Bag of Randomness for Friday, January 6, 2023

  • How many Kevin McCarthys does it take to screw in a light bulb? Well, he needs a House, first.
  • I’ve been surprised at Catherine Zeta-Jones’ character selection, both are pretty family friendly, and both are on streaming platforms. She’s in Netflix’s Wednesday as Morticia and in a Disney+ series, which is clearly written for teens.
  • I will not be in Fredericksburg, TX this January 14 – Texas Is Having A Testicle Festival & You Can Taste Them Battered, Fried Or Grilled
  • The University of Texas should have fired Chris Beard long ago, but I guess there was stuff to work out with lawyers first. What’s up with the men who lead basketball programs in that area of Texas? Beard didn’t pull a Dave Bliss, but what he did is still horrible, at least from the accounts I read.
  • Someone recently posted that “fire and brimstone” sermons aren’t really around any more. All I can say is that I heard quite a few of them during my youth and college years at Southern Baptist churches.
  • The first sermon I read or studied was John Calvin’s Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners In The Hand of An Angry God,” which was assigned reading in my sophomore literature class. Then, when I started to go to church, I heard a lot of “fire and brimstone” sermons. All that to say that my first thought of God isn’t one of love and grace (as it should be) but one who is angry and judgmental. One reason I love the church I now attend is that God’s love and grace is forefront.
  • I have this half-baked thought that people in church are either in a state “to serve” or “to be served.” I still think I’m in the “to be served” category. I think leaders of the church recognize I’m not ready for a role, though I have thought about teaching Sunday school (or whatever is the hip name for Sunday school is now). I have been asked to help with the soundboard, streaming, and multimedia stuff. In some churches, using scripture as a reference, a divorced person can’t be part of certain things. I don’t think that’s the case at my church.
  • Taylor Swift’s look-alike knows all too well how tough the internet can be
    • I didn’t think she was much of a doppelganger until I looked at her TikTok page.
  • Melted butter clogs historic canal and storm drains after dairy plant fire in Wisconsin
  • I bet he even had a red stapler – Employee arrested and charged with stealing over $302,000 after authorities say he was inspired by the movie ‘Office Space’
  • Random Star Wars thought – Anakin’s rigorous training of Ahsoka was integral to her survival of Order 66, an order he helped execute.
  • The Royals have been in the news recently. Though, this headline caught my attention – Prince Harry had a frostbitten penis at Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding
    • Harry also confirms he’s circumcised in the explosive tome, despite longstanding reports that he’s not.
  • That reminds me of a penis joke, which may offend a lot of you, so here’s your warning. It came from an old man in my hometown and was told to me in junior high. Did you hear about the Mexican with two penises? He named one Jose and the other Hose B.
  • I believe Christ taught us to pray in our closets and not to pull prayerful public stunts, but maybe I misread my Bible.

  • TCU sports fans are living the dream right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, January 5, 2023

  • I took the kids to trivia night. The waiter may have been working me for tips, but told me my kids were the most behaved kids he’s ever seen at a restaurant. He also thanked me for addressing him by name saying it brought humanity.
  • I’ve been working on a certification which has incremental exams. You have to answer 100% correct to pass and move to the next section. I’ve been failing this one exam for the past three days, and it’s been getting at me. My son was asking me about it, so I just showed him the online exam. I decided to take it as I was explaining the concepts to him, and as luck would have it, I finally passed the darn thing.
  • I bet Michael Jordon enjoys writing “23” on all the checks he’ll write this year. Though, I doubt he even will physically write a single check this year.
  • Danish bank workers celebrate first full year without robberies – Finance workers’ union says number of bank heists has fallen off as use of cash has decreased in recent years
  • United said it had this woman’s missing bag. She tracked it to a residential address
    • The disinformation researcher from Washington D.C. received her lost luggage after nearly six days, during which she tracked it as it went on walkabouts to local malls and McDonald’s while the airline told her that the bag was safely at its distribution center. In fact, it appeared to be at someone’s home — an apartment complex where Szybala says she found other emptied and discarded suitcases out by the trash.
  • U-Haul Ranks TEXAS the No. 1 Growth State of 2022
    • Texas is the No. 1 growth state in America for the second consecutive year and the fifth time since 2016, according to the U-Haul Growth Index analyzing customer moves during 2022. People arriving in Texas in one-way U-Haul trucks increased more than 1% from 2021, while departures also rose about 1%. Overall moving traffic slowed throughout most of the U.S. but remained busy in the Lone Star State in 2022.
  • It’s probably just the way the locals want it – For teens in Deep East Texas, accessing sex education and contraception is next to impossible
  • I started to play with my laser engraver again. Here’s a photo of my daughter I burned onto a bath tile.

