Bag of Randomness for Thursday, August 19, 2015

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  • I have a line etiquette question.  We went to Lockhart Smokehouse for lunch yesterday and I was the third person in line before the door opened for business.  About two minutes before the door opened, four co-workers of the two men in front of me just slipped into line ahead of me to be with their group.  I didn’t say anything, but if I were them, I would have would gotten in line behind me.  It’s not a big deal, there was plenty of BBQ to go around, but I was curious to know if what they did was appropriate or not?
  • While at Lockhart, I noticed my picture was on the wall from the time I attended one of their smoke camps.  It’s not a profile pic, I’m in the background, but you can spot a bearded Geeding in it.
  • I noticed I had a 2,800 unique visitor increase in blog traffic on Friday.  My research indicates that comedian Tim Heidecker tweeted my post about Jim Baker to his 478k followers.
  • If you ever come across one of those annoying websites that use a slideshow slide for every single slide, as opposed to just listing everything on one page, try Deslide.
  • I had no idea that Yvonne Craig (aka, Batgirl) spent most of her teen years in Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood.
  • I didn’t do the math, but I read that if a person’s average dump is ten minutes,  and that person does such a thing at work, that equates to forty hours of paid vacation each year.
  • A Canadian Man Found A Bat Swimming In His Toilet
  • Michigan town residents pooled their money to send every high school graduate to college
  • Goonies house shut down after owner gets sick of people doing the Truffle Shuffle on the lawn
  • Promo for ‘Jared’s Pants Dance’ kids game still live on Subway’s site Wednesday
  • Jared Fogle is going to prison as part of a plea deal for having sex with underage girls and possession of child pornography, and his wife is now seeking divorce.  If they were members of The Village Church, she wouldn’t be able to start such a thing so soon without first seeking some sort of reconciliation.
  • Josh Duggar Rumored to Have Had an Ashley Madison Account – There also seems to be a lot of local, state, and federal government emails as part of this data breach.  I’m amazed at how willing so many people are giving their work email addresses as part of anything personal.  At of fear of getting in trouble for even the smallest thing at work, I never give my work email out for anything, even to my family.  It just seems like a no-brainer thing to be professional enough to keep non-work stuff associated with a private email.  And I’ll admit at times there might be a small amount of overlap.
  • DirecTV launches a box just for 4K movies
  • GIF – Real life fruit ninja
  • All of Stan Lee’s movie cameos so far
  • Denny’s actually has a funny blog.
  • The Buffalo Bill House from Silence of the Lambs Is Up for Sale
  • The average American life mapped out by week
  • I caught the Rex Ryan feature on HBO’s ‘Real Sports’ and as in-depth as it was, there wasn’t any reference to his foot fetish that was exposed.  That episode also had a segment on that Arkansas high school coach with four state titles who never punts and always onside kicks.  I thought it was interesting to keep the kick return team guessing, he has 12 different types of onside kicks, with the most interesting one that includes a little known rule of being able to pick the ball up from tee and pitching it back to another player to dropkick it.  Of all things, I think I was most impressed with his knowledge of statistical analysis regarding certain game situations and how he plays the odds.  Last year their only loss was to our local Highland Park high school, and they will be their first game this year in Dallas, which might be worth going to on Friday, September 4.
Posted in Personal | 11 Comments

Big Paw

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West Coast Native News (Facebook)
This is how big a grizzly bears paw is – by the way, the bear is sedated and about to be tagged. I’m in absolute awe!

Via – @sasagronomy

 

