Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, May 8, 2018

  • I think I root against a lot of people, like famous athletes, because everyone else seems to like them.
  • While watching Amazon’s ‘All or Nothing: The Dallas Cowboys’, Dak Prescott said something that caught my attention. He said the only thing superstitions do is give you an excuse. I like that. What I don’t like is how much Jason Garrett repeats himself when he talks, it’s almost like he’s a redheaded NFL version of Rainman.
  • Local reporter Saul Garza is leaving the news reporting business and I can’t blame him, it sounds like it would get old after a while.
    • “I’m just tired of the hours. Tired of the news grind. Covering the same story year after year. Standing at the ‘Hi-5’ during ice storms telling people to stay off the roads. I want to try something else. I have made a ton of connections and I want to use my talents elsewhere.”
  • BBC – The woman who watched 300 executions in Texas
    • This one sentence stood out because I feel so many of us can relate, “And because I was young and bold, everything was black and white.”
  • Dallas Named America’s Best City For Jobs For Second Year In A Row By Forbes
    • When I see a headline like this, I feel like I’m shortchanging myself by not exploring other jobs and maxing out my potential income. But I really love the people I work for, feel like I’m more than adequately paid, enjoy the challenges and exposure to new technology, and love the balance of my work and professional life.
  • Oliver North to be NRA’s new president
    • My high school football coach (I graduated in 1994) had a framed photograph on his desk of Oliver North being sworn in before his Iran-contra testimony. I can’t recall if he had a photo of his wife and kids, but I can certainly recall the Oliver North picture. Back then, I knew who the man in the photo was but wasn’t really familiar what his role in history was. I was too intimidated by my coach to ask him why he had that photo of him on his desk, but he had it placed in such a way that I think he wanted to be asked about it. I think my coach had the distinction of being the last quarterback for the University of Texas at Arlington (1985).
  • ‘Arrested Development’ returns to Netflix on May 29th – The first season five trailer reveals Lindsay is running for Congress.
  • GIF – That time Donald Trump motor boated Rudy Guliani dressed in drag.
  • Is MoviePass the greatest deal in entertainment or the most astonishing scam in years?
Posted in Personal | 4 Comments

12 most ‘effective’ preachers in the English language

For only the second time in two decades, Baylor University has released its list of the 12 most “effective” preachers in the English language. It is among the most prestigious honors in the preaching profession — one that has changed the lives of previous recipients. Baylor’s first list was released in 1996 amid much fanfare.

Some of the pastors are religious celebrities, while others are virtual unknowns. What they all share is that they are captivating speakers whose eloquence points toward God, not their own egos, says Shawn Boyd, who works at the Kyle Lake Center for Effective Preaching at Baylor. Boyd helped form the criteria that 179 scholars referred to while sorting through 1,000 nominees to select the final 12.

“They preach it, they believe it and they live it,” Boyd says of the 12.

Full CNN Article

I don’t pay attention to this stuff as much as I used to, so I’m only familiar with five on this list.

• The Rev. Alistair Begg, senior pastor at Parkside Church outside Cleveland

• The Rev. Tony Evans, founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas

• The Rev. Joel C. Gregory, holder of the George W. Truett Endowed Chair in Preaching and Evangelism at the George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University in Waco, Texas

• The Rev. Timothy Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York

• The Rev. Thomas G. Long, Bandy Professor Emeritus of Preaching and director of the Early Career Pastoral Leadership Program at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta

• The Rev. Otis Moss III, senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago

• The Rev. John Piper, chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis

• The late Rev. Haddon Robinson, former president and the Harold John Ockenga Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston

• The Rev. Andy Stanley, founding pastor of North Point Community Church and North Point Ministries near Atlanta.

• The Rev. Charles Swindoll, senior pastor at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas

• The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, Episcopal priest, professor, author and theologian who has served on the faculties of Columbia Theological Seminary, Emory’s Candler School of Theology and Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology

• The Rev. Ralph Douglas West, founder and senior pastor of The Church Without Walls in Houston

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Bag of Randomness for Monday, May 7, 2018

  • A different version of you exists in the minds of everyone who knows you.
  • The NRA’s national convention was held in Dallas this past weekend. Stormy Daniels lives in the area, it would have been interesting if she decided to make an appearance, especially during the President’s speech. But it was a surprise to see her in the SNL cold open. As good as that opening bit was, Kate McKinnon as Rudy Giuliani will easily get underappreciated.
  • I’m glad to see nothing tragic happened in Dallas while the NRA was in town for their national convention. For the most part, people on both sides of the gun rights issue seemed respectful tolerant to another.
  • Now that I think of it, and it isn’t exactly macabre, it was a bit weird for both the President and Vice Priceline to speak at an NRA convention in the city where a rifle was used to assassinate a president. Dallas will forever be connected with the assassination of JFK. Both events happened in the downtown area, though not relatively close to one another
  • Former Dallas Cowboys Sherman Williams spent 15 years in federal prison but is now a college graduate.
  • Japan’s child population shrinks to 15.53 million, setting another record low
  • Fight them in every way, except the way that they want.
  • GIF – That seal totally stopped what he was doing when that little girl took a spill
  • Ticketmaster hopes to speed up event access by scanning your face – By partnering with a face recognition maker, it could eventually allow you to enter venues without a ticket.
  • The Patty Melt is Back – After nearly 80 years, the greasy spoon classic is having a renaissance.
  • How a Chinese city turned all its 16,000 buses electric

Posted in Personal | 4 Comments