BagOfNothing.com

I’m still battling chronic hiccups and an upper respiratory infection. My apologies for the lack of posts.

I’d like to think one measure of a head football coach’s success is that he left the program better than he found it. With that benchmark in mind, I’m not sure if Jason Garrett passes that test. But man, how lucky was he to coach the team he wanted for a full decade. You shouldn’t feel sorry for the man, he got his chance. When I look at former Baylor coach Matt Rule, he certainly left the program in better shape than he found it. Some fans feel like he’s been looking for a way out since he arrived, but I’d like to respectfully disagree. If I have my facts right, he never sought out any offers, they came to him. He was so well regarded, he didn’t need to look for anything, he just had to entertain offers.

I see a lot of my fellow P1s are concerned about a disturbance in the force, with the retirement of the Old Grey Wolf. Us humans aren’t used to adjusting to things we expect to always be there. I’ll say his announcement didn’t affect me. We all saw it was coming, and his Irish exit wasn’t any surprise. As for me, well, after both with the death of both of my parents far in the rearview mirror, the loss of a few close relationships, seeing death come for several college friends, greats retiring and fade away, sacred buildings collapsed, traditions end (Texas vs. Texas A&M) experiencing what it’s like for the Rangers to be one out from their only World Series title, and 25 years of no new additional Lombardi trophies being added to the Cowboys’ mantle place – man, you just get used to major change, roll with the punches, and learn that time doesn’t care and it easily moves on. Nothing is sacred, you just have to appreciate what you have at the moment and realize it can be gone in a second. What’s true and constant is that things will never be the same, no matter how hard you try to keep it that way. It’s one reason why I think traditions are stupid. Yes, I’ll be bold enough to be blunt enough to state it. So what if they are gone? There’s still oxygen in the air (for now) and life and time carry on. It’s different, but that’s not a bad thing. Cherish what was and what you have, learn to embrace not change, but simply the passing of time. 200 years from now, more than likely, no one is going to remember you even existed and your sacred Christmas tree ornament which has been on every year since you were four has long ago been tossed in the trash pile.

This grandma can get down on the drums. Skip to the 43-second mark if you just to see and hear her playing. I think at the 1:35 mark she starts to feel comfortable and her facial expression starts to slightly change to “concentrate” to “comfortable” to “fun”.

I have one of those “I’m halfway serious” theories. Trump is doing what he can to start a war without looking so obvious but these other countries aren’t falling for it and he vents in his bedroom by bashing his pillow against different things and screaming into it.

This article is about three weeks old but worth sharing.

Alamo Drafthouse Revenues Climb Despite Box Office Downturn

Alamo Drafthouse is capping off 2019 with shine. Ticket sales for the cinema chain are up 5.8% from last year, an especially impressive feat considering the exhibition industry as a whole is pacing over 5% behind 2018.

In a theatrical landscape that’s become particularly challenged by the rise of streaming services, Alamo Drafthouse attributes success to its scope of offerings. That mix includes traditional studio releases, indie and arthouse films and repertory showings. Comparatively, the next highest number of movies offered by an exhibitor chain is 1,142 films.

I’m trying something new, instead of bullet points I’m using a line for thought/subject separation.

Longtime readers will recall I had a severe case of hiccups which lasted three days. Well, it happened again last week and it was hell. I actually still have them, but they come and go from minutes to several hours at a time. The doctor prescribed a cocktail of medicine but it makes me sleepy which makes it hard to work.

On last night’s Wheel of Fortune, Vanna welcomed Pat Sajak’s daughter who revealed the letters. That was kinda neat. I believe Jeopardy! will air during prime time tonight with the top champion

“It’s not their first rodeo.” – Actually, it will be for the new Dickies Arena. This photo caught my attention. My imagination says it’s all a giant spider web.

Coaches of DFW teams since Rick Carlisle became @dallasmavs' coach in 2008:

Cowboys: Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett, Mike McCarthy

Rangers: Ron Washington, Jeff Banister, Chris Woodward

Stars: Dave Tippett, Marc Crawford, Lindy Ruff, Ken Hitchcock, Jim Montgomery, Rick Bowness.

— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) January 6, 2020

We can debate ad nauseam the merits of Jason Garrett’s coaching tenure with the Cowboys. Here is what I know- after working 14–16 hour days, he showed up late at night, unannounced, for the last 3 days of Luke’s life. That is what I know. pic.twitter.com/HeZMs0tK6j

— Babe Laufenberg (@BabeLaufenberg) January 6, 2020

Mike Rhyner, the founder of The TICKET, decided to retire. He did it with no fanfare or telling anyone, but did leave a message to the listeners. Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Morning News (and the station) has the exclusive.

Rhyner was responsible for the return music and would always tweet the list after the show.

You sly dog https://t.co/x2G9WV8k6h

— Jason Kellison (@killer1310) January 6, 2020

Not only was I impressed with the level of detail, but the artistic filming and score is top level.

I prefer eating the edge or outside of a cookie than the center, same for brownies, but not cake.

A friend used the word “schadenfreude” in an email. I had to look it up to learn not only the meaning but how to say it.

We’re doing some remodeling which includes new floors. The kids saw that I used a Sharpie to mark some dimensions of a kitchen island and asked if they could draw on the tile. Since the tile will be scraped up and taken to the dump, I told them to know themselves out.

When I demoed the old kitchen island I found a bunch of bullet casings or shells. Please forgive me if I’m using the wrong terminology, I’m ignorant when it comes to most things weapon-related. Here are some photos if you are interested. Of course, we’ve made up a lot of stories of how they got there.

We also found a lot of trash from the builders. For instance, there was a 1996 Pepsi can you could use to get a discount at Sea World in San Antonio. I guess it’s common for home builders to toss trash inside walls and such. I’ve found trash hidden in other places in the house that only the builder could have accessed.

Recently, we watched a movie at the “CUT! by Cinemark” in Frisco. By far, it’s the nicest movie theater I’ve ever been to.

The Ultimate Guide to Hiking in Dallas – A guide for where to find a short hike versus long, how to traverse unmarked territory, what you can expect to see, and more.

It’s quite interesting that the evening and nightly CBS11 newscast didn’t lead with the Dallas Cowboys new head story. I want to say the story was slotted about seven or ten stories down.

A smart running shoe insole detects your gait to offer coaching advice

• Greetings. Happy new year, and to a greater extent, a happy new decade. May the 20s be roaring and not end in an economic depression this time around. There’s some debate when a decade begins and ends when examined from technical, scientific, historic, and pop-culture perspectives. Usually, I’m technically and scientifically minded, but in this case, I lean in the direction of pop-culture.
  • And to think Luka Doncic wasn’t even born yet when he first stepped on an NBA court – Vince Carter has made NBA history by playing in four different decades
• It’s odd for a Cowboys fan watching the Saints and Vikings play in a playoff game. The Saints are coached by a former Cowboys offense assistant and the Vikes by a former Cowboys defense assistant. Either way, the Cowboys don’t play as much after the regular season as their former assistants do.
• Note: The following was posted before I learned Jason Garrett would not return as the Cowboys head coach.
  I’m a bit puzzled as to why football fans are questioning the way Jerry Jones is handling the head coaching position. Jason Garrett is under contract until mid-January. Simply, an employee’s contract is about to expire and the employer is weighing his options to renew/extend the existing employment contract or let it expire. Part of this process includes exploring other options and interviewing potential candidates and considering what they have to offer. It’s not dissimilar to my line of work. The government awards a contract to a company for work to be performed. As the contract nears its expiration, the company will decide if it wants to continue the work and make their case to the government. The government will also decide if they want to continue the working relationship but will also explore other offers.
• I believe humans are born with 20 baby teeth. DaughterGeeding lost her 20th yesterday, so I guess she’s all done.
• This video (qued for you at a particular spot) of voice actress scamming a scammer was popular yesterday, she sounds exactly like the automated voice operator.
• Robin Williams’s Daughter Gets Sweet Surprise From Disney Character Filter On Instagram
• Rural America set to lose political power after 2020 census
• When I ran across that pic at the top of this post a flood of memories, and I mean a flood of memories, rushed through me.
• Bosch’s virtual visor eliminates sun glare without blocking your view – It uses facial recognition AI to identify when the sun is in your eyes.
• A moment of tenderness from the Australian wildfires.
  

