BagOfNothing.com

Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

Some of these reasons may or may not be true . . .

• Breastfeeding class ran much longer than anticipated
• A do-it-yourself project run a muck
• I can’t stop watching Fox News
• I got caught up filling out my NCAA brackets
• I’m busy loading Texas Stadium up with dynamite
• I just can’t stop putting the latest Glenn Beck book down – it’s a real page turner
• I’m stuck at an all you can eat buffet
• I’m still traumatized from watching birth videos
• I’m lost in IKEA and can’t find my way out
• I’m traveling to the Corey Haim funeral
• I’m helping another fellow half-Asian work on his comeback to golf

Feel free to add your own reason.

• Yesterday I had lunch with a gay pagan priest who passed out, threw up, and whom I had to drive home.
• A little context to that last sentence . . . Two of my former coworkers have just landed contracting gigs at my current place of employment and wanted to do lunch.  One them is a female, and the other is a guy that just happens to be Wiccan priest who is happens to be gay.
• All through lunch he wasn’t feeling well, clammy is how he described it, and towards the end he left the table early to catch some fresh air.  While he was sitting on some patio furniture where the outside dining is set up, he passed out as our other coworker arrived, and when he came to he vomited on the table and his leg.
• Lucky me, I drove all of us to lunch.
• As he got his bearings, I volunteered to drive him home.  I just didn’t know that I would be driving from the middle of Dallas to Fort Worth.
• Yesterday on The Ticket they mentioned in the history of  the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament that the state of Texas has sent a total of 23 teams – more than any other state and only one championship to show for it, Texas Western, which is now UTEP.  I was surprised to hear that little ol’ Hardin-Simmons has even make the tourney, and even more surprised that someone from The Ticket actually went there, that someone being Jerr, but I don’t know his full name or when he attended.
• I looked at the HSU media guide and couldn’t find when they made the tourney, but did find a picture of a former roommate on page 26.
• However, I looked at AllBrackets.com and discovered that HSU was eliminated in the first round to Santa Clara in 1953 and also eliminated to Idaho State in 1957.
• HSU’s current president was the president when I attended.  He left, came back as chancellor, and then accepted the president role again somewhat recently.  I find it amazing that he’s a Democrat in that atmosphere.  Well, at least he was a Democrat when he served in the Texas House of Representatives.
• I remember once being ticked-off at the president when I was a student, so much so I wrote him a very stern letter.  The next day I got a call from his office and asked if I could come in for a meeting with him.  At that point, I was beyond terrified, but when we met he treated me with grace and respect.
• From the media guide I also learned that total enrollment is 2,435 (1,997 undergraduate, 438 graduate) and that the student to teacher ration is 13:1.
• I love using keyboard shortcuts.
• I just met a guy whose real name is Gotham.
• I think I have only seen one Cher move – Mask.
• Yesterday was soooo busy I didn’t even have enough time to squeeze in LOST.

• Got the Census in the mail yesterday.
• I still have never filled out an NCAA basketball bracket and I’m not sure why.
• I haven’t tried Chatroulette, and I don’t have any desire to try it.
• Honestly, I haven’t watched any of the Terminator movies as of late, but could all the run-away Toyotas be the start of the machines starting to take over?
• I watched the first episode of The Pacific again.
• I miss being able to have a spring break.
• The Monday after the time change is a drag.
• WifeGeeding’s favorite flowers are tulips and she can’t stand carnations.
• It’s time to order her some carnations.
• I have a friend that had some damage done to his shoulder and he elected to have surgery to relieve the pain only to find out that insurance would not cover it.  He’s been fighting with insurance for about a year.
• My dad once told me that once you finish work on Monday, half the week is over.
• My lips sure have been chapped as of late.
• And my eyes have been red and itchy.
• Ahhh, the French – How not to pin an award to a lady
• An extremely beautiful picture of a Yosemite waterfall – it looks like it’s on fire.
• Theses first two pictures from The Big Picture are visually stunning.
• Time Warner is offering a super fast Internet access for a pretty good price.
• Impersonating a military hero is a low thing to do.
• She’s determined to be the world’s fattest woman
• IKEA gets creative and advertises in the subway

