Bag of Randomness

  • In my Abilene days I use to attend a weekly a worship service aimed at college students on Thursday nights with my roommate.  I think the worship service use to average about 2,500 in attendance, but I’m bad at numbers.  Either way, the place was packed.  I remember the speaker asking us to turn to a certain verse in the Bible, and my roommate turning to me and pointing out, in a gentle whisper, the beauty of the sound of so many Bible pages being turned at once, and how you couldn’t hear anything else but that sound.  I think I’ll never hear such a sound again, as most scripture is now placed on video screens and many will now use their smartphone or iPad Bible app.
  • I know a lot of folks prefer to use an actual Bible and write notes in it.  As a teen, I viewed the Bible as Holy, after all, the book was labeled “Holy Bible”, and thought it was weird, even a bit disrespectful to write in a Holy text.
  • I still view the Bible as Holy, and think it’s OK for people to make notes in it, but I just thought it was a bit weird as I was being introduced to practicing Christianity.
  • A while ago I came across a list of 51 Books Every Christian Should Read.  On the list was The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living written by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D.  Basically, Cutler speaks with the Dalai Lama and compares his thoughts with western psychology.  It sounded interesting enough that I’d though I’d give it a try, and I finished it yesterday.  I know some of my Christian friends are thinking I’m losing my faith and may be worshiping a false idol by reading this book, but it was nice learning about another faith and feeling a bit more cultured, understanding some of the misconceptions that I had about that faith, and seeing how it compares to western thinking and Christianity in general.  I found the first three quarters of the book a fast read, but the last quarter was a bit deep at times.
  • I always have to read the Acknowledgments section of a book, otherwise I don’t feel like I actually finished it.
  • I much prefer a bar of soap over body wash.
  • Is it possible to cross breed a cobra and a rattlesnake to create one heck of a venomous snake?
  • An Obama rally interrupted a wedding, but it appears the president provided a gift.
  • Anyone remember when ‘planking’ was popular?
  • Eventually, Twitter will be upgraded so that Direct Messaging is plainly obvious.
  • A Texas mother of three is scheduled to have the world’s first double arm transplant.
  • The Colbert Report: A Rare Behind-the-Scenes Look
  • 21 of the Most Disturbing TV Scenes Ever – I think I’ve only seen five of these, but the one that I remember most is the bicycle shop owner in “Diff’rent Strokes”.
  • The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to hold “A Christmas Story Bobble Leg Lamp Night” this season.
  • The Popemobile is now electric
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Google adds another cool tool to search: Kevin Bacon

Forget using Google’s more powerful search operators, the best ones are the most fun ones. We’ve seen “tilt ” and “do a barrel roll ,” but over the past day or so, the company has added another cool new search operator: Bacon number.

No, it’s not a label that meatpacking companies assign to their pork products. It’s actually a new tool that calculates the connection between actors and actresses and the most famous actor never to have been nominated for an Academy Award.

Or as we know it: the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

To use it, type in the words “Bacon number” (without quotes), followed by an actor or actresses name. Google will come back with how closely he/she has been to Kevin Bacon.

Bruce Willis and Kevin Bacon may never have worked together, but they have both worked with Bill Murray. That means the connection is made between two films. The higher the number, the looser the connection.

USA Today

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