Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, December 20, 2017

  • Dallas Cowboys offensive guard Zack Martin just made his fourth Pro-Bowl. And to think it was a choice between him and Johnny Manziel back in 2014.
  • Flipping through channels last night I decided to see what ‘Touchdown in Israel‘ on the NBC Sports channel was all about. I only caught the last fifteen minutes but the first thing I saw was Roger Staubach and Katie Nolan swimming in the Dead Sea together. I promise I wasn’t on any painkillers. And yes, it was the NBC Sports channel and not the NFL Network I was watching. Basically, Patriots Owner Bob Kraft took eighteen Hall of Famers to Israel to promote football and open a football field and sports complex. One thing that stood out was a story Roger told of a stranger riding in an elevator with Joe Montana. Those are two of my favorite quarterbacks. If I rode in the same elevator as them I would have wet myself. The guy in the elevator new Montana from football and Roger only from real estate.
  • Two Rebecca De Mornay movies were on HBO last night.
  • One of the things I value the most about my friendship with Jimi is our ability to quote and reference random pop-culture stuff and get each other’s joke. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve tried a bit of pop-culture humor on someone and they had no clue what I was talking about or simply overlooked it.
  • Zaxxon was a hell of a video game.
  • Abilene Hooters set to open in January 2018
    • This is a little surprising with three Chrisitan universities in the very conservative city. However, I bet a lot of airmen from Dyess AFB will visit, which makes me wonder why it’s located on the opposite side of town.
    • When I was a student at HSU, I remember a similar restaurant called “Knockers” opened. They had a few of their girls come to campus in their work attire to pass out flyers but were quickly escorted off campus. I think the restaurant only lasted three or four months before closing. Today, a Chick-fil-A is in its place.
    • I wonder if any of the three Christian schools have rules in their code of conduct or student handbooks preventing students from working at such an establishment. Since HSU was the baby brother of Baylor, we’d normally ask or wonder what they did or how they handled things since they were the standard of a Christian or Baptist university (that’s one reason I’m so hard on them, I expect more). My limited research shows students do work at the Waco Hooters but there was controversy when it first opened in 2006.
      • ACU was the most conservative of all the Abilene Christian universities. For instance, at the time, they had a freshman curfew and there were separate pools for males and females. I was told they weren’t allowed to go to any dance clubs in town and school officials would sometimes scour the dance clubs parking lots looking for automobiles with student parking stickers. Some students used Vasoline to hold their parking stickers in place so they could be easily removed and attached before going inside a club.
  • Random HSU thought: Hey Jim Bob, remember the insane amount of static electricity one could conjure up in the HSU library?
  • Amid state cuts, a Texas high school football coach got a $20,000 raise. His district says he’s earned it.
  • Bill O’Reilly tweeted some advice last night:
  • I knew with Republican control of the House, Senate, and White House that taxes were going to be lowered and they would be easier on businesses. But I’m surprised with as much control they didn’t make more of an effort to make the tax code simpler. Not in the way that it could all fit on a postcard, but something more straightforward like so many of them wanted. I’m also surprised that the corporate tax cuts will be permanent but personal tax cuts will eventually be scaled up.
  • Don’t swim so far out that you can’t swim back.
  • AT&T plans to light up Dallas’ skyline with new HQ display
    • As part of the $100 million renovation of its downtown headquarters, AT&T this week will throw the switch on new exterior lighting on its 37-story tower. The Commerce Street high-rise is getting 106,544 exterior LED bulbs and 190 floodlights in AT&T blue and white colors.
  • Woman gives birth to baby frozen as embryo for 24 years
    • According to staff at the University of Tennessee Preston Medical Library, Emma holds the all-time record for the longest-frozen embryo to come to birth.
  • The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested a Harahan veterinarian accused of fatally shooting her neighbor’s dog because of constant barking
  • The People Who Read Your Airline Tweets
    • Southwest runs what it calls a “Listening Center.” American Airlines calls it their “social-media hub” in Fort Worth, Texas. Alaska has a “social care” team in Seattle that responds to the average tweet for help in two minutes and 34 seconds, according to a report by Conversocial.
  • I want to watch Star Wars again simply to complain about it more. Sometimes, it’s just fun to complain and let loose.
  • I would like to talk to George Lucus after three to five cocktails and get his real uncensored review and thoughts on the last movie. I know he’s accepted the franchises fate and he has no control, but that doesn’t mean he can’t like or gripe about it, he still has an opinion.
  • Gosh darn it, you guys are insightful with your Star Wars thoughts, they’re great.
  • Star Wars Spoiler Thoughts:
    • When I first saw Yoda, I thought they were using an actual puppet again and not CGI. But there were times it did look like CGI. I think they did a bit of both.
    • Laura Dern turning her capital ship around and ramming it through the bad guys’ ship light speed was pretty cool, but it felt more like a Star Trek sort of thing.
    • Right after Snoke died my greatest fear was that Kylo Ren and Rey were going to get into a heated debated and end it in a cliche-ish makeout session.
    • I wish Kylo Ren would have killed his mother when he had the chance and that she actually died at that moment. Leia didn’t really have a lot of onscreen parts after that and the story could have been altered enough after Carrie Fisher’s death (five months into post-production). All they had to do was reshoot a few scenes with Laura Dern speaking to Poe Dameron about her plan. Or, they could have made it where Leia is piloting that ship at the end, sacrificing herself so the others can get away and she can be the image of the resistance, a whole “Remember The Alamo” sort of thing. Sure, she wouldn’t have been able to shoot it, but they could have changed the story to imply she was there.
    • Again, I wanted more Jedi training, something akin to The Karate Kid with Rey and Luke.
    • To be honest, I never felt Luke was a real Jedi because his training was done intermittently and didn’t serve as a full-time apprentice. I know the force was strong in him, but not as much as his father who actually served an apprenticeship. Yoda graded on the curve, but I guess he had to, he didn’t’ have much to work with.
    • I liked that Carrie Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, had a decent amount of screen time. It wasn’t much, and just enough not to be distracting.
    • The cinematography was fantastic.
    • Writer-director Rian Johnson describes what it was like shooting the Luke and Leia scene:
      • “It’s bizarre because, you know, obviously we didn’t know that it was gonna be a farewell scene,” he says by phone from Los Angeles the day of Last Jedi’s release. “And it’s odd because I remember when we were shooting the Luke-Leia scene, it felt like church on set. It was usually a jovial set, you know, a really happy, bouncy set. And that day, everyone was just quiet and just watching these two.” “It was like a hush over the whole set,” he says, “it really did feel like church. I remember there being a weight to the whole thing and we all just felt like, we’re seeing something really special happen. In a way that it never, ever was on the set for us. There was, very weirdly, weight.”
Posted in Personal | 4 Comments

