Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, February 27, 2024

  • That is how I would like to start all my mornings, looking out and sh*tting on the world.
  • Mondays are tough, but at least they end with Jon Stewart and then Stephen Colbert again. And I always get a kick when they show the crowd at the beginning, it’s as if the crowd knows they are in for something special, for something they no longer want to take for granted. He ended the show very emotionally, crying about how his three-legged dog died in his lap. His wish for everyone was to hope we all can find “that one dog.”
  • Yup, the great Peter King is retiring. I’m happy for him but after years of not reading his Monday column only to start back up after my life changed drastically is going to be yet another adjustment to cope with.
  • I’d like to attend a funeral service at my church tomorrow, but the logistics of making that happen will be difficult. But I just found out that it will be live-streamed. Which, I suppose is common nowadays. But, it’s such a good thing to make available for friends and family, especially from out of state, who want to but are unable to make the trip happen.
  • Over the weekend, I came across this old interview of Golden Richards which was how I learned of his death. He played with the Cowboys when I was a toddler, so a little before my time. It was my first time watching that interview and I thought he must have been a real solid man, especially how he prioritized his two young boys. I then thought of the first time I heard of him. I’m certain it was when my father and I was watching Ted Dawson do Sunday night sports on KDFW. There was a segment about how happy Golden Richards was as a city bus driver, Houston, I think. We thought that was interesting, going from the NFL, and out of all the things he chose to do, he chose to be a bus driver because he was a people person. A week later, it was reported that the bus driver they interviewed wasn’t Golden Richards, he just liked telling people he was the former Cowboy player. I can still remember the television interview. It’s almost vivid, and I tried looking for it online. No luck, but what I could find was a 2001 Houston Chronicle article about it. But here’s the thing, my father died in 1998. Now it’s bugging me what memories am I must be confusing and convoluting? It’s funny how we think we remember things. As for the solid man I thought Richards was, a friend sent me this well-written but sobering article about a fan, now reporter, meeting this childhood sports hero and coming to grips with that man who was now addicted to pain medication.
  • The NFL salary cap has been set at $255.4 million per team next season. That’s an unprecedented $30 million increase. For context, next year, each NFL team will should receive over $400 million in national revenue from the league office (media rights, league sponsorships, etc.), meaning NFL teams are already up $150 million before any local revenue is calculated, minus expenses. All that to mention Arlington, which has the Cowboys, Rangers, Rangers Live!, the old Ballpark, and Six Flags all within a stone’s throw of each other, is the only major city without public transport. Jerry Jones helped make sure of that to cash in on parking, and he cashes in. Traveling home after going to any of those events is exhausting. Think about all that as you watch this clip below and imagine how much better our lives can be.

  • I’m certain this was staged, but I’m impressed with the throw.

  • I have a fear of deep water, especially water in which I can’t see what’s on the bottom. I would not do well in this situation.
    https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1760311115509027196
  • You know what else I have a fear of? Falling down stairs, and that was before my mother fell down the stairs in GeedingManor and died from those injuries. Longtime readers will remember that. So, these stairs would be a big NOPE for me, or I’d be white-knuckling the handrails all the way down. My first memory of that fear was walking up the cold wet wooden visitor-side bleachers at Miller Stadium in Mineral Wells for a Veterans Day program I attended while in elementary school.

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Bag of Randomness for Monday, February 26, 2024

