It was 2 years ago today a fifteen year old girl passed away due to a brain tumor. That girl was my friend Elizabeth. I can remember feeling horrible that day. Mutual friends were an hour away. The urgent phone calls from friends of the reports of her death. The sense of not knowing what exactly to say to her peers to bring on a feeling of comfort. The true sense that the long struggle was all over and the grieving period had begun. We were all looking for answers from each other. And we didn’t have good enough answers. Doctors gave her 5 months to live. And initially I didn’t believe them. As if I had heard reports of the same thing happening and then the patient living for years after wards. This was real. Believe it. Believe it when the doctor gives grim hope.
I can remember wondering and asking myself and God “Why?” Why did this thing have to happen this way? I can’t explain it away. I can only surmise that it happened for a purpose. Whether it was to make others stop and take a spiritual inventory of their lives. Or for us to know that cancer and brain tumors are very horrible things. I don’t know. That’s the bottom line. I don’t know.
Elizabeth was buried on September 10th. We were all hoping for things to get back to normal the next day. They didn’t. It was almost as if the whole world came crashing down on our little lives.

DCI? It’s a professional marching band organization. Sorta taking those high school and college halftime shows to the next level. The difference is that more people probably want to see pro-football compared to pro marching bands.
So I went to Scott’s DCI performance at MTSU Friday night. I’m not necessarily a Bluecoats fan. I am a Scott fan. I’ve known Scott since he was very young. Watched him grow up at church. And he asked me to come to his performance. Sorta a big giant piano recital, except with less pianos and more contra bass tubas or whatever you call them. There are still anxious parents there, waiting to hear their son or daughter perform.
The Bluecoats performed first. Unfortunately, compared to the other bands, they weren’t as good. I later found out they came in 7th out of 8 bands.
There was a overwhelming presence of band geeks there. I takes one to know one. All those awkward teens. Those kids who joined band in lieu of P.E. hoping they wouldn’t have to change in front of other people. Those type of kids were there. Plenty of high school bands were there as spectators.
I saw a kid in a shirt which read “You laugh because I’m different. I laugh because you’re all the same.” What a great shirt. What a great slogan. I give mad props to anyone willing to go against the grain. Especially in that terrible time of high school.

I’m slightly intrigued that my friend Todd is transfering to Freed-Hardeman. He said UT just wasn’t right for him. I guess it takes alot of courage to up and change schools like that. Personally, I don’t like change. And I wouldn’t change if at all possible. But I guess he figured UT didn’t offer what he needed, so off to FHU he goes.
The waterslide at TCC was shut down by the health department. I have no idea why. Too dangerous? Standing water? No idea whatsoever. We’ve been doing the slide for a few years now and no body ever said anything. So perhaps we’ll be able to have it back up next year. I don’t know.

I am being told that Josh and Beth had their baby this morning. I doubt that I’ll have time to visit them before I leave (I’m too busy and they’re too tired). So it will have to wait until I get back. A few of my other friends are already married and having babies. This is the first of my closer friends who have had a baby. So it’s kinda cool in a way, and yet signals what I’ve already known all along – that we are all getting older.
Right now I’m watching US tanks roll through Baghdad. Extraordinary. Surreal. Crowds are cheering. Right now they’re trying to tear down a statue of Saddam.
The place in El Salvador is pronounced Oo-SA-LA-TON, as best I can tell. Don’t let me catch you mispronouncing it. I can take the pointing and laughing. Just don’t mispronounce it.
Supposedly there’s a Dominos Pizza there. I am quickly learning how to say “Delivery” in Spanish, but I don’t that will happen. It would be a surprise luxery item.
“Entregue una pizza grande por favor. Gracias”
You will notice that I have posted the El Salvador weather forecast. Pretty much partly cloudy with a high of 93 and a low of 71. For 5 straight days. So no matter what you think the weather it, it is pretty much static.
So its sorta been interesting watch the blogosphere from afar over the drama between Todd, Josh, and Scott. I’m not sure what they are worried about, but from what I understand, its over. Get frustrated at someone; write about it in your blog. Its the American way I guess. Then friends take it out of context and get offended by it. A big brouhaha happens.
Oh yeah, don’t get confused with the Josh & Beth and this Josh. 2 totally different people.
Anyways I need to go shopping and get some things before I leave Friday morning.

