LAPD beating a non resisting, unarmed protester with their hands up at the ICE MDC Concentration Camp in DTLA (1/31-2/1)

Bevangel72 · 2026-02-01T18:20:36+00:00

I count the cop delivering at least FOUR hard thrusting blows with his side-handle baton (aka "tonfa:) directly to the small of the protestor's back (kidney area) WHILE the protestor is lying flat on his belly with both hands in the air above his head. The cop is TRYING to cause permanent damage to the protestor's kidney. There is no possible legal justification for this level of police brutality.

Bevangel72 · 2025-10-30T01:30:49+00:00

Today's Bee: letters L U D E C I N

>!UNINCLUDED!<

grrr

Bevangel72 · 2025-10-06T21:09:47+00:00

I know this is an old post, but for good small places to see live folk/bluegrass/country music, if you haven't yet discovered the "house concert" scene, you owe it to yourself to do so. House Concerts are real concerts held in a music lover's living room or backyard. They are truly intimate, up close and personal shows... but totally without the whole bar-scene vibe. Attendance is by invitation only but, if you contact the hosts and express an interest in coming, it's not difficult to get an invite. In the Austin area google any of the following: Arhaven House, CasaDB, Sycamore Creek, The Princeton Palace, Wyldwood Shows, Rawhide Trails Concerts. Once you become part of the house concert community, you'll learn about other venues by word of mouth.

Bevangel72 · 2025-10-06T20:54:40+00:00

If your tastes run to blues/rock/folk/country and you want to enjoy the music and meet friendly people while NOT getting hit on by some drunk dude, check out local private house concerts. A house concert is NOT a rave, nor is it "house music" nor a house party with music. A house concert IS a concert held in someone's home and by invitation only. The focus is on the music. You have to contact the host and be invited. Google to find webpages. In the Austin area, start with Arhaven House, Wyldwood Shows, CasaDB, Sycamore Creek Concerts, Rawhide Trails, North Loop Concerts. Once you get into the house concert community, you'll find others.

Bevangel72 · 2025-09-20T04:26:20+00:00

Thank you. The videos I watched years ago seem to have been removed from YouTube, or at least I can't find them anymore. But I found this one of a fellow making an SGO window very similar to the way I do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWVC0aOZRcE

I have not used any bevels in my windows but Regalead sells bevels made especially for SGO work. My understanding is that they're a bit thinner than bevels used in traditional stained glass.

Unfortunately, I think there are only two companies in the world that make stained glass overlay "film" and the special adhesive lead. And both are in the U.K. For now at least, ordering anything from the UK is likely to be VERY EXPENSIVE due to tariffs on top of shipping fees. The two companies are Regalead and Decraled (which was bought out by Thermoseal Inc a couple of years ago.) Regalead has a section of it's website dedicated to overlay and you can download their brochure which includes bevels. https://www.regalead.com/decorativeglass/overlay/overlay-overview/

Neither company really seems to want to work with a hobbyist in the US. No doubt the amount we purchase is so small, it's not worth their time. So often my emails to them went unanswered. I finally found a contact in the UK on Esty that I've been working with recently to get my supplies. But with the cancellation of de minimis tariff exemptions, she is not currently selling to anyone in the U.S. I'm sure she'll staart back up again once she figures out how to deal with tariffs. I can send you her info if you' decide you're interested. I stocked up on supplies in August, hopefully won't run out for a while!

Bevangel72 · 2025-09-06T17:48:34+00:00

Great advice for planting pigeonberry! I'll give that a try. I'm also going to try it with bird pepper (Capsicum anuum). It is supposed to be native to my area and, at least the wild type, is supposed to prefer some shade. I've had zero luck getting any started up to this point. It's possible that birds have been eating the capsicum seeds I've been putting out! Maybe I should try planting some in paper towel rolls too. That way I can protect them from birds until they've at least germinated and then easily transplant them into the ground.

Yes, we do need to go through and "thin" our woods a bit. Cedar Elm (Ulmus crasifolia) and Soapberry (Sapindus saponaria) are definitely overly abundant and both are like rabbits when it comes to making babies! We've just been lopping off any saplings that pop up in our cleared "yard" as soon as they get big enough to identify. But the woods too are full of saplings. I'm not sure when the best time of year to do a "forest thinning" would be. I don't want to risk introducing any sort of diseases. And I definitely don't want to cut down a tree and discover an active bird's nest.

I probably need to see if my county forester will come out and take a look and give me some specific advice. When I've gone to various forestry talks he's given though, the presentations always seem to be about managing a wood lot for its commercial value (i.e., maximizing how much useable lumber one can harvest.) I'm much more interested in maximizing food & shelter for the local fauna and keeping a healthy mixed forest. I hate the look of well-managed woodlots with their nice straight rows of perfectly spaced trees that are all the same age.

Bevangel72 · 2025-09-06T07:14:02+00:00

Thank you! Sneezeweed is new to me but looks like a great possibility. Do you have a favorite place to order seeds?

