Random Thoughts 9/9/14

• Baltimore running back Ray Rice had his football career ruined when the video of him beating his wife was released this week.  On the one hand, I understand why people are so upset because the video is violent and it removes any shadow of a doubt about what happened on that elevator.  On the other hand, I'm stunned by the sudden outrage.  It's like people thought it wasn't real because they couldn't see it.  But now they can, so now it is real, at least in regard to Ray Rice.  Never mind that this violence is done by other famous people (unrecorded by video) and the public generally looks the other direction.  I'm thinking of alleged (and sometimes convicted) wife-beaters like Mel Gibson, Mike Tyson, John Daly, Charlie Sheen, Axl Rose, Dennis Rodman, O.J. Simpson, John Lennon, Steve McQueen, Sean Penn, Nicolas Cage, Steven Seagal, Vince Neil, Jim Brown, Jose Canseco, Warren Sapp and many, many others.
• Here's a pretty good article condemning Victoria Osteen's "gospel of happiness."
• Apple has announced its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as it's upcoming Apple Watch.  Our phones are two years old, so we're technically due for an update.  I like the iPhone 6 but Shannon is leaning toward the phablet-sized 6 Plus.  I just need the thing to actually fit in my pocket.  The Apple Watch looks incredibly cool but I don't wear a watch now and I don't have $350 to learn to start wearing one again.
• "Apple Pay" sounds like pig-Latin to me.
• I won my first fantasy football game of the year.  That's not my usual m.o.
• Listen to a classic sermon by Frank Peretti at Focus on the Family here (part 1) and here (part 2).

Random Thoughts 7/16/14

• Does anyone still play poker?  I haven't played in a couple years, but only because other things crowded in and took over.  We had a weekly poker night at my house, never gambling any money but keeping track of everyone's performance on a spreadsheet.  We had over a hundred different people come to our house to play from about 2006 to 2010-ish before the regular game died out.  I know that the No-Limit Hold-em game is past its heyday but I'd like to get that home game going again.
• Speaking of poker, this year's World Series of Poker has concluded.  The professionals proved yet again that poker isn't a game of mere luck.  Phil Ivey won his 10th bracelet, Ted Forrest won his 6th, and 2009 champion Joe Cada won his second bracelet.  Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Layne Flack, Jeff Lisandro, and Todd Brunson all made (multiple) final tables.
• I meant to post the devotions I wrote for church camp this summer.  In fact, I thought that I already did.  I'll post both of them later today or maybe tomorrow.
• The MacBook Pro which I use at work and home is easily the best computer I've ever owned.  I've had it for about three and half years and it's still going strong, no problems, no issues.  I still expect that someday, I'll transition from a laptop to a tablet, but that day hasn't come yet.
• This is me not talking about politics.  If you don't have anything nice to say…

Random Thoughts 1/3/14

• Two of my favorite iPhone apps of 2013 are free apps that were recommended to me by friends:  First, Yahoo!'s "Weather!".  This is easily one of the most beautiful weather apps available and has perhaps the best balance between maximum information and minimal interface.  Other weather apps might offer a few more features but those features will be hidden behind several tabs and buttons on multiple pages.  Weather! gives you almost every weather-related bit of info you could want in a simple iOS 7 styled design on top of a beautiful local photograph pulled off the internet for the city in question. [Thanks for the recommendation, Dustin]
• Second, Bleacher Report's "Team Stream".  This is my new favorite sports news app.  Bleacher Report brings a fantastic balance of original writing, sourced material, and social media to create a never-ending flood of information about your favorite sport or team.  This is a check-it-every-day kind of app for even the casual fan.  [Thanks, Ryan]
• I had a clumsy night of basketball last night and managed to jam four or five fingers.  But the only one that is black and blue and swollen today is my left ring finger.  So the only jewelry I wear, my wedding ring, will stay attached to my gym bag for a few more days.
• One of long-time favorite apps for my iPhone has been Bump.  It started as a way to share contacts between phones but I used to transfer photos to my computer in a quick and easy way.  But recently Google bought Bump and now Bump is being turned off.  The app is going away and won't work on your phone anymore.  I suppose we'll see the same functions show up some day in Google's own app, but still.
• Playoff football is upon us and the Chiefs are involved.  I hardly know what to think about it, especially when I'm constantly reminded that the Chiefs haven't won a playoff game in 20 years, not since Joe Montana and Marcus Allen helped KC beat the Houston Oilers.  Ugh.
• It's incredible that with all this record-setting cold weather, it only seems to snow when it is most likely to interfere with a church service.  We're expecting some snow this Saturday, again, but we'll still have church Sunday morning for those who can get out of their own driveway.

