Bag of Randomness for Friday, June 12, 2020

I may take a few days off from blogging next week. I’ve scheduled some vacation days as I have an overabundance, and kinda want to make it feel like I’m really taking time off. But who knows, I may just end up blogging anyways because changing up my routine makes my day feel incomplete. Maybe I’ll “empty the bag” and do a link dump of items I’ve thought about posting about but never got around to for one reason or another.

The kids couldn’t remember watching Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, so we fired it up and watched it last night. Orson Welles sure had a great voice.

My place of employment recently had a volunteer meeting about the current events affecting our nation. I was somewhat surprised to hear my CEO mention that she’s a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church across from the White House. She never mentioned the president by name, but she did state how much it broke her heart to see her home church’s become desecrated. She also spoke about how she made arrangements for her 89-year-old father to return to Miami so she and her husband could attend marches, that she was willing to expose herself to COVID-19 but didn’t want to do anything to harm her father. Since I’ve never marched, it was interesting to hear what to expect when you attend one of these things. All you need to do is bring yourself and wear good walking shoes, there’s no need to worry about water, food, or any materials to make posters. There are organizations that provide all those things.

G.O.P. Platform, Rolled Over From 2016, Condemns the ‘Current President’ – After the Republican National Committee kept outdated language from four years ago, when Barack Obama was still president, the party’s platform includes more than three dozen unflattering references to those in power at the White House.

The warning about speech online is one of more than three dozen unflattering references to either the “current president,” “current chief executive,” “current administration,” people “currently in control” of policy, or the “current occupant” of the White House that appear in the Republican platform. Adopted at the party’s 2016 convention, it has been carried over through 2024 after the executive committee of the Republican National Committee on Wednesday chose not to adopt a new platform for 2020.

There’s a simple trick to watch YouTube videos without any ads – An extra period can get around YouTube’s advertising machine… for now

Over on Reddit (and as highlighted by Android Police and 9to5Google), someone has posted a simple way of watching YouTube videos in a web browser without any ads. In the URL for whatever video you want to view, you just need to add an extra period after the dot com in the YouTube link.

This works as described for me when pasting a video URL into an incognito browser window with the added period. In addition to removing pre-roll ads, it also eliminates mid-roll interruptions for videos as well. By the time you’ve copied, pasted, and altered the video URL, I’m not sure how much time you’re really saving over just waiting for the “skip ad” button to appear — but it does indeed work.

You can skip to the 4:38 mark to see what it looks like driving down a road at night time.

Someone left the following comment this week, I didn’t want it to go unnoticed.

It’s only been in recent years that I learned about the very real and true events that make up our nation’s complex history from books and movies. Whether semi- fictionalized (like Hidden Figures or the Tulsa events in Watchmen) or documentary style (like 15th) or books like “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI”, I continue to be flabbergasted at what was considered ‘normal’ behavior by our forefathers. We have been indoctrinated into a veneration of men who arguably did great things. What was never acknowledged or answered was “at what expense?”. What that has changed in me is my desire to reflexively try to defend the “honor” of these men, or excuse or explain away these events. I understand now that I reflexively do this because I was raised/taught to do it. I HAD THE LUXURY OF NOT HAVING TO THINK ABOUT IT, OR BE REMINDED OF THE COSTS.

So I would invite those who give a damn about taking down Confederate monuments or renaming things named after Confederate generals to get educated about how and why they got those names in the first place. Then do some soul searching as to why any of this matters so deeply to you. So maybe you don’t mind the CFA statue by the courthouse, but know that it troubles people of color because it was put up to remind them of their place in this world and THAT’S why they want it moved or the name changed.

I see the argument about “this is history and if we remove it we are doomed to repeat it” a lot as well. This argument supposes that “we’ve fixed racism… we’re in post-racist times…etc”. Recent events show this isn’t the case. Leaving stuff up that was supposed to remind people of a bad time for 100 years now hasn’t “fixed” anything. Arguably it’s making things worse.

I don’t think I am suffering from “white liberal guilt”, I just think being exposed to different opinions/experiences has shown up in my natural empathy as a desire to do better. If you know your fellow man is hurting, why continue to hurt them for something so stupid as a chiseled rock or a name of a building. It seems deliberate and cruel.

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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, June 11, 2020

On Monday, I mentioned I was going to email my pastor. He was gracious enough to meet with me for an hour and a half yesterday. I won’t provide the details of the conversation, but it was constructive and fruitful.

The CBS Evening News had a segment about a black Southwest Airlines flight attendant having an emotional conversation with an older white man. But in the middle of the story, the reporter just casually drops that the passenger is the CEO of American Airlines and never tells the viewer why the CEO of American Airlines was on a Southwest Airlines flight.

Master of None: what I learned from trying all 81 MasterClasses

Armed with a trial media membership, I intended to test out every single class to see if the service is worthwhile and which classes were the best. The main obstacle was the fact that there are 81 of them, and I have zero interest in spending my free time learning poker strategy or gymnastics.

NASCAR bans Confederate flag from its races, venues

This is long overdue and I never thought it would occur in my lifetime. One reason I avoided NASCAR was seeing all those flags, but I may be willing to give it a chance now. However, I wonder how they will be able to enforce this. I have a feeling that first race is going to be full of stars and bars.

I’m an ER Doctor. Here’s What I Feel OK Doing as My State Reopens. –
Each person’s calculus will be a little bit different depending on their comfort with risk and their priorities.

A foosball documentary will air on ESPN.

South Korean Baseball Game Uses Stuffed Animals To Fill Up Seats

Apparently, the stuffed animals were sent by Hanhwa Eagles fans as they are set to go up against the NC Dinos according to Stripes Korea.

