Bag of Randomness
Friday, June 26, 2026

BoyGeeding uses a particular shampoo and conditioner. I saw a version from the same brand on sale that combines shampoo and conditioner in one bottle. When I asked BoyGeeding about getting the combo bottle, he told me he read that shampoos and conditioners that come combined in one bottle cause baldness, so he was out. Well, I guess I now know how I became bald.

I think those car magnets that ask you to be patient because the driver is new and just learning are a good thing. But I detest any parent who doesn’t remove those magnets when their child isn’t driving. I’ll extend grace and patience to a 15-year-old behind the wheel, but I’m not going to do it to an adult under false pretenses. It ain’t that hard to remove that magnet before you get behind the wheel. I did it every time. If you’re a bad driver, own it, but don’t hide behind a magnet. And, don’t tell me you forgot, it just shows you are lazy and inconsiderate. And, if you have a sign stating that a baby is on board, well, there better be a damn baby on board.

It’s interesting to see our World Cup visitors take in our culture. But I also hope they get to experience a real Texas thunderstorm and a few days of 100-degree temperatures. It’s been a rather mild June in terms of heat, and while we’ve had a good amount of rain, I don’t think any major thunderstorms have hit the area.

Here’s (YouTube) an hour-long audio-only recording of Robin Williams interviewing George Lucas.

I saw a photo of George Lucas recently and thought he looked elderly and a bit feeble, though I have a feeling it’s just a lot of weight loss from a GLP-1-type medication. But then again, he is 82.

San Antonio Express-News:

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is doubling down on his controversial comments that James Talarico, a seminarian running as a Democrat for U.S. Senate, is going to hell.

Fewer people are naming their baby Donald than at any point in US history, report says –The popularity of the name Donald has been falling for nearly a century, but has hit a new low during Trump’s second term

Social Security Administration data shows 2025 was the lowest point in recorded history for the name, with Donald only ranking 690th among the most popular names in the U.S, NOTUS reported Tuesday.

The 690th most popular American girl’s name in 2025 was Khaleesi, the Dothraki word for ‘queen’ in HBO’s Game of Thrones. President Trump was born in 1946, 12 years after his name peaked in popularity and it remained in the top 100 baby names through the 1990s.

When I first heard about this Universal resort theme park in Frisco, specifically designed and developed for families with young children, I thought it was an interesting concept aimed at an untapped market. However, I questioned the location. Not that it was in Frisco, but that it was in Texas, where the summer heat is scorching. One of my initial thoughts was that it would be built with ample shade and cooling stations. I mean, that would be obvious, but it looks like I’m wrong, and it’s already a major complaint, and they don’t even officially open until July 1.

Posting this only because I know it will drive Aggie fans irate.

Hints of the movie Minority Report.

British Police Built a Sprawling Crime-Prediction Machine. Some Results Couldn’t Be Trusted – As UK police embrace the AI revolution, a WIRED investigation reveals the messy inside story of one region’s experiment with predictive analytics.

Fulfilling the purpose for which it was built almost 2000 years ago, football fans packed the Roman Theatre of Amman to watch the Jordan v Algeria World Cup match.

The administration will not tolerate this:

But offer full presidential pardons for this:

ICE agents track down Syracuse woman, demand she remove Instagram post about ICE

  • Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents issued a Syracuse woman working at a polling station on Tuesday a warning to remove a social media account they said threatens federal agents.
    • “This notice officially informs you that it is unlawful to threaten to assault, kidnap, and/or murder a federal official or that federal official’s immediate family member with the intent to impede, intimidate, and/or interfere with the federal official’s duties or retaliate against a federal official due to the performance of their duties,” the document said.
  • Gonyea said she does not consider it doxxing to quote a news story and call for an indictment. “I didn’t dox his personal information, such as address, phone number,” she said.

Ryanair drops policy of charging adults to sit with their children on flights – Airline says it will ‘reluctantly’ permit families to opt for free random seating after coming under pressure from UK regulator

Deputies in Kentucky took two people into custody after finding drugs in a bag labeled “definitely not a bag full of drugs.”

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Bag of Randomness
Friday, June 26, 2026

Bag of Randomness
Thursday, June 25, 2026

Here’s something I thought would take 10 minutes max, but it’s now taken days and is still unresolved.

I got my Frontier Internet (A Verizon company) online statement. It said there are updated deals and promotions, and I should contact them. So I logged in to my account and started a chat session.

