Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, July, 21, 2015

stuckybowlafdssdfas

Posted in Personal | 1 Comment

Animated map shows how religion spread around the world

Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are five of the biggest religions in the world. Over the last few thousand years, these religious groups have shaped the course of history and had a profound influence on the trajectory of the human race. Through countless conflicts, conquests, missions abroad, and simple word of mouth, these religions spread around the globe and forever molded the huge geographic regions in their paths.

Posted in Spiritual | 4 Comments

Bag of Randomness for Monday, July 20, 2015

uIxFXnG

  • While eating at Salt Grass this weekend it brought back memories of when my father use to take the family out to eat at our local K-Bobs.  While waiting for our food, I use to head to the barrel of crackers next to the salad wagon trying to find all the Club Crackers to bring back and eat as an appetizer.  I used to think those crackers were some kind of super special restaurant only cracker, and the day I found them in the grocery store I just about lost my mind.  The K-Bobs in Mineral Wells is now a bank, and I think the closest one to me is either in Fredericksburg or Brenham.  This small town boy actually found their Wikipedia entry interesting.  Heck, I can still remember the day when I finally figured out that chicken-fried-steak wasn’t actually chicken and the huge laugh that gave my dad.
  • Interestingly, Brad Sham will not be doing the radio broadcast for the Cowboys opener because of it’s the first night of the Jewish new year.  But the legendary Verne Lundquist will take his place, and longtime fans will remember him as the voice of the Cowboys before his career took off.
  • I gave WifeGeeding an Apple Watch for her birthday.  She first said it was too expensive but then after about three minutes playing with it she proclaimed it was cool and she was keeping it.
  • I got my Google Project Fi activation/welcome kit in the mail on Friday.  Actually, I wasn’t expecting a kit, I was just expecting to get a SIM card so I could get mobile service.  The kit included a few nice messages thanking me for being one of the first to be a part of this new service, earbuds with an odd looking splitter so a second pair of earbuds can connect to them.  I guess that will come in handy on a flight with the family, and personally I think I should use the term “headphones” as I don’t feel hip enough to use “earbuds”.  Also included was a phone cover and an external battery pack (6000 mAh capacity) which I can use to charge my phone.  Pictures of all that stuff are included in the link I provided above.
  • When I called Sprint to verify my contract end date the representative encouraged me to stay with the company by telling me that with the purchase of a new phone, they would send a representative to my house to deliver it, set it up, and provide an overview of how to use it.
  • My biggest issue with Sprint was the lack of a signal I was getting in the Metroplex, especially in areas where it should be strongest like near downtown Dallas.  Project Fi uses Wi-Fi, Sprint, and T-Mobile for network service.  So far my experience has been better, but not great.  For instance, we dined at the Salt Grass on 121/35 and I’d either get dropped to 3G or no service.  At least I’m no longer paying $117 for spotty service, now I’m just paying $30 for slightly better spotty service.
  • Our pediatrician stated that BoyGeeding should start speech therapy, and he’s been seeing a speech therapist for about a month.  When his Explanation of Benefits came in the mail, it stated the service was denied because prior authorization was needed.  The authorization request was then sent in, but it got denied because a nurse at the insurance company stated he doesn’t qualify.  I went online to see if I could get more details, and to my surprise I couldn’t view any of BoyGeeding’s information, it only stated “Patient View Only” yet I could view my information as well as WifeGeeding’s and DaughterGeeding’s.  When I called and told the representative, she said she didn’t understand what “Patient View Only” meant and never heard of such a thing.  I stated that’s something I would think she would know or hope she could get an answer to, and then said something about me verbally accosting her and hung up on me.
  • The other week I stated I was watching ‘Rectify’ on the Sundance channel which isn’t available in HD on DirecTV, but it switched to HD when U2’s world premiere for their short film “Song for Someone” aired.  Oddly, when I watched last week’s latest episode of ‘Rectify’, Sundance switched back to non-HD, or what I like to call Ultra-Low-Def.
  • Rolling Stone – Watch U2 perform “October” for the first time in 25 years
  • The new season of ‘Mythbusters’ started on Saturday and they tackled how plausible the ‘Breaking Bad’ ending was and if they could actually blow a boat out of the water, as opposed to just blowing it up to pieces.  The boat explosion was something else, and was the best explosion I’ve seen on the show.  I’ve become a bit callous to their explosions, but their latest one was a real eye opener.  As for Walt’s machine gun trunk contraption, they even had ‘Break Bad’ co-creator Vince Gilligan on set.  He was impressed how they got it to work, but was hard on himself for not being authentic enough.  For instance, all those bullet holes in the show was done by him with a hand drill.  He forgot to take into account there would be more bullet holes at both ends since the swinging guns hits those areas twice as much because of the swinging motion.  In case you are wondering, the bullets flew more random in real life higher and lower, not just in a straight line.
  • I caught the 2013 HBO movie Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight.  It really isn’t a movie about the boxer as it is a movie about what happens inside the Supreme Court and how the Justices interact with one another and their clerks.  I felt the movie had a flimsy script and took some extreme liberties showing how Justices use political maneuvers within the court to persuade one another or to push a liberal or conservative ideology.  Maybe I’m a fool, but I’d like to think they have a higher respect for the law and Constitution, and I think history may be on my side as some Justices thought to be liberal turn out to be somewhat conservative and vice-versa.  However, despite what the film lacked, I was quite impressed with the performances by Christopher Plummer as Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan and Frank Langella as Chief Justice Warren Burger.
  • Speaking of Frank Langella, I was looking over his filmography and he’s played a lot of important political roles – Presidents Richard Nixon and John Adams, Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, and the White House Chief of Staff in Dave.
  • Costco stopped selling a children’s dinosaur birthday cake after an Arizona mom complained it promotes Satanism because she states that “666” is part of the decoration.
  • Buzzfeed – This Couple Gave Birth To A Ten-Pound Baby In The Car And Caught It All On Camera
  • Darth Vader lead a funeral procession and Bettle Juice was in attendance at a recent funeral.
  • Too good to be true? – Scientists Have Discovered A Type Of Seaweed That Tastes Like Bacon But Is Healthy Like Kale
  • Possible/proposed flags of Texas cities
  • For all the talk of Vista Ridge Mall about to close, it looks like they got fairly new pavement all around that thing.
  • Today’s dose of ‘MURICA!
  • China wants to turn Beijing into a supercity –  NY Times –  Now, the government has embarked on an ambitious plan to make Beijing the center of a new supercity of 130 million people. The planned megalopolis, a metropolitan area that would be about six times the size of New York’s, is meant to revamp northern China’s economy and become a laboratory for modern urban growth.
  • What the people who do New York, Chicago, and DC’s subway voices look like
  • Japan’s Mitsubishi corporation has made a landmark apology for using US prisoners of war as forced labour during World War Two. – It is believed to be the first such apology by a Japanese company.
  • The citizens of Iran are getting their hopes up for a McDonalds.

 

Posted in Personal | 2 Comments