This is soon to be a group blog, but perhaps not in any traditional sense. For now, it’s just me.
Hopefully, there will be a complete lack of focus.
Update, my good friend Robin has finally posted. It’s taken me a year, but that’s par for the course 🙂
I’m an ESL instructor, with other assignments.
That Robin has his own <i>issues</i>.
calle viena 
Hi Michelle ~
I don’t know if the problem is on my end or whether the page has been taken down, but I draw a blank when clicking on the Kathleen Matsumura link referenced in one of your your FB posts.
The blank pops up for me with both the browsers I use: Firefox & Safari. I had previously downloaded that page in its entirety, so I have a copy of it on my computer, but I was wondering whether others might be drawing that same blank page, too.
Peace,
Ski
Ski —
I’m looking for the posts where I liked to it. Was it the link I put on the comment I left on your blog or one that is on my blog?
Either way, I’ll leave it again at your blog and check my links here.
Thanks for the heads-up.
Also, the TRO is good news, but I think the damage has been done. FB will end up being a poor little suburb with an aging population and few viable businesses. I don’t think Tim O’Hare thought this through.
Check back with me if you get the chance.
Michelle
Thanks for taking the time, Michelle, and checking on the Matsumura link. I went back to that page after getting your response, but the problem I described with it must be with my Safari (Mac) browser because the page loaded just fine this time with Firefox, my primary browser.
Oh well.
Anyway, I think you are correct about the future of FB, which is a sad thing. Even sadder, though, is that they really didn’t have to go down this road of folly. I hope that someone will soon be able to talk some sense into that city council and convince them it really isn’t in the best interest of the city or its residents, despite what some of those residents may think, to continue forward with their anti-immigrant measures.
It may be that my comments here about FB would be more appropriate if they were added to your last FB post, and I’ll be happy to do so if you want.
Peace,
Ski
Hey Ski,
I’m glad you could finally access that article. If you want to make the same or similar comments on another post of mine, that would be cool, but only do it if you have the time.
Carlos Quintanilla commented on another post tonight — I might be naive, but I really think it was the real guy.
In looking back at my posts, I think in some it may be unclear which side I am on — I seem to have written about it assuming that readers have read my earlier posts. I may need to go back and update the ones where it is unclear. Any feedback you might be able to give me on that point would be appreciated. I updated the post that seems to be getting the most views with links to my original post about Farmers Branch, which was quite strong.
Take care — and stay safe with this bad weather — it hasn’t made its way down to Houston yet.
Michelle
I like your blog, but you may find it useful if you use Tags rather than so many Categories… it just helps tidy things up a bit and also maximises your ability to search and be searched for, link and be seen. You enter them at the bottom of the article text box when you have written your article.
Keep up the interesting and well informed blog posts though! You have a very nice writing style.
Thanks. I haven’t given much thought to how I organized what I post. I remember when wordpress introduced tags, but I didn’t pay much attention.
I’ll try to remember your advice for my next post.
Thanks for commenting and for the advice.
Michelle,
I wish I had been aware of your blogs as well as the Kathleen Matsumura postings prior to the mayoral election in Farmers Branch.
Ms. Matsumura’s observations were dead-on prophetic. Tim O’Hare’s suggestion that they just keep fining the citizens until they toe-the-line is now reality. And it doesn’t matter what the citizens think. I have tried to contact various members of the “ruling party” to no avail.
It’s obvious that he intends Farmers Branch to be a city that is sterile in appearance, with all the citizens hiding behind their stockade fences. If I had wanted that I would be living in Plano. That is not the type of environment I purchased a home to raise my kids in. This pig has lipstick, rouge, and mascara.
The FB Council has whipped the Code Compliance Nazi’s into a frenzy. It’s gotten to the point where I am afraid to sit on my front porch for fear of getting a citation.
Although the city website brags about their Green initiatives, I was recently forced to remove my rain barrel from the front of my house because it was “unattractive”. And let’s not get started about the “5 flower pot rule”. That’s just beyond stupid and petty.
Currently I am fighting to save the furniture on my back porch. The Code Nazi’s claim it is not permitted. They insist it is “indoor” furniture and therefore prohibited from being outside. I wonder if the Mexican-influenced design (it’s mesquite with vinyl (fake leather) upholstery) has anything to do with it.
So they have given me a citation and I am expected to appear in court on September 1st. I intend to go and argue my point, but expect little success.
I studied the codebook thoroughly but it is so poorly written that it is hard to follow. But I know what is right, and this is horribly, horribly wrong. I compared the FB code to comparable cities’ codes: Addison, Rowlet, Coppel, Carrollton, even the Park Cities, and none of them are as constricting as ours. And to top it off, FB is encouraging: No – they are actually bragging about; a “report your neighbor” policy, so every lowlife with a grudge against an FB citizen has found a ready and willing ally in the Code Compliance department. It’s no wonder that the majority of the Code Compliance employees live outside the city.
While other cities are embracing the diversity and appeal of older homes, FB is rewarding folks for tearing down. I suspect there is more than a little cronyism and ulterior motive for this.
