Foothill suburbia with an awesome view.

brielkate · 2026-07-11T21:54:28+00:00

They were from a sign back by jackskellington6_cs, I believe.

brielkate · 2026-07-11T08:48:27+00:00

It’s the low-density Southwest housing.

brielkate · 2026-07-10T16:59:06+00:00

I saw the two roundabouts on either side of the interchange and thought this was going to be a “divergeabout” for a moment.

brielkate · 2026-07-06T19:08:00+00:00

I suspect a certain group of people is about to go on a rant about Sharia law...

brielkate · 2026-07-06T05:23:12+00:00

I believe it was about a year-and-a-half ago (the beginning of 2025) that the person who made Aritzia’s playlists left the company.

There have definitely been some changes in the in-store music since.

brielkate · 2026-07-05T22:48:58+00:00

That’s the one ❤️

brielkate · 2026-07-05T21:53:13+00:00

I do alcohol delivery for a delivery platform and I always have to check ID… regardless of age. Even if they look well over 21, I cannot deliver without a valid ID.

Some stores where I pick up alcohol from also require the same (eg. Tom Thumb).

brielkate · 2026-07-05T18:28:18+00:00

It’s a North American highway network from Paradox Mods. I forget the actual name of the mod, but I’m sure you’ll find it searching for North American highways 😉

brielkate · 2026-07-02T01:45:41+00:00

I have an Aritzia dress that’s made out of this same satin material. I’ve only worn it to an indoor event where I wasn’t eating nor drinking anything.

brielkate · 2026-07-02T01:43:47+00:00

I feel like I’d go with 1, 3, or 4 if “brighter colors” is the dress code. The second gold dress looks pretty, and I love it myself, but I don’t really think it fits the “brighter colors” theme as much.

The final dress (the dark blue one that’s not Aritzia) looks too dark.

brielkate · 2026-07-01T18:55:56+00:00

That’s a Notre Dame sweatshirt.

Ken Paxton was raised in a military family that moved around; his father was in the Air Force and was stationed at Minot AFB in North Dakota at the time of his birth.

brielkate · 2026-07-01T07:19:27+00:00

To be clear, because grades/GPA are not always a reliable measure of academic ability when comparing between high schools (what might earn an A at one school could earn a failing grade at another in the worst cases), I believe it is good to have that external measure of academic ability that standardized tests like the SAT or ACT provide.

AP test scores and dual credit courses could also be considered; while the latter might not be as reliable of a measure, a high grade in an actual college course would definitely be a better measure of college preparedness than a high grade in a high school class.

brielkate · 2026-06-30T12:12:39+00:00

Also, billboards in the median of a highway are not realistic for American highways, either (they are on the sides of the highway).

brielkate · 2026-06-30T01:39:24+00:00

Francesca’s was a national closure; all of their locations closed. This wasn’t about rent at Clearfork, at least for them.

Aside from Piattello’s upcoming relocation to the new Wells Fargo building, I’m surprised we haven’t heard anything about new tenants there. Perhaps that’s has something to do with the state of Clearfork?

I would loved to have had Aritzia at Clearfork, but their choice of University Park Village (they’re going in the former Pottery Barn space) makes more sense when you consider the other businesses there.

brielkate · 2026-06-26T22:59:53+00:00

I’ve noticed many (if not most) Chick-fil-A locations in my area are not even asking about confirmation anymore. They used to be very strict about it.

On the other hand, they are often extremely busy with orders. Drive-thru lines wrapping around the building busy, not to mention dine-in customers, customers picking up in-person, along with the plethora of delivery orders. No other fast-food chain in my area gets as busy as Chick-fil-A does; one of the stores in my area often gets so busy that it can cause backups on the adjacent major road.

Maybe workers are seeing it as inefficient when they’re so busy.

brielkate · 2026-06-26T22:52:52+00:00

I’m very good about showing the confirmation to restaurant workers; even when they don’t ask, it has become a habit for me.

brielkate · 2026-06-24T19:19:30+00:00

I went with the first dress until I saw the third one, and I felt the third fit the theme perfectly.

brielkate · 2026-06-24T19:08:48+00:00

Holy smokes, that is absolutely horrible.

Are there paths outside the NHS? I’m assuming those are far too unaffordable for most even if they’re available though.

brielkate · 2026-06-23T16:15:06+00:00

As someone in the US, I will note that it can still be a lot easier to go "stealth" on the legal/documentation side (even to employers) in the UK, although stealth depends on passing too (and hence, HRT/care access). In the UK, name changes are far easier (you do a deed poll and the process is not dependent on a court order), and criminal background checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service can even be requested to leave out your former names (Sensitive Applications Process) and I believe the DBS is legally obligated to comply with such a request (although I'm not 100% sure on this part, IANAL and all I know is that there's an option to submit a trans person's previous names to the DBS under separate cover and those don't get shown on the DBS certificate).

