TV2EBoogaloo

the handling by the DAs office makes me long for the days of "hanging" Johnny Holmes!

he was a GREAT DA and had a really cool son too!

pity bump

la pulga dentro

Cameroon.

thanks mr. Ofoegbu

when I read leveling I first thought of demoing.....I was going to offer to do it for $515.25

$500 for me.....$15 for 5 gallons of gas......and $.25 for a book of matched

but since you want it "leveled" I would say buy some nice long levels, some 50 ton bottle jacks, some hard wood cribbing, some shims, and get some skinny Amigos from a day labor corner and you might have $800 in it when all said and done

Anyone have the inside scoop of the specifics they plan to do to get to tier 1?

define "tier 1"

the only organization that uses that term for rankings is US News....for UH to get to one of the top 160 (or whatever the cutoff is next time for the top universities that get a numerical ranking) UH will need to increase the profile of their incoming freshman, increase the % of alumni that donate to the university, decrease the % of applicants that are accepted (bogus metric), and increase the perception of their peers

the Carnegie Foundation does not use the term "tier 1" and they specifically do not rank universities they classify various aspects of universities and say clearly those classifications in no way reflect on the quality of a university or any aspect of it

the poorly termed "tier 1" that The State of Texas talks about to reach additional funding has metrics that UH has met enough of to mostly qualify for additional funding once the money is available

those metrics start with #1 45 million in restricted research that must be met for two years running each time to get the funding and this first criteria needs to be met before any others matter

the next criteria is 4 of the 6

1. 400 million+ in endowment....UH meets this

2. member of Phi Beta Kappa and or the National Research Libraries.....UH is NRL

3. a freshman class of high quality.....this has yet to be defined by the THECB

4. high quality graduate education....again yet to be fully defined, but UH does the most total research, has the highest % of grad students VS undergrads, and graduates the most PhDs per year of the 7 emerging research universities

5. graduate more than 200 PhDs per year for 2 years running each time before additional funding.....UH meets this requirement

6. high quality faculty.....this has yet to be defined by the THECB, but UH has 7 members of the National Academies of Science and or Nobel Laureates or similarly honored faculty on staff which is 4 more than the next closest of the seven emerging research universities which is UTD

Texas Tech meets the 45 million in restricted research, the PBK and NRL, the 200 PhDs, the endowment and will probably meet number 3 and 4 as well since Tech is doing near the same dollar amount in research, has higher freshman entrance requirements, and has more post doc positions than UH

but those that have yet to be defined obviously can't be known until the THECB acts

Odd that a highway tagged "ports-to-plains" doesn't go to a single port.

they are ports as in ports of entry they are just not sea ports

and there is some talk of them hitting Laredo and being able to go to some of the new proposed ports on the western side of Mexico

Mexico is a major buyer of US grain production and a large amount of cattle move back and forth as well

sadly there was a lot of truth to that even in good times and way too much truth in that in bad times.....it nailed several things across the board

I am pretty sure a few trains have violated the quiet zone on the Washington Ave. tracks. When West U got a quiet zone, trains would frequently be in violation. West U began piling on fines. Then the trains stopped violating their quiet zone.

West U. and any other city can't issue fines to railroads.....they can, but they will be tossed because railroads are covered by the Fed Railroad Administration and cities and stated don't have jurisdiction over them for things like noise, blocking streets, and a number of other issues that have lead to "standoffs" with local police and railroad crews and sometimes railroad police and local police with the local police threatening arrest of a crew and the railroad police saying nope not going to happen

one thing you need to remember is there is no way to pull over a train and give it a ticket for blowing the horn....you can identify the train of course by the engine numbers and the time of day and tracks, but when the local law enforcement calls the railroad about how to fine the engineer or the railroad or whoever they want to fine they will be reminded they don't have that authority

as for the standoffs above......police have gone in and ordered crews to move that were blocking streets, the crew can call it dispatch and ask to move, but of the dispatch refuses then the train sits PERIOD and of course the issue is the cop cant technically FORCE the engineer to move it and the cop does not know how to move it or knows better than to try....and if the cop takes the engineer and crew to jail......well the train will definitely sit blocking then because another crew is just not around the corner.....by this time the railroad police with federal interstate jurisdiction have shown up and that is when the belly bumping starts and the local police back down

so West U may have communicated with the railroad and cut down on the incidents of errant horns, but they could not fine the RR

Generac are the brands that most have good luck with, but they are spendy

you can get them natural gas hooked into the line and wired right into the power box

Honda engines usually have the best rep for smaller generators, but the right Briggs can be a good engine too

