Bag of Randomness
Friday, September 18, 2026

I watched last night’s NFL game between the Lions and the Bills on a Canadian television channel. You have no idea how great it was not seeing a single political ad.

Earlier this week, I watched Rain Man. The last and only time I saw it was when I was 12. That movie hits a heck of a lot differently when you’re 51. For some reason, I vividly remember watching it with my father. Specifically, I can recall putting in the VHS tape and it starting off with a special message from Buick, as they provided the classic roadster, which was later bought by Dustin Hoffman.

I forgot how prominent Cincinnati was in the film. Maybe a quarter of it was filmed there, which was my father’s hometown. I’ve always felt the need to make a pilgrimage to the Queen City.

Hoffman, by the way, recently turned 89.

I couldn’t start my new job this past Monday because one of Equifax’s companies that verifies past employment, The Work Number, provided incorrect data during my background check, showing that I worked two full-time jobs concurrently. So, I had to provide proof to the two companies verifying my background as well as to The Work Number. Thankfully, I’ve kept all my offer and separation letters from every employer since I graduated from that little school in Abilene. So, now, my official start date will be this Monday.

The town of Sleepy Hollow has an obvious mascot. I can’t blame them, and it’s awesome.

On The Ticket, Craig Miller mentioned his kindergarten-aged daughter was gifted a Havanese puppy for her birthday. She named her Popcorn, though they call her Poppy.

Some of you may recall that DogGeedingII is of the same breed. God willing, he’ll turn 16 this December.

There’s college football teams in Japan? You can view their team’s website here and their X account has more highlights.

It remains to be seen whether Arch Manning’s on-field play will make him a legitimate Heisman candidate. But I’m curious how much his distasteful Holly Rowe comments will affect that. The Heisman electorate consists of 870 sports journalists, eligible former Heisman winners, and a collective fan vote.

As for the Rowe and Stark interview, would there be any outrage if a male reporter interviewed Stark? What does that tell us?

I purposely avoided it.

Weiss’ overhaul of 60 Minutes sees season premiere hit 25-year ratings – Among adults aged 25-54 ratings plunged by 33 percent, according to a report

60 Minutes opened its 59th season Sunday with its smallest premiere audience in at least a quarter-century following CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss’ overhaul of the flagship program.

About 7.9 million viewers watched the season premiere, down from roughly 10 million for last year’s opener, according to Nielsen data cited by The New York Times.

The decline was sharp among adults aged 25-54, a key advertising demographic. Preliminary Nielsen ratings, cited by Mediaite, showed viewership in that group fell 33 percent.

The Pentagon recently held a three-week Shark Tank Try It Before You Buy It drone competition to figure out who’s going to get a big purchase order. Each drone has to cost less than $4,000 and be made in the USA.

You tend to forget how they can lose signal flying through tunnels.

What caught my attention were two charts that listed all the companies in the competition. Of the nine listed, seven were privately held. Two are publicly traded. One had an IPO this year, and one is trading under $5 a share. Don’t take investing advice from me, but that’s a tempting stock purchase.

However, according to the Jerusalem Post, XTEND is an Israeli drone company that started to trade on the NYSE this year, and has a small Eric Trump advisor connection. As I stated earlier, the Pentagon stated the drones must eventually be made in the USA, so I guess it doesn’t matter that it’s a foreign-owned company. [Update: As I read on, the company moved its HQ to Tampa, Florida, where it has a production facility.]

In the future, don’t be surprised if you hear about a ship, especially an oil tanker, getting hacked and becoming weaponized by ramming itself into another ship or a port. Sounds like Iran was behind this hack of a South Korean tanker en route to Galveston. When I first saw this story, the ship was hacked for about 30 hours.

This should be a Texas Monthly gift link:

We Spent a Day at the Universal Kids Resort. Surely It Couldn’t Be That Bad? – At the new theme park in North Texas, my kids encountered a mute Minion and a near-dinosaurless Jurassic World.

The author states that, for security reasons, everyone entering the park needs to be photographed after their tickets are scanned. That will certainly gum up the line.

With the history of Dave Bliss, Art Briles, Ken Starr, Ian McCaw, and being located in the same city as the Branch Davidian Siege, it’s perplexing d how any Baylor fan can refer to another university as “evil.” That’s some audacity. But then again, I should lighten up.

