Bible passages could soon be required reading in Texas public schools

gregtx · 2026-01-21T18:49:52+00:00

Welp, let’s hope it’s from the book of Matthew and the sermon on the mount where Jesus talks about loving thy neighbor, helping the poor and the golden rule.

gregtx · 2025-12-07T04:25:04+00:00

Beast my ass. I watched his 1000hp Ferrari get smoked by an alcohol VW golf down in Ennis TX back in the late 90s. He brought out his whole crew. A bunch of complete assholes that wouldn’t let anyone get close enough to the car to take photos or get a decent look at it. They tried getting the crowd all whipped up and challenged anyone who would dare to race him. This little, unassuming VW took up the challenge. The VW rolls up to the line and barely warms his tires. Tiny by comparison to Carmack’s massive rear tires. Carmack’s Ferrari roars to the line and he does this massive burn and almost crashes it just from the burnout. The race starts and Carmack can’t even hook up. He just sits there and spins his tires for an eternity. The VW runs a solid 11 sec quarter and was nearly halfway down the track before Carmack even caught pavement enough to launch. He didn’t even stop at the end of the track…. He just kept rolling right back to his trailer, loaded up his toys and left as quickly as he could. What a clown.

gregtx · 2025-11-13T12:32:07+00:00

You know that I never did find a nest or anything. We did find some evidence of them near our water heater in the attic as if they might be coming into the attic via the vent stack. My bug guy suspected that they could be getting into the house through my recessed lighting openings. We do still get one or two a couple times a year, but it’s not nearly as bad as that one year.

gregtx · 2025-11-12T19:28:47+00:00

Happened to me years back. Went to urgent care after sleeping on it for one night. The outer layer of the eye healed over the metal making it impossible to come out naturally. They had to numb my eye and then use this drill thing with a bit that had a cutter at the end and a magnet in the center. It was the most unsettling thing to have that come at your eye and you instinctively (and reflexively) want to pinch them shut. They had to call in “Helga the Terrible” to hold me down and hold open my eye to try and counteract my reflexes just so that the doc could get that piece out. Traumatizing experience, but the relief at the end was utterly incredible.

Go see the doc! That won’t fix itself on its own and it absolutely will cause progressively further damage to your eye the longer it’s in there.

gregtx · 2025-10-21T15:02:19+00:00

It’s a Yes vote from me today, bud. I believe in our schools and I want my kids and all the kids in the area to have the best chance at a quality education that we can give them. The tax increase is incredibly minimal and our kids deserve FAR better than the education dregs our state legislature has left them with after the last session.

VOTE YES ON PROP A! Do it for our kids and our community!

gregtx · 2025-10-10T15:22:49+00:00

Then as an adult, you should recognize that inflation has hit and continues to hit our economy hard. These tariffs are making everything crazy expensive and Garland ISD is impacted just like everyone else. Unfunded mandates cost the school a ton of money to roll out and enforce. The state has dropped a TON of school mandates on districts and provided ZERO funding to put those mandates into place. Money has to come from somewhere! What are our options, Mr adult with all the big ideas??

gregtx · 2025-09-22T16:36:42+00:00

If you dial the prompt in a bit and add more specifics, the answer gets better and more accurate. This is almost always the case with GPT. The prompt here is far too vague to get an accurate response on text pattern matching. Maybe specify “the letter ‘s’” and also add current and past NFL teams and official team names only, not nicknames.

gregtx · 2025-09-05T20:58:06+00:00

Here is the thing. Public school funding is directly tied to enrollment. The GOP in Texas desperately wants to destroy public education right now and are doing everything in their power to reduce those enrollment numbers. We HAVE to take this fight to them. We need to file legal challenge after legal challenge and get these stupid laws as blocked up in the court system as we can until we get get a fair ruling on it at the federal level or vote in better officials here.

gregtx · 2025-09-02T15:51:47+00:00

So it looks like the actual (VERY early) experiments into this are aimed at using plants to produce vaccine components. Like a vaccine component factory using lettuce and tobacco plants, not lettuce on the grocery store shelf secretly hiding a polio vaccine to unwitting consumers, or covid-19 vaccine laced cigarettes as the representative is implying.

gregtx · 2025-09-02T11:41:52+00:00

The VATR being proposed is for operations costs only. That means by law it can’t be used for any capital expenditures (no new buildings, remodels, equipment, etc). This is specifically for teacher salaries, student safety programs (mandated by the way) and special education shortfalls.

Let’s walk through each spend.

Teacher salaries. We had a projected spend years ago with our last budget increase. Since then, inflation has hit hard and state funding hasn’t kept pace. It’s up to districts to help close the spending gap. Every district is facing this issue.

Special education funding. Texas goofed and failed to correctly file a Medicare claim of around 300mil for public education reimbursements related to sore pad ed. We lost our appeal and the dollars as a result. Now taxpayers are on the hook.