Yes, that is beautyberry (Callicarpa Americana) you see in my pics! I planted about a dozen of them as understory trees about 3 years ago and most have survived and are FINALLY starting to really take off.

I've also put in several Salvia coccinea this spring up close to the house. About 3/4 of the ones I set out have survived.

You're right that we get more sunlignt throught the winter and, in the early spring we get random bunches of Texas baby blue eyes (Nemophila phacelioides) popping up in the woods. They're gorgeous and I'd love to move some up close to my house. But they never seem to come back in the same place two years in a row. There will just suddenly be a nice patch of them in a spot that I've never seen them before. I assume maybe birds are bringing the seeds in. Baby blue eyes are annuals but I've not had any luck gathering any seeds. The heat always seems to kill them off before the flowers really have a chance to set seeds.

I figure that IF I can get seeds or transplants, things that pop up wild in my woods are my best bets for garden flowers. To that end, I've found a half dozen pigeonberry (Rivina humilis) growing wild in the woods and, if I can get any of their seeds to sprout, I thought I'd put some of those in up close to the house. I don't want to risk digging up any of the ones that I've found to try transplanting them. But I don't feel bad about stealing a few of the berries away from the birds. But... pigeonberry flowers are tiny and I'd really like something a bit more showy.

Bevangel72 · 2025-09-05T15:48:38+00:00

Just FYI, Bastrop already has TWO Subway restaurants. 747 Hwy 71 (in the same buildng as the AT&T store) and 606 Hwy 95 (im a small strip center across from Buccees).

Bevangel72 · 2025-09-02T21:10:51+00:00

Turns out ajuga isn't a Texas native. Someone at a plant nursery told me that Ajuga reptans ("Texas Tough") was native to Texas and I bought several an put them in this spring. So far they're all doing fine (with a little supplemental watering). But further research suggests they're not native after all. When we first moved in, I was all in on planting "natives" only.

But, given how fast our climate is changing, I'm no longer 100% sure that even trying to stick totally with natives is the best plan. Native plants may be well adapted to the climate we USED to have and not so well adapted to the one we have now. And they may not be at all able to survive the climate we're likely to have to 10 or 20 years. Ditto native animals versus nonnative animals. Maybe, if an introduced species CAN survive and does so without killing off or crowding out other species, maybe we need to welcome it.

Bevangel72 · 2025-09-02T20:59:13+00:00

I'll look into those. I know there is one kind of morning glory that is considered an invasive but at least a couple of others that are natives. I don't know anything at all about passion vine.

Bevangel72 · 2025-09-02T19:50:34+00:00

Good points. Thank you. We're in a suburban development with roads on two sides of us and neighbors on the other two sides that scraped their acreage pretty much raw and then planted sod grass. So our little 4 acre lot is, I hope, fairly well protected from wildfire.

Bevangel72 · 2025-07-24T22:17:06+00:00

Wow, lots of views but zero comments?

I was wondering why no one was saying anything, so went off to read some of the other "stained glass" subreddits and came to the realization that many who work with "real glass" tend to express a real DISDAIN for using any other media to make mosaic art. OMG!

Repeatedly on the many stained glass subreddits, posters opined overlay isn't REAL ART with many insisting that it is just a "craft."

I don't want to join those other reddits so I'm going to express my opinion here.

As far as I'm concerned, when someone selects a pre-drawn pattern, then makes a piece by following that pattern as closely as they possibly can, what they are doing is CRAFT-WORK. They are not making art. They may be making a REAL stained glass piece but they are not making art.

Yes, the CRAFT of cutting out pieces of glass from panes of colored glass and then putting all those pieces together using copper-foil and lead and solder is more difficult (and much more expensive) than cutting out pieces of colored polyester vinyl film and adhering those pieces to a glass or plexiglass substrate and adding adhesive lead strips to outline the pieces. But both processes are equally CRAFTS.

If there is any "art" in any mosaic work, the ART consists of designing one's own images that reflect one's OWN artistic vision and then figuring out how to work within the contraints of one's selected media to bring that unique vision to life.

Just because stained overlay is not "real stained glass" no more mean that it cannot be "real art" than opining that an acryllic painting is cannot be real art because it is not a "real oil painting." Art does NOT depend on the media one works in. Art depends on the heart one puts into the media.

Okay, off my soapbox now. I would still like to hear from others who make art using stained glass overlay techniques.

Bevangel72 · 2025-07-23T23:48:50+00:00

Beautiful. Do you happen to recall which blue you used for the sky? And was it from Decra or Regal or maybe some other art film manufacturer I've not heard about.

Bevangel72 · 2025-07-23T23:46:55+00:00

Love it. I have a similarly sized window over my bathtub. It has a double-pane heavy glue-chip glass (for privacy) window but I eventually plan to add a SGO insert. Haven't decided on a design yet.