Went to a job fair today. Saw half a dozen people who I knew…mostly looking for jobs. It was amazing to see a handful of job hunters in jeans and t-shirt. I guess they could have been applying for blue collar jobs….or retail. McDonald’s had a booth and so did Waffle House. Waffle House has to go out and recruit at job fairs?
Anyways I felt like I did get a few good leads among the schmoozing. I hate kissing up to people.
So apparently Scott posted more stuff to his webpage. Without even being asked. Its cool to read about his life and all. This one was kinda boring. All about school. I’m glad those days are over. When you’re in school, there’s all this pressure to make good grades. Then when you’re out looking for a job, you find that companies don’t really care where you went to school or your GPA. They only care about experience or lack thereof.
It’s ok, Scott, to feel stupid in class. I’ve been made to feel stupid many many times over, most recently this past Wednesday night. But I digress. Ultimately in the long run, it’s not going to make a bit of difference what grade you made in Organic lab or History. Should have been like me. I majored in Government because it was an easy “A” and because I like discussing current events. I had no want or talent to become a doctor…..or even a lawyer. So I stuck to my guns. Majored in Government; minored in Computers. Am I a better person because of it? Maybe. I probably should have majored in computers, because I have yet to use any of this junk I learned in my Political Science classes. You can talk philosophy all day, but it won’t get you a good job. Neither will experience…so it seems. It’s who you know and whether or not there’s an angry Muslim around to make the economy turn sour.
Speaking of angry Muslims, I fear that we might have created 100 Bin Ladens with this war. The way Al Jazeria TV is playing it….that the Americans are invaders….bent on killing civilians and stealing Iraqi oil. Hey Ahab, we’re the good guys, remember? So how are the next Bin Ladens going to strike? Nuke? Blowing up something big? I don’t know and I hope it never happens. I’ve got to keep telling myself that God is in control.

“In war there is no room for wiseguys…let’s just get it done with, get it cleaned up with as easy and as best we can, and pray to God that everybody gets home.”
–David Letterman 4/2/03

Scott Burka has begun his blogging adventure. Visit it. Read it. Pay homage to it. You know, Scott is a deep person, or at least it appears to be on his blogger. So his short scripted IM conversations are just that. Short scripted. So anyways the worldwide blogosphere has grown. I’ll have more and more to read each and every day…or every other day. So now I realize why some of you read this junk I post everyday. Reading other people’s thoughts is somewhat interesting. Although I admit that I don’t always read every single word of them, especially if it is a long entry.
One of my regrets from the camp trip yesterday was not charging up my camera’s battery beforehand. The batteries died on me after about 2 dozen pictures. ARGH! And the replacement batteries I had were low too. But anyways… I did get some decent pictures with Todd’s camera. Just like mine except better. 4.1 Megapixels ya know.
Maybe you should read Todd’s account of our Kentucky travels yesterday. And you can visit the Photo of the Moment for a view of a Chinese/Mexican Restaurant.
Tried calling one of the ministers who is on the camp’s board of directors. Unfortunately he was out. I was going to talk to him about this fallen tree thing. I can’t begin to tell you how potentially earth shattering this fallen tree situation is to camp. The thing to do when you go swimming is to swing out on the rope like a monkey. We’re going to have to find a contengency plan. Another tree to put a rope on. And I didn’t know if the board needed to approve this or what. Technically the other side of the creek isn’t even owned by the camp.
I visited the principal’s office today. I wasn’t in trouble. I had just been asked to do the webpage of a local school. I visited the principal trying to get ideas about what needed to be done. So maybe it will look good, if I can get some information about the school….
While I was meeting with the principal, there was some kid in there who was obviously in the elementary version of “In School Suspension.” I thought about asking the kid what did he do to deserve this? Fight? Hitting a teacher? Well in any case it was none of my business. The kid seemed quiet and I pretty much paid him no attention. I felt sorta sorry for the kid, thinking he’s probably not a bad kid, just probably made some huge mistake and had to spend all day in the principal’s office. The kid was pretty well under control…obviously not wanting to rock the boat. The kid even raised his hand to ask to go to the bathroom. As I was leaving I noticed his father pulling up to the school and taking him home early. The father looked like Tim McGraw….

