I found Pat Hackney’s webpage. It is suspiciously similar to Nick Nance’s webpage. I think these webpages hosted on TeacherWeb are just template pages which users just fill in forms with specific data. It’s a shame many teachers can’t seem to get creative with their webpages.
Man spends $30,000 on gaudy auto accessories on his 1995 Honda Civic. Here’s a tip. Why not spend the $30K on a better car? It’s happened around here too. I’ve seen a lowered Geo Metro before. Metros are the next step up from Yugos. Plenty of times I’ve seen gaudy decals put on Honda just to make them look cool. Unfortunately it makes them look stupid. Like some oversized Hot Wheels car.

Time to ask myself is it effeminate to send out Christmas cards? Might as well do it again this year. Just going through my Christmas card list. I think last year I sent out alot more since I had something interesting to show – a picture from my trip to China. Now there’s not much to talk about. I’ve taken out people who I barely know or haven’t heard from in a while. There will always be people who I still get cards from. Such as those people I know from going to Washington, DC, in 1992. I’m forever on their Christmas card list, even though we haven’t had real coorespondence in about a decade. Then there’s other people whom I lost their addresses and I’m not sure where they are.
This is what was on the front page of Western Kentucky University’s homepage. Hmmmm….. Makes me wonder what part of the university are they trying to push?

I have a friend who is just getting started in the contemporary Christian music. He’s got an album out. I guess I’ve always had a problem with it since I have scriptual discrepancies with instrumental music and performances which others consider worship. Anytime someone is performing in front of a church, then I feel it is entertainment. So it’s sorta hard for me to support something which one person considers a ministry…which he feels should be supported through “love offerings” and other charitable contributions. This may have caused friction in our friendship. I think he knows of my difference in opinion. I guess I would feel more comfortable supporting a missionary or minister who preaches the gospel rather than a musical performance which I consider entertainment. Just a personal preference; not meant to be a personal attack on anyone.
The Short Mountain webpage is coming along great thankyouverymuch. Big plans are being made to receive camp applications via the internet. The only problem is that I suspect the camp staff is not exactly a bunch of computer gurus. The design needs to be as simple and easy as possible. No one wants to make several trips up to Short Mountain just to tweak the camp computer.
I’m only saying this because this past summer a friend and I spent the greater part of a day trying to fix the camp computer while we were up there for summer camp. We ended up reinstalling the OS just to get rid of a virus problem. After that, we had to get a new modem since we couldn’t find the drivers for the old modem. Things tend to break easily.
Computers can operate in remote locations. The best example I know of is a missionary which my church supports. I think he uses a solar power laptop to receive email in the middle of Africa. The village he is in only has electricity for a few hours each day. He’s cool because he has one of those old school Compuserve address with a bunch of numbers and periods instead of AOL style usernames/email address. It’s a geek thing. Most of you people might not know what I’m talking about.
I’ve been seeing a bunch of commericals for 98 WSIX featuring Gerry House and the House Foundation. Man, Gerry is looking pretty old these days. Has a face for radio. I remember his co-host, Mike Bohan. Mike was the weatherman for Channel 4 for a while before switching to radio. Mike now has gray hair. Alot of the television commericals for this show aren’t all that funny. Mostly it’s just Gerry saying something stupid in a funny voice and Mike laughing about it. That’s all morning radio is. Morning DJs talking to laugh at themselves.
It’s been a year since John Thomas, a friend from church, had a massive head injury due to a tree falling on him. His progress is phenomenal. There was a time which we really didn’t know if he was going to make it. But he is back to normal. Amazing.

In the end I really didn’t want to be a substitute teacher. I went to the sub workshop today, but found a bunch of paperwork and what could be a fairly boring seminar. I wasn’t ever really gung-ho about the idea, but thought I would try it out just to see how it was like. It just seemed like a bit too much work for what I considered to be a temporary job. So I left the workshop before it even began. I really need to concentrate on getting a real job and not try to look for temporary jobs.
Scott Burka is funny. Last night he spent a good 45 minutes last night trying to convince me (via instant messenger) the overall importance of Drum and Bugle Corp in the grand scheme of things. I think he doesn’t realize that my philosophy on marching band is “Been there, done that.” Yeah, marching band was fun, but it is way too much work. I dropped out of band at the end of my junior year in high school. I can’t remember the circumstances exactly. Mostly it must have been a bunch of my friends decided not to continue to be in band. Band ate up too much of our time. Our director deemed band to be the most important thing in everyone’s lives. We had very little free time during the fall marching band season. It just wasn’t worth it anymore.
Scott’s problem is that he takes things too seriously. If I show little interest in drum corp, it’s because I am already familiar with it, and I don’t care for it. Due to my lack of interest, Scott takes it personally. It’s not a personal attack; it’s just a matter of opinion. Maybe he’ll change his major from pharmacy to music. Maybe he’ll be a band director. Seems to me if he shows so much interest in something, he should rethink his career. Perhaps he is being pushed to be a pharmacist, which is not really what he wants to do.
AOL Instant Messenger has to be the worst IM program. Ironically everyone seems to use it without questioning how limited its features are. My current gripe with it is that it has a max of 200 buddies which can be added to your list. Some of my friends have as many as 5 usernames. So this 200 name limit can be reached fairly quickly. Also I’m unable to rename usernames into much more easier to remember names. So I’m stuck trying to remember who DaBlingBling is when they IM me. Thank goodness for Trillian which lets me rename usernames to their real names.
Then again why should I gripe about flickle things like that. People are starving in 3rd world countries and we techies are worried about our buddy lists? I’m trying to keep things in perspective.

