Bag of Randomness
Friday, October 2, 2026

It feels good to be employed. Today will be two full weeks. It’s challenging, and it’s making me push myself. That’s a good thing, but it’s also scary as hell. It can be hard to prove yourself, especially when your work deals with abstract and subjective stuff.

For the last two weeks, my trivia team has been trying a new venue in a nice area of Trophy Club. During the first week, the restroom sinks didn’t work. Their solution, provide hand sanitizer. Granted, it’s better than nothing, but I didn’t like it. But hey, maybe it was an off night.

One week later, their restroom sinks still didn’t have running water. How the heck can a restaurant in a nice area not have functioning restroom sinks? No hand sanitizer this time, but you’ll love their workaround.

Back in June, I requested my father’s military records from the National Archives. On Wednesday, they finally arrived in the mail. The records of his 28 combined years in the Navy and then the Army measure a bit under three-and-a-half inches.

I couldn’t wait to go through them. But what’s this, The X-Files?!

Speaking of X-Files-type stuff, this story absolutely fascinates me, as I admire this jet like no other.

Keep in mind that bird first flew in 1964. That’s over 60 years ago. There’s no telling what top-secret aircraft look and perform like now.

The big aviation news this week was the FlyDubai flight in which the copilot stabbed the pilot and tried to take down the jet. The plumber who leveled the plane to keep it from crashing gets flights for life, right? Didn’t a pair of off-duty pilots who were passengers land it? They also get something, right? Something better than standby?

On Twitter, Bob Sturm posted these photos from his recent trip to Grapevine Mills Mall after seeing a family rent three of them. It sadly reminded me of Pixar’s WALL-E. The future appears to be a mixture of that and Idiocracy.

I wonder if they have any discretionary income.

Pentagon launches Office of Religious Affairs, will report directly to Hegseth

A slate of Democrats are running for Congress leaning on their Christian bona fides. Republicans are trying to portray them as wolves in sheep’s clothing.

For those keeping track: next Congress likely will have three Democratic pastors:

* Warnock
* Emanuel Cleaver (long-time incumbent)
* Haynes (first-time congressman)

Four other pastors/seminarians are in close races:

* James Talarico
* Sarah Trone Garriott
* Lindsay James
* Adam Hamilton

Exclusive: Texas public schools could lose $227M from voucher exodus, estimate shows

Rural Texas school districts are poised to lose millions of dollars in funding this year after thousands of students reported using vouchers to leave for private or home schools, according to a new analysis of state data.

Across the state, at least 28,200 public school students took a voucher, an estimated loss of at least $227 million in state funding for their public districts.

Large urban-area school districts have seen the most students leave. But the effect could be felt more acutely among hundreds of smaller school districts, where losing a handful of students can have a dramatic effect on the budget.

There’s even an interactive map. Here’s my hometown.

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Friday, October 2, 2026

Bag of Randomness
Monday, September 28, 2028

“Enterance”? Sent from a good friend in Abilene. Have to admit, I missed it at first.

The Cowboys played the Ravens in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil yesterday. CBS showed a graphic that surprised me. It’s farther to fly directly from Dallas to Rio than from Baltimore. I would have thought differently since Dallas is further south. I can’t find the graphic, but a quick Google search states that a direct flight from Dallas is about 5,221 miles, while Baltimore is 4,781 miles.

It’s a complete shock to me that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have to wash to own uniforms. I figured the Cowboys would want to do that to ensure nothing is ruined and to keep uniformity.

 

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Don’t think I’ll ever get over the loneliness I feel when there’s football on and nobody to watch it with me. I wish I could forget what it was like to be surrounded by family or friends munching on grub and watching games on Sundays.

The Longhorns might be the number one ranked team in the country, but I don’t think they are a strong number one. However, Bob Sturm made a good point when he tweeted, “Road wins in the SEC – Don’t ask questions. Just get showered and on the plane. Survival is key.”

On Friday, I wrote about Stark stating that when a sitting president is at a game and moves locations, all communications is cut off, and that’s something that the coaching staff has to plan for. During the game, ESPN added to it, stating there should be no communication issues, only for the audio to immediately crap out on them. It’s almost like an SNL skit.

Going into this game, both universities were teasing each other about who the real UT was and the proper shade of orange. After the game, the University of Texas settled the debate on Xitter.

It was a bit of a golden weekend for the Longhorns, with them winning and both Oklahoma and aTm losing. Here are the last times that have happened according to Perplexity, excluding any head-to-head matchups.