Tonight I had dinner downtown at Checkers with Mark and Josh and Beth. The plan was supposed to be us wandering around the Parthenon. It was actually dark by the time we got out there. So we hung around Checkers watching prom attendents usher themselves into Amerigos next door. While we were waiting to get our food, we noticed some homeless guy anxiously waiting around the walk up queue. (Keep in mind this is Checkers Fast food – no dine in – 2 drive thrus and a walk thru.) The homeless guy seemed out of place. I wasn’t sure if he was in line or what. Anyways what it turned out to be was probably a youth minister/pastor/worker/chaperone buying the homeless guy a meal. The minister apparently was from next door Taco Bell where a youth group had stopped. So I guess he was doing his Christian duty – something we all should try to do more often. Yet we have become pretty jaded and frustrated at homeless people these days.
Afterwards we drove around the Parthenon for our night tour. The scaffolding is down for the most part.
Next was the Great Escape – a used CD store near Vandy. Not very many parking spaces. I didn’t find any CDs that I couldn’t live without. We browsed around but nobody got anything. Really, sometimes you can find a rare jewell among the undesired CDs. But you really have to dig sometimes.
Back to Josh and Beth’s house for Nintendo 64. Super Smash Brothers. I was never any good at that. Mainly played Kirby because it was a stupid character and I needed a good laugh.
Did I mention Beth is really pregnant? Due in April. Probably will burst while I’m in El Salvador. I pointed out to Josh that this will be the first grandchild on both sides. So this grandchild will set the standard. Get to pick the names of the grandparents….whether its granny or grandma or memaw or whatever. So being the first grandchild has its privledges. I’m not sure if this will be Golden Child for the Hornes. Who knows?
Josh is still tramatized (as I am also) from our forced viewing of a birthing video in our sophomore biology class in high school. Josh remarked that he remembered how “that woman was in pain.” I’d tend to agree. The video itself was pretty nasty. And it must have made an impression if we still remember it….from 12 years ago.
Somehow the whole concept of birthing and drugs has changed since I was brought into the world. In the 1970s gynecologists doped up an entire generation of babies to deaden the pain of the birth process. “Put the lady to sleep” was the cry from the birthing room. Who knows how much better “we” would have turned out? Maybe we wouldn’t have been Generation X. World peace could have been achived. But doctors decided to deaden the pain thereby giving us all brain damage.
Now its all natural childbirth. Deaden the pain with an epidural, but keep the lady awake through the whole proceedure. Believe me, I would definitely want to be put to sleep instead of squeezing that thing out. But being a guy, I’m thankful I never have to go through childbirth. Women may indeed have a high tolerance for pain.

My 10 year high school reunion is going to be in June on the Saturday before I leave for church camp in KY. Actually last year I drove up early on Saturday afternoon. So now I’ve got to decide which is more important. Driving up early to camp or this high school reunion. “What are you doing these days, Jeff?” “I’m unemployeed.” Nope. Just doesn’t sound right. I’m sure that would be a big hit at the reunion. I’m actually supposed to make something of myself. Bringing in that whole high school baggage everyone always talks about. Do I really want to be there? Should I just skip the whole thing and go straight to camp? Honestly I really want to. I guess it just depends on how I’m feeling once the thing rolls around….and if I initually know anyone who is going to the reunion. Regardless of whatever I decide to do, I am going to drive up to camp that night…so that I can worship Sunday morning at camp. Nothing beats worshipping Sunday morning in the great outdoors instead of a stuffy church building. I wish I could do that every Sunday.
So the call about the reunion came from some organization that is paid to do this type of stuff. Methinks a paid organization will make it more and more expensive. I could have done it myself. Oh well. Our 5 year reunion was cancelled due to lack of participation. This year might be different. However I wouldn’t shed a tear if it was cancelled.
There was an article in the Lebanon Democrat yesterday. I won’t bother typing it up. The article reported that Dale Wainwright, a 1979 graduate of Mt. Juliet High School is now a Texas Supreme Court Justice. So that’s cool. Who knew anyone from MJHS could make something for themselves.
Meanwhile, the Dead Sea Scrolls are going to be exhibited in Murfreesboro.
Unfortunately Pearl Jam will be playing Nashville on April 18, while I’m in EL SALVADOR. I don’t think they’ve been here since 1993. Bummer. But where am I needed more?
Why can CBS News get to him, but the CIA can’t? Come on, Dan. Slip Saddam a bug and let the global positioning system know where he is at all times.

