Everything posted by CleverNickname
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AISD Teacher / Baldwin Elementary
I'm 99% confident that is not Bill.
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General Scouting Thread - BSA + GSA
Somehow I ended up as recruiting chair for our cub scout pack. Spring JSN is coming up. Funny enough my daughter is in girl scouts and has negative interest in cub scouts despite it now being open to girls. Quoth my 3rd grader ahead our recent spring campout (to which I dragged her along) on the Friday before "all the boys I hate are excited about going." LOL
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What is up with the Aggies? (& Sharp, Perry, etc)
Not any drama with AD, I don't care about that. (well, its fun, but not for purposes of this thread) I haven't been keeping up with higher education, but with Powers passing it has been on my mind. I know that UT regents and president resisted watering down the flagship, and for that Powers gets a lot of praise. At the time Perry and his crew announced an effort to make college more inexpensive, I was mostly supportive. I haven't really followed things closely. I have kids school age, and it strikes me that I'd like some good public institutions around that they could go to later. Plus good schools are good for Texas, generally. What is the deal with that 25x25 thing? Is A&M's rep backsliding? Is having more & cheaper education incompatible with having more Tier 1-ish public institutions in Texas? What is the reputation of schools like UT-Dallas, Houston, Tech, etc and how is that changing?
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Surly kids applying / attending UT
SSC on college admissions (long): https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/04/15/increasingly-competitive-college-admissions-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/
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2019 Property Tax Values are Out
mine was mostly flat ATX, '59. First time since maybe 2008 that was true. Of course the 10% cap finally catches up with me, so it will still feel like it is going up. As much as it stings, its honestly pretty close to accurate. People in my neighborhood complain all the time, but I bet if the put a FSBO sign out for the TCAD number, some Californian would offer a briefcase of cash by the end of the day.
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show off your RC toys
I am into those scale 4x4s. Recently sold my gmade but may get back into the hobby. Kinda miss it. They are great with kids, because they don't go fast and therefore don't shatter into a million pieces. And in terms of crawling and trail running, its more of a laid back intellectual exercise than fast twitch.
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Constructing a barn/shop
Yes. Did you do a strop of wood on the outside of the purlin? I did that for the insides.
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Constructing a barn/shop
re: OPs barndominium - any thought to putting up plywood on the externals walls before the metal panels? I also did steel to steel for my casita, and I wonder how much of a pain it will be if I ever have to replace the walls. Not sure what the life span for those walls would be... 20, 30, 40+? I hope I don't regret not having an under layer.
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Downtown Projects
Almost a shame The Republic is so far along in planning. Maybe there could be some crazy 3 block mega development that stretched from Hobby to Garage N. I want sky bridges and a gazillion square feet.
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Downtown Projects
doh! I was distracted by the pretty photos and didn't realize Hobby was already discussed.
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Pollen: Cedar, Oak 2018-2019
I find Zyrtec makes me a little bit sleepy - well, not actually sleepy like a full on benadryl nap, but oddly unproductive and listless at work. But allegra (fexofenadine) works on my better than claritin. I do mostly okay with Cedar, but Oak is hell.
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Mass College Admission Cheating Scandal
Since its almost entirely rich assholes, they get to network with other rich assholes, and since life in elite circles is pretty much who you know, it is elite. I
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Healthcare Price Transparency
there is already forced mediation for some claims in TX. Leg likely to expand the scope. Don't forget there are 3 parties aside from the insured: doctor, insurer, and facility. It's wicked complicated.
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Healthcare Price Transparency
not totally germane to the topic, but I like the morally iffy Split Insurance proposal: (subject to qualifications, like X months to live etc) Health Plan will cover treatment, expected to cost $X. Let's say $200k. Offer to patient: we will totally cover your treatment, no worries. But if you skipped it, we'd give you $100k cash on the barrel head. Give it to your grand kids, take a vacation. Whatever. Win-win (except for the squicky part).
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The Gun Owner’s thread
What is the best way to sell antique firearms in the Austin area? I've sold stuff face to face with TexasGunTrader and by common carrier with GunBroker, so I know the general laws. But I want to sell some specific antiques. I'd like a trustworthy appraiser (Austin area) and a good place to do consignment. Is it worth driving down the Houston to go to Classic Firearms? Or maybe since I folks just list stuff online it doesn't matter so much. I've got a Colt Army 1861 (1862) w/ powder keg, a Sharps Rifle New Model 1863, and a Winchester 1885 Low Wall .22lr (pre-1920s) with vintage scope. I've got some miscellaneous WW2 pistols, but the apparent market value is low enough I'd rather keep them (Feramu jhv 41 and P38 with leather holster) even though I'm terrified they'd disintegrate if I shot modern ammo through them. None of my family came to the US prior to 1900, and I've never been a civil war buff. I've got no real emotional attachment to them (I've got my grandfathers $100 montgomery ward .410 which actually means something to me).
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Things not going well in Venezuela
I vote Ozzie Guillén.
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Slot Mods
I almost bought a Scalextric or Anki kit for christmas. Anybody do that?
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tuff shed?
Pondering moving a bunch of crap out of my garage, and making it a place for my kiddos to get high and engage in other questionable behavior. Whatever, so long as it isn't my living room. I need a shed. I'm pretty impressed by the metal joists they use now. But maybe I'm easily impressed. Thoughts?
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audit proves Austin PD forced out sex-crimes chief for refusing to fake clearance rates
If something is measured as a proxy for efficiency or proficiency, those stats can and will be juked.
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10 WINS BABY!!!!!
10 wins, RRS victory, Big 12 Champ game, NY6 bowl game win. I call that a damn good season.
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Something in queens just happened
Explosion at Con Edison plant, so sayeth less crazy twitter. Obviously Terrorists.
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Something in queens just happened
Nice knowing yall
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1997 Jarrell tornado, and others
I vividly remember that day. I saw one of the non-Jarrel storms from the court I was shooting hoops at 620 & El Salido. The initial death count was something like 33, later revised down to 27. The would find half a body one place and the other half another, and inadvertently double count. That's where that classic "every mutilated bifurcated corpse has a silver lining"central texas saying comes from.
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Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson is retiring
/cosine
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Tell me about the University of Southern California
Didn't USC just pay like 200M for that crazy sex assault doc?