Found something out about myself Wednesday night. I can’t teach with very little preparation (Well DUH!) For the first part of the Bible class I stumbled along telling the story (I Samuel 15). Something about the destroying the Amalekites…and not completely following God’s will. But in the end it all worked out and I was able to get to the real message of the lesson. Next time I really need to review the Bible lesson days beforehand instead of an hour beforehand. Anyways the worst thing that could have happened was looking stupid in front of a room full of 4th graders. What makes me look bad is that my co-teacher is a real life elementary teacher who teaches very well. Not that I’m really concerned about looking bad. It’s just the bar is set so much higher when the other teacher teaches.
In any case I’m moving on to teaching 5th and 6th grade next Wednesday night. I will be in teaching rotation with the other 2 teachers, so I guess that means I’ll be teaching every 3rd week. Hopefully I’ll be able to grow and learn how to teach. I really want to try to contribute to teaching.
This gets me frustrated. When I ask someone to take a picture of myself….they take it. Then you get the picture back and its all blurry. Can’t some people take a decent picture? Is it that hard to hold a camera steady? Can’t someone make a camera which takes pictures no one can mess up?
Here’s my proposal. Any cell phone that rings during church services should be systematically destroyed by running over it with the church van. This would put a stop to this annoyance.
I see that The Lipscomb Underground has undergone a slight redesign. After being offline for the entire summer, it is back online. If you are a former or current Lipscomb University student or an interested party, go there. You might find some good discussion.
Friday Five:
1. What’s your favorite piece of clothing that you currently own?
Probably one of my t-shirts with a funny slogan written on it. Like “There is no off position on the genius switch.” Or “Never Underestimate the Power of Stupid People in Large Groups.”
A while back I saw a t-shirt at Target which said “Stop Reading my Shirt!” I really should get that one.
2. What piece of clothing do you most want to acquire?
Nothing in particular. I’m not a big clothes shopper. Although I like to get t-shirts at whatever event (concert, gathering…etc) I’m at.
3. What piece of clothing can you not bring yourself to get rid of? Why?
Old camp t-shirts. I have some that are 10 years old. Memories keep them alive.
Also my mom found an old VBS shirt from 1982. That one is a keeper too.
4. What piece of clothing do you look your best in?
Probably a suit and tie. But I hate wearing it since it is so unconfortable. Immediately after getting home from church I change into something more confortable.
5. What has been your biggest fashion accident?
Wearing bright orange Converse All Stars shoes in Junior High
Dodging layoffs
This sucks. Dodging layoffs is not fun. I don’t know if I’ll be affected. We’ve had big layoffs before. But now that we have so few people, it means that 1 in 6 will be laid off. My boss said that he would be highly surprised if IS (my department) isn’t affected.
ESPN pulls ad making fun of Vol Fans
Sometimes I feel like I’m being arrogant on this weblog. Sorry if I come across sounding like that. Sometimes I rant my frustrations on here. Am I being too negative? Are there not enough positive posts?
Microbus
Volkswagen is bringing back the Microbus
Sorry, I’m unable to take any news show seriously when one of their hosts wears a French beret. This is silly. A while back co-host “Curtis” was wearing a jacket and the beret in the middle of July. Now, thankfully he has ditched the jacket and is sticking with a long sleeved turtleneck shirt. Still, the beret remains.
I’ve been seeing promos for Dr. Phil’s new show. The problem is that these promos don’t mean much to those of us who don’t watch Oprah. One of the more stupid ones is where Dr. Phil doesn’t want to sign his autograph on some lady’s purse because the purse is so new. So he signs on the inside instead. I don’t know who this Dr. Phil is, but these promos make him look like some kind of rock star, signing autographs and junk like that. Seems a bit conceeded. The promos don’t tell what his show is about. It just has him going out on the street and signing autographs.
Run for cover! ESPN Makes Fun of Vol Fans again.
The Preacher in Waders
Something funny happened at church Sunday. I’ll share it here. During the church service my family and I were setting somewhat parallel to the baptistry…meaning we could see into the baptistry without any problems. So we had a baptism that morning. After the baptism we could see the preacher getting out of the waders. It just seemed funny at the time since seeing someone change in the middle of church service is not the usual Sunday morning activity. And please note: The preacher was just taking off the waders. He had regular clothes under it. So stop thinking those dirty thoughts, you pervert!
Still it is kinda funny to even see the preacher in waders. It’s like they’re going fishing in the middle of service. Seems so absurd in a logical sense. Full suited preacher in the middle of waist deep water getting ready to dunk someone? I couldn’t come up with that one if I tried. Yet, it is a normal occurance at church these days.