I am sick that those fools in the City Council have at least 2 more years – if an impeachment process gets going I want to be one of the first in line to volunteer my services. I have lived in Farmers Branch for over 30 years – my kids were born and raised here. Now I am embarrassed and sad to admit I live in Farmers Branch.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to vent. I am so unhappy with this situation, and my daughter and her friends found this site for me.
If you have any ideas how we unhappy FB hostages can find each other and band together I am all ears. Right now I am following the suggestions posted on the ACLU website, and I am not at all opposed to contacting them for assistance. And I am dead serious about the impeachment suggestion.
Kat, thank you for commenting.
I think I can get one reporter for the Houston Chronicle interested in you complaints. She checks sources and makes calls etc. and I think she doesn’t see me as some crack-pot.
I will see what I can do.
I am sorry you are having such a hard time in FB though I am not surprised. What gets me is that people from outside of your community are enforcing the rules and then that you can’t even catch rain in a barrel given our state-wide drought.
I’m with you.
Let me see what I can do.
I’m going to paste some of you comments into a thread of hers — I will email her as well — I hope it works.
Look for Lisa Falkenberg on chron.com
You are a giant turd floating in a giant toilet. Your site is disgusting, hateful
Thanks for commenting! It means more money for my blog!
And benjamin is so very literate, too.
Sticks and stones and all that . . .
benjamin’s observation did make me think, though: since the subject of the thread was Farmer’s Branch, he’s saying that FB is a giant toilet …… I think that’s a pretty good analogy.
That city sure needs to be flushed.
Agreed.
I truly believe that we have reached the point where technology has become one with our society, and I am fairly certain that we have passed the point of no return in our relationship with technology.
I don’t mean this in a bad way, of course! Ethical concerns aside… I just hope that as technology further develops, the possibility of uploading our memories onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It’s one of the things I really wish I could encounter in my lifetime.
(Posted on Nintendo DS running R4 DS Fling)
To Whom It May concern,
This is Rev. Robert Wright, Editor for http://www.Christian.com which is a social network made specifically for Christians, by Christians, to directly fulfill Christian’s needs. Christian.com has many great features aside from the obvious like christian TV, prayer request or even find a church/receive advice and to offer the ENTIRE christian community an outlet to join together. We have emailed you because we have interest in collaborating with you and your blog to help us spread the good word. I look forward for your response regarding the matter,
Thanks!
God Bless
|Rev.Robert Wright|Christian.com|
|1 International Blvd.|Mahwah, NJ 07495|
|rev.robertwright@gmail.com|
Mr. Christian Man,
Could you please ask your god to rapture all of your people ASAP?
The planet we live on would be a better place if you would do so.
Your god is not very friendly and all of you who follow him want the rest of us to follow your angry god.
I don’t and never will, but you are free to keep trying!
Rapture yourselves already and leave us be.
Thanks!
michelle
calle viena
Hi Michelle
I hope you still remember me…It has been 10years since you taught me how to order “Miller Lite”.
I think of you quite often, and I googled your name today, and ended up on your blog.
I am still in NY/NJ area, working for a Japanese camp.
I just wanted to say hello, and I hope you are still helping many foreign students.
I miss Houston!
Ayako
Hey Ayako! What a great surprise! Of course I remember you. It has been a long time, but I will never forget.
I think of you, too, every time I get a new student from Japan. But you must be very “Americanized” by now. Ha ha 🙂 I’m glad to hear that you’re still here in the states and working.
Do you remember Misha? He’s got two little girls now. He and Jennifer and the girls are here in Houston now. I got to see them all last weekend. You would be amazed to see how Misha is with his daughters. He seems to have finally found where he has always needed to be. They are beautiful little girls.
It’s so good to hear from you! Of course, you must know that Houston is still doing fine. I hope you are happy. If you want, send me an email michilines at yahoo dot com. I check that one often enough now that I use it for Level 7 writing!
Hi there! You have the intelligence of a 2nd grade dropout. If you have a disagreement with someone like Michael Berry, is it mature to talk about his sperm count? No, it is not. Grow up.
I am sick that those fools in the City Council have at least 2 more years – if an impeachment process gets going I want to be one of the first in line to volunteer my services. I have lived in Farmers Branch for over 30 years – my kids were born and raised here. Now I am embarrassed and sad to admit I live in Farmers Branch.Thanks for giving me the opportunity to vent. I am so unhappy with this situation, and my daughter and her friends found this site for me.If you have any ideas how we unhappy FB hostages can find each other and band together I am all ears. Right now I am following the suggestions posted on the ACLU website, and I am not at all opposed to contacting them for assistance. And I am dead serious about the impeachment suggestion.
+1
Alastair –
Yes – another person who is sick at the way the City Council has ruined our city. Look at my website DARE to LIVE in Farmers Branch. And join Branch Forum. We have to all find each other and fight back.
I do not live in Farmers Branch, but I am willing to let this little blog be a place that feeds people to your website.
Please give me a valid URL.
I want to help you guys.
I found it!
Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank youThank you Thank you Thank youThank you Thank you Thank youThank you Thank you Thank youThank you Thank you Thank youThank you Thank you Thank you
For this blog!
You are welcome!