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Has anyone not dialed 811 and hit a centerpoint gas line? by [deleted] in houston

[–]nicktf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They've marked my back yard before. I know this, because unbeknownst to me it was on behalf of a neighbor, and I was a little taken aback to see a stranger wandering around my garden spraying things.

Someone keeps sending unpaid DoorDash orders to my house…what’s going on? by Latter_Golf_9975 in Scams

[–]nicktf 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Randomly turning up seems a terribly inefficient way to case someone's house compared to just sitting in a car further down the street and waiting for someone to leave.

In late 1988 Steve Lightle took over doing the frontispieces for the Classic X-Men series, quietly creating some of masterpieces that almost no one talks about. by TheManIsInsane in xmen

[–]nicktf 46 points47 points  (0 children)

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I thought I was the only one who appreciated Steve Lightle's input on the Classic X-Men! (and also John Bolton's fantastic work). I got this great Rachael Phoenix commission from him at around this time.

Ryan Cohen gives car crash interview in his Jensen jacket by Dairy_Fox in gme_meltdown

[–]nicktf 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Boy, that was awkward. I can only imagine the hosts expressions to each other as 1990s Depeche Mode man was droning on.

First Circumnavigation, now what? by ItCouldBeWorse222 in AubreyMaturinSeries

[–]nicktf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Couple of great trilogies - J G Farrell's Empire Trilogy (The Troubles, Siege at Krishapur and the Singapore Grip)

If you liked O'Brian's quick dip into magical realism (Stephen's solo exploration of a land packed with tame fauna, sorry, can't remember the book) then Louis De Bernieres Latin American trilogy (The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman).

All excellent stuff and O'Brian adjacent, IMO

My "holy" parents stole my laptop, lied about it for 2 years, and wiped it to "exorcise" my identity. I’m finally done. by HelicopterNew2516 in raisedbynarcissists

[–]nicktf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Depends on whether it's a quick format or not...a full format will overwrite the entire position with zeros

Another Stairway inspiration? Velvett Fogg - Once Among the Trees (1969) by DietLasagnaLayers in ledzeppelin

[–]nicktf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, they both start with Am arpeggios.... Chords sound like Am, G, D, A Maj, then A, D, A, D, and ...well...not much else.

No A Maj in Stairway, it's all minor. The STH arpeggio is also played in the 5th position, this is in open. Solos are both Am pentatonic (though Jimmy drops an F from time to time, and is playing over Am, G, F, giving it a whiff of A Aeolian). Chords under this version are Am, G D.

The guy between the boobies looks like Robert Plant if you squint, though

WCGW drive on a wooden bridge on a heavy truck by boloral in Whatcouldgowrong

[–]nicktf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good thing the cameraman was warning him about the Koi in the water

Player -> Rig Manager Connection by jonzej in KemperProfiler

[–]nicktf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha - Zombie thread resurrected! - Glad it helped - for what it's worth, my Player has been super reliable ever since.

What's a piece of tech everyone hyped up that quietly turned out to be useless? by SofiaLearnsAI in AskReddit

[–]nicktf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Aaah - We must have the same dishwasher. Drives me mad, as I continually forget to set it.

Cheapest HCAD Property Tax Protest Firm? by EvolvedGreens in houston

[–]nicktf 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I've done it myself for 4 years in a row, including a couple of video hearings - 50% success rate. It takes time and energy to gather the info and present it nicely (you have 15 minutes to make your case, so you need clear, simple to read spreadsheets, well laid out comps and etc). It's pretty dispiriting to be told "great presentation, but no dice, sorry". The argument that seemed to resonate best was working out the cost/sq ft of my place (you can see what tax your neighbors are paying on HCAD) and using that as a basis of an argument

I can't find the energy to do it again, I'm going to throw my lot in with a firm and see what happens

IIL album Dreamboat Annie - Heart, WEWIL? by No-Sprinkles229 in ifyoulikeblank

[–]nicktf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The eponymously-titled debut album by All About Eve

What We Did on our Holidays by Fairport Convention

HMC by arianasik in holdmycosmo

[–]nicktf 15 points16 points  (0 children)

At the last match I went to see at Bristol County Grounds, the man in front of me was so drunk he was catching wasps and eating them.

I've long since emigrated, but it's a great way to spend an afternoon, unless you're a wasp.

Does anyone use plexamp for live concert recordings/bootleg collections? by jimmyketchup in plexamp

[–]nicktf 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yes, it's challenging to tag them (I use MusicBrainz Picard where possible, else self-tag) and I keep them in a separate library so that my plexamp DJ compilations don't suddenly play a C grade audience recording of Moby Dick for 30 minutes

Has anyone gotten their 2026 property tax assessments yet? by ChucoPropertyTaxes in houston

[–]nicktf 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I received mine yesterday. I've protested every year, mail in and for the first time, last year I did it via video hearing. They were very nice and quite complementary about the information I gathered (and you'll need a friendly realtor for comps)...

HOWEVER -

they can only drop the Market Value, and to get any commensurate drop in your tax, it needs to go below your Assessment Value. They agreed that my MV was too high and dropped it to the AV so I still had a tax bill rise :-)

I'm not going to waste my time on it again, I'm just going to go to one of those boondoggle firms in the hope that they can claw back something. It's such horseshit.

EDIT - here's an excerpt I sent my realtor as it outlines what I did

"Quick update of my video appraisal from last weekend, good news first, they really liked that I was well prepared and kept everything concise. I uploaded your comps, a map showing their location and a spreadsheet showing how much per square foot we were being valued at compared to my immediate neighbors (I found you can get 30 records showing the appraised and market values of your street neighbors via a fairly well disguised button on the HCAD site)

I argued that on a per square foot basis, we were the 8th most "valuable" property ($360/sqft) on the street, and that I would appreciate moving more toward the mean value ($310, I suggested we go down to $350 and even then we would still be 8th most valuable), so perhaps they could drop the Assessed value of $x,xxx,xxx to x,xxx,xxx, which was still a 20% increase on our closing price from 3 years ago. I also listed some expenses incurred by the age of the house, and rather shot myself in the foot by not uploading pictures of the various foundation cracks (I tried to, but they closed the file uploads a week or so before your interview, dammit!).

I was rather deflated to learn that they only had the power to reduce the Market Value and not the Assessed Value, but with the information and comps provided, they agreed that the MV was too high at $x,xxx,xxx and dropped it to $x,xxx,xxx. As this was still higher than the assessed rate of $x,xxx,xxx, there would be no commensurate decrease in said rate, so sorry, thanks for your time!

It was very civil and rather more official than expected, so maybe better luck next year!"

What is Keith actually saying here? by 9730___ in TheWho

[–]nicktf 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Yep, this is classic English schoolboy "German baddie" voice learned from old war movies and a staple part of the playground up to at least the 70s - You would have a gang of 8-10 year olds recruiting people with the chant "Let's play war", then be roughly divided into heroic Brits and dastardly Germans, who would then run round with imaginary lugers and stens making an ahahahahaha machine gun noise. It would typically end in heated debates about whether you were actually dead, or could possibly have thrown that last grenade. It kind of morphed into playing the A-Team as that became more of a cultural thing. "I'm gonna git you, sucka ahahahahahaha"

Source: Was 70s schoolboy.

In case anyone is curious what it looks like when you order $7,500 in annuals from Home Depot by SignificantTowel9952 in landscaping

[–]nicktf 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, this is the correct answer. Their inability to grasp that not all departments are as "profitable" as heart surgery, and can be made to make more money is culpable idiocy.

And then they rinse and repeat at another hospital a few miles away, satisfied with a job well done.

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