august948

I rarely look at the speedometer when driving the freeways here. The conditions on the road at any given time dictate how fast or slow i'll go. I've found it's better to go about the same speed as everyone else or just a little faster so I've got the initiative in case I need to change lanes.

Never hurts to find a little religion whilst driving the freeways of Houston. Maybe that's why Joel Osteen built his temple next to 59.

Don't count on it. We're only 2 months from the election and they've been sparring about numbers and formats for debates for months now.

I guess I'm a glutton for punishment, but in a case like that I'd probably take the 300k discount and then apply some of the savings to customize it to my taste afterwards, pocketing the rest.

Child's play and fun too. I am an agressive driver so it's no big deal to me but I can imagine it might scare the bejeebers out of someone who's not used to crossing lanes of traffic at speed and sudden merges.

I do. I was thinking of the direction it heads at that point rather than the official designation.

lol...like this? Actually, what I was looking at was this part of the quote... Not that it's a bad idea, but most of the soccer moms I know, especially those from the Dallas area, aren't inclined to sweat in their cars. That's what the gym is for.

So someone thinks that the well-made up soccer moms of Dallas are going to sit in their Suburbans and sweat while waiting for the kids to be dismissed from school?

In recent years, until they closed, the best Dr. Pepper was coming out of Dublin anyway. If they still bottle Dr. Pepper in the Waco area it's likely the HFCS variety.

Congrats! For some real fun, try north on 45, then west on 59. Try getting into the far right lane on the 45/288/59 connector where it merges with no warning onto 59 westbound. With the right traffic conditions you'll instantly see why that whole thing should be torn up and rebuilt.

So the finishes are stock, but the price is 300k less? Is that bad?

Where do I sign up for one of those?

It's because they spend all their time gaming.

What is "environmental justice"? Does that mean that those who have smog should be required to share it with those who don't? I thought that was how it works already.

More translation... A multi-disciplinary approach would allow hisd to hire more sociologists and psychologists as well as educators to inflate it's payroll. Educating students on mechanics will teach them to speak hypothetically regarding the environment in a physically/sociologically/physiologically effective classroom/auto repair shop. Likewise, you can never effectively instruct a child to toss a pitcher on a broken ship. Or at least it's not advisable. There are many positives and negatives regarding ignoring hisd administrators on campus. One of the negative factors is that a lower budget doesn't allow the hisd administrators to purchase additional games. Mitigating this negative factor by increasing the budget would result in superior academic performance. Recently, a director of the Texas Association of Business (TAB) met with a representative of the Business Association Regulators (BAR) to discuss Houston resulting in a BAR TAB of $34.56. They chronicled that student grades are allowing some students to successfully pursue post-secondary education in casino gaming. This clearly should not be allowed. Texas requires students to take the GED 16 to 18 times at the urging of the military, apprenticeship programs, and technical schools. Students taking the GED in Texas are required to pay for their chairs each time, resulting in massive revenue for furniture manufacturers and retailers. Rumor has it that Mattress Mack backed this change. Hisd administrators are still looking for a good gaming system. Most Texas students fail the exams to become military recruiters. If they take the GED they are required to purchase a holder for the exam. Finding a holder for the exam has proved difficult since they are almost nonexistent, as reported by military recruiters. Hisd administrators are poor and short of stature and are being picked on by students and teachers. What can we do to help them?

Sorry for the tangent, but in all the discussions about hsr and the Texas triangle elsewhere I never considered future expansion to New Orleans. I know that's pie-in-the-sky right now, but I'd be cool to eventually have an hsr route from San Antonio to Houston to New Orleans, with maybe a stop near the casinos in Lake Charles. We could call it the "Party Express" and Dallasites could connect to it via the upcoming Houston to Dallas hsr.

