Bag of Randomness for Friday, August 11, 2023

  • We’ve had a lot of consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures. In case you think we are close to breaking any records, this should be helpfulIn order to break 1980’s mark of 42 straight days over 100 we would have to remain above the century mark until September 4.
  • Right when I think a relationship is going to develop between me and a girl, I get ghosted.
  • Clarence Thomas’ 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel
    • Is this really any surprise? Haven’t we all thought people in power get special perks that the rest of us don’t get?
  • “It’s so dry in Texas that the Baptists are sprinkling, the Methodists are using wet wipes, the Presbyterians are passing out rain checks, and the Catholics are praying that the wine will turn back to water.”
  • Despite voting No on bill, Sen. Cruz ‘enthusiastic’ for CHIPS Act projects in Texas
    • U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) voted against the bill but tells NBC 5 he supports money coming to his state and will use his role on the powerful commerce committee to make sure Texas gets its fair share. “Once it passes, once it’s law, I am enthusiastic that if we’re going to spend money, that money comes to Texas.”
  • Jonah Hill looks drastically different.
  • For my fellow TICKET listeners, here’s Dan and Jake’s legal response. Per Jake, unfortunately, his home address is revealed in the doc.
    I thought these were the most interesting comments on The TICKET’s Reddit thread.
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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, August 10, 2023

  • “Twitter” was such a cool name, and calling messages “tweets” was cute and made sense. I can’t believe how much he is blowing up the only form of social media I use.
  • I wonder, on the average college football team, what percentage of players do not have a tattoo? They are already popular with young people, and NIL will make it easy to afford them. My current guess is 76 percent of players on the average football team have a tattoo.
  • I spoke to one of the foundation repair guys at my house about the tattoo of three crosses on his neck. He looked like he was in his early twenties. After he told me the religious symbolism behind it, he said he wished he never would have gotten it. I bet a lot of young adults as they grow older are going to regret the tattoo they got. And the person who creates an easy and quick way to get rid of them is going to make boatloads of money.
  • I read somewhere that a high number of recently divorced women will get a tattoo within the first two years of divorce.
  • Sometimes I sit back and think about how I felt my divorce came out of nowhere. I had no idea my spouse was unhappy in our marriage, or with me. I thought she was unhappy about herself. Sure, we had problems we were working through, but since we never made it to a single counseling session together I didn’t think our marriage was near coming apart. She never communicated to me our marriage was in danger. The house was still going through a major restoration. And we agreed to renew our vows in a private ceremony with our kids. Heck, she even initiated sex the night before she left.
  • I wish I could look my children in the eyes and tell them we did everything possible to keep the family together. I feel so bad for my part in ruining their childhood when all of this could have been prevented.
  • When I look back at things, I see some of the red flags I missed. For instance, on our last Christmas together, my then-wife was crying when opening presents. She told us all she was crying out of the kindness of one present I got her. But now I see she knew that was going to be our last Christmas together as a whole family because she mentally checked out long ago.
  • The ex and I disagree on what is and what doesn’t constitute a family post-divorce.
  • Here’s one question I’d like her to answer: What things did you do to help keep the family together?
  • My ex told me she didn’t know when she stopped loving me. That got me thinking, is it possible to stop loving somebody? And, of course, you have to factor there are different types of love. I’m estranged from my brother and sister and feel they treated me badly. But I still love them. I never considered stopping loving them. I hate what they did to me, but wish we could all come together and talk things out. But no matter what, I still love and want them to get the best out of life. I made a covenant with God to love my ex. I may not be able to romantically love her, but now I love her as family. And like I said earlier, my ex and I disagree on what constitutes a family post-divorce.
  • Megan Fox says her ‘body aches’ from the weight of men’s ‘sins’ while announcing new poetry book
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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, August 9, 2023

  • Just in case you weren’t, trash pickup rates in Mineral Wells will rise from $21.53 to $22.16.
  • This was an interesting article to read – The average doctor in the U.S. makes $350,000 a year. Why?
    • By accounting for all streams of income, they revealed that doctors make more than anyone thought — and more than any other occupation we’ve measured. In the prime earning years of 40 to 55, the average physician made $405,000 in 2017 — almost all of it (94 percent) from wages. Doctors in the top 10 percent averaged $1.3 million. And those in the top 1 percent averaged an astounding $4 million, though most of that (85 percent) came from business income or capital gains.
    • In certain specialties, doctors see substantially more in their peak earning years: Neurosurgeons (about $920,000), orthopedic surgeons ($789,000) and radiation oncologists ($709,000) all did especially well for themselves. 
    • “In general, U.S. physicians are making about 50 percent more than German physicians and about more than twice as much as U.K. physicians,”
  • Until yesterday, I did not know that Cincinnati and Indianapolis were so close to each other. It’s less than a two-hour drive. I never thought about it before, but from a football perspective, I’m guessing the Bengals and Colts are rivals. Both teams are in the AFC, but not in the same division, though they should be because of their proximity to each other. It would make for a great division rivalry.
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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, August 8, 2023

  • There’s no better father-son movie than Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. Go ahead, prove me wrong.
  • Tomorrow is the first day of the school year for my kids.
  • I’m still not quite used to the new normal. I want a new, new normal. Yeah, yeah, I know, read the Serenity Prayer.
  • Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo takes leave of absence to treat depression
    • This made me think of the time I was suffering from severe depression. Instead of my in-laws helping me at my lowest, they used it against me to keep my children away from me. Man, that still hurts. My faith tells me to forgive. I’ve studied all the variants of forgiveness, but I’m just not there.
  • Zoom orders workers back to the officeZoom, the video communications company whose name became synonymous with remote work during the pandemic, has ordered staff back to the office.
    • That article reminded me of this tweet:
  • The Big 12 and Big Ten conferences need to change their names to something that doesn’t include numbers. Conferences seem to always be losing and adding schools and the number of members in said conferences hasn’t matched the name for years. For the Big 12, I suggest something like the “Big West,”. At first, you may think that wouldn’t make sense since West Virginia is in there. But since “West” is in the name, it would work out after all.  But that’s still a bad name because I’m sure a team from the East will eventually be added. I say add corporate sponsorship to the name and call it the “Big Mac Conference.”
  • Actually, I think I do have a good name for each conference. (This will be an attempt at humor, but not all of you will get it.) The conference names could be the National College Conference, the American College Conference, and the Confederate University Conference.
  • Every now and then, Google will do something that impresses me. The latest was my search for email salutations. I like how the search results are displayed and how functional it is to get a bit more background information.
  • Why Conservative Parts of the U.S. Are So AngryRepublican America is poorer, more violent, and less healthy than Democratic America. But Republicans’ blame is misplaced.
  • David Beckham stopped for some BBQ when he was in town. I hope he tried some moist brisket.
  • Funny.
    https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1688275729107030016
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