Yeah, it’s Halloween. School kids are at school hoping their teacher won’t assign too much homework so they can still can go Trick-or-Treating tonight. I had a few teachers in my past that tended to purposely assign lots of homework on Halloween night. I remember having to read a huge part of Romeo and Juliet in 8th grade. In elementary school we were allowed to have 3 class parties….each held on/for Halloween, Christmas, and Valentines Day. My 5th grade teacher cancelled our Halloween party by saying “You’re too old for Halloween.” I still remember that.
Do tissue makers take into account the slight increase in toilet paper purchases around October each year? Do they supply stores with slightly more tissue just for that surge? A friend of mine told me the best way to get toilet paper out of trees was to burn it (seriously). Light a flame to the part of the tissue hanging down. The tissue will burn; the tree will not. I might try it sometime if I ever get rolled.
My friend Dustin sent me a postcard of the Praying Hands of Oral Roberts University. The postcard reads “the hands are a 60 foot tall, thirty-ton bronze structure.” Crafted from molds of Oral’s hands. That’s probably the tackiest thing I’ve heard of: a monument to the world’s biggest ego. Oral once called on his followers to raise 8 million dollars or else God would “call him home.”
“The God I believe in isn’t short of cash, Mister.”
–Bono of U2
Some nice software I’ve found lately:
Privoxy. Blocks banner ads and other annoyances.
DeadAIM. It’s an add-on for AIM. Makes the program transparent to the desktop; blocks those silly AOL ads; logs conversations. By the way, I found that AIM users and ICQ users will soon be able to talk to each other.

One year ago today 3,025 people lost their lives in a terrorist attack on the US. Today I lost my job. But somehow I realize that my loss is so small compared to the victims of September 11th, 2001. Tonight we had a special prayer service at church. During that service I realized God has truly blessed us. Blessed us with a strong military, strong leadership, and strong people. We survived to live another year.
This year changed me. Somehow I am always looking over my shoulder, always checking out the current news to see if anything has happened. For a few weeks afterwards I had trouble sleeping. I believed there was a good chance of me getting drafted. I will never look at an airplane or a tall building the same way again.
So I got laid off today. I’ll be formally told about it with a meeting at HR tomorrow. I won’t use the sour grapes scenerio. I liked my job. I liked working from home for one year. I enjoyed the business trips to Boone, North Carolina, Reno, and Ottawa. I enjoyed what I did. I felt like I made a difference. But like all good things, it must come to an end. Somehow I knew things were going downhill when I got the feeling my new manager didn’t have a clue as to what I did.
So I’ll have some free time on my hands while I look for a job. We’ll see what happens…..

Elizabeth died one year ago today. I almost sent her parents a “thinking of you” card, but I didn’t. Wasn’t sure what to say. As always I try to avoid awkward situations. I didn’t know Elizabeth very well. I only knew her briefly. Elizabeth was here for some reason. If it was give her friends a Christian example, to make them live more righteous lives, then so be it. Somehow I think some of the kids in Scottsville are balancing on the fence, trying to be in the world, while at the same time fooling their parents into thinking they’re angels. At times I don’t know how they’ll turn out. Maybe they’ll remember Elizabeth’s example when the time comes.
You’ll notice Elizabeth’s picture was reduced 35% on the front page. Somehow I think it might be time to move on. Elizabeth wouldn’t have wanted us constantly reminded of death. Rather we should live for life. Live each day as a gift from God. Time to move on and look toward the future.
“Seven countries, 25 days and 15 pounds of uranium and not a single question.”

