Your Bag of Nothing for Friday, August 16, 2024

  • NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! Bad decision! –Nicolas Cage to Play NFL Icon John Madden in David O. Russell’s Biopic

    Amazon MGM is backing “Madden,” which will be written, directed and produced by Russell. The filmmaker was reportedly considering Will Ferrell and Hugh Jackman to star in the film before Cage was cast.

  • My late mother turned 76 yesterday. For her birthday, I would normally ask my readers to read something as my mother enjoyed reading.
  • I started this blog on one of her birthdays. That’s right, believe it or not, but this blog turned 19 yesterday.
  • The Harris Walz campaign are rolling out videos of the two getting to know each other. I watched one video in which they discuss music. It wasn’t surprising to hear Walz talk about Springsteen and Bob Seger and Harris about Prince. But I was surprised Harris’ husband is a big Depeche Mode fan.
  • It’s nice to see President Biden is lightening up; he had a pretty good one-liner speaking to a bunch of visiting influences earlier this week:
    • “You break through in ways that I think are going to change the entire dynamic of the way in which we communicate, and that’s why I invited you to the White House, because I’m looking for a job. You think—when I retire, where do you think I’m going? I got contacts, man, you all think I’m kidding.”
    • Of course, at his age, no one expects him to be building houses like Jimmy Carter, who, surprisingly, just won’t die. he’s been in hospice forever. But Biden is right, presidents have contacts, some you can’t even imagine. I wonder what he’ll do or what he has in mind. I’m guessing something small, like a retired POTUS podcast. Hey, that’s an idea. What if all the former living presidents got together on Zoom or some other medium and talked about their lives or current events once a month? You could get a presidential historian like Jon Meacham to host and keep the conversation flowing. Being such a people person, I could see him teaching and really enjoying it.
  • A 22-year-old NewsNation reporter in Chicago was killed last month after she was struck by an oncoming commuter train. You’d probably think it happened because she wasn’t attention because she was looking at her phone or couldn’t hear the train because she had earbuds on, but both were in her purse. The article mentions the parents following her commute home using the Life360 app and slowly realizing what happened in real-time, which is gutwrenching to read as a parent.
    • Then after five or so minutes, Bentkowski noticed her location started going backward toward the city instead of Northwest Indiana. He thought someone stole her phone, then the GPS dot started going 70 to 80 miles per hour toward the University of Chicago Medical Center. “I got a bad feeling she was the one who was hit, as soon as I saw she ended up at University of Chicago I hopped in the car and drove down there,”
    • Something that also must have been gutwrenching for them was watching a video of the accident with sound.
      • Family viewed video of the incident and told WGN News no horn was blown by the conductor and the train accelerated quickly. “No noise, no nothing. From the video all you hear is a thud,” Bentkowski said. “Then the engineer blows a horn.”
  • Yesterday the Musers talked about Texas high school stadiums. I thought it was interesting and smart of the folks in Denton to put the video board directly across the field behind the visitor stands so the home crowd doesn’t have to turn their heads. The visitors also have a scoreboard, but it’s off to the side. I almost want to go on a rant about how all high school stadiums, including the one in Mineral Wells, all have to have a video board. It seems they are standard now, even for small towns.

    This one is also interesting. It doesn’t look like that right now as it’s being repaired from storm damage.
  • Staying on the topic of athletic venues, the LA Clippers’ new home, the Intuit Dome, opened this week, and it’s caught my attention. Every seat will have a USB charging port. There’s a HUGE screen out front for fans who can’t get inside to watch the game outside with a basketball court in front of it, which is designed to be used by the community, and can be rented out for various special events. One concourse features a display of high school basketball jerseys from every single school in the state of California. Here are a few pics and videos.


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Your Bag of Nothing for Thursday, August 15, 2024

  • I thought I had a decent poker face, but now I humbly admit I do not. I was on a date yesterday evening and was having a good time. My date was telling me a story and stopped out of concern, asking me what was wrong because my face changed, almost like I’d seen a ghost. That surprised me because I did all I could do to keep a straight face and stay engaged as my ex-wife walked by. I thought this stuff only happens in the movies. I think it’s all in my eyes because I really tried hard to act like nothing happened. At first, I was mad at myself, thinking it wasn’t her and I was letting her live rent-free in my head, again. But then I noticed a certain mannerism she always does when she gets stressed, and then I knew for sure it was her. It all worked out. I think it broke the ice, and she asked for my number after I escorted her to her car.
  • I ran across an article about Pamela Anderson’s son, which said, “Pamela Anderson’s 28-year-old son, Brandon Thomas Lee, was removed from the swanky country club he’s a member of after an altercation on the golf course.” I wonder why fathers, especially ones who are celebrities in their own right, aren’t included as a parent.
  • In retrospect, should they have used the Top Gun anthem during Tom Cruise’s entrance into the closing ceremony? I’m not complaining about the music; in fact, I’ve been scouring the web for the song H.E.R. played as he descended, but it seemed like a missed opportunity. For some reason, I can’t stop thinking about the moment, which I knew was coming because of press leaks. I really got a kick out of how he gazed into the camera just before he jumped as if it were nothing.
  • I like Simone Biles’ husband, Chicago Bear Jonathan Owens. The latest Hard Knocks focused on him a bit as he left training camp to support his wife. He’s obviously not as well known as her, but I liked the way he answered a question about how marrying her is a true prize, which it is. But he said he thinks of it as her winning the prize. He said in a non-selfish manner, which caught my attention. I wish I thought about myself as positively as he thinks about himself. Something else that caught my attention was how perceptive he was and his professional athletic mindset. He was commenting on a rope climbing contest he lost to his wife. He pointed out her form and how she didn’t waste any energy. That tells me he studies technique. And if I were a coach or fan of the Bears, I’d be happy that he’s our starting safety, who has to read defenses and constantly acts on his perceptions. It’s just a part of his personality and who he is. I wish I could identify something like that in me and be in a profession that takes advantage of it.
  • This isn’t all that surprising – Celebrities do have an impact on elections, Harvard study finds
  • LiberallyLean mentioned Willie Horton yesterday.
    • Curious, I searched to see if he was still alive and in prison. Yes, and yes, and he’s 73.
    • I also discovered that Dukakus is still alive and 90 years old.
    • That led me to read about the late Republican strategist Lee Atwater and a 2015 article on the Marshall Project’s website. This part stood out:

