RobertB

• 2 years, 3 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Map of 50 states and their signature food item.

  This is definitely a case where Texas should be broken up into the however-many states that were originally envisioned.

  
  
• 2 years, 3 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Study: Dallas is hot spot for sexual exploitation of adolescent girls

  My PegNews "Week In View" newsletter led with this story. What was right below it? An ad for a party at Fair Park, featuring a nude woman (torso only), covering her breasts with a pair of headphones. When the accepted norm in our society is the objectification of women, why should we be surprised when women become victims?

  The article quotes, "At its heart, this (sexual exploitation) is about a total devaluation of the lives of these girls." How is that ad not exactly such a devaluation?

  If we want to clean up the city and make it safe for my daughters and yours... then we need to be looking in the mirror.

  (That said, the statistics quoted are misleading. Take out the rural Texas population, and Dallas doesn't look any worse than the other urban areas of the state. Which is still shameful.)

  
  
• 2 years, 4 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  The Advocate explains what will happen with LBJ Express

  Too bad it already needs more than double the capacity, and will probably need three times the capacity by the time it's complete. You can't build your way out of gridlock.

  
  
• 2 years, 5 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Stratos

  Just a note: They haven't had Karaoke in quite a while, so call before you haul. That is, if you were just going for the Karaoke, like me. The food's good, so if lack of Karaoke isn't a negative, YMMV. ;)

  
  
• 2 years, 6 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Meet Dallas gamer Stephen Toulouse, author of a new book and official Xbox police

  Interesting that this guy's bag includes working with law enforcement. When my Xbox was stolen -- and the thief started playing on it constantly -- the droids on the other end of the Microsoft help desk wouldn't do anything to help me track it down. I gave them the police report number, but the detective working the case said he didn't get anything helpful from Microsoft, either. Even just the IP address being used by my Xbox would have been helpful. Instead, all I could do was report in whenever I got another email about how the user of my Xbox stole another credit card and used it to add more months to his Xbox Live membership.

  After that experience, there are two things I'm not going to do again:

  • Let a game console store access to my credit card.

  • Buy an Xbox.

  
  
• 2 years, 7 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Reps. Carol Kent, Robert Miklos, Chris Turner among freshman Texas House Democrats struggling to hold seats

  Note to eds: Could you please correct Rep. Miklos' name in the headline? It's Robert Miklos, like in the story. He's the representative from Mesquite. His opponent, according to her campaign flyer, is the "little girl who is challenging the President of the United States." I kid you not, that's exactly what her flyer says. Give me someone who's focused on Mesquite, thankyouverymuch.

  
  
• 2 years, 7 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Community Awareness Day

  I wish I wasn't going to be out of town this weekend, because this quietly developing project represents the future of water in North Texas. Pastureland along the East Fork of the Trinity River has been converted into a series of artificial wetlands that actually give Dallas more drinking water.

  River water is pumped out, run through the wetlands in a carefully planned manner, and comes out cleaner than it went in. Wetlands are a natural filtration system, after all.

  This cleaner water is then pumped back upstream -- all the way up to Lake Lavon, where it becomes part of the water supply for Dallas and its suburbs. This ensures that the Lake Lavon treatment plant can operate more efficiently, and produce higher quality water with less treatment (meaning less cost) because the water is cleaner to begin with. And it's good for the lake as well -- which is good for fish, fishermen, and businesses that fish for fishermen.

  And as if that weren't enough... since the artificial wetlands are "new", they can be used to offset wetland losses in new housing and commercial developments. That means that the guy building a new strip center on a patch of swampy ground actually pays for a patch of wetland down on the East Fork. Some aspects of such offsets are debatable, but one thing's not: that's cold hard cash for a project that benefits the environment, as well as anyone who drinks water in Dallas.

  
  
• 2 years, 7 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  If someone in Addison sees anyone riding this bike around, please contact me or call the police; someone cut the chain securing it this morning and stole it from our front pateo. We really miss our bike.

  I work near Addison Airport, so I'll keep an eye out. It's rather distinctive! And awesome.

  
  
• 2 years, 8 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Party Erotique

  I dunno... it'll probably just be a bunch of oversexed males, and that's one Kubrick movie I *don't* care to see.

