My favorite person at church died this week. She was 92 and was from England. She shared great stories of growing up in London during WWII, and it was always a delight to hear her speak in that wonderful accent.
I went to a playoff basketball game in Argyle and was blown away by how nice the gymnasium was, especially their sound system. High school gyms don’t echo like they used to.
For 2026, Dallas ranks 7th best for filmmakers to live and work in North America, and Fort Worth ranks 12th.
Elsewhere in Texas, Austin was named the No. 5 best place to live and work as a filmmaker in North America, Houston ranked 10th, San Antonio appeared as No. 14, and El Paso landed at No. 25 on the list.
Business Insider – 4Chan knew about Jeffrey Epstein’s death 38 minutes before the rest of the world. The FBI tried to figure out how.
One of my favorite political figures of all time is Barbara Jordan. I remember taking the kids to the Texas Capitol and pointing out her portrait that hangs in the Senate chamber. No other politician has ever sounded so articulate and intellectual. I mention her because I stumbled upon a new documentary about her that aired this week. You can watch it for free here.
I don’t think people realise how much damage they do when they say they care, but never show up in moments that actually require effort or emotional presence.
This is Wiley. He has never seen snow before and wants to make sure he gets a real good look at it. For science. 12/10 (IG: smileywileydog)
The end of last week was a trip down Nostalgia Lane.
On Thursday, I rode with one of my closest friends to Clyde, TX, to watch his daughter play in her second playoff basketball game. As a starting varsity sophomore, she’s got a knack for blocking shots. It’s not that she’s built like a shot blocker; I think she has a unique ability to time the release of an opponent’s shot.
As long-time readers know, the namesake of my firstborn was raised in Clyde and later returned as a math teacher and coach. I asked him to be my best man, but tragically, a week before my wedding, he died in a drowning accident while saving his girlfriend. In his memory, his mother created a scholarship, and all his close-knit college friends, including me, serve on the board. Since we were going to be in town, I reached out to her in case she wanted to watch the game with us.
As soon as we parked, it hit me that the last time I was there was three days before my wedding, June 2003, when I had the honor of giving one of the eulogies at his funeral. The high school gym was the only place that could hold all the folks who wanted to attend, and it was packed. Chairs were brought it and it was still standing room only. His very large family took up all one half of the court. If memory serves me correctly, the high school was just finished being built, and his funeral was the first event. As I walked in, a flood of memories from that day hit me. It was rather surreal.
The wood paneling for the big beams on the ceiling was a great touch.
My late friend’s mother did make it to the game to watch the team we were rooting for dominate. She sat between me and my friend (also a scholarship board member), whose daughter was playing. Interestingly, she shared that the last time she was in that building was the same time as me. I told her, at least we now have a happy memory of being in this place together.
A funny thing happened with less than three minutes left in the game. Somehow, the opposing team put six players on the floor, and the refs didn’t catch it. Thankfully, no one scored. I bet the refs were embarrassed, and I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a way for them to “make it right.” I guess if the score was close, and if our team had lost, it could have been easily contested. This was for an area championship, afterall. Today his daughter has a game in nearby Aubry, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to make that one as well.
I like the one because she is admiring her new husband. I think the kids call it “mirin'” or “crushin'” him.
Speaking of my friend with the basketball-playing daughter, he’s a pastor in Mineral Wells, following the footsteps of his father. His brother is also a pastor in a neighboring town. Well, their father got married on Saturday, and both officiated the wedding. Their father, a widower, who was married for over 50 years, was marrying a widow who was also married for over 50 years. At the wedding, it was mentioned that the two already had over a century of combined Christian marriage. My childhood pastor didn’t have a best man, but a best person, the sister of his deceased wife. The bride’s son, who was also in my youth group, walked his mother down the aisle and gave a much longer than expected, war m hearted answer on how proud he was to give his mother away and grateful to now be a part of this family his family have admired for so long.