 

Aggie Yell Leaders are near the top of the stupidest things in the history of ever. LSU players mocking them with their own antics to their faces is hilarious.

And just to pile on, this made me laugh.

Everyone seemed to appreciate Verlander’s last time walking away from the mound as a professional baseball player.

On U2’s 50th birthday, or the day the band was actually founded, they played random gigs around Dublin. The first stop was at their old school, where it all started with their first performance.

During One, they even got some students playing stringed instruments involved. Pretty cool, pretty, pretty cool.

The audio isn’t great, but they played a full hour at Grafton Street; you can watch it here. The set list was interesting. The Edge honored Glen Hansard with a solo performance.

Bono was interviewed about the experience and said the band felt honored that their homeland still appreciated them, because he understands how annoying he can be over the last 50 years; it’s like winning the World Cup.

Maybe not the most, but it’s up there.

Kyle Chandler’s jacket in Lanterns has caught the eye of a lot of folks. Men’s Health has a write-up about it. It’s an RRL jacket, one of Ralph Lauren’s higher-end brands, and is

named after his ranch. It will also set you back $690 and is out of stock unless you wear XXL.

I’ve been keeping a close eye on this race; I’ve been a big fan of Adam Hamilton for a while.

Link

Former Kansas GOP governor explains why he’s backing Democrat Adam Hamilton for Senate

Emerson College / KSN Poll (September 2018/21, 2026): Shows Hamilton leading narrowly with 45% (or 44.8%) to Marshall’s 43% (or 43.3%), with Libertarian candidate David Graham at 4%. The lead falls within the margin of error.

Karl Rove has had enough of Ken Paxton.

I wasn’t familiar with the license plates he mentioned and had to ask Grok for clarification.

In Texas, specialty State Official plates carry the distinguishing prefix “SO.” They are issued by rank/order of office: Governor (typically SO 1), Lieutenant Governor (SO 2), Speaker of the House (SO 3), then the Attorney General (SO 4 or equivalent in the sequence), followed by other statewide officials and legislators. These plates identify the vehicle as belonging to a state official; they do not grant special driving privileges such as immunity from traffic laws.
Rove referenced them in the context of Ken Paxton’s 2023 impeachment-related scandals. He noted that Paxton drove a vehicle with these official/state plates, which made discreet visits (“assignations”) to one of his alleged mistresses (Laura Olson/Laura Olsen) difficult because the plates made the car easily recognizable as the AG’s. According to Rove (drawing from impeachment materials), a donor/business associate (Nate Paul) arranged a fake Uber account under a false name (“David P.” or “Dave P.”) as a workaround so Paxton could travel more anonymously. The Uber records later surfaced in the impeachment proceedings.
This detail is significant because it underscores the personal and alleged corruption issues Rove cited as baggage for Paxton’s 2026 Senate campaign: extramarital affairs, home renovations paid for by a donor, favors allegedly done in return, and the use of official perks alongside cover-ups involving that donor. Rove presented it as making a normally safe Republican seat in Texas competitive against Democrat James Talarico.
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Monday, September 28, 2028

Bag of Randomness

It feels good to be employed and go through a day feeling like you have purpose and are contributing to something. And you can tell a company cares for its employees when they provide Chinet paper plates in the break room.

So far, this seems like a great opportunity, and I feel respected and appreciated. It’s been 15 years since I’ve had a morning commute, and the 9 mile (20 minush) commute isn’t bad, and just three days a week. But, there are a lot of things about the morning drive I don’t miss. Parking isn’t bad at all. My total daily step count has increased by about 3,000 steps. Oddly, when I look at the org chart, I’m only four slots from the CEO of this huge multinational firm no one has ever heard of but ensures stability in our everyday lives.

Trivia night this week with some of my oldest and closest friends bummed me out. You’d think after 15 months of being unemployed, at least one of them would ask at least one question about my first week at the new gig. However, I have to be careful at putting any expectations on others.

Linus and Sally will never walk in a pumpkin patch again.

U2 fans now have something to look forward to.

U2’s New ‘Carnaval De Luz’ Album Will Feature a Dolly Parton Duet, Said to Be Her Last Recorded Vocal

For anyone waiting for years to get a U2 album again, it might have seemed as if the band was, you know, running to stand still. But the day is at hand, as the group’s first full-length recording in nine years, “Carnaval De Luz,” has been set for a Nov. 12 release, Interscope Records announced Thursday.

