Bag of Randomness

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  • The town of Van got hit by a tornado recently and WifeGeeding called to check up on her family that lives there.  To her surprise, she found out her uncle is the mayor.  It seems one of the biggest problems at the moment is keeping sight-seers away.  Here’s one interesting tidbit about the town, all the streets are named after states and trees.  State named streets all go in one direction (east and west) and tree named streets go in the other (north and south).
  • DaughterGeeding has really surprised me with what she’s capable of doing the last three days.  I caught pouring herself milk from a gallon jug and not spilling it.  She stacked several items on top one another in order to reach the garage door opener button in the garage, which is scary, but she wanted to get us ready to go for church by saving us the trouble of opening it ourselves.  And now she can open and close the car door all by herself (those things are heavy to move for a kid), but she makes sure her brother is properly buckled in before she buckles herself.
  • With all the rain we’re getting as of late I decided to mow the lawn yesterday just because there was a moment of dryness.  But man, I sure wish our friends out in West Texas could get some of the stuff hitting us.
  • I use to be open to that rumor of Prince Henry not actually being the son of Prince Charles, but after looking at this Buzzfeed picture of Henry, there’s too much of a resemblance to Chuck for him not to be his son.
  • I bet the NFL wouldn’t have come down as hard as they did on Tom Brady if he would have been more cooperative with the investigation, something I wasn’t aware of until yesterday.  Many will want to compare Brady’s suspension with the original Ray Rice suspension for knocking out his wife with a punch.  I’m not sure how I feel about that, but I will say the NFL has certainly learned its lesson.
  • This potty training confession had me laughing pretty hard.
  • I found this old article on Reddit yesterday and I guess it’s why I prefer eating out so much – Why Do Sandwiches Taste Better When Someone Else Makes Them?
  • As we approach the ‘Mad Men’ finale this Sunday, I have a feeling we won’t be seeing any more of Joan and Pete.  I think creator Matthew Weiner wrapped up their storyline.  In that regard, I doubt we see Betty and the kids, though I wouldn’t rule out a Don and Sally conversation.  Something I’m sure we won’t find out but still has me wondering, who will die first, Betty or Glen Bishop who will be fighting in Vietnam.
  • The new ‘X-Files’ mini-series will debut with a special two-night event beginning Sunday, Jan. 24 at 10 p.m.  Hopefully it will stay on Sundays, it just wouldn’t feel right if it was on any other day of the week.
  • The character Maester Aemon in ‘Games of Thrones’ is supposed to be 102-years-old.  The actor that portrays him, Peter Vaughan, is just about that age at 92.  They sure are rolling the dice on how long he’ll actually be around for filming.
  • I passed a Google Maps car going through Coppell yesterday.
  • Today’s dose of ‘MURICA!
  • An Australian is a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.
  • Houston Chronicle – Iconic Texas bars you need to visit
  • An article about the legalities of space.
  • ‘E-Book Backup’, A Photocopied Hardbound Edition of a Kindle E-Book
  • Buzzfeed – This 18-Year-Old’s Tongue Is So Long She Can Lick Her Elbow and Eyeball
  • Buzzfeed – Here Are The Pixar Easter Eggs You May Have Missed
Posted in Personal | 10 Comments

Hidden “Cact-Eye”

The City of Paradise Valley, Arizona (population: 12,820) is so concerned with keeping its newly deployed license plate reader (LPR) system a secret that it has installed dozens of fake cactuses with the cameras mounted inside.

The wealthy Phoenix suburb has been reticent to explain why the cameras are necessary. Fox 10 News, a local television station, reported earlier this week that the Paradise Valley Police declined to comment on the installation of the devices.

