BagOfNothing.com

• When I first started this blog, my intent was to never post any of my thoughts or anything about me. It started with just a bunch of individual posts of this or that. Later when I couldn’t find much material, I’d just group them together in something called Bag of Randomness. When I couldn’t find enough material even for a Bag of Randomness, I would sometimes throw some personal stuff in there. A handful of readers said they liked hearing what’s going on in my life, which I still can’t understand, so that’s when I started to post random personal thoughts and experiences. Now, I basically just do a Bag of Randomness and it’s all mixed together.
• It doesn’t matter if the road trip is five minutes or five hours, but we’ve never let our kids watch any movies or play with tablets or smartphones. It’s our way of trying to teach the kids to be patient, to look and observe, to not feel needy or occupied all the time, and it’s a great way to converse. Also, we just want them to experience a little bit of what we had to go through when we rode with our folks.
• Watching the United States men’s basketball team play Argentina, I’ve come to the conclusion that Argentina fans are boisterously annoying, especially when they have air horns.
• Manu Ginóbili was playing for Argentina. If there’s one thing I’ll remember him for, it was bringing the art of flopping in soccer to the NBA. Maybe not bringing it, but perfecting the annoying tactic.
• I’m surprised sprinters still attach their race bibs, or whatever you call that sheet of paper looking stuff attached to their front and back, with baby pins. By now, something more “advanced” should be used. Like, maybe something peel and stick?
• I only ran the hurdles for a small bit in junior high, but I really enjoyed it. There was something about counting and pacing your stride and the repetitious pattern that made if more fun than a regular sprint.
• I don’t want to be too quick to judge Ryan Lochte, but he does have a bit of an interesting past that could lead one to think he made up the fake cops mugging him and his peers story. And it would be just his luck that the s hits the fan when his teammates are pulled off a plane because of the story. But I could also believe government officials doing what they can to discredit the story and make them hosting the Olympics look better. For now, I think I’m going to side with Lochte, thinking he told his mother with no intention of the story getting out and being hesitant to not get his friends in trouble because they were out so late. As for his story not being entirely straight, I think we’ve all been prone to embellish a story a bit and adrenaline and nerves will mess with your mind.
• I think within the next five to seven years, we’ll find out Usain Bolt was doping.
• The Olympic pool in Rio may have given some athletes an edge
• One of the saddest stories I read all year – Arkansas police: Girl, 4, found zip-tied, beaten thought her name was ‘Idiot’‏
  • “when a police officer asked the girl what her name was, she said, “Idiot.” Police later discovered Reed regularly called the child “Idiot” instead of using her actual name.”
• Sports Illustrated Campus Rush – An oral history of how the Big 12 came to be
  • I got a chuckle out of this. The article title states it’s an “oral history”, which I understand the context, but since the oral part is now recorded in print, it’s “printed history” that’s now available in text form. I chuckle because it made me think of the Pepper Hamilton Report provided to Baylor, which was only provided orally, and there’s supposedly no recorded form of it, audio or print/text. Perhaps the report provided to Baylor should only be referred to as the Pepper Hamilton Oral Report. [Blogger Suggestion: Get your head out of the gutters with all the sexual innuendos.]
    • How Art Briles is the only coach fired and made scapegoat is baffling.
• Take a look at the most opulent labour room in the world

