“He who angers you controls you”
–seen on a marquee of a church sign near my home.
There’s a white 15 passenger van setting in my driveway as I type this. I’m making sure I don’t stop to use pay phones, especially in the metropolitan Washington area. Actually it’s the church van. I’m taking a vanload of signs to Cookeville and Sparta tomorrow. Folks just can’t get enough of those “No Lottery” signs. I felt guilty listening to “Jane Says” by Jane’s Addiction in the church van driving home from church. The song isn’t vulgar or anything (actually it’s pretty cool – when was the last time you hear a Jamacian style kettle drum in a rock song?).
I taught the great footwashing episode of John 13 to the 5th and 6th graders tonight. For the most part it went ok. Some of the boys just couldn’t keep quiet. I’d much rather see them keep quiet when the Bible is being read. Might have to separate them. Anyways I hope the class got something out of the lesson. Sometimes I really don’t know if they are actually listening. But then they say something later on which reminds me that they are listening, even when you don’t think they are.
I tried going to a particular consulting agency today. Out of the numerous ones I called, this was the only one which was staffed with a live person – the rest had voicemail – which they don’t bother returning messages. I told this particular consulting agency that I was looking for a job in the IS field. They told me to come in and fill out an application. When I arrived, I started filling out an application. 5 minutes later they told me that applicants looking for IS jobs should submit their resume online. So there was no need for me to come in. It is frustrating. Why bother anymore?
This is what breaking news is turning into these days
What its like working at a gas station in Maryland.

Got called by David Shannon, our minister, at 10AM today. He asked me to take 1500 “No Lottery” signs to Jackson. So I did. It was a good 2 hours and a half to get there. Phil Waggoner rode with me and drove the way back. It was good to have some company along. Phil is a good guy. He’s a good listener and a geniune person. He may not be the best planner in the world, but he tries. He has an honest drive to seek and save the lost. Easy to approach. Good guy.
The ride down there was fairly uneventful. We ran into a traffic jam around Bellevue. Road construction again. We pulled into Dickson for lunch. Phil said he couldn’t eat at Wendy’s, Burger King, or McDonald’s, which is fine by me because I was having hamburgers for supper at a cookout tonight. That left Subway, Ruby Tuesdays, and Cracker Barrel at this particular exit. I opted for Subway since we really didn’t have time for a real “sit down” meal. Ugh. I still don’t understand why everyone loves Cracker Barrel. I can’t find much I like there. I usually end up getting a ham and cheese omlette. I guess I’m not into country food.
I got back and immediately went to the cookout for the audio/visual team at church. We got together and discussed what we’d like to do for the upcoming year. The main things – a bigger and better tape dubber; a possible batch CD burner – if we ever go to CDs rather than tapes.
I have got to study over my lesson for Wednesday’s night Bible class. I was hoping to look over it today, but the trip to Jackson didn’t make it possible. So I’m hoping to look over it tomorrow. There is nothing worse than looking like an idiot in front of a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds. Or maybe it’s looking like an idiot in the middle of a job interview.
A job interview? What’s that? I haven’t had one lately….
Things I’m looking forward to:

• The Wallflowers upcoming album – “Red Letter Days.” November 5th.
• Corinth’s Bible Bowl – October 27th. Probably a good way to keep in touch with the folks at Portland. Seeing kids get excited about studying the Bible is always a spiritual high.
• Scottsville’s Hayride – October 26th. Although I’m not sure if my long time friends will be there. I still need to call and see if anyone I know will be there. I know that’s bad to say, but there are so many people who I don’t know at Scottsville, I’m sorta reluctant to show up at a function and be with a bunch of strangers.

