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Samson's Wig

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Everything posted by Samson's Wig

  1. Yeah, I'm familiar with that one. They tried to stick them near schools in the first phases under the guise of it being "for the kids". Every parent knows it was way too easy for parents to get in and out of those areas for pick up and drop off, so what's the big deal? Another example of putting ideology before common sense. If we truly want neighborhoods to be more walkable, first you need to build more schools, zone neighborhoods for some commercial development, and, I don't know, maybe have public transportation. But no, we're just going to skip all those steps and go straight to making it difficult to drive a car in a city that leaves you with no other choice.
  2. We're old, all right‽?‽
  3. This is why if we continue down this path it will eventually kill the city. Anyone with the means to do so will leave. The jobs will dry up because anyone worth hiring won't be willing to live here. On the positive side, housing prices will come down.
  4. The wide sidewalks come at the expense of the roadway. It's about narrowing the roads, limiting vehicle access, and widening sidewalks that are not used with enough foot traffic to justify needing to be ten feet or more wide. Ideologically driven nonsense that will ultimately make the city unlivable for most people. You can't force people out of cars when there is no viable alternative. We're doing it backward because we're a young and foolish city. We should absolutely have 5-6 feet wide sidewalks that meet the standards necessary for the disabled absolutely everywhere it's feasible to do so.
  5. I'm all in on completing sidewalks where they don't exist. People should have a place to walk out of the street. The widening of already existing sidewalks (to double the standard size) is what drives me insane.
  6. The wife dragged me down to Taquero Mucho the other night, and it felt very much like a metaphor for the entire city. It was shiny, colorful, and fun on the surface. The service was atrocious and the food was even worse. They made a decent margarita (and by decent I mean they weren't chintzy on the tequila quantities). All in all a terrible experience, though, and not one I would recommend to anyone who enjoys eating good food. Great spots for Insta pics, though! /eyeroll We've become a bright shiny thing with no substance. Very little about Austin is unique to Austin anymore. You could drop someone in most areas of town and they would have no clue what city they're in without asking someone. It's not a bad thing, necessarily, but it is a little sad for those who prefer a city with a personality. No soul left whatsoever. It's a perfect city for tourists and a terrible place for residents, and our local policies both purposefully created this and continue to cater to it. Everything is just good enough to be attractive as long as you don't stick around too long, and the margaritas will make sure your memory of the experience is at least a little bit fuzzy. Underneath it all we're just a cold, bad-tasting taco with chewy carne asada and bland salsa. (but we have tons of bike lanes, so you should move here for all that time you'll spend commuting to work on your bike and being healthy - we promise you won't stop doing it after the first time when you realize you will have to burn the clothes you were wearing and your coworkers won't' get near you.)
  7. I'm fascinated by how many people seem to think the days being shorter has anything to do with getting back on standard time. Study after study has shown how shitty DST is for all kinds of reasons, particularly as it applies to our health. I can understand why degenerate drunks prefer it to be dark in the morning when everyone else is headed to work, and I was very much on that team for a long stretch before I grew up and became boring. I'm not sure these are the voices that should be determining policy. I have no sympathy for the assholes who want to mow their yard at 9:00 at night when everyone else is trying to relax. Get off your ass and do it in the morning or wait till the weekend. Better yet - xeriscape your yard and don't bother with it at all. It's the exact same amount of daylight hours no matter what we do, so sort yourself out. We may as well have the clocks set in a manner that benefits everyone's health and safety, and if nothing else caters to those functional adults who keep the lights on for the rest of the world when it gets dark (at whatever time). My friends the degenerates will find a way to manage. They always do.
  8. I've seen a lot of narrowing of streets and widening of sidewalks in neighborhoods that absolutely don't need it. That money is being spent, just stupidly. Did anyone really expect anything else? And yes, lots of bike lanes that almost never get used for commuting, but provide a nice place to exercise for 50yo old assholes at the expense of everyone else. All based on studies done in cities with nothing in common with Austin. Ideology uber alles.
