Your Bag of Nothing for Thursday, August 29, 2024

  • I research the most random things. Yesterday, I did a deep dive into the history of the Shah of Iran and his country. The older I get, the more I want to understand why humans can’t get along. The night before, it was a deep dive into all the contemporary Christian music of the Nineties. Before I discovered U2, I wore this CD out.
  • If you know the history of the X-Men, then you know there’s a loose tie. Last night, I started watching the cartoon series on Disney+, mainly to better understand why so many fans enjoyed Channing Tatum’s appearance as Gambit in Deadpool and Wolverine. Speaking of which: Deadpool & Wolverine deleted scene teases Gambit return
  • Doing your laundry in the back of your Tesla Cybertruck is an interesting way to advertise your business in Dallas. I’ve now seen everything.

     

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  • It was sad to hear of Roger Cook’s passing, the gardener and landscaper from This Old House. Oh man, I used to watch that show religiously. I loved doing DIY stuff, and I miss it so much. But now, I find it too painful to watch any DIY show since I no longer have a house or means to do DIY stuff. It scratched that artistic and creative itch I often have, and I love the tangible sense of accomplishment it brings.
  • Who knows if I’ll ever go through with it, but I spent at least 20 minutes researching how I can volunteer for the Make-A-Wish foundation. If you live in North Texas and are interested in volunteering, you can find all you want to know about it here.
  • Unlike the rest of the world, I’m not a Beetlejuice fan.
  • I mentioned a bad date the other day. Kudos to the girl for texting me right afterward and apologizing for her bad attitude. At one point, I came close to just walking out. We ate at a new local Mexican restaurant. Just look at the prices of these drinks. Since I was paying, I drank water. The prices remind me of a line from one of the Beverly Hill Cop movies about what Axel Foley says he can buy for five bucks after paying that for a Coke.
  • I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but I’m sure it’s something I will repeat often. It doesn’t matter how correct I am or how constructive the thought or criticism is, but I’ll always be portrayed as the bitter ex-husband. Other than my counselor and maybe one other friend from college, no one is willing to look past that. I don’t think I’ll experience joy again until my son graduates in 2030 and I move from my current neighborhood.
  • One of the first sermons I heard at my new church mentioned Mother Theresa. Her secret letters show that she spent almost 50 years without sensing God’s presence in her life. I can totally relate.
  • I signed up for confirmation class at my new church. It’s funny, every time I mention that to an evangelical friend, they ask, “What is that?” A season of my life has been spent in the Lutheran, Baptist, Bible, and Presbyterian churches. I really enjoy immersing myself in different streams of the Christian faith and getting cultured on how people choose to view and worship God differently. We all like to put God in a box. That’s funny in itself, as we are the ones who place ourselves in boxes and not realizing it.
  • I wonder if I’ll ever be physically intimate with someone again. It took 26 years for me to work up the courage to kiss a girl. Unlike a lot of folks, I have a huge emotional connection with physical intimacy, so there’s no way I could ever have a one-night stand or a friend with benefits. Oh, that reminds me of something I told the girl I’m getting to know. She told me as a cancer survivor, one of the benefits she gets is access to an exclusive gym. My reply to her was that now I have a friend with benefits.
  • America’s most popular sport, but sometimes, I wonder, at what cost?
  • I didn’t realize one of the lead band members of Blink 182 was a huge U2 fan. So much so that he ended a concert by saying U2 was the best band ever and playing Where the Streets Have No Name.
  • Unless you follow politics or presidential history, you won’t appreciate the humor behind this tweet. I thought it was fake until I verified it myself. If you want a deep dive into the fashion analysis of the two, check out Derek Guy’s Twitter thread. He’s a great follow if you know nothing about men’s fashion and want to be introduced to it little by little. I was surprised to find out he’s Vietnamese. One thing I learned from his tweets is how to be temperamental because he gets some awful comments from time to time and replies with dignity and grace.
  • Aging gracefully and beautifully. Sigourney Weaver is 74 years old, and here I  would have guessed she was in her sixties. I’m at that age where it’s hard to believe how old the adult stars of my youth are.
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Your Bag of Nothing for Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Your Bag of Nothing for Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Your Bag of Nothing for Tuesday, August 27, 2024

