Bag of Randomness for Monday, March 5, 2018

  • As a fan of barbecue, I really got a kick out of the tweet referenced above which was tweeted yesterday. The internet had a field day with it, especially folks from Texas, Kansas City, Tennesee, and the Carolinas.
  • To carry on a family tradition, WifeGeeding places an orange in our kids’ Christmas stockings, which I thought it was a bit of an odd thing to do. However, while watching an episode of ‘Victoria and Albert’ with her I saw it was something Queen Victoria and Prince Albert used to do with their children. Silly me, it’s something a lot of families do and the tradition may have started for several reasons. Another Christmas stocking family tradition WifeGeeding does is add a dime to each stocking. I like it. As many of my longtime readers know, my father never spent a dime, he saved them. Back when cash was used often, the dimes would add up quickly. I also never spend a dime and save them.
  • Also, while watching ‘Victoria and Robert’, I discovered what the united kingdoms in the United Kingdoms are – the united kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain. I’m sure many of you are laughing at my ignorance, but it’s one of those things I always heard and wondered about but never looked it up, and it’s not something we studied in any of my history classes. To be honest, I always felt the history of the UK was complex and confusing with their long history and kings and queens sharing names. It seems like Ireland and Great Britain was ruled by one ruler, but in 1800, the parliaments of Ireland and Great Britain decided to unite. Feel free to correct me, I’d rather be educated than ignorant.
  • This picture of an overly crowded room of Asian art students stresses me out. When I look at it, all I can think of is me being that one kid in the middle of all of it who has to be excused to use the restroom and trying to make my way through to the exit.
  • I got a kick out of Jimmy Kimmel’s bit of taking a group of celebrities into a movie theater to hand out food. But one thing surprised me, I didn’t notice any of the audience members pull out their phone to snap any pics, they just appreciate the moment. Maybe because it was a sneak preview they were watching, they couldn’t take phones inside.
  • That Allison Janey is one talented actress. I thought she was making a career mistake by joining a CBS sitcom and limiting herself. But in addition to the sitcom, she was able to make a movie and win an Oscar.
  • My favorite Sam Rockwell movie is Moon. He is basically the only actor in the film. It’s when I first noticed him.
  • Man, it looked awkward when Oscar winners set their trophy on the floor to give a speech. But man, that jet ski bit was great. Jimmy Kimmel did a solid job.
  • The first trailer for Mary Poppins Returns but you only get to see the titled charted for a few brief seconds.
  • Donations of deer semen make up majority of contributions in Texas candidate’s race: report
    • The Dallas News reported Thursday that Ana Lisa Garza, a district court judge running a primary challenge against eight-term Democrat Ryan Guillen, has received $51,000 in in-kind donations to her campaign, listed as individual donations of frozen deer semen straws. The containers are reportedly a common way for deer breeders in the state to donate to political campaigns. Garza’s campaign has valued the straws at $1,000 each.
  • Two bills passed by mistake:
  • Impressive Mulan tribute.

https://twitter.com/senseileskee/status/969843699977891840?s=09

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Bag of Randomness for Friday, March 2, 2018

