Your Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, July 31, 2024

  • My trivia team placed third last night. At the end of the evening, the wait staff gave everyone a check but me. The waiter explained that the enchiladas I ordered were a new menu item, and she didn’t like how they looked when I was served my food, so my meal was free. That was unexpected, I didn’t think anything looked off nor did I complain or make any comment. I kinda felt bad, but still made sure to leave my waiter a nice tip.
  • Hearing the rest of the country complain about how hot the summer has been is weird. For a Texas summer, it hasn’t been that bad. But, I may have just jinxed us as we are about to enter August.
  • I know the goal isn’t to sell tickets, but I bet there are regrets about not putting Caitlin Clark on the team.
  • It’s interesting how low attendance has been at the Cowboys training camp. Finally, fans have accepted reality.
  • I’m not fond of the new onside kick rules the NFL is implementing this year. I understand the goal is player safety and all, but man, this is drastic.
    • Onside kicks are illegal before 4th quarter
    • Teams must be losing to kick an onside kick
    • Teams must announce their intention to kick an onside kick ahead of time
  • The J. W. Westcott II is a boat based in Detroit, Michigan, and is the only floating ZIP Code in the United States. A moving ZIP code, that’s interesting.
  • Little things I’m grateful for: I can eat basically whatever whenever I want. There’s a California woman who has 100 different allergies and is restricted to eating just 13 foods
      • “The 13 foods I can eat are white fish, turkey, green beans, zucchini, cucumber, lime, dates, grapes, raspberries, pears, chia seeds, water lily seeds and olive oil,” she said.The art of #waterpolo from an underwater perspective
  • Speaking of allergies, my grass allergies have been getting the best of me as of late.
  • Political armchair pundit time: A great post by the Harris campaign if they aim to show which candidate is more compassionate.

  • Our national mascot, the bald eagle, has been replaced by Snoop Dogg.

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  • I regret not watching a single rugby game, and I wonder if this will go down as one of the greatest last plays in Olympic team play history. Granted, it wasn’t for the gold, but it was for their first medal. And this was well said, ”

    “In rugby, we say we’re just passing through the jersey and making the jersey better,” Maher said. “And that’s always been my goal: to make this jersey better, not just for me but for the other girls who are going to come into the program.”

    And could the timing of a new league be any better? It’s too bad there’s no Dallas team. Though a quick search found a handful of professional women’s rugby teams in the area.

    • On Wednesday, April 10th, 2024, the women’s rugby union in the U.S. took its first step towards professionalism with the announcement of the creation of Women’s Elite Rugby (WER). WER will become the first professional women’s rugby union competition in the U.S., offering women the opportunity to earn a living wage while playing one of the fastest growing global sports.

 

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Your Bag of Randomness for Monday, July 29 ,2024

  • Here’s a random thought: the Olympic cauldron should be one gigantic scented candle.
  • I really appreciate Paris taking a big risk of not having a traditional opening ceremony in a stadium. Sacrifices have to be made. I’m sure there’s nothing like a flag bearer bearing their flag and hearing their country announced as you enter the stadium is a moment like no other. So, that’s a loss, but making it accessible to the whole city and utilizing all the landmarks was neat. I love watching the opening ceremony when the Olympics are held outside of the U.S. I learn and get exposed to so much. It’s still hard to believe that a city like Atlanta and Salt Lake ever hosted the games.
  • Something else that surprised me about the opening ceremony was how much they utilized athletes and artists of other nations. You’d think it would open with a French citizen, but they chose Lady Gaga, an Italian-American. And as much as I like Snoop Dogg, I don’t understand why an American non-athlete gets to carry the torch in Paris. Speaking of which, I’m still amazed at how concerned everyone was when he first got popular about his influence on young people and society and now he’s beloved and welcomed with open arms.  That gives me hope that one day, someone might actually think positively of me.
  • One thing that was very noticeable to me was the performers’ diversity, everything from race or ethnicity to body shape.
  • When I was in high school, my church’s youth group took us to Burger’s Lake in Fort Worth. It’s a spring-fed chlorinated lake with a sandy beach and all sorts of fun stuff. Visiting it is like going back in time to the Seventies. I fulfilled a small dream and took my family there in 2015. To my surprise, I learned Janet Jackson visited it with her crew last week. I’m just trying to imagine how shocked I’d be to be visiting and then seeing a childhood icon. She was playing in Fort Worth at the new Dickeys Arena, and to my surprise, tickets were still available the day before the concert.
  • Sunday school was thought-provoking. We analyzed Psalm 1 and studied its parallelism, saying one idea in two or more ways or making a statement and then restating it in a different way. You know, a Psalm will start off with “Great blessings belong to those who…”
    – Who are not ____, Or are not _____
    – Who don’t ____, Instead, ____.
    The last part of the class was spent as if we were the psalmist and writing out our own Psalms using parallelism. It was a challenge for me, but hearing everyone else’s was very interesting. Some were very personal, but they all were creative and beautiful in their own way. I was impressed with what everyone came up with. It just really stuck with me.

