1. Would you say that you’re good at keeping in touch with people?
Definitely. When I was in college, I compiled a list of email addresses from old high school friends. This list grew into a webpage for alumni. Friends have always remarked that I am good at keeping track with people. I used to send out letters alot, so to friends whom I wasn’t really good friends with….they were just at writing letters.
Communication is a two way street. If I can’t get anyone to respond after several attempts, then I stop trying.
2. Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Why?
I usually return emails, especially if they ask a specific question. One thing I hate is when people forward me junk such as jokes or inspiring stories to my email address. I only want personal emails. Anything else is just clogging up my email.
Blogging comments seems to have become a form of communication. If people want to know what I’m doing, they can just come to this webpage. Otherwise when they ask what I’m doing, I’m just going to repeat what I’ve written on this webpage.
I rarely use snail-mail anymore, except for a few instances. Tower Records has a rack of free postcards. They usually have some pretty cool designs on them. Everytime I go by there, I pick up a stack of postcards. I send out postcards to kids from church when it is their birthday or if I want to congratulate them for doing something good (baptism, graduation, etc….). They usually think it is cool, and in some instances they tend to like you better for remembering their birthday.
I don’t like talking on the telephone. It’s more of an annoyance rather than a form of communication. I don’t have a cell phone because I don’t really need one.
I have a difficult time meeting new people in person. It is awkward for me.
3. Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it?
I use Trillian. It incorporates all of the 4 big instant messenger programs into one program. Recently Trillian has become nagware. It nags you every so often to donate money and upgrade to the pro version. The pro version has features that I just won’t use. It is definitely not worth the $25 they are asking for, especially when AOL could block access to their servers at any time. I would highly recommend staying with Trillian .73 instead of upgrading to Trillian .74 or Trillian Pro 1.0.
I use instant messengers quite frequently. It is any easy way to keep in touch with people. It doesn’t feel as though you are so far away.
Most of my friends use AOL Instant Messenger. This is sorta ironic because it is probably the worst instant messenger program. Easy to use, but has terrible limitations in features. You can’t rename any of your buddies, so you’re stuck trying to remember that Hotchick234o32 is your friend Lindsey. It is limited to 200 buddies. I have maxed it out since many of my friends have multiple usernames. I hate that.
MSN is probably the most professional acting of all of the instant messengers. I like it. However I don’t like that you have to suffer through people’s idiotic nicknames. Some people have the lamest nicknames. For example whenever one particular friend signs in, it always says “It’s All Out” has signed on. How am I supposed to remember who that is? I should be able to override someone’s stupid nicknames.
I really wish that more of my friends would use Yahoo Messenger. It seems like a cool setup and has good potential. We used it alot at work. However since then, I have promptly removed my former coworkers from my buddy list. So now, very few people I know use it.
ICQ is bloatware. It has a bunch of features that I would never use. I only know a very few people who use it anymore. It was the only IM program that I received spam on – people typing in random ICQ numbers in order to get their message out.
4. Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away?
I don’t have many close friends. It’s a long story, but due to past experiences I have found that it is probably best not to become too close with someone. Leave some breathing room. Otherwise if the friendship turns sour, you won’t have to worry about your former friend using information against you.
Most of my friends live anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour away.
5. Are you an “out of sight, out of mind” person, or do you believe that “distance makes the heart grow fonder”?
I try to keep track of my friends even if they are far away. However it is up to them to return my emails. If they don’t, then I can’t keep track of them. I still remember my friends even if they are far away. But if it goes for a long time without hearing from them, then I rarely think about them.