• If there is one thing that WifeGeeding loves about being pregnant, it’s the ability to place a cup or bowl on her stomach.  In this case, she’s eating graham crackers with milk.
• Most of our weekend was spent at a “Prepared Childbirth” class at the hospital we plan on delivering at.  Overall it was very helpful and answered a lot of questions covering vaginal births, c-sections, epidurals, breastfeeding, and just about everything else that deals with the delivery of a baby and came complete with a tour of all the facilities.
• Several doctors also spoke and answered our questions.  From what I remember, a delivery
  doc, anesthesiologist, and  a pediatrician spoke.
• I don’t think I heard the word “vagina” or its variations so much in my life in such a short timespan.
• When the class gather all of us sat in chairs that were positioned in a horseshoe type fashion and as we were going through introductions and each couple stated what they were having, a boy or a girl.  Turns out, without any prior planning as we got to choose our own seats, all the expecting boy-couples sat on one side and all the expecting girl-couples sat directly opposite, so the room was divided equally.
• It’s interesting to see how people dress coming to these things.  For instance, there was this one diva you came in overly dressed when everyone else was wearing shorts, jeans, and athletic wear.  When it came time asking who was considering umbilical cord blood blanking, they were the only couple.
• One question that I thought was a little silly for some of the couples to ask was “Is this your first?”  because if you already had kids, you really didn’t need the class.  I guess I could see reasons why, but the class is designed for first time parents.
• Of all the couples in the room, only one did not have a husband or male partner, but instead had her mother attend.  From the looks of it, and I could be wrong, but it looks like she is going to be a young single mother.
• That mother was quite interesting.  She sounded like she smoked a pack of cigarettes and hour and walked in with a matching Harley-Davidson pillow and blanket.  For instance there was this one part of class that each couple was given a bag at random, and as went around one-by-one pulling the item out of the bag and discussed how we might use that item for post-delivery stuff.  During that time, HarleyMom pulled out a cold compressed and said, word for word, “Oh, this is what you need to put on your taint when you get home from the hospital.”
• You can tell most of the room was trying to keep from laughing, except for WifeGeeding, who actually had to excuse herself from the room because she was laughing so hard.
• The instructor, who was a bit older, had a puzzled look on her face, and said, “Taint . . . I don’t think I ever heard that word before.”  She even used the word a few times, as if she didn’t want HarleyMom to feel uncomfortable blurting it out.
• HarleyMom continued to use that word about four more times that day to the chagrin of her daughter.
• It was all reminiscent of this scene in the movie Baby Mama.
• One thing I really didn’t know, or even considered to think about, was that the mamma actually poos during delivery but more than likely never realizes it.  Isn’t nature beautiful.
• I noticed there is not as much hand-sanitizer as there use to be, I guess that’s because it’s no longer flu season and the swine flu is pretty much controlled.
• We finally registered for some baby stuff.
• I watched the first episode of the HBO mini-series The Pacific.  Darn fine stuff.
• I also caught Celebrity Apprentice as well, and I admit, I like it.
• Man, I had some crazy Glenn Beck comments the other day.
• Peter Graves, I loved you in Airplane!. RIP.
• Agassi and Samprass played in a celebrity tournament with Nadal and Federer as partners.  The players are mic’d, and things get a bit competitive and testy.  YouTube
• The education department is buying 27 shotguns
• Clips like this makes me want to find stuff around the house and take it to Antique Road Show.  I love her reaction when she gets the grand total . . . damn.
• Speaking of education, here’s an update on what the conservative  Texas education board decided on curriculum.
• I think my wife wants this Mario shelf
• Best Jobs in America

• I can’t remember the last time CBS, NBC, or ABC aired a mini-series.
• I saw Ashely Banfield was on Extra as a correspondent last night.  When she left our local Fox affiliate for NBC her career skyrocketed with her coverage of 9/11, but I guess her career is now on the downward slide.
• I finished Game Change last night.  Even though I enjoyed all of the book, the chapters towards the end that deal with the selection and vetting of the VP candidates and the financial crises (with Bush White House meetings included) were the most intriguing.
• Oh yeah, and all the debate prep stuff was quite fascinating as well.
• For anyone interested in the new Tron movie, here’s the new trailer.  It looks entertaining, but I’m still surprised that Hollywood has no new or original ideas as of late.  But hey, Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde are in it, so it can’t be bad.
• Speaking of extensions of movies from the 80’s, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps has an interesting premise, but Shia LaBeouf has a track record of ruining a good franchise.  e.g. Indiana Jones
• Craziest lead sentence ever:  Officials say an Ohio inmate who intentionally overdosed on pills hours before his scheduled execution has returned to prison and is on suicide watch. Article (Deliberately stolen from Barry’s blog)
• Color by Numbers Toilet Paper
• The gay version of Taylor Swift’s You Belong to Me video – YouTube