Rarely do you see kids at church baptized by their father. I wonder why. Sometimes the father is not church going. Sometimes the father is just not outgoing enough to perform the act publically. If possible, I would strongly encourage it. Preachers come and go, but fathers are forever.
The bands Goo Goo Dolls, Matchbox 20, and Gin Blossoms are all actually the same band. Think about it. Have you ever seen these bands play the same show together? I didn’t think so. These bands could trade lead singers and play each others songs and you probably won’t know the difference. On a side note I really enjoy the Goo Goo’s new song “Big Machine.” I’m almost embarrassed to admit it since the Goo Goo Dolls are such a girlie band.
Short Mountain Bible Camp
Quote from “Living in the Blog-osphere” from Newsweek.
“…when you blog, your words reach not just your trusted cluster, but anyone with a Web browser. With search engines and Internet archives, a bright beam can illuminate the deepest corners of the Net�and intimate thoughts suddenly come to the attention of unwanted readers.”
I have the same concerns. Sometimes people will come up to me out of the blue and make comments that make me wonder if they visited this site. I don’t usually try to be brutally critical of people, however when I’m having a bad day, then I do write about it in this weblog.
Let’s recap….pictures taken this summer….
What’s missing? Short Mountain Bible Camp. I don’t really maintain a webpage for any of those folks. Darrell hasn’t ever asked me to do a webpage for Center Chapel.
Just some thoughts about SMBC in general…. I didn’t really have time to post this immediately after camp. But I feel there is a time for everything. What brought this on was a recent conversation I had with someone in regards to this.
Darrell and Tracy seem overly concerned with tradition…probably Darrell more than Tracy. Even Darrell was concerned about driving the church group to camp…taking the exact same route that had been taken before. Not even taking into consideration that there might be a shorter route to camp.
Traditions are ok, but if it is hindering progress and common sense then they need to step out of the way.
This whole Screamer thing. At SMBC, they publish a daily one page newspaper (called the “Screamer”) of what’s going on at camp. The problem is that I think they put too much time into it vs. what it is worth. They must spend hours on this publication…staying up late hours into the night. Do the campers read it? Maybe. But if suddenly it wasn’t published one week then the younger kids would probably not even miss it. The problem is that I think that those who are doing the Screamer are doing it for themselves because they are caught up in tradition. For my time, there’s much more better things that could be done with my time. For example, the night they were writing the Screamer, I stayed in the cabin playing cards with a half dozen kids. It gained me new friends for the rest of the week….One kid even told me I was their “favorite counselor.” Would the kids have gotten the same attention if I had helped with the Screamer? Nope. We need to remind ourselves that we are here for the kids, not to continue empty traditions.
And please note, I’m not trying to bash the authors of the Screamer. I’m just trying to get people to look at the big picture. Is it really worth it? I mean we are here at camp to teach the Bible and to build friendships. Does the Screamer cover this? I don’t know. Maybe it is universally loved among everyone at camp. Maybe the world would end if suddenly it wasn’t published. But I just don’t see it.
There are 230 kids at this particular camp. Every bunk is used. The kitchen and other facilities at camp are strained to the max. This can’t be good for everyone involved. So many kids…makes you feel lost in this whole vast mass of people. There’s a time to feel like an insignificant statistic in a vast crowd of people. It’s called college. At camp more than any other time in your life, you’re supposed to be counted…you’re significant…you matter. At times I just didn’t see it happening at this camp. Campers were getting lost in the shuffle. Kids were starving for attention. Some kids need one-on-one attention….seemlingly some of them aren’t getting the attention they need here. Or maybe I’m just biased because I am used to camps with less than 100 people.
One of these larger churches needs to break away to a different week of camp. Why turn away kids from camp because they signed up late? Have enough room at camp where you have room for everyone.
I observed some of the counselors seemlingly hating every minute of camp. Screaming at the kids for not having spotless cabins. Yelling at them for not being lined up for supper. Folks, this is camp. There’s a time when we should all push things aside and let kids be kids. If you don’t like it at camp, then why go? There are plenty of other people waiting in line to be a counselor.
Please note. I’m not here to bash SMBC. I’m sure there are some VERY good things going on there. While I was there some people did ask for prayers while another one was baptized. When I see ways to improve, I let people know.
Time to end this epic post.
Trying really hard not to turn into a character on Dilbert
Suddenly my photo album is made up a wide variety of pictures. Since I don’t use my 35mm camera very much, I don’t have many pictures which I have taken myself. The ones that are of my own doing were digital pictures which were printed out through an online photo printer. The ones I pay extra to have printed are usually the absolute best.
