Samson's Wig

So much for my plan to just ignore how old I'm getting. Thanks a lot, fellas.

Well put. We had a couple of band directors and countless coaches in addition to the youth ministers, priests, and preachers dipping their pens in the teenage ink. The ag department guys were also particularly bad according to the scuttlebut. In those days very few suffered any consequences beyond maybe moving on to a new job if the parents found out and raised a stink. There was a band director who taught at my old high school long after my time there who made the FBI most wanted list, however. I believe he still on the run today after twenty years or so.

Don't worry, everyone will be on a bike soon. You just have to wait for it.

If your taint ain't bruised before eating at Shoney's . . .

Pandas must do well in the tech industry.

Took the kids to GWL in Grapevine for my niece's birthday party seven or so years ago. Never again. NEVER. That has to be the worst fucking place on the planet, and yes I'm fully aware of at least some of the really really terrible places out there. You can fly the family to Florida and spend a weekend at Disneyworld (not that I recommend that hell hole either) for less than a weekend at GWL, and what do you get for your money? A bunch of drunk redneck morons hanging out in the hallways getting shitfaced drunk while their kids destroy the rooms after a day of breathing in the foulest air on earth in the water area. All of this is followed by a respiratory virus that knocks out your family for a week or two after you get home. My wife referred to it as white trash Disneyworld. I told her Disneyworld is white trash Disneyworld. Great Wolf Lodge is something different. Something much worse. Something that will eventually kill us all. I would rather breathe the current air in Shepherd, TX than breathe the air inside a GWL ever again.

I thought pandas were too stoned to reproduce, or is that koalas?

Is that the Electric Grandmother herself in that sketch? I don't think I ever picked up on that before, but it adds a nice layer. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083876/ EDIT TO ADD: I think I'm wrong and confusing actresses who were old forty years ago.

Good for you. Blind faith is at the root of this problem, particularly blind faith in church leadership. The Catholics and the Baptists don't have a complete monopoly on child abuse, but they seem to be the worst offenders in terms of volume and I think it's directly related to the culture of these institutions that promotes not asking questions, blindly following leadership, and the general grooming of their members that no matter what is going on or how much their conscience may be screaming otherwise, whatever happens, it's the Lord's work (and his ways are mysterious, you know, so don't question it).

Stop Californianing my Texas!

This woman is a certifiable nut. Her NextDoor posts make for fascinating reading.

lol, sorry I wasn't clear. There are a ton of Citizens banks around the country. Their loan is not from the bank in Iowa that closed. I blame this on the failures of our federal trademark system. Lots of confused people all over the country wondering if their bank closed today. Nope. EDIt TO ADD: We even have a Citizens Bank in TX, with a few locations in the NE I think.

I've got a family member who has an auto loan from Citizens. They called asking if they could just stop paying it. That sure would be nice, wouldn't it? But no.

Yeah, I'm familiar with that one. They tried to stick them near schools in the first phases under the guise of it being "for the kids". Every parent knows it was way too easy for parents to get in and out of those areas for pick up and drop off, so what's the big deal? Another example of putting ideology before common sense. If we truly want neighborhoods to be more walkable, first you need to build more schools, zone neighborhoods for some commercial development, and, I don't know, maybe have public transportation. But no, we're just going to skip all those steps and go straight to making it difficult to drive a car in a city that leaves you with no other choice.

We're old, all right‽?‽

This is why if we continue down this path it will eventually kill the city. Anyone with the means to do so will leave. The jobs will dry up because anyone worth hiring won't be willing to live here. On the positive side, housing prices will come down.

The wide sidewalks come at the expense of the roadway. It's about narrowing the roads, limiting vehicle access, and widening sidewalks that are not used with enough foot traffic to justify needing to be ten feet or more wide. Ideologically driven nonsense that will ultimately make the city unlivable for most people. You can't force people out of cars when there is no viable alternative. We're doing it backward because we're a young and foolish city. We should absolutely have 5-6 feet wide sidewalks that meet the standards necessary for the disabled absolutely everywhere it's feasible to do so.

I'm all in on completing sidewalks where they don't exist. People should have a place to walk out of the street. The widening of already existing sidewalks (to double the standard size) is what drives me insane.

