5 ms·

I think Texas is a great state. I live in Georgia. I travel to Texas a lot. I've visited Houston, Dallas, and Austin. Houston is a decent city once you get to k

I think Texas is a great state. I live in Georgia. I travel to Texas a lot. I've visited Houston, Dallas, and Austin. Houston is a decent city once you get to know it and if you can embrace the cowboy-style. Dallas is fine; although I never really got the feel for it. Austin is awesome. I could visit Austin any time; if I wasn't happy here in Georgia I could easily live in Austin.

mjn 13y ago
Houston is a decent city once you get to know it and if you can embrace the cowboy-style. Now I'm wondering what I missed in Houston. I lived there for years, and graduated from high school there. But what do cowboys have to do with it? My experience of it was that it was just a modern American city like anywhere else, with a heavy focus on sprawling suburbs. I didn't feel there was a lot of uniquely "Texan" culture or anything. Life had little to do with cowboys; it revolved around living in suburban houses that cover literally hundreds of square miles (most of the city), and doing things like studying to get into good colleges and trying to get a decent job. Nobody I knew even spoke with a Texan accent, which was something more associated with West Texas or the Panhandle, places like San Angelo or Lubbock. Now if you had said flying cockroaches, africanized ants, hurricane evacuations, and 6 months of the year where you can't reasonably go outside because it's >90 F and humid as hell, then yes, it's great if you can embrace that part of the lifestyle. ;-) I do like visiting nowadays, but only in December.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  Houston has great museums, food and people from every culture, and.... I forgot the third one.
  - mjn 13y ago
    I wouldn't say it has great museums, having moved from Chicago to Houston as a kid. I found most of the museums... not as good in comparison. But Chicago has particularly good museums, so this might be unfair. It does, however, have very good art museums specifically. And even more specifically, it has good art museums that are well-endowed enough to be cheap to visit. The Museum of Fine Arts Houston has one of the lowest entry fees of major metropolitan art museums, and the Menil Collection is completely free. Definitely a high-culture perk of the city. Also, if you are willing to drive ~20-50 miles to visit something (and you had better be, if you are in Houston) there is NASA's Johnson Space Center, where you can see lots of rockets and rocket facilities; and Brazos Bend, where you can see lots of alligators.
    - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
      I wasn't impressed with Chicago's Field Museum compared to HMNS, but I've only been there once, and IIRC there was renovation going on, so maybe I missed the good stuff. I'll give it another try next time I go to Chicago. Glad to hear someone is enjoying the MFA and Menil. The Menil was mostly the result of the Schlumbergers IIRC. I lived in Clear Lake when I was young, and I was fortunate enough to get to hang out at JSC, and get really good access to the place. My Little League coach was an Astronaut. I can barely stand to go there anymore. It kills me. Alligators? Yeah, and mosquitoes. I've seen enough of both.
      - mjn 13y ago
        On the science museum, part of my view, I think, is that HMNS is trying to do what two different Chicago museums are covering: the Field Museum (classic archaeology / natural science) and the Museum of Science and Industry (modern science, and technology of the industrial revolution to present). The Chicago Field Museum is a classic "natural science" museum: a very large, multistory lobby greets you, with a monumental dinosaur reconstruction. The building is also impressive, from some century-ago world's fair. The rest of the exhibits, on the other hand, range from good to being quite obviously 100 years old with no love given in the preceding century (sometimes this is nice and quaint, sometimes annoying). It feels more impressive to me than HMNS, but HMNS might have better exhibits. The latter certainly has a nice gem collection. But if you want something more sciencey, the Museum of Science and Industry is really nice. There's an entire simulation of a coal mine you can go down into, exhibits on the history of trains, on urban history, and on the history of agriculture, and even a captured German U-505 submarine. It was definitely my favorite museum as a kid, and I didn't find much like it in Houston.
- adolph 13y ago
  HIWI!
- drone 13y ago
  The OP must've come during Rodeo season - which is about the only time the city generally has a "cowboy" feel to it. =) Unless, of course, they were located some many miles to the northwest of the city, out in Waller county or something. BTW, you left out flooding every other week or two, when we're not in a drought (and once a month when we are!). The running joke around here is that no one feels the heat of the summer for more than a few seconds, as that's how long it takes them to get from their house/office to their car. To the original point of the post, we haven't been able to find any value in getting a Nest, outside of having a "fun toy." Considering that we are able to regularly negotiate 0.08-0.10/kWh rates for 100% renewable, our highest electricity bill out of the year tends to be in Aug/Sept at about $58 on average. That is for a 1400 sqft. 1940's bungalow that only has a radiant barrier in its efficiency profile, along with large oaks that cover the canopy of the house. Our elec management is a simple process: set the thermostat to 80 when we leave, and back to 77 when we return. It's three clicks of a button that we've ingrained into our daily routine. The real big bill around here, which I'm sure other states can appreciate, is the water bill. Since the drought and the implementation of drainage fees, our water bill has shot up over 10x in the past three years. Not joking at all - we went from an average of $6/month to and average of $60/month in just three years, with our consumption remaining static. If only water consumption were able to be regulated more effectively, but in this environment, daily showers are a must =)