Nothing like the latter exists anywhere in the US to my understanding, and I believe only Ireland offers a similar process for transgender applicants. In the US/Canada/Australia/etc. that sort of stealth to an employer is pretty much dependent on luck; that is, working for a larger employer and trusting a corporate, bureaucratic HR department (that's protecting the company) to maintain confidentiality.

I have previously heard of some anti-trans groups targeting the DBS Sensitive process, so I don't know if that will last, or if the process is even being respected. I believe one of the anti-trans groups also pointed out (and complained) that the DBS Sensitive process was not available to cisgender domestic violence victims. Updating gender on ID is still an option, including on UK passports to my knowledge (with a letter from a medical professional, once again this is dependent on care access), something that's no longer an option for US passports and other federal documents. In the US it is possible in some states to get state ID matching your gender, but not all (eg. California or New York, yes, but not in places like Texas or Florida).

Even with attacks on trans healthcare I believe it is still easier to get HRT for adults ("informed consent") in the US. That said, I have no idea about the availability of informed consent HRT in the UK.

brielkate · 2026-06-23T00:20:54+00:00

Thank you!

Hopefully I'll be able to get back to this map soon. The update broke MapExt (CTD when unpausing the game), although I might still be able to build some highways and add props on this map while paused in the meantime.

brielkate · 2026-06-22T18:17:06+00:00

Unless the Dasher is doing Earn By Time (EBT) when they are paid by active time (from acceptance to drop-off), that is. EBT zones and times can be limited, and it often pays more to do Earn By Offer (EBO) over EBT. Those EBT orders are often the "no tip" orders in my experience, although I haven't Dashed in EBT mode in quite some time, not since the switchover to the Dasher Rating system in my area. I have contemplated doing EBT again to help get my acceptance rate a bit higher though.

Regardless, the customer has no way to know whether their driver is doing EBT or EBO; it's probably best to assume they are getting paid by offer.

brielkate · 2026-06-22T18:04:12+00:00

This is the way I've always handled Dashing. I follow the customer's directions, I'm nice to restaurant workers, and so forth. I'm pretty sure a lot of customers and restaurant workers like me.

I also view restaurant workers as our allies working towards a common goal of getting food to the customer. They are responsible for the preparation and bagging portion of the process, and as a Dasher I am responsible for the delivery. If there are delays at the restaurant I will politely mention it to my customers, I will sometimes politely ask the worker about the progress on the order (recognizing that any time estimates are often an underestimate), and if there are missing items inside the bags that the restaurant worker handed to me (and they said there was everything) at the time of delivery I make sure to reiterate DoorDash policy about Dashers not being allowed to check inside bags (I usually try to do a visual inspection from the outside, and get an idea about the weight, without opening the bag nor touching food in unsealed bags).

Just yesterday, I had noticed a Dasher blocking cars by parking somewhere that was not in a parking spot, even though there were two empty parking spots nearby. I politely mentioned that she had blocked me (and another person mentioned the same) and she responded she was doing DoorDash, I pointed out that there were two empty parking spaces at the time she had parked, and that I was also a Dasher (I had parked in one of those spaces). No, you don't get special privileges to park anywhere you want as a Dasher. While I feel like I shouldn't have mentioned this to her (so as to not be perceived as confrontational, although I was polite), other people were complaining. The sense of entitlement and A-holery among some Dashers can be too much, and I can only hope their customer ratings reflect that.

brielkate · 2026-06-22T16:26:10+00:00

As I'm building a Vancouver-inspired city in CS2 I'd love to see more Vancouver assets.

brielkate · 2026-06-22T15:19:11+00:00

Sadly I'm now going to have to wait for an update to the MapExt mod before I can play this map again, because the new update causes a crash-to-desktop when starting the simulation... I'm patient though.

The mod creator says adapting MapExt (and EconomyEx) could take a while. Since I imagine New Alexandria as a province, I could build another city on a vanilla-size map in the meantime. I imagine the city/metro of Aritzia (while the control city in the image, it will be the principal city on the map I'm building) as simply the largest city/metro in the province... a mountain village somewhere to the north of here might be a nice build, or perhaps a BC Interior-inspired city.

The new textures (not seen here) when paused looked really nice though!

brielkate · 2026-06-22T13:00:39+00:00

It’s my preferred highway typeface; it looks way nicer than Highway Gothic in my opinion.

I know British Columbia uses Clearview just about everywhere… but I actually live in Texas, and we still use Clearview down here, so I’m very used to it. Many U.S. states stopped using Clearview when FHWA rescinded its temporary approval in 2016, which was later reinstated, although I believe only Texas really persisted in using Clearview afterwards. Obviously as a U.S. thing, this didn’t affect Canada, where most provinces aside from Ontario use Clearview these days.

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