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Samson's Wig

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Posts posted by Samson's Wig

  1. 4 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

    Most of what I've read is saying bars and gyms appear to be the main culprits for all of these young people coming down sick. Based on contact tracing and the like. Are you seeing something else? I've been mostly behaving as if you're unlikely to catch it outdoors (though I'm not going to a football game, for one). If there's a big shift towards people getting it from being outdoors amongst infected, that's a big shift (and would be really shitty).

    No - and I'm actually largely in agreement with you.  I think if you're outdoors and social distancing I haven't read or seen anything to indicate that's a concern.  But folks at Bull Creek are piled on top of each other, as are the folks you can see on Town Lake, etc.  Gyms have reopened but are still largely empty, and bars were open prior to a couple of weeks ago, so I have a hard time buying that they're the sole cause for the spike.  It's possible, but ignoring the increase in large gatherings of people that began just three weeks ago or so seems unlikely.  I haven't seen any data either way, just prognostications.

     

    And in all seriousness - I don't have a political axe to grind.  At all.

  2. 5 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

    I don't have any issue with people being at Bull Creek without a mask. I think it's pretty much a near-zero chance that someone is going to catch Covid in an outdoor setting like that. Same with beaches, etc. I believe in data and science and both of those things show that the risk of catching it outdoors like that is incredibly low.

    I would have agreed with you a few weeks ago, but this spike we're seeing isn't coming from folks hanging around together indoors.  Young people were drinking in bars well before this.  It's folks out and about enjoying their summer.

  3. 1 minute ago, DaysOff said:

    The latest iteration of the Oasis is still in business? Does the food still suck?

    Yes . . . but.  They hired a new chef and fixed things up last year.  I was pleasantly surprised when we took some visitors out there.  Still overpriced for what it was, paying for the view, etc.  but much much better than before.   From what I've heard they're on a small menu during all of this and I don't know if it's any good or not.  Reports are that it's packed with the unwashed, and umasked, masses every weekend though.

    • Like 1
  4. 1 minute ago, dcar00 said:

    calling BradinATX, calling BradinATX

    bull creek is local morons

    Bull creek is local only in the sense that it's folks that can drive there for the day.  But they don't live near bull creek.  They're tourists.  But we can agree that they're morons. 

  5. On the issue of enforcing masks, how the hell is anyone going to do so anyway?  I agree that he should have just said that masks are mandatory, as there's really no practical difference between a mandatory mask rule and no mandatory mask rule.  No one is going to get ticketed or even hassled over it by law enforcement.  They haven't even been writing traffic tickets since early March.   Maybe he thought that declaring masks mandatory would actually result in less mask usage thanks to the "But Mah Rites!" folks. 

    I hate hate hate that Texas is being lumped in with Florida right now, but there's no denying one glaring commonality: both states have abysmal public education.  I don't think that's a coincidence.  

    And the large crowds gathering in Austin are largely made up of tourist assholes, which is really annoying.  Stay the fuck at home.  Suicide selfie point hasn't slowed down a bit this entire time, Bull Creek is full of morons every weekend, the god damn Oasis is doing a thriving business right now for fucks sake.  I just don't get it.  And I can only imagine what you guys in Port A, S PAdre, etc. are thinking now, with less hospital beds to deal with all of the twats crowding in.

    • Like 1
  6. Mayor jenny may need to do some research on the realities of the last summer of love.  Rape, botched alleyway abortions, physical abuse of women, overdoses, starvation, and general misery were all rampant in the Haight that year.  A few long haired dudes had a good time I suppose.  I guess we have movies to blame for glossing over the realities, but anytime children take over things it all goes to shit.  Here's hoping Chaz and the gang don't repeat what happened in San Francisco in Seattle.

  7. Got the bonfire all set up for an outdoor hang this evening.  Will probably grill some steaks just to see if I can crank this bitch to 120 or so on the back porch.  Hot toddies for the grownups, and hot cocoa and smores for the kids.  I love this fall weather!

    Reality:  I've been running numbers trying to figure out how to spend the next few months in an isolated cabin in the Rockies.  I don't usually start making desperate escape pans until mid July at the earliest. 

    • Like 1
  8. On 6/6/2020 at 8:40 AM, CHIEF said:

    The review board would deem that use of force justified. The members of the board will have to be impartial and not be agenda driven. 

    lol.  Good luck.

    • Like 1
  9. 4 hours ago, AngryDragon said:

     

     

    I guess I need to take my lumps. Could be this guy too. Former cop. 

    Don't beat yourself up.  The asshole who incorrectly outed him and almost ruined an innocent man's life on Twitter is a self proclaimed phrophetess and physic.  No sensible person would have doubted her. 

  10. 8 hours ago, formermav43 said:

    Wait till you find out about sessions of Congress.

    Oh I'm aware.  I was just commenting on which of those two issues is of larger concern.  A fundamentalist bubba in rural Texas thinking women should shut up and cook is just bubba doing what bubba do.  Fundamentalist nutjobs trying to unduly influence government at any level is always a problem.  

  11. 16 hours ago, South Austin said:

    So I finally got around to watching this video, and Brad, wherever you are, good will come from your story. 

