12.28.2015

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • That was a pretty big snow storm for Decatur this morning. It caught me by surprise, my car got stuck, and I had to walk the last quarter mile to work. (I left very, very early.)
  • I saw a true Idocracy commercial this weekend. It was for something called "Emergen-c" and it actually claimed to have "more electrolytes!"
  • I saw The Big Short this weekend. I had read the book but that stuff is still complicated. But it is a fantastic movie and did a great (and funny) job of explaining it.
  • Mrs. LL got me a tiny drone for Christmas. I told there was no was I was going to try and fly it and end up destroying the thing on my first try so she got the first shot. There was nothing funnier than her flying that thing around the house trying to figure it out -- with the high points being when she crashed it into the fireplace and later into her chin. And I had to duck once or it would have smashed into me. 
  • One of our dumb dogs stole beef jerky out of a stocking, removed the wrapping, and ate it. 
  • A very funny bit that I had never seen was John Oliver's segment on how insane it is that how most judges have to run for election. (And he threw in some insane and hilarious commercials they had found.)
  • Very, very underrated movie: Saving Silverman
  • Mrs. LL and I used Uber for the first time yesterday. It was fantastic. 
  • Old school weather guys: Here's a photo of Harold Taft, Scott Chesner, and David Finfrock.
  • Pete Delkus did a good job during those crazy storms but he almost seemed to apologize for having to mention their "free" weather app all the time (which I'm guessing has ads on it). And that concept of him and the new guy staring at a computer screen which we cannot see explaining breaking weather developments just screams of the work of a consultant. 
  • And apparently people were dogging Delkus on Twitter. There was a bowl game going on and WFAA went to a split screen but some of the bowl watchers were not happy with him. I could swear that I  heard him say, when they went to full screen, "the game is over so you guys can stop the death threats." 
  • Washington Redskin's quarterback taking a knee instead of grounding the ball was almost painful to watch. The clock then ran out.
  • I always talk about too many cops and too many lawyers. The Dallas Morning News jumped on that concept with a story of an escalation of cops and lawyers in the Texas AG's office and, more shockingly, how their salaries have skyrocketed -- primarily in the white collar crime unit which rarely has exclusive jurisdiction over anything. It's the local DA's job normally. And get this:  Under AG Greg Abbott in 2014, you, the taxpayer, paid for $50,000 in ammunition for that white collar crime unit. They may spend more time having fun at the gun range than working. 
  • Randy Galloway had his "final" column (and began it by saying he had a few final "random thoughts"). One interesting one was his rant about why there is no legalized gambling in Texas. One explanation he wrote about: Goofy (my term, not his) Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has received over $250,000 in contributions from people who make money off the fact there is no legalized gambling in Texas. And Rep. Jane Nelson is also guilty of accepting contributions and fighting legalized gambling.
  • Shout out to the Messenger for referring to the Liberally Lean blog as "infamous". That was funny and made me smile.