Bag of Randomness for Thursday, October 6, 2016

jonathan-higgins-magnum-pi-john-hillerman

  • “I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right….”
  • I’ve mentioned not too long ago about Tony Robbin’s taking a cold plunge every morning and while I don’t have a cold pool, I’ve been ending my showers just running cold water for a full minute. Yesterday I came across this article about a guy who took “freezing cold” showers every day for a week and another about starting the day with a cold shower. I’m curious to know if I’ll continue this once the cold weather hits. I think what I’m getting most from this experiment is the battle against willpower and forcing myself into a change of routine. In a way, it feels like tackling a challenge head-on and overcoming it.
    • Facing the shower head, I let the warm water hit the top of my scalp and then quickly turn off the hot water. I can feel the water change slightly from hot to warm in about 15-seconds and then that’s when the cold starts to hit. The sensation of the hot-warm-cool-cold water change from top to bottom, especially if you are living in the moment, feels like an embracement of nature.
    • While keeping the water hitting my scalp, I slowly turn around so it will go down my back. Since my body already went through the sensation of feeling the cold, the cold water hitting my back isn’t that shocking. However, if I only allow the cold water to hit my chest and then turn around, it’s quite uncomfortable acclimating to the cold. I stay this way at least for thirty-seconds
    • I end the cold water session turning back around and letting it run down my chest.
      • Other than feeling like I’ve overcome a challenge, the shot of adrenaline provides me with a certain level of alertness and focus.
      • I shower twice at day, and one may think a cold shower  right before bedtime might keep me awake, but it doesn’t. Studies show people sleep better in colder environments. I go to bed feeling cold and wanting to cover up and more relaxed, ready for sleep, instead of trying to get comfortable.
      • There have been studies which state cold showers or plunges help with depression and weight loss. That’s not my motivation, but I wouldn’t mind the added benefits. But one benefit is not having to “cool off” from a hot shower, getting that slight bit of perspiration after toweling off.
  • GIF – Weiner dogs playfully attack a lion
  • Former Baylor football player Rami Hammad was arrested back in August for stalking a Baylor student. Yesterday, he was arrested on campus by Baylor Police on two charges of criminal trespassing.
  • Mall of America takes bold stand by closing on Thanksgiving this year –
    Stores still have the option to open, but mall executives want to put the emphasis back on Black Friday.
  • Buffalo news – Police: Out-of-shape officer candidate uses friend to take physical test
  • I’m using Google’s Project Fi as my mobile carrier and thinking about upgrading my pho9ne, so I naturally looked at Google’s new flagship phone, Pixel. The cheapest model is $649 or $27.04/month for 24 months. I’d prefer to pay for the phone upfront and avoid any finance or interest charges. I thought I’d do the math and see how much extra one would pay going the financing route, and one would actually save four cents if you choose the financing option. After reading the fine print, anyone who chooses the financing option is actually opening a credit card account with an introductory offer, “24 month equal pay financing offer with 0% APR” which can only be used for purchases at the GoogleStore. Also, I’m sure they’d get those four cents back after financing, rounding, niner.
  • Netflix just took another step toward getting its films into theaters
  • Buzzfeed – 6-Year-Old Victim Of Elementary School Shooting Had A Superhero-Themed Funeral
  • Archbishop Murphy High School – Everett, Washington – The high school football team nobody wants to play
    •  On the football field, Archbishop Murphy High School is a powerhouse, overwhelming its first three opponents this year by a combined score of 170-0. But winning by such margins is coming at a cost. The school is having trouble finding schools willing to play it. Since a mid-September blowout, three teams have now canceled on Archbishop Murphy.
    • Archbishop Murphy isn’t just big. Some of its players are the size of college and even professional players. There are six weighing at least 250 pounds, including three over 300 pounds.
    • One reason the players at Archbishop Murphy are so big is because as a private school, it can recruit players from around the region while public schools cannot. The growing call around the league is for Archbishop Murphy to play in a higher division.   
  • Why the Human Lifespan Ends at 122
    • The oldest human to have ever lived died at the age of 122—and that was nearly 20 years ago. A recent analysis of global demographic data suggests this may very well be the maximum age attainable by humans, and that it’s extremely unlikely anyone will ever live much beyond this advanced age. That is, unless we science the shit out of this problem.
  • GIF – This is one finely waxed automobile.
  • Goodbye, farewell, so long
    Vaya con Dios
    Good luck, wish you well, take it slow
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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, October 5, 2016

