Bag of Randomness for Friday, April 28, 2017

  • One day, just for the heck of it, I’m going to mark on a map all the Texas counties I’ve  been through and see how much more I need to go. I doubt I’ve been to a third of all Texas counties. There’s a total of 254, in case you are wondering.
  • DaughterGeeding is sometimes too literal. When I ask her if she wants an ice cream cone, she always asks if it will have ice cream in it because she fears of only getting the cone.
  • My employer does benefits enrollment at mid-year instead of at the end of the calendar. At first, I didn’t like it but it works out really well when I meet my healthcare deductible at midyear and don’t have to compete for appointment space at the end of the year when others are trying to max out their healthcare benefits. With that in mind, I decided to see a cardiologist about my high resting heart rate and high blood pressure. Next week I’ll be taking a stress test and an echocardiogram.
  • The retired NFL lineman in the neighborhood still mows his lawn shirtless. One day, when he moves far, far way, I’ll release photos.
  • Purdue University said it planned to acquire Kaplan University, a for-profit college with some 33,000 students, transforming the school into one of Purdue’s public, nonprofit branch campuses, with its classes offered almost entirely online. If approved, it would be the first time that a public university has acquired a for-profit school.
    • Does this mean any graduate of Kaplan is now considered Purdue alumni?
  • Another Benjamin L. Corey blog post, and here’s my usual disclaimer, I neither endorse or oppose him, but appreciate how he will add to theological thought and discussion.
    • “That thing you attend on Sundays? That’s not church– that’s a corporate worship service, and they are not the same thing. It is part of the thing, but not the thing itself.”
  • Optical Illusion/Time Waster of the Day 
  • Thanks To Kendrick, U2 Become The 4th Act With A Top 40 Hit In Each Of The Last 4 Decades
  • Glasgow gym set to introduce fitness class consisting of nothing but sleeping for 45 minutes
  • The secret lives of Google raters
  • I enjoyed watching the series on Netflix, but don’t think there needs to be a movie – ‘Psych’ Reunion Movie Could Begin Production in May
  • Babe Laufenberg, the former lead sports anchor of CBS11, is serving as their special Cowboys draft correspondent this weekend. Good for him for not harboring ill feelings after they didn’t renew his contract a few years ago.
  • Good to see Miles Garrett, the number one pick in the draft, choose not to partake in the hoopla and pageantry of the NFL draft. He decided to hold an event at a local country club with family and friends instead. Same goes for Patrick Mahomes. His father attended the same high school as WifeGeeding, though not at the same time.
  • I need to find a mutual fund focused on the Cuban economy – Google Spins Up Its First Servers In Cuba
  • I don’t check my hometown newspaper often, but I did so last night and the online poll was “What was your favorite Super Bowl ad?”
  • In honor of the Cowboys first round draft pick, Taco Charlton, here’s my favorite taco song. The Stars used to play this all the time when tacos were given away. Charlton was given the name Taco by his grandmother.
    • He was born Vidauntae Charlton, but eventually, his mother and grandmother thought, for some still-vague reason, that “Taco” was a good fit.

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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, April 27, 2017

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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, April 26, 2017