Your writing style is a little difficult to follow, and frankly hurts my eyes, but let me attempt to paraphrase... An hisd trustee proposed staggered start times for classes. That was standard practice in the school district I attended. There was a hearing on the matter. A 10th grader spoke in favor because he'd like to sleep in. Some mothers disagreed as it would inconvenience them. Two of hisd's principles regarding football would be violated. Not sure what's that's about, but this is Texas and high school football is sacrosanct. (See "Friday Night Lights" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Night_Lights_%28TV_series%29 ) The hisd trustees decided against staggering as students are asleep for the first two hours of class each day anyway, so that allows the football players more time to practice and so those mothers could just use the campus like it was prison. (See "The Longest Yard" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Longest_Yard_%281974_film%29 ). The kids in the sole physical custody of said prison are getting bad physiological and sociological nutrition due to their statistically poor academics leading to them to later form low income households. Girls and boys should be taught in separate classrooms since sociological play is both legal AND reduces disciplinary problems. Much has been made of implementing strict classroom discipline, up to and including sending students to a juvenile detention facility, but nothing has been done to put this into effect. Hisd is lagging in this and should be punishing more student infractions with hard prison time. Also, gender specific classroom instruction can be done on the same campus allowing for much physical activity between the genders on said campus. Hisd annexed North Forest ISD, which was the second worst district in Harris County (hisd being the first?). Hisd did this because nfisd couldn't manage it's football team properly and students weren't being allowed to sleep in. Afterwards, hisd tried to extort money from each student by threatening to reveal secret information gleaned through their federal/state sources. The Prime Directive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Directive ) which Texas is subject to as a member of the United Federation of Planets dictates the efficient streaming of student videos in order to maximize revenue per clicks on the web. No interference is allowed by Starfleet, I mean hisd, personnel in the internal development of such videos. Hisd personnel are authorized, however, to track students using embedded RFID tags. The total number of students lying on the ground on each campus is used by the administrators to justify x-rays for each student. Employers who leave Houston, especially those in the video game business, do so because they fail to obtain qualified game testers from among the hisd administrators. Said hisd administrators are like most government agency employees in that they are addicted to Monster energy drinks. They drink these drinks because they are always putting on charity benefits to cover the expenses of children, the community, and property owners. Employers aren't allowed to contribute to the benefits as they are already paying an unnecessarily high tax burden.

In terms of skyline one of the things I wish we had are some rises where you could see it in the distance. We were back in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago and I'm always awed by the skyline, particularly at night, when viewed from one of the many hills on the north side of town.

You are right on the look and feel, but this is how I look at it: The EC is suburban in nature, Uptown is semi-urban in nature and TMC/Downtown are urban in nature. For the foreseeable future I think they will remain this way and that's ok. It's nice to have that kind of diversity in the same city and even within 20 to 30 minutes driving time of each other. I'd rather have them be distinctly different styles than have it all one way or the other.

Are you asserting by the equation "(R x V) = hisd squandered dollars" that all money collected by hisd via property taxes is squandered? Hisd spends more and accomplishes what than almost all Texas school districts? Did you just get your first ever property tax bill? How does physiology relate to efficient classroom instruction? What, exactly, is the multi-disciplinary approach you are advocating?

District in the case is more of a governmental/development term. The EC district works to improve the local infrastructure and beautification. The Westchase district is much the same. They've put up signage and beautified the area somewhat. I think they are also behind some of the sidewalk improvements in the area. They pushed Metro to get a circulator route in the area. I don't think they have any influence whatsoever on the architecture of the area.

Most likely it's because most people aren't looking for high-quality or unusual architecture or are particularly concerned about it's skyline. It's existence means that the many people who work there don't have to drive all the way downtown to work and thus can live in surrounding communities with lower prices than inside the loop and a shorter commute. Besides, the EC straddles Terry Hershey park and is a generally pleasant area. Given that EC, Westchase, Memorial City and the inner Beltway areas are all pretty much suburban in style and density (as is almost all of Houston), I don't think removing the EC would make a significant impact in density, even if it were possible.

Or maybe New York and Chicago are the Houston and Dallas of whatever they call that area north of Texas.

Well said. If you find yourself nervous while driving, just stay in the same lane and work your way over to an exit as you feel comfortable. Houston is pretty easy to navigate so you can always find your way from wherever you land and, who knows, you might stumble across something interesting.

And yet that's how the Shinkasen works in Japan. They run both non-stops and puddle-jumpers. Railroads have been doing this sort of thing since the 19th century. It's really not that hard for them to talk and chew gum at the same time.