family Museum -- World War II -- Exhibition -- DFW -- Dallas (Texas) Holocaust And Human Rights Museum -- August 21, 2026

Locator: 51513DISNEY.  

Wow! May and I have been to four "holocaust" museums or sites. One in Germany (Dachau, near Munich); one in Washington, DC; one in Los Angeles; and one in Dallas. 

Currently in Dallas. Link here.


 How it all started: 

When Walt Disney received word that The Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California, had been converted into an Army anti-aircraft base after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he and his staff pledged to support the war effort without hesitation, and without profit
Walt knew that cartoons would be an ideal method for communicating with the American people. This exhibition showcases how The Walt Disney Studios educated the civilian public in an amusing, uncomplicated manner about the war, while simultaneously boosting the spirits of troops deployed abroad. 
In addition to the short films and military insignia produced, Disney characters appeared in a variety of home-front initiatives, from advertisements, magazines, and stamp books, to government posters promoting food recycling, rationing, war bond sales, and farm production.

Photos pending. 

It was amazing the number of patches that The Walt Disney Studios designed. At least two of the dozens of patches I wore while in the USAF, 1977 - 2007, were designed by Walt Disney. They were the patches worn by members of two fighter squadrons -- the 22 TFS -- the Stingers -- bumble bees -- and the 53 TFS -- the flying Tigers. I've posted photos of them somewhere on one of my blogs but I can't find them now. I will have to take pictures of them again and post them again.  

The exhibition was organized by the The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco and is financially backed primarily by presenting sponsor Texas Instruments, with additional support from Debbie and Ron Greene, American Airlines, NFI Industries, and the Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District.

Link here to Instagram. The exhibit booklet was copyright 2021 which suggests that the Disney Family Museum leadership used the Covid-19 lockdown to organize this exhibit. This was really, really brilliant. Kudos to Kirsten Komoroske, the executive director of The Walt Disney Family Museum, San Francisco, CA. 

Bio:

Kirsten joined The Walt Disney Family Museum as Executive Director and Member of the Board of Directors in 2013. 
Kirsten has held a number of executive and board positions, including General Counsel and Vice President of Human Resources for Tyco Electronics Corporation, Interim Vice President of Human Resources at Groupon, Inc., and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA. 
Prior to her position at the museum, Kirsten worked as a practicing lawyer, advising for-profit and non-profit organizations on a wide range of strategic, business, and HR issues. In 2018, she was appointed to the Board of Directors of both San Francisco Travel and Hiller Aviation Museum. 
She has a background in—and a lifelong passion for—the arts, having grown up studying violin and modern dance. She received her B.A. in Italian from the University of California at Berkeley, and J.D. from Santa Clara University.

Previously an active Army base and the Pacific coast’s strongest coastal defense from 1846 to 1994, the Presidio now serves as a national park and is home to The Walt Disney Family Museum.

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Key Lime Pie

Link here

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USAF

The Boeing MH-139A Grey Wolf is a new U.S. Air Force multi-mission helicopter replacing the Vietnam-era UH-1N Huey. It is special because it flies 50% faster, carries nearly twice as many security troops, and features an increased range to better protect the nation's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fields.

From wiki, link here:
 

Our granddaughter Olivia was one of only two USAF ROTC Cadets from her squadron to be given a familiarization flight ride in a Grey Wolf while participating in MAX #6 Field Training this past summer. These are the two cadets, our granddaughter and another member of the squadron with the Grey Wolf in the background:

Thursday, August 20, 2026

Family Photo -- Bragging Page -- Not Intended For General Readership -- For Extended Family Members Only -- August 20, 2026

Locator: 51508FAMILY.   

Director's Cut, August with April, 2026, data: link here

Meanwhile, elsewhile

Granddaughter, USAF ROTC, field training, in an elite group ... three weeks --- comes home today ...

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Energy Needs, AI, Humans, Dolphins -- December 17, 2025

Locator: 49723ARCHIVES.

Energy: this came up in discussion with ChatGPT with regard to energy usage, a topic that started with AI. It was a very, very long discussion with ChatGPT with regard to the correlation (direct?) of energy demand by the human brain and that of AI. As tokenization and parameters increase, AI energy needs will only increase, all things being equal. 

That discussion with ChatGPT was carried on some weeks ago and I completely forgot about it until I heard some comments Jim Cramer made yesterday with regard to energy demands of large AI centers (which have much in common with the human brain). Cramer made a statement that I thought was glaringly wrong and his co-anchor thought the same thing. Fact-checking proved Cramer was indeed wrong. In the screen shots below, note the words "significant" and "overwhelmingly." So, although mitigating energy demand driven by cabling will help, that's not, as Willie Sutton would say, where the money is.

