Your Bag of Nothing for Friday, September 27, 2024

  • I didn’t think Hurricane Helene was anything to pay attention to, but when you board up a Waffle House, that sends a serious message. For those of you that don’t know, there’s something called the Waffle House Index
  • Man, that was a tough football game to watch last night. I’m sure Amazon wasn’t proud of that product. And why the heck didn’t the Cowboys do the Landry Shift to run the clock out at the end of the game? This team can’t do anything right.
  • As someone who wanted to avoid something like this at all costs, this stopped me down for a bit yesterday. There is so much right and so much wrong with this.
  • I’m a big fan of Monday Night Football’s Manning Cast. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at last Monday’s broadcast. A lot of folks don’t like to see how the sausage is made. Not only do I want to see it, but I want to be a part of the process.
    • I like how it came to be. ESPN wanted the Mannings to be part of a broadcast team, but they didn’t want to commit the time and be apart from their families. So, the network asked what if they could sit on the couch in their basements and talk football with their brother for three hours on 10 Monday nights per year. That was appealing, so the ManningCast was born.
    • They followed Tony Dungy’s advice: “Don’t do anything for a year, then decide what you don’t want to do first.”
    • Their contract runs through the 2034 season.
    • I like the addition of Belichick, who has a defensive mind compared to the two quarterbacks. Who would have thought 15 years ago that Peyton Manning and Bill Belichick would team up to call games?
  • Here’s something for my fellow fans of The West Wing. Here’s what it took to shoot the longest walk-and-talk in the show’s history. Also, towards the end of this long scene, I like this bit of trivia: While President is high on his back pills, he tells his aide Charlie that “Charlie’s a great name.” Martin Sheen, who plays President Bartlet, named his youngest son “Carlos” but nicknamed him “Charlie”.

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Your Bag of Nothing for Friday, September 27, 2024

