Samson's Wig

The answer is to properly fund our state education system so that we can educate all top quality applicants as well as those who may need a leg up for one reason of another. But that ship sailed a long time ago. Improving the existing universities in the state is the cleanest road to solving this issue, we just won't do it. We don't even sink enough tax dollars in to subsidize tuition anywhere near the levels we olds enjoyed. That would at least prevent the student debt problem for Texas kids. That money is better spent on graft, toll roads, and suing the federal government over stupid shit I suppose.

Definitely interesting, thanks for posting. The takeaway is ultimately that yes, Putin is little more than a thug. But he's a smart thug.

Unfortunately, this discussion has become too political in Austin to even reasonably discuss it, with both sides entrenched in completely irrational takes. I expect this thread to follow the same pattern as every stupid Next Door thread on the topic. Politics has left even the squishy middle incapable of discourse on just about every topic. No, check that. Every topic.

So we're fucked, basically.

To be fair, he's leaving the RADIO INDUSTRY.

As a general rule, you don't go in house to make more money. But the serious reduction in stress and improved work/life balance can be well worth it depending on your situation. Landing somewhere that you'll cash out with a bunch of money is almost a fairy tale any more. VC will squeeze any value out of equity compensation, even though folks in all roles still fall for it. If you're already on track for savings/retirement and enjoy long lunches, going in house from private practice can be glorious.

I'm having one of the lemons cookies right now. The bomb, indeed. He didn't lie, per se, but didn't correct me when I brought up how bad her allergies seemed. He told a mutual friend about the Covid, which is how I found out.

Well, yeah. I'm not throwing them out to prove a point or anything.

Seriously. I think it may be the dumbest fucking thing of all the dumb fucking things I've heard of someone doing during this pandemic, and I was there to see it first hand.

Short guys. Can't trust 'em.

A neighbor brought his daughter around the neighborhood door-to-door selling girl scout cookies this weekend, knowing she had an active Covid infection. We discussed how bad her allergies seemed to be on my porch while I bought a bunch of fucking cookies. Just counting the minutes till the symptoms kick in at this point. Also spending some quality time devising a plan for how to make the dad suffer interminably.

What do you mean by, "those . . .people"? I don't know why anyone goes to aggy. Weird decision that many make though. In spite of recognizing the difference in rankings, I'm not sure the gap between an engineering degree at UT and A&M, or even TTU for that matter, is that significant in terms of earning potential and career prospects. The ceiling may be marginally higher for UT grads, but the floor for a graduate from any of them is about the same. The specific discipline certainly comes into play, with each having their respective weaker and stronger departments. Culturally, of course, there is a world of difference between the three, and this is what matters most for those selecting where to study. Someone who isn't comfortable with authoritarian circle jerking would have a hard time in college station, I would think. But UT has gotten so difficult to get into, due to population growth more than anything else if we're being honest, that these kids have to go somewhere. If you're a socially functional eighteen year old, I can't imagine staring down the barrel of attending aggy.

Graduation rate is a data point that interests me in these discussions. UT, like every other school, massages these numbers to the point it's hard to really know the reality. I'm all for letting in kids who had a tougher road to get to the door over kids who perhaps had an easier go. I think you have to be very careful with this type of system, however, as where to draw the line is not something you can really plug into analytics and get a concrete answer. Ultimately, a flat meritocracy is the only truly clean way of handling admissions, but as other have noted it doesn't necessarily lead to the best overall result. Figuring out how to balance more nebulous criteria will always be difficult and controversial. Back to graduation rates - if you let in kids who are weaker students based on their background, whether it's because of race/socioeconomics/disability or because daddy is buying a new library, you have to also supply resources that will help them take that step or you're just setting them up for failure. There's no glory in admitting a shitload of kids to your school when half of them never make it out, no matter what criteria you use to screen them. I also think that there is a lot of generalizing about "rich" kids in this thread, which I suspect also pervades admissions offices. In our current climate, there are plenty of professionals with kids heading to college in the next decade who won't have their own student loans paid off by then. Millennials had to borrow out the ass for school, especially for professional degrees, and then entered a world where they're having to pay double or more for a family home than what was happening just a few years ago. Just because mom's a lawyer and dad's a pharmacist doesn't mean they can just pay for junior to go to school out of pocket. The landscape is changing and tuition continues to skyrocket, and there won't be many people left at all who can afford to just pay their kids' way through school. The notion that a successful mom and dad also means Junior will have an easy time finding work is also convoluted. In some cases it will help, sure, but not all. In the end, American higher education is fucked up and needs serious fixing. Other developed nations tend to have more specialized public universities, which are smaller than giant American public unis, and provide a solid landing spot for kids from all backgrounds and interests. In America, we tend to let expensive private college fill this niche, which makes it inaccessible to almost everyone. Texas might be the most egregious example in the world of a government putting too many eggs into one basket instead of spreading public funding of higher education out. The other, perhaps more important, part of the equation is that we don't spend near enough on higher education in general, leaving tuition too high and opportunities limited.

That would mean hiring more teachers, which would mean reducing bloated administrative costs, i.e. never gonna happen.

If you own anything of value that will be left behind when you die, get your shit together and spare your family this kind of crap. Too many think just having a will is enough.

I did a bit of subbing as a young man between undergrad and law school. It was one of the worst things I've ever done. If I could take the time off from work now I might sign up just to help out, but I'm really glad that I can't. Kids are acting like complete asshats for their regular teachers these days. Can't even imagine what subs are dealing with. Anyone doing it deserves respect.

Licorice Pizza. Not his best work, but an enjoyable PTA film. More accessible than some of his recent projects.

Wordle 210 4/6 🟨⬛🟨⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟨⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Absurdle 6/∞ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Fuck my life. I'm moving to Siberia.

So are we just now at the FAFO stage of this pandemic? Starting to feel like it.

Speaking of chimps, this thread should be mandatory reading/viewing for any evolution deniers out there. I don't think you can watch theses videos and still claim with a straight face that we don't share ancestry with apes.

Absurdle is definitely tougher than Wordle. Absurdle 9/∞ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩 🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wordle 209 5/6 🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩 🟨🟩⬛🟨🟩 🟩🟩⬛🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

DELETED - thought I was responding to something more recent. Don't want to mess up the flow of the thread.