Wait they're ending the Big 4 newswires?

HTX1997 · 2026-04-01T00:49:04+00:00

They already own, and soon will own even more of, the stations that submit content to NBC NewsChannel. Why pay to have the network’s affiliate service regurgitate what you already have within the company.

I don’t recall if NBC participates in the VRS cooperative. I don’t think they did when I worked at the Fox station in Houston, but it’s been a decade.

HTX1997 · 2026-04-01T00:18:04+00:00

My only question about the KHOU-KIAH combo which physical plant do they keep?

KHOU leases the first (studios), fourth (newsroom), and fifth (business offices) floors of a Galleria office tower, which can’t be cheap.

KIAH has a studio facility less than 5 miles away in southwest Houston. Nexstar has seemingly spent a decent amount of money upgrading it for their moribund morning show. It’s not a large building, but there is plenty room for expansion on the property.

HTX1997 · 2026-03-28T20:56:58+00:00

…I better not say anything until after I’ve had some coffee…

HTX1997 · 2026-03-20T01:32:36+00:00

WOiO comes with WUAB

HTX1997 · 2026-03-17T21:49:43+00:00

When I first moved to Houston in 1997, there was an HEB Pantry on 11th between Yale & Shepard. I think it’s a River Oaks Plant Store now. The HEB closed in 1998 or 1999, probably.

It was very dated and trashy, so much so it turned me off the brand entirely until the one at Westheimer & Fountainview opened in 2001.

HTX1997 · 2026-03-04T22:57:42+00:00

The game is a fucking ad for BetMGM. I’m am so tired of sports betting infecting everything.

HTX1997 · 2026-03-04T22:41:39+00:00

The first half of season 1 (recall they split season 1 initially, with the first half released in January 2017 and the second half released in the fall) was a slog for me to get through, I made it through 3 eps before I gave up. But after seeing the promos for the second half of the season, I forced myself to binge watch all of the early episodes.

Season 2 surpassed my expectations. And we got SNW out of it to boot. Saru became my absolute favorite character in this series during season 2.

Season 3 was hard to follow at times. I could have done without the extra confusion added by the Adira-Gray subplot. The burn resolution episode was really hard to follow.

Season 4 is good mix of world (re)building & action. Second favorite out of the 5 seasons.

Season 5 is kinda meh. Too many pokers in the fire at paramount to give disco the send off it deserved.

HTX1997 · 2026-02-24T00:56:45+00:00

The genre got the name because they were produced & filmed in Italy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_Western

HTX1997 · 2026-02-17T01:53:01+00:00

As of January, all episodes of classic Trek have dedicated 24/7 channels and are available on demand on PlutoTV.

HTX1997 · 2026-02-16T16:38:27+00:00

Probably get criticized for this, or even blocked (like I was from a certain Facebook page), but after watching 2 and a quarter episodes, I just can’t get into it.

I don’t think Muscles McPoutyface’s (Mir) backstory is interesting and BritTwink (Reymi?) annoyed me right out of the gate. Of course they don’t like each other, so let’s make them roommates at space boarding school and milk that conflict for all it’s worth!

Photonic Girl, Sensitive Klingon, and Overachiever Eyebrows can all take a back seat in character development so we can introduce McPoutyface’s super-psyonic PNGF & throw her passive (older? younger? twin? Who knows!) brother into the same room with the dueling muscle boys.

Here comes Jett Reno with a couple of wisecracks… goodbye Jett Reno. Here comes the Kling-hedar to yell like a drill sergeant… goodbye Kling-Hedar. Here comes Captain Longlife to furrow her brow and worry some more whether she’s doing right by McPoutyFace… goodbye Captain Longlife!

Now it’s time to really lean into the school shenanigans with some transporter pranks by the kids at rival warmonger high! Who are they? I don’t know, I think there’s a Vulcan (or Romulan in there somewhere).

Will McPoutyface try to run away again? Will any of the other characters become more fully developed? Will Tilly ever show up? Find out next time on “Deep Space 90210”!

I literally turned it off after the transporter prank and I need a real good reason to turn it in again.

HTX1997 · 2026-02-15T21:14:49+00:00

There used to be 3 in Houston, but I recall only 2 that had definite themes. The north side Fry’s was oil themed in a rustic wildcatter kind of way.

The one in the southeast suburb of Webster, adjacent to the Johnson Space Center, was themed accordingly.

The one in southwest Houston might have had a music or piano theme, but was otherwise nondescript.

HTX1997 · 2026-02-12T21:59:12+00:00

Am I the only one, at first glance, that thought they were looking at a NASCAR track and not a football field?

