It never ceases to amaze how such a beautiful and majestic feat of engineering and architecture has its shortcomings, but Dallas' High Five interchange between I-635 and Highway 75 is a prime example of this.
The westbound flyover off 75 to 635 West goes from a wide open and free flowing northbound NorthCentral-75 to a surprisingly and annoying glorified cattle shoot. It is a piss poor design, if you ask me. I don't understand how it's convenient to merge four lanes of exiting traffic into two lanes all within a few hundred feet. Even in the lightest side of traffic, like it happened to me the other, you can find yourself getting stuck in bumper-to-bumper gridlock without trying because not only are the northbound lanes of exiting traffic trying to get onto westbound LBJ, there's another set of two lanes exiting from southbound 75 trying to go West as well!
It really ticks me off. Why was that design settled in such a way? Who signed off on it? Who left their common sense at home the day the those two flyovers were settled on?
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Texas Rangers Shine in NYC
The Texas Rangers' representatives to the All-Star Game events showed some grit and some big pop. The grit came from the bat of Michael Young as he drove in the game winning run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 15th inning. I am sorry to say that I didn't stay up to see that take place as I went to bed right after the American League couldn't win the game in the 13th inning.
The pop came from Josh Hamilton's bat with 28 home runs in the first round of the Home Run Derby Monday night. Though he didn't win the derby as he spent most of his energy racking up that gawdy tally of dingers in first round, Hamilton won over a mostly New York Yankee crowd with his bombardment of big flies that reached the reaches of the right field uppermost deck on a consistent basis. He three longest shots were more than 500 feet, with a couple of them clanging off the wall past the bleachers in right field.
In final round against Minnesota's Justin Morneau, the usually partisan Yankee crowd did their best to cheer Hamilton onto a derby win. Hamilton's story to reach the All-Star game, much less the homerun derby is one of perseverance and faith. A few year back Hamilton was under the influence of a drug-infested lifestyle, while addicted to the likes of meth and crack. Yet, here he is, wowing a baseball savvy crowd.
Needless to say that I'm so very proud to have these guys on my baseball team. I look forward to an exciting rest of the season, and do I dare say it, an exciting run of winning baseball in the years to come with the Texas Rangers.
The pop came from Josh Hamilton's bat with 28 home runs in the first round of the Home Run Derby Monday night. Though he didn't win the derby as he spent most of his energy racking up that gawdy tally of dingers in first round, Hamilton won over a mostly New York Yankee crowd with his bombardment of big flies that reached the reaches of the right field uppermost deck on a consistent basis. He three longest shots were more than 500 feet, with a couple of them clanging off the wall past the bleachers in right field.
In final round against Minnesota's Justin Morneau, the usually partisan Yankee crowd did their best to cheer Hamilton onto a derby win. Hamilton's story to reach the All-Star game, much less the homerun derby is one of perseverance and faith. A few year back Hamilton was under the influence of a drug-infested lifestyle, while addicted to the likes of meth and crack. Yet, here he is, wowing a baseball savvy crowd.
Needless to say that I'm so very proud to have these guys on my baseball team. I look forward to an exciting rest of the season, and do I dare say it, an exciting run of winning baseball in the years to come with the Texas Rangers.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Cool b-day gift- BEER!
I got some really cool gifts for my birthday the other day. One of them was a tattoo that I've been wanting to get since I got my first one in 1999 and one of my favorite movies on dvd, The Right Stuff. I'll probably talk about the significance of my tattoo at a latter time, but I wanted to get to my cool set of gifts.
The gift consisted of beer, but not your garden variety of domestic brews, but 5 different German-made beers. Four of them are hefeweizens, or wheat beers, which is my favorite type of beer. When I lived in San Antonio there's a place I used to visit exclusively for their wheat beers. Ever since then, I've come across alot of really good hefeweizens, including Paulaner, Franzikaner, and one of my all-time faves, Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat. But after trying one of my gift beers, I may have to fork out a nice chunk of change to enjoy these premiums weissbiers on a regular basis.
