Jump to content

Texas Jeff

Legacy Members
  • Posts

    1316
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Texas Jeff

  1. Ah, it's here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/815
  2. I looked, and didn't see it, although maybe this isn't the correct text: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521/text However I am not a lawyer so perhaps it's in there in some way I don't understand.
  3. On the TikTok thing ... I am going to try to apply some logic to this situation which I am honestly hesitant to do, but here goes. TikTok is going dark because we have A LAW against it. We also have the first amendment, but set that aside like the Supremes just did. TikTok, as of tomorrow, is not legal in the United States. The law specifically calls out ByteDance and TikTok. The law gives the President the power to both designate new apps as "foreign adversary controlled" and determine that a foreign adversary controlled app is no longer controlled by a foreign adversary. The Supreme Court has just determined that this law is constitutional. Trump is taking an oath on Monday to faithfully execute the office of President. Part of the job description as stated in the Constitution is to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." Where does he get the 90 day thing? We are a nation of laws. We have a law banning TikTok that goes in to effect on Sunday, our highest court has said it's constitutional, and we have a new guy on Monday that is responsible for executing the laws. He should not get to take an oath in the morning to do his job and then later in the day pick and choose which laws are OK and which should be suspended for 90 days. I'm not in favor of the TikTok ban but it's the current law of the land and he's the guy responsible for enforcing it, whether he likes it or not.
  4. Brentwood was below the flight path for the old airport, which kept families with children away. Once the airport closed, Brentwood was close to downtown with no airport noise and lots of old houses. I’m not familiar with the neighborhood, but I would guess that a lot of the old houses got knocked down and replaced with new. The removal of the airport traffic plus a modernized school led to a generation of kids in the neighborhood, which helped to fill the schools. Can it last? The demographic projections show a stable population for at least ten years, so I would say yes, but there is a chance that empty nesters won’t leave and the neighborhood will gradually see fewer new kids. The McCallum vertical is going through a wave caused by the airport closing and being redeveloped. Eventually it will fade but not yet.
  5. Well this may shock you but Trump has at times been both for and against the ban. For it because we don’t want China have our info and against it because it’s a great platform that many people love to use so who the heck would want to ban it?
  6. Most kids join band in 6th grade. There are two major times when kids quit .... one at the end of the first year of middle school and one at the end of middle school. Our high school band director said that if he could get them on to the bus to their first football game, they were going to graduate high school still in band. Marching band takes a lot of time and effort but it's super social. Each section has a unique personality and the kids become "clarinets" or "flutes" or "trumpets" and it's amazing how the personalities of the kids start to fit their instrument. If your kid has already tried violin and liked it, I would suspect your kid has a pretty good ear. Clarinet should be a good transition. If your kid tries it but discovers they would really prefer something else or to learn multiple instruments, let them try. We had lots of kids in our program that played different instruments in multiple bands. As others have said, work with your band director to find a private teacher that your kid likes, or seek other clarinet parents and ask who they liked, so your kid can find a person they enjoy working with. Your kid may have a lesson once every one or two weeks. Music is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, not a death march, so if the kid hits a rough spot, let them have the experience and try not to pressure them. Once your kid has an instrument, a band director, is in a band program, maybe has a private teacher and some band friends, everything else should just happen from there. You shouldn't have to provide much guidance. Find out where your local music store is so that you can buy a box of reeds or get something fixed. If your kid sticks with clarinet and gets good, think about buying a reasonably good instrument for them sometime in high school. Kids start on rental instruments through a music store or the school, but if the kid really gets into it then your private teacher or band director can guide you to a better instrument once you are sure the kid wants to stick with it. Some instruments like tuba or percussion don't lend themselves to individually owned instruments. Lots of bands go on trips. Send your kid if you can. If you go along as a chaperone, help out while staying away from your kid. They want you to be involved but magically disappear when they are hanging out with their friends. Get involved with the band boosters. Even if you are not a musical person, you have some talent that the band boosters need, particularly in a marching band. Accounting, designing t-shirts, selling merch, building stuff, painting, driving trucks, unloading trucks, loading trucks, unloading trucks, loading trucks, unloading trucks, loading trucks, unloading trucks, serving pizza, making videos, whatever. They always need volunteers. Show up, do a job you know how to do or ask for one you don't, and keep a reasonable distance from your kid.
