Bag of Randomness for Monday, July 29, 2019

  • For WifeGeeding’s birthday a few weeks ago, I bought tickets to a masquerade ball murder mystery dinner, which we attended Friday evening. I was pleasantly surprised how most of the 120 plus people were dressed up for the theme. Yet, I was disappointed that the plot of the murder mystery had nothing to do with a masquerade ball theme. One of the couples at our table attended the venue last month which had a Roaring Twenties theme and the murder mystery plot tied to it, something about gangsters and prohibition. The evening ended with a woman proposing to her girlfriend, which wasn’t part of the plot or script.
  • I believe this is a photo of a shark eating a horse or deer carcass which has been trapped underwater for a period of time. Some of you may be uncomfortable looking at the photo.
  • Texas School District (Bushland ISD) To Drug Test Students As Young As 12
  • I bet I’ve only ridden in a taxi less than ten times.
  • I stopped in Micheal’s yesterday to pick up some paint for a model ship DaughterGeeding is working on. They already have a whole bunch of Halloween stuff out complete with a big display.
  • This tweet still has me thinking what a unique couple this is:
    • Several months ago, a couple we are friends with said they don’t sleep on the same side of the bed every night. As in, every night when they get into bed, they don’t know who will sleep on which side. Still blows my mind
  • NPR has a new series, American Anthem, a yearlong series on songs that “rouse, unite, celebrate and call to action.” They recently landed on my favorite band one of my favorite songs.-
    • U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” was released in 1987 on The Joshua Tree, an album inspired by the band’s experience of America, both as a real place and as a mythic idea. U2’s lead singer and songwriter, Bono, has referred to it as “a gospel song with a restless spirit.” To understand where that restless spirit came from, it helps to know the depth of the band’s religious roots.
  • Interpreter Breaks Down How Real-Time Translation Works

    Conference interpreter Barry Slaughter Olsen explains what it’s really like to be a professional interpreter. Barry goes behind the scenes of his vocation, breaking down the many real-life scenarios he faces on a day-to-day basis. From simultaneous and consecutive interpretation to chuchotage and décalage, take a peek behind what it really takes to be a professional interpreter.

  • An Amateur, A Home Cook And A Professional Chef Walkthrough Their Pancake Recipes
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Penn Jillette (Penn & Teller) Reviews Magic Tricks in The Prestige, Arrested Development and More

Legendary magician Penn Jillette reviews some of the most iconic magic tricks in cinema, from the dramatic illusions in The Prestige and The Illusionist to the comedic tricks in Ant-Man and The Wasp and Arrested Development. Learn how realistic some of the most famous cinematic magic really is.

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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, July 24, 2019

  • Random fact about Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, he was born in New York City. When David Letterman had a show on CBS, he was a guest when he was London’s mayor and for some reason, I remembered that obscure fact.
  • Speaking of the British, I highly support this cause – Wetherspoons has become the first large business to stop using receipts after customers complained of mess and the waste of paper. Customers can still request them but will not be given them as a matter of course.
  • A friend, I’ll just call him BW, is about to travel to Walt Disney World and I hope he doesn’t pull a stunt like this – A Disney World tourist didn’t have a FastPass to Tower of Terror, so she punched an employee and started pressing buttons
  • I’m not a fan of small talk, you know, conversation filler such as the weather. Lately, I’ve been asked if we went anywhere for vacation or have any vacation plans. We don’t, and I feel awkward answering the question, like I’m being judged for not taking my kids anywhere for the summer.
  • YouTube – Music Producers Are Given The Same 8-Second Track To Mix, Do Remarkably Different Things With It
  • On Keeping a Notebook: A Reading List – The following longreads explore the joys of keeping a notebook and the art of writing longhand.
  • A brief history of human filth – How did people through history keep clean? How did they deal with dirt, sweat and other bodily odours, and did they take baths?
    • Since the great plagues and the closing of public bathhouses, western Europeans believed that bathing was positively bad for you. Skin protected the body from putrefaction and disease. Toxins left the body as perspiration, menstrual blood, urine and faeces.
  • Reading Lessons – You never stop learning how to read — probably because you also never stop forgetting how to read.
    • I really connected with this portion of the text:
      • For years, I have found it difficult to get into a novel. Entering a new imaginative world feels like too much effort, so when I read for pleasure, I choose nonfiction. As a teenager I encountered the old stereotype that made-up stories are for the young and frivolous (and often female), while nonfiction is for the old and serious (and probably male). Now that I pay taxes and pluck out my grey hairs, I am convinced that fiction is the more demanding genre. Poetry, the great romance of my pubescent years, feels even more distant, requiring focus and receptivity I can rarely muster. Sometimes I wonder if the young read novels and poems because they are the only ones who can.
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