Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

  • I’m sorry I posted nothing yesterday. I’m still feeling a lot of fatigue from COVID-19 and spent a lot of time with my kids. Not to mention, I had nothing of quality to add and didn’t want to waste your time.
  • I wonder what park attendance is like at Six Flags Over Texas.  I can’t imagine anyone thinking about spending the afternoon there.
  • I let my hair grow out for about 10 days just to see what I’d look like and to see how badly I’m bald. It’s about what I thought, and the kids say they prefer me with a bald head anyway. So, I’m back to the “normal” me.
  • I had a check-up with my doctor yesterday. The nurse and I got into a conversation about anesthesia. He said he has a cousin that works at Texas Instruments, and he has a high level government security clearance. Anytime he’s administered anesthesia, which may lead a person to say things they normally wouldn’t or shouldn’t, an agent of some sorts, FBI he thought, has to be around in case he spills the beans.
  • I really miss doing DIY and home renovation stuff, and I really miss watching those types of shows and videos on YouTube. I avoid watching them now because they just make me yearn for a house to do my own stuff in and what was taken from me.
  • The Musers accidentally made a great climate change analogy yesterday, comparing it to the NBA. Saying we’ve had 110°F days in the past is like saying the NBA has always had extremely tall players because Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played in the league at its infancy. But, when you look at the average height of players, it starts off ~6’3 at the beginning of the league, and works its way up to 6’5 by the end of the 50s, and gradually rises to stay steady at 6’7.Aug 26, 2014. The rules of the game are the same in most instances, but it’s an entirely different game now because the variables have changed. 
  • 15-year-old boy makes history as youngest graduate of Sam Houston State University
  • After 121 scalding Mississippi summers, Parchman prison is getting air conditioning
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Bag of Randomness for Monday, July 18, 2022

  • Yes, that’s a real photo (alternative source), though this one may have been through a filter or two.
  • It’s hard to believe how much Whataburger has fallen downhill since that firm from Chicago bought it. I ordered curbside on Saturday, pulled into my spot, and my food was delivered without the drink I ordered. I asked the teen who brought it out if it came with a drink. He said it didn’t, so I showed him the receipt. He moped back in and it took about five minutes to get my drink. When he handed it to me, I said, “Thank you, I appreciate it.” He replied, “Well, uh, how about a tip man?”
  • My life is so much better when my kids are in my life. But I have to make sure that my kids aren’t entirely my life. Something can happen to them. I’ve unfortunately learned that the hard way. In a way, I’m searching for a reason to live. That’s one reason it annoys me to heck when someone is genuinely confessing they need help and are looking for a reason to live, people simply tell them to live for their kids or someone else. Well, what happens if the kids are tragically taken away from their life, then what do they have to live for? I’ve sacrificed happiness and worked a job that hasn’t brought me fulfillment for my family, but I need to find something for myself. It’s weird when you feel like your purpose in life was to take care of your family, then they get taken away, and you are left trying to figure out what is your actual purpose in life. I should eat a donut and ponder this for a while.
  • With all that said, I think I’m going to try what some folks call a side hustle, or a side business. Seriously, I think I’m just going to name the company BagOfNothing Inc. and modify this blog to house the company’s webpage.
  • This is news to me, but Jon Hamm is taking over the role of Fletch. He’s pretty good at comedy, so it will be interesting to see what he brings to the role. I wonder if this version of Fletch is still a Lakers fan.
  • Have you ever thought about how airport runway numbers are assigned? Me neither, but I recently found out they aren’t sequential, but based on compass bearings. So, runway 9 would be 90 degrees, runway 27 is 270 degrees. I have a feeling a handful of you said to yourself, “Yes, Geeding, that’s the kind of useless s— I come here for. Thanks!”
  • I’m about 80% over my COVID-19 symptoms, dealing mainly with some lingering chest congestion and fatigue issues.
  • I can’t recall if I mentioned this or not, and too lazy to look into my archives, but I recently fixed my car window and the solution was rather simple. This is totally a first-world problem. My driver-side window will auto-express down but stopped auto expressing up. It was weird, because when it first happened, I had to question myself if it was always like that or did I imagine it. I put off looking for an answer for weeks until one day I found the motivation waiting in a fast food drive thru. Basically, all I needed to do was reset it, and to do that, I just had to pull the switch up and hold it for three seconds after it reaches the top. Boom, fixed! Back in the day, before the information super-highway, someone would take it to a dealership and waste a lot of time and money for something so simple. It’s funny how such a convenience became so bothersome when taken away.
  • One day, I’m going to go on a rant about statues and how there are too many of them nowadays. No person still living in their twenties should have a statue made of him or her.
  • New study rates Texas as 2nd worst state to live in the country, 5th best for business
    • When I worked for Boston based Fidelity Investments and was told a lot of jobs from that area would be coming to Texas, because from a business standpoint, Texas workers are less expensive. My first thought was, are we the suckers for accepting to work for less money, does  anyone else realize we can use this as a negotiating tactic or are we just going to accept being paid less?
  • Arizona communities would ‘collapse’ without cheap prison labor, Corrections director says
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Bag of Randomness for Friday, July 15, 2022

