Bag of Randomness for Friday, July 29, 2022

  • I tried a trial subscription with the Dallas Morning News. It was a good deal. I think it was like a buck for three months, but then it was $18.99 recurring subscription and the only option of cancelling was calling in. I want to support local media, but I don’t like the sales tactic. It wasn’t so much having to call in, but once I said I wanted to cancel, they knocked the price down to $14.99. When I politely declined, they offered $9.99 and allowed the option of sharing my account with my household. I’d rather they just offer me the best deal at the forefront and I’d be more inclined to by rather than think I might be the sucker who’s paying the highest subscription because I wasn’t smart enough to game the system.
  • This story is behind a paywall, but there’s a lot to unpack here – A Dallas evangelist told his followers that an “anointed cake” baked by “hookers” turned a gay man straight. – The evangelist, Lance Wallnau, bills himself as a Christian consultant whose website says he helped get President Donald Trump elected with his book God’s Chaos Candidate.
  • Stephen King Is Getting His Own ‘Treehouse Of Horror’ Special On ‘The Simpsons’
  • This website will tell you how many people share your first and last name – HowManyOfMe.com. There’s only one Keith Geeding in the United States, and you’re reading his blog. But, I’m only one of 213 Geedings.
  • I can’t identify any of the local musician St. Vincent’s songs, but I love her name for some reason. She was on Colbert recently and spoke about Dallas. Poor thing was put on the spot, and much like her, I wouldn’t have a lot to say about it as a tourist destination. But I hope she gets to sing the national anthem at a Cowboys game.
  • There needs to be a story about this mental health coach.

  • No one tell this sheep he’s not a dog, it would break his heart.
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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, July 28, 2022

  • Most of you know DaughterGeeding has a pet bunny. He’s named “Buno” after Bono (I merely suggested the name, she was free to name it whatever she wanted). Somehow through the divorce, I got stuck caring for the damn thing. Yesterday, I decided to steam some broccoli and thought I’d give the scraps I trimmed off to the rabbit. I thought it would be harmless, afterall, I’m sure bunnies in the wild eat broccoli that’s being farmed. But, I did my due diligence and googled what you see above and laughed my arse off. I mean, not only does broccoli give rabbits gas, it specifically gives them “painful gas.” I couldn’t help but imagine what Buno’s face would look like trying to pass “painful gas”. Of course, all of this reminded me of Dumb and Dumber‘s Turbolax scene (sorry for the potato quality, it was the best I could find). No doubt, Jeff Daniels’ best work.
  • Do they allow loud laughing in Hawaii? Or just a low ha?
  • Sprite will no longer be sold in green bottles – Sprite is retiring its green plastic bottles after more than 60 years. Coca-Cola said Wednesday it’s changing the packaging from green to clear plastic beginning August 1 as part of broader efforts to become more environmentally responsible. Sprite’s current plastic contains green polyethylene terephthalate (PET), an additive that can’t be recycled into new bottles
  • Mom claims Alvin ISD said daughter with special needs consented before alleged sexual assault
  • I go to trivia night with my three of my closest friends every Tuesday night, but it really disappointed me in how I handled myself. We got third, but we should have had a better time. One friend was razzing me for how I ordered my meal, which confused our server. A lot of times, I feel this friend doesn’t know when to let things go and how his jokes may make those in the service industry feel uncomfortable at his expense. Part of my concern was that I didn’t want the server to feel she was being made fun of. But really, I should have played it cool, relaxed, and took some good-natured ribbing. As my dad said, you only tease the ones you love. I was being teased, and I took it as an insult when it wasn’t. One of my other friends, who knows me best, could tell I was becoming upset, let the other friend know, and questioned why I would be upset over this. I said it’s because everyone knows I’m the dumbest one at the table and he was exploiting it. I apologized to him on the spot, and at the end of the evening, telling him I’m sorry and I have a lot of growing to do. But in some ways, the damage was already done and it made me and I think all of us feel awkward about it. There’s a little history there. I think I take too much of his ribbing. Perhaps he doesn’t realize how I feel or how often I feel he does it. A lot of times, it’s liberal jabs, and he probably doesn’t know how tough it is having these convictions of supporting certain views in this heavily conservative dominated area. I feel like I let things go all the time. He’s also the type that if he disagrees with you, he won’t let it go. He will look it up on his phone right away to prove a point. Over time, that gets annoying. But in retrospect, it was over ordering a cheeseburger. I should have just said, “You’re right, I should have phrased it differently.” Like I said, it was over a cheeseburger and friendships are bigger than cheeseburgers. But, this is more likely a symptom of a bigger problem. Probably my insecurity, because I said I feel like everyone knows I’m the dumbest one at the table and he was exploiting that fact. To be fair, he said, and I’m paraphrasing, “Hey, just to clear the air. I don’t think you’re the dumbest one at the table and I didn’t mean to be insulting or anything like that.” That’s when I said my first apology, that I should have handled it better and I’m still growing. But I felt bad because it kinda set the mood for the rest of the night.
  • That problem made me realize the attachment issue I’ve been working on. I hold on to things I don’t want to let go, and hold on to things I want to let go but can’t, or unintentionally should, let go. These “things” aren’t always physical, but can be. Sometimes, our refusal to let go means that thing has ownership of us. It’s an interesting thing I’ve been exploring.
  • I bet some of you are screaming at me to check out mindfulness. Trust me, I’m working on it. Here are two great audio books on it you can listen to for free, The Power of Now, and 10% Happier (GoldenAudioBooks is an overlooked and undervalued site). My more religiously conservatives will tell me just focus on the Bible and not this new age stuff. But I argue this isn’t new aged, Jesus practiced it, and God is not limited to teaching us things solely through the Bible.
  • Life is meaningless, says the teacher, so says the book of Ecclesiastes. Yesterday I stumbled upon this book about it as I went down a Twitter worm hole. I may download a sample and give it a try.
  • I also know a lot of you are telling me just to act or think a certain way. Trust me, I want to, but it takes work to get there, so I have to blog about the bad so you can understand what I’m going through in order to grow and get there.
  • I find this old story amazing – Rotating the Indiana Bell building
    Between Oct. 12 and Nov. 14 1930 the eight-story 11,000-ton Indiana Bell building was shifted 52 feet south along Meridian St. and rotated 90 degrees to face New York St. Workmen used a concrete mat cushioned by Oregon fir timbers 75-ton, hydraulic jacks and rollers, as the mass moved off one roller workers placed another ahead of it. Every six strokes of the jacks would shift the building three-eights of an inch – moving it 15 inches per hour.

