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Samson's Wig

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Everything posted by Samson's Wig

  1. Absolutely. Sometimes I'll order a soda when meeting someone I'll be negotiating a deal with for the first time, if it's at a place that it would be considered a faux pas. I will especially do this when they order a cocktail at lunch. I find it confuses the hell out of them, and/or makes them underestimate me, and I like that. I'm already the redneck gentile relative to most of the folks in my line of work, so sometimes I just lean into it to great effect on the outcomes for my clients. I like to think of it as Matlocking, even though I'm mostly handling transactional work and I'm nowhere near THAT folksy.
  2. Never took you for a tech bro.
  3. I agree with this 100%, but if you saw roundabout he is referencing you would agree it's the dumbest fucking roadway project in the history of roadway projects, yes even that one. It's not the type of roundabout one thinks of when they think of a roundabout. It needlessly made that very tiny intersection more dangerous. I would love to know the backstory on it, as it almost has to involve someone pocketing cash on the deal, or some type of "spend it or lose" type situation. It's really dumb.
  4. You need to be telling your son/daughter that they need to be paying very close attention and making some decisions about the future. AISD is ciricling the drain, and nothing is going to save it. It's a matter of when, not if, TEA takes over the district. My bet is within the next 2 years. Everyone that can should get out while the getting is good. Our kids are begging us to stay at Lamar for 8th grade. We're not sure what we're going to do, but I'm solid at this point that they won't attend high school in AISD no matter what we do next year.
  5. I bailed after parents started yelling and screaming, and watched the rest on Zoom. There was no need for that, even if the anger is justified. Segura was a spineless liar, though, and his performance did nothing to cool down the temperature. He got flustered easily and started making slips in the company line. One of the more common was when "if" became "when" anytime he was flustered. The most blatant lie, at least of those I noticed, was when he said Title 1 designation does not equate to money, even though in the next breath he said but it doesn't matter because Title 1 is being cut by 25%. No answer to the questions about how Lamar is supposed to help these Dobie kids, of whom around 5% passed the last STAAR test, when Lamar will not be receiving the massive amount of additinoal funding that Dobie gets. I have never been impressed with him, but last night was the most sure sign of him being in over his head yet. The most telling part of all of this is that the charter school option involves bringing in a group with a proven track record of getting underperforming schools up to par (something AISD has proven it is incapable of doing at Dobie), but they will not consider it at all. He hid behind some vague notion of "values", (talk about a subjective term), when we all know the reality that it is about preserving funding and jobs and that these kids are the last consideration for this board and admin. They are going to take kids who are failing in an environment where they have tons of funding, a 14:1 student teacher ratio, and all of the special programming kids like this can ask for and dump them into a school that will have none of those extras services, currently has a 36:1 student/teacher ratio, is already well above the population limit to the point I don't understand how they pass fire inspections and they can barely get all the kids fed lunch each day, and somehow were supposed to believe this is better than leaving them right where they're at and brining in a third party that has proven success at schools just like Dobie? Fuck those lying assholes. The boogieman of the state is very real, and no one wants that, but the lack of accountability from the district is depressing. They've had years to address this issue and he tried to push the nonsense that they just found out about all of these "F" grades in the last month. They were using the false hope that a lawsuit would work out in their favor as an excuse to do absolutely nothign to plan for this when it's been obvious it was coming since before the pandemic. They tried to pull off busing to avoid this issue back in 2020 or so. Shuffling kids around to massage test scores rather than working to find ways to actually educate kids is pathetic ass covering, and they're all culpable even if they're fairly new to the job.
  6. Lots of hot parents at that meeting that undoubtedly had long discussions within earshot of their kids afterward. Lamar teachers are shitting bricks right now as well and will be discussing it with the kids as well. I see a wave of panic leading to mass exodus before things calm down a little. If enough kdis bail from Lamar it will make way for more Dobie kids, I guess, but it will also result in Lamar becoming an F rated school all over again.
