Jump to content

Texas Jeff

Legacy Members
  • Posts

    1448
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Texas Jeff

  1. more parents... sometimes you might have two kids on a prop to start and that gets cut to one kid.
  2. Some of the kids moving props are being held in reserve because of no pass no play. The end of the first grading period is right in the middle of marching band contest season, and inevitably some "marching" kids won't make grades and won't be able to participate. The prop kids are moved into the show to backfill for the kid that failed. This is one of the impacts of no pass no play. Band directors have to figure out based on history how many kids won't make it to the end of the season and plan ahead, so not every kid gets a spot on the field at the beginning of the year. Not saying this happens everywhere, but it does happen.
  3. Texas / Texaco - an iconic brand that everyone associates with the Lone Star State Texas A&M / Bucee's - surprisingly large for something in the middle of nowhere Texas Tech / Allsup's - people from West Texas know what it is
  4. Hey, there are butts in seats and they are selling beer so it's working for them. The club music is crowd Viagra. Students shouldn't need it, but everyone's doing it. They have taken a lot of stuff that used to be organic: cheerleading, the band, the Texas Fight cheer, etc, and turned it into a sequence of events. There's only one Texas Fight chant per game because they do it when the Jumbotron tells them to do it and it would not occur to anyone to do it spontaniously. I remember a mid-90's Texas/OU game when our offense was in neutral, but the defense was kicking butt. The Texas side started doing "Defense" chants during the second half for every play, every series and the defense kept getting better and better. It was awesome and a lot of fun. That's not going to happen when you rely on a sound system. I remember a game when the starting QB was struggling and the cheerleaders were leading a cheer that was "What do you want? TD. What's that? Touch down!". The students changed it to "Who do you want? JB. Who's that? James Brown!" Hilarious and the students went nuts when Brown got into the game. He deserved to start and he's still one of my favorite Longhorns. Longhorn Band is still awesome, but they can't compete with artificial noise. They are coming back from some down years, with COVID hitting at the same time that the "Eyes of Texas" controversy hit. They are working hard to be more diverse. The administration and alumni are supporting them and they are well funded. Texas high school bands are the strongest in the nation and the band gets smart kids from those bands that can play their butt off. Some of these kids come to Texas to become the next generation of music educators and some will become our next engineers, business leaders, doctors and lawyers. It would be great if they were featured more in the stadium but they are still students having fun getting ready to be leaders, just like those before them.
  5. My wife likes "Murder She Wrote". This little bit got me on her bad side: You know that chick on "Murder She Wrote"? She killed every one of those dudes, every week. I'm supposed to buy the idea that every week she, a murder writer, just stumbles upon a new murder and has to solve the case? It was her all the time. No way. She was a friggin' mass murderer.
  6. Here's the original from 2004. My bad if it has expired... Obviously the city would have to negotiate with the land owner. But only one land owner. Exhibit E shows the special zoning allowed by the agreement. 200 ft tall allowed for multi-family. The ranch has huge potential with the Red Line running right through it and a toll road. Austin is not out of space.
  7. In my experience, no one is a NIMBY when it's not your backyard. When it is your backyard, NIMBY shows up. Would anyone today in a SFH really enjoy having two giant buildings built on either side of your house, with cars and trash cans all up and down your street, or would you just sell the "dirt" and move? I'm OK with duplexing, like much of central Austin already is zoned. Those were the rules when most people bought their properties so they shouldn't be surprised when someone uses those rules. Propose duplexed zoning for Circle C -- watch out for NIMBYs. I actually rode CapMetro the other day. I had to make a carless trip back home and decided to give it a go, a rapid route connecting to a local. The rapid routes are pretty nice and frequent. That's where we should be increasing density. The local routes suck. CapMetro ended up taking twice as long as walking would have. I did it in 90 degree weather and I was still soaked in sweat when I got home. No one is going to ride CapMetro in 105 degree heat unless they absolutely have to, or unless they have a cool, safe place to wait for a convenient trip. I'll always point to Robinson Ranch when someone wants to rezone SF neighborhoods ... vacant land ... almost unlimited zoning ... rail cuts right through it ... Apple nearby ... ... rail goes to the Domain and downtown ... zero development. Why no action?
  8. It is not. Not sure what they're going to build there but the building is gone. It was there pre-COVID.
  9. Texas 35 UTSA 10. Wright tosses an TD to RoJo, RoJo returns the favor by tossing a TD to Wright. Bijan turns a little dump-off pass into an 80 yd TD. Defense gives up 186 yards. If App State can hold Texas A&M to 186 on the road, we can hold UTSA to 186 at home.
  10. I love our chances in the SEC.
  11. COVID did a number on fine arts and athletic participation, especially at lower socioeconomic schools. Last year was my final year as a band parent and I was shocked to see the change in the size of bands at UIL. The poorer the band, the more they lost. Akins enrollment has peaked and is headed down, along with almost every other AISD high school. The district is slowing repairing the schools -- but it's just too expensive to live in Austin. I predict that by 2032, Austin ISD will not have a single 6A school. "Early College High School" means that they partner with ACC to offer college hours for high school classes, so that kids can graduate with an associate's degree and shave a year or two off of their college costs.
  12. This conversation has never happened: "Bro, you going to the game this weekend?" "Not sure man, who are they playing?" "It's the Tech game" "Tech? I'm in...." No way they give away 1/6th of their non-conference games to play in Lubbock.