Traces of Texas shares a great story of when Elizabeth Taylor was filming Giant, getting Stanley Marcus to send a plane to Marfa to pick her up to fly to Dallas, and opening the iconic Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas on a Sunday, when it’s usually closed, and having the store entirely to herself. Well, it looks like James Dean tagged along; this is them boarding or departing Marcus’ plane in Dallas. It all started off with an innocent request.

I think I shared this story before, but my children’s maternal grandmother just so happened to be staying at the same hotel as Ms. Taylor during filming and got to spend time with the actress in her hotel room.

Don’t be surprised if you wake up one morning and learn the Kennedy Center was razed overnight.

Tarleton State is winning on the field, has over $200M in facilities upgrades and should be one of the next to land an FBS invitation

A month ago, I couldn’t even tell you who Abbott’s opponent was.

New poll shows Hinojosa ahead of Abbott for first time, Talarico leads Paxton

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — For the first time, a nonpartisan poll shows Democratic nominee for Texas governor Gina Hinojosa ahead of three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The poll also shows Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate James Talarico six points ahead of Republican nominee Ken Paxton.

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Friday, September 18, 2026

Bag of Randomness
Monday, September 14, 2026

Of all the memories I have of the days following 9/11/01, it’s the debate over postponing NFL games. I guess it’s obvious in retrospect, but my memory is that everyone was waffling on the idea until NY Jets starting QB Vinny Tesaverde flat-out said he wasn’t going to play and just wanted to be with his family. My memory could be wrong, and I can easily look it up or ask AI, but that’s how I want to remember it.

I was in elementary school on 9/11. This is my first hand account of that day.
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Barnes arrived at the stadium dressed up in matching Spider-Man outfits with his son:

At the start of every NFL season, I identify one commercial that gets old quickly because it’s overplayed. Jason Kelce and his wife’s NFL Sunday Ticket commercial is the top contender.

I don’t see Cam Skattebo lasting more than four years in the NFL.

As for the Cowboys: “You can feel the annual goodwill of training camp leaving the room like someone opened the door and let all the AC out.”

One thing about college football that grinds my gears is when the home crowd empties the stands and floods the field. It blew my mind that Michigan, of all teams, did this when they beat unranked Eastern Michigan. Funny, they didn’t do it after beating #11 Oklahoma. The Big House can be weird sometimes.

If there is ever a time for such a thing to happen, it’s when the home team makes a tremendous comeback and beats the number one-ranked team in the nation, specifically the one that has gotten your goat over the years.

This happened in Austin, but thankfully, my favorite team acted appropriately, and you didn’t see the stands empty onto the field. Also proud that my favorite university is willing to schedule tough opponents.

Texas is now ranked #1. I never like it when they are ranked first unless it’s at the end of the season. All it does is put a target on your back and offer distractions. I prefer to be ranked just high enough to get into the playoffs.

However, college football can use more of this.

I also thought the field looked gray. The only time it didn’t was when it was zoomed in on a player.

And how the hell did Texas win with Ted Cruz in attendance? When I saw him the 40 Acres during College Game Day, I for sure thought it was going to be a loss. One win doesn’t make him a good luck charm. He’s more like a turd that won’t flush. Bet most of y’all can’t immediately recall what movie that is from. Hint: Dennis Hopper said it.

I couldn’t help but notice this one community note.

No matter how much he tries, he’s definitely more Aggie than Longhorn.

Texas Republicans feel so secure in the conservative majority in terms of registered voters that they won’t even hide their racism. Keep in mind this man used to chair the Tarrant County GOP and is the party’s nominee for one of the state’s strongest offices.

Keep in mind he’s only doubled down on his comments. While many Texas Republicans have condemned the post, many have condoned it. I’m also guessing he’s not a fan of our current Second Lady, Usha Vance.

Does it not get more American than having people move to the great state of Texas and enjoy a football game?

Our governor couldn’t even condemn it. I knew he had a crushed spine, but it’s now confirmed he simply doesn’t have one.

At least Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw wanted to make sure folks didn’t forget this story about Bo French.

I’ll always be proud that I never voted for this madman. He made the audience take a pledge. Think about that. It’s bewildering that people chose to put him back in office.

Ryanair has some gumption.

THE PREMISE IS THAT THE MUPPETS ARE PUTTING ON A SHOW CALLED THE MUPPET SHOW!