• As a teenager I was in love with Kathy Ireland, but after her Oscar preshow performance I’m erasing her from my memory.
• I’m not sure why Neal Patrick Harris opened up the Oscars.  I kept waiting for some kind of connection, all I can think of is unpredictability.  But Baldwin and Martin hit it out of the park.
• There were lots of comments about Sandra Bullock and a face lift.  I have to admit, I’m really bad at spotting those things.  Either way, she had nice hair.
• I noticed that the Oscars broadcasted the sound a bit different, in particular when anyone on stage spoke.  It was a real auditorium effect.
• I really liked how Best Screenplay was presented this year, with the scene being played with a the script scrolling with the action and dialog.
• I never heard of The Messenger but now I really would like to see it.
• I wasn’t expecting a John Hughes tribute, but really enjoyed it.  The mic was left on longer than it should had and you can hear Matthew Broderick in conversation with someone, did anyone catch the dialog?
• A year ago if someone told me that Mo’Nique would win an Academy Award and give an eloquent speech I would have told that person that he or she is nuts.
• It’s delightful watching actors get moved watching clips of themselves acting (Yes, you Maggie Gyllenhaal).
• Anyone catch that weird Whoopi Goldberg commercial?  Just weird.
• Saturday Night Live had a skit in which they had someone play Baby Jessica.  Call it a hunch, but I have a feeling their target audience was left scratching their heads.  At least I think their target audience is teenagers, college kids, and young adults.
• Unbeknown to me, WifeGeeding has never eaten at Mama’s Daughters, so I took her to the Lewisville location for Saturday brunch.  Heck, to be honest, I only thought there was one location, the one on Harry Hines.  But we were lucky enough to meet the actual Mama, also known as Norma.  We had a nice conversation with her, as she told us some interesting information when she started the restaurant over 50 years ago.  Lunch cost about $0.40 and her rent for the building was only $50.
• The Lewisville location is across the street from that Gourmet Donuts and Water place.  That place had such a goofy name that I just had to take a picture.
• Toyota Simulator – The developer message in the upper left hand corner made me laugh.
• Mila Kunis has been dating Macaulay Culkin since 2002?!?
• Blood from Vancouver Games athletes will be kept until 2018
  
• Elk River, Minnesota is a very friendly city
• Spiderman visits the Wailing Wall
  
• Not so healthy soup from Campbell’s
  
• A few details on how Volton Girl’s costume was made
  
• Trailer for Every Oscar-Winning Movie Ever – YouTube
  
• Bacon Rocket – YouTube
  

• There’s someone in my life who I’m quite certain if I traced his or her bloodline, it would intersect with both Benedict Arnold and Judas – so now I need to walk on eggshells for quite a while.
• And if you are reading this, there’s a good to very good chance that it isn’t you.
• Tom Hanks is a fun guy to follow on Twitter.  Yesterday he posted photos of food that was left for him in the green room of certain talk shows, and this picture of him next to a set of Woody toys was kinda cute.
• WifeGeeding had an event last night so I didn’t get a chance to watch Survivor.
• I hope to finish my book this weekend.  If you are a fan of politics, especially all the behind the scenes stuff, then I highly recommend Game Change.  I’m usually not much of a reader, but I just can’t get enough of this book.
• The biggest surprise for me thus far in the book, and the most interesting revelation is that McCain was going to run on the platform of just serving one term to prove he was serious about solving the country’s problem and to put any concern about his age at rest.
• My Palm Pre received an interesting software update.  On of my major complaints was that if someone sent a text or left a voicemail, there wasn’t any indicator, like a blinking light, to indicate that I missed something.  Well, that’s fixed.  The other thing that I wanted but didn’t come with the phone was the ability to record video.  With this new update, I now have the ability to record, edit, and upload to YouTube.
• The latter of those two things have me a little confused, since my phone always had the hardware it seems a bit odd that the phone itself wasn’t just shipped that way.
• A Google executives says desktops will be irrelevant in three years.  I would agree with the exception of the desktop at the workplace.
• The intro to The Marriage Ref is silly and doesn’t make sense with the baseball analogy.
• There was lots of talk yesterday of Sarah Palin having a reality show, but she’s also coming out with a new book.
• RNC Marketing 101
• Baylor womens basketball play smacks a Tech player.