Posted in Interesting | Comments Off on Big Paw

Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, August 19, 2015

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  • DaughterGeeding starts kindergarten on Monday and last night her charter school had an orientation and then an opportunity to meet her teacher.  I’m now turning into one of “those parents”.
    • The whole thing wasn’t well organized and almost a logistical nightmare.  Maybe I’m being hard on them as this is the first year for the school to exist, but part of my job is to make things intuitive and user friendly, and things just felt chaotic last night.  So perhaps I’m always judging and evaluating things on how they can be better, and that might not be fair.
    • For instance, the headmaster spoke but never introduced himself.  Hey dude, you’re not Bono, not everyone knows who you are the moment you’re on stage.  On top of that, he didn’t introduce anyone else, not even the assistant headmaster.
    • The faculty and staff seem well versed in touting the company line.  I kept hearing “our job it to work with parents in raising children to be good men and women” and “our students study the best of our Western and American heritage”.  That second line kinda scares me, not that I think there’s anything bad about teaching students those things, but it seems like there’s a hidden meaning behind the message.  Furthermore, you’ll also hear “our course of study helped propel Western Civilization to the top of the world when it comes to civic institutions, personal liberty, philanthropy, economic enterprise, technological innovation, and relative safety and security.”  I’m just going to follow Reagan’s lead here and “trust, but verify”.
    • One parent pulled out her phone and recorded the entire orientation.  Another set of parents made their kids wear their uniforms to the orientation, and they were the only ones wearing their uniforms.  They both had that look of “Mom, Dad, why did you make us dress up, no one else is dressed up and now everybody knows who we are.”
    • DaughterGeeding’s teacher’s last name is “Honey”.  We also learned that on the first day of kindergarten, she’ll have homework.  Baptism by fire, I guess.  Heck, in college I still remember how some classes basically went over the syllabus and you were out of there.
    • It’s really interesting getting WifeGeeding’s take on all this as she’s taught kindergarten almost all of her adult life.  She notices the little things.  For instance, she said whenever she meets a student for the first time, it’s important to squat down and speak to the child on their level to better engage and welcome them, and none of that was done last night.
    • We met a lot of parents that want to start carpooling, which I’m open to, but it seems like they all think it’s okay to just have your kids start commuting with people you’ve never met.  I’m not trying to be overly protective, but I want to establish a comfort level first before putting my child in the car of a stranger.
    • I thought I might have gotten a bit of a late start in life starting a family (this coming from a kid who’s father was 52 when I was born) but there seemed to be a lot of white-haired men with children going into kindergarten.
  • BoyGeeding must have thought he was Ant-Man because he decided to put ant killer granules in his mouth which resulted in a call to poison control.
  • We’ve got such a strange political electoral system.  We want elite leaders who are at the top of their class, but we make them dumb themselves down by having them trot through Iowa and their state fair, compliment a cow made out of butter, and watch them stuff their faces while acting as if they are “of the people” and “just like us”.  As usual, I don’t have the answer, I just like griping about the problem, but it’s weird how Iowa is such a clarifier, as if they represent the whole country because they host the first primary.
  • If there’s one thing I learned from ‘Hard Knocks’, it’s that Brian Cushing is a bonafide jackass, but off the field he seems like a good guy.  The other, I really like their head coach.
  • You don’t want to read about the Friends Forever Tampon.
  • The face of Christ appeared in smoke trails produced by a Red Arrow plane at an airshow in Eastbourne, Sussex
  • San Antonio Express News – The Texas Mexican Mafia, explained
  • “Straight Outta Compton” not playing in Compton – because the city has no movie theaters
  • Purdue University proposes selling shares of students’ future income – private investors will fund their education, and get paid back as a portion of the students’ future income. It’s called an Income Share Agreement (ISA)—if students earn more than expected after university, they pay back more; if they earn less, they pay less.
  • New Jersey News – Gun charge dropped against man who can’t use his arms
  • Ashley Madison hackers appear to have followed through on threat to expose users – That article provides a link to search a database for any names or emails.
  • Niagara Falls police hunt for U.S. family after baby removed uninjured from hotel safe
  • GIF – This kid has the best dog ever
Posted in Personal | 2 Comments

Indiana woman marries Jesus

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The bride’s name is Jessica Hayes, the groom is Jesus Christ. Saturday morning, she became the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese’s first consecrated virgin in 25 years.

It’s not the wedding day Hayes envisioned for herself as a little girl. Sure it came with the same struggles any bride-to-be would have, like finding the perfect dress.

“I’ve seen so many wedding dresses over the years that I think I’ve probably changed my mind very many times. I had to really consider the appropriateness of the occasion for my dress. I wanted my shoulders to be covered, and I would have to lie prostrate before the altar, so I really wanted to make sure that I was well-covered in a way that still shows the beauty of a bride,” Hayes said.

For the 38-year-old theology teacher from Bishop Dwenger High School, this commitment represents years of prayer and soul-searching.

“I had been praying about it for years, trying to seek God’s will for my life and not really finding it in any of the paths that I sought before. It was really a consideration of which things brought me the most joy and where my greatest happiness was. It seemed that all of those loves converged on this one thing where I could still be living in the world and be a part of the lives of my students and be studying and teaching and involved in a parish life, but I could also give myself more completely by making this total commitment of my life to serve the church in whatever capacity is needed and whatever capacity my own gifts are available for,” Hayes said.

A consecrated virgin is a fairly rare occurrence in the Catholic church. Saturday’s ceremony makes Hayes the only one in the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese. There are approximately 3,000 around the world and more than 200 in the United States.

As one might expect, the vocation comes with some confusion.

“My students asked if they should call me Mrs. Hayes when I come back to school next week, and no, I’m still Ms. But, I am married to Jesus,” Hayes said.

Full wane.com Article

Posted in Spiritual | 3 Comments