Oh, I guess it’s worth mentioning that my friend’s father, who baptized me on Easter Sunday 1993, also officiated my wedding. I’ve been told by them multiple times that I’m considered family and they always invite me to every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holidays since my family fell apart. As a matter of fact, my friend was the only person I could depend on to drive me to all of my spinal surguries over the past five years, coming all the way from Mineral Wells to do so.
That morning, for the heck of it, I decided to text DaughterGeeding to see if she’d be interested as my plus-one for this wedding that was two hours away. To my utter astonishment, we went. Since she’s a 15 year old, it was also a great opporunity to get some long distance and highway driving experience in. Over the past five years, I don’t often get a chance to show off either of my kids, but especially DaughterGeeding. This was the first time most of these folks have seen my daughter, and they greeted her warmly. Without any prompting, so many of them were kind enough to immediately share heart warming stories of how I impacted their life. The wife of one of the pastors even told her that I was responsible for getting her her first job. Heck, another friend who greeted me by name gave me a hug, and when I told him I was surpised that he didn’t forgot about me me, he would he would always remember me because I helped him get his first job. All of that talk made me laugh on the inside pretty hard. It turns out I can help get other people employed, just not myself, lol. Oh, speaking of which, I didn’t get that job that I had to drive and interview in Austin for.
Because I haven’t attended a wedding in well over a decade, and since I don’t get to dress up often, I decided to really lean into it, going for something dapper. It seemed to work, because as soon as I walked in, the first thing everyone said to me was that I was looking quite dapper.
I almost failed to mention that everyone at the wedding thought DaughterGeeding was beautiful and well-mannered. And many took the opportunity to sit next to her and take some time to genuinely get to know her. Heck, I found out a lot of stuff about her I didn’t know about. Words can’t adequately express how much this warmed my heart. Not only their actions, but just the type of bonding that can happen during a car trip as you gently coach some driving skills.
And here’s something for your cityfolk. When you’re at a small town in Texas, you’ll often see things like this to hold your cowboy hat.
On Friday night, I met at date at Texas Live to eat and watch the Olympics. It was my first time visiting the venue. Parking was a little difficult because of the setup for the upcoming F1 race. Bleachers are everywhere. As a matter of fact, I got a chance to drive down some of the roads with the barricades, so I have just a tiny idea of what it will feel like.
That date went ok, but my mind was mostly preoccupied thking about a date I had planned on Sunday with someone I’ve been wanting to get to together with for a long time. There’s something about the one I had plans with on Sunday that just me giddy. But as soon as I arrived at my destination, I looked at my phone and saw this.
NBC averaged 24 million viewers across its prime afternoon coverage (2-5 p.m. EST) and Primetime in Milan (8-11 p.m. EST and PST) through Friday, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. That is a 94% improvement over the 2022 Beijing Games.
“All the young people out there, those dreams are formed now. Go chase them, our country loves sports, it brings us together unlike anything else. And if you didn’t know that: you saw it in Team USA Hockey” pic.twitter.com/TFWiqAu2Za
I don’t follow hockey, but this had me tearing up. They brought their teammate’s (who was killed by a drunk driver) kids out onto the ice with their dad’s jersey to celebrate the moment.
Garley, who lost her job after the US froze all foreign aid in late January 2025, is struggling to find a full-time job with benefits more than a year later. To contribute to the bills, she has returned to a job she held in her teens and 20s: swim instructor.
More than 350,000 workers have left the federal government’s payroll since the president started his second term on January 20, 2025, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Trump said last month that he doesn’t feel bad about the downsizing, claiming without evidence that former federal workers are now making more money in the private sector.
Readers of that Wise County blogger would expect to see something like this on his blog. But I’m a really big fan of people being held accountable, which is why I’m posting it.
Something else you would probably see on his blog:
Ted Roosevelt IV is pretty sure that President Theodore Roosevelt, his great-grandfather, would have been “appalled” by an effort by House Republicans to allow mining near an expanse of wilderness in Minnesota. nyti.ms/4rEJMgB
This 60 Minutes segment had me in tears, and one of them was even conceived in a concentration camp.