Random Thoughts 6/7/13

• I don't ever want to hear again how supposedly evil George Bush was.  Five years of President Obama's administration has been as corrupt as the day is long, setting new records for welfare and government bloat.  Benghazi, the IRS, wiretapping, NSA snooping, the Arab Spring turned radical, unemployment, guns sold to Mexico… it goes on and on and on.  If you had problems with President Bush, President Obama's administration is doubling down on more of the same.  Or did he close Gitmo while I was reading about all the drone strikes?
• Newly retired NFL star Matt Birk didn't visit the White House this week with the rest of the Baltimore Ravens because of his pro-life stance.  He cited the President's recent speech in which he said "God bless Planned Parenthood."  Sports writers (who seem to be surprisingly liberal politically) are now reproaching Birk because the President actually said, "Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you. God bless America." The writers then assert that this is a "huge difference."  Is it?  Maybe I should brush up on the rules about the closest antecedent, but I believe Birk is essentially correct.  The President said, "God bless you [Planned Parenthood]."
• Birk then clarifies that because Planned Parenthood performs a third of million abortions per year, he can't endorse them in any way.  God bless you, Matt Birk, for making a stand against something plainly evil.
• On the side, does anyone think a politician (such as the President) means "God bless [insert noun here]" the way most religious people do?
• There was a headline today that said, "QB Alex Smith encouraged to make big plays."  Really.  Coaching like that must be worth millions.
• What do I use Evernote for?  Everything.  Photos of my license plates, meeting notes, sermon ideas and illustrations, jokes and funny pictures from Facebook, recording my vehicle mileage, movies I've watched, ideas for blogging, shopping lists, prayer lists, inspirational quotations, business cards, and almost every piece of paper that crosses my desk.  
• And finally, Justin Bieber to be blasted into space?  I'm okay with that idea.

Random Thoughts 1/15/13

• Did you like the most recent Muppet movie?  The next one, with different humans, is due out in a year, on March 21, 2014.  Just a few weeks later, on April 4th, we get another Captain America movie.  Then there is fourth Jurassic Park movie due in June of '14; not sure if that's worthwhile or not.
• Best cake ever.
• Rock Chalk, Jayhawk.  Another number-one seed is extremely likely.  Let's just hope for a good tournament.
• Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is January 27th at our church, where we'll have a special guest speaker. 
• The Golden Globes came out and apparently I have been living under a rock.  I can hardly find a single title that I've actually seen among the winners.  That said, more than half of these films are on my to-do list.
• 45 years and $200 billion later, a new study shows that the Head Start program has little or no effect on the disadvantaged preschool children it was designed to help.  I bet our government throws more money at it because that's how socialism works (or doesn't).
• Boeing's amazing 787 Dreamliner has had a few notable hiccups in recent weeks and is now "under review" by the FAA.  It seems pretty minor but those aircraft are complicated machines with some advanced technology in place and everything must absolutely be right before you want to trust your life to one.  Frankly, I'd jump at the chance but I don't fly much at this stage in my life.
• Do the Chiefs draft the best player available?  Do they know a QB worth taking will be there later?  Ugh… thinking about the Chiefs makes me ill.

