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Austin and Central Texas-ERA |OT| The Mopac Improvement Project

Vark

Vark

Member
Oct 27, 2017
477
SolmisateSol said:
Dude spiders are the chillest critter to have in your place I've been singing their praises for awhile.
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Yea, my only ground rules are no hanging out around the toilet and stay out of the kitchen.

My current place actually has a few Gecko's living in it. I keep putting them back outside but they get back in. The ones on the front stoop are frickin' huge this year though. They've been feasting.
 
Pwnz

Pwnz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,279
Places
Holy fuck, forecasted low in the low 30s on Halloween. I don't think I've every seen it get that cold in October.

Praised be
 
f0rk

f0rk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,694
Hi Austin! I'm visiting the city from the UK for the F1 GP from Thursday until next week, before moving on to San Antonio and Houston. I'll be at the track over the weekend, but welcome ideas of things to do Monday to Wednesday and places to eat/drink. I'm staying in a hostel near downtown.

Is Franklin Barbecue worth the queue? I assume there are some other spots just as good.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,228
f0rk said:
No, I understand that might be quite limiting.
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The Franklin line is better if you have friends with you. If you're by yourself you'll have a decent enough experience at say Black's on Barton Springs.

(I'm not the biggest fan of BBQ. I go to Black's for the sides)
 
Vark

Vark

Member
Oct 27, 2017
477
f0rk said:
Hi Austin! I'm visiting the city from the UK for the F1 GP from Thursday until next week, before moving on to San Antonio and Houston. I'll be at the track over the weekend, but welcome ideas of things to do Monday to Wednesday and places to eat/drink. I'm staying in a hostel near downtown.

Is Franklin Barbecue worth the queue? I assume there are some other spots just as good.
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The line is half the fun for me. Bring a 6 pack and make some friends. There are loaner chairs underneath the stairs you can borrow to sit in.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,228
At least it's gonna be warmer Mon-Wed. Don't think I'd want to wait around in line in the 40's
 
Pwnz

Pwnz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,279
Places
f0rk said:
We go on holiday away from England to get away from this smh
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The weather coming Thursday is highly unusual, probably will break some records. We usually get this kind of weather maybe 5 times per year for 2 days at a time but it's in December thru February not October.

Make good of it and mock my fellow Austinites that will flail around in heavy coats more suitable for weather 20 degrees cooler.

Maybe we'll get autumn leaves. Usually they drop unceremoniously withered and a shit brown color in mid December
 
Pwnz

Pwnz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,279
Places
f0rk said:
Hi Austin! I'm visiting the city from the UK for the F1 GP from Thursday until next week, before moving on to San Antonio and Houston. I'll be at the track over the weekend, but welcome ideas of things to do Monday to Wednesday and places to eat/drink. I'm staying in a hostel near downtown.

Is Franklin Barbecue worth the queue? I assume there are some other spots just as good.
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Get a lyft and go to Brotherton's black iron bbq. Brisket is same quality, no wait. An hour drive round trip but still 3 hours faster and warm. Keep in mind market style by the lb bbq will sell out so get there early in the day.

Also with Lyft tip, its America after all.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,228
Pwnz said:
Get a lyft and go to Brotherton's black iron bbq. Brisket is same quality, no wait. An hour drive round trip but still 3 hours faster and warm. Keep in mind market style by the lb bbq will sell out so get there early in the day.

Also with Lyft tip, its America after all.
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Yeah, I was gonna say them if the answer to the car question was different.

You have to keep an eye on their Facebook though. Sometimes shit happens (old building and all) and they don't get to open for the day, and they're closed on Mondays.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,228
My heater is this close --><-- to turning on.

Edit: Welp, came on after 11.
 
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janusff

janusff

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
18,123
Austin, TX
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Pwnz

Pwnz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,279
Places
Tuesday morning could be dangerous due to ice fyi. Lots of rain immediately following a low of 27.
 
Pwnz

Pwnz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,279
Places
Travis county and pfisd will probably wait until 6am to delay even though everything outside in pflugerville is layered in ice and the low is 27. Pflugerville - failing to understand water in all of its states.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,228
Pwnz said:
Travis county and pfisd will probably wait until 6am to delay even though everything outside in pflugerville is layered in ice and the low is 27. Pflugerville - failing to understand water in all of its states.
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They're trigger-shy after what happened with the previous Supe.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,228
fenners said:
This. Pflugerville now typically swings the other way, calling it tooearly before the actual morning's known. I think I heard from a teacher friend they have a war room to decide at 3am these days?
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Well the problem with the previous supe was that soon after he started they made the call too early more than once and cancelled school unnecessarily.

The "war room" is a region-wide thing for all area administrations.
 
Pwnz

Pwnz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,279
Places
Pflugerville is having its weekly helicopter manhunt. Someone shot within walking distance of my house. Locked doors, adt armed stay, under covers lol.
 
Pwnz

Pwnz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,279
Places
Andrew Korenchkin said:
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""We know we can't build enough roads for all the cars, we have to give people an option other than their cars to get around," said Mayor Adler. "We know that people are never going to take that option until its faster, quicker and more convenient.""

Uh huh. Its not possible to build roads.

We don't even have a proper loop. Cities of our size usually have a couple of circular ones. And until relatively recently we had no north south highways other than lerching off I-35. They're not even fucking trying to build roads. We aren't Manhattan, the train is a niche and at best may match Marta one day.
 