• Sometimes WifeGeeding will point something out to me and I’ll reply, without any intention of sarcasm, with, “Good eye.”  Sometimes she’ll reply back, “Yeah, it’s the only one I got.”
• Yesterday was orientation at DaughterGeeding’s school. It’s the second year of existence of the school, and the second year for the headmaster to be headmastering. Last year at orientation, he gave a speech and never introduced himself – his name nor his title. I playfully joked with him last year about it saying a lot of us parents had no idea who he was or his role with the school, but we assumed he was the principal. He’s not Bono, where you can stand in front of a crowd and everyone knows who you are. This year I was wondering if he would do the same. Almost. He said his name, but never mentioned his role with the school. I’m sure there were a bunch of kindergarten parents wondering who this young man speaking was, and when the headmaster was going to be introduced.
• I learned at orientation if a student is found with a mobile phone or smart watch, it will be taken and only given back after a small fee is paid.
• On last night’s ‘Hard Knocks’, rookie quarter Jared Goff  was asked if he was more of a sushi or burger man. He said sushi. I don’t want the quarterback of my team being a sushi man. He also prefers Justin Bieber over Justin Timberlake.
• Props to head coach Jeff Fisher explaing to his team how to stand and act during the national anthem.
• I ready comics daily, one of them is Ripleys’s – Believe It or Not!. Yesterday, former Texas Rangers great, Toby Harrah, was included.
• It’s like ‘Aerial America’ but with drones and a cute host – Droning America: Dallas, TX
• I’m considering visiting the LBJ Ranch in Stonewall, TX sometime this fall. Only problem, it’s a four-hour drive.
• These girls at Ole Miss have a glammed up dorm room.
• LiberallyLean.com – Decatur High School Has An “Abstinence Only” Program That You Must Opt Out Of?
• If I read this article correctly, the Navy plans on using drones to help refuel aircraft that’s already in flight.
• There was a video of a boy who swallowed a dog toy and squeaked when he moved flying around yesterday, but I think it’s fake.
• Electric Cars Are Way More Practical Than You Might Think – A new study finds that electric vehicles could handle most of our driving needs.
• As a Sherlock Holmes fan, I’ll be looking forward to this – Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly Reunite For ‘Holmes & Watson’
• Buzzfeed – This Runner Stopped In Her Olympics Final To Help Her Injured Competitor Finish
• TIME – Why the World’s Best Athletes Can’t Stop Eating McDonald’s
• If you are burnt out on the Olympics and can’t find anything on television to watch, I thought I’d recommend Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’, maybe the best thing I’ve watched all year. I plan on writing a spoiler-free post sometime soon. Netflix has posted the first eight minutes of the first episode on YouTube, which I posted below, along with a couple of trailers (I think the second one has the s-bomb).
  • I read all the boys in the film read scenes from Stand By Me when auditioning for the film.
  • The mysteries of Stranger Things are better left unsolved – Why the show’s lack of mythology is exactly why it worked
    • But the show’s success isn’t just due to the scenes, shots, and scenarios it cribs — though there are certainly plenty. It also emulates the storytelling style of the era: a time when movies reigned supreme, stories had endings, and just because something was a hit didn’t mean it warranted 42 tie-in comic books and an interconnected cinematic universe.
  • I have serious concerns about actress Natalia Dyer’s health after seeing this picture of her at the premiere. She’s either ill or has an eating disorder.
  • Vimeo – ‘Stranger Things’ Side-By-Side With All The ’70s And ’80s Movies It References
  • YouTube – Stranger Things | Virtual Reality / 360 Experience – Click and drag around the video to look around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWxyRG_tckY

• We were filling out a questionnaire in which BoyGeeding had to provide the answers, all simple stuff, like favorite color and food and such. But one answer stood out, and it goes with his way of thinking – What’s your favorite place? His answer, “The middle.”
• BoyGeeding had his first soccer practice. A parent of one of his teammates is someone that sat next to me when I worked at Fidelity Investments way back when. And in case WifeGeedingII is wondering, nope, you don’t know him.
• BoyGeeding snuck in a nap before that practice.
  