Random Thoughts 1/3/13

• Ah… 2013.  The first year with four different numerals since 1987.
• I'm compiling my annual entertainment recap for 2012, which is almost done, but I think I'm going to change the format on the next one.  Although I never posted them to my blog (first mistake), I used to write twitter-length movie reviews on Flixter.  Never mind that I've avoided actually using twitter (second mistake).  But I'm going to restart that habit and post them to my blog, perhaps every six months or every quarter.  The reviews help remind me what the movie was in the first place and might make for more interesting reading than just a list.
• I'm going to try to blog more.  My blogging has fallen off to a third of what it was five years ago.  I've fallen in the habit of doing these "Random Thoughts" and I also nix a lot of blog ideas because I'm not in a good frame of mind to be writing (the lack of fiscal cliff blogs is NOT because I'm not tracking the issue).  Never blog angry.
• Andy Reid, new Chiefs head coach.  Good idea.  Andy Reid bringing Michael Vick?  Bad idea.
• It's just a shame that the Chiefs have the first pick of the draft in a year without any clear-cut top QBs.  That's just bad luck.
• Good luck tonight, K-State.
• Don't fret if you missed out on a new iPhone 5 or 4th-gen iPad for Christmas.  The tech-blogs are already abuzz over the fancy new technology that will roll out in the six to twelve months.  So go ahead and tell yourself (and others) that you're skipping this generation of tech on purpose.  Cooler gadgets are on the horizon.
• Besides finding good quality accessories for the iPhone 5 right now is almost impossible.
• I know you've wished you were one of Bill Gates' kids but this article says it's not all that great.  Apparently they asked for Apple products (iPads and such) but their parents gave them Microsoft products instead.  Ugh.
• And here's one for our military friends that spent time in Afghanistan, specifically Kandahar.  Kudos also to the serviceman who wrote this for addressing this subject without a lengthy list of expletives. Now that's discipline.

Random Thoughts 12/29/12

• Whew, the year is almost gone… again.
• Some of us were thinking about the fiscal cliff back in early November (and before then also).  Welcome to the conversation, everybody; it's good to get informed.
• I really appreciate simple iPhone apps that do their job well.  One you may have overlooked, that has some new features and works really well is myLite, a basic flashlight app.  One of the first apps I downloaded for my first iPhone, it's still one that I use on a daily nightly basis.
• Here's an interesting article (if you like history or architecture) showing great New York buildings that no longer exist.  Just scanning down the list, the 1960's was a bad time for famous buildings in the Big Apple.
• This video is kinda long (23 minutes) but it's an excellent look into what makes a computing experience good or bad.  Now that computers are everywhere in our world, I hope lots of designers watch this amusing rant against Windows 8.  It helps that I've never been a fan of MicroSoft Windows.
• This was my first losing season of fantasy football… in almost 20 years (though I have been .500 a few times in that period).  For most of the season I was in the top three scoring but I was in the top two teams for points allowed all year.  Basically, a lot of teams had their best weeks the week they were playing me.  Yay.

Random Thoughts 12/20/12

• My sweet Tanner had a birthday this week (Tuesday) and turned 11!  All he wanted for his birthday was a metal detector.  Of course.  That's not homeschool at all.
• I took Shannon, Brennan, and Tanner to see The Hobbit Tuesday.   Part 1 (of 3) is everything a Tolkien fan could hope for.  We saw it in traditional 2D at 24 frames-per-second and it was perfect.  It seems like too dark a movie for 3D and I'm not a fan of wearing those plastic glasses and getting a headache anyway.
• The Christmas shopping for the kids is basically done now with just a few more presents to wrap.  Spreading out the shopping (and spending) over several months is a good thing and I'm already tracking ideas and online prices for next year.
• Our Google Fiberhood has expanded by a few miles (good for our neighbors) and been delayed a little bit (bad for us).  We supposedly will be hooked up by February.
• Yes, more gun laws will make a difference.  Just like laws against alcohol and drugs fixed those problems.
• Global warming failed us again.  We had our first serious snow today.  Blizzard conditions this morning and cold and icy all day.  But it's Kansas so it'll melt tomorrow… maybe.  In Russia they're having the worst winter in 70 years.  So it could be worse.
• I think some people are going to profit off of the panic and foolishness about doomsday in the next 24 hours.  I'll have a video go up on my blog after midnight Friday night about why the world didn't end yesterday.
• See Union Station's Christmas decorations here.
• The bodies of the "In Cold Blood" killers were exhumed in Lansing, KS, to collect DNA for a murder case in Florida 50 years ago.  Kansas hasn't executed anybody since these two were hung in Lansing in 1965.
• That video you've seen with the giant eagle snatching and almost carrying away an infant… is a fake.  It was created by a 3D animation workshop.