• Several of my Canadian readers alerted me to this Fort Worth Star Telegram article that they did not favor.
• Sen Kay Bailey Hutchison and her husband are an interesting couple, both ran for governor of Texas and lost.
• Other things I didn’t know about her – this is her second marriage and she was preceded in the Senate by Bob Krueger – I always thought she was preceded by Lloyd Bentson.
• Rush Limbaugh’s Fifth Avenue penthouse is for sale, here are some pictures of the inside, which isn’t what I quite expected.
• One of my friends at work, who is of the same age as me, asked me to rank the presidents of my lifetime from worst to first.  That was harder said than done.
• I didn’t have a problem with the kids in the JFK tower giving a few commands for take-off, they seemed well supervised, but if they had anything to do with landings that would bother me.
• A YouTube baby bib

• When I got back from lunch yesterday I’m waiting for the elevator door to open, and as it opens I see two people waiting to step off, my cubemate and my business hero, the legendary Herb Kelleher.  Herb stuck out his hand and said hello to me as if he knew me for years.  For the rest of the day, I was in a tizzy.  There are just a few people that I actually want to shake hands with, Herb, of course was one of them.  If you are a dedicated reader of this blog, you can probably guess some of the others.
• Now if I can only get a picture with him.
• The only adequate thing that I can describe that handshake is to liken it to when He-Man summons the Power of Grayskull.
• I bet the average American can name more NASCAR drivers than NHL players, which tells you that if the NHL wants to grow its audience it needs to work on getting their players out in the mainstream.
• DFW seems to always have a new subdivision being built, and in the summers there’s always water restrictions, which makes me wonder why houses aren’t build with some sort of rain water catching device to store water underground to use to water the lawn during the summer.
• A best friend of mine (a math major) loved the movie Stand and Deliver which starred Edward James Olmos who played the real life Jaime Escalante, a math teacher who took a bunch of  “unteachable kids” in L.A. and created a nationally acclaimed calculus program.  Unfortunately Escalante has cancer and is having trouble paying his medical bills, but Olmos and the cast are doing what they can to help out with the expenses.
• I goofed the other day when I posted what I thought was a cool looking logo for the London 2012 Olympics.  Thanks to reader Sam, you can view the ugly looking logo here.
• Most Addictive Sounds in the World
• I couldn’t help but look at Ellen’s neck last night on American Idol. Her face may not look 52 years old, but her neck certainly does.
• What comes after the iPad?
• Rat out a person cheating on taxes and make some money. [Thanks, D]
• LOST – Simpsons style
• 67 Million-Year-Old Snake Fossil Found Eating Baby Dinosaurs
• The sun is white not yellow
• An interesting piece on avoiding suicide
• Grace

One of my college friends, a mother of three, had cancer several years back and was able to beat it.

Unfortunately I learned the news over the weekend that the cancer has returned.

If you have room for a spare prayer or two, please be sure to keep Allyson and her family in your prayers.

She recently made a post about her ordeal, below is a portion of it that really tugged at my heart, especially the part where she tells her kids.

And yes, that makes two friends from college that I know have cancer, and oddly enough, both are from the Houston area.

Yesterday was the day that we had to tell our children that their mommy has cancer. Again.

I would give up every single one of my good-day memories if it meant that I could have kept yesterday from happening. Forever etched in my mind will be the swollen-from-crying-green eyes of my oldest son as he looked at me and said, “Mommy, please don’t die.”

Tomorrow I will go back to the operating room. The plan is for my oncologist to remove the 2 tumors that are growing in my abdominal cavity and on my colon, to apply intraoperative chemotherapy, and then to insert a port for post-surgery chemo access.

My heart is torn, and my emotions are raw. I am scared. I am angry. I am thankful. I am still blessed.

A lot of things will change for me in the coming days. I will be sick, I will be weak. I will not be able to attend Goliath’s scout meetings or to cheer for my 5-year-old karate kid from the sidelines. I won’t teach preschool, I won’t do much cooking, and I will not take Baby to the library.

But in the midst of my heartache, my God remains the same. He was faithful before, and I believe He will be faithful again. I wish so much that I could understand why I must endure this. Little Middle asked me yesterday, “Mommy, why do you have to have cancer?” The answer could only be, “I don’t know why God lets bad things happen to good people.” But I do know that the God who gave me those three precious boys holds me and my cancer in the palm of His hand.

Fair warning – this may end up being one of those long, whiny political posts, so if you aren’t into that sort of thing, just skip down to the next post.  But if you are interested in my perspective of things, I’ll do my best to rationally and constructively explain myself.  Either way, I’m sure I’m going to be called some names, but sometimes I just want to throw some stuff out there.

As many of you know, I love watching CBS Sunday Morning.  Yes, I attend church (well, most of the time) so I end up recording it on the DVR so I can watch it later in the day.  I like to describe it as NPR for TV, I always feel a bit more cultured, educated, and enlightened after watching it.