The rep told me she couldn’t help me because I’m in a homeowners association (HOA), and I would have to contact them. I told her I live in a rental house, and the area I live in isn’t part of any HOA. She insisted she can’t help because my account is labeled as part of an HOA, and I needed to call the Frontier department that handles HOA accounts; she gave me the phone number. She also informed me that it would be up to the HOA if I could change my plan.

I remember that about a year or two ago, I called Frontier just to see if I could get a better rate. It was handled in less than 10 minutes, and I received a much better deal. So, all of this is bewildering. Anywho, I called the number and fought through the phone tree. Eventually, I spoke to an agent who said her department couldn’t help me and didn’t understand why the other agent had provided me with her number. So, I decided to call the number on my bill.

This next rep informed me that yes, indeed, my account is labeled or tagged as HOA. And only the HOA would make any changes to my account. Again, I clarified I’m not part of an HOA, but then explained that I’m actually part of a “bulk contract discount” that gets looped in with the HOA-labeled accounts, and other agents just see “HOA” and go off of that. I sought to clarify if this was something due to something I did, and she couldn’t answer. However, she gave me a phone number to Utility Profit, and explained that if I were eligible for any promotion or discount, they would go over them with me. For the record, I’ve never heard of a “Utility Profit.” She ended the call by telling me that if I didn’t like anything that Utility Profit had to offer, I could call her department back, ask to get removed from the “bulk contract discount,” and be treated as a regular customer. It appears that Utility Profit is a tool that property managers use, and I haven’t found anything really negative about them.

Well, I called Utility Profit. I get a message saying they don’t take real-time calls and that I’ll receive a text to schedule a call with a representative. Sure enough, I get the text, but I can’t schedule the call today or the following day.

I’m sure I’m the only person who feels this way, and I will proudly own it, but I hate backup cameras on automobiles with a passion. Why? Because of the countless times I’ve been annoyed beyond all get-out, driving in parking lots looking for a spot with a vehical in front of me, watching them pass a spot and thinking I could then snag it, see them abruptly stop, only to back in and take what I thought was mine. This was never a problem before the backup camera, and now people who normally wouldn’t back into a spot, especially drivers of large trucks and SUVs, pull this annoying stunt. Granted, they have the right and aren’t doing anything wrong, but it annoys the living heck out of me.

Rant over.

1st-of-its-kind mission will attempt to save aging space telescope using robot spacecraft – NASA’s Swift telescope could be destroyed in months if nothing is done.

This will be pretty darn impressive if they can pull this off, especially when you check out this detail – 250 days!. And, they launch this coming Saturday.

How many Dallas Mavericks fans know that Shawn Kemp’s first NBA practice was with the Mavs, all because of a dunk contest he heard on the radio? He was an 18-year-old student at Trinity Valley Junior College in East Texas. He heard on the radio that the Mavs were holding a dunk contest, and the winner would get to practice with the Mavs all weekend, for a total of three practices. Little did he know that he would be practicing with future teammates Detlef Schrempf and Sam Perkins. Hear him tell the story himself below.

So, why was he at Trinity Valley Junior College in tiny Athens, TX, a thousand miles away from his hometown in Indiana with a population of about a thousand? In short, he was committed to Kentucky but had low SAT scores. He was advised to avoid the media spotlight and go to Texas, as junior colleges in Texas were a hotbed of elite basketball talent at the time. His childhood friends later noted that Trinity Valley was a blessing because it was far enough away that “he could just be Shawn,” giving him his first break from fan expectations since the fifth grade. But get this, he connected with Larry Johnson, who was balling at Odessa College. Jerry Tarkanian was doing his best to recruit LJ, and the master plan was for Kemp and LJ to go to UNLV together. Kemp abandoned the UNLV plan after befriending Magic, moving to California, and playing pickup games with the Lakers legend at UCLA.

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_baLNKr3toE

I recently canceled my YouTubeTV subscription; the price hikes have been outrageous. Here’s a brief history of their base plan.

  • 2017 (Launch): $35 per month
  • 2018 (March): $40 per month
  • 2019 (April): $50 per month
  • 2020 (June): $64.99 per month
  • 2023 (March): $72.99 per month
  • 2025 (January): $82.99 per month

Thankfully, I was recently gifted an older version of a vSeeBox and have since canceled all my subscription services, as the device allows me to stream (or use video-on-demand) anything on any platform, watch cable or live television (over 2,000 channels), and watch any pay-per-view event without a subscription. I never heard of the device until I was gifted one, and learned its main competitor is the SuperBox. It’s almost too good to be true. You’ll have to do your own research, but here’s an article comparing the two.