  9. The message being sent by these assholes is clear: You're a piece of shit for driving a car and should find other ways to get places even though they have no interest in actually providing them. This city has, for a long time now, insisted on implementing solutions that work really well in older cities with cooler climates that will not and never will work here. Austin is a western city and for better or worse is laid out like one. The opportunity to build a city with reasonable public transportation options passed decades ago, and Austin Metro will remain vehicle dependent long after these twats have lived and died. Instead of acknowledging this reality and finding solutions to improve environmental impact that actually works within the framework we're stuck with, these idiots will keep trying to jam that square peg into this round hole until the city is completely unlivable for almost everyone. It's difficult to imagine this being a place anyone wants to live in another thirty years, especially when the tech jobs inevitably move elsewhere.
  10. I have preteen twins. Around age eight I started having "philosophy snacks" with them on Sundays, where we sit down and discuss a particular question about life and how different thinkers, including religious ones of varying faiths, approach the question. It has been an amazing thing for them and for me. This book was the one we started with for guidance: Philosophy for Kids: 40 Fun Questions That Help You Wonder About Everything! Sample topics: Are you a fair and just person? How do you know who your friends are? It is your duty to give to charity? What makes something you say true? We have taken the kids to worship services of a wide range of religions to expose them to what's out there and really want them to find their own way. We're not religious but don't want to prevent them from being so if that's what they want. As for explaining to them that I don't believe in a god, I was simple and straightforward about it. My autistic son made it easy when he came to me very young and told me he didn't think there was a god. He got there on his own before I ever said anything.
  11. Depends on what you're praying about, I suspect.
  12. Prayer = meditation = vision boards = exercise = therapy = whatever you do to center yourself or focus on your journey. Whatever works for you, go for it. While I think prayer can have an impact internally on the individual, much like any other form of self-reflection, I do find it odd that some believe that prayer generates external results. It seems to primarily be an evangelical way of thinking.
  13. No one should be surprised by the latest city council moves regarding parking and development, but it's still rage-inducing.
  14. Good question. Surely there's an attorney who owns a sports car with vanity plates around here somewhere who knows the answer. Or if we're not rolling in that high of cotton maybe there's a PD in a cheap suit and a spare two seconds who can chime in.
  15. Coffee talk not going away. Also - did Bolivia just feel the need to remind everyone they harbored Nazis after WWII? We get it, Bolivia. You don't like Jews. You don't have to rub it in.
  16. While certainly possible, my wife was on the other side of me. If the young lady hadn't been shit-faced drunk the evening may have been much more interesting.
  17. Do you go to a laundromat and spit-clean your dishes? I don't blame you for going aggro on the boy, that's not a lot of water.
  18. Was in the Denver airport over the weekend and a young lady sat down next to me at the bar and was already completely and clearly drunk. The bartender served her three more doubles over the course of an hour or so. She just kept getting louder and more obnoxious by the minute. At some point, she mentioned she was headed to Austin and I thought it was my turn to see some shenanigans. Sure enough, she stumbles onto the same plane and sits down across the aisle from me. She just passed out and snored the entire flight. I was a little disappointed. I thought the same thing you posted above while watching the entire thing. Idiots will ruin things for the rest of us, per usual.
  19. Can't recall now, but didn't the boyfriend have a solid alibi? If not, she may well get away with it.
  20. Real story or not, fuck that fucking fuck. What is wrong with people?
  21. Likely a British expat living in Mueller who hasn't ventured west of Mopac other than that one trip to Fredericksburg for wine tasting with the gals. She's got dreams, though. We all do.
  22. The luxury isn't in the houses, it's in the people.
  23. I absolutely agree that young people are not being taught history in grade school, and are being manipulated by special interest groups and professors on campuses. I've seen that nonsense firsthand. I wasn't picking a fight or arguing with you above at all, but I can see how it may have come across that way. I was just being pedantic for no good reason, and failing at it to boot.
  24. That would make a difference, for sure.
  25. Thanks, I skimmed right past that part - my bad. They must have polled college students, as I doubt 51% of Americans aged 18-24 could point out the Gaza Strip (or Israel) on a map with ten tries, much less know what Hamas is or that there is even a conflict.
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