Read the Bill

It's that every-two-years time again. The Texas legislature is set to meet. Its biggest challenge is to close a projected $20 billion budget gap. I'll let Senator Kirk Watson (D-Austin) explain how the legislators will work their magic:

"Every session, the Texas Senate passes one version of the budget and the House of Representatives passes another. At that point, a few legislators are appointed to what's known as a Conference Committee, and they get together (often behind closed doors) to add some spending and programs to the budget, remove some investment that some folks care about, and make other changes. Then, after a month or so of work, the Conference Committee report - which is basically the final draft of the budget - gets filed in both the Senate and the House. And legislators, advocates, the media, and other Texans generally have about 48 hours, if that, to sort through an almost 1,000 page document. Even with the best of intentions and effort, folks are left scrambling to discover what's been changed, added, subtracted, divided or multiplied as they try to figure out how lots of money covering lots of items - more than $180 billion in the current budget (which includes $87 billion in discretionary money) - will be spent."

After the jump, Senator Watson's simple suggestion for improving the process.

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OTBR: A Sparse Pine Forest in Estonia

Latitude: 58.5969 N
Longitude: 22.6021 E

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

Everybody Talks About the Weather

But Richardson does something about it. At least, they are making it easier to collect rainwater in Richardson. According to this story in The Dallas Morning News, the city council is drafting an ordinance "that would permit rainwater harvesting systems and allow for their installation with a city permit."

After the jump, my reaction.

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Inaugural TicketCity Bowl

The site was the Cotton Bowl, but the game wasn't the Cotton Bowl Classic. That game has moved to Cowboys Stadium and will be played this year on January 7. No, this game was the inaugural TicketCity Bowl game. It restores the tradition of a New Year's Day bowl game in the Cotton Bowl, a tradition that dates to 1937 (see The Dallas Morning News story here). This year's inaugural game featured the Northwestern Wildcats and the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

It was sunny and cool. Chicago weather. Still, Northwestern fell behind and couldn't quite catch up. Trailing by 22 in the 3rd quarter, they twice closed the gap to 7 points in the 4th quarter. Final score: Texas Tech 45, Northwestern 38.

To see photos of all the action, look here.

Best Movies of 2010

Not really. This list isn't necessarily of the best movies (I didn't see every movie released and some on my list I wouldn't even recommend watching). It also isn't strictly a 2010 list (one movie on it was released in 1938). What it is, is a list of movies I've watched this year that I think are worthy of being remembered.

After the jump, the list, in no particular order, along with my Twitter review for each.

Best Plays of 2010

Not really. More like Best Plays and Concerts and other Live Performances of 2010. But it's not a list of the best, either. It's more like a list of those live performances that I happened to see in 2010. Still, it's traditional to do a "best of ..." list at the end of the year, so that's the title I'm going with.

After the jump, the list along with my Twitter review for each.

Best Books of 2010

Not really. This list isn't necessarily of the best books (some I wouldn't even recommend reading). It also isn't strictly a 2010 list (one book on it was written fifty years ago). What it is, is a list of books I've read this year that I think are worthy of being remembered.

After the jump, the list along with my Twitter review for each.