One feature I really enjoy is the 24/7 channels of a specific television show that run without any commercials. Some are sequential, but I like the ones that play them in random order. Some of the ones I watch the most are Black Mirror, Cheers, House M.D., The X-Files, ALF, Knight Rider, The Simpsons, and The Office. I just wish there were a Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul version of those channels.

Oh, and if you are an NFL fan, yes, the NFL Sunday Ticket is a part of this, as well as any televised sport in the U.S. or abroad.

Earlier this month, the Oregon Symphony had a JAWS in Concert performance. Someone came prepared.

I feel sorry that our troops have to do this, but this soldier couldn’t have handled it any better.

So that Saul Goodman return video wasn’t just a one-off

A week later, Saul is back again, this time educating the viewer on the ins and outs of representative democracy. Saul4Democracy now seems to be an ongoing series, and I couldn’t be happier to see more of everyone’s favorite ambulance-chaser.

The perils of driving a banana car.

Giant Banana Pulled Over in Montana: Driver Says Cops Have Stopped Him 100s Of Times 

His favorite stop happened in a small mountain town in West Virginia. A traffic light turned red. Braithwaite stopped. The light turned green and he made a leisurely turn through the intersection.

A few moments later, flashing lights appeared behind him. A police officer marched up to the banana and delivered the news.

“‘The reason I pulled you over, that light back there, you peeled out.'”

For a moment, Braithwaite didn’t know if he was being serious or not.

Here’s how it started.

Loyce Edward Deen was the first and only aviator buried at sea inside his airplane. – It was part necessity, and all honor.

 

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Thursday, June 25, 2026

Bag of Randomness
Monday, June 22, 2026

I unexpectedly had a good Father’s Day. DaughterGeeding and I aren’t as close as I would like, but she agreed to come over and watch Project Hail Mary together. When she arrived, I was delightfully surprised when she presented me with this gift she made of us riding a roller coaster at Disney California Adventure Park many moons ago.

She’s also been dipping her toe into Catholicism, and invited me to go to youth Mass early that evening. I’ve always wanted to attend a Mass, so this was a delightful, interesting, and educational first for me. I asked for a pic to mark the occasion. Good gosh, I’m not photogenic. I hate the way my eyes squint, but I guess that’s just the half-Asian part of me. But one stranger, a rough-looking fellow whom I’ve never met before, went out of his way to wish me a happy Father’s Day, and it came over as rather sincere. I thought about that moment on the ride home; I was unexpectedly touched by it.

The sixteen-year-old also started working her first job. If you are ever out shopping at Target, you just might see her. She was also offered a job at Whataburger, but chose Target. Her first round of interviews was virtual or with AI. It’s a different world we’re living in, folks.

She’s only had her driver’s license for less than three weeks and already had her first flat.

I spotted this exercise reading bike at my local library. I guess these things are common in libraries? I really don’t know.

While on one of my bike rides last week, this caught my attention.

We are just 12 days from celebrating our nation’s 250th birthday, and this is what the front yard of the People’s House looks like. Not to mention, that Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool isn’t looking so good either.

New Photos Show Ellipse Before-And-After Trump UFC Fight

He felt some instant relief.

I remember how this campus used to be a big deal.

Luxury tower planned at JCPenney’s Plano HQ campus

A 22-story luxury high-rise is planned for 6501 Legacy Drive in Plano—on the site of the former 100-acre JCPenney headquarters. The project, known as The Parks at Legacy West, calls for  261 multi-family units and three adjacent townhomes.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Bag of Randomness
Monday, June 22, 2026

Bag of Randomness
Friday, June 19, 2026

Norway has certainly caught my attention.

 

President Trump is hearing it from both sides, and the general public, about how bad his deal with Iran is. Heck, even Senator Bill Cassidy said, “Reagan is rolling over in his grave.”

But here’s the funny part. Cassidy forgets about Iran-Contra and the Arms for Hostages affair, when Reagan literally sold weapons directly to Iran despite an arms embargo.

Trump signed the treaty with Iran at Versailles. We all know that the 1919 treaty signed there didn’t work out so well. But I suppose there was a symbolic reason Trump was at Versailles, as he’s the acting POTUS on our nation’s 250th birthday. Yup, get ready for a fun piece of trivia.

In 1783, the palace was the site of the signing of the last two of the three treaties of the Peace of Paris (1783), which ended the American Revolutionary War.

In the year 1946, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Trump were born. Yup, all in the same year. Bush on July 6. Clinton on Aug 19. And Trump, on June 14.

Biden was born in 1942. So, I guess if they all lived in the same neighborhood and Biden was a high school senior, those fellas would either be freshmen or in the eighth grade.

