Fascinating fact: The Olympic Stadium is only used for the Opening and Closing Celermonies during the Winter Games. Think about it. There are not many Winter sports that can take place in that type of stadium. It was a good thing the Rice-Eccles Stadium wasn’t built just for the Salt Lake City games.
The Olympic Games opening ceremony is tonight. I’ll probably be watching it chanting “USA! USA!” It’s always interesting to watch the countries that participate. The USA and other Western countries dominate the games since they usually have the money to fund the practice facilities. Other 3rd world countries may only have one or two athletes. Then there’s the Jamacian Bobsled team….

I’m beginning to think the earth is getting warmer. We haven’t had a good snow here in middle Tennessee for several years. I can remember in elementary school where we’d get 2 or 3 days of good sledding on a dead end hill near my cousin’s house. Now the snow never sticks and the roads are never covered. I can remember once when it snowed on a Sunday morning. It was one of the few times that I stayed home from church because the roads were impassable.
Today’s snow was wimpy. It didn’t stick. But just like clockwork, the schools let out at 1PM, just in time for the afternoon rain to start.

Yassir Arafat is ugly. Not just mildly unattractive. Just plain ugly. Yassir, either grow a beard, or shave it completely….no more of this in between stuff. That constant 5 o’clock shadow is hindering the peace process.

Martin Luther King Day is coming up. When I was in school, we didn’t get MLK Day off. I always found it ironic that the African American kids always stayed home from school on MLK Day. Martin Luther King fought for their right to go to school. Now on a day to honor his life, the people whose education rights he fought for aren’t in school.
I don’t do prayer breakfasts. There’s a Men’s Prayer Breakfast going on at church today. I’ve been to them before and didn’t care for them. One thing that turns me off is that I don’t have too much in common with these people. Most of the participants are busy raising families and are always talking about their own kids. Also to be quite honest, I enjoy sleeping in on Saturdays. It’s virtually the only day which I get to do this.
Well Comcast Internet Service is really screwing up these days. Since the changeover from @Home to Comcast (January 15th), each day my cable modem has gone out at around 11AM and stayed off for at least an hour, sometimes 3 hours. From talking with other Comcast users it would appear that the incident is not isolated. Normally it wouldn’t bother me that it is off during the middle of the day. But since I use it for my personal and work connections, it does effect me. I’ve got a trouble ticket open with Comcast. They’re sending a tech out here on Tuesday. They’re thinking that is my cable modem. I’m convinced that the problem is on their end. We’ll see…

I think it is the Sunkist cola that keeps me up….on nights that I have Papa John’s pizza. I can never sleep after eating pizza for supper. It’s definitely the caffeine in Sunkist. Good thing I’m not Mormon.
On another note, I have heard that a Super Wal-Mart is moving in to a semi abandoned shopping center 10 minutes from my home. While I get excited about the chance to buy my motor oil and milk in the same place, I am a bit weary about the excess traffic that Super Wal-Marts can create. I don’t shop there simply because the crowds are so bad. K-mart is my friend. The massive Wal-Mart is going to take out a movie theater, a craft store, a Taco Bell, a Blockbuster video, Harvest International Church…..and (gasp!) the Papa John’s I get my weekly Pizza from. While picking up my pizza today, I asked the Papa John’s worker about the situation. He said they’d be moving down the street somewhere. Their lease is up in the summer, so I still have a good few months to worry about it. Ever since Little Caesar’s picked up and moved out of Nashville, there hasn’t been a good pizza besides Papa in town. I was burned out by Pizza Hut in college. The other indy setups are not any good. Bellecino’s is good, but a bit spicy.
I’m a bit sad about the movie theater being destroyed due to the Wal-Mart. It was at that movie theater, Hermitage 4, where I saw E.T. and a bunch of other childhood favorites. Mmmmm….”so called” progress.
I purchased a shirt that says “Never Underestimate the Power of Stupid People in Large Groups.” It was meant as a joke and not really meant to make anyone feel stupid. However I think the quote can pretty much sum up all of life. Stupid people in large groups are what took down the WTC. Stupid people in large groups are what started World War II…..I could go on forever.
Well I must try to get some sleep.

Supposedly there is a major snowstorm going on down south, but isn’t it our luck that none of it hit Tennessee. Not even a flurry. Down south, anytime there is even the hint of a flurry in the forecast, everyone runs to Kroger and gets bread and milk. Happens everytime. If there is an inch of snow on the ground, everything shuts down – schools and businesses close, and Snow Bird has a heyday. I remember a while back when a snowstorm happened on a Saturday night. The next morning the snow watch were announcing all the churches that were cancelling services. The problem was that EVERY church was calling in…probably for the free publicity. It didn’t matter if the church only had 50 members and all of them knew that services were closed. Every church called in. I think the next time it snowed on Sunday, the TV stations decided not to announce church closings.
Let’s hope this cold weather holds out for another week. I don’t want a spell of hot weather to melt the snow in Paoli. Paoli is well known as being a great big ice patch in the middle of Southern, Indiana. I’ve been to Paoli about half a dozen times. My love for Paoli stopped once I went to North Carolina to ski in 1997. Paoli may be a good place to learn to ski, but I’m ready for some better places. Total driving time to Paoli from here is 4 hours 42 minutes. Total driving time to Boone, NC, is 6 hours 15 minutes. That is just 93 minutes longer for much better skiing. I’ve been trying to convince the planners of the ski trip to go to a different location, but they will not even consider it. Their argument is that Paoli is small enough to keep up with everybody. Also it is easier for beginners to learn to ski and less likely that they will accidentially go down a difficult ski slope. I figure if people cannot keep from going off a black diamond, then they shouldn’t be on a ski trip.

