• MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Texas is a shithole, it’s a featureless landscape dotted by cities that function like giant stripmalls

    • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      I don’t like the states politics, and it’s part of the reason we left, but I lived in Houston for a number of years and had a great time. It was a wonderful state with good people, great food, and we did plenty outside. Although it was definitely too hot and muggy.

      But I understand that this is Lemmy and it’s only black and white so if we dislike one thing about a state, everything about it has to be completely shitty.

      • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I’ll give it this, while I was there cost of living was cheaper. Good large modern gyms, and people that are generally happy to talk to you and be friends with you (this was in Dallas). But honestly it’d be hard for anyone to pay me to live there long term, it would have to be a lot of money. And that’s what I noticed, most people are there for the money.

        My comment is more so to counter the Texas nationalists who think it’s the greatest place in the world, it’s not, not by a long shot. Aside from the hypercorporate virtual reality existence there is not much else there. There are a lot of places I’d move to before I move to Texas.

        • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          My wife was offered a higher paying job in a much lower cost not living area, but it was in Texas. We didn’t stay. So I’m kind of in the same boat. while your criticism of strip malls is valid, I did find that outside of it there was a lot of natural beauty.

        • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          Yeah I’m sure the fact that we were in Houston made a difference for my diverse family. It is the most diverse city in the country, and we had an openly gay mayor.

      • Agrivar@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        OR, all the things you liked about it can be found in any other state, and thus is not enough to elevate Texass out of shit-tier status regardless of your personal bias?

        • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          I never ranked it at all. I even noted that the bad politics is part of the reason we left.

          You’re projecting your own bias against everything in the state based on it’s politics. But I assure you that if you think everything in the state sucks because their politics suck, well it’s your a bias alone here.

      • jeremyparker@programming.dev
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        10 months ago

        Back when the Internet was still just a tiny little baby I met a girl online that was extremely cool and legit attractive (no catfish I swear). She lived in Houston, still does actually, I still stalk her sometimes – and I seriously came pretty close to moving down there to be with her for real, but it just kinda faded away before I got around to taking action.

        I know it’s dumb but I honestly believe in alternate universes that split off when certain decisions are made, and I believe there’s a universe where I moved down there and had a whole bunch of little Texan children with her. They would have dark hair like her and big eyes like her and pointy noses like me, and they would play in the playground across the street while she and I sat on the front porch and drank domestic beer with some underground record on the turntable, cranked up loud so we could hear it through the open windows.

        However, this is the first I’ve heard that it’s humid in Houston. I thought it was like Arizona but with more Cadillacs and cowboy hats. That alternate universe in which I married [name redacted] just went from being mystic and idyllic to being horrific. And I know you didn’t mean to do that. I know sometimes we hurt people by accident. But you destroyed something beautiful today, and I thought you should know.

        • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          lol. This is great. I remember someone referring to it as “a boiling swamp” and that has always stuck with me. I’m not sure where you are now, but if it’s the NE/Mid Atlantic, I would often describe it as “you know those two weeks of August that are just miserably hot and humid? Yeah, well it’s that from May through October.” I don’t even get how people existed down there before AC. Jan/Feb are beautiful tho. Cool and dry.

          But I do remember one day I was sitting in the garage, on a lawn chair, drinking a Shiner Bock. I was in my underwear and watching my kids, my younger one in just a diaper, and they were playing in the puddles right out in front of garage. And I was like “shit, I’ve gone full Texan.” lol

      • jeremyparker@programming.dev
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        10 months ago

        When you say “most of the US” do you mean the Midwest? Because that’s mostly true. Prairie is kinda garbage imo. (I’m sure it’s all very ecologically necessary, I’m just talking about whether it’s nice to be in.)

        But outside of the Midwest, the US has a shit ton of forests, some hardcore deserts, a couple of mountain ranges here and there… Even Florida swampland is pretty cool if you’re not considered edible to gators. There’s definitely some featureless bullshit but usually we put a top secret military base in those bits that have aliens and zombie virus labs etc, so there’s even stuff to do there

        I’ve never actually been to Texas, but I’ve always wondered what it looks like in those big empty spots on the map. I assume it’s just big parking lots.