Counterpart is a show I stumbled upon last year and immediately fell in love with. Set primarily in Berlin, this modern day (sci-fi?) spy thriller tells the story of what happens when a door opens between parallel dimensions and it's existence is kept secret from everyone except for a very select group. For every person on one side, there exists a doppelgänger on the other.

It's not one of those shows you can have on as background noise while you're doing something else or whiling away your evening online. It demands your full attention or you'll soon be lost.

Last year, coming in from the beginning it was relatively easy to follow along. Determining which side of the doorway you were on was a simple matter. The wife of the main character was hospitalized in a coma after being struck by a car on our side, but perfectly healthy and active in the other. The two Berlins were similar, although some very funky architecture existed on the other side that was easily recognizable even for someone who knew nothing about the city. The other side had tech we lack, but for some reason never developed cell phones.

It's been a while since Season One ended, so my memory is a little hazy on the espionage aspect and interwoven storylines, but that being said, I'm two episodes in this year and I'm totally lost. The wife who was hospitalized is now back home and the main character and his double both find themselves trapped on the wrong side the portal after a terror attack shut down diplomatic relations between the two worlds and closed the crossing.

European architecture has become so outré lately that city skylines alone no longer tell me which side the story is happening on.

I hope at some point the writers explain the who what when why how of the crossing. There's nothing special-effects heavy about it; it resembles an underground brick-walled corridor. You go in one end on our side and emerge on the other in their world.

I was drawn into Counterpoint because of its more than passing passing similarity to Fringe, a favorite series from years gone by.

At this point I'm so frustrated I'm thinking I need to go back and binge Season One this weekend just to get reoriented…

I suppose that when David Karp sold tumblr he was obligated to sign an "in perpetuity" non-compete agreement that would prevent him—even if he wanted to in light of recent events—from ever launching another tumblr-like site…

Pity. I wonder how he feels about what the Asshats at Verizon are doing to his creation.

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gingerium:

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Absolute monster. He needs to be brought to justice.

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There is a tranquility there, a peacefulness that is sadly absent from the frenetic pace of life in Phoenix, especially on grey, rainy days like yesterday when the smell of wet creosote permeated the air and the sound of gently falling rain drowned out all outside sounds. Perhaps it's the smaller population, or the slightly higher altitude, or maybe it's simply because the desert hasn't been bulldozed and paved over the way it has been in Phoenix.

The other day I was on Zillow and for kicks went looking for the house my family lived in from 1972 through 1981. It was where I spent my "formative" years and I have many fond memories of the place. I may have in fact, written about it at some point on this here blog thingie.

It was up for sale a few years ago, and the few photos posted of it at the time showed that it had gone downhill. Very downhill—matching the rest of the neighborhood. I knew the pool my folks finally put in as I was just about to move out (how convenient!) had been ripped out years ago, but I was unprepared for exactly how rundown the place had become.

I was kind of surprised to actually see that the house was once again on the market, but this time it looked damn good. It was obvious it was a flip, and while not a complete remodel, it looked like all the basic amenities had been replaced or repaired. More importantly, it looked clean—unlike the last time I was able to vicariously peek inside via the internet. And this was the first time I'd been able to see multiple views of every room in the house (save one) since my folks moved out in 1981.

I almost cried.

Sadly, for some reason neither I or my family took many pictures of the inside of the house while we lived there, but I was able to find and post a few "then and now" comparisons.

Mom was an interior designer, so when we lived there the place had a definite…look…about it. I think the only room that managed to remain the original white walls all those years was my dad's study upstairs. I knew from the last time I saw inside the house everything had been stripped, but it was even sadder to see the place now, looking almost like it looked the day we moved in back in 1972.

Of course, it's now 46 years later and decorating sensibilities are different. Carpet in all the living areas has been replaced by ceramic tile and there are now ceiling fans in nearly every room (something we did not have back then but definitely could've used). Thankfully the popcorn ceilings have been removed. While they slapped up a ceramic tile backsplash in the kitchen and replaced the major appliances (the GE "Americana" range is gone), they didn't replace any of the cabinets or countertops except in the master bath. So the nasty faux butcher block Formica countertops that were original to the kitchen are still in place. So are the fiberglass one-piece tubs/showers in the bathrooms.