Amount of energy the human brain needs as a percentage of total human energy:


Amount of energy the dolphin brain needs as a percentage of total dolphin energy:

Stretching prior to starting jiu-jitsu practice: 

Link here.


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Book Page

It's absolutely surprising how interesting and enjoyable it is to read Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities. About half-way through, maybe ten to twenty pages / day. Should finish within the next couple of weeks. 

Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Archives -- Most Recent GDP Estimate -- September 16, 2025

Locator: 49130ARCHIVES.

Who wudda thought? Link here.

  • best selling desktop on Amazon? the Mac Mini
  • best selling laptop on Amazon? the MacBook Air
  • best selling tablet on Amazon? the iPad
  • there seems to be pattern here.

Cost of oil exploration

There is no single global average cost of oil exploration per barrel; it varies significantly by region and method, but typical exploration and production (E&P) costs in the 2000s and early 2010s saw a significant increase of about 100% from 2000 to 2012. For example, costs in North America can range from $30 to $70 per barrel, while they are considerably lower in regions like Saudi Arabia, at $10–$15 per barrel.
These costs are influenced by the difficulty of extraction, with deepwater drilling and fracking being more expensive than easier-to-access resources.

GDPNow: estimate today -- 3Q25 estimate rises to a remarkable 3.4%. Wall Street analysts suggest the 3Q25 GDP will come out closer to 2%. 

Eleven years ago: bigger sister, Olivia, reading The WSJ to her new baby sister, Sophia.



Saturday, September 6, 2025

Sophia Wins A Gold Medal In Today's Jiu-Jitsu Tournament, Dallas, Texas -- September 6, 2025

Locator: 49025SOPHIA.

Link here. Jiu-jitsu tournament in Dallas, Texas, where they take their sports really, really seriously. 

In the video below, Sophia is in white, to the observer's left -- she outgrew her "black competition robe," and her new robe has not yet come in.

Sophia won all three matches by "submission," after getting her opponent in a "headlock" -- a dangerous position for. her opponent. In a headlock, the opponent will "tap out" -- the opponent will ask to stop the match so she (Sophia's opponent) is not injured. 

Sophia has perfected her technique to bring her opponent down, bring her opponent down on top of her, wrap her long legs around her opponent, control her opponent, and then quickly, move her legs into a headlock -- Sophia's legs wrapped around her opponent's neck in a choke hold. Her opponent has no choice but to "tap out" -- concede, to prevent serious injury.

Matches are scheduled for 3:00 minutes. Sophia ended all three matches today, by submission. She ended the first two matches under 1:53.

In the video below, Sophia's South Korean coach was at the mat, filming. This was such a big deal, the wife of Sophia's coach was also at the mat, watching Sophia. The coach's wife is also a martial arts instructor, excelling in taekwando, rather than jiu-jitsu. 

After the third win, in the video below, look how excited Sophia's coach was. I have never seen her coach so excited.

On the awards podium:

Friday, July 25, 2025

Hot And Hotter -- July 24, 2025

Locator: 48829FIRED.

Hot -- today's forecast, north Texas, DFW:


Hotter
:

Really hot! Link here.

Ice cream break in Peru, granddaughter Olivia far right in shorts. This was a day off from work; Olivia is working this summer in Peru involving satellite technology. Later this summer to the Galápagos Islands before returning to Stanford.

Sophia -- Jiu-Jitsu -- Awarded the top grey belt, July 25, 2025:

Friday, January 3, 2025

Trump 2.0 -- January 3, 2025

Locator: 44606TRUMP.

Trump 2.0 is tracked here.

Link here

Ivan Krastev.

From The Atlantic today. Talk about a misreading of American politics.

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Duck Hunting In North Texas

Our granddaughter and her friend, duck hunting, north Texas.

No dog, so they have to retrieve the ducks themselves.


Saturday, December 21, 2024

Parting Shots -- December 21, 2024

Locator: 44500ARCHIVES.

My favorite Santa elf giving me a haircut in anticipation of the Christmas season.

I haven't had a haircut in a barbershop since February / March, 2020, the month the Covid-19 lockdown began. That was almost five years ago. 

Friday, July 26, 2024

Short Squeeze -- July 26, 2024

Locator: 48242INV.

Wow. The first 300 points were due to reaction to economic data today. Everything else -- short covering!

