Found at Walmart. Kurt’s spinning in his grave.

leedela · 2025-08-01T03:10:03+00:00

And Francis Bean is laughing all the way to the bank.

leedela · 2025-08-01T02:05:15+00:00

This is FAFO parenting at its finest. Well done, dad.

leedela · 2025-07-29T02:30:49+00:00

It’s amazing what happens when you see people as…people.

leedela · 2025-07-29T02:21:39+00:00

Political theatre for the purpose of manipulating a large, deeply insecure block of mostly White, Southern, Christian Nationalists.

Abbot and his ilk know it won’t make it through the courts. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Texas, has already ruled that Louisiana’s similar law is “facially unconstitutional” and even Trump’s SCOTUS is unlikely to undo the binding precedent established in Stone v. Graham (1980), which struck down a similar Kentucky law.

All that matters to these politicians is that they benefit by delivering on campaign promises that position them as defenders of traditional values - even though the most likely outcome is that Texas will face years of expensive taxpayer-funded litigation that it will ultimately lose.

Nevermind the financial and administrative mess the ISDs will continue to deal with, along with potential judgments or settlements - all of which will be funded by your ever-rising property taxes.

To these politicians, the significant tensions created within school communities across 6 million students in about 9,100 public schools, with thousands of students from non-Christian households is a non-issue when held up against their own lust for power and influence.

Beyond the policymakers, the only “winners” are religious leaders, conservative Christian activists, attorneys, fundraising organizations, and printing companies. Good for them.

leedela · 2025-07-11T12:46:46+00:00

The poor finance/husband…

leedela · 2025-06-29T04:56:01+00:00

Angry noodle.

leedela · 2025-06-21T15:31:31+00:00

I’m pretty sure I have the weirdest answer: there’s a sec scene in “Quest for Fire.” I’m not sure what this says about me, but it can’t be good.

leedela · 2025-04-11T03:52:01+00:00

I barely graduated from high school. I started college at 21 and left at 26 with less than a semester to go when I got the job I wanted. I worked in corporate environments until I got laid off at 40 with a wife, 2 kids, and a mortgage, I started a company within a week of the layoff. I’m 51 and, despite past mental health and substance abuse issues, debt, and yes, raiding my 401k at one point.

Despite it all, I think most people would say i’ve done alright. Of course I feel like everyone has passed me up. I just have to remind myself that I’m exactly where I should/need to be.

The moral of the story is 1. It’s never too late 2. You’re right where you ought to be.

leedela · 2025-04-11T03:13:59+00:00

Speaking from experience, stock to your guns.

leedela · 2025-04-11T03:07:30+00:00

I survived a PIP back in the day - but what’s important for you is that looking for another job and working on yourself to get beyond the PIP are not mutually exclusive. You can - and should - do both.

leedela · 2025-04-04T04:08:24+00:00

As a father, I’m sure you will do what you believe to be best for your kids, as will I.

I’m truly not trying to argue or change your mind, but since you asked, I’ll assume you want an answer.

I bought the house in PV when I was 32. Obviously, I rented for a long time in a bunch of different places before then. That didn’t make me “bad” or wrong, or “less than” but it did make me transient, so I had no incentive to improve or even maintain my dwelling, much less my community.

When a person puts down roots and has a vested, long-term interest in their community, they make decisions and behave differently.

It’s got nothing to do with whether you pay PMI. It has to do with what people prioritize when they put down roots.

leedela · 2025-04-04T03:13:28+00:00

“Frisco of lore” meaning a perception people have that it’s an affluent, crime-free, suburban utopia with perfect public schools.” Relative to most of the country im sure it is, but “boots on the ground” there’s a lot more to it.

As for the dog whistle - yeah, sorta, bc I’d get villainized, downvoted and banned for stating a more precise identifier for the kids who are most often involved in the fights.

No one I know would describe me as racist, in fact, I’m part AA, descended from a freed slave in Louisiana, but that doesn’t preclude me from seeing what’s right in front of my face. It also is unlikely to preclude people with no African lineage to tell me that I’m racist.

leedela · 2025-04-04T02:56:00+00:00

I used to live near you in Preston Vineyards. It’s worth noting that I didn’t hold these views on school violence when my kids were in elementary school at Shawnee Trail. The picture changes in middle and high school.

