As part of my devious scheme to take over the world, I’ve put in weather conditions in Mt. Juliet. Pretty soon the Weather Channel will be financially crippled for lack of viewership since everyone will be coming to my page for weather forecasts.
It’s a neat weather plug-in I found on the Movable Type discussion board. So I’ve adapted it to work here. The current conditions get updated when I update my page, not when you refresh. So don’t hit refresh, because you aren’t getting nothin’!
When I go out of town, I’ll change the city to reflect where I am at the moment. So it won’t always be Mt. Juliet’s forecast you see. All of this is because I’m the world’s biggest nerd when it comes to this stupid webpage.
Local music minister awaits arraignment
Reprinting this because the newspaper has no website. Be sure to pay special attention about another minister bringing a gun “to kill a large rodent.” Anybody heard of DeCon?
by Brooks Franklin
Mt. Juliet News, February 12, 2003
No arraignment date has yet been schedule for Green Hill Church Music Minister Mark Lancaster, who was indicted last week on four counts of illegally possessing machine guns.
Lancaster, 42, has been free on $50,000 bond since spending more than a week in custody following his early January arrest, which came when agents of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms seized 15 machine guns from his Mt. Juliet home.
Lancaster was indicted on charges of possessing approximately 15 machine guns, manufacturing machine guns without paying the special occupation tax, possession of approximately 15 machine guns in violation of U.S. law and possession of approximately 15 unregistered machine guns.
An official in the U.S. District Court Clerk’s Office said an arraignment date will likely be scheduled sometime this week.
The arrest of Lancaster seems to have had a strong impact on the church and its congregation, with several members publicly accusing church leaders of being behind the ATF raid that resulted in the charges against him.
Lancaster’s supporters, some of whom have even established a website to establish a defense fund on his behalf, maintain he fell victim to church in-fighting which escalated over a recent budget dispute. In retaliation for his stance over the budget issue, his supporters maintain, those on the opposite side of the controversy contacted the ATF about Lancaster.
“This was done, underhanded, to get rid of Mark. I guarantee you it was,” longtime church member Rusty Roberts said recently.
Affidavits filed by an ATF agent state three confidential informants utilized by the bureau against Lancaster were associated with the music minister through the church, described as recently as last week as still in turmoil over the music minister’s arrest.
Repeated attempts to contact the church’s pastor, Lane Fordham, have been unsuccessful.
But congregation members, each of who spoke on the condition of anonymity, revealed that questions about Lancaster’s arrest led to revelations that another church official has carried a weapon on church property in the past and unlike the music minister, who has been asked to resign, will apparently face no sanctions for his actions.
And Minister of Education James Mason confirmed the allegations in a faxed statement sent in response to a reporter’s phone messages.
Mason who heads the church’s day care center, not only admitted to carrying a weapon but also said he shot it on church property in the summer of 2002 to kill a large rodent.
He said he offered his resignation to church leaders in order to spare the institution any further embarrassment but that it was refused because of the vast differnences between the incident and the charges against Lancaster.
he said the church has since passed a new policy expressly porhibiting the possession of weapons on church property.
An official with the state Department of Human Services which licenses day care centers, said state laws allows weapons within the facilities only when kept under lock and key. The Green Hill Church day are has never been investigated because oficials have received no complaints about the facility, the DHS spokesperson said.
Slideshow Songs
As an amature photographer and a volunteer for church activities, I usually try to make photo slideshow CD ROMs of various church youth activities. There is an option when I do make these CDs to put background music while the slideshow plays. That being the case, I always try to keep my ears out for good music. I’ve added to my ever growing list of positive songs. Here are some of them.
- The Guess Who – “Share the Land” – What an awesome song that no one knows. You’ll remember The Guess Who as the band who sang “American Woman” which Lenny Kravitz later covered. “Share the Land” has some cryptic lyrics like “Maybe I’ll be there to share the land; that they’ll be givin’ away; when we all live together…”
- Alphaville – “Forever Young” – This song is featured in a Saturn Ion car commercial – “Now Leaving High School…” It’s got some good lyrics to it, yet it’s got that silly technopop European sound. If they redid it acoustically, it would probably sound better.
- Bruce Springsteen – “The Rising” – Bruce has a strong heavy voice that really carries the song. However not enough people know this one for it to be relavent in today’s world.
- Jars of Clay – “Flood” – Great song. Located somewhere on the music charts between “Rock” and “Contemporary Christian.” Lyrics could be taken Biblically.
- U2 – “Beautiful Day” – The lyrics make no sense at all. But the chorus is pretty positive.
- Smashmouth – “Why Can’t We Be Friends” – Originally done by War, Smashmouth made it better (some would likely disagree with me on that).
- Beatles – “In My Life” – I’m sorry to admit that I hadn’t heard this song until just a few years ago. What a great song.
- Guns ‘N Roses – “Sweet Child of Mine” – good song, however it probably wouldn’t work well, especially with the hard guitar riffs.