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bulbasort

bulbasort

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
383
Pwnz said:
""We know we can't build enough roads for all the cars, we have to give people an option other than their cars to get around," said Mayor Adler. "We know that people are never going to take that option until its faster, quicker and more convenient.""

Uh huh. Its not possible to build roads.

We don't even have a proper loop. Cities of our size usually have a couple of circular ones. And until relatively recently we had no north south highways other than lerching off I-35. They're not even fucking trying to build roads. We aren't Manhattan, the train is a niche and at best may match Marta one day.
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Building roads just increases traffic. We need public transit.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,228
A lot of the problematic roads are either state-owned or have already used up all the ROW.
 
Pwnz

Pwnz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,279
Places
Ever since I got a $150 ticket for parking on an open lot and purchasing the street parking pass of about the same cost, I avoid driving downtown. So that's also effective.
 
Pwnz

Pwnz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,279
Places
Also I drove through a Houston toll change maid lane because I had no idea this was still a thing. Still waiting for the ticket lol.
 
SolmisateSol

SolmisateSol

Member
Nov 2, 2017
647
In regards to the transportation issues.

I have a grad-student urban planning friend who supports city mandated work-from-home two days a week. If everyone capable of remote work did so two days a week:
1.) Roads would be less congested,
2.) Rush hour traffic would be much more tolerable,
3.) We would cut down CO2 emissions pretty drastically (if this was implemented on a federal basis, the U.S would meet its Paris Climate Accord CO2 Reductions goals without anything else needing to change).

It's a really elegant solution that I don't see the city talking about.
 
Pwnz

Pwnz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,279
Places
SolmisateSol said:
In regards to the transportation issues.

I have a grad-student urban planning friend who supports city mandated work-from-home two days a week. If everyone capable of remote work did so two days a week:
1.) Roads would be less congested,
2.) Rush hour traffic would be much more tolerable,
3.) We would cut down CO2 emissions pretty drastically (if this was implemented on a federal basis, the U.S would meet its Paris Climate Accord CO2 Reductions goals without anything else needing to change).

It's a really elegant solution that I don't see the city talking about.
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Well I'm doing my part then. I work from home 4 to 5 days per week.
 

Deleted member 23850

Oct 28, 2017
8,689
SolmisateSol said:
In regards to the transportation issues.

I have a grad-student urban planning friend who supports city mandated work-from-home two days a week. If everyone capable of remote work did so two days a week:
1.) Roads would be less congested,
2.) Rush hour traffic would be much more tolerable,
3.) We would cut down CO2 emissions pretty drastically (if this was implemented on a federal basis, the U.S would meet its Paris Climate Accord CO2 Reductions goals without anything else needing to change).

It's a really elegant solution that I don't see the city talking about.
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Didn't Adler once order workers to stay home during SXSW? I heard it went really well.

EDIT: Ah, here it is.

 
deafmedal

deafmedal

Member
Oct 25, 2017
546
Pwnz said:
Also I drove through a Houston toll change maid lane because I had no idea this was still a thing. Still waiting for the ticket lol.
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Do you have a TxTag? If so they will just deduct from your balance like any local toll road. The entrances all have the 3 (!) TX tags posted but the actual toll roads just have signage for HCTRA. I went through a few weeks back and was curious if I was in violation but the transactions came through TxTag like normal.

It tripped me out seeing manual cash lanes, don't see them too often (esp since I install AET systems heh).
 
Pwnz

Pwnz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,279
Places
deafmedal said:
Do you have a TxTag? If so they will just deduct from your balance like any local toll road. The entrances all have the 3 (!) TX tags posted but the actual toll roads just have signage for HCTRA. I went through a few weeks back and was curious if I was in violation but the transactions came through TxTag like normal.

It tripped me out seeing manual cash lanes, don't see them too often (esp since I install AET systems heh).
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I have TxTag, yes.

At first I went through the change maid, I slowed down nearly to stop. There was nothing to block my path and I was panicking that I'd get rear ended. I pulled down my window and asked "Do I go!?", to which surprised the change maid and she nodded but I thought it was just because she wanted that crazy person to go away haha.

I don't know why they even have employees for that. They should just mail a bill at the extra rate and just accept that ~2% of people get to use the tolls free (out of state interns, etc) like in Austin.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,228
Apparently today was the official groundbreaking for the new Apple campus.

They've obviously been prepping the area for a while now.
 
deafmedal

deafmedal

Member
Oct 25, 2017
546
Zoe said:
Apparently today was the official groundbreaking for the new Apple campus.

They've obviously been prepping the area for a while now.
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I guess our Great and Fearless leader came to town for this, we were told by the client not to go onsite for work today (working on the new 130 to 290 exchange) due to his eminence's arrival.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,228
deafmedal said:
I guess our Great and Fearless leader came to town for this, we were told by the client not to go onsite for work today (working on the new 130 to 290 exchange) due to his eminence's arrival.
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Technically he only came for the Macbook Pro manufacturing facility. I guess Apple wanted to kill two birds with one stone on the groundbreaking since I'm sure they would want Tim Cook to be there as well.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,228
A shitshow? You probably submit more posts there than actual residents lol
 

Deleted member 23850

Oct 28, 2017
8,689
Zoe said:
A shitshow? You probably submit more posts there than actual residents lol
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I won't lie, that...kind of hurt.

You're right though, r/Austin definitely has its bad apples (the subreddit gets called out...a lot), but ultimately I love the Subreddit. It can get super contentious in there, though.
 
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