The concluding track on the album is a duet with Dolly Parton, “Torn,” described in a release as “what has sadly turned out to be her last recorded vocal performance,” put down on tape in June by the country superstar. The song was co-written by U2, Parton and Johnny McDaid, and is described as “a tender country song detailing broken family ties that holds wider resonances.”

Last month, I posted about Bono surprising Dolly Parton on her birthday, sending a kilted bagpiper to serenade her and a cake that read “Love… Bono.” As nice as I thought it was, I thought it was random, but with the news of the duet, it all makes sense. It sounds like the song will leave a lasting impression:

“When she got ill,” Bono said in a Rolling Stone story published shortly after news of the album came out, “she got out of her bed to sing this song. And you can hear that. And I can’t even listen to it now… She sang her heart out, and I cannot believe that’s an 80-year-old woman.”

Two of my favorite U2 songs are country collaborations with Willie Nelson (Slow Dancing) and Johnny Cash (The Wanderer). What I appreciate about those songs is that U2 didn’t lead with vocals; heck, they are barely noticeable.

The band released the single Silencio. You can watch the video here. I’m lukewarm about it.

Here’s the album cover.

But I like this Simpsons parody.

Here’s the track listing and some other details.

Crazy Canadian Football Rule.

After a completed pass, the receiver can barely punt and recover the ball, as long as it’s past the line of scrimmage.

The Dallas Morning News hasn’t had a restaurant critic in 14 years, but they have promoted Sarah Blaskovich, who calls herself a “modern restaurant critic.”

President Trump will be at the Texas vs. Tennessee football game this Saturday, and Longhorn Coach Steve Sarkisian provided some interesting insight on what it’s like to have a sitting president at a game.

“So you have to have a plan for that, if and when it happens, and you get no warning. It just gets cut out. So you have to have a plan to adjust if and when he comes in the middle of the first quarter, leaves in the fourth quarter, or decides he’s got to use the restroom, whatever that looks like. You’ve got to be prepared to have no communication for a short amount of time.”

Something related and funny:

Paxton has too much to lose and is too chicken to accept.

I worked with a guy at Southwest Airlines who told me his wife ran the marketing campaign when the company first became well known.

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Bag of Randomness
Monday, September 21, 2026

DaughterGeeding was a junior homecoming dutchess. Thankfully, her mum didn’t look like any of the ones above.

There are worse things in the world than the Cowboys not wearing their classic uniforms for their home opener.

It was pretty cool to see Dak wearing Roger Staubach’s jersey pre- and post-game, and even taking the time to inform a teammate about his greatness. Granted, even as old as Staubach is, I’m a bit surprised that every player on that team isn’t aware of the man.

He walks into the press conference room wearing Staubach’s No. 12 jersey. You guys should have seen the look in his eyes when Quinnen Williams respectfully asked who Staubach was and Dak proceeded to list all of his accomplishments – from the Heisman Trophy to serving his country in the Navy, to winning two Super Bowls, being in the Hall of Fame and, of course, Staubach’s off-the-field success in business.

Before the game, Jerry Jones was on the field with Jeff Bezos and his wife. After the game, Jerry told the reporters he had the quote of the day, “There is nothing more dangerous than an old man with money.” Don’t be surprised if some sort of big Cowboys/Amazon news is announced today.

Some photos I took inside a Grapevine athletic complex. The technology caught my attention, even the screen above the basketball goal that gives you real-time stats.

Nothing like Pete Hegseth going to Aggieland and bringing them some of that Trump bad luck. But give Kentucky some credit: when you block like this, it’s hard to stop an offense. You literally could drive a truck through that hole.

The current administration is throwing some shade, supporting racist comments from last week.

Owned.

The 90-foot bronze Hanuman “Statue of Union” is located at the Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple in Sugar Land, Texas. Unveiled in August 2024, the statue is the third-tallest in the US.

I watched a clip of an old interview with Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis. One of them randomly mentioned the western genre, which got me wondering: have any of these three mega action stars even been in a traditional western? According to a quick AI search, no. I’m guessing that, between the three of them, that’s over a century of acting, and not one traditional western amongst them. Interesting.

A Southlake resident won a million dollars? Life’s not fair.

Dr. Jesse McGuire triumphantly sings rest of National Anthem after trumpet issue at Chase Field

One of the dumbest advertisements I’ve seen, giving away the twist ending to a great Twilight Zone episode.

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Monday, September 21, 2026