  
  
• 2 years, 9 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  New transit option coming to downtown area and to Arlington stadiums.

  Sounds great, but call me back if it actually happens. Their site has a non-functional Twitter link, and "Service Areas" is "Under Construction". Looks more like a concept than an actual business at this point.

  
  
• 2 years, 9 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Death of Lake Highlands graduate linked to K2

  According to the story on KERA this morning, the unfortunate teen was on at least two other drugs at the time. I don't know anything about this K2 -- I get my kicks above the waistline, Sunshine -- but it sounds to me like the moves to ban it are little more than a bunch of politicians pushing yet another "get tough" feel-good campaign that does nothing to address the issues that lead kids to turn to drugs in the first place. A kid swimming in the city pool isn't smoking a joint, original or K2-enhanced. Ditto for the kid at the library, the cultural center, the water park...

  KERA also said that the Dallas Police already have the retail outlets in their sights for "enhanced enforcement". Gee, that's swell. How about we have the Dallas Police concentrate on actual criminals, instead?

  
  
• 2 years, 9 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Carl's Jr coming to Carrollton at Trinity Mills and Midway

  Don't count your chickens, though... the location was a Krystal Burger until last week. I pulled in for a Scrambler (grits topped with egg and sausage), and instead saw workers gutting the place and removing the bricks from the facade.

  OTOH, Carl's Jr has some good burgers. Though you wouldn't know if you'd tried them at the only local outlets, in truck stops -- quality is nowhere near that of the standalone store in Wichita Falls.

  
  
• 2 years, 9 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Confusion over Dallas Police Chief Brown's comment about rape continues

  The comments by readers of the Observer column would make me scared to death to be a woman in Dallas, if that's the attitude of my fellow Y-chromosome-bearers. The level of vitriol towards reporter Andrea Grimes is startling, even in these days of no-thought knee-jerk comments. The viciousness with which they attack her integrity, for simply reporting on what was said in public by a public official, borders on mania.

  The only conclusion I can draw is that there a lot of guys out there who have taken advantage of a woman after buying her a drink, and they're scared to death that they'll some day be hauled up before a judge and sent to jail where they belong. Bastards.

  
  
• 2 years, 9 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Karaoke review: Koto Japanese & Asian Fusion

  I should totally add that as a tag line for my Karaoke blog:

  "The bar craze of the decade!" - Jason Rice, Dallas

  ;)

  
  
• 2 years, 9 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  CATS

  Aw, guys! Did you have to include the spoiler? ;X)

  
  
• 2 years, 9 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Vote to demolish old Collin County courthouse a Brutal decision

  Kaufman County has a similarly ugly courthouse. It is such a great example of 1950s industrial cookie-cutter, that it was used in a movie shoot... as a hospital.

  On one corner of the courthouse grounds is a marker, built on the one identifiable piece of the old 1800s courthouse that could be found in the landfill. I forget the exact wording, but the message inscribed on a pyramid topping the relic pretty much amounts to "What The Heck Were We Thinking?"

  That said, the Collin County situation sounds like a typical case of what happens when you elect a bunch of Northern developers to run things. Whether the courthouse should be demolished or not is one thing, but the way the city got the property in the first place stinks. Buy on false pretenses, pay the nominal fines for the blatant lies, and then do something that nobody would have approved if they'd known ahead of time.

  But I can't claim to know what I'm talking about, really... I've managed to stay south of the Collin County line. (And that's not by accident.)

  
  
• 2 years, 10 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Whole Foods keeping former store on Lower Greenville empty to serve as boneyard

  To be fair, wouldn't that count as "recycling"? You'd prefer they rent a warehouse somewhere?

  Plus, in this economy, I can't imagine there are too many outfits clamoring to occupy that space. If they just put it on the market, it would probably be empty just as long if not longer... except that nobody would be using it and keeping it from falling into disrepair. BarkingDogs should consider themselves lucky it's still in use.

  
  
• 2 years, 10 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  My soul languishes in the flames of correction

  In the interest of fairness, I present the other side of the coin; a thoroughly secular but equally rabid cry that the sky is falling.

  Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a 'world-killing' event

  Choice quotes include:

  • "The bottom line: BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling operation may have triggered an irreversible, cascading geological Apocalypse that will culminate with the first mass extinction of life on Earth in many millions of years."