    Gas, electric heat, water and sewage were were maintained to the building all during the move. The 600 workers entered and left the traveling structure using a sheltered passageway that moved with the building. The employees never felt the building move and telephone service went on without interruption. And yes, the move took less than 30 days.

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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, July 27, 2022

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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, July 26, 2022

  • Neither my son nor I were high, I promise. But we had an insightful conversation on the way to church examining the words “there” and “their”. He put together that “there” is nothing more than “here” but with a “t” placed in front of it, and both related to location. Then, I did the same thing with “their”, but stated how “heir” and “their” both deal with possession. I’ve always had fun with etymology. Perhaps that’s one reason I enjoy the podcast A Way With Words so much. It makes me giggle anytime they greet a caller with, “You have a way with words. What’s your question, caller?”
  • I saw several news outlets and even LiberallyLean point out how the California Governor ran ads in Texas newspapers calling out Gov. Abbott on guns and abortion law. But all have failed to mention how Texas’ last two governors, Perry and Abbott, started the squabble running and starring in radio ads in California trying to get businesses to move to Texas and mocking California to the point his campaign uses phrases like “Don’t California My Texas” (while collecting big donor checks from the state). The media are making it look like Abbott is getting picked on when he and Perry actually started the fight. Heck, we had it coming. I see nothing wrong with Newsome fighting back and fighting fire with fire.
  • New York pastor and his wife robbed in $400K jewelry heist during livestreamed service – “I didn’t know if they wanted to shoot the church up or if they were just coming for a robbery.” Later in the video he defended his taste for expensive things: “A lot of people are going to say, ‘Why are you so flashy?’ It’s my prerogative to purchase what I want to purchase if I work hard for it.”
  • Pat Benatar won’t sing ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ after spate of mass shootings – The rock singer, who is touring through September, said she’s unable to sing the words with a smile on her face anymore.
  • NASA scientist explains why astronauts should not masturbate in zero gravity – A NASA scientist has explained why there are strict guidelines over “alone-time” onboard in zero gravity.
    • Scientists have warned even the slightest rogue droplet could cause chaos on board. Astronauts have been warned against masturbating in space over fears female astronauts could get impregnated by stray fluids.
    • Sex and masturbation in space is a logistical nightmare, with problems ranging from floating fluids to shrinking manhoods, according to US astronomer Dr John Millis.
  • Post-Covid, Elvis Presley’s Graceland bonds default – Covid-19 hurt Graceland so much that Tennessee state-issued bonds tied to tourist revenue have gone into default. The city of Memphis, the state and Elvis Presley Enterprises are squabbling over how this happened and how to fix a slide that brought some $20 million of Graceland Project bonds down to “junk” status.
  • More than 100 Florida churches file lawsuit to leave United Methodist Church – The lawsuit comes amid a slow-moving schism in the United Methodist Church largely over the ordination and marriage of its LGBTQ members.
    • “Florida is the first of what I would anticipate might be a number of similar lawsuits occurring” as the United Methodist Church slowly schisms, said Keith Boyette, head of the conservative Global Methodist Church.
  • There Is No Remaining Christian Case for Trump – Trump discipled the church more than the church discipled Trump.
    • One of the most amusing recurring conversations of the last six years is the omnipresent effort to explain to me “why Christians support Donald Trump”—as if I need tweet threads or pointed essays to explain to me my own friends, many members of my family, and my own church and neighborhood. I understood perfectly well then. I understand perfectly well now.But there is a key difference between then and now. Now we’ve seen who he is, we know his impact on our nation, and we’ve seen his influence on the church. This isn’t the 2016 primary, it’s not the 2016 or 2020 general elections. There is no more “binary choice,” and what was once a hypothetical presidency was all too real.

  • This rabbit pulled a Maverick move from Top Gun.
    https://twitter.com/FredSchultz35/status/1550895954177531906

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