I visited my sister’s kindergarten class today. It seemed as if they played on the playground all day. For example when I arrived, they were on the playground, then went to lunch, came back for a math lesson and having a story read to them. Then back to the playground again. Kindergarten must be a breeze.
My sister has 25 kids in the class. She does have an aid, but I can understand how all these kids can provide for exhaustion by the end of the day. Kindergarteners need special attention….like 4 bathroom breaks per day, someone to tie their shoe, etc…. But they are sweet kids and are anxious to learn.
I read the book “Stand Back” said the Elephant “I’m going to Sneeze!” to the kids…a personal childhood favorite of mine. The illustrations are hilarious. The kids seemed to enjoy it too.
Friday Five
1. What was/is your favorite subject in school? Why?
Social Studies during elementary years. “Social Studies” sorta encompassed history, geography, socialogy, current events and a bunch of other related subjects. I guess I was always interested in this type of stuff. Maps were interesting. I participated in the first Tennessee Geography Bee competition in the 8th grade.
History was a favorite subject in high school years. More than any other class, AP History really prepared me for college courses. I never got any college credit from taking the AP test, but it was a good class nonetheless.
2. Who was your favorite teacher? Why?
Mrs. Britnell, my 4th grade teacher. More than any other teacher she truly loved her students and was concerned about their well being. She built up my self esteem and helped me feel good about myself. She was bold enough to do devotional every morning (this was a public school).
To some extent Mrs. Graham, my 1st grade teacher, was an outstanding teacher also. She was a grandmotherly type teacher. I loved her. However I don’t remember too much about her.
Mrs. Ash was a great teacher during my high school years. She taught AP History and Psychology. She was a good teacher….fair to all of her students.
3. What is your favorite memory of school?
I have lots of favorite memories. Lunch room discussions among friends…..playing on the playground….making life long friends. I don’t know if I have a specific memory in mind. Maybe I’ll think of one later.
4. What was your favorite recess game?
One time they got out a huge ball and we sat down on the gym floor and tossed it around. This was a HUGE ball…it could fill a walk-in closet. That was fun.
I never really liked P.E. I wasn’t good in sports. Usually chosen last.
In 4th grade we never really went out on the playground. Instead we would go to the front lawn of the school and play kickball on the concrete. I didn’t like kick because I was never any good at it. The kids who could kick the ball the farthest seemed to get alot of the attention
5. What did you hate most about school?
How kids could be cruel to each other. Obnoxiousness of people in junior high years. I was considered a nerd since I didn’t say too much and seemed to make good grades. Other kids resented that and tended to pick on me. I absolutely hated my 7th grade history class. There were so many kids in there acting up I couldn’t learn at all. That one class sticks out in my mind as being one of the worst classes ever simply because I hated being in there.

1. What is your biggest pet peeve? Why?
People who hinder the group when they are late. I hate setting a time to go somewhere and not actually leaving until 30 minutes afterwards. I arrive early when catching rides to church retreats. They always say we’ll leave at 5PM, but we don’t actually leave until 5:45 or even later. Drives me up the wall. Why can’t people be on time? I’m sure I have wasted years of my life waiting on people.
Another pet peeve of mine is people’s behavior at church worship services. Sometimes during the Lord’s Supper, perhaps the most serious part of worship, people will talk to their neighbor. If anyone does this, they’ve pretty much landed on my blacklist. I know they aren’t serious about worshipping God. Plus when people don’t sing it is frustrating. We are all commanded to sing. It doesn’t matter if you can’t carry a tune. We’re there to sing. When people just sit there and not sing, they again aren’t serious about worshipping. Argh!
2. What irritating habits do you have?
Worrying too much. I always find myself worrying about something.
Piling up papers and junk around my office. For some reason I seem to get a stack of papers on this on particular spot right beside my desk. Usually my To-Do stuff. I wish I didn’t pile it up there. Kinda gets annoying. But where else would I put it?
3. Have you tried to change the irritating habits or just let them be?
I haven’t really tried. Just part of my personality.
4. What grosses you out more than anything else? Why?
Fear Factor usually has some pretty gross stuff on it. All that nasty stuff they have to eat. Somehow I do believe Fear Factor will soon run its course. There’s only so many stunts you can do. There’s only so many gross “foods” you can eat.
Vomiting grosses me out. Watching people vomit is pretty nasty. They seem to be showing it more and more on TV these days. Johnny Knoxville and Road Rules both had episodes recently which included vomiting. I guess MTV had run out of shocking stuff to show.
In elementary school it grossed me out when kids would throw up. Usually it was at their desk. Halfway embarrassing for a kid to throw up. Sickening for the rest of us. I guess during that time a kid couldn’t control their vomit. They couldn’t hold it in until they got to the bathroom. Afterwards the teacher would call the janitor and he’d come with some bleach to clean it up. All the while the kid was sent to the office to call home. I remember it happening some in the early elementary school years, but it seemed to stopped happening later on.
On a side note, I knew a kid in elementary school who would get these massive migrain headaches. He was out usually at least one day a week. Said the migrains made him throw up. I think it had to do with his parents being divorced. Emotional problems.
Like the storyline from a Seinfeld episode, I went 19 years without throwing up. My streak which started in 1980 ended in late 1999 when I developed a stomach virus right after Christmas.
5. What one thing can you never see yourself doing that other people do?
This question is really random. It has nothing to do with the rest of the questions.
I don’t like to be trendy. Just because everyone shops at Old Navy or the Gap, doesn’t mean I shop there. I have to be my own person when choosing clothing, music, TV shows, etc…. I don’t like to be trendy.
Just surfing around I found some webpages of people I know at Stoner Creek Elementary:

• Nick Nance Nick goes to church with me. This webpage appears to be more comprehensive than the ole regular standard format template. It appears this webpage is updated semi-frequently. The best part of the webpage is this quote: “Your child is being prayed for every day.”
• Melissa Cobb I went to elementary, junior high, and high school with Melissa.
• Katy Whiteaker Katy goes to church with me.
• Laura Smith Laura also goes to church with me.

