Paper_jam

Fucking Colorado. Way to shit the bed.

I'm thinking about doing some cord-cutting and I haven't figured out how I'll deal with getting (or not) LHN. Is there any semi-reliable information or predictions of which games this season will only be shown on LHN? From an ESPN website, I see the Rice game is scheduled for LHN, but which others are most likely? I know a lot of the TV schedule (and kickoff times) won't be set until we get closer to each game, but is there a minimum number of games that we can expect to be on LHN this season? Thanks for any feedback.

I'm trying to cut expenses and I just can't justify what I'm paying for DirecTV. I'm mainly looking at Youtube TV as my replacement, which does not currently offer the Longhorn Network. (I know some other streaming services do.) I guess my main question/complaint: why the fuck isn't the Longhorn Network available as a standalone subscription channel on something like the Roku platform, independently of whatever other shit I'm subscribed (or not) to? That would tremendously increase the availability and prospective revenue from subscribers. From a consumers' point of view, it seems crazy that my access to LHN is completely dictated by whether I'm a subscriber to some other cable or satellite provider. I know the "answer" is something along the lines of Big Telecom/ESPN/Disney/Spectrum/Whatever the fuck is trying to control access and leverage everything in their fucking favor, but I'm still going to complain about it.

Give it to me straight, I'm a public employee that will probably retire soon on a modest five-figure pension. My plan for retirement was to buy a Frank Lloyd Wright-style house on a scenic beach, maybe in Carmel, Pebble Beach, or Oahu, but now I'm starting to wonder if I'll be able to afford that. Should I instead be hoarding mass quantities of instant ramen and Alpo?

Is there a shortage of low-end beer in glass bottles? In particular, my go-to trash beer is Bud Ice, and my nearest HEB and convenience stores are always out of stock of the 12 oz. bottles now. Edit: apparently there is a shortage of bottles. Jesus it's like the whole world is falling apart https://beernet.com/bottles-a-major-sticking-point-for-a-b-this-summer/

I hear it's a seller's market for used cars right now. Put in a strong air freshener and get rid of it before the stank really sets in.

I still don't understand what the driver was attempting to do. Was he intentionally trying to get inside COTA for some purpose, or were they just out fucking around and found out?

I vaguely remember that a cobra escaped somewhere in far North Austin 5-10 years ago, causing some consternation until they found it dead on the road.

What a shitshow. I'm half afraid your next update will be "repo man came and hauled off the car."

My garage has about 75% of the floor area open for parking. (The rest is taken up with mowers, gardening shit, etc.) The builder called it a two-car garage but I call bullshit, it's only 18' wide so you could only get two cars in there if you have nothing else taking up floor space. There ought to be some kind of building code that requires something represented as a "two car garage" to be at least 20' wide.

Are there even statutory or regulatory codes that give TABC the authority to consider or review a private businesses' internal rule about vaccines as a factor in whether or not an establishment can hold a liquor license? Most state agencies are terrified of taking any action that isn't explicitly authorized by statute--not just in terms of the general subject area for which they are authorized to regulate, but even in the scope of authority they have to request or consider additional information not directly related to the issuance or enforcement of permits, etc. It would be like the Railroad Commission denying a drilling permit because RRC found out the operator was catching redfish that didn't pass the size limit. Edit holy shit, from that article I should have read before posting: "To ensure Texas businesses follow that rule, “each appropriate state agency” — in Launderette and Fresa’s case, the TABC — “will ensure businesses in this state comply,” according to the bill. These agencies can “require compliance [...] as a condition for a license, permit, or other state authorization necessary for conducting business in this state.” " Looking forward to the state asking Exxon, Chevron, etc. about their vaccination policies for every permit and registration they apply for. After all, if you're checking up on the little mom and pop restaurants, it's only fair to ask the big guys, right?

The whole metro area (Austin/Round Rock etc.) has a severe light dome. The farther away you can get, the better, but I'd say to even get anything close to dark-ish (relatively) skies you'd need to go east of Manor or north of Georgetown, west of Cedar Park, etc. Basically outside all the suburban areas. (If you are closer to the city, you'll probably still be able to see some brighter meteors directly overhead, but obviously darker is better.) On a light pollution map, the Granger Lake area doesn't look bad, you might be able to use one of the parks there (check the hours). I've never been there at night though. Edit: Lago Vista and points west might also be decent, especially if you are looking to the northern or western sky.

Kinda reminds me of that fatal F2 crash that killed Hubert a couple of years ago, at about the same spot.

I swear my fucking house has a backup forcefield that kicks in whenever Austin's primary goes down.

I just can't really get my head around a Texas-based aquarium. I like to fish the coast but it's not not really a blue-water-coral-reef-tropical-fish kind of habitat that I associate with aquariums. Also, we don't have seals, sea lions, killer whales, etc. You could put some hardhead catfish and maybe a redfish or spotted trout in a bucket of oily brown water and it would be pretty representative.

Article from TMZ about a "heart-related incident." Says he is awake now. https://www.tmz.com/2021/07/28/bob-odenkirk-heart-related-unconscious-medical-emergency-better-call-saul/

Maybe we should make an aerosolized, inhalable form of the vaccine(s) and just crop dust the shit out of certain states with it.

Paxton filed that bogus suit with the Supreme Court trying to nullify the election results in four states.

I had the red Countach/Alpine picture over my bed. Maybe that's why I do better with cars than women.

I heard this is an excellent program: http://free_computer_security_diploma.redirect@17883safesite.ru The site won't load right unless you turn off your firewall & AV first.

I've got a peacock for them in my pants

Both of those Sony models in the original post are IPS panels, which are going to have relatively poor contrast (poor black levels). They might be OK for a room where you watch TV with the lights on, as that will sort of mask the issue. But in a dark room they are not going to be good.

I'm starting to think that adults who are willfully unvaccinated are basically not much different from drunk drivers, but for some reason only being one of those things gets you in a shitload of trouble.

Streaming devices (like Roku) that have a terrible interface when it comes to precise forward/back control of the video. The Roku app for Youtube won't let me do anything but jump forward or back in 10-second chunks. Even on a good 1980s VCR, or a late-90s DVD player, you'd be able to rewind or advance to exactly the position you want, go frame-by-frame in slow motion, etc. Can't do anything like that on this Roku. Also: fuck you DirecTV for this "feature" on my DVR that auto-rewinds ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BEGINNING if I touch the back arrow when I start playing back a recording. Usually, when I start playing back something that I stopped in the middle of, especially a sporting event, I instinctively want to rewind a few seconds to orient myself with the context of things. But, if I do that the DVR jumps back like 3 hours to the beginning of the recording and it takes FOREVER to advance back to where I was. Which reminds me: why the fuck don't they have a way to let you make large jumps FORWARD in time on a recording or streaming video? Like some combination where if you press "FFWD" and "3" it jumps right to 3 hours? Just as an example.