The wife dragged me down to Taquero Mucho the other night, and it felt very much like a metaphor for the entire city. It was shiny, colorful, and fun on the surface. The service was atrocious and the food was even worse. They made a decent margarita (and by decent I mean they weren't chintzy on the tequila quantities). All in all a terrible experience, though, and not one I would recommend to anyone who enjoys eating good food. Great spots for Insta pics, though! /eyeroll We've become a bright shiny thing with no substance. Very little about Austin is unique to Austin anymore. You could drop someone in most areas of town and they would have no clue what city they're in without asking someone. It's not a bad thing, necessarily, but it is a little sad for those who prefer a city with a personality. No soul left whatsoever. It's a perfect city for tourists and a terrible place for residents, and our local policies both purposefully created this and continue to cater to it. Everything is just good enough to be attractive as long as you don't stick around too long, and the margaritas will make sure your memory of the experience is at least a little bit fuzzy. Underneath it all we're just a cold, bad-tasting taco with chewy carne asada and bland salsa. (but we have tons of bike lanes, so you should move here for all that time you'll spend commuting to work on your bike and being healthy - we promise you won't stop doing it after the first time when you realize you will have to burn the clothes you were wearing and your coworkers won't' get near you.)

I'm fascinated by how many people seem to think the days being shorter has anything to do with getting back on standard time. Study after study has shown how shitty DST is for all kinds of reasons, particularly as it applies to our health. I can understand why degenerate drunks prefer it to be dark in the morning when everyone else is headed to work, and I was very much on that team for a long stretch before I grew up and became boring. I'm not sure these are the voices that should be determining policy. I have no sympathy for the assholes who want to mow their yard at 9:00 at night when everyone else is trying to relax. Get off your ass and do it in the morning or wait till the weekend. Better yet - xeriscape your yard and don't bother with it at all. It's the exact same amount of daylight hours no matter what we do, so sort yourself out. We may as well have the clocks set in a manner that benefits everyone's health and safety, and if nothing else caters to those functional adults who keep the lights on for the rest of the world when it gets dark (at whatever time). My friends the degenerates will find a way to manage. They always do.

I've seen a lot of narrowing of streets and widening of sidewalks in neighborhoods that absolutely don't need it. That money is being spent, just stupidly. Did anyone really expect anything else? And yes, lots of bike lanes that almost never get used for commuting, but provide a nice place to exercise for 50yo old assholes at the expense of everyone else. All based on studies done in cities with nothing in common with Austin. Ideology uber alles.

The message being sent by these assholes is clear: You're a piece of shit for driving a car and should find other ways to get places even though they have no interest in actually providing them. This city has, for a long time now, insisted on implementing solutions that work really well in older cities with cooler climates that will not and never will work here. Austin is a western city and for better or worse is laid out like one. The opportunity to build a city with reasonable public transportation options passed decades ago, and Austin Metro will remain vehicle dependent long after these twats have lived and died. Instead of acknowledging this reality and finding solutions to improve environmental impact that actually works within the framework we're stuck with, these idiots will keep trying to jam that square peg into this round hole until the city is completely unlivable for almost everyone. It's difficult to imagine this being a place anyone wants to live in another thirty years, especially when the tech jobs inevitably move elsewhere.

I have preteen twins. Around age eight I started having "philosophy snacks" with them on Sundays, where we sit down and discuss a particular question about life and how different thinkers, including religious ones of varying faiths, approach the question. It has been an amazing thing for them and for me. This book was the one we started with for guidance: Philosophy for Kids: 40 Fun Questions That Help You Wonder About Everything! Sample topics: Are you a fair and just person? How do you know who your friends are? It is your duty to give to charity? What makes something you say true? We have taken the kids to worship services of a wide range of religions to expose them to what's out there and really want them to find their own way. We're not religious but don't want to prevent them from being so if that's what they want. As for explaining to them that I don't believe in a god, I was simple and straightforward about it. My autistic son made it easy when he came to me very young and told me he didn't think there was a god. He got there on his own before I ever said anything.

Depends on what you're praying about, I suspect.

Prayer = meditation = vision boards = exercise = therapy = whatever you do to center yourself or focus on your journey. Whatever works for you, go for it. While I think prayer can have an impact internally on the individual, much like any other form of self-reflection, I do find it odd that some believe that prayer generates external results. It seems to primarily be an evangelical way of thinking.