Bag of Randomness for Thursday, July 7, 2016

08 13 2015 12 32 PM Office Lens

  • That’s a picture of my friend Jimi during our high school years. I’ve known him since kindergarten. We roomed together in college, and then worked for the same company out of college, and our cubes were literally across from each other at work and yet we still cohabitated together. Heck, we even roomed together another time before I got married. Today he starts a new chapter in his life and is moving to Chicago. I’m remarkably happy for him, and a tiny bit jealous I never took the opportunity to live out of state and experience something different. And in an effort to be transparent, I’m actually a bit sad. We’ve always been near each other since kindergarten, college, and in our adult lives. During football practice, he was a defensive end and I was a tight end, so we always competed against each other. We’ve played more Madden games than there are hairs on a rabbit. No other friend knew and appreciated my parents like he has, and no one knows me better than him. We’ve had our ups and downs, and more fights than you can count, but all of that built up substance which can’t be replicated or exchanged and made something beautifully unique. As he leaves Texas today, I’m going to feel like a part of me and a major part of my life will forever be gone. He has plans to return in three years, but we know how life can throw any plans in a thousand unpredictable locations.
  • Other notable things about Jimi
    • No one loves The Breakfast Club more than him, and he loved that movie before it was cool. He can literally quote it from beginning to end.
    • No person has accomplished more with less effort than Jimi, he’s got a photographic memory and able to comprehend things as if he’s John Nash.
    • He spent the night at my house the night Baby Jessica was rescued from the well. He also was the banker in a game of Monopoly with me and my mother and he ran that think like it was Enron.
    • His mom is hot. Her name is Cindy, and I always say it like Sin-dy when I talk about her to him.
    • When I speak at his funeral, because we all know he’s gonna die in a freakish but comedic way before all of us, I’m going to say that anyone that knows Jimi knows he likes to make people laugh, and if there is ever a lull in a conversation, all you have to do is bring him up and you have stories galore.
    • He loves to do impersonations and he’s horrible at them, but nobody will tell him, but you can tell he knows he’s bad.
    • His mom once beat him with a bicycle chain for doing something bad to his sister.
    • His super power is the ability to name a spare but hot actress in any movie.
    • He won’t touch a wooden spoon because he can’t stand how it feels.
    • He’s most responsible for getting me involved in the church.
  • A few more items about buying my 2014 Nissan Leaf
    • Big complaint – small cupholders, I feel like Homer Simpson.
    • My concern about battery life lessened when I found Nissan’s warranty against a capacity loss of nine bars (approximately 70% of the battery pack’s original capacity of twelve bars) for a period of 60 months or 60,000 miles. Even at nine bars, you’re still looking at a 46-mile range.
      • Because of this, I’ve discovered a lot of folks are looking for used pre-owned Leafs that barely fit the criteria. VINs are easy to obtain, they are available on every used pre-owned vehicle website I’ve looked at, and those websites also display how many capacity bars display on the dash. They then call Nissan to confirm the battery is still within warranty, buy the car, then arrange the battery swap. What really works in their favor, especially if the Leaf is a 2011 or 2012 model, is they get an updated battery with better capacity and range.
      • My latest search on AutoTrader.com for a 2012 Leaf shows them in the $8,000 range with miles ranging from 30,300 to 34,600. I believe all those are at 10 bars, and that’s with first generation battery.
    • I chose a 2014 model because it has the most up to date battery in terms of technology, range, and capacity, other than the newest model. It looks like a full charge will realistically get you 80-75 miles, not the advertised 100.
    • Nissan offers free towing if you ever run out of juice. There are warning galore as you start to get low, and it will provide directions to the nearest charging station.
  • For you local folks that are aware of how our local media operates and a fan of The TICKET – Mike Doocy is filling in for BaD Radio and told Norm during the mix and mingle that when Norm dies, his death will be the lead story on Fox4….unless there’s bad weather.
  • Interesting real estate data from D Magazine, unless you live in Lewisville and didn’t make the list. Maybe one day I can afford to move my family to a legit ZIP code.
    • The chart shows North Texas home sales from January through April 2016, and compares them to figures from the same time period last year. Also, we compared the prices to those from the same period in 2013.
  • The kids of Jesus Camp, 10 years later
    • The controversial 2006 documentary about an evangelical church camp outraged secular audiences, but its subjects have mixed memories
  • Jim Douglass of WFAA is retiring. I always thought he and SNL alum Kevin Nealon looked alike.
  • Buzzfeed – People Are Melting After Watching This Dog With Headphones Watch A Dog Video
  • Buzzfeed – Nickelodeon’s “Double Dare” Is Coming Back For One Week 
    • In honor of the show’s 30th anniversary, Nickelodeon’s The Splat is having Marc Summers host a special live edition of the game show on Friday, July 22, during San Diego Comic-Con.
  • A NASCAR Team Is Building The First Internal Combustion Engine To Go Into Outer Space
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Juno Approach Movie of Jupiter and the Galilean Moons