Yesterday they had a segment about the American salary.  You can read an abbreviated version of the segment here, but I posted the entire segment on YouTube that you can watch below if you are interested.

A few parts of the segment got my attention, but these two screengrabs really stood out.

Per the graph, as productivity increased, so did wages, up to around somewhere in the seventies.  The video states the year 1979, but the summary article I linked to above states “around 1970.” So sometimes in the seventies as productivity increased, wages for the typical worker did not, but the salary of wages skyrocketed.

So what happened around that time to cause executive compensation to increase and workers to level off even as productivity increased?  Tax cuts for corporations, and this is the reason why I’m not a big fan of the corporate tax cut.  Many of my conservative friends will argue that corporate tax cuts will allow businesses to grow and add more workers, and that the income made by the wealthy create jobs for the middle and lower class.  But here’s my take . . .

When corporations receive a tax cut, instead of using those extra funds to grow the company or hire more workers, those funds are instead used to increase the salaries of the executives in charge, which both of those screengrabs above support, which means that the rich only get richer while the middle and lower classes are stuck in a curmudgeon.

As for the argument that the income of the wealthy create jobs for the middle and lower class, I can’t completely refute that rationale.  However, it’s my thinking that if the exuberant salaries were diverted from the executives to the workers, the middle and lower class, then the buying power of both of those classes would benefit the economy, and that the increased buying power of those two large classes would be better for the economy than that of a smaller wealthy class that purchases luxery goods.

Some may argue that if stockholders are upset at the salaries that are being paid to the executives are outlandish, then the stockholders would display their anger.  That’s another argument I can’t agree with since the major shareholders of these companies are insurance and mutual fund giants – people that are all in the same club (probably country club).   Once again, the middle and lower class are stuck in a curmudgeon.

I have a feeling some of you are calling me nothing more than a bleeding heart liberal and a socialism lover, but that’s not my intent as I type this at an hour in which I should be asleep.  I love capitalism, but I think the tax laws just favor the corporations more than they do the individual, and unjustifiably so.

You certainly don’t have to agree with anything I said, but I hope I was able to express my perspectives regarding these issues in a rational, constructive and non-offensive manner.

• Two feet of snow . . . get it?
• Sidney Crosby was won the Stanley Cub and a gold medal all at the age of 22, not a bad life.  I wonder if that poor guy has any trouble finding a date?
• I think it’s fair to say that when it comes to Olympics sports, the Canadians want to win the gold in hockey as much as the Americans want to win the gold in basketball.
• Tweet that made my laugh via @dcmba: Hockey: The first time the USA has ever seen Canada as a threat.
• And thanks to one of my more loyal Canadian readers for sending me this article on how Obama lost a bet to the Canadian prime minister regarding that hockey game.
• I finally figured out what the Vancouver Olympic torch reminded me of . . . Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.
• One Olympic sport that definitely needs to be brought back, tug-of-war.  It was last played in the 1920 Olympiad.
• I have no idea if the use of ‘Olympiad’ in the previous sentence is correct, but it sounds cooler than just saying “Olympics.”
• Back in the day Russia use to be a force in the Winter Olympics, this year they won gold only three times.  Medal Count
• One example of what makes my wife such a good and supporting teacher – on her weekend she attends many of her students’ sporting events.
• This weekend I got to meet one of my most loyal readers who extended me some grace I’m extremely thankful for.  There truly are some really good people in the world.
• WifeGeeding’s sister is helping to build a home in East Texas that will be part of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  Yes, the house is actually built in a week, but the hosts of the show really don’t help out all that much, mainly contributing to only the begining and ending segments.
• All men know this unwritten public restroom rule
• This person thinks that if the Bible wasn’t ignored, the Sea World trainer would still be alive.
• Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has declared Python Season – Maybe something like this would be a change of pace for loyal reader Scott of Wise County.
• Flight canceled because two female flight attendants got in a fight.  As my blogging friend Barry would say, hey now.  No pictures, so just leave it all to your imagination.
• Finally, new episodes of House, HIMYM, and The Big Bang Theory.
• For all you fans of the comic The Family Circus, here’s their 50th anniversary strip.
• Felicity had iPads back in1999?
• If Buzz Lightyear was human
• Reading Rainbow
• Some great pics – A Brief History of Olympic Sore Losers
• This goat pulled a Sarah Palin.
• A Flickr set of money that has been drawn on
• Because if this article about Chuck Liddell, I now know that Reebok is a subsidiary of the German company Adidas.
• A congresswoman lost re-election back in 2006 and has never returned to her office to pick up her car.  There’s a very thick coat of dust covering it.
• Adam and Eve in the Friend Zone – YouTube
• A strange story about shoes in South Korea.
• Jim Carrey is now a grandfather.

