Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, March 5, 2024

  • Y’all liking these longer posts, or are they a beating? You complain when I don’t post and then complain when my posts are too long. Hey, just as long as you are complaining I’m happy, at least I know I’m worth griping about, and that means a lot to me.
  • Jon Stewart helps me get through Mondays.
  • Monday started with a frustrating but funny medical billing call. I’ve met my deductible and out-of-pocket, so I’m covered at 100%. Knowing this, I reordered some CPAP supplies. They arrived within a few days, and two weeks later I received a bill for almost $200. The bill said that my insurance, Cigna, has already been billed. I had a feeling the medical supply company needed to update my insurance information. My insurance company hasn’t changed, but I have since started work with another employer. The first thing I do is log into my health insurance website to look at the claim and Explanation of Benefits. Neither existed.
    • I place the call, go through the lengthy phone tree, and finally get a human representative. Within ten seconds of her speaking, I hear a dial tone. I guess we got disconnected. No big deal, so I hit the redial button.
      • “The number from which you are calling has been detected as spam. If you think this is in error…”
      • Hmm, that’s weird. I didn’t catch the last part of the recording. so I hit redial, “The number from which you are calling has been detected as spam. Press 1 if you think this is in error.” I press 1 and get disconnected. I call back and have to go through the phone tree again.
    • A customer service representative greets me. I’m certain the call center was in India. I explain the situation, she reads through a script, and I play along. She asked for an account number, which contained both numbers and letters. Normally, I use the NATO phonetic alphabet to avoid any verbal confusion. You know, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta.
      • I gave her my account number, which had an “I” and a “P”. But this time I said, “I” as in “India” and “P” as in “Pakistan.” Inside, I was laughing at my cleverness.
      • She read it back to me, “I” as in “India” and “D” as in “Debra.”
      • Puzzled, I correct her and tell her, “No. It’s not ‘D’ as in ‘Debra’, it’s ‘P’ as in ‘Pakistan.'”
      • She said, “Yes, I said that. ‘D’ as in ‘Debra’ the animal.” It took me a second and then I realized what was happening. “Oh, you are saying ‘Z’ as in ‘Zeebra’, but you are pronouncing it ‘Zebra’ as if it rhymes with ‘Debra.'” She apologized, and read back the account number saying “I” as in “India” and “Z” as in “Zebra.”
      • I tell him, “No, ma’am. Instead of a “Z” for “Zeebra” you need to use “P as in Pakistan.”
      • So a Z was being used instead of P while I thought she was using a D.
    • “Can I place you on hold as I look into this issue?” “Sure.”
    • “Thanks for holding, sir. You are covered at 100%. Your insurance has already been billed, which leaves you with a balance of $197.59. If you think this is in error, please contact your insurance company and provide them with this process number….”
    • Oh, this again. “Would you mind just verifying my insurance?”
    • “It’s already been verified, you are using Cigna. When was the last time you updated your insurance information with us?”
    • “I’m not sure, but I think the member or group number you have is incorrect and needs updating.”
    • “No sir, it’s correct.”
    • .  “Well, would you just tell me what you have on file?”
    • She reads it to me, I tell her that’s incorrect. She again asked me when I last updated my insurance information. Back and forth we go, but I finally got her to take my updated information and file the request again.
  • Funny college football video game news I ran across last night: Texas QB Arch Manning will NOT opt into EA Sports College Football 2025. Arch is focused on playing football on the field.
  • Alright, I have some mixed feelings about this story, and I may be the only one. It’s actually a Texas love story that takes place near the Houston area. A woman marries her high school sweetheart, he gets in a major car accident and will need to be cared for for the rest of his life, she divorces him to remarry but petitions to be his lifelong guardian. Her new husband is certainly a man of integrity. And while she continues to love and care for her first husband, she still breaks her vow and that does bother me. What good is your word if it’s not as strong as oak? Perhaps I shouldn’t be such a stickler for the rules and let grace and love rule.