Scott’s AIM Away Message reads thusly:

“i’m sleeping UNTIL 2:00 pm for my stupid-long trip today. If you wake me up before then, woe be unto thee.”

So we’re all hoping that he’ll do good when he as a final audition for the Bluecoats this weekend…not because we’re big fans of Drum and Bugle Corp. But because we’re friends with Scott and hope he succeeds in life. You see DCI is kinda like Star Trek in a way. It has its dedicated fans, some more than others. Other non-fans don’t understand it. Don’t care for it. Don’t even watch it. Yet if your friend was trying out for a role on Star Trek, you’d cheer him on too.
I keep on thinking maybe I should encourage Scottsville church to move its website over to a paid hosting setup. Currently a friend is generously allowing them to be hosted on his computer/server for free….however the slowness in the download of the webpage is quite noticeable, even with a cable connection. Shelton, their minister, is kinda good at updating it. I feel that it could look much better with Movable Type on there…which would require a move to a different server. It could be quite sophisticated. They have promoted their website alot…even having the URL on the back of their church van. So maybe I should talk to them. Is money budgeted for that type of expense?
He’s always uploading more pictures to it. I found some really cool photo gallery software – which would probably make it very easy to update. That, along with Movable Type would let me have a hands off position to this site.
I found some discussion board software specifically designed to run on the freebie site, Tripod. So basically anybody can have a free discussion board which would run on a freebie site.

We are feeding the monster. We are building a religion.
Yep. It appears that my website has been quoted on Scott’s web thingy – giving praise to Scott. Not that I mind or anything. But maybe I am feeding the ego.
Meanwhile, Zack is featured on 104.5’s website. So I guess he’s arrived in his broadcasting career. Way to go.
You know that Dixie Chicks’ song “Landslide” ? It’s a Stevie Nicks song. So quit thinking the Chicks wrote it themselves. I even found a version of that song by the Smashing Pumpkins. It’s been covered alot. And I think the Pumpkins do it better. I just get tired of the Chicks’ mandolin and general country-esque feel of it. Or maybe I’m annoyed that 107.5 the River plays it – an obvious country sounding song by a country group. The River is supposed to be top 40 POP.
Or maybe I get tired of people thinking the Dixie Chicks have some kinda Midas touch when it comes to covering old Fleetwood Mac tunes.
So I noticed Papa John’s sign has been posted on a recently constructed building in front of their current location. They are tearing down the huge semi-empty shopping center PJ currently resides in…..to make room for the mammoth Super WalMart coming in. Ugh. My visits to Target will become more and more common as Kmart closes and the Walmart opens.
Anyways back this Papa John’s thing. I was really hoping for a dine-in PJ’s. But alas…I think it only has room for the oven and cash register. Todd ate at the dine-in PJ’s in Knoxville. Said it wasn’t a big deal. Dining Room decoration was the stacks of Coke bottles nearby. Not that I’m into decor when I dine in at a pizza place. Papa John’s does one thing well – pizza. The Hut may have better decor in their dine-in facilities, but you end up paying for the comfy seats when you pay full price for their grease patties. Domino’s? Well I’ve never seen a dine-in facility there. Their pizza isn’t all that good. What do they do well? Delivery. 30 minutes or its free…which I think they had to discontinue due to a huge wreck a delivery driver had with some unfortunate citizen.
I could go on all day about pizza franchises, but I’ll spare you, friend.