“Officials said once fans are allowed to return to their rightful place in the stadium, the stuffed animals will be donated to the Green Umbrella Children’s Foundation,” the website reported.

27 percent of Americans in new poll see Trump as man of faith

The Politico-Morning Consult poll released Wednesday morning found that 27 percent of respondents somewhat or strongly agree that Trump is religious, compared to 55 percent who somewhat or strongly disagree.

Slightly more than a third of self-identified Christians see Trump as religious, pollsters noted, while half say he is not.

Forty percent of evangelicals also agreed that Trump was a man of faith, while 33 percent disagreed.

A total of 23 percent of Catholics and 18 percent of independents supported the statement that Trump is religious.

Only majorities of ideological conservatives — 55 percent — and Republicans — 60 percent — said they see the president as religious.

A Missouri woman asked Merriam-Webster to update its definition of racism and now officials will make the change

Hollywood Prepares for CGI Sex Scenes to Prevent Coronavirus Transmission

A 22-page document from the film editors’ association reveals that these moments, including sex scenes and other intimate moments, must be “either rewritten, abandoned, or [produced using] CGI” in the months ahead.

Footage fromSunday, May 31, 2020, at 2pm, near Grand Prismatic Overlook trailhead parking area between Biscuit and Midway Geyser basins. Shot on an iPhone 11 Pro Max and edited on iMovie. This amateur video and photo compilation is about our day trip to Yellowstone and especially our experience seeing a Grizzly Bear attack a young Bison.

Landing a small plane in a jungle.

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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Is Mexico also paying for that new wall around the White House?

Presidential trivia – An only child has never been president of the United States.

After the last presidential election, I don’t trust any polling data. Supposedly, a lot of people who vote for Trump just don’t like to admit or showcase it.

When you are the President of the United States and have the resources of the FBI, CIA, NSA, and everything else, there’s no need to tweet about conspiracy theories.

Fort Hood is one of the largest military bases in the world but I didn’t have any idea it was named after a Confederate general, John Bell Hood. That’s absurd. Insanely absurd. Think about it, everyone who joins the U.S. military has one thing in common, they swear-in by an oath to honor and protect it. Hood would have said the following:

“I, _____, appointed a _____ in the Army of the United States, do solemnly swear, or affirm, that I will bear true allegiance to the United States of America, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies or opposers whatsoever, and observe and obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the rules and articles for the government of the Armies of the United States.”

So, even though he swore an oath to the U.S. and betrayed his country by going to war against it, the U.S. Army is going to honor him by naming a military base after him? I’m trying to wrap my head around how absurd that is. Soldiers are now stationed at a fort named in honor after a traitor, a traitor who led troops to kill men who actually defended the oath he shat on.

On a related now, I keep thinking about that six-hour Ulysses S. Grant documentary on the History channel. I think about how interesting it would be to listen to a conversation between him and Washington. One man led an army of rebels to start a country, the other led an army against rebels to keep the country together. One man presided over a new nation, the other presided during that nation’s reconstruction. Also, while I can’t prove it, I bet Robert E. Lee has been honored more (statues, schools, etc.) than the man he surrendered to, who later served two terms as president and led its reconstruction.

Hell’s four-day forecast has a chance of frost and maybe even snow – Jerry Falwell Jr. apologizes for tweet with racist photo after black students and alumni denounced him

‘What I saw was just absolutely wrong’: National Guardsmen struggle with their role in controlling protests – POLITICO spoke to 10 National Guardsmen who have taken part in the protest response across the country since the killing of George Floyd while in police custody.

Eric Money is the only player in NBA history to officially score for two teams (76ers and Nets) in the same game. That game was also Phil Jackson’s first as head coach. He was an assistant coach for the Nets and became the head coach after two coaches were ejected.

‘Miss Hitler’ pageant entrant and her partner jailed for belonging to neo-Nazi group – A former “Miss Hitler” pageant entrant and her partner have been jailed in the UK for belonging to the extreme right-wing neo-Nazi group National Action.

Posted in Personal | 15 Comments

Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, June 9, 2020

You’re not fully clean unless you are Zest-fully clean.

DaughterGeeding asked for a new bed (she ain’t getting one) and when we asked her what size, she said “jack”. WifeGeeding and I were left confused and asked her what size that would be, and she said the one just beneath queen. We politely informed her that’s referred to as a full-sized mattress and she explained that doesn’t make sense since in a deck of cards it goes king, queen, and then jack.

Bad childhood memory – Grass stickers I didn’t know were on my shoelaces and poking them as I grabbed my laces.

Here’s how Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri answer the question, ‘Do black lives matter?’ – They can also answer ‘do all lives matter?’

These martial arts fight scene recreations are most impressive.

Remember in The Fugitive the first time Tommy Lee Jone’s character and Harrison Ford’s character interact with each other.

That’s what I thought about when I skimmed through this video by an intrepid explorer. Towards the end you get to see several waterfalls, though nothing as grand as what’s in the move.

CNN has a copy of their Challenger launch broadcast footage. It’s available on CNN’s own YouTube channel, and it understandably has millions of views. CNN’s upload is a 360p video whose content is similar to what you see here — with three major differences: (1) this version is of substantially higher quality, (2) this version doesn’t have any CNN branding, and (3) this version continues NASA’s feed longer than CNN showed on air. This is a direct copy of NASA’s broadcast feed. It was saved by NASA, and at some point a copy was transferred to the United States Geological Survey on a VHS tape. This video is a digitization of that tape; as far as I know, this is the first time it is being shown publicly.

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