I saw this in another subreddit. Very sad. They made some great games. I remember when everyone was trying to get QA jobs at their office here. Time and EA destroy all things. RIP.

I waved a thank you at a car today for letting me walk by it. It was a tesla. There was nobody in it. That was a first for me.

There will be a military flyover of the Long Center downtown at 6:45pm for an F1 exotic car show. Please don’t ask what the noise was or if we’re under attack.

Great sight to see....

Travis County Early Vote – Day 2

9.6% of (90,955) Travis County voters have cast their votes through EV Day 2. To put this in historical perspective, Travis has so far more than doubled the last midterm election and is closing in on the 2024 presidential turnout.

2022 – 3.9%
2024 – 11%
2026 – 9.6%

Day 3 EV turnout is:

2022 - 6.7%
2024 - 15.7%
2026 ?

From Bruce Elfant, former Tax Assesor

The marketplace rates have become beyond unreasonable.
Does our city have the worst Facebook marketplace?

C-130 with the low pass in north Austin

I'm a woman in my 40s who moved to Austin a few years ago. There are tons of things I love about living here, but I've found trying to build a social circle surprisingly lonely.

I've had so many genuinely great conversations where I feel like we really hit it off...we exchange numbers, talk about getting together, and sometimes make plans, only for someone to flake or for things to just fizzle out. It's becoming a little soul-crushing.

I've lived in other cities and have never experienced this to nearly the same degree. I realize making friends in middle age is different, especially once your kids are older and you're past the stage of built-in social opportunities through little kids, but I've always considered myself a pretty outgoing, social person, and I've never found it this difficult to turn connections into actual friendships.

I've met a handful of women with established social circles. They're getting together, going out, celebrating birthdays, taking trips, etc. And I can't help wondering how anyone new is supposed to break into those circles. Sometimes it feels like everyone has already found their people and there's simply no room for anyone else.

I realize this might sound a little "woe is me," which isn't my intention. I'm genuinely curious whether other people have experienced something similar (especially those of you who moved to Austin as adults) or if there's something about the social dynamics here that I haven't figured out yet. Is it the nature of living in a bigger city, where people establish their own smaller communities and stick to them? Are people just less inclined to follow through socially? Or is everyone so busy with their existing lives and friendships that making new ones isn't much of a priority?

If you've managed to build genuine friendships here as an adult, how did it happen? I'm not expecting instant best friends, but I'd love to feel like I'm building a community rather than having an endless series of pleasant conversations that go nowhere.

Thank you for any/all advice!!!

The Austin Business Journal did a great story yesterday on how Amazon has filed documents with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation to build a 1.2 million-square-foot building on Dog's Head. That's about the size of 21 NFL football fields.

The TDLR filing has some good details in it.

Estimated construction cost of the Amazon building: $100 million.

Start Date: 11/16/2026

Completion Date: 7/13/2027

According to the filing, it's one building divided into four areas: office, factory, casting, and utility plant. As we've all reported over the months, Amazon is building a robotics division on the site.

I've linked to the TDLR filing for more details. And, yeah, it's really called "Project Toaster."

Many political groups use public data to see if you have voted and are likely to stop harassing you once you have voted. Even though most of the messaging is automated, they will often remove you from this cycle's reminder campain once public record shows you have made your choices. There is no record of who you voted for, but state law requires the election officials to notify the Sec of State whether you voted or not.

I voted first thing Monday and have noticed the spam taper off.

I have an elderly neighbor who asked me if I knew who was responsible for planting these random / ugly trees in his front yard without his permission (Clarksville area). I think I am as confused as he is regarding why someone would do this.

Was it one of you? Why’d you do it?

A local podcast host recounts the chaotic scene as diners scattered and police arrived. The restaurant's manager also addressed alcohol service.

Saw this poor guy in the northwest hills area of Austin. Anybody know anything we can do or anyone to call to help him? I know he should be shedding his antler in January but that’s a long time for him to have that dangling. Plus I’m worried about it constricting around his ear.

Fall finally showed up, so this is my yearly reminder before the first real cold snap. Here's what I tell friends and neighbors to check:

• Outdoor faucets: disconnect hoses and put a cover on the faucet (hose bib). A hose left attached can trap water and cause problems in a freeze.
• Know where your main water shutoff is, and make sure it actually turns. Do it now. During a freeze is the worst time to find out it's stuck.
• Look for exposed pipes in the attic, garage, crawlspace, or on exterior walls, and add foam pipe insulation where you can reach.
• Find gaps where pipes and lines go through exterior walls and seal them so cold air can't get in.
• Check door weatherstripping. If you can see daylight around a closed door, it's time to replace it.
• Irrigation: look up how your system and backflow device should be drained or protected for freezing weather, and turn the schedule down as it cools off.
• Gutters: clean them after the leaves have mostly come down, not before, so you only do it once.

What am I missing? For anyone who went through the 2021 freeze, what's the one thing you do every year now?

Not sure what the point of this was, a Red Bull dune buggy looking car lead 40+ pickup trucks driving east from the Congress bridge.

Went to Bennu over by Highland like I’ve done plenty of times before. Got coffee, sat there working for a few hours, came back to my car and there’s a parking violation on my windshield.

Apparently the FiveTwo apartment over there is now charging for parking that used to be free? Even the retail parking??

Austin’s League of Women Voters has released its “Voters Guide” to help residents of Travis and Williamson Counties dissect the Nov. 3 election ballot. The guide provides basic information about each measure on the ballot and all contested candidates.

Early voting is underway in those counties through Oct. 30. The nonpartisan League’s website allows voters to check their voter registration and view a sample of their ballot. 

Historically compiled with hundreds of hours of volunteer labor, this year’s guide also incorporated the work of a new contributor — AI. 

The League of Women Voters obtains information for the guide by emailing candidates questions about their qualifications and their policy positions. The League does not edit candidate responses, apart from redacting the occasional expletive or references to other candidates. The goal is to avoid bias, especially in the questions asked, local league President Carol Eckelkamp explained.

“It’s not what I think I want to hear from the candidate,” or what another candidate might think, Eckelkamp said. “We want to know what the candidate thinks.” 

---- Read more https://austinfreepress.org/vote-notes/

This just happened less than 30 minutes ago