  7. Yep, and AISD is about to ruin all of that improvement in one fell swoop. Segura (superintendent) was never qualified for the job in the first place, although to be fair, the last couple before him were even worse despite having the credentials. He did a terrible job in the meeting last night, blatantly lying and doubling down when called out by angry parents. They would have gained much more traction if they were just fucking honest about it. As Larry mentioned, Lamar families are a fairly altruistic bunch. The messaging from the dumbasses in central office should had been, "You know what, we've failed these kids for years and have failed to foresee what was an extremely obviousy situation that is now upon us and we have planned absolutely nothign for it. The Lamar community has demonstrated the ability to put in the tough work that families have to do to make an inner city school work, and we're asking you to help out your neighbors now because there really isn't much we as administrators can do at this point." This would have gone over much better than the lying, obfuscating, and refusal to accept any ownership for the situation that those cowards presented last night. What a sorry bunch of overpaid dipshits, starting with and especially the superintendent. Vouchers are already going to further decimate AISD, but this move will send a ton of high-performing kids to private schools whose families, just a week ago, were ride or die with the public school system.
  8. Kicking ass. Weening off the juice as my body has started doing what it's supposed to again.
  9. It's crazy (and depressing) just how bad even moderate drinking is for your health.
  10. I, for one, completely agree with you regarding the calories in/calories out stuff. That myth has become so ingrained over the years that some people evangelize it as if it's gospel, despite most of the science pointing to the contrary. At the very least, it's massively reductive and not helpful for most folks struggling with obesity. Here's just one article from Harvard Medical School supporting what you've been saying: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories
  11. I haven't weighed sub 170 since high school, and I was chiseled like a Greek God at about 180 (at least in my mind). I'm about that same weight now, but the muscle definition keeps disappearing with age, no matter how much effort goes into it. Some of you must have hollow bird bones or something. I'm only 5'11", but I would look like a castaway if I weighed 160.
  12. I second this. I've also got two packs, one set up with 35lbs and one with 70lbs, but I worked up to that heavier one over the last five years or so. It's the easiest no-brainer way to shed some pounds, strengthen multiple muscle groups at once, and get in exercise even on days you don't really feel like a more traditional workout. Just make walking the dog, or going for a walk, a little bit more difficult, and you will see results.
  13. Farming doesn't involve near the physical labor it used to, and not for a long time now. The diets didn't change with the technology, unfortunately. And now I'm really craving some biscuits with cream gravy for some reason.
  14. Yeah, that stupid mini roundabout is the most representative thing I've ever seen for Austin's leadership. It cost a ton of money and made things worse. At least the roundabout on the other side of town was an improvement.
  15. Presumably because they have low scores as well, but the scores aren't published until next week, I believe. The state is requiring the Dobie kids to be moved to a school with an A or B rating, or in the alternative that a charter school is set up for them. The district isn't even considering the charter option, as the admin sees it as a gateway to losing their jobs, although they'll pitch it as letting the fox in the henhouse, which is also true. That they're considering putting 550 kids into a school that is already insanely overcrowded to the point of being unsafe tells you how desperate they are, and that they have had absolutely no plan for this even though it's been coming for years. These kids have been failed by lots of different groups.
