The only bad part about visiting UT is that my sleeping schedule gets all out of whack. We stayed up til about 2AM CST last night. I now understand why Todd almost always writes in his journal entry after midnight. That’s when things actually start winding down and you can actually get some work done around here. Crazy I know. Even crazier is how some people go to class on a regular basis with 3 or 4 hours of sleep. I couldn’t learn like that. Maybe I was a weenie who always went to sleep at around midnight. Come to think of it, at Lipscomb almost everyone went to sleep at around midnight or 1AM. There was nothing else to do. I was never on a wild floor that stayed up really late.
I helped Josh, Scott’s roommate get his webpage up and running. Looks good, especially if you have the Eurostile font. Otherwise, it just might look goofy.
I’m gonna try to get some good pics of the basketball game. Scott says this Georgia game and the Florida game are the biggest basketball games all year. I’m sure there will be a big crowd there.
I saw something really unique here. A Papa John’s restaurant with a dinning area. We are talking tables and chairs. Never had seen that before. In Nashville all the PJ’s are carry out only. It would be very strange to hear “Dine In?” being asked at a PJ’s.
So anyways UT is a nice place, but I wouldn’t want to go to college here. Everything seems to big. I’ve visited here a couple of times, yet I still haven’t seen the whole campus.
Scott and company seem to have kept the same friends from high school (i.e. all of these people seem to be from Mt. Juliet). I guess it’s hard to branch out and meet new people. Maybe at UT you seem to be just a number and it’s hard to find people with the same interests or something.
Scott seemed very interested in the Mt. Juliet church discussion board. Made up his own username and everything. “Let’s see how much damage I can do” was his rallying cry as he posted the message “Scott’s new topic” late last night.
Anyways we slept in and have to get in line for UT’s game a few hours before the game starts. So time to get ready… Time to go, kids.
Live from K-town
Hello from Knoxville. During the drive up here, the snow views from the plateau was tremendeous. Snow on the trees, although I could tell there wasn’t too much of it; maybe an inch at the very most. Todd is sick but on medication. Scott is studying for organic chemistry on a Friday night since he slept through 2 of his classes this week. Bummer. Word on the street is that we’ll be seeing “The Ring” at the dollar movie theater tonight. I’ve seen it before, full price. But it is good enough to see again, even if it is a dollar.
UT vs. Georgia game is tomorrow. Planning on going. I’ve never been to a UT Basketball game before, so that should be fun.
Everyone here thinks I’m younger than what I really am. Samantha, Scott’s friend, guessed I was 22. Ha. You can fool some of the people some of the time….
So I’m in Scott’s apartment where there are 4 computers setup. Seems like some kind of mini-lab. Why anyone would need that much processing power… Well I guess everyone has their own little reason for having their own computer. Maybe it’s so we can all store our mp3s on seperate drives. Scott’s roommates, HG is playing some type of shoot-em-up game while Josh is doing travel research. He tells me he is going to study abroad in either Ireland, Hungary, Malta, or Australia during the fall semester. Sounds like fun.
Lipscomb had a study abroad program in Vienna. Everyone always thought it was a huge deal and people would wait outside the doors to wait for the sign up sheets to be posted. I never had a desire to study aboard. When I go on vacation, I’m ready to come home after 7 days. Thankyouverymuch.
Friday Five: Eating
1. What did you have for breakfast this morning? If you didn’t have breakfast, why not?
I ate toast, Heywood Banks’ favorite food. Always have one cinnimon, the other jelly….either grape or strawberry. Bacon…and orange juice. If I have nothing else for breakfast, I almost always have OJ. A definite must. Some people need coffee; I need OJ, like OJ needs an alibi.
I rarely skip breakfast. I am one to need to eat breakfast.
2. What’s your favorite cereal?
For part of the time, growing up I ate Cheerios…with sugar. Then it was Rice Crispies. Sometimes Alphabets. Later on it was Fruit Loops. It’s interesting that gradually as I’ve gotten older, the cereals have gotten sugarier.
When I was in college, it was Lucky Charms all the way. Great cereal. Sometimes the Lucky Charms vat would be empty, which would spur a tremendeous amount of protest from the student body.
3. How often do you eat out? Do you want that to change?
I don’t eat out very often. Usually it is “to go,” which I bring home and eat while watching my favorite 80s nostalgia movie.