murder-she-wrotemagnm

  • I’m not sure the statement or the question, but one day my answer will be, “You can try to reheat french fries or freeze what’s left of an ICEE, but they just aren’t as good the second time.”
  • I thought the lead story for the ‘CBS Evening News’ would have been the VP debate since their own Elaine Quijano was the moderator. However, it was the second story, the lead story was Hurricane Matthew. I didn’t pay much attention to the debate, but like how Quijano ended one Q&A stating the question was about North Korea, indicating neither answered the question directly.
  • Speaking of Hurricane Matthew, I found this on Reddit – Hurricane Matthew passing directly over a weather buoy
    plot_met
    plot_wind_pres
  • Of course each party would, but they could have waited until after the event – GOP website declares Mike Pence winner of VP debate before it begins
  • Kaine and Pence both wore ties the color of their opponent’s party. That made me laugh because I feel like the decisions on a tie for such an event is a subtle attempt to try to woo the opposing party.
    • And that’s a nice segue to this article: Why red means Republican and blue means Democrat
      • In fact, there was a period when some of the networks, like NBC and CBS, had this color scheme reversed. In 1980, for example, NBC anchor David Brinkley declared the NBC map to “look like a suburban swimming pool” as Ronald Reagan’s big win over Jimmy Carter turned the NBC map almost entirely blue.
        Networks introduced colored maps to their election night coverage as a visual tool to distinguish themselves in the era of color television; CBS was first in 1972, and soon the others followed. By 1996, the television map color schemes aligned to what we are accustomed to now: red for Republicans and blue for Democrats.
  • My manager asked that I schedule some time to take off work. We can roll over 40 hours of vacation time each year, and for me to not lose any time, I have to burn 112 before the end of the year.
  • GIF – A small model experiment which shows you the importance of front-loading a trailer.
  • Baylor’s Title IX coordinator quits; results of recommendations cited
    • Crawford “was disappointed in her role in implementing the recommendations that resulted” from an independent investigation of the university’s handling of sexual-assault allegations committed by students, including football players, Baylor said in a news release late Monday night.
    • Late Monday night is 11:49 PM, per WFAA’s Mike Leslie. That’s a very odd time for a news release.
    • Crawford will be on ‘CBS This Morning’ this morning and she didn’t sign a confidentiality agreement (Baylor wanted to pay Crawford $1.5 million, with an additional $50,000 for signing a confidentiality agreement. Crawford then asked for $2 million; Baylor refused). Bills will be spilled – there’s even secretly recorded audio
      • Last month KWTX obtained a secretly recorded audio tape of a meeting between Crawford and members of the athletic staff in late July in which Crawford expressed frustration with the administration.
    • You can buy a Bring Back Art Briles shirt here.
  • Google kicked off its Pixel event with a ‘Silicon Valley’ intro
  • ‘Extinct’ species of tree found growing in Queen’s garden
  • Ben Stiller revealed his fight with prostate cancer yesterday. Until reading this Buzzfeed article, I didn’t realize about one in six men will get it.
  • The Magnum, P.I. theme song got stuck in my head for some reason yesterday and that lead to wonder how the series ended. (I think it’s because I saw something that reminded me of “scuba girl” featured in the show opening – here at the 14-second mark)
    • T.C. faces a reconciliation with his estranged wife. Magnum gets some surprising news about his theory that Higgins is really Robin Masters, when Higgins admits, finally, that he is indeed Robin. However, Higgins later recants that admission at Rick’s wedding. Magnum discovers that his former wife and her second husband have died, leaving the fate of his daughter, Lily, in his hands. Magnum decides to re-enlist in the Navy, at the rank of Commander, in order to give Lily a more stable home. The series ends with Magnum, in his Navy dress whites, and Lily leaving Hawaii for another naval base.
    • And now other Magnum stuff that got my attention when I was looking up that answer:
      • Magnum ‘Reboot’ Focusing on Iconic P.I.’s Daughter Eyed at ABC
      • One of Obama’s friends bought Robin’s Nest last year.
      • The answer Magnum provides for quitting the Navy, “I woke up one day at 33 and realized I had never been 23.”
      • The voice of Robin Masters, heard only a few times per season, was provided by Orson Welles
      • John Hillerman (Higgins) is still alive at age 83. The last I heard he was living in Texas, possible North Texas. I didn’t know he attended the Universit of Texas for three years.
      • Not sure why it surprises me, but Tom Selleck is 71 and the guy that played T.C., Roger Mosley, is 77.
        • Mosley is a licensed private helicopter pilot in real life, but when on the set of Magnum P.I. he was not allowed to do his own stunts. A pilot wearing a body stocking with muscles would be used instead.
      • There was a ‘Murder She Wrote’ crossover
        • “Novel Connection” — Jessica Fletcher comes to Hawaii when an attempt is made on Robin’s guests. The plot concludes on Murder, She Wrote in the episode “Magnum on Ice”.
      • The show also recognized the existence of the fictional elite state police unit that appeared in the series Hawaii Five-O. In the pilot episode, Magnum references the unit’s chief McGarrett by name. This was a tribute to the long-running show starring Jack Lord, that ran on CBS from the fall of 1968 through to the summer of 1980, to be replaced, in essence, in the fall of 1980 by Magnum, P.I.. The successor series to Hawaii Five-O paid tribute to Magnum, P.I. in the 2013 episode “Hoa Pili,” when the cast flew over the island in a helicopter to the sound of the Magnum, P.I. theme.
      • Didn’t the character Remington Steele also have some long series secret? And I think there was something about revealing MacGyver’s given name.
      • Here’s how the series ends, note there’s a little something at the end of the credits. I do like how you see Selleck in an Indiana Jones outfit in one brief scene as he was originally cast as the character.

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