Your Bag of Nothing for Thursday, September 26, 2024

  • I thought Sports Illustrated was supposed to be dead. But I find myself going there for my sports news and scores more than ever. Compared to ESPN, their website is cleaner, with less obtrusive advertising, no randomly playing audio or video, and no cross-promotion. And, in case you are wondering, I’m not being paid or asked to promote the website.
  • I was watching an LBJ special on PBS last night. It showed an old reel of Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act in the same room at the Capital where Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. That didn’t sound right; I always thought Lincoln had signed that document at the White House. I spent a good 20 minutes verifying that it was signed at the White House and couldn’t find anything to refute it.
    • As a student of presidential history, I like to find out how each president tries to portray himself to the media and country. For instance, Bush 43 and Obama were often seen at the golf course, and many people criticized them for not working hard enough. That wasn’t the case with LBJ; he would frequently get photographed or filmed working in the most unconventional places; there are pictures of him talking to his staff while getting a haircut or conducting business while he’s in his swimming pool at his ranch. In this example, he’s “working” two hours after gallbladder surgery on 11/06/1966. In case you were wondering, a total of ten doctors worked on him and three Secret Service agents were in the operating room. I mean, I get why the Secret Service agents where there, but really, what could they do?
    • One person who always interested me during the LBJ presidency was Jack Valenti, who later became the head of the Motion Picture Association. The man hated the VCR and thought it would end the movie industry. He was also at LBJ’s swearing-in on Air Force One at Love Field. Last night, I found an article about him speaking about what led to that moment and how he started to work for LBJ, who wouldn’t accept any excuse for him not working for him.
  • I don’t get to see my daughter as much as I like; we’re no longer close or as close as I’d like us to be. But I cooked her favorite meal yesterday, took it to her place, and surprised her. She seemed to appreciate it.
  • I’ve started a deep dive into Joseph Merrick, better known as the Elephant Man. As a kid, there was a rumor that Michael Jackson owned his bones. In truth, they are in private display at a medical college in England. I plan on watching a biography on YouTube soon and watching the 1980 movie that’s loosely based on him, which stars Anthony Hopkins.
  • The more I learn about Caitlin Clark, the more I like her. I certainly don’t understand all the cattiness from the other players. I think it says something about her breaking the league’s single-season assist record.
  • UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka has led his team to a 3-0 record but this week declared his intention to redshirt the remainder of the season after the school failed to uphold “representations” that were promised to him. College football is growing on me; I love this sort of stuff, more chaos please!
  • That was a heck of a headline I read first thing yesterday morning:
    Gettysburg College student-athlete accused of etching a racial slur onto teammate’s chest has left the school
    • Several students were attending an informal gathering of the swim team at an on-campus residence on September 6 when one of them used a box cutter to scratch the n-word on another student’s chest, according to statements made by the college and the family who says their son was the victim.
  • The Texas Longhorns open SEC play this Saturday against Mississippi State. I miss their old coach, Mike Leach. To be in the College Football Hall of Fame, a coach must have won at least 60% of his games. Mike Leach won 59.6%.
    • The last time the Longhorns and Mississippi State played was at the 1999 Cotton Bowl, which you can watch in its entirety here, with Joe Buck making the call. I remember because I was there. It was my first college football game (football games at Hardin-Simmons don’t count) and the first and only game I’ve seen in the Cotton Bowl.
    • The reason I got to go to the game was because my brother gave me tickets. Six months prior, our father died. My spring semester grades were mailed to our house in Mineral Wells, and he saw them and chastised me. I tried telling him that these particular set of classes, like Business Law, were hard and cut me a break, I’ve been distracted by our father’s health. The following fall semester, I earned a 4.0, made the President’s List and Good Will Hunting fashion, slapped my grades in front of him, and asked him, “How do you like them apples!?” (The movie came out two years prior.) It was hard to ever get a compliment from him; I tried my hardest repeatedly. I can’t remember what he said, but I do remember a smile. But he rewarded me with tickets to the Cotton Bowl to see my favorite player and current Heisman winner, Ricky Williams. He couldn’t go, but I tagged along with one of his friends. I mentioned that he probably lucked into the tickets and probably got them for free, but his friend corrected me, saying that wasn’t the case at all, that he told him he was proud of me and he had to do something for me for such a great turnaround. I have mixed emotions about not speaking to him since 2006 after Mom died.
    • I vividly remember hearing Prince’s 1999 played on every radio station on the way there. It was the first day of the year, after all. But it was just too much in a short time period that I voiced my displeasure about it. It became a joke with us. Then, at halftime, you can guess what the band played.
    • That was a memorable Cotton Bowl for Longhorn fans. Of course, Ricky Williams won the Heisman and had a great game. On one run, he knocked out a tackler. The opposing coach was former Aggie nemesis Jackie Sherrill. He’s still alive and 80 years old, in case you were wondering. It was also Mack Brown’s first year.
    • All I wanted that season was one of those Ricky Williams Heisman shirts. At that time, stuff like that was hard to get, especially in Abilene. But someone was selling one in the parking lot, and I finally got one.
  • Alzheimer’s is cruel.
    @joshpet Betty met a new friend! #alzheimers ♬ original sound – JoshPet

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Your Bag of Nothing for Thursday, September 26, 2024

Your Bag of Nothing for Wednesday, September 25, 2024

  • I was pleasantly surprised to find Top Gun: Maverick playing on basic cable yesterday. It doesn’t seem like it’s old enough.
  • Has anyone actually seen a person pop out of a real cake? I did find the following on Wikipedia:
    • Until the beginning of the 1970s most pop out cakes were real. Things  changed in 1975 when “the AP newspaper published an interview with a baker that worked making them for a small fee of $2,000. They were built around huge cylinders that could house an adult.” Nowadays, the construction is generally made of corrugated cardboard, often covered with whipped cream or frosting to make them look real. This kind of pop out cakes present the advantages of being cheaper to build and easier to move, due to their lightness, but they are also much more fragile and should be handled with care. 
  • If you think an image has been doctored or photoshopped, you can use FakeImageDetector.com to verify. Here are five other tools. I found them because I was curious if the image at the top of this post was real or manipulated. It appears authentic.
  • President Trump was inside a grocery store yesterday and helped pay for a woman’s groceries. It reminded me of the time President George H.W. Bush was inside a grocery store and made some remarks about the UPC scanner that was taken out of context. I’m serious when I ask, and I don’t mean this to be derogatory, but I wonder when was the last time he went inside a grocery store to make an actual purchase for himself.
  • This gentleman achieved one of my life goals and got a love back from the social media staff from the other libraries.