Back to Portland for their fall hayride today. It has been less than a week since I was there last time. I always have to be very much aware not to wear out my welcome there. Sorta trying to stay in the background and not trying to rock the boat too much. Anyways it will be good to see everyone again. They’ve been so welcoming, and they barely know me. I am getting to know them and forming some good friendships there.
Scottsville notes: When I was there for the hayride last weekend, I noticed they re-did the lettering on the church van. Previously it was a hippie inspired airbrush lettering. Now the maroon van has nice white block lettering. And they’ve put the URL of their web address which I maintain. Seems they’ve embraced the concept of an internet presence.
Also the church has their own 1-800 number, which will be very helpful to me if I need to call them for church business. Shelton is really trying hard to jump start the church up there.
It is November already. The last time I have been without work for this long was when I was in school. But I was still working at the Lipscomb helpdesk for the greater part of the school year…..maybe 15 hours/week. And much of it wasn’t hard work. Managed to be able to surf the web while watching the computer labs and assisting students.
For the most part, nobody is hiring. I’m somewhat enjoying the sabbatical. On the suggestion of a friend, I’m going to try to learn MySQL. Many of the jobs I’d like to apply for require MySQL. It is freeware. The only problem is that I haven’t been able to figure it out. I feel stupid. I guess I need to go out and get a book.

I am back from the hayride in Fountain Run, KY. It was great to see everyone there. There were even some old friends who don’t necessarily go to church in Scottsville who came. In fact there were tons of people there. Plenty of people I didn’t know. Many visitors. Many extended family of the hosts.
The hayride began at the Pedigo house. We rode to the bottom of a valley in the middle of a tobacco field. We had a bonfire right beside a stream. Plenty of hotdogs and potato chips. Large fire. It was a bit hot to try to roast hotdogs on.
On the ride back, it is traditional for the high school/college aged guys to scare the hayriders. This year they went all out. Strobelight. Fog machine. Mechnical bats hanging from the trees. They pretty much just jumped with with masks on to scare them. It was a good effort. I don’t know if they will be able to top it for next year.
I helped them get setup. Immediately after the devo was over we got on 4 wheelers and a truck to ride to the place designated as the place to scare the people. The only mistake I made was getting in the back of a pickup truck with a 15 year old driving. He took the gravel road a little too rough. There were some huge bounces and I ended up bruising my backside due to the impact.
At times I worry about some of the kids in Scottsville. Sometimes it appears that they are just giving lipservice to church activities….then when they get out of church, they tend to overlook what’s right and choose to live the wrong way. Their only fear is their parents finding out. Case in point, one of them was turning 18 soon and planning on doing all the things he wasn’t allowed to do before. Am I being a prude? Wet blanket? Or is all of this just lipservice? We spend years in Sunday School telling kids “Don’t do this….don’t try these things…” yet they do the complete opposite when given the choice. It is difficult to converse with someone who just doesn’t take Christianity seriously. I would almost rather they choose not to go to church, rather than lead 2 different lives – acting like angels while in church; acting any ole way outside of church. Then again sometimes church and being around Christian friends may be the only thing keeping them from going off the deep end competely. Am I worrying too much? I’m not ready to desert them completely. They are my friends and I feel like I should stick around for them.
As a side note. On my way up to Fountain Run, I drove through Lafayette, TN. They have a combination KFC/Long John Silvers in one building. I had heard that the parent company of KFC/Pizza Hut/Taco Bell had bought LJS. Apparently this is a result.
Time falls back this weekend. I hate that. I hate it when it gets dark at 4:30PM. Dreary days. Dark mornings. The only good thing is having a 49 hour weekend this weekend.

