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Samson's Wig

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Samson's Wig

  1. The problem in Austin, as compared to cities like San Francisco and Seattle, since you mentioned them (and both of which have slightly smaller but similar populations than Austin), is that we do not have many people taking public transit in Austin now. It's not the same equation. I agree with your thinking here, in general, but I'm not sure that it applies to cities like Austin, where public transit has been available for a long time, but hardly anyone uses it, relatively speaking. You could put every bus rider in Austin in a car, and the difference in traffic would be negligible. It would absolutely destroy a city like Seattle, and definitely San Francisco, were you to do the same thing. Based on a quick and dirty comparison, just looking at bus rides since Austin doesn't really have anything else worth comparing, and it's obvious we're not talking about the same problems or the same solutions. This is something that has frustrated the fuck out of me for years when city leadership, and the loudest voices lobbying them, try so desperately to solve Austin transportation issues based on solutions that work in cities that look nothing like Austin. We keep getting folks who either move from cities with public transpo and have fixed notions of how it should work, or locals who have no fucking clue what to do so they look to cities the established systems for answers. That makes sense on the surface, but I've yet to hear anyone in leadership, or even a crazy on a microphone a meeting, discuss Austin transportation solutions framed within what actually makes sense for this specific city. I don't know if Waymos everywhere is the answer, but just because it's not the answer in Seattle or San Francisco doesn't mean it's not the answer here. Austin Population: ~1,000,000 Monthly bus rides: 2 million Seattle Population: ~800,000 Monthly bus rides: 63 million San Francisco Population: ~820,000 Monthly bus rides: 14-15 million Ridership is still down in Seattle and San Francisco, like the rest of the country, since the pandemic. They were both about 25% higher pre-pandemic. Again, we're not talking about the same situation, and the same solutions are not likely to work. If we could magic a functional light rail system into exitence, and magic ourselves into a future where a populace unaccustomed to public transit starts to actually use it, then sure. But even in the candy land scenario where Austin has light rail running to all major areas of town coupled with an integrated bus system that can handle the last mile, you're talking decades before Austinites are actually using it en masse. Due to our addiction to cars, and our complete lack of infrastructure for other forms of public transportation, perhaps Waymos and the like are indeed a solid solution for Austin, at least in the short term.
  2. But those people are not bothering to engage in bothsidesism. As already pointed out, bothsidesism is really just taking a side. And it's always the same side. There are plenty of folks who are genuinely independent, don't claim a party, and think they all suck, but they also don't tend to bring up the behavior of the "other side" when presented with a negative comment about one particular party. If they're truly independent, they're more likely to shrug and say "of course!" than to bring up the bad behavior of the other side defensively. It's incredible that anyone who does so actually thinks they're fooling anyone (other than perhaps themselves).
  3. Have fun, but don't marry them, or may God have mercy on your soul.
  4. I've been working from home since around 2009, running a mid-sized operation with quite a few employees who are scattered throughout the US and overseas, all of whom are also working from home. Everyone I've ever interviewed truly believes they are more productive working from home, and that turns out to be true around 25% of the time. The majority spend their days fucking off until they get fired. It's not because they're not capable of doing the work; they're just not capable of doing it unsupervised. The work is deadline-based with no set hours, and we don't track time spent working, so it's a very black-and-white way to determine who is capable of unsupervised productivity and who is not. You either get your shit done or you don't. For perspective, these are highly educated professionals, not slack-jawed salespeople making cold calls or something. Once we find the right folks who are truly cut out for working from home, though, it works out really well. It definitely makes hiring and training more expensive and time-consuming. As for me, after working remotely for so long, I can't get much weirder. If I were offered a salaried job for half of what I earn running my business, I would consider it just to shake things up.
  5. Until Waco comes up and removes all doubt.
  6. I appreciate trying to defend Worthy's lack of effectiveness, but the bolded is an insanely terrible take. Mahomes led the league in deep pass touchdowns and deep pass efficiency, damn-near every year of his NFL career before the last two. The lack of a running game and a shitty offensive line caused that recent reduction. I agree that Worthy is a terrible fit for the Chiefs, and part of that is run scheme and o-line issues. You can't hit deep balls when you have to get rid of the ball in under 2 seconds. Worthy also has yet to develop a game beyond getting deep. He is too small and weak to provide any of the crucial aspects of the position (like blocking) that would add value to a team struggling with the Chiefs' issues. They would be smart to trade him for a more complete receiver if they don't think they can rebuild the o-line quickly, but Tyreek Hill damaged the brains of their front office. Worthy would add value to a team with a solid O-line and run game, where he can run deep every play to stretch the defense and catch a couple of passes per game. That's all he's suitable for, but it's highly valuable on the right team. Mahomes is a generational talent at the QB position, and anyone with eyeballs can see that. I appreciate some of you downplaying him because of where he went to college and because he's so active in supporting them even after going pro (and perhaps some because they don't like the Chiefs), but c'mon. Here's hoping he heals up quickly and thoroughly and goes on to put this kind of talk to rest for good. As noted already in this thread, he would benefit mightily from the Brady method of taking a pay cut to fill out the roster around him. But Brady needed that supporting cast more than Mahomes, as evidenced by Mahomes carrying a weak team on his back to the Super Bowl last year. Brady could never have done that.