Random Thoughts 12/6/12

• Javon Belcher's murder-suicide is such a terrible tragedy, leaving so many affected people.  The orphaned child, the family, those poor coaches and staff that witnessed the tragedy.  I think I passed the point of disbelief when the NFL made the Chiefs play the next day.  Why couldn't that game have been postponed or canceled out of respect for the lost?
• Here's the writer's guild list of award nominees.  As someone who appreciates good writing, this list is sometimes a bit better than the typical Golden Globe, Emmy, or Oscar lists.
• Google Fiber seems to be making progress in our neighborhood, er… fiberhood.  In recent weeks the crews have been running the fiber optic cable under ground to each house.  Personally, I can't wait to get rid of Knology (formerly Sunflower), which has been the most unreliable internet service I've ever used, going all the way back to dial-up.  But our neighborhood had very few internet options… until now.
• Apple is now officially rich enough to lose money make computers in the U.S.  Supposedly, an entire line of computers (the Mac Pro?) will be made in the United States… at least for awhile.  Right now Apple products are designed in California, components are made around the world, and the machines are assembled in China, where skilled workers can be had for a few dollars an hour.  The same type of skilled worker (which may or may not exist in this country) is going to cost significantly more, meaning Apple can only afford to produce the product with the largest profit margin (the high-end $2500 Mac Pro), minus the profit margin. 
• There's concern amongst early reviewers that the 48-frames per second speed of the new Hobbit film is distracting and unattractive.  I plan to see the film in plain-old 2D and traditional 24-frames per second, so hopefully I won't even notice what they're complaining about.
• So the NFL is considering getting rid of the kickoff in football, to avoid the violent collisions (and frequent boredom) associated with the play.  What would replace it?  The team that scores, instead of kicking off, would go back to their own 30 with the ball on 4th and 15.  They can go for it or punt.  Hmmm…

Random Thoughts 10/03/12

• What does it cost to charge your smartphone?  Less than 50¢… per year!  Specifically, recharging an iPhone 4 costs about 38¢ and a new iPhone 5 costs about 41¢ annually to charge.  I'm not sure why that sounds crazy cheap but it does.  Considering that running a computer or television or Xbox can run you upwards of $50 or more a year, these handheld devices are very energy efficient for what they do.
• Our church family is struggling through financially hard times, just like everybody else.  A lot of ministers are sweating bullets now, wondering what the future holds, and that insecurity makes them less effective in the ministry they do.  But the folks at Wyandotte have gone out of their way to encourage their ministers.  I know I feel I've been supported and loved and encouraged in every possible way and it makes all the difference.  So thank you, thank you, thank you to my church family!
• From Lifehacker: things to buy in October.
• Don't use olive oil on your leather furniture.
• That NFL stadium in Los Angeles is happening and one of the 32 current teams moving there as soon as 2013 is a real possibility.  Commissioner Goodell sent out a memo to every NFL team telling them that they had to declare their intentions to move to L.A. in the fall of 2013 by February 15, 2013.  Teams like the Jaguars, Bills, Vikings, Cardinals, Raiders, and others have all been rumored at one point or another.
• Birthday coupons to eat at bd's Mongolian BBQ =  winning.
• So… the iPhone 5… it turns out it can be kind of hard to get to get your hands on them.  Hmmm…  Challenge accepted!  Fortunately, I'm not in a hurry.