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Amazon

This is not unusual in our apartment complex, just ten minutes from DFW and multiple Amazon fulfillment centers. 

Order something this morning and one will have it by early afternoon. Order something late this evening and it will be at your door tomorrow morning.

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Grammy's Culinary School Graduate
Advanced Degree
Summa Cum Laude

Saturday, August 19, 2023

Speaking Of Covid-19 Studies -- August 19, 2023

Locator: 45419ARCHIVES.

 Speaks volumes about investing -- link here:

Retailers: the most interesting company right now? Amazon. Observation. Not a recommendation.

Backpacks: The WSJ -- posted their top ten -- price range -- $125 - $850, or something like that. I recently bought top-of-the-line backpack -- for $23. At Amazon. Best backpack for computer commuter.

Question: after pharmaceuticals, which sector does Amazon disrupt next?

Apple: by the way, did everyone note that Apple's VP for EVs has moved over to Ford. I'm curious if folks can connect the dots. What this means? Huge story and incredibly good news for AAPL investors. Observation for the blog. Not a recommendation.

Route 66: Ford F-150 Lightning. Grueling trip. Wouldn't recommend it. According to Ford CEO.

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Hot Summer Night

Grapevine, TX, outside best biker's bar on Main Street.

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Best City Ever

Link here.

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Wow. July 2, 2023

Locator: 45887ARCH.

Flashback: from August 3, 2014.

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A Note for the Granddaughters

Before leaving southern California, our granddaughters each gave me a card thanking us for a wonderful vacation.


The older granddaughter's card included a sketch of a "book-tree." It has endless amount of symbolism. She and I, back in Boston, spent many hours up in her favorite "climbing" tree, sitting among the limbs, reading books. She used that memory to create the sketch.

Note the books:
  • I-98: she must have been listening when I discussed my blog story about I-98
  • Ten Blogs: somehow she knows that I have several blogs
  • Fish: her memories of the two of us fishing in Texas and California
  • Sailing Handbook: something she is studying to go on a global sailing trip with her dad
  • The Beatles: our favorite albums
  • Baken (sic) Oil
At the bottom of the tree is a chess board; we've all enjoyed learning to play chess. And, of course, the Apple laptop computer on top of the chess board. 

Friday, June 23, 2023

Fifth Circuit On Workers' Discrimination Claims -- June 23, 2023

Locator: 45028LAW. Workers' discrimination claims.

From Bloomberg Law today:

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Flight School, Day 5
USAF
Hosted By Edwards AFB, CA



Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Girls Soccer -- State Championship Game -- April 15, 2023

Locator: 44411S.  

Nationwide rankings. Nationwide rankings do not separate schools by size. Largest schools in Texas are 6A. Olivia's Grapevine High School is 5A.

At 5A, Grapevine, is ranked #1 in Texas, of course. But look at this: Grapevine is ranked #4 in Texas, against all 5A and 6A schools. Three 6A schools are #1, #2, and #3. Then comes #Grapevine, the first 5A school on the list.

Grapevine is ranked 20th nationally, just behind Huntington Beach, CA, at 19th. 

Their nemesis, Midlothian, is ranked 49th nationally.

Rankings at this site



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The Title Game

I don't know if these photos are behind a paywall or not.

#23 is Olivia, our granddaughter, a midfielder and a captain of the team, despite being only a junior. Generally, only seniors are selected by the coach to be captains. In Texas soccer, there are no co-captains. They are all captains. This team has three captains, two seniors and one junior.

Generally, captains wear an identifying band on their right calf, at the top of the stocking, but in this game they did not.

Olivia wears a blue headband -- as do two or three others. She wears the most basic cleat one can find. She says opponents, and especially coaches and captains of opposing teams, watch the footwork of other teams. It is easier too observe / critique soccer players using flamboyant, uniquely-colored cleats.

Link here.

Photos and other memorabilia are for sale from this site.

Olivia's team, the Grapevine (TX) Lady Mustangs, won 1 - 0.

I'm very, very biased, but Olivia is very, very good.

The story is at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and is not behind a paywall (yet). The story will eventually disappear into the cloud. One can see the winning goal at twitter (same link as below).

From the Star-Telegram:


Winning score is on video.








Friday, February 10, 2023

Jiu-Jitsu -- Sophia -- Update -- February 10, 2023

Sophia's first competitive match in north Texas. She won the bronze medal in her heat.

Nine members (or more) in her class of approximately 40 students medaled at the match last weekend.

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Meanwhile, Wrestling in Williston, ND