Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, October 8, 2019

  • My coworker who lost his son earlier this year unexpectedly lost his mother last week.
  • I haven’t seen my coworkers in over a year, I think. But we have a new CFO who is visiting and we are all having dinner tonight. I’m not complaining that I have to be with my coworkers, but I’m just not good at being social or engaging in small talk. Perhaps the best thing for me to do is look at this as an opportunity to work on a weakness.
  • As great as capitalism is, sometimes it has its drawbacks. I wasn’t too happy how the NBA catered to it over the fight for freedom and democracy playing damage control with China. They are almost as accommodating to communism as President Trump. Heck, even Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rouke expressed their disappointment with the NBA, even they agreed on something.
  • Judge Tammy Kemp of the Amber Guyer trial was recently interviewed and offered some insight into why she hugged Guyer, why she gave her her personal Bible, and why she felt she didn’t cross any boundaries.
    •  I was not proselytizing. Ms. Guyger asked me for a hug. I’m sad to say she had to ask me twice. I never asked Ms. Guyger to pray and I didn’t pray with her”, she said.
  • ‘God, Guns and America’: South Carolina car dealership offers AR-15 voucher, Bible with every sale
  • The Atlantic – Top Military Officers Unload on Trump – The commander in chief is impulsive, disdains expertise, and gets his intelligence briefings from Fox News. What does this mean for those on the front lines?
    • To get a sense of what serving Trump has been like, I interviewed officers up and down the ranks, as well as several present and former civilian Pentagon employees. Among the officers I spoke with were four of the highest ranks—three or four stars—all recently retired.
    • Military officers are sworn to serve whomever voters send to the White House. Cognizant of the special authority they hold, high-level officers epitomize respect for the chain of command, and are extremely reticent about criticizing their civilian overseers. That those I spoke with made an exception in Trump’s case is telling, and much of what they told me is deeply disturbing.
  • As I watched A Very Brady Renovation on HGTV, it occurred to me Maureen McCormick has never gone through an ugly phase in life.
  • Peter King’s column was a fun read yesterday as it had a touch of nostalgia, mainly because of how his former employer, Sports Illustrated, cut half their workforce yesterday. First, there was a recap of one of my favorite Joe Montana games and cover story.  His team down 21-10 in the fourth quarter but Montana threw four touchdown passes in 13 minutes to seal the victory. The Niners had a terrible first half, Montana got sacked four times in the last seven plays of the first quarter, eight times in all. Reggie White was unstoppable. I love that cover photo, how his helmet is placed in front of the logo and perfectly centered in his firing position. Second, Rick Reilly, the man who always had the last article in the magazine called “Life of Reilly” wrote a point after. That man is living the life, spending half the year in Italy and the other half in Southern California.
  • One heck of a workout
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Bag of Randomness for Monday, October 7, 2019

  • The woman in red is giving this bridesmaid some serious side-eye. Look at that form, it’s textbook, you can’t teach that stuff, that’s just some natural talent.
  • I stopped at a red light on the way to church yesterday. The woman in the car next to me didn’t see the light turn green because she was looking into a compact mirror and plucking chin and neck hair with a pair of tweezers.
  • The Cowboys bested Brett Farve but his replacement has certainly owned the Cowboys.
  • I had no idea Troy Aikman was an assistant coach for the Episcopal School of Dallas, that’s pretty cool. If I understand correctly, his stepson (who also happens to be Jerry Jone’s great-nephew) plays receiver and a talented musician with his own website. The team appears to be doing well with Aikman coaching the quarterbacks. Last week, his team won 61-6 and their starting QB threw six touchdowns. Aikman gave the QB a shoutout during the Cowboys game and briefly talked about his potential as a college quarterback, which I’m sure got a lot of attention from scouts.
  • NFL referees wear jersey numbers but NCAA referees do not. In case you are wondering why and how they are assigned:
    • The jersey numbers for NFL officials are purely for identification purposes, and though there are 117 officials, the jersey numbers go up to 135. There’s no rhyme or reason to the numbering system, unlike how players are limited to a certain range of jersey numbers depending on which position they play. Typically, when an official is assigned a jersey number, he or she keeps it year after year, although occasionally there’s some number swapping. 
  • I had no idea dolphins used to commonly roam the Potamic River during colonial times. Thanks to the efforts to clean it up, they are returning.
  • The Ohio State Marching band impressively told the story of the space race.
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Bag of Randomness for Friday, October 4, 2019

  • I had to perform some maintenance on this little blog which is one reason why I haven’t posted in a few days. It was migrated to a new server, I updated the PHP, and installed a security certificate so you should no longer see an unlocked icon in your browser’s URL. Just a small amount of content was lost, mainly a few days of comments. I’m not very good at this stuff, but I like the learning opportunity and to challenge myself.
  • I’m guessing wait times at TxDOT offices are a lot shorter now.
  • In the span of less than a week, President Trump has shown a lot of affection towards communist China. He congratulated them on their 70th anniversary of communist rule and then publically asks them to find dirt on a political rival. I often hear conservatives call liberals a bunch of Commies but the leader of their party is openly embracing them.
  • Orioles players send handwritten thank you notes to fans after disappointing 108-loss season
  • Audio Shows Hospital Kept Vegetative Patient on Life Support to Boost Survival Rates
  • The 2020 Corvette reminds me of an old Lamborghini poster I had hanging in my room circa 1985. I’m not sure what to think of the interior, it’s very much like a cockpit and a little bit like KITT.

  • Utah aquarium starts construction of U2’s 360° tour stage “The Claw” for its new plaza.
  • I didn’t know AdvoCare was a local company – $150M penalty levied as FTC charges Plano company in pyramid scheme
  • China had a big military parade earlier this week. All their missiles had names on them written in English, so it’s obvious their intended audience is the West. Jalopnik has a good breakdown of their new weapons and vehicles which were displayed. The goofiest looking was a small two-person helicopter which reminded me of a toy GI Joe helicopter. Even as a child I didn’t think it was a feasible vehicle and would cause decapitation. But their stealth aircraft looks intimidating as well as their hypersonic missiles. Regarding those missiles, Jalopnik states, “if all of these weapons really are operational, China beat America again.”


  • One awesome dad.
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