    Of all the things, it was her talking about looking at her groom as the doors swung open as she walked down the aisle that got me. I was so scared and let down when that didn’t happen to me and always had me questioning her devotedness. Men, if your bride doesn’t look at you like you are the only person in that room, she will not make you a priority. Leave. Run. Run away. Far, far, far away. Take a taxi. Take an Uber. Hell, go Greyhound. Just get the hell out of there. You’ll be doing yourself and everyone else a favor.

  • I really enjoyed this article, I caught about half of them when I was at the show, but I bet there are even more – All the Easter Eggs Hidden in U2’s Sphere Residency
  • Such as sad story, just 18 inches of water – Basketball Coach Drowns After Keys Fall Down Storm Drain
  • We’ll always love you, Ron – Prior to his first managerial appearance against the Rangers, Ron Washington made sure to talk about Texas’ success in 2023 before he even mentioned his new role with the Los Angeles Angels on Monday.”Before we get started, I just want to congratulate the Texas Rangers on being World Series champs,’’ Washington said. ‘’They deserved it. They have such great fans, it was time they got what they deserved for their support of the Texas Rangers. They brought it home.’’
  • This happened over the weekend.

  • I guess this stuff has potential.
    https://twitter.com/HowThingsWork_/status/1763764917746712902
  • I remember ice cream in a rectangular box, but I remember Neopolitan being served in them.

  • I visited a new church on Saturday. I’ll write about it soon. But for now, here’s something about the first church that established my roots.

 

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Bag of Randomness for Monday, March 4, 2024

  • I haven’t watched the local news in a long time. It was something I used to do to pass the time, have something in the background as I blog, stay informed, and see if there were any fun family things to do. Well, there’s no more doing things together as a family, so I’ve found myself watching less and less of the local news. However, I watched it last night and realized one of the best things I can do for my mental health is to stop watching it because of all the nonsense political ads. If I ever watch local news on a regular basis again, I’ll make sure to record it so I can fast-forward through all the commercials.
  • I mentioned at the end of last week that U2 was wrapping up their Las Vegas residency at Sphere with their final two shows.
    • Rumor had it that band founder Larry Mullen Jr. was going to make a surprise appearance. He did and took a bow on the second to last show. But he didn’t play.
    • I also mentioned that fans were campaigning for the song 40 to be played as the very last song. U2 has closed other concerts with the song, most notably, at Red Rocks. It would be, after all, their 40th concert at Sphere. Also, during this residency, they have played a total of 39 different songs, and 40 would mark the 40th. A lot of fans near the stage brought posters and wore party glasses that had “Forty” at the top to try to persuade the band. To add to it, there was a big online movement. And how about this, the answer to Friday’s Wordle, the day before the last concert, was FORTY. And to take it even a step further, this happened several hours before the concert: NFL combine: Xavier Worthy sets 40-yard dash record of 4.21 seconds. OK. All that to say that the band took notice and delivered. This is the first time 40 has been performed since 5 October 2016. Bono started it off by stating how they have been in the desert that is Las Vegas for 40 days and 40 nights.
  • I can’t dog our lieutenant governor for wearing this sort of stuff because I know I’d do the same to get a laugh.
  • Rarely have I seen a group get their assess handed to them like Moms For Liberty did last night on 60 Minutes.

  • I’m a big fan of watching NFL football in the snow, but I’ve never seen soccer in the snow. Hmm, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a college football game in the snow.

  • In case you were wondering how many artists in We Are The World have left us, the number is ten.
    • I watched The Greatest Night in Pop on Netflix because a version of this tweet was going around. I don’t think any shade was being thrown. But, when I was a kid, I was very confused as to why they put pantyhose over the microphones. At least, I thought pantyhose was being used, and why did it have to be that nude color? You’ll see what I’m talking about in the video when there is a closeup of Michael.

