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Samson's Wig

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Posts posted by Samson's Wig

  1. 59 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

     

    I look forward to the higher rates, or most likely just the continued made up usage numbers, to cover what is almost certainly a negligence-related incident.   I know that some here believe that city employees are warm hearted geniuses and we should all just get out of their way so they can make Austin a modern marvel, but at the moment I'm just hoping they can keep pumping water to my house.

    2 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

    Make it a combo stadium/homeless shelter/light rail station and they can hoodwink every voter

    You should run for office.

  2. 5 hours ago, smokebomb said:

    It will never happen. Arlington approved >$300m & >$400m in bonds to help build Cowboy & Globe Life stadium respectively  (each stadium cost ~$1.1b). I seriously doubt this city will ever vote to approve a nearly hall billion dollar bond for a professional sports team’s stadium, a requirement any expansion team ownership is going to have. It is why Austin FC was funded privately and probably why the Spurs haven’t already made a serous attempt to move here.
     

    Statistically Austin is the perfect place for a professional sports team but the city’s lack of an appetite to bankroll a billionaire’s private company already has, and will continue to, prevent any team from moving here.

    Every now and then the crazy voters here get it right.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  3. 25 minutes ago, Herbie Hancock said:

    Blaming the teachers is an interesting strategy.

    This is about as moronic a response to this topic as I can think of, but okay.  No one blamed teachers for school shootings.  And if you don't realize that there are lots of shitty teachers out there, which is one of many things kids have to deal with, you live in a bubble of willful ignorance.  

  4. Looked and could not find a discussion on this.  Apologies if I missed it.

    Just in the last week, there has been a threat to Hill Elementary from an unmedicated schizophrenic: https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/austin-police-make-an-arrest-linked-to-austin-isd-elementary-school-threat

    A kid was pulled out of class at Lamar Middle School by police for threatening gun violence (no article on this one, but I have spoken to the school principal about it personally).

    Another threat to Lamar Middle school happened over the weekend, which now appears to have been middle school girls from another middle school (so hopefully not a credible threat).   

    Just in case anyone mistakenly thinks this is isolated to AISD, here's just a handful of similar instances happening out in the burbs.  https://www.kvue.com/article/news/crime/social-media-threat-response-school-districts-central-texas-list-of-arrests/269-ec879603-9371-45f0-8c53-c5c38edc35ab 

     

    Tons of kids are being kept home today due to all this shit, although we sent ours as there doesn't seem to be any active danger.   I don't really have much to add other than I hate that kids are growing up with this as a baseline reality.  I have 12 year old twins, and it's difficult to explain to them why the adults (myself included) can't create a safe environment for them.   Getting kids motivated to go to school and put up with all the bullshit that involves (shitty teachers, boring lessons, misguided romantic entanglements, asshole bullies, etc. etc.) gets even tougher when you have to add "oh, and you might get shot and die" to the list of crappy things that come with middle school and high school life. These kids are growing up in some genuinely shitty times, but the adults haven't done a damn thing about it other than complain about how millennials and Gen Z are so dysfunctional as adults.  Well, we made them that way.

    • Rage+1 3
  5. 12 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    well you evidently missed the 2000 transportation bond, the 2013 school bond, the 2014 transportation bonds, etc et al. 
    And then there’s the shit they don’t even put in front of you because you’re all too goddamn cheap and would reject it, and then there’s the shit they don’t even bring you because of the mediocrities you elect to office and the mouth breathers and hangers on they appoint, and then there’s the shit you would never vote for because most of you act like this is a fucking backwater rather than a world-class city and I think it’s because you that’s what you want.

    Dallas and Houston don’t have these problems because they’re too busy moaning how great it was in 1975. 
     