Random Thoughts 9/25/12

• I've recently watched a few Civil War documentaries that leaned heavily on the letters of people of that day… and listening to these begs a question.  In a time when many folks didn't finished 8th grade – if they had any formal schooling at all – how is it that they all sound like poets compared to the way people talk and write today, when 56% of the country has attended college?  The 19th century vocabulary and diction seems so advanced, even from just average people.  In contrast, go read some Facebook or Twitter posts and weep.
• My oldest turns 12 tomorrow.  Wow.
• Just remember that the NFL referees with 10 or 20 years of experience also make bad calls each and every game.  Thus, I don't think the pressure is on the NFL at all, even after the Packers/Seahawks game last night.  Rather the league sees a bunch of rookie referees that will get better every week.
• I wish the more experienced referees were in the game, but the (union's) notion that these guys are so special that they can never be replaced… is nonsense.  Eventually the scabs will gain experience and be equal to the union guys.  Someday.
• If you get a black iPhone 5, you're going to want to get a case.  The black coloring can scratch off the aluminum with normal use.  Some examples online are pretty minor but a year or two of going in and out of your pocket may rub the paint off all of the edges and affect resale value.
• Sci-Fi struggles on television.  Look at the last few years, filled with big budget, poorly written dramas, that have struggled to find and keep an audience: "Terra Nova," "The Event," "FlashForward," "V," "Jericho," and now "Revolution" and "Last Resort."  "Heroes" went dramatically downhill after the first season and "Lost" fans were famously un-thrilled with the answers they did or didn't get.  Even the legendary 1960's "Star Trek" only survived three seasons before cancellation.  With an occasional exception, American network television is not a good place for science fiction and fantasy.  Life and death, save-the-world story lines don't work well with the business of television which insists on quantity over quality to be profitable. 
• However, genre-TV (sci-fi, fantasy, historical drama, etc.) can work on cable and online, where the business model is completely different (though admittedly the budgets are much smaller).
• Tonight is the banquet for Hands of Hope Pregnancy Resource Center.  I'm a big fan of their executive director.

Random Thoughts 9/19/12

• It was terribly sad to hear about the loss of NFL Film's Steve Sabol yesterday, who passed from brain cancer.  I was surprised that he was already 69 years old, but it's still tragic.  Interesting trivia: Steve Sabol has won more Emmy awards in more categories than anyone else in television, ever.
• Granted it helps if you like football, but NFL Films Presents is still (and has always been) one of the best shows on TV (hidden away late on Tuesday nights and on Wednesday afternoons on ESPN2).  Sabol's absence will be felt.
• New Hobbit trailer on facebook, here.  HD version here.
• I upgraded to iOS 6 and it looks great!  That maps are surprisingly nice (I didn't think I'd be impressed by that).
• AEG, the company that manages Kansas City's Spring Center (among other venues, like the Staples Center) is up for sale.  Supposedly, whoever buys AEG will inherit the 35-year contract with KC.  The Sprint Center never attracted an NBA or NFL franchise but otherwise has been very successful and profitable.
• Do people who call in false-alarm bomb threats actually get away with it?  Are there still pay phones out there somewhere?
• Both of our church volleyball teams played for the first time last night.  It didn't go very well, but I think we still had fun (I only had three nervous breakdowns).  These things work out as we get more in sync with our teammates.
• I really didn't think that replacement refs would make a noticeable difference.  I was wrong.