  • This was popular yesterday. Kelley Heyer, creator of the “Apple” dance, was given a special moment at a Charli XCX concert, but many people were upset that the girl tried to take her moment and steal the spotlight. Others were upset at the girl touching her. It’s actually kinda funny because at the start of it, the man in blue realizes he may be in the way and steps back, but the female fan just doesn’t care and jumps in.
  • As estimated by the World Gold Council, here are the current rankings of gold reserves by country in Q2, 2024.
    Rank Country Gold Reserves (Tonnes) Gold Reserves (Millions) Holdings (%)
    1 United States of America 8,133.46 609,527.85 72.41
    2 Germany 3,351.53 251,166.13 71.46
    3 Italy 2,451.84 183,742.52 68.33
    4 France 2,436.97 182,628.35 69.99
    5 Russian Federation 2,335.85 175,050.59 29.47
    6 China 2,264.32 169,689.52 4.91
    7 Japan 845.97 63,397.87 5.15
    8 India 840.76 63,007.20 9.57
  • This seems like a practical solution, and I can picture many American businesses buying it to eliminate illegal parking. But then again, calling a tow truck to remove an illegally parked vehicle sends a stiffer message.
    @happyhouse160 “Only in China” #china #car #cars #tow #towing #robot #traffic #highlights #foryou #trending #everyone #viral #fyp #fypシ #subscribers #subscribe #innovation ♬ original sound – Audience Focused Entertainment

  • He’s throwing rocks inside of a glass house.

  • Yesterday wasn’t a good time to be around Oklahoma City.

  • Wow, that was one low-flying plane.

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Your Bag of Nothing for Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Your Bag of Nothing for Tuesday, September 24, 3024

  • This is Lane Kiffin, the head football coach of Ole Miss. I think it’s great that he has a close relationship with his daughter. However, it proves that times have changed, and college football and its coaches aren’t what they used to be, and that’s both good and bad.

  • Should we rethink arming teachers and staff at public schools?  But then again, Secret Service officers are shooting themselves as well.
    • Students jump in to help after school resource officer accidentally shoots himself

      MARBLE FALLS, Texas (KSAT) – A group of Junior ROTC students in Texas came to the rescue after a school resource officer accidentally shot and injured himself hours before a football game.

      Police say the firearm of a Marble Falls High School school resource officer accidentally discharged while he was seated, injuring his leg. The incident happened just before 6 p.m. Friday on school property by the visitor parking area.

  • I guess what I considered a traditional homecoming mum is no longer a thing. It looks like a conventional mum is now one that a girl wears like a dog collar, covers not half but your entire chest, and the bottom has to be at mid-calf.
  • Octopuses seen hunting together with fish in rare video — and punching fish that don’t cooperate
  • Boy abducted from California at age 6 found alive more than 70 years later
  • I’m not sure what to think of this video. It could be fake, but maybe the technology is identifying human remains as they pass each grave. I’m very curious about what the software takes into consideration when identifying a human.

  • I haven’t seen this footage of someone trying to aggressively grab Taylor Swift at one of her shows. But I have to hand it to her for her rapid recovery and continuing her performance as if nothing happened.

  • I’m impressed by this guy’s strength. The last bit looks like it was played in reverse, but I’m still impressed.

  • I wonder when drone shows will become mainstream and integrated with fireworks. I don’t think fireworks are going anywhere, our culture likes tradition.

  • I don’t watch our local Fox station nor understand why this guy would wear such an outlandish suit or sportcoat. Is he an Aggie or something? He’s one of the reasons why I don’t watch the channel, he’s always talking down to the viewer.
Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Your Bag of Nothing for Tuesday, September 24, 3024