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Bernard

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Posts posted by Bernard

  1. On 4/8/2021 at 9:58 AM, royiv said:

    I live less than a block away from Ostia

    We're neighbors. Haven't been to Ostia yet though. Been circling back to my old faves now that I'm vaxed. I just thought it was funny that the Ostia website said the chef "attended" the University of Texas, which I assume is a euphemism for "didn't graduate from".

    Bernard

  2. On 4/16/2021 at 7:42 AM, next2naus said:

    as Bernard would say..."Fuck the Police"

    I'm not one to shy away from a police brutality video, but I'm not even going to watch this one. My mom is 78 years old. She's healthy in body and mind, but she's sliding down the frailty curve as all mom's do at some age. If a cop ever laid a finger on her... (I can't even type it).

    Bernard

    • Hook 'Em 2
  3. Went with GF seven years ago this week. Had no reservations other than a rental car and a hotel in Dublin the first night. Hit some Dublin pubs the first night. Jumped in the car the next morning and headed west, then the big southern loop back to Dublin. Nine days total.  Looks like you are on the same route. We were literally just winging it seeing sights by day and pub crawling at night. When it got late in the day, we’d pick a town to stop in. Find a hotel as centrally located as possible. There was always a half dozen or more pubs within walking distance. We got our first choice of lodging every single night but one by just walking in the door and saying we needed a room for the night. Great fun. Beautiful countryside. Very friendly people. It’s hard to go wrong really.

    I did kiss the Blarney Stone. Fuck the haters.

    Bernard

    • Hook 'Em 1
  4. 18 hours ago, Updawg said:

    But is there more to this story? Like that guy was with a girl he liked or wanted? Drugs? There had to be a reason he wanted to shoot him. Otherwise he would have killed more since. Dude looks psycho

    Dead guy was pest control tech. He had a pellet gun in his hotel room that he used for his job. He invited a couple girls from the hotel bar up to his room and he was showing off his pellet gun. Someone outside the building saw him in the room with a gun and called the police. Police show up and murder the dude. Murderous cop gets early retirement and a government pension for life.

    More info here.


     
    Bernard 

    • Hook 'Em 1
    • Like 1
  5. 27 minutes ago, Lobo said:

    If you ever need to understand why a substantial U.S. Navy is necessary, look at all the commerce and inter-dependency out on those waters.  Not pirates, but another nation's Navy could go rogue for 48 hours, target a few dozen of those ships for sinking, and the halt our global economy would take would make Covid-19 look like a misunderstanding.  Nevermind, the essential supplies on some of those ships as well.

    Using the canal saves time and money, but ships can sail around Africa. It takes a week longer, and more fuel. Losing the canal would not halt the global economy.

    Bernard

  6. Claiming a portion of Earth's surface for one's self for eternity seems like the ultimate hubris. Both my parents are being cremated. Dad says he wants no service at all; just go have a nice steak dinner in NYC on him. Mom says throw a party at a nice Houston restaurant and scatter her ashes at Memorial Park. Seems simple enough.

    Bernard

  7. I’ve done extensive research.

    Mario’s Fish Bowl is one of the best bars in the Big12. Plan to close out your Friday night there.

    Blue Lot tailgating before the game is also about as good as it gets in the Big12.

    Pittsburgh is for pussies. Always stay in the game city.

    Bernard

    • Hook 'Em 2
    • Like 1
  8. 1995 built townhouse offered few other options. I mitigated the height issue somewhat by lowering the mantel as mush as I could. Also helps that room is big enough that you don't have to sit too close to the TV. Code says you need 18" between the firebox and the mantle if mantle is made of combustible material. I'm closer than that. Mantel is wood. Haven't burned the place down yet though.

    The best thing I did was create an inset in the wall above the mantel. The TV sits on a stand in the inset and front of TV is flush with the wall. Looks good.

