Mark Partin has put up some pictures of our visit to the state fair a few weeks ago. They are all pictures that I took.
I hope Hurricane Lili doesn’t ruin this upcoming retreat. If it was anything like Tropical Storm Isidore, then we are in for a bunch of rain. But usually even a little bit of rain doesn’t exactly ruin a weekend. Why should I worry about things I can’t control? But we might have to scamble to make sure the kids have lots to do. Indoor games!
Songs I’ve really gotten into lately:

• The Strokes – “Someday” I heard this song in a MTV promotional. Great song. It’s too bad this group will probably turn into a one hit wonder with “Last Night.” I think this song is much better than “Last Night.”
• Wallflowers – “Everybody Out of the Water” A great rock song. I can’t wait until their album comes out in November. This song should have been released first to radio stations.
• The Vines – “Get Free” Another great driving rock song. They sound similiar to the Hives.

Here’s a conversation I had with my dad in regards to Vandy’s win yesterday

Dad: Vandy won – 49 to 18.
Me: Who’d they play?
Dad: Furman
Me: Furman? Who’s that?
Dad: A girls’ school
Me: No, it’s a blind girls’ school.

Apologies to Furman students and blind girls.
I have heard 2 songs from the upcoming Wallflowers’ CD “Red Letter Days.” It sounds like they’re more electric than their last 2 albums. Hopefully radio stations will notice and start playing good music instead of this lame slickly produced teenie bop music.
So a friend of mine, who is a cameraman for Channel 5 (local CBS affliate), asked me for comments about the station. He will be part of a focus group which makes changes to the station. I told him CBS needs to bring back The Dukes of Hazzard. It’s been downhill ever since they cancelled that show.
They really need to move Entertainment Tonight to after The Craig Kilborn Show. No one watches ET anyways. It is just a bunch of fluff. Have Craig immediately after Letterman.
I’m afraid I’ve already gotten tired of the September 11th anniversary specials. The History Channel has been airing 9/11 documentaries. Tivo taped all of them last week. So all of my interest in September 11th has already come and gone. I believe all of the networks are airing all day/night programming having to do with the Terrorist attacks on September 11th this week. If I wanted to watch September 11th coverage, I’ll switch to MSNBC or CNN. If I want to sorta move away from the anniversary I should be able to watch regular programming on the broadcast channels. Leave all day news coverage to where they belong – all news channels.

This sucks. Dodging layoffs is not fun. I don’t know if I’ll be affected. We’ve had big layoffs before. But now that we have so few people, it means that 1 in 6 will be laid off. My boss said that he would be highly surprised if IS (my department) isn’t affected.
ESPN pulls ad making fun of Vol Fans
Sometimes I feel like I’m being arrogant on this weblog. Sorry if I come across sounding like that. Sometimes I rant my frustrations on here. Am I being too negative? Are there not enough positive posts?

Volkswagen is bringing back the Microbus
Sorry, I’m unable to take any news show seriously when one of their hosts wears a French beret. This is silly. A while back co-host “Curtis” was wearing a jacket and the beret in the middle of July. Now, thankfully he has ditched the jacket and is sticking with a long sleeved turtleneck shirt. Still, the beret remains.
I’ve been seeing promos for Dr. Phil’s new show. The problem is that these promos don’t mean much to those of us who don’t watch Oprah. One of the more stupid ones is where Dr. Phil doesn’t want to sign his autograph on some lady’s purse because the purse is so new. So he signs on the inside instead. I don’t know who this Dr. Phil is, but these promos make him look like some kind of rock star, signing autographs and junk like that. Seems a bit conceeded. The promos don’t tell what his show is about. It just has him going out on the street and signing autographs.
Run for cover! ESPN Makes Fun of Vol Fans again.