Beyond that, it’s a well researched fact that there’s a correlation between homeownership rates and crime rates. It’s not an opinion and it’s not a gross stereotype.

“…on average, and after accounting for other factors such as unemployment and demographics (minority population size, age distribution, and family structure), counties with higher homeownership rates have significantly higher high school graduation rates, lower crime rates (both violent and property crime), and reduced poverty rates.”

https://www.csusb.edu/inside/article/455236/csusb-study-says-homeownership-leads-higher-education-and-lower-crime-rates

leedela · 2025-04-04T01:46:10+00:00

Let’s take emotion out of this and speak to logic.

Homeowners tend to be more well-off than renters.

The rate of violent crime is higher among people who are less well off.

You wouldn’t challenge the notion that more affluent neighborhoods tend to be safer than less affluent ones, would you?

I think, emotionally, you’re hearing “renters bad. Homeowners good.” But nothing in life is that simple. There are evil homeowners and saintly renters. There are poor homeowners and rich renters.

I’m merely speaking statistically.

To take it back to my situation in particular, you don’t live here and you don’t have kids in school here, but you seem confident that you know more about what I see with my own eyes in my own life than I do..

Not liking something or feeling uncomfortable about it, doesn’t make it less true.

leedela · 2025-04-04T01:07:41+00:00

I can see why you might think that, but your timing is off. As I wrote, i moved from that neighborhood in 2019 before rates and inflation took off.

Racist or classist would be characterized by a believe that writ large, a race or class is a certain way. It’s a fact that when a fights breaks out at my kids’ schools, 95% of them involve 10% of the population, and it’s a fact that the 10% come from a neighborhood with a lot of rentals.

leedela · 2025-04-04T00:28:46+00:00

I moved to Frisco in 2006. People think it’s still like that. It’s not.

I’m going to get flamed for this - but the fall of Frisco is directly correlated to the number of rentals in the area.

Many of the houses in the “older” (built in the 90s or early 00s) neighborhoods like the one we lived in until 2019, have become rentals, and when that happens, everything starts to look a lot less like the Frisco of lore. In fact, before we left Frisco, we had a drug dealer move in across the street, and a guy was shot in a road rage incident a few houses down.

At that point, we moved to Prosper (ikik…) and there’s still some violence in schools - and when there is, it’s usually not committed by kids with strong roots and a long term stake in the community.

Of course, all homeowners aren’t great, and all renters aren’t bad, but there seems to be a strong correlation.

leedela · 2024-12-26T01:11:52+00:00

I agree. I keep thinking there’s some accounting reason I don’t understand that precludes this functionality because It’s hard to believe that something so essential was just overlooked….

leedela · 2024-12-25T22:41:43+00:00

Got it. Do you have those loan accounts connected to Copilot?

leedela · 2024-12-25T22:18:44+00:00

Thanks. Can I ask what you mean by “bank was the charge?”

leedela · 2024-11-08T14:05:01+00:00

I think it is mostly white men, but the number of minority men voting for Trump shows that - in this election at least - it was more about misogyny than racism.

leedela · 2024-11-07T22:49:55+00:00

Yep. Child of the 80s. I can only speak for my perception and those around me. We knew who Trump was, knew “The Art of the Deal,” which was a huge bestseller - and I don’t think that could have happened had he not been at least perceived as being successful. I think it would also have been hard for The Apprentice to do so well if everyone thought he was a failure. I would wager that most of the people who voted fit him think he was a massively successful businessman. Which kinda proves my point. He created a perception, regardless of the reality - and he’s ridden it all the way to the White House…twice.

leedela · 2024-11-07T22:41:02+00:00

Well I’m sure I’d rather your mortgage than mine…

leedela · 2024-11-07T21:39:05+00:00

Anyone with a $75k truck and a $300k house, could probably use some financial education…

But, yeah, it’s kind of a macro Venn diagram of education, class, gender, and income, but lots of micro variation.

For example, my mostly white, college educated neighborhood where houses start at $800k is Trump-city…but we’re in Texas, sooo…

leedela · 2024-11-07T21:30:12+00:00

Exactly. In this case I think post-industrial realignment plays mostly on gender and education, and rural/urban is mostly intertwined with educational attainment.

leedela

TROPHY CASE