  • Yup, that’s my back. I had my six-week followup with my neurologist yesterday. So far, so good. I got the clear to return to work on a part-time basis next week as well as to start rehab.
  • WifeGeeding and I are getting texts from people running in local campaigns asking us for their vote and to participate in early voting. I’m not happy that they somehow have our mobile phone numbers, but at least they are sending texts instead of calling us.
  • Florida news – Judge to lawyer: ‘I am very concerned that you have conducted this trial high’
  • South Carolina news – Man reportedly kicked out of McDonald’s after buying homeless man food
  • What the world’s largest family tree tells us about marriage and death in the West
    • The largest family tree to date — which includes 13 million people going back 11 generations and 500 years — provides new insights about marriage and death, and it all comes from public data.
    • By measuring the birth location between husbands and wives and tracking that over time, they found that, unsurprisingly, before the Industrial Revolution most Americans married someone within six miles of where they were born. This person was also likely to be a relative — a fourth cousin on average, says Erlich. After the Industrial Revolution, when transportation became more common, people started to marry those who were born farther away and were more distantly related. (By 1950, people were finding their spouses within 60 miles of where they were born.)
    • Man, I really wanted to work on genealogy stuff during my time away from work but couldn’t get to it for various factors I’ve stated recently.
  • Texas Monthly – Talk Like a Texan: The Pronunciation of Bowie Knife, Jim Bowie, and David Bowie
    • I’d think most North Texans are going to refer to the version that rhymes with “Louie” since there’s a city pronounced that way in the area.
      • How do you, as a Texan, say the name Bowie? Does it rhyme with Louie, or snowy? Or do you say it differently depending on if you are talking about the Alamo hero, or the British rock star? According to a dialect survey from Joshua Katz’s North Carolina State University, Texans are among the only Americans to still rhyme Bowie with gooey, though the portion of us who do appears to be shrinking as Ziggy Stardust’s fame eclipses that of Texas’s own James.
  • Putin unveiled a new array of nuclear-capable weapons (including an intercontinental ballistic missile that renders defense systems “useless”) and some sort of silent drone submarine. As I read and watched news reports of these weapons, I was expecting to some expert to chime in if Russia was actually capable of having such weapons. I didn’t read or see one that doubted Putin. I’m left to wonder what the U.S. has but hasn’t unveiled or if anyone in the government or military feels panicked.
  • Trump’s Nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize Was Apparently Forged. Twice.
Posted in Goofy | 4 Comments

Bag of Randomness for Thursday, March 1, 2018

  • Happy March, y’all.
  • That photo was taken by an actual Reuters photographer. When I first saw it, I thought it was photoshopped or some sort of manipulated imaged. Hope Hicks is only 29 and just resigned as the White House communications director. There’s a good chance that her career has peaked before she even turned thirty. Not in terms of money, but of status and prestige.
  • Anytime I eat at Denny’s, it’s Moons Over My Hammy for me.
  • I’ve never considered a tattoo, but sometimes I see people will tattoo over a scar and think it’s neat and imaginative with what they can come up with. The idea briefly entered my mind since I will now have a scar from my back surgery. However, after a second or two I realized it I would look nothing more than a chubby guy with a tramp stamp.
  • I’m not a fan of President Trump, but I do like it when he allows cameras in the Roosevelt Room when he’s meeting with both parties and the House and Senate. The public gets to observe our elected representatives talk face-to-face on the record. It’s a tiny bit like Parliament, direct conversation instead of speaking to one another through the media.
  • The White House chief calligrapher has a higher clearance than Jared Kushner – Despite the catchy headline, an interesting history of the White House calligrapher is provided.
  • How Beto O’Rourke Explains America – Most voters have never heard of him. He’s running against Ted Cruz. And a Texas Democrat hasn’t won a statewide election in nearly 25 years. So why the hell does the El Paso congressman think he has a shot to win a Senate seat?
  • If you often work with PDFs and wonder about it’s past or future, this may be a read for you. – The story of the PDF, the portable document format that’s become one of the internet’s defining information formats. It’ll be with us after we’re long gone.
  • There have been six in Oscar history. Here’s what they were, and how PricewaterhouseCoopers plans for the drama.
  • D Magazine – Dallas’ Vanishing Middle Class, Mapped
  • I loved last night’s ‘X-Files’. The subject matter was very timely with the release of ‘Black Mirror’s “Metal Head” and the Boston Dynamics robot dog which can open a door.
    • Like ‘Black Mirror’s “Metal Head”, this episode had a very limited cast of humans and dialogue. I don’t think Mulder or Scully said a single word to each other for the first 25-minutes of the show, and they were the only two humans you saw until the end. “Metal Head”, if memory serves, only used three human actors.
    • I loved that Scully had a personal massager. It added something to the character and was a nice moment of comic relief.
    • The episode focused on the future of AI and our current reliance on technology. That said, it was funny to see Mulder have to rely on a Mapsco at one point.
  • For Asian Americans, the 2018 Winter Olympics brought unexpected joy and familiar anger
  • I thought this was a great image of Dirk, comparing his signature shot from today to his youth.
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