Andrew: What do you need a fake I.D. for?
Brian: So I can vote!
—The Breakfast Club
It’s Election Day. Don’t forget to vote.
At home without a car….and it’s Election Day. Maybe I should call the election board and request a ride to the polls. I need to exercise my right to vote as an American citizen!!!!! In any case, take a look at a piece I wrote a few years ago about voting.
The election today is to choose each of the party candidates for governor and senator. Thinking about it makes me ask a question. These political parties are private. So why should we use public funds for private organizations to pick their candidates? Instead they should let the parties have their own conventions to choose their candidate. Most of the time there is a front runner in primary elections anyways. So most of the time these primary elections are just a formality anyways. Why not use public funds where they are most needed….in a general election among all of the parties.
I’ll be going to Dancin’ in the District tonight. Couldn’t find anyone to go with, so I’ll be going alone. Cracker and Better Than Ezra. Never seen Cracker preform, so it should be interesting. Expect a full concert review posted afterwards.

Election day is tomorrow. I’m growing increasingly tired of fielding political phone calls every night. Seems as if the big push among the Republican candidates are right to life and all that. Not that I’d base my vote solely on a candidate’s stand on abortion.
My car is still in the shop. It will be there until Friday. Tonight I borrowed my parents’ car. It’s a nondescript Plymouth….probably the most boring car available for sale in North America. There is no way to describe it since there are no distingishing characteristics of it. There’s a tape stuck in the radio and it cost too much for them to justify fixing it. So everytime you start up the car it sounds like a egg timer.
Finally had time to place the pictures from Mt. Juliet’s church camp online.

How’s this for stupidity. My dad is a state employee. He’s been told to stay home this week due to the budget crisis. Apparently he’s non-estential. How do non-estential state employees report this absence? As a vacation day. In other words, the state is still paying their salaries this week. They aren’t saving any money by having employees stay home. They are just loosing production. Why would I trust these legislators and governor with my tax money?
Then again I realise this whole “governmental shutdown” stunt is just a PR tactic and doesn’t really mean anything. The governor is just trying to get the general public upset enough about not having services to urge their representatives to pass a budget.

“She said it’s cold
It feels like Independence Day
And I can’t break away from this parade”
–Wallflowers “One Headlight”
Over the 4th I’ll be visiting a friend of mine at a church camp in White Bluff, TN. I went there last year and had a good time, even though I stayed a limited amount of time. It’s always good to see old friends and get to know new people.
“Sick of sorrow
I’m sick of the pain
I’m sick of hearing
Again and again
That there’s gonna be
Peace on Earth”
–U2 “Peace on Earth”
For me U2’s “Peace on Earth” has become somewhat of an updated version of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” However since it is as not as well known it’s not yet the worn out clich� that “Imagine” is. Initually when the song first came out in 2000 I thought it was once again one of U2’s idealistic political songs (think “Bullet the Blue Sky” or “Sunday Bloody Sunday”). Yet it has become a foretelling song of frustration forever linked to the world we live in. It probably wouldn’t have meant as much to me if it weren’t for September 11th.
I’m beginning to feel a bit disconnected from the folks in Scottsville. There were only 5 kids from Scottsville at summer camp a few weeks ago….2 of which were visitors from the community and didn’t go to church at Scottsville. This is a sad situation since technically it is Scottsville’s week to host camp. In years past Scottsville had provided a substantial amount of kids. Now however it seems as if summer camp is no longer interesting to some people. I am not sure if it was promoted enough. The Scottsville kids who were there were as always very friendly toward me since they had known me longer. However they themselves do not have internet connections so it is difficult to keep up with them once camp ends. My other friends in Scottsville who didn’t make it to camp this year seem more interested in sowing their wild oats rather than religion, so it is difficult to find a bound there. I just hope everything works out for the best. They are getting a new preacher at Scottsville soon, so maybe that will make for a new start.
On a side note 10 years ago today a friend of mine changed their life for the better. We’ve since gone our separate ways and virtually lost touch. Yet 10 years ago there was a kinship. At that time everything seemed right in this world. What are the circumstances? Well some things in this weblog aren’t public. I’ll just keep it to myself.