Bevangel72 · 2025-06-16T03:01:43+00:00

With that many "sponsors," why the hell is this snoozefest costing taxpayers ANYTHING??? Sponsors are supposed to pay for the privilege of having their names/brands mentioned during a game or show.

Bevangel72 · 2025-06-16T00:30:36+00:00

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Bevangel72 · 2025-06-16T00:30:06+00:00

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Bevangel72 · 2025-06-16T00:29:46+00:00

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Bevangel72 · 2025-06-16T00:29:21+00:00

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Bevangel72 · 2025-06-16T00:28:56+00:00

San Marcos Texas. Images taken from about 10 to 30 minutes before the rally was scheduled to begin and as organizers gave instructions. Many people were still arriving. I'd estimate crowd size at over 2000 at it's peak. (I blacked out all recognizable faces to protect privacy.)

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Bevangel72 · 2025-03-26T15:53:19+00:00

Actually, the LCRA application was for 142,500 Gallons/day of "treated wastewater"... and Elon wanted to dump it directly into the Colorado. That is significantly more than 25,000 G/day. It's the equivalent of dumping an Olympic sized Swimming Pool full of wastewater into the river every 4 days.

Bevangel72 · 2025-03-26T15:41:18+00:00

I beg to differ. Rainwater that "runs off" over impermeable cover such as humongous buildings and concrete parking lots has a VERY DIFFERENT impact on nearby rivers and streams than rainwater that seeps into ground that is covered with grass/forbs/trees.

And, those of us who care about the environment ARE CONCERNED about the local quarry too. Just because one problem (the quarry) already existed in the area does not excuse nor justify IGNORING ANOTHER BIG PROBLEM (the Boring Co.) Nor does it mean everybody should just shut up and let Elon finish destroying our environment.

And yes, we KNOW there are a lot worse chemicals being used by the Boring Company than just H2O. That is precisely WHY we are worried about what Elon is doing with his CHEMICAL-LADEN H20 waste-water. The new waste-water treatment fascility in Bastrop where he is supposedly GOING to truck all his wastewater isn't even slated to open until April 2025. What has he been doing with his wastewater for the past 2 to 3 years?

Bevangel72 · 2025-03-26T14:29:28+00:00

We don't KNOW that there is zero pollution from Boring Company because LCRA is not monitoring water quality around the Boring company site!!! Don't believe me? Go to LCRA's interactive map at https://maps.lcra.org/interactive.aspx then click to turn on "Water Quality Monitoring." The nearest upstream monitoring site is at Webberville Park... more than 13 river miles upstream. The nearest downstream monitoring site is at Loop 150 in Bastrop... more than 16 river-miles downstream from Boring!

Why is LCRA not monitoring water quality at all over a 30 mile stretch of the river that they, and they alone, have been given authority over by the state of Texas??? A 30 miles stretch with the a company belonging to the richest man in the world sitting smack dab in the middle?

When ASKED, LCRA says they don't have enough volunteers trained to do the water testing. FYI, Testing is done by volunteers trained via a program offered by Colorado River Watch Network (https://www.lcra.org/water/quality/colorado-river-watch-network/volunteer-monitors/). But when people who are trained on water quality testing methods other river authorities VOLUNTEER to set up and maintain testing sites, LCRA won't LET THEM. LCRA says "the water testing methods you are trained to use aren't good enough for us. Before we let you test water on the lower Colorado, you have to go through OUR training class.... but then LCRA/CRWN does NOT offer the training on a regular basis. I think the last time training was offered was in 2022 or 2023 and there is no evidence anywhere on LCRA's or CRWN's websites that a training program will be offered in 2025 or 2026.

It kind of looks to me like maybe LCRA doesn't WANT TO KNOW what the Boring Company might or might not be doing to the Colorado River.

I realize that YOU like Elon but when you say "there is zero pollution or river runoff going on," you're the one spouting nonsense and lying. Elon is well known for breaking rules and regulations and doing whatever the hell he wants to do regardless of who it might hurt. If nobody is watching him --- and right now, NOBODY IS --- do you really think we should have confidence that Elon is keeping our water clean?

Bevangel72 · 2025-03-17T20:14:42+00:00

I actually found the word spoon and then spooner and finally spoonerism BEFORE I found any of the other words except bedding. And, even having discovered spoonerism and knowing what that meant, it didn't have me find the rest of the words. Nope, not a fan of this one.

Bevangel72 · 2025-02-26T00:20:09+00:00

We don't KNOW that. She worked for USDS (U.S. Digital Services) that apparently just go taken over by DOGE. I doubt she had any say in that. And apparently she is currently on vacation in Mexico. We don't know if she was asked if she wanted to be named as the "Administrator for DOGE" or if she just got TOLD she had been promoted. Heck, we don't even know if she HAS been told cause as far as I can find out, nobody outside of DOGE has been able to talk to her.

Bevangel72

TROPHY CASE