mjn 13y ago

Houston is a decent city once you get to know it and if you can embrace the cowboy-style. Now I'm wondering what I missed in Houston. I lived there for years, and graduated from high school there. But what do cowboys have to do with it? My experience of it was that it was just a modern American city like anywhere else, with a heavy focus on sprawling suburbs. I didn't feel there was a lot of uniquely "Texan" culture or anything. Life had little to do with cowboys; it revolved around living in suburban houses that cover literally hundreds of square miles (most of the city), and doing things like studying to get into good colleges and trying to get a decent job. Nobody I knew even spoke with a Texan accent, which was something more associated with West Texas or the Panhandle, places like San Angelo or Lubbock. Now if you had said flying cockroaches, africanized ants, hurricane evacuations, and 6 months of the year where you can't reasonably go outside because it's >90 F and humid as hell, then yes, it's great if you can embrace that part of the lifestyle. ;-) I do like visiting nowadays, but only in December.

fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
Houston has great museums, food and people from every culture, and.... I forgot the third one.
- mjn 13y ago
  I wouldn't say it has great museums, having moved from Chicago to Houston as a kid. I found most of the museums... not as good in comparison. But Chicago has particularly good museums, so this might be unfair. It does, however, have very good art museums specifically. And even more specifically, it has good art museums that are well-endowed enough to be cheap to visit. The Museum of Fine Arts Houston has one of the lowest entry fees of major metropolitan art museums, and the Menil Collection is completely free. Definitely a high-culture perk of the city. Also, if you are willing to drive ~20-50 miles to visit something (and you had better be, if you are in Houston) there is NASA's Johnson Space Center, where you can see lots of rockets and rocket facilities; and Brazos Bend, where you can see lots of alligators.
  - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
    I wasn't impressed with Chicago's Field Museum compared to HMNS, but I've only been there once, and IIRC there was renovation going on, so maybe I missed the good stuff. I'll give it another try next time I go to Chicago. Glad to hear someone is enjoying the MFA and Menil. The Menil was mostly the result of the Schlumbergers IIRC. I lived in Clear Lake when I was young, and I was fortunate enough to get to hang out at JSC, and get really good access to the place. My Little League coach was an Astronaut. I can barely stand to go there anymore. It kills me. Alligators? Yeah, and mosquitoes. I've seen enough of both.
    - mjn 13y ago
      On the science museum, part of my view, I think, is that HMNS is trying to do what two different Chicago museums are covering: the Field Museum (classic archaeology / natural science) and the Museum of Science and Industry (modern science, and technology of the industrial revolution to present). The Chicago Field Museum is a classic "natural science" museum: a very large, multistory lobby greets you, with a monumental dinosaur reconstruction. The building is also impressive, from some century-ago world's fair. The rest of the exhibits, on the other hand, range from good to being quite obviously 100 years old with no love given in the preceding century (sometimes this is nice and quaint, sometimes annoying). It feels more impressive to me than HMNS, but HMNS might have better exhibits. The latter certainly has a nice gem collection. But if you want something more sciencey, the Museum of Science and Industry is really nice. There's an entire simulation of a coal mine you can go down into, exhibits on the history of trains, on urban history, and on the history of agriculture, and even a captured German U-505 submarine. It was definitely my favorite museum as a kid, and I didn't find much like it in Houston.
adolph 13y ago
HIWI!
drone 13y ago
The OP must've come during Rodeo season - which is about the only time the city generally has a "cowboy" feel to it. =) Unless, of course, they were located some many miles to the northwest of the city, out in Waller county or something. BTW, you left out flooding every other week or two, when we're not in a drought (and once a month when we are!). The running joke around here is that no one feels the heat of the summer for more than a few seconds, as that's how long it takes them to get from their house/office to their car. To the original point of the post, we haven't been able to find any value in getting a Nest, outside of having a "fun toy." Considering that we are able to regularly negotiate 0.08-0.10/kWh rates for 100% renewable, our highest electricity bill out of the year tends to be in Aug/Sept at about $58 on average. That is for a 1400 sqft. 1940's bungalow that only has a radiant barrier in its efficiency profile, along with large oaks that cover the canopy of the house. Our elec management is a simple process: set the thermostat to 80 when we leave, and back to 77 when we return. It's three clicks of a button that we've ingrained into our daily routine. The real big bill around here, which I'm sure other states can appreciate, is the water bill. Since the drought and the implementation of drainage fees, our water bill has shot up over 10x in the past three years. Not joking at all - we went from an average of $6/month to and average of $60/month in just three years, with our consumption remaining static. If only water consumption were able to be regulated more effectively, but in this environment, daily showers are a must =)