  7. Eanes closed an elementary school this week. I can’t believe Westlake is out of money and/or short on students, but there it is… I never realized that Eanes had two elementaries that were next door neighbors, like you can walk from one to another across a parking lot. Valley View Elementary, the school they closed, served mostly the Cuernavaca neighborhood even though it was miles away from the community.
  8. SpaceX is scheduled to launch their 7th super heavy test flight today at 4pm Texas time. Hopefully they will be able to catch the lower stage a second time. Coverage is scheduled to start about 45 minutes prior on their website, plus others will be live streaming on YouTube. The upper stage is a new “Block 2” design. This may be the final suborbital flight test with a possible attempt to catch the upper stage on flight 8.
  9. You can see the launch here if you hunt around a bit to find it: Excellent water deluge....
  10. That thing slowly crept off the pad like a Saturn V, but instead of Walter Cronkite there was a women yelling "Oh my God!"
  11. https://www.blueorigin.com/missions/ng-1
  12. During my freshman year in Jester, one guy ended up without a roommate. His room and three other rooms shared a thermostat. The guy pissed off another guy on our floor, so when the solo guy went to sleep, the pissed off guy had the other three rooms block off their vents, plus they put a little heater under the thermostat. The solo guy woke up to a freezing room and had no idea how to warm it up.
  13. The countdown counter is working great. Something's not right with the rocket. This is like watching a team ice a kicker with 300 timeouts in a row, and the booth is having to review each timeout.
  14. Blue Origin's New Glenn is at T-37 minutes from their first launch: https://www.blueorigin.com/missions/ng-1 Not sure if they are going to go tonight or not, but they might...
  15. I went to Camp Longhorn (near Burnet) for four years as a camper and four as a counselor. Sent my kids there too, starting around 2010. Camp Champions is probably similar. Camp Longhorn has three camps, Inks Lake is the original, Indian Springs was the second, and they have a C3 camp on Inks with shorter terms. Inks Lake and Indian Springs offer two and three week terms. When you are young, three weeks is a long time to be away from home. But when you are older, you don't want it to end. Terms at the start of the summer are going to be cooler but the water is going to be colder. The terms towards the end of the summer can be really hot but the water is warmer. I also did a Scouting trek at Philmont when I was 15. At Philmont, you are part of a crew that hikes from camp to camp for about 10 days. I think we covered about 65 miles but I can't remember. My troop had a qualifying hike that you had to pass before you could sign up. I wasn't ready at thirteen. Two years later the qualifier was easy, and Philmont was a challenge but doable and I'm glad I waited.
  16. Among the five living presidents, Joe Biden is now the oldest living president and Donald Trump is second.
  17. will do, thanks!
  18. After two rounds, all conference champs are packing up their stuff: 1. Big 10 Champion 2. SEC Champion 3. Mountain West Champion 4. Big XII Champion 5. SEC runner-up 6. Big 10 runner-up 7. Independent 8. 4th in Big 10 9. 3rd in the SEC 10. 3rd in the Big 10 11. ACC runner-up 12. ACC Champion Only two teams remain that appeared in a conference championship game. Both of those teams are underdogs in the next round.
  19. Rest in peace Jimmy ... a live well lived and an example to us all. I remember listening to his energy speech, I was in 5th grade I think, and that speech made me want to be part of the solution by conserving energy. All the adults blew it off and we went through the 80's guzzling gas like it was an infinite resource, and I was bummed. Carter was always trying to help his fellow Americans. As a kid, I loved this SNL skit:
  20. Responding earnestly, they plan to run it up and blame the Dems.
  21. Meanwhile, just down the street, this thing is laughing at the biology building:
  22. My take on Robin Hood: It was originally intended to equalize wealth between rich and poor districts. It leveled funding for teachers but it did not level funding for facilities. Texans approved plenty of money for "stuff". When Ross Perot was trying to reform schools in the 80's, artificial turf was rare. Now it is ubiquitous. Now schools have indoor practice facilities and at least one poor district built a water park and a golf course. No one wants to see their football team get their ass kicked by the town down the road, so we fund whatever. While we were all bitching about Robin Hood, the Texas government slowly reduced funding for teachers. It used to be about equal funding, but now it's about capped funding. Austin ISD just raised taxes $180 million per year but only $17 million will make it to teachers, and Austin ISD is now capped on what they can do. Shouldn't Austin ISD have the right to raise their own taxes to what the trustees and the voters think is appropriate, to properly fund education? And should the state be prevented from taking 75% of the extra tax money raised? The state is capping what is possible AND taking local property taxes for themselves AND not even putting that part towards education. Why this is the best course of action is beyond me...
×
×
  • Create New...