Random Thoughts 9/17/12

• I'm eager to get a new iPhone, and I am eligible to upgrade, but I'm not going to wait in line overnight.  I'll just hold off a few weeks and get one after the initial rush.  No worries.
• I'm just as excited to see the refinements to iOS that are coming out this week.
• Yet another reason why my wife is a-ma-zing!
• A new Hobbit trailer comes out this week.  I link to it when it hits.
• The Wii U, Nintendo's next video game console, comes out this Thanksgiving with the hefty price tag of $350 and games that may cost upward of $60 each.  I can imagine upgrading the Wii at some point, perhaps, but it's hard to justify this kind of cash when games on the iPad and iPhone cost 99¢.
• You can search Google for an actor's "bacon number," i.e. the number of connections it takes to link an actor to Kevin Bacon through shared screen credits, a la "the six degrees of Kevin Bacon."  The problem is the Google knows every credit for every actor and Bacon has been in approximately a gazillion films, so most searches return a bacon number of 1 or 2.  The trick is finding actors with a number of 4 or more.  Just go to Google and type "bacon number justin bieber" to find a celeb with a bacon number of 4.
• I prayed for the President by name in church last week and a few people thought that I endorsed him or encouraged voting for him.  Whoops.  I didn't intend that at all.
• The most commonly stolen vehicles in Kansas City here, starting with the Honda Accord.

Random Thoughts 9/11/12

• Eleven years ago today on a bright, clear day exactly like this one…
•  
• Few headlines can top this: "NBC's Today Show Skips Moment of Silence For Kardashian Interview."
• Conspiracy nuts are out in full force today.  Gag.  Really now.  Do you really think that there are that many people loyal to President Bush that none of them have talked in eleven years?  Really?!  And you think that Bush pulled off a 9/11 conspiracy but couldn't "find" WMDs in Iraq?  Conspiracy theories are for weak-minded people who want sensationalism in their life to distract them from reality.
• Real life conspiracies get leaked, betrayed, and revealed.  People whistle-blow, testify, get interviewed, write books and screenplays, and try to cash-in on their 15-minutes.  If anything about 9/11 was a conspiracy we'd have had years worth of hundreds of involved people lining up and trying to sell Bush and Cheney down the river.  Not a bunch of nobodies giving "expert" opinions about how buildings are supposed to collapse (or not) when hit by jetliners.  Good grief.
• The next iPhone will likely be announced tomorrow.  Does anyone want to buy two 16GB black iPhone 4's in excellent condition?
• Here are 375 ebooks that are free to download.
• GM loses $49,000 on every Chevy Volt is sells.  Oops.  The loss is even worse on a Volt that gets leased.
• I lost my first week of fantasy football.  What stinks is that most of guys had great weeks but I played a team that did fantastic.  In those situations I wish my players would have had their worst performances rather than waste it in a losing effort.  Oh well.
• Here are some Google search tips: 20 Google shortcuts and 10 more Google shortcuts.  I've often used the world time, weather, and movie showtimes.  Google definitely makes the internet awesome but they also have trouble not being evil.  It turns out that nobody gets sued more than Google for stealing intellectual property.  Check out this story about smart phones, tablets, Google, and Apple's board members.
• Thanks you, Zach, for cheering me up.

Random Thoughts 9/4/12

• Grandpa took four of his grandsons to the KU football game the other night.  Brennan, Tanner, Kelby, and Elijah went with Grandpa to Lawrence to watch the Jayhawks.  I'm so happy that my kids have access to him on such a regular basis. What wonderful memories.
• I wonder how the Democrats think their message will play to most Americans?  They reworded their party platform from 2008 and took out the name of God.  It also removes language recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which you wouldn't think would go over well with American Jewish people.  The platform calls for taxpayer-funded abortions. Homosexuals will be overrepresented at the convention at a rate nine times higher than what the last census shows in the general population.  Food stamp use has climbed to a record 46.7 million people.  Household income has dropped almost $5,000 in four years.  Gas has more than doubled.  The national debt passed $16 trillion today.  Unemployment remains higher than what Obama said would cause him to be a one-term president.  The President has not done a very good job, almost every number is against him.
• In the convention this week, every time the Democrats say "we need to act" or "we need to care," they almost always mean "we, the government."  The Dems say government is the solution while the Republicans have moved back to a position on limited government.
• It's amusing to watch Democrats get interviewed about President Obama's record.  They get asked a question about whether Americans are better off than four years ago and, within the first sentence, they're talking about the "hateful rhetoric" of Gov. Romney.  Wha?  How did you get there so fast?  Answer the question!  Did they send out a memo that says everyone must absolutely NOT talk about the last four years?
• I'm supposed to finally get that MRI on my ankle Thursday.  I went to a specialist and found out that I have a couple of problems with my ankles, one of which will require surgery, which will require the MRI.  So I'll be having surgery, likely before the end of the year… unless things change again.
• Michael Clarke Duncan, who played John Coffey in The Green Mile, died yesterday.
• NFL officially football starts tomorrow!
• New iPhones should be available by the end of the month.  Shannon and skipped the last update (the 4S), so we're pretty eager to see an upgrade.  We're crazy about our iPhones.