  • I had my MRI last night and it wasn’t as a big deal a lot of folks lead my to believe. It wasn’t as claustrophobic as I imagined. I asked if it was the most enclosed one they had and they affirmed it. In my mind, I’d be more “entombed”. It lasted about 25-minutes and I got to listen to The TICKET. Other than it getting a little warm and having that mental challenged of not moving, it wasn’t bad.
  • I miss progressive dinners. My old church in Mineral Wells used to have them. I’m guessing that’s a small town sort of thing. I’m afraid if our church held one it would turn into a very formal thing since most members are part of a very affluent community.
  • Local folks will understand – The DeSoto head football coach may be controversially fired, so where would CBS11 go to get opinions from the community? The barbershop.
  • Those commercials for Peloton stationary bikes with live and on-demand classes have caught my attention for a while since I really enjoyed cycle (or spin) classes years ago, and I even heard Bob Sturm talk about his and how his instructor mentioned his name during an internet streaming class (though I have a suspicion that may be a disguised ad). But yesterday I read a detailed review on it and almost all my questions were answered. This reporter had the unit for eight weeks and took 18 classes.
    • It costs $1,995 for the bike alone, there’s a required monthly subscription fee of $39/month, and shoes that clip on the pedals will cost about a $100. So your first year of working out will set you back at least $2,560.
    • Videos are streamed through the 22-inch touchscreen that’s affixed to the front of the bike with a front-facing camera and microphone in the front.
    • Up to 14 classes are streamed live every day and over 5,000 classes are on-demand. Classes are either 30 or 60-minutes.
    • When taking a live-streaming class, your cadence, resistance, and overall exertion level can be compared to other people across the globe and you can see where you rank in the class. The online instructors will even refer to participants by name.
    • I’d love one, but there’s absolutely no way I could justify the cost.
  • NFL Players Strike a Deal to Sell Their Biometric Data
  • Buzzfeed has a couple of interesting c-section videos which can be a bit unsettling for some.
  • Gizmodo – American Media Are Getting People at Home Ready for War With North Korea
  • How Bad Is It if I Never Eat Any Vegetables?
  • To get a lock rekeyed at the local locksmith, it would cost $85 if they came to GeedingManor or $15 if I drove four miles to their shop. I removed the deadbolt and drove to the shop, which was an adventure in itself. It was basically a mini-museum full of old locks, safes, and gadgets, and I’m sure were over two-hundred years old. One suck gadget was a 1950’s remote controlled lawn mower. I found a video of one in action.

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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, April 25, 2017

  • The facility for my MRI called to make an appointment yesterday. They said they had availability for that night, at 11:45 PM. No joke. It was tempting to schedule it and just get it out of the way, but I chose a more convenient time.
  • About seven years ago I wrote about my first CT scan and that it was at the Cowboys headquarters in Valley Ranch. I thought it was a great idea for Jerry to own such a thing so his staff and personnel would have immediate access but then charge others to use it when the team didn’t need it. He says so himself. I spoke to someone in the biz recently if the Cowboys still offer such a service with their move to Frisco. I was told Jerry ended up selling it to the largest provider if imagining in the area. But it doesn’t appear anyone has updated the Blue Star Imaging website, or the person I was talking to doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
  • A frustrated male employee in Dallas entered an office building and shot and killed his female supervisor and then himself. I didn’t the story one time on CNN’s web page and it wasn’t mentioned once on the ‘CBS Evening News’. Back in the day, I remember when stuff like that would lead a broadcast, now it isn’t even mentioned.
  • Texas Monthly – 3,822 Miles – One man’s quest to fly the length of Texas’s perimeter and capture the nature of our boundaries.
  • ‘Better Call Saul’ is simply worth watching for the cinematography alone.
  • A Head-to-Butt-to-Toe Explanation of What Happens to Your Body on an Airplane
  • Armchair political consultant time:
    • If I were a paid political consultant to President Trump and my focus was not what’s best for party or country but to set him up for re-election victory, I’d advise him to liberate North Korea. No president has been voted out of office during a “war” or military conflicts. The number one concern for Americans is safety (per polling, IIRC), so he’d just have to brand the “war” as essential to U.S. safety which would be easy to do since they have a high level of hate towards us and have a goal of creating an intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach us and they keep testing missiles. I’d have Trump press the war as a way to rescue the citizens of North Korea from horrible communist and dictator rule, and to go hard on the message of “If you aren’t supporting the troops, you aren’t supporting America, you are unpatriotic, and hate freedom.” There’s no better time for him to do this because China isn’t backing North Korea as much as they have in the past, and I’m willing to be Trump could get support from other countries.
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