1. Education fraud:Bloomberg has an interesting article about how Silicon Valley coding bootcamps attract students using false / misleading employment and salary statistics, and fail to prepare students for the job market.
Although many of my former classmates are still practicing law, a huge chunk also fell off the face of the earth after graduation (presumably because they didn’t get jobs.)
These students are conveniently never mentioned on school websites or forums, and are forgotten by everyone except for the student loan companies.
1. Police drama: Apparently a Dallas Police SWAT team raided the iLume apartment building yesterday evening.
A Facebook screenshot of one of my neighbor’s posts about the iLume SWAT raid.
Some of my neighbors on Facebook said that there was a domestic violence dispute involving a weapon, but I haven’t been able to find any DPD information to verify this.
The management company hasn’t sent us an email about the incident, so everyone is left speculating.
1. Privilege: A woman walked into the coffee shop yesterday morning. She had blonde hair, chunky heels, and a large dog with a bedazzled collar. It wasn’t leashed.
The dog walked up to all of the café guests and eventually settled on a salt-and-pepper guy who wanted to pet it. The owner was completely unaware of what her dog was doing.
This happens all of the time. There are even a few dogs in my building that I have never seen on a leash.
The off-leash approach only seems to work for a certain type of person. (Typically, a young blonde woman.) I tried to carry my leashed Chihuahua into Starbucks once when I first moved to Dallas. And I was promptly greeted by a barista screaming about health code.
I see dogs in that Starbucks often now. Maybe you need a certain type of swagger to pull it off?
The pension fund was set up with the unrealistic expectation that it would make a 9 percent annual return.
The fund has unorthodox withdrawal rules which have made some retirees millionaires.
And now Dallas has a hidden pension debt of about $7 billion, which it can’t pay. Cue bankruptcy.
The latest: Dallas Mayor Rawlings is pissed, so he sent a CYA letter to the fund on Tuesday, asking it to stop some of the most ridiculous withdrawal policies. TBD on how Dallas is going to avoid bankruptcy.
2. YouTube stars:Last night, we went to the Windmill Bar near the Dallas Medical District. Our twinkish bartender told us that he was getting his degree in communications so he could be a YouTube star.
This reminded me of an article from Fusion about the sad economics behind being a mid-level YouTube star. Basically, it’s a “winner-take-all” system where some vloggers are rich and “mid-level” vloggers (with 50k-200k followers) have to wait tables to pay rent.
The Verge has a fascinating article about a specific YouTube vlogger called Connor Manning, who is trying to make it in Hollywood. I think that’s our bartender in two years.
While most of my friends love Apple Music or Spotify, I am an avid Soundcloud user.
Soundcloud is a Berlin-based audio platform. The long DJ-sets on the platform have provided the soundtrack to my workdays for years now.
I started a little Soundcloud experiment last spring which consisted of producing a weekly 10-song playlist. Twenty-five weeks later, the weekly digital mixtapes have caught on with some of my friends and provided me with an interesting music time-capsule.
Like the rest of this summer, there were far more storms than usual. The sight of a rain wall coming through downtown Dallas was a common occurrence and I got stuck outside in the rain all the time.
My weekdays are long now. I wake up around 4:30 a.m. to write morning recaps for the paper. (These will eventually become newsletters.) A long-ish dog walk happens, and then I’m in the office until halfway through the evening.
My resistance had many reasons like faux-environmental righteousness and germ fears, but my real concern was cost. Why pay $80 for a coffee-maker that requires me to buy expensive pods?
The answer is: convenience. Well, and because the alternatives were equally expensive.
After being at the new job for a month now, a routine is finally beginning to take shape. I initially tried to bus downtown for the first week, but I gave up and started driving.
I live three miles from my office, so the 45-minute public transit commute felt ridiculous. I also decided that subjecting myself to the chaos of downtown’s West End Station was not worth it. Why was I standing in 100 degree heat among drug dealers, panhandlers, and drunk people while waiting for a bus that would be 20 minutes late?
Now that my public transportation experiment ended, my commutes are way shorter, cheaper, and more comfortable. (Hey, at least I tried.)
White Rock Lake is a massive reservoir about 5 miles outside of downtown Dallas. It is the perfect place for an ambitious morning dog walk. Or so we thought.
The lake was beautiful, but the path was very long.
Fishermen at White Rock Lake (and some lady taking pregnancy photos.)
I did not make any plans for my 30th birthday (to the exasperation of my friends.)
My neighbors tried to make plans when we met at the dog park.
Jack: “You’re not celebrating?!” Jill: “You have to do something for your 30th!” Me: “I am not a big holiday person, and a big party feels gauche in light of the Dallas shootings.” Jack: “I get that, but you should do something.” Me: “Like what? Pool time? Bars and drag shows? Brunch? That’s every weekend.” Jill: “Yeah, living in Oak Lawn is kind of a permanent vacation.”
We did get out of the house this weekend, spent some serious time at the pool, and even had a few long walks downtown.
New and old buildings at the edge of downtown Dallas (near the farmers’ market.)
A mannequin with a fabulous hat at Flower Reign in Oak Lawn, Dallas.
As the temperature climbs, our morning Katy Trail walks have become increasingly early.
The earlier mornings mean that I now have time to read and breakfast on the balcony before starting my work day. (Rather than starting emails before I have even showered.)
This morning’s book is The Shape of Design by Frank Chimero.