Then there are the pictures I borrowed from other people. Phil’s pictures were taken with a disposeable camera, as were other pictures taken on another disposeable camera I found. These aren’t usually good at all since these throwaway camera are of minimal quality. So my photo album has some really good pictures along with some mediocre pictures.
I never really understand the appeal of those throwaway camera. They cost about $5. Once you buy 5 of these things, you could have bought a real camera which could have been used over and over again. Cost outweighs the mediocre quality of the pictures you’ll get with these terrible cameras.
In other news…
Only 6 more days of baseball. What will I do if and when they strike? Continue to watch other shows besides baseball. The game itself ranks just above golf for excitement levels. Still, I’m not a big sports fan. Rarely do I even sit through a basketball or football game (and those are somewhat exciting).
College Classes
I had a conversation with a friend of mine who is an incoming freshmen at college. She talked about her classes and how she liked her teachers. Reminded me of my days at Lipscomb. I decided to list my favorite and worst college classes.
Favorite College Classes
In this list, I’ve classified my favorite classes as to not only how much I enjoyed it, but how much I remembered years later about the class.
- Personal Evangelism – Dr. Gerald Fulks. – Dr. Fulks was a business teacher, but taught this evangelism course on the side. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I still have my notes from that class and look at them every once and a while.
- The Holy Spirit – Dr. Harvey Floyd – A very good class. Dr. Floyd was well qualified to teach this class. One of the required books for the course was one that he had written.
- Old Testament Themes – Tom Seals I had never been told the history contained in the Old Testament. This class exposed me to the entire Old Testament. I found out that it wasn’t as boring as what it was made out to be. In fact, it is pretty interesting. Mr. Seals was probably the most likeable professors at Lipscomb. More than any other professor he showed a genuine love and concern for his students. I remember we started each class off with a prayer. It was a huge class (probably about 200 people), yet Mr. Seals provided enough time for class discussion.
Footnote: It was in this class when I found out about the Oklahoma City bombing. We had a special prayer for the victims when class began on that day.
Surprisingly many of my memorable classes at Lipscomb were the Bible classes. We were required to have a Bible class each day at Lipscomb. Sometimes this meant having 2 Bible classes – a Mon., Wed., Odd Friday Bible class; and a Tues., Thurs, Even Friday Bible class. These Bible classes came at a time when I really needed them. Before my only exposure to Bible in a classroom sense was Sunday School at church. I learned ALOT from these classes.
By contrast I don’t remember too much from the business and computer classes at Lipscomb. Somehow alot of it was memorization and applying common sense.
Least Favorite Classes
- COBOL – with Andy whatshisname – It was a 7:40AM Tuesday, Thursday, Even Friday class. I was totally lost in this class. The professor was away most of the time. We pretty much taught ourselves COBOL. I remember talking to the Dean about how the teacher was not actually teaching the class.
Surprisingly I did get an A out of the class. The summer after the course was over I ran into the professor while at McDonald’s. He said I got an A because I didn’t miss any days. - Some type of Literature class….I dropped out of this class after I found myself totally confused on what I was supposed to be doing. This was the only class I ever dropped out of. I later on took my required literature course in the summer.
Game Show Network
The Game Show Network suddenly appeared on my cable lineup. After two weeks of watching it occassionally, I can give you some insight on the shows. I was expecting to see some ancient Price Is Right episodes. Maybe even some old Nickelodeon gameshows. Not so. The Gameshow Network seems to have 5 shows which they broadcast ’round the clock. These shows include:
- Win Loose or Draw….it was that annoying party game similar to charades….except that you draw instead of acting them out. You might have heard of its cousin, “Pictionary.” The game wasn’t any fun to play in real life. Why would it be any fun to watch? In retrospect it is somewhat amusing to watch Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson together before their ultimate divorce. Perhaps it was the game that kept them together.
- The $25,000 Pyramid The first part of this show was boring to watch. The big money round was exciting to watch, but way too difficult. Nobody could get all those clues within 60 seconds.
- Family Fued At least this one was halfway interesting. Usually one family would dominate the game and there would be no question who would get to the big money round. It is sorta strange watching the late Ray Combs in such a happy mood on those episodes.
- Hollywood Squares I didn’t like this show when they resurrected it in the mid 80s and again in the late 90s. Why would I like the original 70s version full of celebrities I’ve never heard of? Seemed like one big gabfest amoung celebrities. Absolutely no strategy was involved in playing the game. Contestants only needed to answer “I agree” or “I disagree.” Kinda like the anti-Tic Tac Dough.