    And that’s the irony. People who don’t know anything thinks we don’t plan, that’s not true. We build great plans. We just don’t execute them. You don’t want to meet the future, we want a Time Machine back to the day before you got here.

    no offense though. 😉

     

     

    I'm sorry, but I can't wrap my head around your view of this city, other than I think you may be too close to how the sausage is made to have an objective opinion.  You're way off lumping me into the group you are, which is what you do with anyone who doesn't see the city through your oddly tinted lens.   And yes, while I was being (only mildly) hyperbolic about voters here rubber-stamping bonds without understanding what they're even voting for, let's not be disingenuous and act like we don't pass damn near every tax hike or bond in this town just because a couple of items haven't gone through over the decades. And none of that has anything to do with management of the airport, which is what was being discussed.  I suppose you thought the handling of the imminent domain move on the south terminal was managed with skill and grace.  I agree that voters here suck, as do the elected officials.  But I also think you moved somewhere hoping for a world class city, and that is not something Austin ever was and likely ever will be, regardless of what voters do or don't want.  It's just what it is. You live in a fairy tale.  Detroit has the highest taxes of any city in America.  How's that working for them?   Throwing more money at bad leadership isn't going to solve anything, but it will continue the tradition of graft in this city quite well.

    You've managed to label just about everyone as dumb or incompent, whether it's the majority voters, the minority voters, or the city leadership. Who does that leave that knows what they're doing and can implement this magical world class city experience you are looking for?  You?   If you're the only genius who knows what's best for Austin, and if everyone else would just stay out of the way and do things your way, we'd be living in a modern marvel of a city?  Sign me up, seriously.  Maybe we should elect you Emporer of Austin, and all our problems will be solved.  Just let me know how much to make the check out for.  If you can deliver that I'm all in.  Hell, if you could just deliver a functional light rail system for a reasonable cost and without funneling millions to your buddies I'll fully support your dictatorship.  But I think you're just another naive idealist with an authoritarian streak who wants to live in a magical fairy tale city that suits your specific needs and wants everyone else to pay for it, just like most Austin voters.

    No offense, though. 

    • Hook 'Em 1
  6. 3 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    Anybody want to tell him?

    No one else wants to tell me, so I guess we're all in the dark.   What did I miss?  If we rejected a public improvement bond related to the airport (or anything else) in the last fifteen years or so, I was definitely in a coma that week.  While that's certainly possible, it would be highly out of character for the voters in Austin, which was my point.  I thought the vast majority of the funding for most of the current improvements is coming from state and federal grants, so I don't understand your blaming voters for any of it outside of your tendency to carry water for city leadership no matter the topic.  I'm sure you have your personal reasons for doing so, but how anyone can think this city has been well-managed over the decades is mind-bottling. 

  7. 5 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    Once again the cheapest, most myopic, least forward leaning, most naive big city voters in Texas shocked to discover they underbuilt something and, as usual, blame the help. 

    The same naive voters that pass every single bond put in front of them?  I don't know, man.

  8. The train was always nothing more than a graft project.  The airport, though, is in desperate need of expansion and a complete rethinking of how they move people in and out of there.   I can't think of another North American airport that is a bigger pain in the ass to pick someone up at, and the city allows for more flights in and out of there than they should.  I don't fully understand how the FAA has allowed it.  

  9. 1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:

    Hell, I hunt and fish....and I don't even get up at 3:30 am for that shit, except in the most extreme of circumstances.  Sex and hunting and fishing, and even then....not at 3:30 am.

    Same when it comes to hunting and fishing.   I'll still happily wake up at 3:30 AM if the missus needs some attention.  But I'm not setting an alarm for it.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  10. 55 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

    Phone lines open @ 7AM for reservation. In person reservation starts at 5:30 - 6:00AM, depending on the course. This means people get there at 3:30-5:30AM (depending on the course) to get on the sign up sheet to book reservations in person.

    If you call, by the time you get in, it'll be a 2 or 3PM tee time. I'm not walking 18 at 2PM in the afternoon when all the scrubs are playing which means it'll be a 4:45 - 5 hour round. Tee off by 7:30ish, it'll be a sub 4 hr round. People who get up at 3:30AM to make weekend reservations don't tolerate slow play. We wake up early to avoid the idiots.

    The only extracurricular activity I've enjoyed enough to go through all of that effort is fucking.  I definitely don't need to golf that badly.  Good on you for having a passion.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  11. 21 minutes ago, MAUFRAIS said:


    Maybe get one of those little rides like the old lady in Gremlins?