The part that really got me is the story of how one mother gave her sick baby to a U.S. medic who rushed the newborn to a doctor. The medic always wondered what happened to that tiny and sickly infant. It turns out that the little baby girl grew up, went to grad school inthe U.S., and tracked him down 61 years later.
Hana Berger-Moran: And I asked him if I can call him Daddy Pete.
Lesley Stahl: Daddy Pete?
Hana Berger-Moran: I didn’t have a father, you know? So he became my daddy.
Lesley Stahl: He adopted you.
Hana Berger-Moran: Well, he had no choice.
Lesley Stahl: You adopted him, let me put it that way.
Pete Petersohn died five years later. Hana spent a week with him during his final illness.
He speaks English. She speaks Mandarin. David Duda and Hong Liang, a married couple, rely on A.I. translation and external battery packs. If their phones die, so does their ability to communicate.
Since so many of you responded to my thread about surveillance pricing—here’s a full breakdown, with visuals, on how companies use your personal data to manipulate prices in real-time: pic.twitter.com/4gJDRNscso
The drive to Austin wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be regarding stopping and charging. All the super-chargers at all the Buc-ee’s on I-35 made it pretty easy. There’s a little range anxiety driving there because you know you have to drive back. However, driving back was a cinch. Because the parking garage where I interviewed had car chargers, I was able to leave Austin with a full charge. So I only had to stop once to charge, which I would have done anyway for a restroom break and to stretch my legs. That charge was less than 25-minutes and cost under five bucks. It turns out that not renting a car was a good thing, and I might drive to places like Austin more often.
Traffic stunk on the way there, but was great on the way back; though I was surprised by the number of law enforcement I passed trying to catch speeders. I counted at least seven on the way home.
It’s always unsettling seeing the Confederate flag flying high off I-35 while driving through Waco.
It was fun having the dogs along for the ride and to keep me company. They really enjoyed the attention they received when we took a stroll on the University of Texas campus.
I typically don’t like talking about how my interview went. It’s a silly superstition that I might jinx myself. But I guess I feel comfortable saying it was solid. I guess there was a certain relief about having an in-person interview, even if I had to drive four hours, as opposed to yet another AI-interviewing tool or video conference.
I appreciated the interview’s format. After I was escorted into a conference room, I was given a project schedule and outline to study for five-minutes. Then a small panel of folks walked in for introductions. I was then given four pages of questions. I was told they would read each one aloud. I could take some time to think about a response, without having to answer immediately. Having a visual and being able to reference something was helpful, and I wrote notes as each was read. Most were scenario-based, and only one was the typical “give me an example when” variety. In all, the interview lasted about 70 minutes, and I felt I had a good rapport or chemistry with the team.
Even if I don’t get this job, unlike most interviews I’ve had during this drought, I felt there were lessons I could take away. That I had something to build on. It was also the first time I felt like I wasn’t being tested but being treated as a consultant. I guess I felt like I was on offense this time and not on defense. That is, when each item was read to me, my concern wasn’t how they would grade my answer. Instead, I felt like I was identifying the need, want, or problem, and then telling them the best way to accomplish it.
Speaking of lessons learned, yesterday marked the five-year anniversary of when the person I was married to decided to break apart our family.
I was surprised to learn that Abilene ISD’s (former) superintendent last worked as Mineral Well’s superintendent. He recently stepped down wrinting the following:
On December 30, 2025, I suffered a serious heart attack – a “widowmaker,” with 100% blockage of my left anterior descending (LAD) artery and 80% blockage of my circumflex. Thankfully, I was at home at the time; my wife and children called 911 and acted quickly to treat me with aspirin.
Regarding the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping, I predict a future news article about the increase in sales of Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpacks.
I didn’t think the gondola rides at Las Colinas were still operating, let alone popular.
Often privy to multiple marriage proposals a day, the gondola king of Irving has learned a thing or two about the affairs of the heart. 🚣💕 https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/irving-las-colinas-gondoliers-love-advice/
My next interview will be with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Thankfully, I already have my Public Trust security clearance, which is valid through April 2029. The description, if you are interested, is after the jump.