This is what I got:
Weihenstephaner: Hefeweissbier, Dunkelweizen, Kristallbier, Original
Schneider: Weisse
I haven't had a chance to drink all of them as of yet, but after having the Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier, I am so looking forward to the rest of them!
The gift consisted of beer, but not your garden variety of domestic brews, but 5 different German-made beers. Four of them are hefeweizens, or wheat beers, which is my favorite type of beer. When I lived in San Antonio there's a place I used to visit exclusively for their wheat beers. Ever since then, I've come across alot of really good hefeweizens, including Paulaner, Franzikaner, and one of my all-time faves, Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat. But after trying one of my gift beers, I may have to fork out a nice chunk of change to enjoy these premiums weissbiers on a regular basis.
This is what I got:
Weihenstephaner: Hefeweissbier, Dunkelweizen, Kristallbier, Original
Schneider: Weisse
I haven't had a chance to drink all of them as of yet, but after having the Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier, I am so looking forward to the rest of them!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Perpertuating Perpetrators
I don't like to get involved in local politics, but with what happened during a Dallas County commissioners meeting last Tuesday, I have to say something. First off, I've respected Commissioner John Wiley Price in some way since I've lived here in Dallas, but after what transpired, I may have to take back some of my respect.
During the aforementioned meeting, fellow commissioner Kenneth Mayfield called Dallas County's central collections office a "black hole" because of the propensity of the office to lose traffic ticket payments and other paperwork. Well, Mr. Price took the low road and equated this statement as a racist diatribe. I don't know Mr. Mayfield so I can't say that he would be one to say a racist remark, but what Mr. Price said does indeed have a racist inclination. I say his rebuttal is somewhat racist because he thought it as much. It's that making a mountain of a molehill type of thing. Any nonracist thinking person would not have thought Mr. Mayfield's comment as racist and would have probably laughed with him considering the office's misplacing tendencies. Now, if Mr. Mayfield had said that the central collections office is a black hole like a "specific, predominantly Black neighborhood of Dallas," then I'd say he deserves all the flack he's catching right now.
What Mr. Price's statement also shows is his ignorance. If you ask anyone, Black, White, Hispanic, or whatever, if the statement made initially by Mr. Mayfield had any racist connotation, most if not all would say it is not a racist statement. A black hole, if anyone would be asked, would say something along the lines of cosmological term for the remains of a collapsed star where nothing can escape, matter and even light. What Mr. Price is doing is perpetuating the race card where none exists. In his mind, the only thing that can escape a black hole is a supposed racist remark.
During the aforementioned meeting, fellow commissioner Kenneth Mayfield called Dallas County's central collections office a "black hole" because of the propensity of the office to lose traffic ticket payments and other paperwork. Well, Mr. Price took the low road and equated this statement as a racist diatribe. I don't know Mr. Mayfield so I can't say that he would be one to say a racist remark, but what Mr. Price said does indeed have a racist inclination. I say his rebuttal is somewhat racist because he thought it as much. It's that making a mountain of a molehill type of thing. Any nonracist thinking person would not have thought Mr. Mayfield's comment as racist and would have probably laughed with him considering the office's misplacing tendencies. Now, if Mr. Mayfield had said that the central collections office is a black hole like a "specific, predominantly Black neighborhood of Dallas," then I'd say he deserves all the flack he's catching right now.
What Mr. Price's statement also shows is his ignorance. If you ask anyone, Black, White, Hispanic, or whatever, if the statement made initially by Mr. Mayfield had any racist connotation, most if not all would say it is not a racist statement. A black hole, if anyone would be asked, would say something along the lines of cosmological term for the remains of a collapsed star where nothing can escape, matter and even light. What Mr. Price is doing is perpetuating the race card where none exists. In his mind, the only thing that can escape a black hole is a supposed racist remark.
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