  16. I think you're right about this, for sure. The state is coming, whether we like it or not. Destroying a year of education for two middle schools to save the jobs of people who have been failing at them is nonsense. The district is fucked either way, but they're not doing anything here that is putting the kids or education first. No matter how this shakes out next week, AISD will lose a lot more students before next fall. Vouchers alone will drive a lot of it (although I can't imagine where exactly there is going to be room in private schools for all the people who will want to bail), but you'll see half the kids at Lamar gone even without the voucher program if this cockeyed plan is passed, which it will be as they've done their damndest to ensure there is almost no input from the public, and the transcript of their last meeting makes it clear they have no intention of listening to the actual stakeholderes involved. Priority number one is to make sure no one at the central office loses their job, followed by ensuring that no administrators at Dobie lose their jobs, and then no teachers at Dobie lose their jobs. Nowhere in the analysis, outside of pandering pablum, is what might be best for all of the students involved. Nowhere is there any discussion about how AISD has failed these kids, or how they have had years to do something about it and have not acted until now, when their hand is forced. And this is just as much a reason why AISD is failing as the state's machinations. And most of these people are still going to lose their jobs, they may just delay it for a year or two by sacrificing some kids. The (only) public meeting on this before they vote on Thursday is on Monday evening and it is going to be raucous. I expect it to go very similarly to how the meetings went the last time they tried to force busing around 2019 (for the same purpose of blending test scores instead of fixing problems at underperforming schools). Some people will raise valid concerns about overcrowding, safety, and how classrooms that already have an average of more students per teacher than the law allows at Lamar (36 per teacher), and they will just be told their concerns are invalid and based solely on their inherent racism. Some people will also say some shit that is indeed racist. Nothing constructive will be accomplished. In the end, the failures of the state, the school district, the school, and the community of parents involved will be dumped in the laps of another group of educators and parents who have been busting their asses just to keep their heads above water at Lamar, an already overcrowded school that is falling apart, infested with rodents, and facing the same struggles any other inner city school does. But we're not supposed to be upset about that for some reason.
  17. No, I don't think so. It would still be a shit show if all of the non-zoned kids were pushed out, but it would provide some cushion. I believe around 70% of the FAA kids are already zoned for Lamar, but I'm not sure what the total number is off hand. I also imagine a decent percentage of those kids will be bailing for private schools, or trying to transfer to other AISD middle schools if this goes down on Thursday. The only solution here that is reasonable for all of the kids is the charter school option, but these cowards won't take it because that will mean some admin, and possibly some teachers, will lose their jobs. The first first words out of the superintendent's mouth when interviewed wasn't about kids or education, or why Dobie has been struggling. It was about promising that no administrators or teachers will lose their jobs on his watch. That's his priority, not the kids, not educating the next generation.
  18. I agree with you to a point, but they're not just nuking Dobie. This will nuke Lamar as well. It's a band-aid that won't stop the state from coming. It might delay them for another year or two, but that's about it. Lamar will just become the next failing school, and so on, and at some point they'll run out of ways to hide underperforming kids to skirt state law. The district has known this was coming for years and has done absolutely nothing about it. They get no sympathy from me when they act shocked that is has happened. This is ultimately their failure, even if the challenge has been a huge one. Between the voucher program and moves like this, every kid that can will be in private school within a year or two, and AISD won't have much of anything left to educate any kids with. It's terrible for all of us. Frankly, I'm at the point where I think AISD admin is just as bad as the state. Hell, our goofy superintendent wasn't even certified for the job. Big shocker that nothing has been done under his watch, although to be fair, none of his predecessors did anything either other than try and bring back busing of all the stupid ideas. They've had years to attempt to solve this problem, and instead waited until the shoe dropped and will now rush forward with the dumbest plan they could come up with at the last second to save their jobs. There are no good actors above the individual school level, and while I have zero interest in the state stepping in, at this point it may end up being the only way to get anything done. Just completley break it so we can try and build something better down the line. Continuing on the nonsense path we've been on certainly isn't working.
  19. What I'm reading here is that Elon took the software the City of Austin uses to determine water and electricity usage and put it in his odometers. Interesting.
  20. Unless, of course, they meant that they read this information in an attempt to cure themselves of their ignorance on the subject, in which case the username once again does not check out. I think?