So Mark, Josh and I went out to eat a CiCi’s Pizza yesterday for lunch. All you can eat pizza for $5. But the pizza isn’t very good, so I’m not sure it is worth it every single day or even every week. It had been a while since I ate there. While we were waiting in line someone from high school recognized Josh. I think Josh gets recognized much more often since he was valedictorian. Amazing. He wasn’t even known during high school, but after making a speech and writing and performing a song at graduation, everyone in our class remembers him.
During lunch we did get into a discussion about Benny Hinn’s healing ministry. I think it’s all one big hoax, however I’m not sure if Benny himself knows its a hoax or is caught up in it himself. Mark and Josh seem a bit skeptical about it, yet they don’t come out and say it’s a hoax. I figure if he could really heal people, then he should be in the hospitals healing everyone….growing back amputated arms and legs….etc. It should be that easy if someone has the power of healing. Otherwise, it’s all one big circus act.
I did try to go by Metro Information Services today. I used to work for them when I was a contractor for Nortel. However at their old office (which is the current address on their webpage) I found a locked door. I’ve left a voicemail with them, but somehow I doubt they will call me back. I did speak to a couple of headhunters today, with some positive conversations.
Lilapsophobia- Fear of tornadoes and hurricanes.
I used to be afraid of tornadoes. Hurricane season has been just annoying with the rain. Looks like Saturday will be all clear of Hurricane Lili’s rains.

The nearest physical church (of any denomination) is just down the road. Lately I noticed they’ve put a strobe light on the steeple part and a small lit-up cross on top of the steeple. Kinda looks tacky….especially the strobe light. Yeah it got my attention, but left a negative impression of it.
This weekend I’m going on a church retreat with Corinth Church of Christ in Portland. We’ll actually be going to Taylor Christian Camp in Kentucky. This retreat couldn’t have come at a better time. As you can tell from reading the past posts, I am in the doldrums. So I am hoping for a fresh start with this retreat. The weekend after this one, I have another retreat with my own church. So I’ll have some busy, but relaxing weekends coming up.
I stopped by my sister’s kindergarten class again today. It was mostly for the supposed high school pizza for lunch (they instead had a different kind; I was disappointed). My sister had me reading to the kids and helping out with a simple math exercise. Those kids play all the time. I came in and they were out on the playground. When I left after lunch they were at recess again.

Today is a virtual Monday, even though it is a Tuesday. Kinda like a virtual Friday
Scott Burka is definitely obsessed with DCI (Drum Corp International). Basically its a professional marching band league. Just don’t compare this professional marching band league to a pro-football league. Totally different animals. Apples and oranges. “Professional” in that it is the next thing after college marching band, however marchers don’t necessarily get paid for it. It’s nice to have a hobby, however I do believe Scott might be obsessed with it. I can’t get him to talk about anything else. Anytime when I show a little interest in it, he wants to immediately send me some video or audio recording of it. If I back off in my interest in it, he starts moaning that I don’t trust him. Trust has nothing to do with it. I think he takes things too personal. It would be like me trying to impose my musical interests on everyone else. Musical tastes are all different. I have yet to meet someone who likes exactly the same type of music I like.
My interest in marching band has past. It’s old school. Learning to play an instrument while systematically marching in formations from one point to another on a football field just isn’t my idea of fun right now. Neither is necessarily watching it, especially if I don’t know anyone performing. It was good to be in band at the time. I made some good friends and felt like I was a part of some real organization. Most likely I would have never have gone to a high school football game if I hadn’t been in band. Come to think of it, during my Senior year, when I was out of band, I didn’t go to a football game. Or maybe I did. It’s been so long I can’t remember.
My mom has volunteered me to video tape a wedding of one of her friends at church. I have yet to meet the bride or groom. The only problem is the bride is prone to seizures at times when she becomes nervous. I foresee awkward moments. Let’s hope it won’t happen.
Friends and Family Help Dying Boy Celebrate Halloween 2 months early. The boy’s costume? The Grim Reaper.
World’s Last Camaro Sells for $71K

There were tons of people at Darrell and Tracy’s wedding. About 25 people were standing in the back since there were no seats. I didn’t stay too long afterwards. Basically got my food, ate it, then left. I didn’t know too many people there and there was just such a large crowd I didn’t feel like fighting it in such a small venue. Darrell and Tracy have touched alot of lives.
It was good to see some friends from camp at Culleoka’s VBS last night. We actually didn’t get done singing until 10PM, so I didn’t get back home until really late. The singing with the teenagers was the best part about it.
This has been the week to see new friends I’ve made over the summer. Sunday – Scottsville; Monday – Portland; Friday – Maury County; Saturday – Center Chapel. I never thought all of these reunions would happen in the same week.