 

 

 

 

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Bag of Randomness for January 4, 2023

  • I started 2023 feeling sick. Thankfully, I tested negative for COVID. It’s probably just a bad case of allergies.
  • Generic Youth Minister – “Republicans denied to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker in three different votes today… but do you know who else was denied three times?”
  • I hope to have a better 2023 than Rep. Kevin McCarthy.
  • I tried an Impossible Burger yesterday. It just didn’t taste right. As much as I’d like to switch to plant-based proteins, I don’t see it happening.
  • I think it’s interesting that “small” Christian university TCU is playing in the national championship game in football, but most can’t name their denomination. They are part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). After researching them, I think I’d feel more comfortable worshiping with them than with my current denomination.
  • Jeremy Moran, formerly of The TICKET, stated he has transitioned to Jillian. I can now say I actually know someone personally who has transitioned. He and I were classmates at a small Southern Baptist college. That must have been hard, and I have all sorts of questions for him. We weren’t close, he wouldn’t even remember me, but he was always visiting the guys who lived next door to me. I was the RA of the first floor, so I kinda knew everyone who came in and out.
  • I read in a book that Ronald Reagan, as President, used to carry a gun with him in his briefcase. That was hard to believe, but it appears to be true. I learned that reading Brad Meltzer’s latest work.
  • Here’s another interesting Reagan fact I recently read in another book. After Truman, Reagan was the last president to use the presidential railway car, the Ferdinand Magellan.
    • President Reagan’s five-stop train journey required transporting the train from Florida to Ohio, re-assembling it, and putting it back into commission. Over 100,000 people came to see the President, who at each stop cited the memory of Truman and said, “Mr. Truman could also make very plain the differences between himself and his opponent, and, my friends, that’s just what we’re going to do today.”
  • Dear AMC Theaters, please end that Nicole Kidman ad.
  • Ransomware gang apologizes, gives SickKids hospital free decryptor – The LockBit ransomware gang has released a free decryptor for the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), saying one of its members violated rules by attacking the healthcare organization.
  • Watching porn now requires age verification in La. because of new law – websites would verify someone’s age in collaboration with LA Wallet. So, if you plan on using these sites in the future, you may want to download the app.
    • there are other ways websites could ask you to verify your age if you cannot access LA Wallet. She added that although some personal information will be required, companies must not retain personal data after complete verification.“It doesn’t identify your date of birth, it doesn’t identify who you are, where you live, what part of the state you’re in, or any information from your device or from your actual ID. It just returns that age to say that yes, this person is old enough to be allowed to go in,” explained Kelley.It will be the website’s responsibility to ensure age verification is required when accessing their site in Louisiana. Schlegel said there will be consequences for those who fail to follow the law.
  • One thing that’s a bit sad, selfishly, and a part of divorce, is that during Christmas, no one takes photos of me opening presents as I do them.
  • The recently deceased Barbara Walters was born the same year (1929) as MLK and Anne Frank. As well as Christopher Plummer, Bob Newhart, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy, and Arnold Palmer.
  • I was college classmates with Matt Chandler and Jeremy Jillian Moran. Talk about a broad spectrum of friends.
  • What happened at Southwest Airlines, from a longtime pilot at Southwest Airlines
  • Good guy Shaq – Shaq Picks Up Tab For Customers at Popular Houston Restaurant
  • 2023 Public Domain Debuts Include Last Sherlock Holmes Work – The long-running contested copyright dispute over Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of a whip-smart detective will finally come to an end as the 1927 copyrights expiring January 1 include Conan Doyle’s last Sherlock Holmes work.
  • I’ve mentioned that Robert Griffin III is a good commentator, but he needs to dial it down just a little bit, as if he’s trying too hard to be liked. That came to mind as I was watching him praise TCU during their game against Michigan and saw this.

    It also reminded me of this titbit I found on my favorite blog. Nothing like having your greatest football player commentating and praising your biggest (I think) rival.


  • Brandon Hughes was only one when his father died on the surface of Tiger Stadium, but as soon as he saw what happened to Damar Hamlin, the emotions hit hard. “Everything they were saying was so familiar to me,” Brandon, an employee at a mutual fund company, told me. “But they kept talking about how this is unprecedented, how that is unprecedented. I thought, ‘No, no it’s not. Not at all.’”

    Brandon Hughes called his mother Sharon – now 77 but widowed at 24. She sounded saddened—both by the uncertainty of Hamlin’s future and the familiar echoes of past tragedy.

    Article

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, January 3, 2023

  • “And here I am still writing 2022 on all my blog posts.”
  • For me, 2021 was a year of survival. 2022, a year of rebuilding. I hope 2023 will be a year full of growth.
  • A long time ago, my brother, who I idolized, gave me some poor advice. He said when reading for pleasure, never read anything that’s fiction, read something that enhances the mind. Because of that advice, I’ve never read a book of fiction until last week. For me, biographies are easy to read and follow, but works of fiction are hard because I easily get lost keeping characters straight and understanding the plot and whatnot. All that to say, I found the following tidbit that I’ve been chewing on. I think about it on a grander scale than what you think it may be intended, I think about it regarding how I judge people when I first meet them or based off of just a few things I may know about their past. “But we all have a person we were and a person we are. It’s never a straight line between the two—and it’s certainly never a predictable one. Just because you read the first few chapters doesn’t mean you know everything that’s coming. Keep an open mind. If you’re lucky, there’s a plot twist.””
  • I learned that 97.1 “The Freak” was suppose to be “The FREQ.” As in, “the frequency”. But in focus groups, people kept calling it “the frek”.
  • A year and a half ago if you told me TCU would be playing in the national championship game and Gary Patterson would be coaching in Austin, I would have said that would be unimaginable. Makes me wonder where & what I’ll be doing a year and a half from now. Here’s hoping it’s something unimaginable.

  • https://twitter.com/CincyProblems/status/1609481486943526914
  • https://twitter.com/BOXINGnBBQ/status/1609716223318843392
  • I thought drone shows would replace fireworks. It looks like the two will just be blended.

 

 

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