Found something out about myself Wednesday night. I can’t teach with very little preparation (Well DUH!) For the first part of the Bible class I stumbled along telling the story (I Samuel 15). Something about the destroying the Amalekites…and not completely following God’s will. But in the end it all worked out and I was able to get to the real message of the lesson. Next time I really need to review the Bible lesson days beforehand instead of an hour beforehand. Anyways the worst thing that could have happened was looking stupid in front of a room full of 4th graders. What makes me look bad is that my co-teacher is a real life elementary teacher who teaches very well. Not that I’m really concerned about looking bad. It’s just the bar is set so much higher when the other teacher teaches.
In any case I’m moving on to teaching 5th and 6th grade next Wednesday night. I will be in teaching rotation with the other 2 teachers, so I guess that means I’ll be teaching every 3rd week. Hopefully I’ll be able to grow and learn how to teach. I really want to try to contribute to teaching.
This gets me frustrated. When I ask someone to take a picture of myself….they take it. Then you get the picture back and its all blurry. Can’t some people take a decent picture? Is it that hard to hold a camera steady? Can’t someone make a camera which takes pictures no one can mess up?
Here’s my proposal. Any cell phone that rings during church services should be systematically destroyed by running over it with the church van. This would put a stop to this annoyance.
I see that The Lipscomb Underground has undergone a slight redesign. After being offline for the entire summer, it is back online. If you are a former or current Lipscomb University student or an interested party, go there. You might find some good discussion.
Friday Five:
1. What’s your favorite piece of clothing that you currently own?
Probably one of my t-shirts with a funny slogan written on it. Like “There is no off position on the genius switch.” Or “Never Underestimate the Power of Stupid People in Large Groups.”
A while back I saw a t-shirt at Target which said “Stop Reading my Shirt!” I really should get that one.
2. What piece of clothing do you most want to acquire?
Nothing in particular. I’m not a big clothes shopper. Although I like to get t-shirts at whatever event (concert, gathering…etc) I’m at.
3. What piece of clothing can you not bring yourself to get rid of? Why?
Old camp t-shirts. I have some that are 10 years old. Memories keep them alive.
Also my mom found an old VBS shirt from 1982. That one is a keeper too.
4. What piece of clothing do you look your best in?
Probably a suit and tie. But I hate wearing it since it is so unconfortable. Immediately after getting home from church I change into something more confortable.
5. What has been your biggest fashion accident?
Wearing bright orange Converse All Stars shoes in Junior High

Trying something new these days. There’s a website which posts the “Friday Five.” It’s five questions which should inspire writing on one’s weblog. I’m using these questions for today’s post.
1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not?
Data analyst for Nortel Networks. I didn’t grow up saying “I want to be a computer operator at some big telecom company.” It’s just where I happened to be placed. My major at Lipscomb (Government and Public Administration) didn’t help too much with this job. It was more experience working as a computer helpdesk tech while at Lipscomb….and having a CIS minor…that got me my job.
2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be?
Radio Disc Jockey…where I would be able to pick the playlist.
3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices?
My dad has worked as an acountant for the state of Tennessee for quite a while. On weekends he works at the Tennessee Air National Guard. He has held many jobs in his life. I can remember him working at a printing company way back in the 80s.
My mom has worked the same job all her life. She works 2 part time jobs as the secretary of non-profit organizations dealing with public health. She says she is always busy all the time, but I know this can’t be the case. For the most part I know that much of what she does, doesn’t have any noticeable impact on society (Sorry, Mom!).
The only influence my parents jobs have had was that I knew that state workers do not get paid very much. If at all possible I was going to try to stay away from working for the state of Tennessee.
4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family?
Nope. Just me.
5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why?
The easiest job in the world is youth ministry. Getting paid to have fun on weekends is a breeze. Sure, you might have the occassional crisis to deal with, but for the most part it is easy.
The hardest job would some factory job working 12 hour days and getting paid very little for it.
In other news:
NY Man Wins Scrabble Tournament…”It’s all I do.” He hasn’t held a regular job in more than a decade.
Todd Bridges isn’t in jail anymore.
Meanwhile, I did find a really old news article about Nick Nance…who goes to church with me.
New Photo of the Moment is up.