  • A young person thanked me via text for some sports photos I took, “Yeah fr thanks for taking them hope ur doing well.” I couldn’t tell if “fr” was a typo of if it was shorthand, so I looked it up. It’s shorthand for “for real.” And now you know, but you may have already known. But, now I know, and now I’m cool. I think.
  • I love my place of employment, I just wish I felt more fulfillment out of my job. They just reimbursed me for our Washington DC vacation, and when I told them I tested positive for COVID-19, they immediately sent me a $100 UberEats gift card.
  • I also wondered the same thing. Thankfully, someone asked it in Reddit – Why do windmills typically have 4 blades, yet all modern wind turbines have 3?
    • Wind turbines have three blades for a balance of stability and efficiency. It’s the fewest number of blades you can have while still keeping the structure from shaking itself apart from gyroscopic forces. Since more blades means less efficiency, three is the best we can do.Windmills were made in a time when precision engineering and machining weren’t nearly as advanced as they are now. It follows the same principle – fewer blades is more efficient – but four blades is a whole lot easier to manually balance than three is.For people asking why two blades isn’t stable: Two blades is only stable if the turbine doesn’t rotate laterally. Because an efficient turbine needs to rotate to maximize its angle to the wind, three is much better.

      Two-bladed (and even one-bladed) turbines do exist. The problem is that because of their instability, they produce a lot more wear on their components and are more prone to failure.

  • Marion Barber III’s death seems suspect, but nobody else seems to be saying anything about it.
  • Houston TV station loses power while discussing blackouts on air
  • Well, I have some in common with a most of the Trump children. Both our mothers died after falling down stairs.
  • Gas prices sure have dropped a lot, and consistenty, but you don’t hear the news talking about it.
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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, July 14, 2022

  • Happy Bastille Day.
  • I have this personal rule that if I’m surfing radio channels and come across a Phil Collins song, I don’t change the station. Why? Because it’s Phil Collins.
  • One of my son’s favorite snack foods is the Goldfish cracker. As much as I’ve been around the snack, I’ve never tasted it and have no desire to.
  • I bought a toaster oven yesterday and I’m not sure why.
  • Smoked BBQ pork ribs would taste good right now.
  • Barbara Jordan was an eloquent speaker and would have made a great Supreme Court Justice.
  • You hear nothing about Sandra Day O’Conner. In case you are wondering, she’s 92, and she stepped down all the way back in 2006.
  • Yesterday, I looked up the difference between Attorney General and Solicitor General because I had no idea what the latter did. Here’s what I found:
    • The Attorney General serves as the legal adviser to the government and other executive agencies. The Solicitor General has the additional task of deciding which cases must be appealed by the government, concentrating primarily on appeals to the Supreme Court.
  • If you’re a Breaking Bad fan and not watching Better Call Saul, you are doing yourself a disservice.
  • I want everyone to like me. That’s a problem.
  • Mexico agrees to provide $1.5 billion to help U.S. manage migrants on southern border
  • Man Arrested in Alleged Slaying of Fisherman Out of Fear of Being Eaten by Bigfoot
  • The $100 Trillion Global Economy in One Chart
  • Ms Marvel: The India-Pakistan trauma at the heart of the show
    • Critics have praised the six-episode show for depicting that traumatic event with nuance and sensitivity. The partition, which happened at the end of British colonial rule in India, was the biggest movement of people in history, outside war and famine. About 12 million people became refugees and between 500,000 and a million people were killed in religious violence.

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