  • Yup, that guy is paying up for losing a bet. Actually, coming in last place in his fantasy football league. What does it say about your sport and its current status with the general population that it isn’t even in season and you are bringing
    attention to how much you enjoy keeping track of the other sport?
  • In the last five years, Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills has thrown the most interceptions (66) of any other QB. I find that shocking for someone most feel is a top-five QB in the league.
  • Here’s a clip of local boxer Ryan Garcia entering a store at the Galleria in Dallas and buying everyone new sneakers. It’s a nice thing to do, but this was obviously staged to get him some PR. You see him not getting the reaction or response he was looking for and petitioning more youth to come inside.
  • That’s what you call a rebuke.
  • I bit the side of my tongue pretty badly in November. There’s still a small hole, noticeable, but not too deep. And, I still experience a bit of pain. I’m debating if I should see my general practitioner or a dentist. I’m hesitant about dentists because when I think of them, I think of teeth, not the entire mouth or tongue.
  • I got a big kick out of this ref.
    https://twitter.com/Reflog_18/status/1760982890706571334
  • BoyGeeding participated in a chess tournament on Saturday. He did alright individually, but his team won first place in their division. Here he is holding the team’s trophy. When he was younger, I thought he resembled me a whole lot, that we could have been easily mistaken for each other at the same age. As he grows, I see less and less of me in him, literally and figuratively.
  • At the start of the school year, my daughter was participating in cross country. I saw on the school schedule that a cross-country meet was taking place on Saturday morning in Denton. I showed up, hoping to surprise her. I was a little late, but proud that I made it with my health issues and all.  Remember, I was still using a cane and walker to get around. But no one informed me she quit the team earlier that week. Legally, we have a binding written agreement to inform each other of important events or changes in the kids’ lives. But the thing is, it’s only enforceable if by going to court, which means hiring lawyers, and I ain’t got no funds for that. So, I just make a note of it and focus on the fact they are in good health and being provided for.
  • The most joyful thing to do in my life right now is to help or support (as in attending and cheering) my children. I used to proudly, but lightly, embarrass them, but they don’t take that well anymore. I think if I was still married and they lived with me all the time, I’d continue to do it. But now that my time and access to them is limited, I don’t want the last thought or impression they have of me to be a negative one.
  • It’s a big deal for me to try to attend all my children’s events. My father took a lot of pride in attending every one of mine except for those in which he was traveling for business or was in the hospital. I had some friends who never had a parent attend any of their events for various reasons, and some of them took it pretty hard. As important as it is for me to attend them, and as much pride and joy I get out of it, it’s the hardest thing to do when their mother shows up. When she’s not there, I’m having the time of my life and interacting with other parents. But when she’s there, I have such a fear she will take something the wrong way (it’s happened a few times and the aftermath was prolonged and ugly) that I tend to sit apart from everyone and mute myself. It was a bit challenging at the chess tournament. The matches were held in the cafeteria and no one other than officials could be in there. When they weren’t in a match, they waited in the gymnasium with everyone else. Along with my son was his mother and sister. Since it was like an eight-hour or all-day event, I wanted to be near my kids to interact with them. Their mother has made it clear not to bring up any family memories or even make any small talk with her; and not to coordinate with her on these things. She’s never mean or rude, but I feel highly uncomfortable around her. Not to mention, we’re still trying to solve a big matter in court. Then there are those thoughts about how I used to look forward to these events and spending time together as a family making memories, and how we let our kids down not trying to keep the family united and giving them the best childhood possible. It still aches not to celebrate our kids’ successes together, like high-fives and such. While it felt great to be around my kids and love and support them as best as I could, it was very challenging to deal with the discomfort. If there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s that feeling of having to walk on eggshells around someone. It would feel great just to be. That’s it, just be. Keeping your guard up gets tiresome. At least there are just six more years of school activities to look forward to. On one hand, I just want to hit the fast-forward button, but on the other, I don’t want them growing up so fast and I remember the words of my elderly and ill father telling me to never wish my time away.
  • Speaking of being a good and supportive parent:
    https://twitter.com/weltonsmac/status/1761590267793097090
  • I get easily annoyed when someone asks a question on a social media platform and someone feels the need to reply with an obvious answer the person asking the question has already thought of or tried. For instance, “Where can I find a superhero-themed sugar bowl?” Then someone, multiple people actually, has to reply with “Amazon” or “Have you tried Amazon?” As if that person hasn’t already tried or already has in mind to check out the world’s largest retailer.
  • These stories always get my attention, but this one has the added caveat of taking the bomb out to sea to detonate it.
    • An unexploded bomb from World War II has been taken out to sea and detonated after being found in a garden in the English city of Plymouth, authorities said Friday. The decision to detonate the bomb at sea was taken “after considering all options, including a controlled detonation on site,” according to a government statement.
    • And shame on you if none of you immediately thought of this. Sure, I could have just placed an image or GIF, but I enjoyed this trip down memory lane as I forgot all the different scenarios he ran into.
    • That’s got me thinking, I wonder when Christopher Nolen filmed the climax of The Dark Knight Rises if this scene even once crossed his mind. Obviously, he couldn’t put the line in there because it would be too distracting, but he should have at least filmed it and put it in as a special feature on Blu-ray.
    • Nike is no longer making the uniforms for MLB. Fanatics is now the provider and will be for the next ten years. Fans and players are complaining the jersey tops appear cheaply made and in some cases their pants are see-through. I have a feeling a lot of folks my age are referencing a Seinfeld episode. @FanaticsSucks on TwitterX is tracking a lot of these issues.
    • This is what you get when you play football in an ice rink.
      https://twitter.com/FootbaIIism/status/1761591278003695931
    • Yeah, I know, the other party does this as well. It just goes to show you how we all should hold ourselves up to a higher standard and not be so two-faced.