Well the Bin Laden tape has finally been released. Seeing it for the first time yesterday was chilling. While having dinner Bin Laden is laughing about the September 11th attacks. He even said that some of the terrorists didn’t know it was a suicide mission until they boarded the plane. I have got to wonder what kind of person laughs about this type of stuff. What I saw on the television yesterday was the face of pure evil. I’m sure many of these terrorists living in their caves in Afghanistan have never met a non-Muslim before and probably never journeyed outside of the region. Many Middle Easterners in the region are saying it is fake. So I guess even if Bin Laden got on Al Jezeera TV and said undoubtedly that he was behind the Sept 11th attacks, some people would still not believe him and continue to worship him as some type of freedom fighter. Or either they would somehow try to justify Bin Laden’s actions in their warped little minds. I guess there are some people you just can’t reach.
I’ve added another section to this ever expanding website…..a complete list of concerts that I’ve been to. I know many of you have been dying for this type of groundshaking information and I apologize for keeping it from you for so long. But seriously the weird thing that I noticed was that I attended a R.E.M. concert on September 11, 1995.
There is a commercial that is shown frequently on the local cable channel. It is for Midsouth Hyperbaric Chambers. Obviously they are advertising their services of providing irons lungs for people to breath pure oxygen. Anyways there is one particular endorsement in the commercial. This lady says “Thanks to Midsouth Hyperbarics, I’ve got my daddy back!”…all the while her dad is sitting beside her looking dumbfounded into the camera. Not to be mean or anything, but I have to wonder what her dad was like before the iron lung treatment. And I’m really not trying to be mean or anything. My heart goes out to people who have to go into these hyperbaric chambers in order to lead a more normal life. I just think that the commercial should have been scripted differently so as not to provide for such awkward moments.
Given the choice between a station wagon and a minivan, I’d have to go with the station wagon as my grocery-getter. Minivans are literally everywhere. In this sense they have become uncool. I’d pass on the minivan and go for a Caprice Classic station wagon instead, if not just for the retro purposes. There is nothing like the memories many of us have of loading up the station wagon and heading to Florida on vacation.
Still no Christmas shopping for me…yet. Family, if you are reading this, let me assure you that I still plan on going out. I hate shopping. It is such a hassle to fight the crowds. Christmas has become so commercialized lately it has become disgusting.

Let me get this off of my chest…. The point at which followers of a legitiment religion make the conscientious decision to support suicide bombers who target civilians for political gain, they no longer are followers of that religion. Instead they have become savages. I usually don’t follow whatever is happening in the Middle East simply because I really could care less. I mean the Jews and Palestinians are fighting over some desert territory that is the size of New Jersey, but that is beside the point. However recent world events have made me watch the Middle East situation much more closely. If I were Muslim, I would be highly upset that suicide bombers have justified murder in their own minds for the sake of Islam. However, the expected outcry of religious leaders condemning the slaughter of innocent civilians hasn’t made its appearance in the Arab Islamic World. Instead they continue with the same old song and dance routine of “get the Jews out.” Hey Ahab, the Jews were there in the Holy Land way before the Arabs were. Why don’t you give them a chance to live in peace?
The photo of Yassir Arafat giving blood immediately after the September 11th attacks is silly. The photo was done simply for political show. Yassir himself supported terrorism way back in the day. What now? Has Arafat turned over a new leaf? Nope, he was just kissing up to the USA in hopes that we wouldn’t turn our backs on the Palestinians. Arafat was very mindful of the fact that most Americans saw the images of Palestinians celebrating after hearing of the September 11th attacks. If Arafat was serious about being against terrorism, he should arrest and prosecute the terrorists who are living in his territory.
Ok enough of this political stuff. I got an email yesterday telling me that Mike Spann, the CIA agent recently killed in Afghanistan, was a member of a Church of Christ in Alabama. I haven’t verified this story, however the sources would tend to indicate that this is true. I feel for his family during this difficult time.

My prediction for the missionaries recently rescued from Afghanistan: There will be a TV movie about their plight…at best shown on one of the major networks….at worst shown on the 700 Club. The missionaries will tour around the country giving speeches at various churches. Nothing will be said about how foolish they were for putting themselves into such a dangerous situation.
Well the local cable channel has placed the Power Point announcements of the high school on channel 9. So now the whole city gets to see what’s going on at the high school. Supposedly high school plays and sporting events will be shown on this channel also….which will give the students an even wider audience to embarrass themselves in front of. My question is why does the high school get to have their own channel? What happens if one of the elementary schools or middle schools wants their own channel?

Well the Western aid workers/missionaries are freed from the Taliban in Afghanistan. While I’m glad to hear that they are safe, I’m a bit confused as to why they would knowingly put themselves in harm’s way. Even before September 11th, Afghanistan was a harsh place for westerners. Remember when the Taliban made all non-Muslims wear tags to identify them? The Taliban said it was for their own protection, yet their actions spelled N-A-Z-I in everyone’s mind. Those very actions proved they were out to get all non-Muslims.
Anyways going over to Afghanistan for Christian mission purposes was a foolish thing to do. There is no doubt that the Christian Aid workers were there primarily to convert the Afghanis to Christianity. They knew the consequences even before they left, yet they still went anyways. There are plenty of other areas which have just as many “lost” people as Afghanistan. Why not go to those places instead of Afghanistan?
The bottom line: Don’t put yourself in a dangerous situation and then whine and cry when you’re in harms way.