  7. I believe I first read this comment on this site, and it was spot on. Flying hasn't been the same since they lowered prices enough to let bus people fly. Airlines need to hike up prices, make the experience more comfortable, and get about 50% of the flying public back on the bus. The legacy carriers, especially, could surely turn a better profit this way. Even Disneyland/world figured this out during the pandemic. The poors can keep JetBlue and the like, I guess, but they need separate terminals for this to work. If you can't handle your drugs, take a shower, keep your hands to yourself, wait your turn, etc., or if you're so god damn high maintenance that you'll have a panic attack over a window being open or closed or a seat being reclined or not when custom and basic courtesy dictates otherwise, you might be a bus person. It's okay.
  8. What is a circle beard? I'm not sure I really want to know.
  9. FIFY
  10. He's more likely to be . . . incredulous.
  11. I want to say that can't be real, but . . . Holy shit.
  12. To your point about selecting an undergraduate program that prepares you for the rigors of med school, a music degree (particularly the non-education tracks) is significantly more difficult and requires substantially more time and effort than an accounting degree (or any other business degree). It's not even close.
  13. It's too bad the father died already. I would prefer they both die slowly and as painfully as possible. Anyone who can do this isn't human. I hope the younger one suffers as much as possible before someone ends his useless life.
  14. Good for Tech. He won't be their last good get this off-season. To those upthread who seem to actually believe that UT played by the rules all those years: I'm not sure what you're smoking, but share it.
  15. Phones and other devices are banned at AISD schools. Access to video games, social media, websites, etc., on their Chromebooks is banned, with software in place to prevent it. Guess what 99% of AISD students do every day at school? Kids will find ways around this type of thing in seconds. I appreciate the sentiment behind this law, but it's little more than virtue signaling, just like the porn ban in Texas. Legislating behavior doesn't work without the means to enforce, and the folks who support this type of thing tend to be the type who don't want to be bothered with parenting. You can't shield your kids from the world. You have to teach them how to engage with the world, the good and the bad, without being overcome by it.
  16. I definitely attended youth services in high school because there were cute girls there. Both of the preacher's daughters ended up pregnant (not by me), so it seemed like good times were being had, and I didn't want to miss out. Alas, the church angle did not overcome my lack of game, and I eventually wandered out into broader pastures in my search for fun.
  17. My experience was similar to yours. I didn't have much to do with it, but I was brought to FCA events by other guys from the football team. It seemed little different from the National Honor Society or any of the other silly clubs kids would join to pad college applications. I do remember a Young Life group forming in my last year or two of high school. A friend hosted one of their events at his house and asked me to attend. I found it weird, and with hindsight, it was definitely an early-stage, and perhaps prototypical, evangelical nutjob cult recruiting tool similar to TPUSA today. I didn't attend a second time. I was raised in the SBC, but in an era before they joined forces with the Christian right and became full-blown evangelicals. I was already used to fairly nutty religious behavior, but the Young Life thing creeped me out. Now it's just par for the course for the SBC.
  18. Yeah, but that's bullshit and the proof is in their punishing of BYU for losing in a CCG. Now Notre Dame is running scared as they know how likely a loss woudl be to BYU in a bowl game. Notre Dame played a weaker schedule than Aggie did this year. They didn't belong in the playoff. B etter than Tulane or JMU? Sure. But BYU had a better record with a tougher schedule than Notre Dame. Their only losses were to a top four team that looks as complete as any team in the field. In a holy war, the mormons beat the catholics in 2026.
  19. I'm all for a sixteen-team playoff, or play-in games of some sort. Still, fuck Notre Dame. They will forever be NBC's second choice, after Blow-U turned them down.
  20. Former players are often among the most ignorant people about football. They tend to know a lot about one position and jack shit about anything else. Their knowledge also tends to be stuck in the time they last played. And if we're being honest, football players are not typically drawn from the creme of the crop, intellectually speaking. I'm immediately skeptical of any football take that involves language along the lines of "they don't know ball" or "they never played ball". It just about guarantees that whatever they have to say next will be utterly stupid. My perspective on this is that of a former player.
  21. I got to demo this Rocket 3 while my bike was being serviced yesterday. The experience was downright spiritual. The owner knew what he was doing when he suggested I take it, damn him. Now I'm trying to talk myself out of buying one. It makes no sense on any level, would be a bitch to maintain, serves no functional purpose, but it was the most fun I've had on a motorcycle since I was a kid riding dirt bikes and building tracks with ramps in the cotton field after harvest. If you get a chance to ride one, and aren't intimidated by the largest production engine available today, do not pass it up. 2,458cc liquid-cooled inline-3 engine producing 180 horsepower and 166 lb-ft of torque
  22. Ugh. Over a boyfriend. Hormones are a bitch when you're young, and the lack of them is a bitch when you're old. Mother nature sucks sometimes.
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