  • "The media has been kept away from the emergency salvage measures being taken to forestall the biggest catastrophe in human history. The federal government has warned them away from the epicenter of operations with the threat of a $40,000 fine for each infraction and the possibility of felony arrests."

  • "...Next, the ocean bottom will collapse, instantaneously displacing up to a trillion cubic feet of water or more and creating a towering supersonic tsunami annihilating everything along the coast and well inland. Like a thermonuclear blast, a high pressure atmospheric wave could precede the tidal wave flattening everything in its path before the water arrives."

  Just proving the point: you certainly don't have to be religious to be delusional.

  
  
• 2 years, 10 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  A Massachusetts newspaper has decided to charge a 99 cent fee to post comments on its website - as well as displaying the commenters' names as they appear on their credit card. Brilliant, dudes. Hope your wacky get-rich-never scheme works out for you.

  I'd prefer a more balanced system, where comments are charged based on their content. For example: the knee-jerk, uninformed comments at the Dallas Morning News should cost the poster at least $5 a piece to post. Whereas the reasoned, moderate, and insightful comments at Pegasus News... well, they should pay us. ;)

  
  
• 2 years, 10 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  My soul languishes in the flames of correction

  "Geologists worry that an enormous pocket of methane gas under the sea floor may explode, causing a tsunami that will kill millions."

  Might be a bit difficult for methane hydrates to explode, given the lack of an oxidizer. Fortunately, me (and most of my fellow Christians, FWIW) have taken basic high school chemistry, and know that it takes both fuel and oxidizer to initiate combustion.

  I've never been too terribly worried about the whole "end times" thing, anyway. I think it's a foregone conclusion that, sometime in the next hundred years, it's gonna be "end times" for me. If I needed a motivation to "take care of business", it seems like that would be enough. OTOH, different people see God in different ways. Your Mileage May Vary (and in the case of the letter-writer, May Vary Wildly).

  
  
• 2 years, 10 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Rock Star Karaoke

  PegNews previously posted my review of singing with RSK -- Karaoke review: Rock Star Karaoke at The Loft in Dallas. Short version: it was a face-melting, awesomely great time, both for the "performers" and the audience. If it didn't keep me up until 2am Thursday morning -- or if I didn't have a day job -- I'd be tempted to go every week.

  
  
• 2 years, 10 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Dr Pepper coming out with sugar version for summer of 2010

  Since the Dr Pepper plant in Dublin can't possibly supply the whole world's needs, I'm 100% in favor. Thing is, the Dr Pepper bottler serving Houston -- and maybe other places? -- has been doing this for years. Picking up a bunch of 20oz bottles of retro-styled DP has been part of going to the beach for our family for at least 5 years. But it'll still be great to get it in 12-pack cans... I'll stock up big time, in preparation for Hot Dr Pepper season this winter.

  
  
• 2 years, 11 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  Ridglea Theater and office building in Fort Worth doomed to demolition by Bank of America

  I sent a note to the City Council email listed on the Ridglea Theater's website. I pointed out that although I'm not a Fort Worth resident, I do visit FW, and I leave my Mesquite dollars with FW businesses. Even though I haven't been to the Ridglea since I saw "The Empire Strikes Back" in the '80s, it's part of what makes Fort Worth special, and distinct from Dallas.

  As for Bank of America doing anything they're not absolutely required to do, forget about it. "Too Big To Fail" == "Too Big To Care". Why anyone would do their personal banking with such an institution -- when there's locals like Frost, and plenty of credit unions to choose from -- is beyond my understanding.

  
  
• 2 years, 11 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  From this point on, I will no longer admit that Dallas has public transportation.

  Absolutely a fair statement, but the alternative is to run empty buses down Plano's broad, Hummer-lined avenues. Since operating revenues come primarily from sales taxes (not the fare box), DART has to put buses where people ride them regularly. Sucks for occasional riders like us, though.

  
  
• 2 years, 11 months ago
  RobertB's comment on:

  UPDATED: Fair Park Fourth event canceled because of lack of sponsorships

  Oh, yeah... dang it, I wish someone would let me know when it's backwards week.

  
  

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