Onan is another good brand, but they will be spendy as well

if you have a tractor with a PTO you can get a winco generator for the PTO and get good power though I think you might have to "tune" them a bit with the tractor throttle

I always called it the Dexter Freebish as well.....anyone remember it before they redid it and put the ground level 360 loop around part in?

and I too remember the Horizon smelling like puke in fact I specifically remember talking about that with others, but it was kind of cool....I remember one film was a bobsled I believe and I can't recall others

I saw BOC there, Cheap Trick, Molly Hatchet twice, Brian Adams got hit in the head with a beer bottle and story was he would never come back to Houston....who ever threw it nailed his ass I saw a couple of other bands there as well.....I also had a knife pulled on me by a girl with a Mohawk....I can't remember the concert, but it was HOT AS HELL and everyone was packed in and this girl and her friend just came shoving through people and she finally got stopped right ahead of me and a friends sister and another friend or two.....people were still yelling at her and tossing things at her and the friend and saying stuff and she turned around and pulled out a cheap ass Mexican switch blade and was all holding it up.....a little area opened up and I told her "stab me b... come on stab me" and she got this real panicked look on her face like she did not know what to do and stood there and I said it again and then she put the knife away and tried to turn back towards the stage and by then people were screaming at the security and they had noticed the cleared area and they came and took the knife and actually let the girls stay and not long after that they got all exhausted and went back through the crowd with people shoving them and throwing stuff at them

I damn sure would not do that today, but I was a lot younger back then, probably drunk or buzzed, showing off, and these two bimbos were total poseurs as 99% of punks and new wave dorks were back then plus the knife would have probably fallen apart.....my friends still laugh at me about that

we liked the model Ts and the other cars to ram into each other and others ahead of you

Alpine Sleigh Ride was great to cool off

two really great times were for my brothers Bday one time the Barrel of Fun had no line and we could go as many times as we wanted finally on the 8th time the guy let it go extra long.....it was the ride where you got in an upright big cylinder and you would stand against the wall and it spun and you would stick to the wall from the centrifugal force and then the floor would lower.....there was always a story that the floor used to drop open in the middle, but a girl had managed to fall from the wall and got her head stuck when it was closing

another time we got to ride the Greased Lightening as many times as we wanted....they would make you get out and go around even with no line though

and yes the Greased Lightening is in Lubbock, but not set up

I loved the Sombrero and I liked the Gun Slinger on the swings with chains and you could push at your friends in front of you

anyone remember the little kids roller coaster we would always ride it just because about every time we went

there was another story that I think was true that a guy and a friend jumped the fence and one got hit by the train that went around the park I think they sued as well

now that it was mentioned I remember the shooting....I can't remember if it was on the bridge going over 610 or if it was in the parking lot, but they tried to play it off like "the shooter was never in the park they were only ever in the parking lot" .......as was said before the place was doomed when they did not grow to attract real tourist and so they needed local business which meant cheap summer passes and it just became a place where some were just there to cause trouble and walk 10 wide and try and smash into kids and ladies and pretend like they wanted to fight others their age or a bit older or younger....I believe theft was also a major problem as well they were having a lot of incidents turning violent when they tried to stop theft from the gift shops and the crowds did not help that

anyone remember when they used to have water ski shows.....I always remembered the boats were nice (I think Glastron) with crappy Chrysler outboards

I remember bumper cars were pretty fun we would always pick someone we did not know in line to all gang up on once the cars started

one thing I liked is for a while they had some really nice RC boats, some cars, and tanks (like army tanks) set up in three different areas and you could put quarters in and run them.....we would always run a couple and try and push the tanks off the track or the boats out of the buoyed off area so the attendant would have to run and get it

the cannons on the river of no return scared the hell out of me they were LOUD

I always liked the drawing guys that would draw the cartoons and I liked the wacky house too it was pretty cool even when you knew what the setup was.....I had a love hate relationship with the BB guns where you tried to shoot out the star, but I liked the western shooting gallery by the sombrero

one thing we always liked to do there was the whole name on the back of the Tshirt thing was popular back then so we would wait and when walking we would shout out someones name of their shirt and then just pretend like it was not us and of course we could get them looking around 3 or 4 times at least

I miss it, but the place was doomed it was just not able to grow to the size needed to really be an attraction and going too cheap to attract locals was failing theme parks all over the USA

remember this house from my youth

I can't help but think that one day that track facility is going to be in the parking lot north of the football stadium and that piece of property will have medical center related buildings on it

Numbers closing would be a final nail in the coffin of Houston's hoppin' club days.