Today is Canada Day….the equivalent of America’s July 4th. From visiting Canada a few months ago, here is what I’ve learned.

• Canada is much like the USA, except it is a bit more multicultural. From what I understand Canada is a bit lax on its immigration laws compared to the USA, so that most anybody seeking asylum can get in. At the Toronto airport almost the entire security team was staff by Arabs.
• Canada is rabid about hockey. Here in the south, some of us (including myself) have not watched an entire hockey game from start to finish. Many of us don’t know the rules of hockey. I’m not even sure what a “power play” is.
• While I was in Canada I asked a Canadian coworker of mine if Canadians feel bullied around by the 500 pound gorilla to their south. She said in some instances they do. In Canadian elementary schools, they learn both Canadian and American history. Their history maps don’t stop at the border. They show just about all of North America including the US..
• Many Canadians speak French (it’s their second official language). It is not unusual (at least in Ottawa) to hear both French and English spoken in public.

Newsflash….my sister finally updated her weblog. Posted to it just yesterday.
At some point this weekend I became acutely aware that I’m embarrassed to be a Tennessean. Our state legislators cannot seem to pass a state budget. Some salivate everytime they hear the word “income tax” and are bound and determined to pass one. There is plenty of pork still around in the state expenditures. Plenty of non essential programs that could be cut. Yet the state governmental leaders don’t want to cut their pet projects. It’s all wasteful governmental spending.

Ok. About the Pledge of Allegiance being declared unconstitutional. When I first heard that, I thought it must be a joke. Kinda like those emails you get which say “Forward this to 10 of your friends and you’ll get a free dinner at Cracker Barrell.” But then I checked cnn.com and found it was true.
My first instinct is to say I could care less what some ultra liberal federal judge says about the pledge. The lawsuit was obviously brought about by some nitpicky atheist who didn’t want his kid exposed to the word “God” in public schools. But then again I see the point. Government should not endorse religion, yet it shouldn’t hinder it either. However I really think that it is being nitpicky. Will the declaration stand? Not likely. The decision is coming at a very particular time. Everyone is patriotic due to the terrorists and the 4th coming up.
Michael Newdow, the guy who brought about the lawsuit, is certainly getting his 15 minutes of fame. He was making the rounds on all the morning shows talking about what a goober he is.
Here is an experience I’ve had with religion in school. My 4th grade teacher, Betty Britnell was a very religious person. Each morning we would have a short devotional which she would give us encouragement for the upcoming school day. Afterwards she would lead the class in a prayer. (Keep in mind this is a public school) At the time I thought nothing of it. I had been to church and this seemed to just be an extension of church. Did the prayers and devotionals scar me? Not in the least. If anything it was a great encouragement to me at the time. Being an impressionable 9 year old, the prayers gave me better self esteem.
In fact, 4th grade was one of the best elementary years. In that class 2 of my good friends were in that class. I am still good friends with them to this day.
In retrospect I don’t think the pledge is hurting anyone. If an atheist doesn’t want his kid to say it, then have the kid sit out of the room or something. This is just getting ridiculous. Newdow wants to go after “In God We Trust” on coinage. I saw something humorous on a discussion board just recently. Somebody wanted all the Californians to send him their “tainted” money.

Just out of pure curiousity why was Chandra Levy’s funeral open to the public? The only reason why her funeral was open to the public was to keep her murder case in the forefront of the public’s eye. Even famous people who made a real difference do not have public funerals. What makes Chandra special? Did Chandra herself change the world? No. I’d like to remind people that Chandra herself is not exactly innocent. She did choose to have an affair with Senator Gary Condit, which may have led to her ultimate demise. Chandra is one of those people who is more famous dead than alive.
Nortel is cutting 3,500 jobs. I don’t think I’ll be part of it. At least I hope not. Mostly it is supposed to be the optical division. Anyways it’s not something I can worry about. It’s something I can’t control so why worry?