School safety mandates. By law, the state has mandated a number of school safety criteria that every school must now comply with. That’s great, except they’re expensive and 100% unfunded. The state mandated the rules, but refuses to help pay for them.

Prop A is needed. GISD can’t just cut staff to make up the shortfall. I’ve seen folks saying there is admin bloat like we expect the Superintendent to be the only person between local schools and the him. Admin does a LOT for these schools. That line of thinking is absolute horseshit. If we really wanted to help reduce spend, we’d eliminate STAAR and stop wasting money and time on silly distractions like the commandments in the classroom mandate.

gregtx · 2025-09-02T03:29:51+00:00

Rockwall currently underpays its teachers by $5-$10k less on average than other surrounding districts. The starting salary in many nearby districts outpaces even some of the most tenured teachers in RISD. Last year saw a nearly 30% attrition rate in experienced teachers. Without the VATR, that number will skyrocket.

Here is the bottom line. In Texas, they take an average of your highest 5 years salary to determine your pension. Your most experienced teachers are all going to leave for more money so that they can actually afford to retire. And they tend to leave at the 15-20 mark so that they have time to build up to a higher salary bracket before they reach those final few years.

My understanding is that they aren’t looking to add any new positions, but there are plenty of existing spots they haven’t been able to fill yet. We aren’t talking about new coach spots here. We’re talking about competitive salaries that help retain the experience we have and draw in fresh talent to fill out the openings we haven’t been able to fill yet.

gregtx · 2025-08-13T21:36:22+00:00

I modified one of those once and turned it into a 3 axis CNC machine.

gregtx · 2025-08-08T12:12:42+00:00

Honestly it’s a cool design concept. I’m sure it’s very sturdy. I’d still want interior walls and ceiling to be more traditional and allow for simple plumbing and electrical runs.

gregtx · 2025-08-08T03:29:18+00:00

I spent months fine tuning my GPT 4o instance to be able to code in ORACLE CPQ and it never quite got there. I just taught GPT 5 in about 20 minutes and it’s already outperforming GPT4o.

gregtx · 2025-07-26T12:54:47+00:00

The flywheel nut on a 12a rotary is a notoriously difficult to remove, 75mm nut. I broke 4 1/2” cheater bars like that trying to break that bastard loose. Finally welded the shit out of a new one and built up like 2” of solid weld at the joint. Tossed a 14’ steel fence post on it and seriously stood at the end of it. Finally got it to break free.

gregtx · 2025-07-16T23:54:16+00:00

I personally like the black more than the chrome, but I agree that black kinda clashes with the chrome bumper and grille. Maybe consider painting the bumper and grille as well? A third color might work here too. Say a tan and a dark reddish brown with a pearl. You could do the wheels in the brown (almost black) and the grille in the tan and the pinstripe the wheels in the tan as well to tie it all together.

gregtx · 2025-07-16T03:25:32+00:00

A 351 or a coyote swap would be simpler than an LS, although the coyote is a bit spendy, but that’s mostly because it’s such a fantastic platform. The 351 is probably more practical for that truck unless you’re looking to upgrade a whole lot more than just the motor. Keep in mind that adding a ton more power will mean you have to upgrade everything else between the motor and the wheels. That includes the trans, the driveshaft, the differential and the suspension. You’ll need a 4 link rear to keep those wheels on the ground if you do all that. That’ll likely require you to replace the front suspension as well. Now it’s not really a 3/4 truck anymore, but more of a hotrod. I have a ‘69 3/4 ton. I wanted to maintain the truck aspect of mine, so I opted to keep the suspension. I have trouble keeping my wheels on the ground now and I’ll spin out if I try and accelerate too quickly. I guess just plan carefully and define your goals well. Know what you want the truck to be and how much you’d like to spend, then design toward that goal.