I never knew it until I went off to college, but Houston's music and club scene in the 1980s was cutting edge. Had a lot of firsts at Numbers and I am sure I am not the only one.

I'll forever miss Numbers/NRG/Power Tools/ EMOS-SOME/Red Square/ Record Rack/ etc...

don't forget what was Hippo's that turned into 6400 (6400 Richmond) and then when it burned (a lot of 80s clubs in Houston seemed to burn huh) there was "The New 6400" that was further east on the north side of Richmond

great on Houston another skate park

I wish Texas Pipeline was still open off of Richmond one block east of Fondren right next to the bubble dome tennis place

and does anyone remember "The Glass" the fiberglass skate park that was at Town and Country....part of it ended up at River Rats place in New Braunfels on the Guadalupe it was the "speed shoot"

for a long time I believe 11 in Houston would sign off with the national anthem music and a video of Air Force jets flying I believe with an in cockpit view from one planes towards others in formation

there was a Shakey's at Town and Country well before the mall was ever built (and then demoed) it was in the area of single story shops

I always remember they had these plastic tops they gave out and they were cheap, but they were made pretty well and they would really spin

TABC

not a bigger group of useless idiots on the face of the earth!

there was a Sambos on Memorial down near Kirkwood and it was not a black kid it was an Indian kid (tech support not casino), but since it was dark it was taken to be a black kid by the baiters at be

the Kips Big Boy on Westheimer is the home of one of my "best" wild drunken high school stories

it was the evening of either Jan 1 1987 or possibly 86....I am almost sure it was new years day of 87 (I know it was the evening of new years day just not the year)

anyway me and several friends went there drunk as hell and hungry.....I was so drunk I was not going to eat.....we had just been there the night before new years eve after all my friends got trashed and I refrained and was the driver for them......the place was TRASHED new years eve and the bathrooms were all puked in which was furthered by two of my friends

so here we are back the next night and one of my friends was driving this time and I was DOWN AND OUT......we end up running into an old friend of mine from elementary and middle school that I had lost touch with since I had moved......we got a booth right next to the buffet and my two friends plus my other friend (that everyone already knew) that we had run into all ordered and I gave a grunt to the waiter and my friend told him I would not be eating

it was a 4 top booth and was sitting on one of the ends.....the friend we had bumped into was kind of a funny guy and I don't remember how the conversation got going (because I was wasted with my head down on the table) and my friend all the sudden is talking about all this gross stuff that could be on the buffet table like friend cows eyes ect...

I am getting SICK......so I am sitting there with my head down and listening to him and everyone laughing and I am thinking "I need to tell him to shut up or I am going to puke"......and I am also thinking "If I pick my head up and open my mouth I am going to puke"

so finally I had enough and looked up and started to feel like I was going to puke......all my friends knew I was a puker so they are suddenly looking at me.....and I grab the silverware that is wrapped in a napkin and try and bite on it to keep my mouth closed while puke is spewing out between my lips and the silverware........my friends are like "oh damn" and the two across from me jump up and the guy I had blocked in jumps up on the booth seat and steps on the table and jumps past me right as I take the silverware out of my mouth and puke all over the table

I felt a LOT better than that and went to the bathroom with a restaurant full of people staring at me and my friends dieing laughing and I puked some more and them my friend drove me home to wash up and change shirts and go out a bit more

the also gave 10 bucks to the busboy that was looking at me all crazy eyed as I walked past him walking towards my table

I love you Kips Big Boy and always will!

you had a great chicken fried steak sandwich and chicken friend chicken sandwich

I had the chicken friend chicken the night before on new years eve it was damn good wish I had one right now

my parents both worked at the downtown Foley's

my mom had her original Foley's card for at least 20 years after that and she would pull it out and people that had either worked there for a long time or that were pretty new would be like "wow" and then either "never see these anymore" or "I have never seen one of these"

a friend they had from working there ended up managing the store at Westheimer and 6 for a number of years after it opened

a few friends went to hyper mart a couple of times, but I never went I was kind of the idea of "why would I want to eat something from a place that sells tires"

looking back in a way I wish I had gone at least one time, but at the same time it is kind of like never having seen ET.....a bit of a point of pride

(I have a friend that is in his 40s and has never seen Star Wars.....not any of them.....he never saw the first two then said he would wait and watch them all at one time then when George Lucas quit on the overall project my friend just never did see any of them)

wasn't there a location at Gessner and Westheimer on the north east side....what ever store it was had a "signature" peaked roof that all their stores had and at this particular location after you checked out the sacker took your cart of groceries over to the west side of the building through a little waiting area and you got your car and drove up under a large awning and held up your number and the sacker came out with your stuff and loaded it in

Most cities I've lived in with large mass transit operations have their own police force. New York and Chicago, specifically stand out. New York was all transit cops. Chicago has a CTA police force, but most patrols and bomb-sniffing details are farmed out to Securitas.

