Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, May 27, 2015

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  • The latest episode of ‘StarTalk’ wasn’t anything about space but about the Carter Center’s work towards the eradication of the guinea worm.  The guinea worm is a parasite that only lives in humans, can grow about a meter long, causes a crazy burning sensation, and is even referenced in the Bible.  In 1986, about 3.5 million people a year were afflicted by it.  As of 2014, there are only 126 reported cases.  The guinea worm will become extinct if these are the last of them as they can only live in humans.
  • I’m not sure the last time I used an actual physical dictionary, maybe a decade, or more?
  • I was working on a home improvement project and needed a special bit tip for a specialized screw, specifically a pin hex security screw.  Before heading to Home Depot, I saw my neighbor that works for our local NFL franchise and he was nice enough to invite me in his home and then to his garage to find the tool.  Even with his plethora of tools, he also didn’t the particular bit tip.
  • Buzzfeed – This Guy Dropped His iPhone Into The Ocean And It Recorded The Fall All The Way To The Ocean Floor
  • Buzzfeed – A Dying Mom Threw Her Baby Daughter The Most Magical Birthday Party
  • D Magazine interactive – The 20 Best Burgers in Dallas
  • Netflix has a new series called ‘Between’ and unlike other shows, they only release one episode a week, like regular television.
  • Only 99 days until college football starts.  At least that’s what Mack Brown tweeted yesterday.  Actually he tweeted it would be a 100 days, but I did the math for the post today.
  • It’s quite impressive what LeBron has done to carry his team to the NBA Finals without Kevin Love.  But then, I haven’t watched a bit of playoff basketball so what do I know.
  • A great way to store chips
  • You can even use their nifty calculator – Did You Spend Too Much on Your Wedding? – If you’d invested in the stock market instead, here’s how rich you’d be.
Posted in Personal | 2 Comments

Church Discipline, Child Pornography, and Divorce

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This story only landed in my Inbox seven times this morning so I guess it’s BagOfNothing worthy.

Matt Chandler is a local pastor with a huge following (weekly church attendance of 11,000) and I know he has a bit of a national presence as well.  I think I was forwarded this article because I attended five to seven classes with him in college.  While I don’t consider him a friend, I think he’d recognize me today.  Unlike many Evangelicals in the area, I don’t have a strong liking towards him, but I certainly respect him.

In this piece, Christian author and blogger Matthew Paul Turner details a current struggle within Chandler’s church, The Village Church.  Here’s a short summary:

  • Church sends married couple as missionaries last August to South Asia.
  • Husband confessed to viewing child pornography, church sends them home, husband goes through a “path toward repentance”.
  • Wife requests for the marriage to annulled.
  • Church is upset the wife isn’t seeking reconciliation and starts the process of formal church discipline, even though she already resigned from the church.
  • Christianity Today has written about the situation and the church has sent a letter to all of its members.

You can check out the full article, which seems well documented, here, and form your own thoughts.

Posted in DFW, Spiritual | 3 Comments

Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, May 26, 2015

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  • On Memorial Day the History channel ran a ‘Pawn Stars’ marathon while HBO ran a ‘Band of Brothers’ marathon.  I guess ‘Pawn Stars’ pulls in more ratings than anything else History has to offer.
  • I’m not sure when it happened, but my preferences for cake switched from chocolate to white and yellow.  I guess you can say the same thing happened for my taste in women.
  • Sometimes when I see a friend who has recently lost a loved one, I’ll just tell them “I can’t find the words,” and give them a big hug and then say “If anything, I want you to know that I care.”
  • While watching ‘American Ninja Warrior’ last night the thought occurred to me that Indiana Jones could finish that course easily with or without a whip.
  • I think all the rain this weekend that prevented a lot of trips to the lake also prevented a lot of deaths.
  • I’m quite certain we’re about to embark on the worst mosquito season in the history of North Texas.
  • Yesterday, Peggy Olson would have turned 76.
  • Two of the five are in Dallas – The most expensive houses on the market in Texas
  • The worst thing a man can do at a wedding
  • GIF – A typical day for LiberallyLean.com’s dog at the beach
  • National Geographic – Has the Last Human Trekked to the North Pole?
  • When you look at this picture, he doesn’t seem like the king of the jungle – Lion climbs a tree to escape a herd of angry buffalo in Kenya
  • It was the medieval Catholic Church – Game of Thrones: George R.R. Martin reveals which religion inspired the Faith Militant
  • According to this Mental Floss article, “… children’s programs had been prohibited from promoting products due to the FCC’s concerns that commercial elements would compromise the integrity of the content onscreen. As a result of Reagan’s media deregulations in the mid-1980s, toy company Hasbro and Japanese toymaker Takara (now TakaraTomy) were suddenly free to launch a venture like Transformers”.  I guess that explains why I couldn’t get any toys from some older cartoon series I loved when I was a kid like ‘Star Blazers’ and ‘G-Force‘.
Posted in Personal | 1 Comment