At some point since 1981 the wet bar (how 70s, am I right?) had been ripped out of the lower level family room as well, leaving a weird, empty, closet-like opening in one wall.

My old bedroom is now being marketed as a "study" with a ceramic tile floor like the rest of the main living areas.

I suppose I should be grateful that they didn't simply reconfigure the whole first floor and knock out the wall between the kitchen and living room as has been done on countless other homes of the same model in the old neighborhood.

Out back, the wood deck and self-supporting "floating" lattice deck cover my dad built was long gone, replaced by a concrete slab and solid patio cover with posts to support it. All the landscaping was gone except for a couple palm trees that had been planted at some point after we vacated the property.

I sent the listing to my sister. We're going to schedule a tour with the agent, since it's probably the last time we'll ever get the chance to step inside again…

Ben and I went out to dinner last night and watched in rapt fascination the mating dance of the elusive Urban Hobro.

Dude on the right was ostensively there with his wife/girlfriend, but she was all but being ignored—and her body language conveyed in no uncertain terms she was pissed off. Meanwhile, these two were busy talking sports and flirting heavily while Jersey Bro was oblivious to the fact the bartender was undressing him with his eyes every time he walked past.

No, this was not a gay bar. It was a friggin' Applebees.

Just as we were about to leave, Jersey Bro leaned over to the other guy and literally said, "No homo, where did you get your fade?"

As Ben said, "Dicks might touch tonight." BUT NO HOMO!

"Hey Honey..Joel—you know, the guy from the bar?—wants me to come over and watch the game."

"It's 2 am."

"He has it on DVR…"

Several months ago—after even more months of concerted study and testing—Ben received his NBCT (National Board Certified Teacher) credentials. I was proud of him for accomplishing this at the time, and even moreso when we attended the annual NBCT gala where the certificates were passed out.

Congratulations again, my Love! You. Are. Amazing!

"I didn't think Titan Media was still in business."

I could've sworn his-also actor twin brother, Shawn, came out as gay a few years ago but I can find nothing online to back up that memory. Maybe it's just that he wants to play gay characters…

I guarantee from this point forward you'll be pulling back a bloody stump.

Yesterday showed me that this is not Germany 1938 and will never be. If Trump and his thugs think they're just going to roll over the opposition, they've got another thought coming. This country has freedom of speech and of assembly woven into its DNA, and as much as Cheetolini would like to and will undoubtedly try to, this—and yesterday's crowds—cannot be denied.

Photo source

But also a bit of an optical illusion.

Messier Object M45, or as is commonly known, the Pleiades, aka "The Seven Sisters," one of the most famous star clusters visible to the unaided eye in the night sky and now prominently visible after dark, presents itself as a compact grouping of stars surrounded by the wisps of gas and dust leftover from the stars' creation. From all the earth-bound photos, one would assume that the cluster is physically compact and these stars are very close together.

But that assumption would be wrong. Thanks to the wonders of Celestia, an entirely new view of the cluster can be seen, exposing the true relationship of the stars in the group.

Not only are the seven main stars in the cluster further apart from each other than the Earth is to its nearest neighbor Proxima Centauri, on average, adjacent stars are as far apart as the Sun is from Sirius, and the distance from the star closest to earth and the one farthest away is nearly 40 light years.

While a night sky on a planet orbiting any of the stars in the cluster would still be wondrous compared to a night sky on Earth because the stars of the Pleiades are young, hot, and burn with a blue-white intensity, it wouldn't be as bright and filled with glittering jewels as you would think. The other main stars in the group would appear anywhere from the brightness of Sirius to about twice the intensity of Venus in Earth's sky. Bright, yes, but perhaps not as awe-inspiring as you'd expect based on the photos from Earth.

That being said, I certainly wouldn't turn down an invite to visit…