I’ve cued the video to start at the 30-second mark, which I think is the most impressive and was taken over a time period of 17 day, per NASA’s Reddit AMA yesterday. NASA amazes me. That’s a five-year journey that takes into account the rotation of planets, orbits, gravitation pull, and a lot more – which means that’s five years worth of math working out just about perfectly.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured a unique time-lapse movie of the Galilean satellites in motion about Jupiter. The movie begins on June 12th with Juno 10 million miles from Jupiter, and ends on June 29th, 3 million miles distant. The innermost moon is volcanic Io; next in line is the ice-crusted ocean world Europa, followed by massive Ganymede, and finally, heavily cratered Callisto. Galileo observed these moons to change position with respect to Jupiter over the course of a few nights. From this observation he realized that the moons were orbiting mighty Jupiter, a truth that forever changed humanity’s understanding of our place in the cosmos. Earth was not the center of the Universe. For the first time in history, we look upon these moons as they orbit Jupiter and share in Galileo’s revelation. This is the motion of nature’s harmony.

Speaking of Galileo –

  • Juno carries a plaque to Jupiter dedicated to Galileo Galilei. The plaque was provided by the Italian Space Agency and measures 7.1 by 5.1 centimeters (2.8 by 2.0 in). It is made of flight-grade aluminum and weighs 6 grams (0.21 oz).[67] The plaque depicts a portrait of Galileo and a text in Galileo’s own hand, penned in January 1610, while observing what would later be known to be the Galilean moons. 
  • Oh, and LEGOs are included – The spacecraft also carries three Lego minifigures representing Galileo, the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno.

I love how NASA name things. Why Juno?

  • The spacecraft’s name comes from Greco-Roman mythology. The god Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief, but his wife, the goddess Juno, was able to peer through the clouds and see Jupiter’s true nature.
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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, June 6, 2016