  • The best pickleball you’ll see today. Impressive.

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Your Bag of Randomness for Thursday, July 25, 2024

  • Watched a bit of a Jesse Owens biography. Offhand, I can’t think of anything more badass in sports than winning four gold medals in the heart of Nazi Germany. Seriously, how can that be topped? There may be other considerable others, but I don’t think there’s any topping that.
    • Germans pronounced his name as “Oh-Vens.”
    • Hitler referred to him as, and I quote, “The Jewish N—-R.” Whoa.
    • It sure is interesting how the Nazis invented the torch run from ancient Olympia to the host city, and we still carry the tradition.
  • I really had zero interest in watching the Olympics. I always dreamed of watching them with my family and don’t want the negative reminder. But, the opening ceremony is always worth a watch. Back in the day, we were forced to watch the Parade of Nations, which is cool but can get pretty boring. Now, we can stream it and fast-forward a recorded broadcast. But this is the first that the athletes aren’t walking, they will all be on a boat.
  • I watched a little bit of Trump’s golf outing with Bryson DeChambeau. I found the former president to be likable. He can be friendly when he wants to be. Yeah, he’s pretty heavy, but he does stay pretty active. The presidency really didn’t age him like it does other presidents.
  • I was a bit underwhelmed by President Biden’s speech last night.
    • I was expecting something to really stand out, like LBJ’s ” I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.” In case you are wondering, he used “shall” four times in that speech.
      • When I toured the LBJ library, I remember seeing the teleprompter script of that speech. Back then, a special typewriter was required to type out the oversized font, easy-to-read script on a roll of paper with sprocket holes along the side to enable automated scrolling. I distinctly remember one word being crossed out and another hand-written as if it was a last-minute edit. I’ve spent way too much time than I want to admit looking for a photo of it. Here’s something similar.
      • Speaking of presidents and teleprompters. I was distracted at looking at the reflection of the teleprompter scrolling over Biden’s left shoulder.
      • For some reason, when a president speaks from the Oval Office, I keep expecting something to happen in the window, like a bird flying smack into it. Can you imagine if that happened?
      • I think the White House uses the TP 800 when the president travels; and those will cost you a little over $1,300.
      • The teleprompter was invented in 1949 while Harry Truman was president. The first to use one was Ike. Here he is preparing his farewell address. You may notice he didn’t use the Resolute Desk.
      • It took a lot of work to prepare for one of Ike’s speeches.
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Your Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, July 24, 2024

  • The hardest part in deciding who to vote for as President is trying to find differences between Harris and Trump. They are just too alike; there’s no real distinction between them. Voters again face the issue of having no real choice.
  • It would be in poor taste, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the attempted Trump assassination area turned into some targeting or shooting range for gun enthusiasts. I wonder what people would pay to shoot from the same spot on the roof as the shooter at a target marked the same distance away that Trump was.
  • A lot of people whiten their teeth; most are too white or bright, and it doesn’t look natural. I tried the procedure once and got what they called zingers, which are random, unpredictable, and sharp pain in my teeth. That was some of the worst pain I’ve ever been in, and I’ve had four back surgeries.
  • I haven’t given it much thought, but there must have been a lot of anti-Biden signs and merchandise that are now useless since he’s no longer in the race. Biden has gutted so many of Trump’s “arguments.” They are gone in one fell swoop: President Biden’s age, Hunter Biden, the whole “Biden crime family” corruption allegations—all out the door.
  • Agency retracts announced firing of key Baptist leader who had praised Biden’s withdrawal as a ‘selfless act’
    • In under 48 hours, the head of the staunchly conservative public-policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention rankled fellow Baptists by applauding President Joe Biden’s “selfless act” of withdrawing his candidacy for re-election. Then, his agency reported he was fired — and now they have reaffirmed his leadership.
  • Here’s the last photo and interview of Richard Simmons. He looked better than I expected, being a recluse and all. And he was going to make a comeback from retirement.
  • President Biden tweeted this photo last night. I thought it was unique since so few people will ever be able to see that perspective with their own eyes. I’m guessing it’s taken from the Truman Balcony looking straight down.
  • Child abusers should not be put in leadership positions at church.
  • Couldn’t they have given Wilt some longer shorts?

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