    On Friday my 13-year-old daughter asked if she could meet up with a nearby friend for a "social-distance walk."  I knew there was a chance they might not exercise the same degree of caution as adults, but I also knew she was starved for interaction with a friend apart from texting, FaceTime, and Zoom calls.  So I happily let her go, knowing this was the first time she was going to be physically present with a friend since the Friday before Spring Break.  She was gone for 3.5 to 4 hours, and I actually started to get worried and texted her.  Turns out they walked all the way to Northwest Park for a picnic and took their time getting back.  No matter; when she got back to my house she looked like somebody injected her with pure happiness.  I never thought she was down; she's a pretty mature, solid, and even-keeled old soul for an eighth-grader.  But she looked like a different person after hanging out with a friend. 

    It's hard enough for adults.  But we may not be picking up on how truly tough this is for our kids.     

    I couldn't agree more, SA.  Kids absofuckinglutely need time with their friends, especially those kids around junior high/middle school age as this is the time our development is focused almost entirely on socialization (kids friends at that age are in many ways more important than their family).  It's taking a major toll on them, and we seem as a society more concerned with kids doing meaningless schoolwork that I'm convinced they get no benefit from whatsoever (that's another dicussion) than we are about their mental health. 

    My kids are younger than your daughter (8 yo twins), but we've allowed them to play outside with friends a couple of times during this mess and the positive impact on their attitude is amazing to witness.  Schools need to open back up this fall unless there is a really compelling reason (i.e. something very different than what is happening now) not to do so.  AISD is discussing only allowing 25% back, which I assume will be kids on school lunch programs, and rightfully so under this plan.  However, if they do this I expect the mass exodus of families from Austin that has been going on for a couple of decades will ramp up even more significantly.  Surrounding schools that open up fully this fall may see an explosion of enrollment.

    Most adults, in our society at least, have been training for spending time isolated for most of the last few decades as our society has become more and more isolated thanks to changes in  technology and the workplace.  It sucks, but most adults can handle this isolation (although not forever).  Kids are still living in another time, however, spending their days with a large social group filled with people they enjoy and people they can't stand, authority figures who either suck or provide an amazing learning environment, bullies, bad food, great friends, various activities scattered throughout each day, and the opportunity to stretch their brains a bit in a group environment (ideally).   Taking this away has already done untold damage to a generation that we won't fully understand for years, and the longer we continue to withhold it the more disastrous it  will be.   I'm hoping that we can move forward from a place of reason this fall, rather than the state of fear and panic from which we were forced to make decisions this spring. Anyone who tries to argue that distance learning is beneficial, whether educationally, for mental health, or for society in general is either pushing an agenda or simply clueless.

      

  12. 1 hour ago, Scary Stranger said:

    Stop listening to them?

    Avoiding CV talk is easier said than done.  For me, at least, the desire to make informed decisions typically outweighs the urge to put my head in the sand (except where sports are concerned, naturally).  The problem now is that there is no trustworthy information upon which to base one's opinion.  This thread is filled with guys with very strong opinions on this subject, but everyone of them is completely full of shit.  I'm usually one of them, however, which is the confusing part for me.  Normally it's relatively easy to cut through the bullshit of a situation and see at least enough of the truth to form an educated opinion.  That just doesn't exist right now, even if some are still doing so because it makes them feel better to sound confident. 

    The reality is that many are simply predisposed to a "better safe than sorry" approach to life and many others are predisposed to an "I won't live my life afraid" approach.  Neither approach is wrong, in my opinion, but being in either camp makes it easy to slide into the slipstream of information that supports the underlying approach, which then leads to the overconfident nonsense one hears from friends and neighbors, or reads in this thread.  For those who don't adhere to either of those basic philosophies, the lack of any solid information combined with the politicization of the issue leave us twisting in the wind a bit.   

    Someone noted above that we should be thinking locally, which I agree with 100%.  I feel bad for the northeast, and I have friends and family up there.  I'm not naive enough to think that what is going on in NYC has any direct causation to what we should be doing in Texas.  We should be paying attention to it, to be sure, and helping if we can, but we have to determine what makes the most sense locally based on what is happening locally.

    • Like 2
  13. Well, I'm firmly in the camp of having absolutely no fucking clue what the right thing to do is anymore.  I appreciate how political all of this nonsense has become, leaving citizens to have to just guess for themselves based on mounds of conflicting "expert" opinions out there.  The data is unreliable, and changes based on source.  The guidelines for safety vary city by city.

    I don't trust any politicians' motives, regardless of party, and it just makes practical sense to assume that any move is politically based and not based on the health and well-being of the citizenry.  Those blindly following bureaucrats because they have a medical degree may want to think that one through as well, although I acknowledge that their baseline trustworthiness starts much higher than an elected official.  Like anyone else in any line of work, however, they're subject to tunnel vision and I think we're seeing a certain amount of it right now.

    Ultimately, I don't have a fucking clue what the right thing to do is, and that is not a position I have ever found myself in.  The biggest impact of this virus for me, personally, is the loss of decisiveness I've always had before.   

    Like everyone else, I'm tired as fuck of sitting at home, and I can see the toll it's taking on my wife and kids.  Natural instincts tell you that something has to change on that front to protect your family.  But then you read another article from an expert or idiotic governor spewing doomsday rhetoric and you second guess yourself.  I don't mind, and in fact prefer, a scenario where I'm left to determine for myself what is best for me and my family.  I just wish everyone else would shut the fuck up so I can think.

     

    • Like 6
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