Full Article

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Bag of Randomness

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  • For Mother’s Day I thought I’d go old school for gifting and actually made something for WifeGeeding.  Above is a silhouette of our kids painted on canvas.  I basically took a picture of our kids, printed it out, cut along the edges, and used some spray paint.  To make it sound more intimate, I told her there’s some symbolism.  The white represents the children’s innocence, and her favorite color of the moment is the background, which surrounds them and represents her influence.
  • I’m one of those that think the cupholder in the car should only be used to hold cups, WifeGeeding evidently doesn’t share that sentiment.
  • U2 was on ‘The Tonight Show’ Friday and the Bono on a Bike sketch was better than I thought, especially the ending.  You can view the sketch, their performances, and a video preview of concert experience here.  I was a bit surprised that a special stage was set up for their ‘Tonight Show’ performances.  It was set up with a runway to bring the audience closer.  Their performance of “Angel of Harlem” with The Roots wasn’t aired but included in that link.
  • I installed a bidet on Saturday, and after using it for the first time it’s something I wished I would have bought earlier in my life.  If you want the feeling of “feeling fresh” this will do the trick.  It’s a product I’ve been eyeing for a while, and Groupon just happen to have one discounted enough to make it a $30 purchase, so I figured, what the heck.
  • Since I had a bidet to install, I thought it was time to replace the toilet seat.  I’ve grown sick and tired at how worn and nasty looking our wooden toilet seat has become (too many scratches and marks from cleaning) so I decided to purchase a plastic toilet seat, and couldn’t feel happier.
  • ‘The Amazing Race’ will finish its 26th season this Friday in Dallas near Large Marge, there’s already previews of them doing stuff at Jerry’s World.  That show also finished its 5th season in Dallas at Trammell Crow Park.  Considering the show is a race around the world and can wrap up a season anywhere in the U.S. (they always start and finish in the U.S.), it’s quite interesting they have chosen our metropolitan area twice.  Here’s a list of all the places they’ve finished.
  • Sometimes I think the local weathermen turn up the sensitivity on their radars to get a few more reds and purples on the map to entice viewers.
  • I can’t believe I didn’t get all the answers right on this Buzzfeed quiz, the first question got me – How Well Do You Remember Rotary Phones‏
  • Here’s another Buzzfeed quiz for Disney fans – Which Disney Kingdom Should You Live In?
  • What does Texas taste like? Ben & Jerry’s wants you to decide – It’s a choice between Bar-B-Que Peach (ancho peach ice cream with peaches and a barbecue caramel swirl) and Bourbon Pecan Pie (bourbon ice cream with pecans, shortbread cookie pieces and a whiskey caramel swirl).  I’ll just stick with my main three, chocolate chip, cookies and cream, and vanilla.
  • I had to teach BoyGeeding some manners in Kohl’s after he pointed at a woman and loudly laughed at how short she was.  Man, too bad he never got a chance to meet his paternal grandmother who was only 4’11’.  Speaking of kids and manners, while eating at Mooyah’s I was walking back towards our table with drinks in hand when a boy, about 12-years-old, almost ran into me, stopped, did some sort of basketball fake-out spin move, and then almost run into me again as he sprinted towards the beverage section.  Surprised the kid didn’t apologize, I didn’t say anything but frustratedly threw my arms up in the air and then the father yelled at me saying, “Hey, give him a break, he’s a kid.”  I would have given the kid a break if that boy was the age of my kids, who at the time were being well mannered, and I almost mentioned that to him.  But I just looked at him sternly in the eyes and said, “Hey, you ever had one of those days?”, and he quickly apologized and then talked to his son about his behavior.
  • Nintendo announced it is bringing its games and characters to Universal theme parks
  • There’s a baby boom going on at the White House.
  • NFL teams were paid $5.4 million by Dept. of Defense to salute U.S. troops during games‏
  • The wife of a longtime youth pastor in Arkansas turned him into police after finding ‘tens of thousands’ of child porn files on his computer.
  • ’60 Minutes’ had a segment on former KGB agent Jack Barsky who lived in the U.S.  Now I know how the FX series ‘The American’s’ will end.  His American/Jersey accent is amazing.  I also learned that it takes most ballerinas three years to stand on the tip of their toes and from Bob Ballard, half of the U.S. lies under the ocean and is unexplored.  That part of the U.S. is called the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and basically claims all water within 200 miles from the shore and was created by President Ronald Reagan.
  • ‘Mad Men’ thoughts – For that episode to air on Mother’s Day sure was a real downer.  I for sure thought someone was going to pick up Don wasn’t actually Don at that vet gathering.  Legal Custody Question: Don was married to Betty and had kids.  Betty is married to Henry and the kids live with them.  When/If Betty dies and the children are still minors, and both Don and Henry want custody, who would get normally them?
  • I think this link is by far the most entertaining I’ll post today, maybe this week. You’d think crocodiles and alligators would be similarly ranked, but no – Watermelon-Eating Techniques Of Large Animals, Ranked
  • Today’s does of TEXAS! – Waste of Time: Texas House Votes to Keep Daylight Savings – A Texas House push to exclude the state from observing daylight saving time has collapsed amid concerns that doing so would make residents choose between going to church and watching the Dallas Cowboys.
  • Sad Odessa area news – A 4-year-old boy was killed Friday afternoon after a nearly 100-year-old large headstone fell on top of him.
  • Other macabre news
  • Aerial views of Dallas 1930-1987: 29 images
  • Until watching last night’s ‘Silicon Valley’ I never heard of the story of Bill Gates booking all helicopter services on Maui to prevent photographers from renting them to snap pictures of his wedding.  A quick search on the web seems to prove that story true.
  • It does the body good – Missing trail runner found alive, survived on her own breast milk
  • Today’s dose of ‘MURICA!
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