The way the pews are setup at the church building, some of them are perpendicular to the pulpit. I was sitting in one of those pews today. Across the way, there are another set of pews facing the pulpit, perpendicular the other direction. So these 2 sets of pews mirror each other. Across the way I could see 2 teenaged girls giggling during the sermon. They were poking each other, and in general weren’t listening. The pew was somewhat on the front row; so everyone on my side of the church could see exactly what they were doing. It would have been as bad if I didn’t realize that both of these girls had become Christians just a few months before. I expected them to be able to sit quietly and listen to the sermon. I guess those expectations were just too high. What was bad was that I was sitting right beside some boys the same age as those girls. All of them at least were acting like they were listening, following along with their Bibles. So I know that even at that age, listening can be done.
And everyone wanted a tape of today’s sermon – The Dangers of the Lottery. There wasn’t alot of scripture reference during it, only that we should be good citizens and follow our government’s laws. As far as the lottery message was concerned, it was of using statistics of crime increase and other symptoms of society attributed to lottery implementation.
Just surfing around the web today. I wonder what happened to these people who were waiting in line for 5 months for Star Wars Episode II ( at www.waitingforstarwars.com ). No updates on the site since April 21. I would have expected some big fanfare when they finally got in to see it. But nothing can be found. Makes me wonder if all this hype was worth it. Will they do the same thing for Episode III?
And I still haven’t seen Episode II. I’ll be waiting for it to come on TV, which might be Spring of 2003.
Still trying to figure this news story out. A friend of mine submitted the link to Fark, but it didn’t make the cut. The news report video is pretty funny.

Why do people go to church? Is it to worship their God? Is it to feel better about themselves? Is it to gain business contacts? Probably a little of each. I do get certain business mailings from a church members who I know got my address from the church mailing list. “Off to the circular file,” I told his secretary (who also goes to my church). Recently we got new church directories. I know this businessman is salivating just so he can send more of his junk mail to fellow church members.
Lately folks at my church has been on a crusade to defeat the lottery referendum. Not that I would loose sleep if it was passed. Lotteries are taxes on stupid people. And there are plenty of stupid people who would vote to be able to buy a lottery ticket. There are several people in Tennessee who drive up to Kentucky each week just to buy lottery tickets. We need better state budgeting so we wouldn’t have to use the lottery as an excuse. Sooner or later we’ll have a lottery. Just like we eventually have liquor by the drink in Mt. Juliet – a concept I never fully understood. I mean the local grocery store sold packaged beer, but for some odd reason they couldn’t sell beer in a glass. People could still get drunk. They just had to open the bottle themselves. It was a silly law. Either be a dry county, or wet. It is as simple as that.
Church was good today. I felt really good for a young friend of mine who read scripture for the first time publically in church. Beforehand he had asked me when exactly in the service he was supposed to do it. I guess not having done it before, he hadn’t paid attention on when it was his time to go. He did a great job. I meant to tell him that afterwards, but I never got to. I know how it is to get up in front of people at church with your voice trembling….wondering if your friends will laugh at you afterwards if you stumble….. It’s all a big deal when you are a middle schooler. I still get slightly nervous. Maybe its the subtle fear that I might say something inappropriate in a public prayer….like praying for someone who already is dead. You stand a good chance of offending a bunch of people if you say the wrong things in a public prayer. I think it was just a few years ago when I realized that people in the congregation really don’t want to see anyone stumble in a prayer. They will still like you even if you mess up a Bible reading or prayer.
At church we do have a training program for middle schoolers who want to serve publically at church. They teach them who to lead public prayer, lead singing, and read scripture. This is so they won’t look stupid when going up there cold without any practice at all. We didn’t have this at all when I was growing up. And it showed from my short stance leading awful prayers during my junior high years.

The weekly church bulletin is a unique publication. In one fail swoop it mentions who’s relative’s friend needs prayers for in-grown toenails while at the same time provides some uplifting message taken from some other bulletin of the same genere. In some cases it can be good for spreading news. Case in point. Last night my mom told me that a certain couple at church were expecting a child. She said to keep it confediental. Already having seen this week’s church bulletin, I pointed out that the announcement was already public information, so there was no need to keep it a secret. I certainly hope the office staff decided to clear it with the pregnant couple before actually publishing the news.
Our youth minister says in the bulletin that we’ll be meeting (not leaving) at 5PM for the retreat. He also says “Please be on time.” Sorta laughable. No one is ever on time for services. Why would it be different when leaving for the retreat? We’ll leave at 5:45 or 6PM even. For someone who is always on time, it is very frustrating for people to be lazy and not be on time when it hinders the group.