    • A lot of folks gave a lot of pleasant things to say about the recently departed Bobbie Wygant. I’ve got some things to say about that later. But for now, here’s a bit of a blast from the past for you local folks. JaM got back together. “I love you, Jane.” (Personally, I don’t think this comes across as bad as the guys on the Ticket make it out to be.)

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Bag of Randomness for February 23, 2024

  • I’m an allergy sufferer and this time of season sucks, I mean blows.
  • I always get a kick out of this time of year because most people are confident that all the cold weather is past us. I learned the hard way, that there’s always at least one more very cold day or spell before the end of spring break.
  • My church, which averages around 125 for our Sunday service, has had two major deaths of middle-aged men this week. I guess all deaths are major, but these two men were well-known and engaged in the life and work of the church. One death was due to a long debilitating illness, so it wasn’t a surprise. The other was a surprise. It just gets you thinking.
  • A silly game I like to play when I get sent a text for two-factor authorization is to only look at the verication code once and see if I can correctly remember it as I input it into my browser.
  • I don’t know a lot about landscaping or marketing, but I don’t think it’s a bad practice to plant an obstruction (like a bush) in front of your low-to-the-ground brick sign. Somebody yank those bushes up and plant some school-colored petunias. 
  • I own several web domains. One of them is my last name and ends in a dot com. It redirects to this blog.  I’ve owned it for twenty years. The previous owner used it as a personal website. I remember it featured both him and his dog and looked better than what one could put together at the time with Geocities. My brother altered me to it and shared he thought we had similar facial features and could even see a bit of our father in him. I thought it was an odd thing to say. People used to say how my brother and I looked very similar, so I wondered why he didn’t think he shared any similarities with the man. A few years later I learned what everyone else in the family already knew, my brother had a different father. Then, it made sense. A year or two later I checked on the website and found it was for sale, so I pulled the trigger thinking it’s cool to own my family’s domain name, though I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I still don’t know what to do with it, but I just like owning it. This week, the domain hosting company reached out to me and said someone is offering $1,500 for it. Now, I have to figure out how much it is literally worth to me. Truth is, I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s for that amount, even if I’m not doing anything with it. In case you are wondering how one is contacted about such a thing, here’s the simple email I received.
  • World’s oldest unchanged brand changes logo for the first time in over 140 years
  • Confession: I’ve never heard of the Blue Ridge Parkway – Top 10 most visited NPS sites in 2023 (Please remember where I went to high school and college.)
  • I ran across this on a dating profile and had no idea:

    In case you also didn’t know: The fruit’s green and red colors resemble the Palestinian flag, which was banned by the Israeli government in 1967 . By using the watermelon emoji, TikTok users are able to show their support for Palestine without explicitly mentioning it or displaying the fLAG.
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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, February 20, 2024