    • For some reason, I thought Huey Lewis was very ill with cancer. But it turns out he’s lost his hearing, so he can no longer sing or perform. Oddly, it appears the condition started one night in Dallas. However, he’s behind a musical coming out in April.
      • Lewis was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease after he heard a sudden roar that no one else heard while backstage at a private show in Dallas in 2018. The condition affects the inner ear and causes vertigo and hearing loss.
    • Lionel Richard had an interesting quote at the end of the documentary. It’s something I’ve thought about and cherished every time I came home from college and when I had my own family. I hope I will have a feeling like this I can enjoy again.
    • I think the only artist who left the recording session out of frustration was Wayland Jennings.
    • This really happened. At one point during the recording, Stevie Wonder said he needed to use the restroom. Ray Charles stood up, grabbed Stevie by the elbow, and said he would show him where the restroom is. Someone belted out that the blind was literally leading the blind.
    • Care to guess the number of Jacksons who are listed as an artist on the song? As the credits rolled, I counted six: Jackie, La Toya, Marlon, Michael, Randy, Tito.
    • “My dad said something to me a few years ago. He said, “Enjoy coming home,” because there is going to become a time when you can’t go home. Richie was confused and asked, “Dad, what does that mean?” He said, “Well, the house will be there. But, the people in the house won’t be there.””
    • I’m curious why the video for the entire song wasn’t played at the end of the documentary. Perhaps it has to do with royalties and profits.
  • U2’s last performance to complete their residency at Sphere was Saturday night and it started with some technical difficulties.

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Bag of Randomness for Friday, March 1, 2024

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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, February 29, 2024

  • Why did this poor girl’s parents push her to do this? Someone is responsible for dressing her like that and arranging things for her to publically embarrass herself. There’s no way I won’t remember this for the rest of my life.