I have posed this question to myself. “Have I changed since high school?” The answer is yes. During those years I was fairly quiet. I looked to others for leadership. I was more of a follower rather than a leader. I wasn’t very assertive. To get by in this world you almost have to have to assertive, otherwise people will walk all over you. Right now, I’m still not as much of a leader, but I feel I am more assertive toward getting things done.
Speaking of high school, last night the local tv station spotlighted my old high school’s band. I can tell you that things have not changed very much since I was there. They’re still having endless practices in the hot summer heat. They’re still getting cold in the band room when the air conditioning is at full force. In some ways I’m glad I was in band during high school. It got me out of the house and exercising. The problem was that band pretty much ruled my life at that time. And it ruled my parents’ life too. They were upset at me when I dropped out of band during my senior year. I blamed it on them wanting to socialize with the rest of the band parents. They loved to go to band contest (seemlingly more than I did).
Our band director was sorta authoritarian in approach. Nobody really liked him. His philosophy was giving band 110% or nothing at all. We did win contests and do fairly well with our band shows. But was it all worth it? Can we really feel good about ourselves in these seemlingly minor accomplishments in the grand scheme of things?
During college I discovered a song which reminded me of those endless days in band practice…..”Fall Down” by Toad the Wet Sprocket. The chorus of the song pretty much sums up those practices….”When will we fall down….” Everytime I heard that song I think of it. Not to mention the song is probably about breaking up with a girl. But each song is upto the listener’s intrepretations….
I’ve just discovered the new Bruce Springsteen song, “The Rising.” It’s a cool song. Heard it playing on the radio tonight. Classic Bruce. On a similar note, I have probably is one of the most unique Springsteen albums available. While I was in China, I picked up a Chinese version of Springsteen’s “Nebraska” album. The words and lyrics are in English, but the CD wrapping is subtitled in Chinese. I had wanted to get this album anyways, and when I was in China, I felt it was a good time to get it. Probably a bootleg anyways…..

Met my aunt and cousin for lunch yesterday at Dairy Queen. Rarely do I go to Mt. Juliet’s DQ. From the outside it looks like some type of mobile home. Inside it has very little space for moving around. I think they should bulldoze the entire thing and rebuild it from the ground up. For a while there, DQ was Mt. Juliet’s only fast food restaurant.
Anyways it was good to see my aunt and cousin. We got to talking about old times. For some reason, gym class entered into our conversation. High school gym was a joke. My cousin said that they played dodge ball at it almost every day. All I remember doing was running laps. I had gym class in 2nd period. Which meant that I got up took a shower, headed to 1st period art class….then back to gym class just to be sweaty throughout the rest of the day. If this sounds like a line from the Wonder Years, it’s because it is.
Anyways on to Culleoka tonight for their VBS. I have a plan. All of the Little Caesars in Nashville have closed for some odd reason. However last time I checked there was a Little Caesar’s operating in Columbia, TN. So I’ll just leave a little bit early and pick up a pizza and breadsticks at the LC in Columbia before moving on to the VBS. LC was great. I know that there are some of you out there who despise it. However I have developed a taste for it, especially the breadsticks. It will be a nice change to Papa John’s, which I seemed to have become burned out on. Dominos is good, but there’s very little sauce on it. Pizza Hut is way too expensive and too greasy to be eating all the time.

I’ve been doing the math in my head:
Star Wars Premired – May 25, 1977
Elvis Died – August 16, 1977
This leaves a very short amount of time – 83 days – which Elvis could have seen Star Wars. Did he? Who knows? From what I understand, Elvis was in pretty bad shape at the time of his death, although he was scheduled to go on tour again at that time. The idea that 2 cultural icons could have come together in a Memphis movie theater is fascinating.
I’m nixing the whitewater rafting trip down the Ocoee this Saturday. I have a wedding to go to that night and was uncertain if I could make it back in time. I’ve been down the Ocoee about half a dozen times, so it is no big loss. I’m not sure if Phil knows this, but he could have saved some money by waiting until after Labor Day. The temperatures are a little cooler, but in the big picture it really doesn’t make a difference. I remember leaving on those trips at around 5AM and getting back to MJ by mid-afternoon. If only this trip had been planned the same way….with an early drop off time.
Back to this Boy Scout discussion. I joined Cub Scouts after hearing a spiel at a PTA meeting. My sister had been in Girl Scouts, so it was somewhat of me following her in the scouting tradition. I followed my sister in alot of activities….Band….Beta Club….other school activities…. I almost followed her to Freed-Hardeman University, but that wasn’t meant to be. Growing up there was not much definition or substance in my life that I could call my own unique idea. Mostly I was a follower and not a leader.
My mom was a den mother when I was in Cub Scouts. I had some friends in my den, but most of my other close friends were in another den. I remember we would go on various field trips…like to the Hermitage and camping. There wasn’t too much substance to it. It was mostly getting kids interested in scouting.
When it was time to move on to Weblos, the intermediate time between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, we combined a couple of the dens into one since we had lost several members. We met at a family’s house who was in charge of us. Their son who was aged 15 or 16 was in charge of us at the time. The family was sorta new to leading a den so it was sorta difficult to find a fit. It was mostly work. As I remember it we rarely went on campouts, or maybe I just didn’t want to go. In any case I eventually dropped out of scouts during this time. One of the last things I remember learning was referee calls in football. I remember thinking to myself, what does this have to do with scouting? I didn’t care for sports and this certainly did not motivate me to get the badge.
At some point in junior high, it was considered “uncool” to be in scouts. Then ironically in high school it was cool again to be in scouts. I guess they figured that if anyone could keep going throughout all those years, they deserved some respect. Plus they could do most anything having to do with camping and the outdoors.
Why are people buying fake diplomas in China?