Random Thoughts 8/24/12

The sincerest form of flattery…

• So much for that MRI; I knew this couldn't be so easy.  Insurance decided against paying for it, so I decided against doing it.  It's very frustrating not knowing the specifics of why this ankle never healed properly.  Oh, well.
• The verdict is in: a jury has found that Samsung blatantly ripped off Apple's designs for things like the iPhone.  It's not a huge surprise; some companies don't even try to innovate.  They just copy.  Now it cost them $1 billion.
• Kummerspeck.  From the German, meaning excess weight that you gain from emotional overeating. It literally means "stress bacon."  That's an awesome word.
• Watch Orson Welles talk about the con-artistry of fortune tellers and what's called a "cold reading."
• Also did you notice how much Orson Welles in the 1970's (without facial hair) looks like Rush Limbaugh today?  Wow!  Must be a radio thing.
• I'm wanting to watch that 2016 movie about President Obama.  It sounds a lot like the 2004 pre-election documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, but this time with actual truth added in.  I have Dinesh D'Souza's book on my Amazon wishlist and just haven't gotten around to getting it yet; watching a movie would be a bit easier to fit into my schedule.
• Fantasy football draft in three days.  I'm not ready!
• Here are clues to the third season of "Sherlock."  Hopefully PBS doesn't give us the chopped up and shaved down version to fit in more commercials version this time.
• How do you know you're not a very good politician?  When you find yourself apologizing for your position on rape.  Wow.  Claire McCaskill must have sold her soul to the devil (again).
• By the way, Todd Akin may be a good person and a good conservative but a good politician wouldn't be so clumsy and tone deaf and a good citizen would get out of the way and let another conservative take that crucial Senate seat.  If this had happened a month ago, he wouldn't be on the ticket in the first place.  His only hope is that 80 days from now, no one will remember or care (which, believe it or not, is possible).

Samsung's Originality

Random Thoughts 8/7/12

• This is incredible: an abortion doctor went into an angry rant when pro-life people knocked on his door.  The doctor said, “I as a taxpayer do not wish for those babies to be born, and brought up, and kill those people in Colorado,” and “Let me see you adopt one of those ugly black babies.”  Wow.  Unfortunately, it's not news that the pro-abortion view overlaps significantly with racist eugenic philosophy.  To some, the plan is to kill those babies (he kept using the word "babies") to prevent crime, to save tax money on welfare, to get rid of the undesirables.  Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger openly campaigned for the reduction of undesirable populations (i.e. blacks, Hispanics, immigrants, the disabled, etc.).
• I voted today and proudly showed my photo I.D.  I didn't feel disenfranchised or discriminated against; it felt only right to prove that I was who I said I claimed to be.
• Zynga is kind of the sleazy dirtbag of video gaming.  Remember "Farmville" or "Mafia Wars"?  Zynga stole those ideas and got sued for them.  But the company has repeatedly produced note-for-note copies of successful games in what amounts to little more than thievery.  I'm not kidding, it's blatant copycatting.  Now they're big enough that suing them is too expensive (unless you're a big company like EA).  The only games they didn't blatantly rip off are the ones they've bought outright and relabeled as their own ("Words with Friends," "Draw Something").  I've played both of those games, but every time I see the Zynga splash screen, I feel dirty inside, like I'm contributing to hacks and piracy… because that's what it is.
• Voter fraud can have a huge impact.  A little voter fraud in Minnesota (ineligible convicts voting) helped turn a tight election, which made Al Franken the 60th Democrat in the Senate, which made Obamacare filibuster-proof, which may send us over a cliff financially like Greece.  All because of a few hundred questionable votes.
• I stepped on a toy last night and put all my weight on it.  That left a nasty little bruise on my foot, at the rear of the fifth metatarsal, and is hurting more than the typical lego-after-midnight injury.  Ouch!
• We've had over twenty days of 100+ temps this summer and over 70 days of drought.  Yuck.  This reminds me of summers as a child when the grass would die in July and we'd shoot bottle rockets out of the deep cracks in the ground.

