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TXDOT OPENS FIRST NEW DIRECT CONNECTOR RAMP "The I-610 Southbound to I-10 Westbound Direct Connector Ramp Scheduled to Open September 18" (Houston, Texas) - Tomorrow night, Saturday, September 18 the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will open the first of the sixteen new direct connector ramps to be reconstructed as a part of the Katy Freeway Reconstruction Program. Beginning tomorrow morning at 5 AM until 6 PM Saturday night, Williams Brothers Construction will be closing the I-610 southbound to I-10 eastbound and westbound direct connector ramps to make the switch of traffic onto the newly constructed I-610 southbound to I-10 westbound direct connector (Connector J). The ramp is scheduled to open upon completion of the traffic switch. During the ramp closures, I-610 southbound traffic destined to I-10 should detour to Old Katy Road; westbound traffic should detour to enter I-10 west of Silber Road and eastbound traffic should take Washington Avenue to I-10 eastbound. Connector J is the first of eight direct connectors to be reconstructed as a part of the I-10/I-610 Interchange and one of sixteen direct connectors to be reconstructed as a part of the full Katy Freeway Reconstruction Program. The other eight direct connectors include the reconstruction of the I-10/Beltway 8 Interchange connector ramps. The reconstruction of the I-10/I-610 Interchange is expected to be completed in December 2007 while completion of the I-10/Beltway 8 reconstruction is targeted for December 2008.

For a city that so often compares itself with San Francisco, you'd think streetcars would be a given.

Is there actually some progress on this? They've been promising it for almost a year now.

No, not the news operation -- the running of the station. News operations are generally small parts of the overall television station. The part that would be run by remote control is an area known as "master control" or "local air control" where programs are played back, commericals are inserted, network programs are aired, network and syndicated feeds are recorded, etc... Houston would be left with the news operation, sales, and local management. It would only eliminate about 10 jobs at each station. Although, for years there have been people of the opinion that KHOU's news content is dictated by remote control from the mothership in Dallas, but that's a discussion for another time.

All television stations are required to carry some local content that is of public service. Small stations like PAX meet that requirement by carrying rebroadcasts of other local news broadcasts. For example, WBQC-CA/Cincinnati(25) carries the rebroadcast of WCPO/Cincinnati(9). PAX doesn't actually operate its own facility. It's run from KHOU's technical center, though PAX maintains seperate offices elsewhere because it is licensed to Conroe, not Houston. There was a plan in the works to run KHOU and PAX by remote control from Dallas. Much of the equipment was put in place, but I don't know if they ever got around to finishing the project. When it was completed, KHOU/Houston(11), KHOU-DT/Houston(31), KPXB/Conroe(49), KPXB-DT/Conroe(5), WFAA/Dallas(8), WFAA-DT/Dallas(9), KENS/San Antonio(5), KENS-DT(55)/San Antonio, KVUE/Austin(24), KVUE-DT/Austin(33), and KBEJ/Fredericksburg(2) were all to be run by remote control from Dallas. There was also talk of adding WWL-TV/New Orleans(4), and WWL-DT/New Orlenas(36) to the project, but last I heard that didn't get off the ground. When you have a small station, like KPXB being run from inside a larger station like KHOU, very often that smaller station gets bought by the larger one in a few years. Or at least that was true until this year. With the brouhaha in DC over ownership rules, very few TV stations are bring bought or sold anymore until the mess gets straightenede out. No one wants to take a chance buying a station they might be forced to sell.

How about Jenny's Noodles over in Chinatown (the real one near downtown, not the one out southwest)? I used to go there all the time with a friend from work. Very cool. Good food. Jenny and her husband run the place and are more than happy to chat. She was a 20-something office worker at Continental who got fired when the economy tanked, so she started a noodle shop.

More Avatars:

I have added another group of avatars for you to choose from. These are from the Afterglow collection, so don't blame me for the names. Just use and enjoy. Here's what they look like:

NEW LOCATION FOR ANN THOMPSON'S WONDERFULLY INSIGHTFUL OPERA LECTURES..!