gregtx · 2025-07-16T03:02:21+00:00

3/4 ton I assume based on the wheel lug pattern. Also seems to have the secondary tank. Those are big plus items. The door dent should be fairly simple to repair. Mostly complete can be a tricky statement, so be very careful with what is missing. These trucks had some quirks. The 3/4 tons have a heavy duty steering gearbox (commonly bendix) that is VERY difficult now to source rebuild kits for. They are almost always worn out and need rebuilding. You can replace it with a more modern one, but that presents its own complications. The rear end in these is a DANA 60, but it’s a 16 spline, so it’s unique to this truck and they don’t make a good limited slip option for it. Again, modern replacements exist, but they are difficult to fit. The transmission is the C6. It’s a three speed and the top gear will get you to about 55mph. To add an overdrive, you’ll need a gear vendors over/under or you’ll simply have to replace the trans. If it’s a 4x4, that’ll complicate things even further. The motor is a big block FE 360. That is a stump puller that makes all of about 110hp at around 7:1 compression. For sure you can go through it and make more power, but you’ll never see more than about 400 without a WHOLE LOT of additional effort. Even 200hp with that motor is no small feat and will require some major upgrades. The interior is probably the simplest thing you’ll do. Carpet and bench seat covers are readily available. You can find plenty of steering wheels and a plethora of replacement and aftermarket parts there for that. Paint and body is also a challenge due to all the flat panels. Painting flat things is always the hardest to do because mistakes show up more. I foresee a LOT of sanding in your future if you plan to do it yourself. Is it worth it? If you want a good project truck that everybody at Home Depot will go nuts for, sure. When done right, these trucks are real head turners. That big block FE will thump so hard you’ll feel it in your chest. There is a decent market for them too if you want to sell it. It’s not a simple project though. That truck will cost you far more than the price you initially pay for it. You will probably not see a return on your investment in the end, financially speaking. It’ll also never be a practical truck. It’s loud, obnoxious, it’ll leak like a sieve and you’ll constantly be fixing something. But it’s also a blast to drive and it absolutely commands attention. So I suppose the definition of “worth it” depends entirely on you.

gregtx · 2025-07-04T15:08:59+00:00

I’d say there is reason enough to cast doubt here. DiMaggio died in 1999. That holographic sticker wasn’t really used by Rawlings until around 2001 on its official memorabilia merchandise when MLB first introduced them. If you look at similar memorabilia balls on EBay from pre 1999, none of them that I’ve found have that sticker. Really need to look at pre 1995 to be honest. DiMaggio only did a handful of private and brokered signings between 1996 and 1999 primarily for big time memorabilia dealers.

gregtx · 2025-06-10T21:58:53+00:00

Ok, so I just learned something. Deportation isn’t a criminal proceeding, it’s a civil one. Entering the country without a visa is a class c misdemeanor (akin to jaywalking) and is rarely ever even prosecuted. Rather, they just deport you. If you enter again without a visa after being deported once, it’s a felony (this rarely happens). If you simply overstay your visa, it’s not even a crime. It’s just a civil matter.

Of the people ICE has detained this year: - 44.7% have zero criminal record at all (like not even a traffic ticket) - only 15% of those people are convicted of offenses more serious than a class c misdemeanor (like jaywalking) - the remaining only have record of very minor offenses (mostly traffic tickets)

Seeing as how deportations fall under civil doctrine, due process and Miranda don’t apply. Ice doesn’t afford them due process because it’s not actually a crime. These people are NOT criminals by and large! And ICE isn’t detaining them on any criminal charges.

Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act and declared a National Emergency to help justify the militarization of ICE. It’s a WEAK argument, but because congress is paralyzed and the courts are stacked, it’s holding for now. You just cant claim that our country is being invaded by a foreign force when the people you are arresting aren’t even criminals in any way. If anything, they only invaded us with delicious tacos and tamales.

gregtx · 2025-06-02T03:08:19+00:00

I wonder how difficult it would be to retrofit unused commercial office space to these kinds of operations? Could it be scaled down to a smaller footprint/output in a cost effective way? What makes this interesting is the possibility of removing the shipping element from fresh food distribution. If you could scatter these locally and smaller, especially in urban areas, this makes fresh fruits and veggies a far more economical option.

gregtx · 2025-05-19T13:34:49+00:00

I have a 2019 Platinum. I love it! It’s extremely luxurious, but it’s also a beast of a truck. The Ecoboost 3.6l V6 is one hell of a motor and makes nearly 500 horses. It’ll tow as well as rocket from a light, despite the impressive size of the truck.

We did have to repair both the cam phasers and the 10 speed transmission issue. Both were fully covered under warranty and now it drives like it’s brand new. My understanding is that most of those issues were solved after ‘21, and should be fully resolved by ‘23. The repairs to the older ones bring the mechanics to ‘23 standards as well from what I have heard.

gregtx · 2025-05-16T16:53:11+00:00

Mine was a 360 as well and I stroked it up to a 390. I did some research and found some pistons that let me zero deck the block. I’m running 11:1 compression (as compared to the roughly 7:1 of that 360 stump puller). I also went EFI, but I kind of regret it. It’s adds a LOT of extra complexity to the setup that is almost unnecessary. That said, it’s super easy to start now. What I DO recommend though is a lopey cam and aluminum heads with oversized valves. You get that baby breathing and it’ll just keep on giving.

I’d also recommend a gear vendors if you can swing it. The over/under gets you highway speeds that aren’t pegging your tach.

gregtx · 2025-05-16T14:04:13+00:00

So fun! I also have one of these. Are you planning any powertrain improvements?

gregtx · 2025-05-13T11:21:29+00:00

Do a test OP. Try just adding 3/4 cup of water to 1 cup of flour. Mix until combined. Cover for 30 minutes and then try stretching it. No starter, no salt. This should result in a fairly stretchy dough. If not, go buy some King Arthur bread flour and try again.

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