I would eat out more often if friends organized it.
4. What do you plan on having for dinner tonight? Got a recipe for that?Visiting friends at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Whatever Scott and Todd plan on having. College food court stuff. Late night pizza. Who knows?
5. What’s your favorite restaurant? Why?
I have lots of favorite restaurants. Like Fudruckers. One of the best places to get a filling hamburger. The only problem is that it is in downtown Nashville and too far of a drive for a convinent meal.
Manny’s pizza at the arcade in Nashville is good. A friend of mine recommended it. Good pizza.
Good pizza at Pizza Perfect. Right across the street from Lipscomb. A little pricey, but reasonably good.
Chili’s. Great burgers. They put some kind of spices in it to make it extra good.
Goode’s Barbeque in Houston, Texas. Hands down the best barbeque ever. I always eat there when I visit there (twice now).
The Weatherman Said the S Word and Everyone Panicked
Schools across Middle Tennessee closed today because someone thought they heard there was snow in Memphis. It was all a big hoax. None of the white stuff is around. They did this because everyone was spooked from the blizzard earlier this year. That type of blizzard only happens once every 10 years. Otherwise snow in the south is just like this: non existant.
Another school day wasted. But what do I care. I’ve been wasting days since September. “Why haven’t you gotten a job yet?” Realistically I probably should have. Realistically I’d probably be digging ditches or something. That’s not something I want to do. Maybe I don’t want to waste my life away in a cubicle working for THE MAN.
Everyone and their brother has my resume. Do I really need to call and bug them for a job?
No call backs. No requests for interviews. Until something turns around in the economy – we have a war or something – I might as well not even bother looking. To those of you who have a job, be thankful.
I delivered food to the shut-ins from church today. Good deed for the day. Maybe it will help me to get into heaven or something.
Things I learned today:
- Old people don’t answer the door. Well, they don’t exactly hear the door sometimes.
- Shut in’s are happy to receive visitors. Hence the name, “shut-in,” which in part has a negative connation to it. Perhaps the less offensive “Homebound” should be used instead. Shut-ins are always happy to see visitors. Sometimes they want you to stay and visit for a while. “Are you still in school?” Nope, been out for 6 years now, but that’s beside the point. If I look younger than I am, I guess that’s a compliment, in some kind of different sort of way.
Speaking of which, I got a Time Magazine offer in the mail. “Senior Citizen’s discount.” Wooohooo! When I’m not trying to fool AOL-Time Warner into thinking I’m someone over 65, I am reading the magazine. Skimming through it at least. Ever since Yahoo Internet Life went away, magazines have been not as good. YIL was good. Introduced me to weblogging. Told me about the wonders of Blogger.com, which in turn introduced me to Movable Type.
Then YIL’s unused subscription turned into Entertainment Weekly….or shall I say “Entertainment Weakly.” Rarely do I get reasonable information out of that rag. Kinda like “Entertainment Tonight” in printed form. Maybe I should subscribe to Wired or some other nerdy magazine.
Church Website Design
Because I am such a big nerd, I decided to go through all the 100+ sermon articles on the church webpage and automatically link the scripture references on them to the appropriate scripture references on the Bible Gateway webpage. I found a cool plugin for Movable Type which helped me out tremendously. It’s terribly nerdy for me to do this, and I don’t think anyone really is loosing any sleep over this. But I figure, why not make this the best looking church webpage which no one looks at?
In any case, I think the church webpage is up for an overhaud. A redesign just to keep everyone interested. David Shannon’s theme for 2003 is “Taste of Thee in 2003,” so I might incorporate that into the design banners.
I’d Like to Buy a Vowel
One of my friends/aquiantances, Zack Bennett, will be on Wheel of Fortune this Friday (6:30PM WKRN Channel 2). Apparently the Wheel has been doing a Nashville edition for a while now.
In case you’re wondering, the space station crew is doing fine thankyouverymuch. But thanks for asking.
News You Can Use
The Lipscomb Underground has been redesigned. Great. I was beginning to wonder why the activity there had stopped suddenly.
The Lipscomb Underground is pretty much an email discussion list which was started while I was at Lipscomb. It gave students an opportunity to gripe about chapel, classes, tuition, and everything else about Lipscomb. Seemlingly nothing has changed much in the 5 years I’ve been gone. They’re still griping about the same things.