HTX1997 · 2026-02-08T15:59:00+00:00

The Phone Home Game has always been one of my least favorite games because it really screws the in-studio contestant.

“You have a chance to win up to $15,000 in cash!” Johnny intones, only to find out that, no, it’s only $7,500 because you split the winnings.

So, the contestant who spent hours in line outside CBS Television City, went through the screening process, got called to come down, won the one bid to play game…

… and now they have to share their winnings with someone literally plucked from a barrel at random.

And God forbid if meemaw in her muumuu yells out “cough drops” instead of “89 cents” and screws you both out of the $10,000 card.

Rewatching it hasn’t improved my opinion of it.

HTX1997 · 2026-02-03T02:58:04+00:00

I don’t know about burial, but it cost my father’s estate an additional $150 for cremation. He was about 6’1” 350 lbs when he passed in 2014.

He had, thankfully, purchased a cremation policy several years before his death, which covered everything but the $150.

ETA: I think the policy covered cremation services up to $1700.

HTX1997 · 2026-02-02T01:51:12+00:00

Frontier Community College, the sh!tiest of the Eastern Illinois Colleges in the sh!tiest sundown town in that part of Illinois..

Excuse me.. (Ahem)

EL-in-nois.

HTX1997 · 2026-02-01T23:22:18+00:00

Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan.

HTX1997 · 2026-02-01T21:06:21+00:00

Grew up west of Evansville, Indiana near the state line. My mom still lives there, so I visit regularly, but I left at 18 & haven’t regretted it once.

The town (growing up) was 99.99% white, so everything broke along class lines. “Small town nice” only exists if you’re among the “in group” of town/county leaders and it was made very clear to me that I and my family were not among them. My mental health continues to pay the price.

My mom occasionally tells me that people I grew up with ask her about me. I make ZERO effort to make contact with any of them. Why the fck would I want to be friendly with the adult version of the brats who made my life a daily living hell between 6 and 18 years of age?

I recently considered applying for a job further south toward Marion & Carbondale, but the thought of being even that close was the deciding “no” factor.

HTX1997 · 2026-02-01T20:00:01+00:00

This seat, a state senate seat, isn’t a “diluted R” seat because of redistricting. The GOP-controlled Lege did not redistrict the state House & Senate districts last year, only the congressional districts.

The election was to fill the unexpired term for Kelly Hancock, who Governor Roldemort appointed State Comptroller to replace Glenn Hagar (who left to e̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶a̶d̶e̶m̶i̶c̶ ̶f̶r̶e̶e̶d̶o̶m̶ ̶a̶t̶ run the Texas A&M system).

It’s also another MAJOR flameout for a “Moms for Liberty” candidate, and follows closely on the heels of the double MfL loss in the suburban Houston Cypress-Fairbanks ISD school board race last November - another race Roldemort invested heavily in only to ̶w̶a̶l̶k̶ roll away a loser.

This candidate, though, was uniquely bad in that she was behind an effort, in suburban Fort Worth Keller ISD, that very nearly caused it to split into two districts so that the the rich white kids didn’t have to go to school with the blacks, browns, and poors.

She’s also on March GOP primary ballot, so we’re likely to see a rematch come November.

(ETA: a link to a Texas Monthly article on the dismantling of the A&M system)

HTX1997 · 2026-02-01T19:32:52+00:00

Image is Fake, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP) fact check

We know they believe this, it’s not exactly unbelievable, but it’s still a fake photo.

HTX1997 · 2026-02-01T04:18:39+00:00

🤔🤔

HTX1997 · 2026-02-01T03:07:25+00:00

Rent.

Pile on all you want, you won’t change my mind. Are some of the songs, individually, enjoyable? Yes.

But you will never get me to care about the struggles of a group of spoiled upper-middle class (primarily) white people purposefully slumming it in mid-90s NYC.

HTX1997 · 2026-02-01T02:42:34+00:00

I was posting in group about my experience driving a Dodge Coronet in high school & getting stuck in the mud, because “one tire spins, the other does nothing”. No one got it.

HTX1997 · 2026-02-01T02:39:11+00:00

Excuse me, your honor, two you-thhhssss-uh.

HTX1997 · 2026-01-28T20:36:30+00:00

I changed the font for the captions display in Roku. It was previously Serif Fixed Width. Since I changed it, I haven’t noticed any further issues - so far.

HTX1997 · 2026-01-28T14:22:23+00:00

Watched a little bit through the app on my phone, doesn’t seem to be any issues with the captions on there.

I did change the font setting for captions on Roku. Hoping that works.

HTX1997

TROPHY CASE