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  • It has rained every single time I’ve been given or bought an automobile. It’s never planned this way, it just happens. When I put a deposit on a car on Friday morning to reserve it, knowing we wouldn’t be able to pick it up the following week due to traveling schedules, WifeGeeding thought with the current forecast, the streak would have been broken.
  • We’ve been a one-car family for over two years, and since I work from home, it’s worked well for the most part. But as the kids have grown and there are more activities and commitments, we’ve felt the need to get a second vehicle. Our only problem was we didn’t know what we wanted. So I started to figure out what our what our true wants and needs are. Price was a huge factor and functionality which fit our lifestyle was second – car seats had to fit, ability to get backpacks easily in and out, stuff like that. Another big issue was blind spots. Since WifeGeeding is limited to vision in only one eye, it’s important to me that she’s able to get a good view all around her. No sedan seemed to fit those needs, and we didn’t like the price and mileage that came with SUVs that fit our criteria. I thought about buying an old truck just for me to use, especially with all the DIY stuff I like to do, but nothing was really out there. But on a whim, we decided to test drive a Nissan Leaf and was hooked.
  • A Leaf? Some of you think that may perfectly fit me as a tree-hugging liberal, but environmental concerns had very little to do with it. What about range anxiety? Well, I work from home, WifeGeeding works less than a mile away, our church is seven miles away, and we have another car for any long trips. What really got my attention was the price for a used pre-owned one. I could find 2014 models around the 10,000-mile range for $9,000-$13,000. The only thing left to do was a test drive.
  • Going into the test drive, we thought it would be cramped but was surprised that it was roomier than most small SUVs we looked at. Off hand, you’d think acceleration would suck, but since it’s electric it’s already torqued, so it’s surprisingly peppy. It’s really a fun car to drive, and blind spots don’t seem to be an issue. Due to the weight of the battery and it basically being the base or bottom of the car, it feels well centered and handles well.
  • As for charging, it comes with a charger that plugs into your basic 120-volt outlet, but it will take about 21-hours to charge an almost empty battery. A 240-volt option is available which will charge the car in about four hours, and Nissan will sell you the charger for $1,000 and charge you another $1,000 to install it. However, you can find 240-volt chargers on Amazon for $300 to $700 with install prices ranging from $200 to $600. I got my charger off Amazon in two days for about $450 and install is expected to be close to $200, perhaps less. I find out today.
  • On my drive home, the first thing I wanted to hear through the speakers was the same thing I have to listen to on any new car or device, U2. I went with Achtung Baby.
  • The last two or three vehicles we’ve bought had the actual window price sticker in the glove compartment. That’s always a neat find to see what the actual window sticker price was and to see the actual list of options and features included.
  • BoyGeeding loves to charge LeafGeeding when we get home, he’s a one-man pit crew.
  • I’m a bit overwhelmed with all the features, but it’s one of those things where you just have to accept you don’t need to understand them all right away, there’s no time table. But at the same time, it’s fun to have a new toy and see what it can do.
  • Thumbing through the service and maintenance guide, the only thing you need to change is the brake fluid every 7,500 miles and maintain proper tire rotation. Other than that, there’s no other maintenance.
  • In my neck of the woods, a power line fell closing the area around 121 and 635 right before rush hour. It was eerie seeing those roads abandoned, not a single vehicle or person on them. As someone that’s lived around DFW Airport for the last sixteen years, the closest thing to this was when all airplanes were grounded right after 9/11. You’re so used to seeing planes in the air and the slight noise pollution that comes with it, but when it’s gone, it’s eerie.
  • On last night’s ‘Wheel of Fortune’, one of the contestants was a little person, I’m sure he wasn’t even five feet tall. He was allowed to bring a friend to be his wheel spinner. The winner of last night’s show has a father and sister that were also winners of the game show.
  • I usually don’t take using bug spray seriously, but mosquitos with West Nile have been found in traps in three areas within a mile or two of GeedingManor.
  • I don’t understand the law. A 17-year-old Plano Sr. High School baseball player is accused of sexually assaulting two children in his mother’s daycare. His name was in every article I saw. I thought since he’s a minor, that his name would be withheld. If he is innocent, he’s screwed anytime a potential employer or anyone does a Google search on him. I’m guessing that “innocent until proven guilty” isn’t a reality but an ideal?
  • If a man walks into a restroom and doesn’t immediately see a urinal, panic ensues.
  • Largest collection of presidents and cakes ever assembled
  • Watch the real Stephen Colbert tell a beautiful love story
    • Before each episode, the host answers questions from the audience. Asked about his wife, Colbert responded with a six-minute monologue about how he knew, in the moment he first saw her, that she was the one.
  • Today’s Dose of ‘MURICA!
    • Jackie Gervais (Army veteran of two tours in Afghanistan) Galvin of Rush City, Minnesota, said on her Facebook page that the eagle had become entangled in a rope in the tree. It had hung upside down from a branch near the cabin belonging to her and her husband, Jason Galvin, for more than two days, she said. Jason Galvin used a borrowed .22-caliber rifle with a scope to sever the 4-inch (10 cm) rope after firing 150 shots. Galvin never hit the eagle.
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