    You're on to something here.  If I could build a soundproof bubble around it and listen to music while riding up and down the stairs for fifteen minutes, that might just do the trick.

  12. Are we getting dumber as a society, or is the stupidity just more apparent than it used to be?

    Sometimes, I talk to older folks and think, "Thank God kids are better educated these days."  And then I read stories like this one and think, "Fuck, kids are dumber than a steaming pile of shit with a homeschool education from evangelical parents."

    • Haha 1
  13. 2 hours ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

    I'm trying to imagine how good the chicken would need to be for me to make a chicken finger place my top recommendation when speaking of best places to eat in a town, any town.  They'd definitely need to be far better than any chicken fingers I've ever eaten, by a lot.  Surely that shithole has something a little better than chicken finger restaurants on offer?

    jack black GIF by Workaholics

    Serious Leslie Nielsen GIF by filmeditor

  14. 1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

    That's hilarious.  I am EXACTLY the opposite.  I only go to the office two days a week and I am way more productive than I used to be as a M-F guy.  Now I'm happy to work 6-7 days, not all full time but I log at least 60 hrs per week.  That commute crushed my soul, and it was only 10 miles or so.  I'm just way more productive at home.

    Takeaway:  different strokes, different folks.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm also more productive at home (although everyone thinks that, and most people are wrong, perhaps me as well).  But you also have somewhere to go two days a week, which would completely take care of what I'm talking about, which is simply being a bit stir crazy living 90% of my life inside a single building.  If I wanted to work out of the house I could easily go get an office, but I choose not to.  While the lack of transition time can be bothersome, I still prefer to be here and see my kids and wife more than I would working out of the house.

  15. I've primarily been working from home since around 2008.  I miss a commute all the time, as it provides a dividing space between work and home.  Time to decompress a bit, listen to music or a podcast, and generally shift your mood before spending time with your family. Now, I walk downstairs from a stressful day in my office, and I'm immediately bombarded with all of the family's problems, household chores, etc., with no opportunity to decompress or simply shift gears before diving into them.    I'm not saying I want to commute for an hour each way, but I wouldn't mind a little something in there, and I understand why some people don't mind a commute.

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    • Like 1
  16. You fuckers with no satellite clearly do not have Spectrum for an internet provider (sadly, the only real option where we're at).  I'm not trusting gameday to an internet service that goes out five times a day.

    DTV's platform for watching sports is also much better than any streaming service, very much including YouTubeTV.  I enjoy recording NFL games and speed watching them.  DTV's remotes even have a button for skipping ahead 25 seconds, which is perfect to hit between plays.  You can watch an entire game in less than an hour.  You can't do that with streaming as you can't see the footage when fast forwarding or reversing, and those functions are clunky at best on streaming platforms.  The experience is oddly more like it was in the old days, where you will watch the entire game, including commercials, and you'll fucking ike it or else.   

    DirectTV has sucked in many ways since the worst corporation in the history of the United States (AT&T) bought them, but I completely understand why some hang on to it.   We're a big hockey house (Canadian Wife) and the satellite Canadian broadcasts of every Maple Leafs game, complete with local ads, will keep that satellite on our roof until it doesn't work anymore. 

    Now paying $340 per month, even for fifteen televisions or whatever it was, I can't wrap my head around.   That's just not even bothering to have a conversation with them.

  17. So it's become all too obvious that Tesla drivers are the absolute worst drivers on the road.  My question is this:  Is it because the type of people who are interested in driving these vehicles are inherently shitty drivers, or is there something about the vehicles themselves that turn otherwise standard issue mediocre drivers into awful ones?  

    There's also the element of dumbasses thinking Teslas are somehow safer than other cars and are buying them for their teenage daughters (damn if there isn't a teen girl driving a Tesal across two lanes on 2222 every fucking time I drive down it now), but the shitty driving predated this slew of teenagers in mom or dad's used Tesla.

  18. It's a smart move, even if there are short term pains.  I've wondered for years why Texas Tech and TTUHSC don't merge.  They would almost instantly become eligible for AAU status, along with other tier 1 research rankings.  My understanding is that the pushback from administrators who aren't interested in losing their jobs and/or titles with a merger is the biggest stumbling block to moves like this.  

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