The Russians Planned to Revive their Space Shuttle as reported in June 2001. Did you know they had a Space Shuttle? Neither did I.
Notradamus did not predict the Columbia Shuttle Disaster. If you get something in your inbox about it, don’t spread the hoax.
Montgomery Gentry’s reference to “Church of Christ” in their song “My Town” doesn’t mean anything special. (as reported in their FAQ)
Buran – the Soviet Space
Prank Calls by Howard Stern
As I watched the news coverage of the Columbia disaster, I managed to hear 2 prank calls by Howard Stern’s fans. The first one came into MSNBC by someone who claimed “they shot down the space shuttle because Howard Stern was onboard.”
The second prank call came into CBS News with Dan Rather anchoring the coverage. The caller claimed to have debris from the space shuttle. He said “it looks like one of Baba Booey’s teeth.” Dan continued to ask the caller questions apparently oblivious to what was happening. Before they cut the caller off, he called Dan an idiot.
It was then that Dan’s co-anchor, Russ Mitchell, informed him it was a prank call. Dan then said “Well, I am an idiot, but that’s beside the point.”
My initual reaction to this was surprise that a prank caller was able to get through to a big television network and that it was broadcasted live. My secondary reaction was disgust that someone would be making light of an immediate tragedy.
Who’s to blame in all this? Stern’s fans? The networks themselves for not verifying callers? Probably both.
Howard Stern is there to offend. He’s there to push buttons. If I get offended, then he’s served his self-described purpose.
Then again, the networks need to check out these things. Or at least go to a short delay so they do not broadcast something they shouldn’t have. MSNBC went to a 7 second delay during the Miami postal truck hijack.
News Anchors made the difference during the Columbia Disaster.
Columbia Streaks Toward Florida Landing
The following story was posted on the Washington Post’s website at 8:28AM EST on February 1, 2003. I personally saw it. It was up for several hours (although not accessible from the main page).
I am posting this not to make light of the disaster, but to point out that sometimes newspaper writers are so anxious to write up stories, sometimes they write them BEFORE they occur.
By Marcia Dunn
AP Aerospace Writer
Saturday, February 1, 2003; 8:28 AM
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. With security tighter than usual, space shuttle Columbia streaked toward a Florida touchdown Saturday to end a successful 16-day scientific research mission that included the first Israeli astronaut.
The early morning fog burned off as the sun rose, and Mission Control gave the seven astronauts the go-ahead to come home on time. “I guess you’ve been wondering, but you are ‘go’ for the deorbit burn,” Mission Control radioed at practically the last minute.
Ilan Ramon, a colonel in Israel’s air force and former fighter pilot, became the first man from his country to fly in space, and his presence resulted in an increase in security, not only for Columbia’s Jan. 16 launch, but also for its landing. Space agency officials feared his presence might make the shuttle more of a terrorist target.
“We’ve taken all reasonable measures, and all of our landings so far since 9-11 have gone perfectly,” said Lt. Col. Michael Rein, an Air Force spokesman.
Columbia’s crew Ramon and six Americans completed all of their 80-plus experiments in orbit. They studied ant, bee and spider behavior in weightlessness as well as changes in flames and flower scents, and took measurements of atmospheric dust with a pair of Israeli cameras.
The 13 lab rats on board part of a brain and heart study had to face the guillotine following the flight so researchers could see up-close the effects of so much time in weightlessness. The insects and other animals had a brighter, longer future: the student experimenters were going to get them back and many of the youngsters planned to keep them, almost like pets.
All of the scientific objectives were accomplished during the round-the-clock laboratory mission, and some of the work may be continued aboard the international space station, researchers said. The only problem of note was a pair of malfunctioning dehumidifiers, which temporarily raised temperatures inside the laboratory to the low 80s, 10 degrees higher than desired.
Some of Columbia’s crew members didn’t want their time in space to end.
“Do we really have to come back?” astronaut David Brown jokingly asked Mission Control before the ride home.
NASA’s next shuttle flight, a space station construction mission, is scheduled for March. The next time Columbia flies will be in November, when it carries into orbit educator-astronaut Barbara Morgan, who was the backup for Challenger crew member Christa McAuliffe in 1986.