- The Newlywed Game This was actually kinda funny at times. Although the whole show centered around embarrassing the couples and making them argue. Couldn’t have been good for marriages. I know that it would have been pretty easy for couples to cheat on this show. Makes you wonder if any of them tried it.
I don’t think I’d watch the Game Show Network unless there was absolutely NOTHING else on. No need to tell Tivo a thumbs up on this. I would never want this type of stuff recorded. It is sad that they have enough of this type of stuff to have a whole network on it.
Finally had time to put up some pictures from Taylor Christian Camp this summer.
“When we’ve been here ten thousand years…”
“Well I figured out how to do a Blog. I’ll use this template to update my page semi-frequently.”
–posted 8/24/01
With those words I began keeping an online weblog one year ago today. I started the weblog for myself. You, the reader, are just along for the ride. It’s been fun. Hopefully I’ve shared some insight on my life and my opinions. I never thought this would interest anyone other than myself.
3 times I have posted from somewhere else other than my home:
Huntsville, Alabama – September 29, 2001
Knoxville, Tennessee – March 2, 2002
Ottawa, Canada � April 9 � 11, 2002
It’s really sad when you’re away from home and can only think about posting to your weblog….
Listed below are some quotes taken directly from my weblog.
“This seems like something out of a movie. Seems so unreal�.. I have found that there are some very evil people in this world.”
9/12/01
“…they would somehow try to justify Bin Laden’s actions in their warped little minds. I guess there are some people you just can’t reach.”
12/14/01
“It’s times like these when I ask myself which Middle Eastern country do we need to invade in order to lower gas prices.”
4/24/02
“Yassir Arafat is ugly.”
2/6/02
“I hate Paoli.”
12/19/01
“Where have all the Little Caesars gone?”
12/13/01
“Never ever ever ever pay full price for a Pizza Hut pizza.”
1/30/02
“Never go to the dentist on a full stomach.”
1/17/02
“Something tells me CBS’s new sitcom, Baby Bob won’t last long.”
3/15/02
“I hate it when CBS news shows interview Survivor losers and call it news.”
3/8/02
“You can find some really cool stuff at Goodwill.”
3/4/02
“I think alot of life’s questions could be answered by getting people to learn how to use a search engine.”
4/30/02
“I don’t do prayer breakfasts.”
1/19/02
“At times I feel like a stranger within my own church…”
4/26/02
“I can’t believe I just did that….using a South Park episode as a guide for missionary policy.”
3/18/02
“It’s times like these where I want to quit my job and become a youth minister.”
6/17/02
“It feels really good when you feel you’ve accomplished something through camp.”
7/28/02
“I’ve found to take every day as a gift from God. Make the most from what you’ve been given.”
12/27/01
I plan on keeping my weblog for many days to come….until it stops being relavent. Thank you for your comments and for your interest in my life.
“…than when we first begun….”
Friday Five: Jobs
Trying something new these days. There’s a website which posts the “Friday Five.” It’s five questions which should inspire writing on one’s weblog. I’m using these questions for today’s post.
1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not?
Data analyst for Nortel Networks. I didn’t grow up saying “I want to be a computer operator at some big telecom company.” It’s just where I happened to be placed. My major at Lipscomb (Government and Public Administration) didn’t help too much with this job. It was more experience working as a computer helpdesk tech while at Lipscomb….and having a CIS minor…that got me my job.
2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be?
Radio Disc Jockey…where I would be able to pick the playlist.
3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices?
My dad has worked as an acountant for the state of Tennessee for quite a while. On weekends he works at the Tennessee Air National Guard. He has held many jobs in his life. I can remember him working at a printing company way back in the 80s.
My mom has worked the same job all her life. She works 2 part time jobs as the secretary of non-profit organizations dealing with public health. She says she is always busy all the time, but I know this can’t be the case. For the most part I know that much of what she does, doesn’t have any noticeable impact on society (Sorry, Mom!).
The only influence my parents jobs have had was that I knew that state workers do not get paid very much. If at all possible I was going to try to stay away from working for the state of Tennessee.
4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family?
Nope. Just me.
5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why?
The easiest job in the world is youth ministry. Getting paid to have fun on weekends is a breeze. Sure, you might have the occassional crisis to deal with, but for the most part it is easy.
The hardest job would some factory job working 12 hour days and getting paid very little for it.
In other news:
NY Man Wins Scrabble Tournament…”It’s all I do.” He hasn’t held a regular job in more than a decade.
Todd Bridges isn’t in jail anymore.
Meanwhile, I did find a really old news article about Nick Nance…who goes to church with me.
New Photo of the Moment is up.