We’ve got to get a better alternative to this Bible lesson we are using in the 5th and 6th grade Wednesday night class at church. It skips around too much. Has too little common theme to it. Just sounds like a series of questions. I can tell that some of these kids are not getting much out of it. Some of them aren’t following along in their Bible. I wonder if and when they will start taking it seriously. But with this lesson material, it is a wonder that they even are interested enough to come to class.
Finally have a respectable looking resume. No, I won’t be posting it here due to privacy concerns.
I hate rainy nights. Looks like it will be raining here continuously for a day or two. Better now than when I am on that retreat this weekend. I still need to charge up my camera batteries (both video and digital). The weather is supposed to be mild, and even downright cool at night. Must remember to take a sweatshirt. By this weekend we will know that fall is definitely here.
“Autumn is coming it seems like it�s in sight”
–Gin Blossoms “Idiot Summer”

The youth devotional last night went well. I had all my notes together and seemingly presented it adequately enough. I would have gotten a picture of myself doing it, but it happened outside and in the dark. A flash photograph is just too distracting for these kids. Plus it makes me look kinda vain. But then again this whole webpage could make me look vain if taken the wrong way.
Mt. Juliet Elementary mentioned on the front page of today’s Tennessean. That school is a dump. They need to tear it down completely and build a new school from the ground up. I would avoid that school like the plague.

There’s an old Far Side cartoon which shows a kid in class raising his hand saying “Excuse me, teacher, my brain is full.”
And my brain is full. That’s what happens when you have a college professor….not a preacher….to come to preach on Sunday morning. He went overtime by about 35 minutes. Not that I am a big stickler for making sure preachers stay on time. This professor does this seminar all the time at various churches all over the US. So much of it sounded canned….as if you were listening to the same tape over and over. Robotic? Yes….
We did have 2 girls to get baptized today. What was weird was that about 15….yes…15 women and girls went “backstage” to the dressing room with them. I know that dressing room is not very big at all. Seems to be a trend these days to do this. It’s great to see support, but this is overkill. Give someone some breathing room. Give them a hug after they come out. Not while they are trying to change into dry clothes.
You know what Mt. Juliet needs? It needs an Office Max or Staples. Some kind of office supply store. I am tired of having to drive to Hermitage to get mailing envelopes. And I will need to get mailing envelopes for all these audio tapes that we are doing for this creation seminar at church.
That tv show “Freaks and Geeks” is the best thing to come along since “The Wonder Years.” Too bad they decided to cancel it. Normally they always keep the junk shows like “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” but they get rid of good shows like Freaks….

I hate the Sony Mavica digital cameras. I knew image quality on a 3.5 floppy disk wouldn’t be very good. And my suspicious were confirmed when I got a hold of some images from a Mavica. Terrible quality. Grainy. Small. Not worth the price of the camera. You could pay as much as $350 for one of these cameras. Or you could pay the same price for a Olympus C-3000 and get much better image quailty.
As I sat in yet another Creation Evolution seminar session today I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the kids who were there. Here they were suffering through what amounted to a upper level biology lecture. Their parents made them come so they could find out exactly where the dinosaurs came from.
Some people salivate when they get a chance to argue creation and evolution. It’s all a big conspiracy. Those sneaky scientists are always out to disprove I for one don’t believe the scientists had a big meeting so they could disprove creationism. I do believe that scientists are logical thinkers and therefore wouldn’t necessarily believe in a creator.
Attending a Christian college has made be grow tired with these type of discussions. In our biology classes, chapel, and Bible classes I’d hear the same arguments over and over again in regards to creationism and evolution. I don’t care anymore. This has been discussed way too long.

We had a Creation/Evolution Seminar at church Friday night. I’m not too terribly impressed with the speaker (more on that topic later).
When we arrived it was raining. I dropped off my sister and dad under the carport of the church. They kept asking me if I wanted an umbrella. Nope. After parking I calmly walked through the pouring rain to the building. I don’t melt when a drop of rain hits me.
On a side note, the topic of Creationism vs. Evolution is fiercely debated throughout the country. I don’t care. It isn’t keeping me up at night. I was taught evolution in schools, creationism in the church. I am not warped because of it. I know what I believe and why I believe it. I certainly wouldn’t expect them to teach creationism in schools. Maybe there could be an understanding that they shouldn’t teach any of it. Leave philsophical questions to the philosphy classes. Scientific facts belong in science class. Faith belongs in the church. Easy solution.