      • “My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood,” Atwater wrote in Life magazine just weeks before his death, at age 40, of a brain tumor. “In 1988,” he continued, “fighting Dukakis, I said that I ‘would strip the bark off the little bastard’ and ‘make Willie Horton his running mate.’ I am sorry for both statements: the first for its naked cruelty, the second because it makes me sound racist, which I am not.” There were rumors that Atwater sent Horton a personal letter of apology. Horton says he doesn’t remember that, but concedes he received so much mail during that time, it could have easily gotten lost or thrown away.

      • One cool feature of the Marshall’s Project website, at least that article, is how they embedded audio clips. I’m not sure how to describe it, but I liked it. The clips complimented the article and were nonintrusive. You simply click on the clip, and it plays and transcribes what was said with a countdown timer. I guess I’m too used to how most articles link to another page or pop-up video player and force you to watch an ad before hearing what you want.
  • A University of Kentucky student pleads guilty after singing the N-word 200 times at black staffer in 10-minute rant
    • You can watch a clip of the unfortunate event here. Those two black women were very composed.
  • It warms my heart when I hear random stories about Robin Williams’ kindness – Sally Field Recalls How Robin Williams Changed Mrs. Doubtfire Filming Schedule After Her Dad’s Sudden Death
    • There’s a push to put a statue of him as his Good Will Hunting character in Boston, and Matt Damon had some cool things to say about it, after hearing, I like the idea behind it,
      • “I don’t know if it will happen, but I really hope it does. Someone proposed to us an artist to do a bronze statue of Robin and permanently put it there, and the idea being that if you feel alone you can go sit next to him, which I think is the coolest idea.“
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Your Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, August 14, 2024

  • At the end of trivia last night, it was announced that our team had placed second. We were happy. But another team protested the score, and there was a retabulation.  A minute later, it was announced we finished in third. I now somewhat know what Jordan Chiles felt in Paris, but totally not.
  • I was drinking a Sprite and eating my dinner at trivia. I drank most of it but didn’t like it. When our server asked if I wanted a refill, I politely declined. I asked if she could bring an unsweet tea, which she did. Five minutes later, she brought me a refill of Sprite, and hadn’t even touched my tea. I didn’t want to embarrass her, so I simply thanked her. She looked at me, smiled, and told me she knew I didn’t want a refill but she wanted to bring me one anyway. I’m not sure what to think about that.
  • There’s a handprint on the driver-side window of my car. It wasn’t there when I got in the car to drive home after trivia. However, on the way home, a motorcycle rider sped right between me and another car in the left lane next to me trying to pass us. It appeared he lost his balance and had to place his hand on my car to regain his balance. Once he did, he darted off again, and here I am stuck with a handprint on my window.
  • Woot had a sale on Mezzaluna knives. They are those half-moon knives with a handle on the top. I thought they would be good to have, but I just couldn’t justify a good reason since I don’t cook as much anymore. I do miss cooking family meals.
  • Here’s a strange story out of Tennessee that I really don’t know how to summarize. I think it’s something that a blogging Wise County lawyer would like. It is about a corrupt small-town police department abusing access to sensitive data, the cop going on conspiracy podcasts, and the police chief claiming the reporter is a pedophile.
  • Die-hard fans of U2 know Willie Williams. As the creative director, he’s the person responsible for the technology behind their shows for the last 40 years. Here a sample of his Ted Talk about how he used the Sphere in Las Vegas for the band. I encourage you to watch the whole thing. Watch the whole Ted Talk here.

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Your Bag of Randomness for Monday, August 12, 2024

  • The Paris Olympics is over and I can let out a high sigh of relief. I’m always worried some sort of terrorist event is going to happen and thankful these games were peaceful.
  • A trademark lawyer sold the domain name ClintonKaine.com in 2016. He’s sitting on HarrisWalz.com now
  • I primarily use Chrome as my browser, but one thing that has been annoying me is that it keeps asking if I want to “Sign in with Google?” for every site I visit, even a news website like CNN. I finally decided to find a way to turn it off and thought I’d share if it was also bugging you:
    • 1. Go to “My Account” : “Security” ( https://myaccount.google.com/security )
      2. Click on “See all connections” link in “Your connections to third party apps & services”
      3. Click on the gear at the top of the “Third party apps & services” page
      4. Disable the “Signing in with Google” prompt
  • I’ve wanted a new laptop for a while, but it had to meet specific criteria and a particular price point. It took several weeks to find one, but I bought one 13 days ago. For some reason, I haven’t gotten it out of its packaging. Do you own armchair psychoanalysis.
  • I’ve had to sit through a few of these sermons.
  • This has potential – Michelle Pfeiffer is joining the “Yellowstone” franchise.
    • The actress has been tapped to star in and executive produce the “Yellowstone” spinoff “Madison,” which was previously announced as “2024.”
  • Just a very random shoutout to longtime and faithful reader Kaleb from the Houston area. I hope all is well with you and your family; thank you for your virtual friendship and support throughout the years.

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