  • I’m sorry I didn’t post anything yesterday. I had one of my worst weekends in a long while. It started with a bad second date and ended with two tow trucks and three rideshare rides.
  • I didn’t have any transportation to get to church on Sunday, but I dusted off my bike, aired up the tires, and rode to church. Despite it being a little warm outside, it was nice to get in a nature mindset for church.
    • We wrapped up our series on Psalms, focusing on the 23rd specifically. Obviously, it’s the most recognized of them all, but I’ll be honest, I never really understood or connected with it like most folks. What helped was discovering its historical context and how its origin was recited before a battle. That helped me better understand verse five’s reference to eating before your enemies.
    • We analyzed orientation, disorientation, and new orientation. Psalms of orientation affirm God’s control and well-ordered life. Psalms of disorientation lament and question God and God’s existence. Psalms of reorientation look back on past events and offer thanks to God for deliverance.
      • Our text cited Bono several times, discussing the Psalms and how the Blues are the modern-day equivalent. I mention that because throughout this series, we were encouraged to write our own Psalms and share it with the class. With disorientation and Bono in mind, I decided to be raw. Our writing prompt was, “The Lord is my…” This is what I started with, and I’m still not finished with it:
        • The Lord is my torment
          I feel so alone
          Abandoned and forgotten
          I don’t feel His comfort
          And I’m lost in my despair
          No longer able to trust
  • When the owner of this coin collection died, he forbade anyone from selling it for 100 years. That time is up
    • Following the death of the Danish butter magnate Lars Emil Bruun in 1923, his will had a curious order: His vast accumulation of coins, notes and medals, amassed over more than six decades, should be held as an emergency reserve for Denmark’s national collection in case it were ever destroyed. After a century, if all was well, his own cache could finally be sold to benefit his descendants. Next month, just under a year since the 100-year-old order expired, the first set of coins from Bruun’s personal 20,000-piece collection will go up for
  • Matching sets of dinosaur footprints found on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean
  • If you live in Texas and want to check your voter registration status, you can do so here.
  • Bald eagle thought to be injured later deemed “too fat to fly”
  • ‘Why not Dallas?’ How ‘Y’all Street’ aims to become America’s next financial titan
    • Dallas has nine Fortune 500 companies, 24 when counting the broader D-FW area. A Downtown-based stock exchange is on the horizon, corporate giants are moving headquarters and offices in the area and more wealthy individuals are beginning to call the city home. The city is sprouting from the roots of being the Sun Belt’s economic powerhouse into one of the biggest ones in the country. Though New York City and, to some extent Chicago, are still the kings, slow growth after COVID-19 means Dallas is in the right place at the right time to emerge with the financial crown.
  • Environmental group calls for investigation of RFK Jr. chainsawing whale head
    • Kennedy cut off a whale’s head with a chainsaw in or around 1994 after finding out that it washed up on Squaw Island in Hyannis Port, Mass., his daughter Kick Kennedy told Town & Country Magazine in 2012.
    • He bungee-corded it to the roof of the family’s minivan and drove it to Mount Kisco, N.Y., she said. “Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet,” Kick said in the interview.
  • San Diego’s ‘Bubble Man’ ticketed for liquid littering
    • “Basically he was saying when my bubbles pop the residue of the bubbles fall to the ground and kill the grass,” he said. “I explained to them I am full compliance. I am registered with San Diego Parks and Rec. I have insurance.”
  • Florida school board pauses chaplain plans following interest from ‘Ministers of Satan’
  • New startup wants to sell you “sunlight after dark” using mirrors
    • Reflect Orbitals is building space mirrors to reflect sunlight onto solar panels at night. The goal is to maximize solar farms’ energy production. According to their official website, you can also book a spot of light for yourself. 
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Your Bag of Nothing for Friday, August, 23, 2024