• I heard that graduating high school seniors can customize their senior rings just about how they want, and it’s no lie, you can choose from professional sports teams, NASCAR, and all sorts of hobbies and activities.  I toyed around with their website for a little bit just to see what kind of crazy ring I couldn’t make.
• Another reason why I would drive an Aston Martin – you can start your car with your watch.
• The biggest thing I admire about the Parliament of England is how the Prime Minister actually meets, face-to-face, with elected representatives.  It seems like a very effective way to express and exchange ideas.  With that being said, I was really happy to see the president meet with senators and representatives about healthcare.  I know many feel like it was some kind of stage event, but I rather not look at it that way.  Too many times the laws that are made that affect us are made by closed door conversations, and this time the public got to see how their elected officials work with each other.  Yeah, maybe a lot didn’t get accomplished in regards to a written bill, but I prefer seeing all of them (president included) get in a room rather than talk to each other through the media.
• Survivor Talk:
  • I’m surprised we haven’t seen Russell hunt for a hidden immunity idol.  But it looks like everyone will be playing that game next week.
  • I hope Russell is able to snatch Boston Rob’s hat.
  • I really enjoyed watching that challenge last night, each matchup was very compelling.
  • I think James’ emotions are going to get the best of him.
  • Wow, Pavarotti’s cougar comments towards Jerri sure was harsh.
  • Randy sure did seem much more likable this time around.
• Hairless rat
• Are we at war?
• Those Windows 7 commercials crack me up, especially the parts where they show a “reenactment” of their idea and their version of themselves are always pretty good looking.
• The third most expensive license plate in the world was sold in Abu Dhabi on Saturday – 17 million dirhams, or $4.6 million
• BYU fans respond to religious taunts from San Diego State crowd in teams’ first matchup
• Design your own solar system
• A decent question: Is It Okay To Switch Out Eggs At The Supermarket?

• Yes, that’s a young Dick Cheney in a bumper car.
• Three of our first five presidents died on Independence Day.  Everyone is quite familiar with Jefferson and Adams, but can you name the third?  Answer is at the end of this post.
• I don’t know much about Mary Carillo, but she annoys me.  If she and Ann Curry ever did a segment together I would probably douse myself with gasoline and light a cigarette.
• Back in1982 Michael Fagan climbed a wall surrounding Buckingham Palace, avoided security, sat on the throne, and entered Queen Elizabeth’s bedroom where he sat on the bed and chatted with her for about ten minutes.
• An interesting new U2 book that looks at all their studio albums and the influence of Biblical text on Bono, I just don’t know if it is available in English.
• I wonder if Rick Perry will still be governor when my daughter graduates from college.  I may have underestimated him all these years, because he keeps being re-elected.  He seems to be pretty popular with the Tea Baggers, I wonder if he’s thinking about 2012?
• Ever wondered the nutritional information on your Chipotle burrito?
• The first people to fly were from Ohio.  The first American to be shot in orbit was from Ohio.  The first person to walk on the moon was from Ohio.  As a matter of fact, Ohio is home to 24 astronauts.
• I’ve mentioned before that I use a Vudu player to watch my movies.  It’s pretty cool, I have it hooked up to my network and I can watch movies in 1080p HD instantly.  Yesterday I learned they were bought by Wal-Mart.
• Jay Leno has some major guests his first week back, the biggest being the former governor of Alaska.
• For my fellow nerdy friends out there you will enjoy this call to the Tech Guy which basically goes like this:
  Caller: After a year and a half, my wireless Internet stopped working. I bought a Wi-Fi extender, but still, doesn’t work.
  Leo: I know this is a dumb question, but do you pay for wireless?
  Caller: No. I just connect to Linksys.
• A kid forgets his lunch and a mother wants to teach him a lesson so she emails the teacher and asks that her son not be fed, but that might be against the law.
• One of Saturn’s moons looks just like the Death Star.
• Texas Supplied Newborn Blood Samples to Forensic Database
• Oprah rebuilds her entire set out of chocolate
• Ole Miss may be getting a new mascot.  Some students are campaigning for a certain Star Wars character.
• James Monroe, died on July 4, 1831.