Making a big fuss about birthdays as an adult feels gauche – I am not one of those exhausting people who celebrates a “birthday month,” but this birthday feels more significant because my 20’s are over.
There is no anxiety about exiting my 20’s – I have very little in common with people who are in their early 20’s and most of my role models did their best work well after 30…which is a lengthy way of saying that I am going to properly celebrate this birthday without regrets.
Notifications lit up my cellphone like a Christmas tree this morning – a gunman killed at least 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, and everyone was either sharing the news story or asking whether we lost anyone.
After confirming that our friends in Orlando were alive, we monitored the climbing death toll on our phones while walking the dogs through downtown Dallas. There were more than a dozen bicycle cops on the Katy Trail, and a few nervous security guards at Klyde Warren Park.
Later we brunched in the gayborhood while discussing escape plans for each gay club – would we climb on the roof from S4’s second floor balcony? Is there a back exit door at Havana’s? Would gay guys run to their cars and get guns? (This is Texas, after all.)
The morbid emergency planning was broken by a swarm of people who flooded the Oak Lawn bars. There were cocktails, uncomfortable laughs, and armed security guards. We were uneasy, but still out and supporting each other.
Increased police presence in Oak Lawn after the Pulse nightclub shootings.
Last week, The Real Housewives of Dallas took a road trip to Austin. They got plastered on a tour bus, fought in a massive vacation mansion, and then fought some more at the Four Seasons hotel.
Michael and I made the same trip on Sunday, minus the booze, mansions, fights, or Bravo film crew.
Other than that, it was totally similar.
Downtown Austin, Texas
The clouds reflecting off of a glass skyscraper in Austin.
The Austin Texas visitor center has a location pin attached to it.
These posts were weekly summaries for readers that did not keep with the blog on a daily basis.
Best Week Ever posts were also great place to stick small updates that did not necessarily merit a standalone post. At the risk of losing all interesting updates to Facebook, I have brought back the weekly summaries. This is the first one.
So what happened last week?
Ingrid in a flower-filled forest clearing.
The Great Trinity Forest
We visited the Great Trinity Forest as part of an advertising campaign for Stanley. This “urban park” boasts 6,000 acres of neglected flood lands located near downtown Dallas.
Pre-Pride is that quiet period between the Gay Super Bowl (the RuPaul’s Drag Race finale) and the beginning of Gay Pride week.
Dallas Gay Pride Parade participants practicing in front of iLume Park.
Pre-Pride is a roughly 5-week period in which we make half-hearted attempts to diet and save money/liver energy for the hot mess festivities of Gay Pride weekend.
It’s like Lent without the righteousness.
Why do we celebrate gay pride?
The modern Gay Pride parades started as an annual commemoration of the Stone Wall Riots.
Police clash with rioters at the Stonewall Inn
The quick story – On June 28, 1969, New York City Police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn. Although such raids were common, this time the bar patrons fought back and kicked off several days of rioting.
The riots generated enough press and communal energy to spark the modern Gay Rights movement.
Homophobia is increasingly a social faux pas, although hate-crimes and issues like transphobia are still a huge problem.
Gay Pride has also evolved from a somber civil rights march to the closest thing that most U.S. cities have to carnival – an event with floats, elaborate costumes, and lots of booze.
A float at Miami Beach Pride in South Beach
Twin Cities Pride 2015 outside of Union Restaurant.
Dancing at the iLume Block Party at Dallas Pride.
A drag queen performing at the iLume Block Party.
A drag queen wearing a rainbow dress at the iLume Gay Pride block party.
Alyssa Edwards at the Dallas Gay Pride iLume block party.
Drag Queens on a float at the Alan Ross Gay Pride Parade in Dallas.
In places like Dallas, Gay Pride can sometimes feel like “just another event.”
Dallas celebrity and lifestyle guru Steve Kemble was the gay rodeo’s Grand Marshal.
Texas Bear Roundup weekend at Station 4 nightclub in Dallas
National Showman Pageant at the Round-up Saloon in Dallas, Texas.
A jazz talent number for at the Miss Dallas FFI drag pageant.
That is why Pride can seem like “just another drunken street parade” on par with St. Patrick’s Day.
Pride Parades still play an important role in small and midsized cities.
In places without established gayborhoods, Gay Pride is often the only public gay-friendly event.
Participants at Iowa City Pride 2013
Small-town Gay Pride parades attract tourists from the greater metro area (or state) and show the community that gay people do exist outside of dive bars. This is often crucial support for isolated young people.
The importance of small-city prides and gay tourism is why I am making an effort to travel to more Pride parades. My last small town pride was a while back in Iowa City. This year, I plan on hitting up some of the lesser-parades in Texas.
It is around 8 a.m. and I am walking the dogs near the Highland Park Whole Foods.
I come across an older woman in a track suit.
Blanche Devereaux: “Are those your dogs?” Me (Taking off my headphones): “Pardon me?” Blanche : “The dogs. Are they yours?” Me: “Um, yes…” Blanche: “Well they are just lovely! Have a good morning walk.”
Blanche then gets into a waiting town car.
Later that day, I tell one of my neighbors about the encounter, and she is horrified.
Jill: “That’s terrible!” Me: “Why? She was perfectly nice, I just thought it was an odd question…” Jill: “You know that’s a microaggression, right? She thought you were a dog walker!” Me: “That’s hilarious, and strangely appropriate for the neighborhood.”