    Bernard

  9. 7 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

    Or the cost benefit analysis determines that selling one's house and buying new at a time when prices are astronomically high makes less sense than paying private school rates.  To each their own....

    Agree. To each their own. There are armies of parents though who do the same math and decide to live where the public schools are good. Many do it when their kids are still in diapers so it's not like they are paying the high cost of moving. 

    Separately, "astronomically high" house prices may cause some to stay put, but when you've maxed out your $500k capital gain exclusion, it's a great time to move and restart that tax-free appreciation clock.

    Bernard

  10. 1 hour ago, Mach 1 said:

    I may have read the article in the OP too quickly, but I didn't catch where she actually made the argument that private schools are indefensible.  I caught some anecdotes about entitled shithead parents, and that Ivy schools accept more private school applicants.

    I'll skip the 10,000 word treatise and point out the obvious:  people with means tend to seek out the better things in life because they can afford it.  News at 11.  Education for their children is just one of those things.  I'm sure there are great public schools out there, and if we had that option, we'd take a hard look at them.   But unfortunately we don't, so we suck it up and pay the astronomical tuition for a school similar to the one in the article. It stings when I sign the check every year, but I sleep easy knowing it's my best investment.  I'm responsible for giving my kids the tools necessary to be decent human beings and succeed in the world once they fly the coop, and the private school we chose is doing exactly that.

    I'm a public shool kid.  It was fine, but it didn't do much to prepare me for college, and in turn, the competive world after.  I'd like my kids to be better prepared than I was.

    On the diversity front, maybe it's just our school, but part of our tuition goes to support a good chunk of scholarships.  There are kids from all sorts of socio economic backgrounds, and for that I am glad.

    Is your neighborhood with shitty public school options so uniquely awesome that you can't stomach a relocation to an area with good public schools?

    Bernard

  11. On 3/13/2021 at 11:47 PM, Bevo said:

    I went to one of the top public high schools in the state. The private schools in Houston such as Kinkaid and St. Thomas were far ahead of us.

    Not sure where you went to school, but for most non-ghetto Houston high schools I would disagree. The IB programs at Lamar, or Bellaire, or Westside, or Memorial, or Stratford, or Clements, or lots of other suburban high schools are every bit as good as anything you can get at Kinkaid, or St.Thomas, or Strake/St.Agnes. Most of the other Houston area private schools are sub-standard to these programs. The only exception is St. John's. SJ's stands alone at the top.

    As touched on by other posters, the private schools are all better on average, but it's only because they have the ability to keep the bottom third of students off campus. I went to Lamar were 40% of my freshman class dropped out before graduating. There's no way to overcome those numbers if you only consider a school's averages.

    If your goal is to shelter your kids from rubbing shoulders with poors, or indoctrinate them with religious dogma, private school is perfect. If you want them educated, HISD can do just fine.

    Bernard

  12. I rented my house for like five years. Piece of cake. Don’t believe the shit you hear. I maybe got five calls from the tenants in five years. Probably fewer. Checks just showed up in my mailbox every month. Do you have a handyman you trust? If you do, your work load is basically nothing. If not, you can still use you self-management savings to over-pay some retail service providers.

    Bernard

    • Like 1
  13. 12 hours ago, Armybrat said:

    You aren’t going to wrap any of those pipes and put a tarp cover on the whole thing?

    Modern pool control systems have a freeze mode. If the temps at the pump get below a preset level, the pump cycles on and off every so often to prevent frozen water in the system.

    Bernard 

    • Hook 'Em 3
  14. 5 minutes ago, 3adays said:

    Dumb question alert. How does one prove obesity in order to be in Group 1B? Do you get a specific note from you doctor or is this something on your physical? 

    BTW this is not for me. I’m an Adonis who benches 300 lbs and runs a 4.4 40. 

    All Phase 1B eligibility is based on the honor system. No checks at all.

    Phase 1B obesity in Texas is BMI>30. You can always bring a scale if you’re concerned about having proof.

    Bernard   

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