This would have fit in great with Letterman’s Stupid Pet Tricks bit

My friend’s family has a cockatiel named Lucky. Whenever Lucky gets upset, he sings an Apple ringtone. It usually happens when they tie their shoes to get ready to leave the house. It’s adorable, and also pitch perfect.

Posted in Cute, Goofy | Comments Off on This would have fit in great with Letterman’s Stupid Pet Tricks bit

Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, December 19, 2017

  • Here’s a Sneak Peek of Donald Trump in Disney’s Hall of Presidents
    • Disney should have given him a red tie, but at least they made sure to let it hang low. The GIF and video in the link do mimic his real-life movements well
  • No Spoilers – One of the worst parts of watching a movie like The Last Jedi by yourself is not having anyone to talk to about interpretations, theories, if it was good or not, just all that fun stuff you like to talk about right after a movie and everything is fresh in your mind and you get to experience initial reactions. Some movies are easier to watch alone than others.
  • I grew up with an oven in which one would open it from a standing position. For the past twelve or so years, I’ve lived in a house in which the oven is located closer to the floor. I would have thought by now I would learn when I open the oven door, I need to wait a few seconds for the rush of heat to escape before peaking or reaching into it. That was never an issue with the standing oven.
  • I also grew up without a dishwasher. I actually prefer to wash dishes by hand, it’s a bit therapeutic at times. However, WifeGeeding doesn’t think handwashing “sanitizes” as well as the dishwasher.
  • This tax bill calculator has been making the rounds in social media. You input some simple data and it compares your results against the current tax system, the new tax reform bill, and the old House and Old Senate versions.
  • New Jersey’s governor-elect poses next to cardboard cutout of Chris Christie on beach
  • Is this Idaho race the weirdest election result of 2017?
    • Two city council candidates were originally tied after their November election
    • During a coin toss, the incumbent called heads, but it fell tails
    • He sought a recount, and city officials found one more ballot for him
  • When it comes to television and movies, it’s funny how we are willing to dispell reality here and there but not there and there. You know what I mean.
  • Star Wars SPOILER thought
    • I like how R2 communicates with Luke. Him pulling the ole “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope” out of his bag of tricks was great.
    • I thought Kylo’s helmet was stupid and I’m glad he smashed it up.
Posted in Personal | 6 Comments