  13. Yes, but you don't have to convert the entire amount. You can pick how much you want to convert to Roth. You can convert more next year if you wish, or not. I see the benefits of Roth conversions as allowing you to pick today's marginal tax rate for income rather than some unknown future rate, and allowing you to shelter more wealth in a Roth IRA than you have in a regular IRA. You end up with the same number of dollars in a Roth that you had in the regular IRA, but it's now taxed and any future income is tax free. You can also dial in your income to exactly what you want it to be, which may allow you to maximize the benefit of a lower tax bracket without getting into higher brackets.
  14. Volunteered to be a truck driver and jeep mechanic at age 18 during WWII. Only female royal to have served in the military.
  15. Hmm, check out the info here: https://www.houstonisd.org/Page/129737 That page is specific to one Houston high school, but it has a phone number to the school transfer dept for all of HISD. Or https://www.houstonisd.org/domain/54200 specific to middle schools. You may not be able to get the kid into a specific school without doing something like renting an apartment in the attendance zone for the school, but you may be able to find a place somewhere in HISD for a transfer.
  16. Don't really know ISDs in that area, but: Alief accepts transfers: https://www.aliefisd.net/loe Stafford had a window to transfer, maybe you could beg your way in: https://www.staffordmsd.org/become-a-spartan/non-resident-student-transfer Spring Branch has a transfer window: https://www.springbranchisd.com/studentsfamilies/choice-program/about-the-transfer-process Bottom line is they want the bucks and an empty seat does them no good.
  17. Does your district accept transfers? Districts with extra space want transfers because the money follows the kid.
  18. Texas wins 37-21 and goes on to dominate college football for a decade. Hey, it could happen... Ewers 314 yds
  19. oops, forgot that one. You are correct!
  20. When was the last time the #1 team visited DKR? U of H was #3 in 1990. Nebraska was #3 in 1999. I found a 1953 game vs #3 Baylor. Looking at Wikipedia, it might have been a 1950 game vs SMU. Texas won 23-20.
  21. This was my first game in the stadium in about 10 years; kids activities took up my weekends but I'm now an empty nester. The student section was great and the crowd was great overall, especially early in the game for a lightweight opponent. The club music after every play on defense wears you down to the point where you're just sitting there hoping we get the ball back or the other team scores. It sucks any organic life out of the stadium. I'll go to a few games a year with the stadium like this but don't want to take the Jumbotron beating for every game, so TV it will be. Also, don't mess with Texas people. Is it that hard to pick up your beer cans and water bottles on the way out and put them in a recycling bin? The stadium was trashed after the game and someone else has to clean up all of the crap. One minute of looking around you and carrying your stuff out would save some other folks a huge amount of work. I walked up towards the Posse after the game and saw discarded beer cans the whole way. We have an awesome 98 year old stadium that has changed with the times and a beautiful campus with nice shady spots under fantastic old oak trees. Clean up your stuff!
  22. The law is clearly not limited to just one poster, right? And it gives the school district no discretion to choose which posters to display and which ones not to display? Text of the law: https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/html/SB00797I.htm Here's the chuckleheads accepting the original posters a few weeks ago, complete with photo op in the middle of a board meeting (Item 4): https://carrollisdtx.swagit.com/play/08162022-550 Also, if "a sign" in the law means "one sign", then the Patriot mobile donated signs are illegal, because the law specifies that signs must have "a representation of the state flag", which would mean "one representation of the state flag" ... and the Patriot mobile signs have two depictions of the state flag.
  23. All things gameday parking are here: https://texassports.com/sports/2016/5/4/parking.aspx Looks like there are some ADA parking options by Disch-Falk, with a shuttle over to the stadium. I've always parked somewhere north of campus and walked. Not being stuck in a garage after the game is a huge advantage. CapMetro runs high frequency buses down Guadalupe every 15 minutes, if you live close to one of those routes. I've never ridden one but folks do take these to the Austin FC games.
  24. I think they are dependent on what happens to Del Valle. Here's their district sorted by enrollment: Lake Travis 3680.5 Del Valle 3578 Westlake 2842 Bowie 2830.5 Akins 2642.5 Hays Johnson 2474 Dripping Springs 2335 Austin High 2381 Anderson 2232 If Del Valle makes the playoffs, Westlake gets the easier path. It's a crazy system. Westlake will crush everyone in their district except LT, but there is a chance they would be a "smaller" school in the playoffs. If LT wants to screw Westlake, they will build that second high school and then manage enrollment at LT to always be Westlake minus one.
  25. Given lots of time, sure. Project Connect is eventually (like 2040-ish, IMHO) going right next to campus. You'll be able to get from the IM fields to the courthouse in maybe 20 mins without a car. I'm not sure if any campus around the state will be in the middle of a better transit system once the rail system is built. Either UT is going to buy land and box out high tech or high tech is going to move in and put pressure on UT. UT could buy up west campus or land around these stops to eventually create housing or more campus buildings. UT still owns the Muny campus, which was originally donated to be used for education. Someone is eventually going to buy and develop the Austin State School off of 35th. The area between 15th and MLK south of campus is mostly state office buildings and parking for state office buildings. Do we need that to be state office buildings? Low paying jobs in a super expensive area of town? The state could gradually move out and give UT some room for expansion, but I doubt they will. Lots of students are arriving on campus as freshman with 20-30 hours of AP credit. UT isn't teaching as many of the fundamental core classes as they were decades ago. It's hard to get upper division classes but there are fewer large lecture classes. I think UT won't expand because they are happy as is. They get to choose from the best students around the state. Lots of students are showing up as academic sophomores. They get a high ranking and an easy to educate population, who are likely to help out with research. And sending some students to other UT schools helps those schools get better. Also, LONG term, like 2050-2100, the population of the US and Texas is going to peak and then start declining. Once it starts down, it won't stop. You are going to see this in the next ten years as the number of kids in the US of college age drops. Super long term, we won't need as many colleges.
×
×
  • Create New...