• Bob Costas is 58 years old which kinda surprised me.
• Cute, and I mean really, really cute sleeping baby photos
• NYU Business professor schools a prospective MBA student
• The CIA has a page on the shoe phone
• Rolling Stone magazine, at least for a while, lost the RollingStone.com URL.
• Just how deep is the marina trench?
• What BagOfNothing.com sounds like on Code Organ
• Olympic venues past, present, and future as seen from space
• Here’s an article that I’ve been sitting on quite a while, one that several of you have emailed to me.  It’s a piece from the NY Times titled “How Christians Were the Founders?”  Personally, I don’t think it’s a good title for the article, but the article itself is really about the conservative Texas State Board of Education, what they decide to be included in school books, and how their decisions affect a nation for a decade.  Because the state of Texas distributes 48 million textbooks annually and is quite specific in what they want, text book companies tailor their books to meet the state’s needs and those books are sold across the nation.  I think a lot of the article is focused upon this Ralph Reed quote, “I would rather have a thousand school-board members than one president and no school-board members.”  It’s a fascinating read, but I’ll warn you, it’s one heck of a long read.
• I’ve been on a Jello kick as of late.
• One thing I’m horrible at remembering to replace . . . my toothbrush.

• Yesterday an Austin police spokesman was asked if the plane crash yesterday was a terrorist act.  He replied by saying that it was not a terrorist act, but a criminal act, and then the reporter asked him to explain the difference.  The police spokesman was smart enough to just state that he believed it was a criminal act and he was going to leave the defining to the reporter.  But that really got me to thinking, I don’t know exactly how to explain the difference, especially in yesterday’s case.  Help me out and let me know your thoughts.
• Why are there blue lines on the ski slopes in the Olympics?  Is that new?
• It was interesting watching the women snowboard last night, the part that stood out to me was some of them pulling out their iPod before starting their routine.
• If there is a Best Actor and a Best Actress category, whey aren’t there a Best Male and Best Female Director categories?  I think there should only be a Best Actor category that combines both male and female actors.
• Benny Hinn’s wife files for divorce -  You may remember her from her Holy Ghost Enema sermon
• I wasn’t aware that Denver won the rights to host the 1976 Winter Olympics, but then decided that they didn’t want to play host.  Link The games ended up going to Innsbruck, Austria.
• If a shoe company were to come out with a mobile phone, you would probably think it would be Nike, but Puma has beat them to it.
• Darth Vader Adidas jacket
• GatorBike
• 101 Muppets of Sesame Street infographic
• Who’s Your Daddy Real Bacon HandMade Potato Chips

• It was interesting see all the celebrities in town for NBA All-Star Weekend, even Gov Schwarzenegger was sitting courtside, I guess he’s a big fan?
• I’m not sure if the stars new how silly they looked wearing sunglasses indoors.  Terrell Owens was at several events, I wonder if that was weird for him.
• I thought it was cool that NBATV broadcasted a lot of the All Star practices and other things going on at the Dallas Convention Center.
• It seems things worked out regarding all the events at multiple venues, this could be a nice practice run for when the Super Bowl comes to town in a little less than a year.
• Steve Nash had one heck of a weekend.  One night he helped light the Olympic torch and the next night we was participating in the NBA skills competition in Dallas.  It sure would be neat if he were still a Mav.
• Speaking of the Olympic torch, Gretsky sure didn’t look like he enjoyed that event.
• One of my favorite sports writers, Bill Simmons of ESPN Page 2 was in town for the events.  I caught a few of his tweets saying he visited the Sixth Floor Museum and graded the American Airlines Center with a B.  I’m looking forward to his upcoming write up about his trip, and would like to know his thoughts of Victory Plaza outside of the AAC.  Too bad he left befor the actual All Star Game, I don’t even know if he got to see the new stadium or not.
• I wonder how what happens to the temporary courts that are used and how they are able to change/add graphics to them.
• I wasn’t too fond of Mark Aguirre being a guest judge for the slam dunk contest, he never really seemed to embrace the city when he played here.  I forgot he retired as a Clipper.  Not to mention, all the judges were dressed as if they were valet parkers.
• Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were part of the slam dunk contest, or at least showcased, I wonder how the Mavs dancers felt about that.
• It’s crazy that the video board at Cowboys Stadium is larger than the basketball court.
• Funny thing, but I didn’t see Jerry around one bit this weekend, I wonder if he was just allowing the Mavs and Cuban have the spotlight.
• Alicia Keys singing New York in Arlington was . . . weird.  But it was cool she performed, and it was cooling seeing Usher.  Actually, it was just kind of weird all this stuff was happening in our area.
• I had a few questions about the time-lapse videos that I posted on Friday, so I’ll answer them here.  The first question was regarding he music I used.  The music used in the video came from YouTube.  Once a video is loaded, you can choose to override all the audio on a video and replace it with a selection of music provided by YouTube.  It’s a nice feature because it won’t get you in trouble with copyright infringement, and the selection is plentiful and cleanly organized.  Every time-lapse video you have seen on my website used music from YouTube, even this Christmas Eve video.  I’ve never heard of that Christmas song before, but I really really like it and I’m glad that I discovered it.  It’s not part of my Christmas song collection.  The name of the feature is called AudioSwap, read more about it here.
• The other question related to how I mounted the camera in my car.  Well, you aren’t going to be real impressed, but I used a Bubba method . . . I just placed the camera in between the top of the chair and headrest and pressed down.
• WifeGeeding and I have discussed time-lapsing the birth, and possibly doing a live stream, either of which would be very discretionary.
• The death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili on the day of the opening ceremonies is just tragic.  What is probably the highlight of his life, what he worked years for to participate in, and then he dies in practice the day the games were to open.  And I have mixed emotions on whether or not NBC should have released footage of his death.
• Being ever so prosaic, I decided to take WifeGeeding to see Valentine’s Day at the movies.  I wonder if that will be the last present day movie to feature a Polaroid camera – it did so twice.
• When the movie started, I said in a loud and noticable voice, “Honey, this isn’t Avatar!?!?”
• Coke has new 90 calorie cans that are tall and slender.
• Wade Phillips tweeted about his YMCA dance.
• I just can’t figure out why Jimmy Johnson is dong male enhancement commercials.  Commerial1 Commercial2 If he is hurting for money, I say come back and coach the Cowboys.
• Old Nintendo NES system and five games sell for $13,105 on eBay
• There’s something cute about a dog watching a puppy cam.
• People throwing game
• War dogs remembered, decades later
• Most blasphemous commercial ever?