- Go Go’s – “Vacation” – I heard this on a Johnny Knoxville episode. Kinda good song. I’m ashamed to admit this. I just might be a Go Go’s fan.
- The White Stripes – “We’re Going to Be Friends” – This would be a good song for an end of the year elementary school graduation slideshow.
- John Lennon – “Instant Karma” – I don’t necessarily agree with the karma philosophy of this song; however I really like the “We all shine on…” chorus.
- Joe Cocker – “With a Little Help from my Friends” – You’ve heard this song in the opening of the Wonder Years TV show. The Beatles did this originally, but Joe made it better. I don’t really care for the “Get high with a little help from my friends” lyric, but the way Joe sings it, it is undistinguishable.
- Better Than Ezra – “Good” – One of the more positive songs from a great band that no one knows.
- The Strokes – “Someday” I heard this song on an MTV promo. Great song. The singer’s voice is kinda distorted which makes it difficult to distinguish what he’s singing about.
- Electric Light Orchestra – “Mr. Blue Sky” – As heard on the Volkswagen convertable commerical. The downside is that probably not very many people have heard of this.
- Spacehog – “In the Meantime” – The radio stations played this song way too much when it first came out. Made Spacehog a one hit wonder. Still, it’s a good song when you really listen to it.
- Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” – It was in the movie, Meet Joe Black. Never heard of the artist. But the performance of Over the Rainbow is extraordinary.
There are many more songs which I could add to this list. But I won’t bother adding to them right now. Maybe later on…
Borderless World
“That song makes us think that from our orbital vantage point we observe an Earth without borders full of peace, beauty and magnificence, and we pray that humanity as a whole can imagine a borderless world as we see it and strive to live as one at peace.”
– Columbia Shuttle Pilot Willie McCool, after his team was awakened Jan. 30, 2003, by the John Lennon song, “Imagine” (Link)
They were playing “Imagine” on Lighting 100 the other day. Then they played that radio transmission from Columbia. Sorta erie in a way. Maybe the shuttle crew knew much more than what they were letting on.
Then again “Imagine” leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe its that line about “No religion too…”
“Heaven can wait
We’re only watching the skies
Hoping for the best
But expecting the worst
Are you going drop the bomb or not?”
–Alphaville “Forever Young”
And that what it’s feeling like these days. Are we going to drop the bomb or not? Are they going to drop the bomb? Radioactive dirty bomb? Who knows? It’s a different world that what we grew up in….
I’m glad we already know how to freak out if the orange alert turns to red. These directives on how to panic have been really helpful. And they said this war was all about oil. Yep. I panic over gas prices rising.
Server Problems
You may have noticed this webpage was down for a few hours. But everything is back up now. Kudos to Chuck for getting it back up! This reminds me that I need to make backups more often.
This website is pretty fickle. It would be interesting to know who tried visiting this site and was turned away. Remember kids, this website should not be the most important thing in your life. JeffWhittle.com is down. So what? Go outside and enjoy the sunshine.
Reaching for Something Good
This was on the side of the road near my home today. Yes, that’s 4 cars. What is funny is that they just ran off the road. A straight road. Must have happened Sunday night during the snow storm. Southerners can’t drive in the snow.
My friend Mark got a job. All State. So he won’t be moving to San Francisco or China anytime soon. And I was thinking he wanted to leave town.
So maybe there’s hope for me yet. Mark has been looking for a job since May.
Todd tells me Jungle Juice is hard to find these days. I was going to use it as a object lesson in the next devotional I give. “Reach For Something Good” is not just a fruit juice slogan these days. It’s a way of life. So if I give this devo, I guess I’ll have to search for it. Reaching for something good is always hard to find. Maybe I need to call my contact at Purity Dairies, makers of Jungle Juice.
Knoxvilled
Let’s talk about UT’s cafeteria. There’s the grill, which has a sandwich shop, Pizza Hut, Chick-Fill-a, burger place….etc. Good food. Then there’s the regular cafeteria. Lots of variety. We ate there at Saturday at noon. They were still serving breakfast food. Scambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, etc… along with regular lunch type food. Sandwiches, pizza, stir fry. Just about anything you could think of. More variety than Lipscomb’s cafeteria. If they were having something you just didn’t like, you were pretty much stuck. If it wasn’t the cafeteria, you were stuck eating DQ or Pizza Hut or a sandwich. Well, come to think of it, maybe we did have a little variety, at least downstairs at Lipscomb. DQ is gone now. There’s a Starbucks in its place.
Scott and the gang have this “Bathroom Journal” which they have placed on the tank section of the toliet in their apartment. You’re supposed to write in there when you’re doing your business. They showed it to me, but I didn’t exactly want to touch it, knowing where it’s been. Wash your hands, dude.
Living with Scott is sorta like an episode of Friends. 4 guys in one apartment plus 2 girls who seem to be over there frequently. Then there’s Todd who doesn’t live there, yet seems to be perpetually over there anyways. Makes me wonder if he’ll feel left out when all these guys graduate.