• YouTube – 90 yr old Dick Van Dyke singing “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” in a Denny’s‏
• When I was younger and hear “Adult Ed”, I thought it was “Special Ed” for adults.
• I was reading the Lewisville newspaper at a local restaurant waiting for a burger and found an article about how the school district is looking into moving graduation ceremonies from the University of North Texas Coliseum (or, Super Pit, for us locals) to the new Dallas Cowboys headquarters, The Star, in Frisco. The deal for use of the Star is $90,000 a year, a 181% increase over the $32,000 per use cost of going to UNT.  From Lewisville High School, the trip to Frisco would be 2.2. miles shorter. However, this covers more than one graduation – people tend to forget how big that school district is, it covers “all of Lewisville, The Colony, Flower Mound, Highland Village, Copper Canyon, and Double Oak as well as portions of Plano, Carrollton, Frisco, Hebron, Coppell, Grapevine and Argyle.”
• I was watching a Spike TV biography on JFK Jr. and BoyGeeding walked in and asked if I was watching Batman. I told him no and asked him why, and he said, “Because Bruce Wayne is on TV.” I never thought about it before, but I guess JFK Jr. would have made a good Bruce Wayne.
  • I always respected how he rode the subway to and from work and bucked family tradition of going to Yale Harvard and opting for Brown, trying to set his own course.
  • Loved how Jackie tried to keep him humble, like the time she sent him to a ranch in Wyoming to do grunt work.
  • The episode did a poor job of telling the viewer how these people they were interviewing were connected to him. I was already aware some of the relationships, like Chrstiane Amnapour was a classmate, but wasn’t sure about connections with Ann Culture (I later found out she wrote for his magazine), Chris Cuomo, Robert De Niro, Cindy Crawford, and all the other non-celebrities.
  • He was very keen on the idea of trying to earn things on his own and not on privilege, or at least the perception of it. For instance, the media made a big deal about him failing the bar exam twice. But what’s not mentioned is that because of a learning disability, he was allowed additional time to finish, but refused because he didn’t want people thinking he was being treated differently.
  • The magazine he founded, “George”, was ahead of its time, but I’m sure it would have still failed if he lived. It mixed politics and pop-culture, which was a bit weird for the time, and now the two are quite blended.
  • He seemed very polished when speaking to the media, like he knew exactly how they would spin something, so each answer to any question was very poised.
  • The conspiracy theory that the CIA caused the plane crash always entertained me. They feared his future was getting into political office and having access to files about how the CIA was behind the death of his father.
• Rose Kennedy Schlossberg, resembles her Jackie quite a bit.
• I don’t think Jacie ever did an interview, at least a televised one, after leaving the White House.
• Buzzfeed – 27 Things You Might Not Know About “The Americans”
• Had a few family members say that U.S. swimmer Nathan Adrian looks like the high school version of myself. I just see similarities in the eye squint and smile. One day, when I decide to update my half-Asian Hall of Fame, I’ll be sure to add him.
  
• Darth Vader toothpick dispenser
  
• This Is Why There Are So Many Ties In Swimming‏
  • In a 50 meter Olympic pool, at the current men’s world record 50m pace, a thousandth-of-a-second constitutes 2.39 millimeters of travel. FINA pool dimension regulations allow a tolerance of 3 centimeters in each lane, more than ten times that amount. Could you time swimmers to a thousandth-of-a-second? Sure, but you couldn’t guarantee the winning swimmer didn’t have a thousandth-of-a-second-shorter course to swim. (Attempting to construct a concrete pool to any tighter a tolerance is nearly impossible; the effective length of a pool can change depending on the ambient temperature, the water temperature, and even whether or not there are people in the pool itself.)
• U.S. Olympic Medalists Must Pay ‘Victory’ Tax
  • I remember Senators Rubio and Schumer trying to fix this, but I guess it fell through.
  • I forgot medal winners are actually given a cash bonus – Olympic medals and the bonuses—$25,000 for a gold medal, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze
  • Athletes can offset their potential tax hit with the hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses they’ve likely racked up for training and traveling, if they treat their sport as a profession.
• Before there was a Chewbacca Mom, there was a little chubby ChewbaccaGeeding.
  
• Deadspin – The Story Behind The Perfect Photo Of Olympic Pain
  
  
  • Related – 32 years after ‘that’ Olympic fall, Mary Decker and Zola Budd make friends
• Nike is getting beat by its rivals during the Rio Olympics
• New Audis will count down to the light turning green – If you’re driving the right car. On a supported road. In a compatible city.
• Absolutely love how Michael Phelps And Katie Ledecky recreated this photo.

Phelps’ favorite athlete and biggest fan @kledecky is joining us on #OlympicLateNight 12:35a ET

A photo posted by Ryan Seacrest (@ryanseacrest) on Aug 15, 2016 at 3:10pm PDT