  21. So, the cowards at AISD dropped a bomb in parent's lap last night, as a reaction to the assholes at the state dropping the initial bomb on them late yesterday (all conveniently right before a holiday weekend to avoid all the angry phone calls, etc.). All of this conveniently happening the same day school vouchers passed the state house. The state is finally making a move on AISD due to the shittastic performance of Dobie. It's insane that our laws allows for one bad school to take down an entire district, especially when that school is struggling, in part, due to actions taken by the state. The cowards in AISD administration, by way of the school board, are desperately trying to save their jobs (because if they state takes over they'll all be gonzo) by closing Dobie and moving all ~550 students over to Lamar Middle School, which is already overcrowded to the point I don't understand how it passes fire code. They haven't said it officially, but this will likely kill off the fine arts academy at Lamar as well, as they can push the kids that aren't zoned for Lamar out to make room for the Dobie kids. Which, ironically, will also push many of the academically excelling kids out of the school and further lower Lamar's numbers and rating. This is shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic, but I'll never understand the mindset of "fixing" bad schools by simply moving underperforming kids into a school with high-performing kids in order to bring test averages up to just about passing. That is protecting jobs, not better educating kids. AISD has failed these kids at Dobie miserably, and their solution is to ruin a school that is at least functional, and thereby make education terrible for even more children. Fuck every last one of these feckless assholes. They tried to bring back busing, of all the stupid ideas proven repeatedly not to work, before the pandemic in an attempt to do the same thing. The entire administrative staff, starting with the sawed off little piece of shit superintendent, should be fired yesterday. The school board is a collection of well intentioned but ultimately braindead progressives who will happily destroy shit just to make things appear to be okay. They will do precisely what they did during the last debate over bussing, and just accuse anyone opposed to their self serving plan of being a racist, because that's all they've got. Not actual plan, no concern for any of these kids, just ass covering bull shit. If you have kids in AISD, pay very close attention to what is happening, as this is just the first big domino to fall. The state will be taking over the district at some point, and nobody wants that, especially after seeing what those crooks have done with HISD, but at this point I'm wondering if it can really be any worse than the spineless, self-serving assholes running AISD currently (to be very clear, I'm not talking about teachers, principals, or anyone else who spends time educating children daily, just the dumbfucks in charge). There was already a mass exodus of kids from AISD happening before the pandemic. The pandemic sped it up tremendously, and this next step will be the biggest backbreaker of all. The only positive that may come of this is that 3+ bedroom homes may drop in price as a bunch of them will be going on the market in Austin soon as families get the fuck out. Of course, that's bad news for any current families desperate to get the hell out of what is quickly becoming a nightmare scenario for the kids. There aren't enough private schools in the city to take in all these kids, and of course most parents can't afford it anyway even with the governor's new welfare for rich parents program. So, lots of people are going to just have to live with the knowledge that they are stuck in an overpriced city sending their kids to an overcrowded and unsafe school where they will not receive much of any kind of education. We are living in weird times.
  22. https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/houston-we-have-a-myth-what-was-really-the-first-word-spoken-from-the-moon/285-412522095
  23. Fuck that guy. Sorry, not sorry.
  24. I'm a motorcycle guy, but not a Harley guy, which is essentially all ROT was for. I hated the ROT rally, and it was the one time of year my wife and I were sure to keep our bikes in the garage and not ride. The roads are dangerous enough with all of the shitty cagers driving around staring at their phones, but when you add in all of the rookie riders that show up for ROT on their overpriced piece-of-shit Harleys the roads were simply insane and not worth it. I don't want it to come back. Some posters above conflated motorcyclists with antivaxxers, conspiracy nuttos, Trumpers, etc. That's not true at all, but it is more prevalent in the Harley community, which is its own insular little club and not representative of all riders, just like the 20-year-old crotch rocket death seekers making all the racket on 2222 on the weekends don't represent all riders. The majority are normal, quiet people who enjoy the experience of riding, which is something just about everyone should try out before they get too old to do so. The sport/hobby is dying off as young people in America don't ride at all anymore, so it's become a 45+ activity for the most part. I ride a bike around town more than my truck, and love going for longer rides out to Big Bend, etc. on an adventure bike to get off road and camp. My favorite activity is getting up in the dark on the weekends and riding with a fly rod out to rivers in the hill country and slaying fish all morning. Back by mid-afternoon, grilling up something tasty for the family (not the freshwater fish, because I don't have a death wish), and relaxing away the evening. The point is, there are lots of great ways to incorporate all kinds of classic Texas pastimes with riding. Hell, I'm part of one group that just rides out to a different BBQ joint within a couple hours of Austin every couple of months. Bunch of olds and fatties in that crew, and not an antivaxxer among them as far as I know.
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