Random Thoughts 7/30/12

• Here's a fascinating little article (with pictures!) of how American Airlines and IBM created the first computerized system to make airline reservations… in the 1950's!
• The latest rumors have the next iPhone being revealed on September 12 and released a week or two later, a month earlier than most rumors.  Shannon and I skipped the 4S model and are overdue to update.  So we're eagerly awaiting the next offering out of Cupertino.
• My four boys (ages almost-12, 10, 8, and 6) are getting into Minecraft (I've played off and on for over a year already and recently gave them a tour of my worlds).  Real nerds know what I'm talking about.  CREEPER!!!
• Three Hobbit movies.  Yes.
• NFL football has begun.  Training camp is here and it's time to get up to speed on all of the changes to the teams.  This is a great time of year!
• It's so blazing hot outside that we haven't spent near as much time walking in our neighborhood or playing basketball outside as I thought we would.  But we also haven't mowed the yard but about three times all summer; so there's that.
• Olympic opening ceremonies:  I loved Mr. Bean in the orchestra; that was perfect.  Dancing nurses and sick children to celebrate socialized medicine… uh… that was bizarre.  It's funny that the Brits made a stronger case for socialism than the Chinese did four years ago.  "Hey, Jude," the song, is older than almost every athlete in the stadium, although that 70-year old Japanese equestrian (the oldest Olympian this time around) probably remembers the 60's perfectly well.

Random Thoughts 7/25/12

• Chris and I went the Wyandotte County Fair last night and handed out invitations to church.  It went alright but not very many people were braving the 105º temps.
• Here's a rundown on 10 civilizations that disappeared.  Some of these ancient civilizations might have disappeared because of climate change.  Thousands of years ago.  Hmm.  Without SUVs burning fossil fuels they still had dramatic change.  Hmm.  How is that possible?
• Chad Ochocinco just changed his name back to Chad Johnson.  It turns out his new wife isn't so impressed with the gimmick and would rather be Mrs. Johnson than Mrs. Ochocinco.
• OS X Mountain Lion is out today.  Yes, please.
• That third Hobbit film rumor is becoming more real day by day.  Peter Jackson has been having meetings this week about locking down contracts for the actors and securing rights to the source material (the Tolkien estate has not been very supportive of the movies, though they've surely profited handsomely from it).  They're looking at adding another two months of filming to flesh out a third film.  Considering the amount of additional material in the Tolkien books and appendices there's certainly enough stories to draw from.
• Here are 25 iPhone apps for college students.
• KU will play every other Big Monday game on ESPN this winter (four games) versus Baylor, at West Virginia, versus K-State, and at Iowa State.  All four games are at 8pm.  KU has played four such nationally televised games each of the last eight seasons and is again the only Big 12 school to be on the schedule more than three times.
• The Olympics are about to start and, once again, I'm having the worst time feeling any enthusiasm about it.  I'll check the medal count and I'd like my kids to watch some of it, but I'm not that excited yet.