Anyways these people never seem to have an argument. Everyone seems to be happy go lucky. Except for maybe HG who hates everybody. HA.
Worship on Sunday was good. If I were Scott and Todd, I’d be getting heavily involved in church activities…ie the Christian Students’ Center. Church is a good support group when you’re away at college.
So schools are closed again today. Long weekend for all the kiddies. Now we just have to suffer though the local news scrolling child care centers closings across the bottom of the screen. Nevermind that these child care closings only affect maybe 100 people, this is important! As far as I’m concerned, the roads are clear in front of my house, therefore all schools in Mt. Juliet should be open. Case closed. Why waste another school day?
Zack has posted his Wheel of Fortune Experience. Good read.
Adaware 6.0 is out. By all means, download this program and get your computer in order. You probably have spyware on it and don’t even know it. Download it; scan your computer; and delete the junk. You’ll thank me later.
Sunsphere and Super Targets
I made it back ok. But not before driving to view the Sunsphere in downtown Kville. I also stopped at a Super Target on the way out of Knoxville. What is a Super Target? Well it’s a huge Target store with a grocery store and Starbucks inside. The one I visited was located right next door to a Super Walmart. Pretty bold of Target. It was the first and only Super Target I had seen. I wish they’d build one here.
Ran into snow around Crossville. It was a slow go throughout. I didn’t make it back home unitl 6:30PM. Too late for church and the roads were getting covered with snow anyways. So I came home.
Leaving Town
Surprisingly I woke up in time for to make it to Sunday school at 9:30AM. Laurel Church of Christ. Nice church. Big college class. I was able to successfully fool the teachers into thinking I truly was a college student and not just someone visiting friends.
The class was so big in fact, that they had to separate the girls and guys. Not sure what the reasoning behind that. The topics discussed weren’t the type that would cause problems with the opposite sexes to discuss.
Scott commented that this church seems to have the Lord’s Supper as a sorta mini-devotional in the middle of services. Much more time is devoted to it. Which is sorta refreshing a way. Too many times we are urged to “hurry up” and get the Lord’s Supper overwith so we can get to the “meat” of the service…ie the sermon. We tend to forget that the Lord’s Supper is the most important part of Sunday’s worship service.
Saw Hunter Hagewood, an old college friend of mine at church. He’s up here working at UT’s computer center. His wife is expecting a boy anytime. Hunter is cool. He’s a missionary’s son and spent much of his childhood in Brazil.
We stopped at the Giant Panda Chinese Restaurant for lunch, but thought the prices were just way too expensive for us college students. So off to a nice Mexican Restaurant. After that we went to some used clothing store.
Anyways I’ll be leaving soon for my drive back. Maybe I’ll stop by the Sunsphere and relive old memories of the 1982 World’s Fair. When we first visited the World’s Fair, my mom said it was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. She had been to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City. So much better. Knoxville’s World’s Fair was just fair. The world’s largest Rubik’s Cube. Robots that drew pictures in Japanese… You know. Just fair. Not spectacular. Nothing that will be remembered in history books. Just fair.
Adios everyone.
Rocky Topped
UT won against Georgia. Good game. It’s nice to be on the winning side every once and a while.
Saw Phi, Jeremy, and Ryan V. at the game. It’s a small world after all, ya know.
We were able to successfully sneak into the game using Scott’s ID. We are at terror threat orange, which I guess means cops will frisk you going into the venue, and check my camera bag. Yet they don’t bother checking IDs for accuracy. Al Quaida could’ve sneaked in. But it wasn’t mean to be.
Scott played in the pep band while the rest of us stayed in the stands. We had pretty good seats. We had an obnoxious guy behind us. Spewing profanities. Every other word. I’ve seen guys like this before. They may be able to talk the talk, but they can’t walk the walk. When the going gets tough, you’ll see them cowering in the corner.
The cheerleaders always looked for a reason to throw t-shirts into the crowd. 3 pointers. Slam dunks. Whatever. Some came really near me. Todd even caught one.
Fan support was good. And they were ugly toward the other team in a funny sort of way. While we were waiting in line to get in, some of the crowd booed at any fan who happened to be wearing Georgia Bulldog red. And at the start of the game, the fans yelled “Sucks!” after each of the Georgia player was introduced, all the while holding up newspapers pretending not to care.
Tonight we saw “8 Mile,” translated to “12.8 Kilometer” in the international markets. Somewhat autobiographical story of a up and coming rap star trying to make it big, while living with his mom in a trailer park. I found there’s a whole subculture of people which I hadn’t been aware of. This group’s idea of fun on a Friday night is to hear rappers dis each other using their best “Your momma” jokes in an arena. So that was the point of the story. Watching Eminem trying to make it big.
Something about this movie made me want to slap these characters and tell them to go to trade school or a community college or something. Get out of the ghetto and get a job.
So tomorrow is church services and then a long drive home. Long in that my tape player keeps messing up. Getting too hot for the tape adaptor. Something is wrong with it, and I plan on letting Volkswagen take a look at it when I get a chance.