In Seattle, King County Metro uses a combination of Securitas and King County Sheriff's deputies. It was originally all privately-contracted until a video came out about a year ago of a teen-aged girl betting severely beaten in a subway tunnel with three rent-a-cops standing around her doing nothing because they're not authorized to intervene.

The regional transit operator, Sound Transit, uses King County Sheriff's deputies, but puts them in Sound Transit police uniforms.

Tangent:

I've always felt that Houston had too many overlapping police agencies. The two I think should be merged into others are HISD Police, and the Constables.

while I agree there are too many police forces (like state university police forces that have state police powers just like a DPS officer that many students think are renta-pigs.....why not just make them DPS officers and supervise them out of the closest DPS office?)

but Constables are not city police they are county police and specifically they are not actually the same as a sheriff (also county).....both are elected positions, but a sheriff technically is for law enforcement while the main job of a constable is serving court papers for failure to appears ect.

the reason that the constables in Harris county do so much patrolling is because the guy that was before constable Radack in precinct 5 (back when Radack was precinct 5 instead of 3 like now) did not have a lot of warrants to serve in west Houston, but he had a bunch of well to do neighborhoods in the area that were willing to pay for renta-pigs or even better constables if they could get real law enforcement officers to patrol neighborhoods

this was back before the westside command center had been built and you NEVER saw HPD around west Houston (back when people called most of west Houston southwest Houston before southwest Houston became the ghetto)

you would see 2 or 3 constable cars sometimes out on Briar Forest between the beltway and Dairy Ashford sitting in the turning area of the medians with the radar

and then they would patrol the neighborhoods at night on a rented out basis for off duty officers

the constables out and about is a county by county thing.....I know a constable in a county near Lubbock that hands all his warrants off to the sheriff.....he actually gets paid next to nothing, but he gets benefits and a retirement and he gets to have cop lights in the grill of his personal pickup and carry a gun.....and that is what is important to him

How about we think bigger, so it has a larger impact to justify making it an interstate.

How about expanding Interstate 27 south of Lubbock into Austin (where it would connect to 290) via US 84 and US 183. Then expand I-27 north of Amarillo into Denver via 287. The new Interstate would connect the Rocky Mountain region (and using I-90, the Pacific Northwest) with the Port of Houston and the Gulf of Mexico.

How about that?

As for I-69, Im all for it ...resign now!

there is already a plan for I-27 called Ports-to-Plains

http://www.portstoplains.com/Our_Maps.aspx

here are some proposed maps of it.....Denver will be on the route, but Austin and Houston will not be the plan is to make it easier to move goods back and forth to Mexico more so than the coastal ports so far

the problem with some of the more naive responses in this thread is they assume those people that will take that "place to live" actually want something more than a place to flop before they go back on the streets and get drunk and high again and then return to their "place to live"

unless you are willing to drug and alcohol test those that are staying there and REQUIRE some type of daily planned routine out of them you are doing nothing more than giving a drunken addict a place to sleep and rest up before returning to the streets worse than ever

and the only way to actually take charge of the life of those that "need" help like being talked about here is to arrest them, convict them of something, and then take custody of them

but unfortunately in this country we (as we can see from some replying in this post) are moving as a country rapidly to where you are free to urinate, dedicate, trash out, destroy, impede, and otherwise ruin others property as well as public property and you are free to do that at will as long as you can turn around and falsely claim you have no place to live

when the truth of the matter is these people HAVE plenty of options on where to live, but they refuse to follow the rules about drunkenness, drugs, violence, and hygiene so they have to be removed from those places

because again until they are MADE to change their life they will continue to do what they do now which is destroy and take from society at their will

after their third charge of public urination, deification, drunkenness, violence, gross littering, trespassing, and squatting they should be labeled as incorrigible and sent to a residential facility where their lives will be highly regulated...those that have a history of violence would be separated out and the rest would VERY GRADUALLY go from total control of their daily and hourly movements to possibly having a few hours of limited freedom to shop, interview for jobs, or work a job if they obtain one......others would be doing public works like picking up trash, scrubbing graffiti, or chopping weeds

it is silly that grown adults think you can just lure these types in like a stray kitten with some kibble and a warm cot when the reality is they will take your kibble and warm cot and then probably destroy it like a freaking lion.....because they need CONTROL TAKEN OF THEIR LIVES not just a place that lets the rest up and then go back out wilding