• What an interesting weekend for those of us born in the Seventies and grew up in the Eighties. There was the finale of the Starwalker saga with the release of the new Star Wars movie and then we got to witness Eddie Murphy’s return to Saturday Night Live. If there were ever a weekend to recapture the past, this was it. I feel a bit like Ebenezer Scrooge visiting Christmas past and present.
• If you didn’t set out of this world expectations for either Star Wars or Eddie Murphy and simply tried to enjoy the moment and be thankful these events actually came to fruition, you had a good time.
• We watched a bit of the Texas high school football championship game between North Shore and Duncanville at my in-laws. One of my in-laws follows high school and college football very closely, but he kept telling everyone how Duncanville had a “true freshman quarterback” which perplexed me but I tried to let it pass. About the fourth time, I had to question him about it. I started off saying I don’t follow high school football and still adjusting to 5A no longer being the top-tier of school size, but didn’t understand what was a “true freshman quarterback” verses “non-true freshman quarterback.” He realized his flub, that he was confusing college and high school, and we all had a good laugh.
• My neighbor, the widower, is dating the widow of the neighborhood, and he called with an interesting request for assistance recently. They found hidden cameras in her house, which were hidden in the smoke detectors. He asked if I’d come over and help them find any other possible hidden cameras and wanted to lean on my knowledge on such things. He tends to think I’m a techie and really resourceful, and was wondering if I had an app or device to help. I politely suggested they contact the police who would actually have the proper resources which would provide peace of mind that all monitoring devices were found.
• You know one group I have heard about in a while, Anonymous (don’t confuse them for Wikileaks, Eric Snowden, or the author of a recently published book about the current White House administration.) I have a tremendous amount of fearful respect for them. I’d figure with Trump, Russia, Epstein, and everything else, you’d be hearing a lot from them. Maybe they like being below radar.
• For some reason, I can vividly remember sitting in Mrs. Andrews’ fourth-grade class and her teaching me the meaning of a palindrome using “radar” as an example. And if I had my druthers, “palindrome” itself would be a palindrome.
• Not enough people use “druthers”.
• I like to use the word “swell”. I’ll use it in reply when someone is asking how I’m doing and things are going okay. However, I am one of those who like to be truthful when it comes to that question. If someone asks how I’m doing, I don’t pass it off as an unregarded greeting,
• Two commercials which have been getting on my nerves because they are overplayed: (1.) The Old Navy commercial with Neil Patrick Harris about wrapping/rapping and (2.) the Amazon “Everybody” commercial with the little girl playing a toy piano.
• A sentence I never thought I’d read was in this article about the possible location of the future Trump Presidential Library – “Vanilla Ice ran it by Donald Jr.”
• This kickoff return in one of the state championship games got a lot of attention. When I was in a sophomore in high school, we ran this play about eighty-percent of the time and I think it worked zero-percent. It was called “starburst” but a lot of the fathers in the stands called it “panty-ball” since it never worked. In my freshman year of football, we played a team that ran that kickoff return every time. It was well scouted and we practiced all week on how to properly defend it. The freshman football coach was the head basketball coach and was doing double duty most of the time (actually, he just focused on basketball during that time of the year when seasons overlap), so the assistant coach had us all prepared for it, and we were confident. Basically, we just squibbed kicked it and made sure the main return man didn’t get the ball to start trickery. Come game time, the head basketball coach shows up, the first time he was with us all week. We were about to kickoff and the assistant coach told us to do what we’ve been practicing all week. However, the head basketball interjected, pulling rank, and told the team to kick it straight down the middle. We did, and they returned it for a touchdown. I bet a lot of enlisted military men, NCOs in particular, have experienced this with officers.