  • I haven’t seen or heard from Tom Brokaw for a while. He’s 85 and battling an incurable blood disease.
  • Hey, just so we’re clear. Yes, I lean left, but that doesn’t mean I think one political party loves the country more than the other. Sure, I differ in thought, but I respect your freedom to think differently.
  • I’d really like to follow the nominee for president for either party the day of their acceptance speech. There’s so much I’m curious about. Everything from how many times they will practice their speech to what their appetite is like.
  • Watching the DNC, some of it with BoyGeeding, reminded me of watching it with my family when I was little. One vivid memory sticks out, and I think it occurred when Dukakis (90 and still living, btw) was nominated. During one of the speeches, the camera focused on Jackie Kennedy Onassis for a few seconds. I recall asking my father why the heck she was there because it didn’t make sense to my young mind. Because of that, I did a little research on her and, of all things, watched coverage of her funeral on YouTube and read about her final days.
    • One thing that stood out was that she was embalmed inside of her New York apartment. I wonder how much that is done? Is that common for the elite and non-elite in New York?
    • Unlike something you’d see today, no videos or photos exist of her service inside the church cathedral. The national news was only allowed to carry the audio, which they did, and displayed photos of her life and of her with the people who were speaking.
    • Senator Ted Kennedy told a story about waiting with her for President Clinton to step off Marine One for the rededication of the Kennedy Library. She told him, “Teddy, go greet the president.” He replied there was no need since their close friend was already in place to do so. She replied, “Yes, Teddy, but our friend is not running for re-election, and you are.”
    • All but one of her pallbearers were nephews. The one who wasn’t was her family’s longtime Secret Service agent Jack Walsh. They became particularly close when she took her two kids to Ireland, something her husband wanted to do. She went swimming one day and got caught in a terrible current about to drown. Walsh saved her. There’s a good story about it here. I was impressed at how she wrote about it in a letter and that she asked the Secret Service to award Walsh with their highest decoration. I guess the head of the Secret Service has no choice but to follow through with that request, considering how they failed at protecting her husband. Walsh protected the Kennedy family until the kids aged out of protection.
    • She died at 64. Caroline is now 66, living longer than all of her immediate family. I’m sure that carries a bit of weight.
    • In her final weeks, she would invite close friends to her apartment individually. In front of the fireplace, she would read from a collection of letters and share some photos. Most of them were in association with that friend. Then, they would toss them in the fire together and lose them for all of history. It reminded me of John Adams’ wife. I’m pretty sure it was she who burned most of the correspondence between her and her husband, as she considered it a private affair.
    • She was buried in a model 710 casket from the Marsellus Casket Company. The same as her husband and other presidents such as Nixon and Ford. The company went out of business in 2003, with the last of the 710 sent to Houston to a funeral museum.
      • President Kennedy was initially placed in the finest casket from Vernon O’Neal Funeral Home in Dallas. However, it wouldn’t fit through the door of Air Force One, so the handles had to be removed. Talk about having to improvise and make the best of things. The president’s open wounds also damaged the interior. Bobby Kennedy feared it would end up as a morbid object of curiosity, so he worked with the Air Force to have holes drilled in the coffin, weighed down, and dropped in the Atlantic far from shipping lanes.
  • Kerry Washington’s bit with those two young girls was the most adorable part of last night.
  • I’m surprised we haven’t heard from Rex Tillerson or Jim Mattis this election cycle. Either reporters are stupid, or they refuse to do interviews.
  • Jon Stewart mentioned “joy” last night, and I automatically started to sing this song.
  • I thought it was funny.

  • A California school board terminated the contract of its superintendent Wednesday, months after it was alleged that a mid-level supervisor and friend of the administrator’s played a cruel joke on a subordinate by putting his desk on a roof.

  • I’m highly impressed with Maddux’s mental and long-game forethought. He set up Biggio before they even played in the playoffs, and he fell for it. It also shows his willingness to sacrifice personal statistics for team gain. Talk about a cerebral game.

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Your Bag of Nothing for Friday, August, 23, 2024