And have you ever driven past and seen that pile of old, wet, smelly beanbags under their sign? Yeah, that makes me want to buy stuff from them.

I think that's the biggest career lesson I've learned over the years -- Take chances. Every time I've gone (like you did) from a stable job to something new and dangerous, it's paid off. It's a lesson I learned the hard way -- when I was a sophomore in college (comp-sci major at the time) a friend of mine told me he was dropping out to join a new computer company in Buffalo. He begged me to go with him. Told me it would be a blast. I said, "no" and that I was going to stay the course and get my degree. A year after graduation I go to visit him and he's living on the 43rd floor of a high-rise in Toronto making $200,000 American and I was living in a basement apartment in West Virginia making $15,000. Ever since, I've always tried to take chances, and for the most part, the chances I've taken have paid off. Your Mileage May Vary.

One problem with Monster, et.al is that scammers troll it looking for people to contact about get-rich-quick schemes. My wife put her resume on Hot Jobs and we got calls for months from scammers who said they saw her resume there.

METRO

Working for da Man. Trying to become da Man.

When I've been searching for a job, the methods that have worked best for me have been Headhunter, and Word of Mouth.

When I've been searching for a job, I've used everything from CarreerBuilder to Monster to the Houston Chronicle web site. I've never gotten one nibble from any of them. Has anyone else had any success going this route?

Each month we receive several resumes from people searching for new jobs. Sometimes they are highly qualified. Sometimes they are recent graduates. Since we have so many people on this forum with similar interests and in similar occupations, maybe we can help each other. Post your resume, and let other forum members give you job-seeking advice, and tips for improving your resume. Post your job listing, and increase the number of people who will see it, and improve your chances of getting the right person for the job. In addition, any job-related advice will be appreciated. After all, you never know when your might need it.

Good replies. They helped jog a couple more from my memory: Katz's - every other week. Guggenheim's - every other week. I never cared for Cafe Express, though. I really wanted to like it, and it seems like a good concept. But (IMHO) they take good food and try waaaay too hard to make it frou frou, ruining the flavor by doing too much to it.

Kind of off-topic, but Channel 2 is also blamed for ruining business for the bagel place in Midtown. A few years ago they did one of their knock-offs of Marvin Zindler's Rat and Roach Reports, and they misstated some facts and made it seem like the place had been shut down by the health inspector. It hadn't. What happened was the inspector wanted more information on whether it was sanitary for them to keep their dough on wood instead of metal trays. But the damage was done, and Channel 2 refused to correct the story. When I moved out of Midtown, they were thinking about closing for good because it hurt their business so much. Just one of a number of reasons to hate what they call "news" on Channel 2. "If it's happening in Houston, it's News 2 Us." If anyone wants to rant further, maybe we should start another thread.

I'm kind of all over the place. I still listen to my 80's music (R.E.M., The Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode), but in the last couple of years I've started listening to classical and some 40's swing music. When iTunes came out, I started listening to some old 20's music, and I kind of like it.

Since we all lead very different lives, we probably don't all go to the same restaurants. So, here's a chance to see what others like. I'll start -- The Black Labrador - about twice a month Old San Francisco Steakhouse - about every other month Spaghetti Warehouse - about every other week Denny's on the Southwest Freeway - about every other week Bistro Lancaster - about every other month The Italian joint over by South Texas College of Law - once a month Starbucks - daily

I wonder if that's the same Blue Agave that was on West Gray. It's called World Cafe or something now.

I get the Caramel Apple Cider. Coffee upsets my stomach. It's good, and it's cheap. The largest size costs something like $2.75.

I find it so funny to see progress on this building. Especially after I got into an argument with a Harris County employee about the building. He insisted it wasn't going to be built. That there was no plan to build it. That it wasn't happening. For some reason he was in total denial. This was the same employee who came up with all of the financial statistics the anti-rail movement used before the referendum. Dumbass.

If it's going to happen, the city's got to work on its infrastructure. Streets, roads, water, and other things need to be seriously upgraded to handle that many people.