Bag of Randomness for Monday, June 3, 2019

  • DaughterGeeding took two of her friends (twins actually) to an indoor trampoline and adventure park for her birthday. As you can see, they had a ball pit. I think my selfie looks a bit artistic. Upon further reflection, I might look a bit of a crazed look like Jack Nicholson’s character in The Shining.
  • One of DaughterGeeding’s birthday wishes was to watch the sunset with the family on the roof. WifeGeeding said the experience reminded her of one of our favorite television shows, “Ed” on NBC (the one about the bowling alley lawyer, or as he would say, a lawyer who happens to own a bowling alley). The title character would often sit atop the roof of Stuckeybowl on a lawn chair with a friend (usually his best friend Dr. Michael Burton or crush Carol Vessey) and sip on some Rolling Rocks in the evening.
  • Our family has been listening to Hamilton almost nonstop and I’m impressed how well the kids have memorized most of the lines and asking questions about our nation’s history. There are many YouTube videos available which play the songs and display the lyrics, kinda like karaoke, and the kids love them. Well, I ended up getting tickets to next week’s show in Austin as a birthday present to DaughterGeeding. We revealed the present to her by downloading one of the videos, editing the lyrics (and keeping the rhyme), and uploading it back to YouTube include the surprise. This will most likely be our summer vacation.
  • There’s still plenty of time left in the rest of the year, but I never imagined I would be going to more musicals in a year than sporting events. This will be my third musical of the year.
  • BoyGeeding received the first buzzcut of his life yesterday, he did most of the work.
  • Meet the computer scientist using artificial intelligence to help 140,000 paying customers plan the perfect Disney vacation
    • TouringPlans.com helps you decide which Disney World park to visit by analyzing historical attendance data to predict crowd levels on any given day. Then, for each day of your visit, just plug in all the rides, shows, and restaurants you want to hit up, and it spits out an optimized itinerary that promises to minimize wait times while still getting you everywhere you want to go. It even makes recommendations on how, when, and where to deploy FastPass+, which lets you make reservations to go on the resort’s most popular rides ahead of time.
    • But wait, there’s more: It’ll alert you if hard-to-get reservations at in-demand eateries like Be Our Guest at the Magic Kingdom open up. A personal favorite feature is that it has a directory of the view from every single Disney World resort hotel, and can automatically send a fax to the front desk requesting a specific room. The site even recommends rooms to request, based on criteria like distance from the food court or time to the bus stop.
  • I ran across the following question and it really got me thinking, thankfully I haven’t had to break a lot of bad news and when I did, it was already expected – What was the hardest piece of news you’ve had to tell someone?
  • Boooo – NTTA Toll Rates to Increase this Summer – On average, TollTag rates will adjust one penny per mile, from 18 to 19 cents.
    • I’ve said it before, I’ve always felt a toll is a form of double- taxation and should at least be a tax-deductible expense.
  • Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower speaks with CBS News’ Walter Cronkite on the 20th Anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 1964.
  • If he only learned from an unfortunate event of a former rival and predecessor
    https://twitter.com/artimusfoul/status/1135212507319144448
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Bag of Randomness for Friday, May 31, 2019