• Man, record snowfall in North Texas, anywhere from nine to twelve inches for Thursday.  It’s the kind of snow I’ve dreamed when I was just a littleGeeding.  And I understand for those of your that live in typical snowy areas all this snowtalk is nonsense, but this is such an odd occurrence for these parts.

• One thing with all this snow that was hard to adjust to last night was how friggin bright it made everything outside.  Every time I looked out the window it seemed like it was about 7:15 PM, even past midnight.
• There’s just not enough snow to try anything like this.
• But we do have enough free time today and enough snow to teach our dogs some new snow boarding tricks.
• Another example of the teenage me that would beat up the current day me – I have free access to attend one of the major NBA events but I’m not going, and I really can’t think of a good reason why I don’t want to go.
• You would think since it’s NBA All Star weekend in Dallas with all of the celebrity parties going on that I would attend a few of them, but no.  I like to keep it real and on the down low.  I’m Keith Geeding, man of the people.
• It’s great watching my dogs run and play in the snow.
• I made a mistake of eating a breakfast bowl at Jack In the Box yesterday morning.  I didn’t realize it contained “cheese sauce” that had a lasting impact on my stomach for most of that morning.
• But don’t get me wrong, the Breakfast Jack and Sourdough Breakfast Sandwich are pure greatness.
• I also decided to take a look at the nutritional content of the breakfast bowl that I ate . . . my gosh my life expectancy just dropped dramatically.
• I’m finally getting a little more sleep.
• Survivor was very good last night, and that Stephenie was a stud getting her shoulder popped back into place.  And she has that unique ability to look drastically more attractive the more grungy she gets.  When she’s all normal with make-up on, she is definitely less attractive.
• And I couldn’t help but laugh when Sugar loss her top and later flipped the double bird.
• Interesting stats about the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – in particular, the stats about those that claim to have had a conversion experience, education, theological view and political affiliation.
• While watching Nightline last night they had a segment on Hallmark and mentioned that they actually own Crayola . . . I was not aware of this.
• For you NBA fans, here’s a fun little distraction.  Take a look at the McDonald’s All American Basketball Team for the year you graduated from high school.  In my case, here’s the 1994 team.
• I’m thinking Kay Baily Hutchinson was the happiest of all folks to hear Debra Medina’s goof on Glenn Beck’s radio show.  If you missed it, he asked her if she felt the government was involved in some sort of 9/11 conspiracy, and she stated that she couldn’t 100% deny it.  Later she issued a statement that said she was caught off guard by the question and it shouldn’t matter since it doesn’t relate to Texas politics.  Either way, her chances of becoming the next governor are about the same as me becoming the next host of The Tonight Show.