As for Barack Obama, who had a big day yesterday with the opening of his Presidential Center (Library), he was born on August 4, 1961.

I spotted at least three tan suits at the event. First was Obama Foundation board Member Marty Nesbitt, who gave a short speech.

So did Isiah Thomas, Stephen Colbert, and David Letterman.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama gave an eloquent speech honoring her husband’s work and character. How special it must be to be loved like that. It made the former president tear up.

Obama’s intro music for campaigns and conventions was U2’s City of Blinding Lights. Bono and the Edge (and Jacknife Lee on piano) played a version of it at the event. In another nice gesture, especially after the former first lady was insulted by a fight at the UFC event last weekend, Bono changed some of the lyrics to honor her. He also added another tweak to honor the other former presidents in attendance (remember Bono visiting W’s ranch?).

Bono started riffing toward the end of the song, singing about performing in front of “46, 42 and 43,” a reference to Presidents Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who were all in attendance for the opening. He then added “44 and family” for the Obamas, whose daughters, Malia Obama and Sasha Obama, were also there.

Bono ended the song by singing “Michelle ma belle,” the lyric from The Beatles song “Michelle.” 

Here’s the clip.

This is a nice photo of former President George W. Bush and Michelle Obama; it almost looks like they are dancing. But it appears she was gifted some Altoids.

 

It’s always nice to see former presidents and their spouses get together for something other than a funeral.

During Obama’s speech, he praised both Mitt Romney and the late John McCain. I noticed Cindy McCain was in the audience. That just seemed nice. She actually suffered a mild stroke in October while in Rome, Italy.

Some of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool liner appears to be falling apart – The “American flag blue” coating appears to be peeling away in some sections.

So, how exactly is President Trump going to “fix” this mess? Is he going to blame that Oklahoma company he chose for doing shoddy work? Remember, he specifically chose this company and didn’t allow any other companies to bid. Is he going to make that company fix it for free because they didn’t do it right? Will the blame go to the paint/epoxy company? I wouldn’t doubt that he would blame China or another country, claiming they made the paint/epoxy.

Former Dallas Mavericks head coach Don Nelson is 86 years old and has decided to move from Maui to Frisco, TX. And he says he loves being back in the Metroplex. He said Maui is a great place to live, but not a great place to die. I’m shocked that anyone with so much wealth would want to move from paradise to North Texas. Not to mention, the man has a strong affinity for weed.

He and his son were being interviewed by The Hardline on The TICKET. They are focusing on NBA Europe in a partnership with Luka.

As all of you are well aware, it took the Knicks 53 years to win a championship. If we apply that to the Dallas Cowboys, our next Super Bowl win will be in 2049.

I always thought it was odd that Texas didn’t have closed primaries. I was also surprised that Texas’ open primary system has been in use since the early 90s.

Full Article

Movies and TV shows casting in Dallas

Here’s a sampling:

  • Investigation Discovery Texas Ranger Documentary Series
    • Roles:— Justin (lead, male, 18-24)
      Roles pay up to: $150, 10 hours of work
  • ‘Psychomachia’- Project type: feature film
    Casting various parts for our latest Christian independent film, based on the poem by Christian Roman poet Prudentius, a gritty, adrenaline-pumping rock musical about seven Virtues who do battle against seven Vices for the salvation of one man’s soul; a kind of Christian variation of KPop Demon Hunters. You Connection is a Christian nonprofit company in Dallas, Texas, producing film and theatre.

    • Numerous Roles (supporting, 10-80)
      Roles pay up to: $1,200
  • ‘Glass Cannon’ – Series
    Casting actors who can get real and deep for characters in a life story about a young MMA prodigy rising to the top at the expense of his own livelihood, “Glass Cannon.”

    • Roles:— Justin (lead, male, 18-24)
      Roles paying up to $200
  • ‘Sugar Daddy Blues’ – Scripted Reality Series
    Synopsis: A wildly wealthy, completely ordinary tech-support infrastructure mogul uses his fortune to find companionship through sugar-dating apps, only to find himself trapped in a never-ending cycle of disastrous, high-maintenance dates with hyper-niche internet subculture archetypes who want everything except a normal relationship.

    • Roles:— Bunny(lead, female, 18-29); Sage(lead, female, 18-29); Roxy (lead, female, 18-29)
      est 40 hours of work

 

Bob Odenkirk Brings Saul Goodman Back After ‘Better Call Saul’ for PSA Celebrating America 250

 

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Friday, June 19, 2026