  • This is interesting. There’s going to be a Naked Gun reboot with Liam Neeson taking the place of Leslie Nielsen. Their names sure sound vaguely alike, so I wonder if that was intentional and going to be a joke itself in the reboot. Seth MacFarlane will be a producer and will be released next summer. I was a huge fan of the first two films in the series and my closest friends and I continue to quote from it, as well as from another Leslie Neeson slapstick film series, Airplane!. And yes, I purposely combined their names in the last sentence for a cheap laugh.
    • Liam Neeson was thinking about retiring from acting, telling People, “It’ll either finish my career or bring it in another direction. I honestly don’t know.” This is a good move, I think. Leslie Neeson was able to resurrect his career after being known primarily as a dramatic actor, the same as Adam West. It was a major reason why Airplane! was such a success with traditionally dramatic actors Peter Sellers and Robert Stack delivering deadpan funny lines with a straight face.
    • Speaker of Peter Sellers, like me, he hated gas-powered leaf blowers. I still haven’t found a celebrity who shares my hate for wind chimes.
  • I’m experimenting with Rumble, which I just discovered yesterday, so please bear with me. You’ll be seeing a bullet point like this for a while. Feel free to click on the following link, it’s safe and is what I claim it to be. Once I have all my data, I’ll report my findings. Here’s today’s funny dog video.
  • Drew Barrymore may have authority over her daughter, but her daughter won this argument, “My daughter wants to wear a crop top,” she said. “I’ll say, ‘No,’ and she’ll go, ‘You were on the cover of Playboy.’
  • I believe there are only two U2 shows left at the Sphere in Las Vegas.
    • When the band returned from the holiday break to play the second leg of this residency (can a residency have legs?), bassist Adam Clayton surprised fans by sporting a mustache. Dozens of fans near Adam’s side of the stage waited for Mysterious Ways and then they all put on fake mustaches. Adam got a big kick out of it and his reaction was even recorded to the fans’ delight. It was a really well-organized bit, as security also wore fake mustaches as well as temporary replacement drummer Bram van den Berg.
    • Devout fans like it when they end the concert with 40, but for every performance at the Sphere, it’s been Beautiful Day (I love that there’s a resource for all songs played for each performance.). A lot of fans near the stage plan on bringing posters and wearing “40-glasses” to try to persuade the band. There’s a lot of rumor that band founder and drummer, Larry Mullen Jr.,  who hasn’t played in the venue as he’s been healing from surgery, will make a surprise appearance.
  • Today is February 29, Leap Day. It’s a rare day that only comes around once every four years. So it’s befitting to make it Rare Disease Day. This woman wrote an article about her sister who died in hospice from a rare disease. She was actually trying to pass on Leap Day. This part caused me to pause my reading and contemplate for a while about total acceptance.
  • It’s been an interesting experiment the last several months trying to adopt AI in my life. Right now, I have Perplexity and Google’s Gemini bookmarked. I’m transitioning to using them as my primary search tools. But, I’ve also been interested in their potential dangers when it comes to this coming and future elections. So, this article was of particular interest to me: Study Finds AI Models Gave False, Harmful Answers About Elections
    • Five AI models were used and all performed poorly, they include Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s GPT-4, Meta’s Llama 2, and Mistral’s Mixtral.
    • They were asked questions that a normal search on Google could easily provide, such as, “Can you wear a MAGA hat to vote in Texas?”
      • None of the five AI models referenced above provided a correct answer. For the heck of it, I entered the question into Gemini and found that they updated the tool to provide a different answer, which I thought was a bit comical considering the article:
        • “I’m still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search.”
      • My preferred AI tool, Perplexity, gave a very technically correct answer, which I prefer. I don’t always want a yes or no answer, I want one with a little substance or context to it. I also like how it cites its sources in case you want to dig even deeper.
    • Just over half of the answers that the models provided were inaccurate by testers, while 40 percent of the answers provided were “harmful,” or likely to discourage voters from participating in an election.
    • Gemini had the highest rate of incomplete answers, while Claude returned the highest rate of biased answers.
    • The study and article might find a lot of scrutiny and will spur some conspiracy theories because of the name of one of the testers, Bill Gates, who is a Republican county supervisor in Maricopa County, Arizona. He should consider throwing in the first initial of his middle name, but then again, maybe he likes the trouble that comes with it. This is what he had to say:
      • “I was disappointed to see a lot of errors on basic facts. People are using models as their search engine, and it’s kicking out garbage. It’s kicking out falsehoods. That’s concerning.”
    • Houston SBC pastor Ed Young calls migrants ‘garbage’ in Sunday sermon
    • A Houston man who was accused of molesting and impregnating an 11-year-old girl has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.
      • “The victim and her family want to raise awareness that this abuse can happen to anyone and that parents need to stay ever vigilant about who they bring around their kids,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “This could happen to anybody’s family.”
      • Because of the agreement, officials say the girl did not have to testify in open court about what happened to her. Officials say the girl had the baby, and the baby was adopted.
    • A college student in Arizona associated with Turning Point USA was representing the controversial conservative youth group well by trying to kick up some dust and got nowhere. She was on TwitterX trying to draw attention to her county’s election office by pointing out they sent her two ballots at two different addresses, insinuating she could vote twice. But the election official handled it in the most professional and friendly way possible. He politely pointed out her address change request and how the system is designed to catch such a thing. I feel sorry for these folks who are trying to earn a living by serving the public and keeping democracy alive in our republic. A lot more of this “gotcha” stuff is going to happen as we make it to November. I’m glad I’m not serving in that role, or any role in which people are always trying to trigger me and press my buttons. The people who serve as election officials, teachers, and police are a lot more patient and tolerant than I am. You can also tell he likes his job and has a sense of humor.
    • Tagged great white shark spotted 100 yards away from Texas shore
      • “It’s one thing if a shark pings up and down the East Coast, but when one goes around the Florida Keys and goes all the way to the beaches near South Padre Island, that’s wild. We’re not talking miles. She’s just a couple of 100 yards off the beach.”
    • I didn’t expect anything like this from the Hunt family, I thought they were more modest. But I bet it’s a lot better than what Jerry has at his place.

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