  • Nine years ago today I became a parent. Well, I suppose WifeGeeding did as well.
  • Yesterday DaughterGeeding stopped by my office (I work at home) and I asked her what she’s been up to. She excitedly told me she was practicing pole dancer and she was confused as to why I had such a puzzled look on my face. Immediately I thought I failed as a father. A top goal for any father is to “keep your daughter off the pole.” She found a really sturdy cardboard tube about five feet long and was using it to some sort of innocent pole-vaulting dance routine.
  • I forgot how much B. A. Baracus feared getting into an airplane or helicopter and how the rest of the A-Team had to either knock him out or drug him to get him on a flight.
  • The Musers interviewed 22-year-old motorsports team owner George Michael Steinbrenner IV, the grandson of famed Yankee owner George Michael Steinbrenner III. The name skipped a generation with Henry George “Hank” Steinbrenner III. I suppose you can name anyone anything you want, but I didn’t know you could skip a generation with post-nominals formalities or whatever they are called. I feel like they are cheating the system.
  • For any son named after his father, I wonder if they ever felt the need to make their signature look the same as their namesake. My father’s first name is my middle name. As a kid, I used to try to sign my middle and last name exactly as he did.
  • Earlier this week, I watched the pilot episode of ‘Green Acres’ with the kids and the very next morning, The Musers talked about the show and wondered if it would hold up. I identified with the show because it was about an older white man married to a woman from another country with a thick accent. The pilot episode was done in a new or documentary typestyle. Here’s a little bit of ‘Green Acres’ trivia for ya, lead character Oliver Wendall Douglas was named after Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. Douglas’ father named him after the justice because he decided at birth his son should have a career in law.
  • A close-up look at Star Wars Land’s life-size, hyper-detailed Millennium Falcon
  • Readers Still Prefer Physical Books – Results from a new survey regarding reading habits are out and consumer preference still lies with physical books
    • I bought the Kindle version of the new Scott Pelley book. I think e-ink is easier on the eyes and I like the ability to highlight a word with my finger and get an immediate definition or Wikipedia entry. However, I do miss being able to look at my bookmark and see how much more I have to go. I know the Kindle provides that feature, but there’s something special about looking at the physical pages and flipping through them which feels more real or authentic.
  •  I don’t have a backstory on this video but I think it’s pure greatness.
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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, May 29, 2019

  • On ‘Jeopardy’ last night, one contestant described his occupation as “therapeutic humorist”. Another contestant fit the psycho ex-girlfriend persona to a T, so much so, Alex Trebek told her, “You’re starting to scare the hell out of me.” Speaking of Trebek, he looks great for someone who is undergoing chemotherapy to fight pancreatic cancer. He admitted in a recent ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ interview that he’s wearing a wig, and I’ll say it’s exceptional, you can’t tell he’s bald.
    • Pauley asked, “When you recorded the ‘Jeopardy!’ segments featuring James [Holzhauer], was that before you had had your diagnosis?” “Some of it was before, and some of it was after,” he replied. “And so, what the challenge for ‘Jeopardy!’ viewers is right now is to figure out, ‘Is that Alex’s real hair, or is that a full hairpiece?’ Because they all know that when you start chemo you lose your hair. So, which is it?” Noticing Pauley studying his hair, Trebek said, “This is not the real me. We have the summer months off. So hopefully, my own hair will grow back. ‘Cause I like my own hair!”
  • A 9/11 fact many of you may have already known but I did not until yesterday –
    • The authoritative study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology estimates there were 17,400 people in the two towers combined. Of the total, 87 percent evacuated. Of those who were below the points of impact, 99 percent survived.
  • Almost all fire departments have a similar looking symbol our outline, but I never knew how that came to be until a few days ago. It’s patterned after the Maltese Cross. Here’s my butchered abbreviated version:
    • This emblem had its beginning during the Crusades and was the symbol of the knights of that period. The cross design was adopted and put into use by the early Knights of Malta (Knights of St. John). Large crimson-colored capes were worn over the suits of armor. Not only were the capes symbolic, but they also helped provide a defense against one of the newest weapons of war–fire. As invading forces attacked a castle, the defenders would throw containers of naphtha and other flammable liquids. With their fellow troops engulfed in fire, the Knights of Malta would approach on horseback, rip off their capes, and use them to extinguish the flames on their burning fellow fighters.
  • The Lion King was on ABC last night. Whenever that movie is referenced, I automatically think of the Steven Curtis Chapman song “King of the Jungle”, in particular, the part which goes, “K-I-N-G of the J-you-N-G-L-E . . . He is the king of creation.”
  • On Pooping In The Dark—no Lights, No Phones, No Distractions – This Story Is Part Of A Series On How We Make Time—from Productivity Hacks And Long Walks To Altering The Function Of Our Own Circadian Clocks.
  • What I Learned Trying To Secure Congressional Campaigns – This article is specifically about campaign security, or how to keep candidates and their staff and families safe from people trying to break into social media, read their email, or wire their campaign war chest to Nauru.
  • Flying a plane upside down under a low bridge is crazy and impressive.

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