Bag of Randomness for Monday, September 11, 2017

    • Buzz Aldrin was at the Cowboys game. He had to file an expense report for his trip to the moon. You can see the report here. He requested reimbursement for $33.31 in travel expenses.
    • Cute picture of Cowboys fan and a Giants fan spending their second day of marriage at the game.
    • $500 in the year 1925 is worth about $7,000 in 2017 – @darrenrovell – The Maras bought the Giants for $500 in 1925. They sold 50% for $70 million in 1991. The other half they still own is worth $1.5 Billion.
    • I dogged Terrance Williams a lot last year because he seemed inept in the two-minute drill, but last night he showed vast improvement and I gotta praise him. Before the half, he caught the ball twice and was tackled inbounds, but he made sure to get up quickly and make sure the ref got the ball right away.
    • The Steve Bannon interview on ’60 Minutes’ was intriguing. The only thing I want to point out is how much he gnawed or ground his teeth in this short clip.

    • It never occurred to me, but my kids have never climbed trees like I did in my childhood. I guess I had trees with shorter trunks and easier to climb. DaughterGeeding really wanted to give it a try and I was totally cool with it. But DaughterGeeding being the ever cautious one, decided she would only do so if she had her bicycle helmet on, which made it a little comical because it has a unicorn horn on it.
    • I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If Baylor wants their football program to be taken seriously they need to schedule more legitimate teams than Liberty and UT-San Antonio. Look at what Oklahoma did by scheduling The Ohio State University and making that blanket statement of a win.
    • Tony Romo thoughts
      • He was great, especially for this being his first game and not even doing a pre-season broadcast. I thought he started off just a tad bit wonky. It seemed like he was nervous, that his mouth was dry, and he was speaking a bit too fast and relying on a few crutches like “you know.” However, after a handful of plays, he seemed pretty at ease. He may need to move the mic closer to his mouth as his voice seemed a bit soft at times. Also, you could tell there were times where he wanted to expand on a thought but couldn’t due to the next play, so he’ll have to work in speaking in sentences and not paragraphs.
      • I liked how he was able to call out blitzes, diagnosing plays pre-snap, and predict which way the ball was going to run before the snap. For instance, he said this and it actually happened, “I’ve got $5 this is a run to the left.”
      • Dan McDowell of The TICKET will often complain that commentators don’t tell us anything we don’t already know. Phil Simms was horrible at this, he spoke to the viewer as if they were twelve years-old. Romo passed that test quite well.
      • He didn’t reference the Cowboys one time, even with a bit of prodding from Nance a time or two. Of course, he spoke of his experience as a player, but he never referenced the franchise.
      • He has a little Madden in him, he said, “Boom!” a handful of times. It didn’t mother me at all.
      • Jim Nance sounded refreshed working with Romo. I’ll go as far to say he sounded relieved not to have to work Simms anymore. A lot of folks may be patting Romo on the back, but a large amount of credit needs to go to Nance for getting him reading and going through taped practice games.
      • Simms is better suited for the studio and it showed yesterday. It plays to his strengths better than the booth.
      • A bit of awkwardness when Simms and Romo spoke to each other on ‘The NFL Today’. I thought it was some good light-heartedness.
      • @ErikCAnderson – Tony Romo solid on analysis so far, BUT CAN HE LEAD CBS IN THE PLAYOFFS?
    • JJ Watt’s 99-year-old great-grandmother rocking his jersey at church
    • Every week for nearly 40 years, 89-year-old Rita Warren, a lifelong religious activist and retired factory worker, has brought her six-foot-tall Christ mannequin to the US Capitol. We tagged along.
    • The Abilene area doing what they can to help those affected by Harvey
      • A Big Country hog hunt held to benefit the victims and volunteers affected by Hurricane Harvey ended with over 1,200 pounds of cooked wild game! 
    • Excerpt – Letter by Alexander Hamilton on the hurricane of August 1772
      • “A great part of the buildings throughout the Island are leveled to the ground—almost all the rest very much shattered—several persons killed and numbers utterly ruined—whole families running about the streets unknowing where to find a place of shelter—the sick exposed to the keenness of water and air—without a bed to lie upon—or a dry covering to their bodies—our harbour is entirely bare. In a word, misery in all its most hideous shapes spread over the whole face of the country.— A strong smell of gunpowder added somewhat to the terrors of the night; and it was observed that the rain was surprisingly salt. Indeed, the water is so brackish and full of sulphur that there is hardly any drinking it.”
    • AI learns to re-create Super Mario Bros. by watching someone else play it – Not learning to play Mario — but learning how Mario plays
    • I wonder if anyone in Florida sells a “hurricane experience” where people can ride out a hurricane in some sort of cement bunker with reinforced windows.
    • An important message from a dentist in Florida.
    • Be sure to scroll all the way down to catch all the videos below.
    • I agree:

      • I found this impressive.

      • This video of a meteorologist facing Irma’s winds was all over the place yesterday. He’s lucky he didn’t get hit by any debris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQf5N_k_fLs

 

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Bag of Randomness for Friday, September 8, 2017

  • I asked BoyGeeding if he was making any friends in his kindergarten class. He said not so much in class but he plays with his girlfriend from another class during recess. I asked what his girlfriend’s name is and he replied in the most incredulous why-would-you-even-ask-that way, “I DON”T KNOW!“
  • Harvey and Irma, Married 75 Years, Marvel at the Storms Bearing Their Names
  • Hurricanes Harvey and Irma certainly deserve a lot of coverage, but there’s a lot of pertinent news not getting attention.
  • I heard a great sandwich making tip the other day, though I think it applies more to burgers. Fatty spreads, such as butter or mayonnaise on bread, work as a barrier to absorb moisture, which prevents the bread or bun from getting soggy.
  • The poor guy has to go back to North Korea – Mexico expels North Korean ambassador over nuclear tests
  • While looking up Cal Ripken stats I learned there are two types of stripper poles, static and spin. It’s easier to gain momentum on a spin pole but it’s harder for the dancer to control the body. Static poles provide the dancer the opportunity to perform more powerful moves and not worry about momentum making them lose control.
  • I’ve never seen the movie It and don’t know if the new one is a remake or some sort of extension. I’m too lazy to look it up but not to blog about it and to fill up space for today’s post.
  • UT regent donates $25M to School of Social Work to alleviate students’ debt because ‘they’re heroes’
    • Hicks, a businessman with a UT government degree, doesn’t have a background in social work, but he said he’s always been focused on supporting institutions and causes that directly help people. He settled on the school after studying where he felt he could make the most difference. “I think we have a great society, but in every social system, parts of it break from time to time and the social workers are there to pick up the pieces, whether in the hospitals or recovery centers, assisted living facilities and the prisons,” Hicks said in an interview.
    • I’m sure there’s nothing to it, but I thought it was interesting he used the term “great society” which was the name of LBJ’s signature domestic program and that LBJ’s presidential library is at UT.
  • MensHealth.com – What Actually Happens If Your Penis Is Cut Off at Work?
    • “Your penis, per se, has no value,” says Robert Koenigsberg, a New York-based workers’ compensation attorney. “In New York, unfortunately, genitals and organs are generally worthless.”
    • The investigation turned up data for testicles as well—the national average is $27,678 for losing one on the job—but has no data for the penis itself. Koenigsberg explained that usually, workers’ comp is only calculated insofar as the injury affects your ability to work.
  • Study: Atheists behave more fairly toward Christians than Christians behave toward atheists
  • Three Equifax Managers Sold Stock Before Cyber Hack Revealed
  • A few more thoughts and tidbits from my book about the relationships amongst presidents:
    • When George H.W. Bush first took office he did two things of note to seek the advice of former presidents.
      • He asked them what kind of daily briefings they’d like to receive to stay on top of affairs.
      • He asked if they’d like secure telephones installed in their office so he could speak to them directly day or night. All declined Bush’s special phone line saying they preferred their independence, except for Ford who even came to regard the handset as something of a bother.
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