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Monday, September 14, 2026

Bag of Randomness
Thursday, September 10, 2026

Six Flags over Texas has a new chaperone policy: all guests 17 years of age or younger must be accompanied by a chaperone who is at least 21 years old to enter and remain in the park.

I gave DaughterGeeding four passes to the park for her birthday, and the last day they could be used was Labor Day. She needed a chaperone, so she asked Good Ol’ Dad. One of the last things I wanted to do was spend all day at Six Flags in over 100° weather, but the things you do for love, you know?

I thought that as soon as we got in, she and her four friends would wander off and do their own thing, but one of the nice young men asked, “Mr. Geeding, would you like to come ride Tormenta with us?”

For those of you unaware, the new coaster holds six world records:

Tallest dive coaster: 309 feet
Fastest dive coaster: 87 mph
Longest dive coaster: 4,199 feet of track
Highest 95-degree beyond-vertical drop: 285 feet
Highest Immelmann inversion: 218 feet
Tallest vertical coaster loop: 179 feet

That’s right, it has an inverted drop.

Not only that, but right when it goes over the edge, it holds you for three seconds before the drop.

I typically enjoy roller coasters, but haven’t ridden any since all my five+ spinal surgeries. But I couldn’t say no.

The line wasn’t that long, and they even provided cups of water as you wait. They actually did this for several of the rides. At one point, they announced the ride was shut down, and they had no idea if it would be back up. I thought that was my out, but the kids wanted to wait, and 20 minutes later it was up and running again; since some folks exited the line, our wait was shortened. And much to my chagrin, they wanted to ride in the front row.

The seats were bucketed, but a bit more than expected, almost inverted. When the shoulder harness clamped down, I actually started to panic a little. It was actually a little too tight, as I couldn’t fully inhale, which didn’t help my claustrophobia. Yes, I’m pretty claustrophobic, and it didn’t help that I’m scared of heights. You should have seen how freaked out I was just getting near the edge of the Grand Canyon.

Thankfully, the ride was smooth, really smooth. I cheated a little, which I regret. I feel like when you do these things, you need to face your fears to the max. So for me, I shouldn’t have avoided looking down; I just kept my focus on the horizon. But it was fun; I had a blast. I’m glad I did it with my daughter. And I’m so proud I didn’t wet myself.

After the ride, I let the kids do their own thing. Heck, there was no way I was going to be able to keep up with them in that heat. I always thought riding rides by yourself would be sad and lonely, but I enjoyed it. The New Texas Giant was fun, since it’s no longer a wooden roller coaster and is also a smooth ride.

To my surprise, the park employees were much friendlier and more professional than I expected. Six Flags now provides free lockers to lock up your stuff before you get on a lot of rides. They work like a gym locker where you create your own PIN or code. The park also wasn’t as crowded as I expected. I think the longest I waited for a ride was 25 minutes.

As for my back, I was mostly fine. The walking was the main challenge and caused the most discomfort. For nostalgic purposes, I chose to ride the Judge Roy Scream, even though it’s a wooden roller coaster and is rough and jerky. I quickly learned I don’t have the back for it anymore. Thankfully, I didn’t injure myself, but that was only because I tightly engaged my core the entire time, and that’s no easy task. Having to do that takes a lot of fun out of the experience.

Driving through Flower Mound on my way home to Lewisville, I passed several autonomous Robo Taxis. What stood out was that there aren’t any side mirrors, and I don’t think you can see through the back window. Interestingly, all the ones I spotted were being driven by humans. Perhaps they were transporting them?

The GOP midterm convention is just a weird event, but this surprised me:

Just seems odd to bus folks 14 miles.

Senator Ted Cruz gave President Trump an “A” grade for his handling of the economy and prices during an appearance yesterday on The View. As you’d guess, the audience (or any sane person) agreed. But this is how you know Cruz is prepping for a presidential run. He doesn’t care what the audience thinks. He’s focused on appealing to the Republican base and Trump supporters –  that’s how you one would go about wining a nomination.

 

This was all over the news yesterday: Anthropic researcher believes more than 10% chance AI ‘could kill all humans’

Evan Hubinger, the Alignment Science Lead at Anthropic, made the X post and quit the company. But one thing no one is really pointing out is that Hubinger did this before the company’s huge IPO next month. By taking this moral stand, he’s missing out on millions of dollars on principle. He could have easily issued the warning and quit after the IPO raking in millions. Keep that in mind when you think about how important this decision was for him.