Added: Picture of my grandfather in the photo section of my webpage. Its on loan from my aunt. I had lunch with her the other day. While I was there, we got out some old pictures and looked at them. It is amazing how time flies. My maternal grandparents died when I was in elementary school. I know very little about them. I wish I had known them better. To those of you who’s grandparents are still alive: never take them for granted. I wish I had known that while I was growing up.

Wendy’s Hamburgers for supper tonight. Mmm Mmm Good. Mt. Juliet has no Wendy’s restaurants. The rural exit at Hwy 109 has a Wendy’s. On the other hand, Mt. Juliet has 2 McDonald’s, one of which is part of a larger “McBP” Gas Station at the interstate. Having 2 extra McDonald’s restaurants in one’s hometown should give residents less time in purgatory. McDonald’s must be the 4th horsemen of the apocalypse….pestilence.
Just a random thought. When I was in junior high, there was this black guy named “Ivory” who rode my bus. IVORY….that’s about as funny as a white guy named “Ebony.” Ivory had a younger brother named “Ottawa” which coincidentally is the capital of Canada.

I’ve put together a page which documents the events of my life on September 11, 2001. This page was done through telephone logs and archived emails.
Today is the 6 month anniversary of the attack on America. I can only imagine the hate and evil which was conjured up on that day by the hijackers. I have found that there are some very evil people in this world….people who use religion as an excuse to kill thousands of innocent people. I’m still asking myself “Why?”

Food Fight at Columbine High School…..the only reason this is making news is because it happened at Columbine. At any other school, this would not have even been reported.
I remember when we had a food fight at my high school. I only saw the after effects of it. Basically everyone knew a food fight was being planned. I had a late lunch time. By the time I got in there, the 30 second food fight had ended. Apparently the teachers stopped it before it even had a chance to really get started. The cafeteria was a bit messier than usual. I was somewhat of a prude then and was pretty worried about not being able to finish my meal before the food fight started. I was also worried about my clothes being messed up.
I have a few other memories of the cafeteria. The high school cheerleaders were able to get a coin operated jukebox in the cafeteria to raise funds so they could go to their cheer competitions. Anyways, at the time Prince’s “Diamonds and Pearls” song was pretty popular. Someone would always put this in the jukebox, sometimes several times during the lunch period. At one point a school coach got so sick of the song, he unplugged the jukebox when it came up again. I’ll always associate “Diamond’s and Pearls” with that incident.
Lunchtime during elementary school was an interesting experience. Apparently the loudness of the cafeteria was getting to the teachers. (The teachers were forced to sit in the cafeteria to watch the students). I don’t recall it being really loud, but who am I to say? In order to combat the noise polution, the teachers set up a mircophone which Mrs. Duncan would go to and say “Five Minutes of No Talking.” Later on they got a stoplight – if it was green you could talk; yellow meant whisper; and red meant no talking. The “bad kids” never payed attention to the light. Just some of the stupid things we had to endure because of school mismanagement. The easy solution would be to get parents to volunteer to watch the cafeteria during the lunch hour while the teachers ate in the smoke filled teachers’ lounge.
One of the few times I got in trouble was in the elementary school cafeteria. It was during my kindergarten year. I had a nice metal Aladdin “Dukes of Hazzard” lunchbox. At the far end of a cafeteria table a kid in my class told me to slide my lunchbox to him so that he could catch it. I did and he just let it fall (on purpose). The metal lunchbox made a loud noise which caused everyone to stop talking for a second. For punishment my teacher made me hold her hand on the way back to the classroom. How embarrassing for a Kindergartener!