  • Hear me out, if Trump is going to sell these, he should at least wear a pair of them once. I would even suggest, though I don’t know if it breaks any campaign finance laws, that he wears a pair and auction them off for charity.
  • I thought I was being pranked when I saw the news that Jerry Jones is now seeking advice from Jimmy Johnson. The talk has always been that Jerry wants to win one on his own without any help from Jimmy whatsoever. Wow. But as of my writing, which is around midnight, I haven’t seen it reported on any sports news websites, just TwitterX. Well, I know what’s they will be talking about on the Ticket all day today. Funny, football has been over all but what, a week? And it’s all we ever talk about.
  • I don’t watch a lot of the NBA, but I think out of all the major professional sports, they have the most remarkable athletes, and it isn’t even close. Especially when you consider height and weight. Their commissioner, Adam Silver, communicates exceptionally well and when it comes to interviews, is one of the most well-spoken persons I’ve heard. He would make a great politician, which in some ways, he already is.
  • A sports topic I would like to hear discussed is what sport has the most conditioned athletes, that is, who has the most impressive endurance. You have to think it would be athletes in a continuous play sport, so football and baseball players would be out of the mix. That leaves basketball, soccer, and hockey. I’m ruling out basketball because of the size of the court and how often there is a stoppage of play. While soccer has the most continuous play there’s a lot of jogging and walking going on. But, I also claim ignorance when it comes to the sport, so I may be misjudging them. I’m going to have to go with hockey because of all the gear and playing surface. I know you have to factor in line changes. My research tells me the average shift in competitive hockey is 45–90 seconds, with most shifts falling within 30–60 seconds. But when they are on the ice they expel a tremendous amount of energy.
  • The NBA experimented with using an LED basketball court for Saturday’s All-Star Game Weekend activities. The game itself was held on a traditional wooden court. But here’s some footage of a FIBA game played in Madrid last year.
    • Right now, it’s about $500 a square foot, or $2 million for a full court. It’s the future of sports, and I bet the NHL will have some version of it in the future, and 50 years down the road, who knows, maybe even the NFL with some sort of special soft artificial turf.
    • I’m curious to know what the players’ union thinks about it. All sorts of things will have to be addressed regarding player safety, shock absorption, traction or grip, and water/sweat absorption.
    • I can envision a three-point line that changes throughout the game. And, replays will be able to tell exactly where a player’s foot is in case there’s a question if he or she was behind the line.
    • Regarding wooden floors, I’m surprised at how inexpensive they are. We often see a court used literally one time and then tossed out, like the Final Four and the All-Star game. We used to see courts with multiple three-point lines. At least I think they are tossed out, I’d like to think it could be donated to a school or charity. I remember the three-point line painted on my junior high tile floor being a little off.
    • A quick search online tells me that a court will run about $17,200 to $76,000. According to Forbes, each of those special In-Season Tournament court costs between $75,000 to $150,000. You also have to put it together. A full basketball court’s labor costs range from $1,000 to $4,000.

  • That’s 10 RBIs I believe.

  • I was surprised to read that tickets for the University of Texas home football games next season will be going down in price. Supposedly, they didn’t want to get the perception they were jacking up prices just because they were entering the SEC. I also saw they will return to playing on grass starting in the 2026 season. I don’t know what a SEZ video board is, but they are getting a new one for next season. I’m just amazed at how “affordable” technology has become for team sports. I’m almost willing to bet every 4A high school football stadium in Texas has a fancy video board.
  • Oh, I also read that Texas and Oklahoma are working to get the kickoff of the Texas-OU game moved to 2:30 PM. That’s going to change a lot of traditional traveling plans for fans traveling from both Austin and Norman. I’ve lived next to I35 for the last 20 or so years, and it’s always interesting to see all the Sooner students driving through and stopping at local restaurants and gas stations. I’m also curious how statistics for automobile accidents and DUIs/DWIs will be affected.
    • It’s always Army-Navy. It’s known as the Army-Navy football game. It’s never Navy-Army. So, it’s weird to me when I hear the Texas-OU game referred to as the OU-Texas game.
  • I made a post last week about lightning strikes and sporting events. Maybe something like this in the future will allow the games to go on.
  • Yesterday it was BB King dealing with a broken guitar string in a live performance, today it’s Stevie Ray Vaungh.
Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, February 20, 2024