The NFL season kicked off last night in Seattle. I saw on social media that people were up in arms because the Seahawks had one of their own, Pearl Jam’s guitarist, Mike McCready, perform an electric guitar solo of the National Anthem. It was accompanied by a sign-language interpreter, which, for some reason, offended people. Many didn’t take into consideration that McCready was honoring the late Seattle native and legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix and his iconic solo performance of the national anthem.

If that upset them, just wait for this: Bills to include Canadian national anthem at home opener vs. Lions – ESPN

The NFL has a game tonight, but it will be played in Australia, which means the game is technically being played in the future, and this rightfully confuses 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.

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Thursday, September 10, 2026

Bag of Randomness
Labor Day 2026

Today’s dose of ‘MERICA!.

One thing is for sure, no one will be joining the Space Force based on their uniforms. Sheesh.

Donald Trump has been mocked over his new design for Space Force uniforms, with social media users comparing them to the costumes worn by sci-fi villains – and even Nazis.

The president raised eyebrows Sunday after posting a graphic of a “next generation” design for Space Force uniforms that includes a sleek, charcoal-colored collared jacket and pants with a black belt, black boots and a matching cap. There’s also the Space Force Delta symbol on the collar, sleeve patch, belt buckle and the front of the cap.

The graphic says the design is “inspired by the discipline and functionality of the Starship Trooper uniform. Modernized for the guardians of the space domain.”

Starship Troopers is a 1997 space epic — directed by Paul Verhoeven, who grew up in Nazi-occupied Netherlands — about a future Earth governed by a fascist regime that wages war against giant alien bugs. Some social media users picked up on the inspiration behind the uniforms, while others compared them to other space films.

“Designing the Space Force uniforms to look like the evil bad guys from Star Wars, who are led by an elderly, power hungry tyrant, who lose, repeatedly, is a bit too on brand, no?” healthcare advocate Melanie D’Arrigo wrote on X.

Here’s something that will tell you how confidence in the U.S. financial system has erroded. The Dutch as pulled $10 billion of their gold out of New York (and granted Ottowa,) to London. Of course, it doesn’t help that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson doesn’t have a checking or savings account. Think about how absurd that is.

3-year college degrees grow more popular in the US, saving time and cash. But critics aren’t sold

  • The condensed programs have exploded in popularity. As of this spring, 26 U.S. states have a college that offers at least one reduced-credit, three-year bachelor’s, according to the nonprofit research group RAND.
  • The new programs let students finish faster by completing as few as 90 credit hours. That shaves a year off the typical 120-hour bachelor’s degree.
  • Critics, however, worry that they’ll narrow too much what students learn, confuse employers, limit graduate school options and create headaches in fields that require state licenses.
  • Three-year bachelor’s degrees are common in other countries including the United Kingdom, India, France and Italy. But they can create complications for graduates seeking admission to U.S. graduate schools, which sometimes require extra coursework.

I happily do not own an iPhone. One maddening thing about people who post iPhone videos is that everything looks backward. I have no idea whether that’s a default setting issue or whatnot, but Apple has no excuse for making its owners look incompetent.

What a Smuggled North Korean Smartphone Reveals About the Regime | WSJ

  • While it’s more advanced than you’d think, it doesn’t connect to the global internet, just the state internet.
  • You have to buy it off the black market, and sells for about $250. Keep in mind, per the former North Korean soldier being interviewed, a military officer makes less than a dollar a month.
  • Anytime you type “Kim Jong Un” it automatically is put into bold typeface.
  • Random screenshots of your activity are recorded and can’t be deleted.

An informative video on Ukrainian drones that are cheaper and more advanced than you’d think. Thousands are produced daily. They are the most efficient way to fight Iran’s most efficient weapon. Not to mention, they are already battlefield-tested.

The worst play in all of college football over the weekend.

Perhaps the most unflattering college football social media post.

Link

While I like and prefer the textbook answer, I wonder in the age of Trump, if it’s still effective or the best strategy.

I had no idea that non-varsity bands played in Texas high school.

Some of us have been un-gleefully unemployed for 15 months thanks to him.

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Labor Day 2026