Bag of Randomness for Thursday, June 22, 2023

  • I had dinner with a wonderful person last night. And, I’m not just saying that because she may be checking out the blog today.
  • I’ve had a hard time coming up and finding material for this blog, lately.
  • He’s Deeply Religious and a Democrat. He Might Be the Next Big Thing in Texas Politics. – James Talarico confounds Fox News hosts, fights the culture wars by quoting scripture, and has fellow Democrats talking about his statewide future.
  • I’m a day behind everyone else on this story as it was all over the place yesterday. One reason it made the rounds is because of the clever headline, Spare relationship causes awkward split
    • To set it up…Women’s bowling is a big deal at Stephen F. Austin University, “Women’s bowling is the only sport at SFA to win a national title after the university moved up to NCAA’s Division I. The bowling team was the NCAA champion in 2016 and 2019. The bowlers finished as runner-up in 2015 and 2022.”
    • The assistant bowling coach (a male) is married to the head bowling coach (a woman). He cheated on his wife with a student and was fired.
    • He says some wild things, such as:
      • “I knew it was kind of a no-no, but there’s not a rule saying it can’t happen,” Steve Lemke said. “There’s not a law saying I’m going to go to jail for doing something like this. There’s nothing in stone. I guess it’s just an ethics code, like we frown upon it, but there’s no rule, there’s no law broken.”
      • “It didn’t have anything in detail,” Steve Lemke said of the text. “It was just about how amazing I am, basically, in general perspective.
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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, June 21, 2023

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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, June 20, 2023

  • Honestly, didn’t everyone see this Titanic missing submarine thing coming?
  • I chatted with a girl who said she was secretly in love with Mineral Wells. That made me smile.
  • I saw The Flash over the weekend. It was my kind of movie as I’ve kept up with all the studio political stuff and could guess some of the surprises, but a few had me, and when that happens, it’s great.
  • Texas has always been pro-business, but not so much pro-worker – As Texas swelters, local rules requiring water breaks for construction workers will soon be nullified – Gov. Greg Abbott approved this week a law that will eliminate city and county ordinances like Austin and Dallas’ mandated water breaks.
  • I need to get out more – Loneliness and social isolation linked with a higher risk of early death, study finds
  • Germany will pay Holocaust survivors across the world over $1 billion in 2024
    • $888.9 million total in funding will go toward home care services with an additional $105.2 million going toward survivors; “increased” needs
    • A one-time payment each year until 2027 toward more then 128,000 recipients of the Hardship Fund. Survivors will receive €1,250 ($1,365.88 in U.S. currency) per person for 2024, €1,300 ($1,420.51 in U.S. currency) for 2025, €1,350 ($1,475.14 in U.S. currency) for 2026 and €1,400 ($1,529.78 in U.S. currency) for 2027.
    • Germany also extended funding for Holocaust education until 2027. There will be €38 million ($41.52 million in U.S. currency) toward education in 2026 and €41 million ($44.80 million in U.S. currency) toward education in 2027.

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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, June 15, 2023

  • I had to go to the federal building in downtown Dallas yesterday to pick up a new badge for work. Lucky for me, I got a great parking spot and was in and out in less than 30 minutes. It’s always a bit eerie driving out of downtown going north as it’s the same route JFK took on that frightful day.
  • Twenty years ago yesterday, one week before I was going to get married, my best friend (and best man) died in a drowning accident. I hope I’ve honored his life with how I lived mine. With a failed marriage, I do feel I’ve let him down. I think I missed him most as I was going through my divorce. I’ll grant my ex one thing, I thought it was classy of her to want to name our first born after him. I’m just glad he had a unisex name, it would have been a shame to name our daughter Butch.
  • There’s a new alert in Texas –  House Bill 3556 allows law enforcement in Texas to send out localized alerts — known as an “Athena Alert” — within a 100-mile radius of where a child has gone missing and in adjacent counties.
  • You’ve heard of tiny homes. This East Dallas project will rent ‘micro’ apartments – The new rental community’s ‘micro-units’ start around 350 square feet in size in order to keep rent prices down.
  • Walgreens unveils Chicago store with only two aisles and most products kept out of sight
  • In this youth baseball league, fans who mistreat umpires are sentenced to do the job themselves
  • “When you want to arrive at your goal more than what you are doing, you become stressed.”
  • Man fakes death and turns up at his own funeral in TikTok stunt
    • David Baerten, 45, reportedly roped his wife and kids into the ruse, with one of his daughters posting online about her heartbreak at her father’s “passing.” As his wider family came together at his funeral to pay their respects, Baerten made a dramatic arrival in a helicopter—along with a camera crew—and set about comforting his distraught loved ones. “What I see in my family often hurts me,” Baerten said in defense of his unhinged actions. “I never get invited to anything. Nobody sees me. We all grew apart. I felt unappreciated. That’s why I wanted to give them a life lesson, and show them that you shouldn’t wait until someone is dead to meet up with them.” He also said that “only half” of his family bothered to turn up for his funeral.

  • Guy free-hands embellishments on door panel
    by u/purple-circle in BeAmazed

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