7th Grade

Posted on by

Lately I’ve found that most of my posts could be classified into just a few categories.

  1. Church issues – mostly what’s going on at church and other church related activities
  2. Retro categories – “Those were the days….” “When I was in school….” Usually my lame attempt at remembering the past.
  3. An occassional link to some weird story.
  4. Daily life – what’s going on here.

Or these posts can be a combination of all of the above.
On with the rest of the post….
With this new school year makes me remember the past. 7th grade may have been the toughest school year for me. Starting out in a new school where everyone seemed to be searching for their place. You had people there who seemed to have their ideals together. Then there were other people who were desperately seeking attention. It was a new school for everyone. Seventh graders were the lowest on the totem pole for the school which housed 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. Ironically, it seems, at this school ninth graders ruled the roost.
During this time everyone was either trying to be the coolest, or trying not to rock the boat too much and be noticed. I was one of those trying not to rock the boat. Each day I would go about my classes hoping that no one would notice me and be able to harrass me.
One day I noticed a 9th grade girl in the lunch room. On her shirt it said “One in the Oven” or “Yes, that’s my baby” with an arrow pointing down to her pregnant bulge. At that point reality set in. I knew I had just stepped into a whole new world. This wasn’t elementary school anymore.
Meanwhile the Scottsville church has a new preacher. I am not sure if it was a rush job or what. They had been without a preacher for a little over 2 weeks before they hired this new one. I guess they were anxious to get a new one sooner rather than later. I’ve come to the conclusion that Scottsville preachers usually don’t last longer than 5 years. Why is this? I have some theories about it, but they are way to complicated to be shared here.
Sooner or later they’re going to have a Reality TV Show channel. They’ll show reruns of the Real World, Big Brother, Survivor, and all of the rest of those type shows. Within the past 2 years I’m sure they’ve produced enough of these genre of programs which could fill their timeslots for several months.

Change

Posted on by

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…..

Slow School Zones

Posted on by

Just a random thought – Making fun of members of the church of Christ (or any other conservative religious group) is kinda like making fun of the retarted kid in school. Sure, it’s easy to do, but can you really look at yourself in the mirror and feel good about yourself afterwards?
School Zones – With school starting up you’ll undoubtedly notice that there are plenty of school zones around. Speed limit 10 MPH. The problem with these school zones is that many times they span vast amounts of acreage. Many times you’ll never see a kid in sight of these school zones. Rushhour traffic comes to a standstill every morning due to these childless zones. I think school administrators have become overzealous in an effort to protect invisible children. They are impeeding commerce by imposing pointless school zones which protect no one. They should take a common sense approach to school zones. If children are present, then restrict speed. If children are never present, then don’t restrict speeds.
This weekend I finished putting together the MJ Camp slideshow using Kai’s Power Show. Those people who were patient with me and didn’t immediately bug me for picture CDs right after camp will receive this slideshow on any new CD I burn. Otherwise if I burned a CD before this, then they will have to be content with their slideshow-less CD.
“Now the World don’t move to the beat of just one drum…”
Tivo recorded Diff’rent Strokes for me today. One of the episode descriptions says “Arnold devises a scheme to get attention.” Didn’t this happen in every episode? No doubt Gary Coleman was the star of the show. No wonder he stayed so long during the series. For a while it looked as if he was 14 and still playing a kid who was 8.
This kid is really big. Anyone up for a trip to the big and tall store?

Where I Live

Posted on by

A while back on a weblog I saw these questions possed toward their readers. These were a bit thought provoking so I thought I would answer them.
Where do you live?
I live in Mount Juliet, Tennessee….usually shorted to Mt. Juliet or simply “MJ” to those who know it well. It is the Purple Martin Capital of Tennessee. Don’t ask me what a Purple Martin is. I’ve never seen one. They tell me it is a bird.
Why do you live there?
I grew up here. It is home to me.
What cultural opportunities do you have?
Cultural opportunities? Depends on what you mean by cultural opportunities. If you mean museums and junk like that, there are plenty of museums in Nashville like the Cumberland Science Museum, Cheekwood, the Parthanon. Mt. Juliet doesn’t have much in regards to culture.
As far as experiencing other cultures, there are probably Indians around here who can show you their culture, but I don’t know where they are.
What recreational opportunities do you have?
There’s Charlie Daniels’ Park in the city of Mt. Juliet which has tennis courts and junk like that. But I never go there.
Old Hickory Lake is good for boating and other things, but again, I never go on it.
What do you like about it?
The hometown feel about it. The friendliness of the people. The church I attend. Hometown values. A sense that there are some really silly politically correct people in the world who are trying to impose their views on everyone else. Mt. Juliet residents generally consider this type of stuff against the grain and refuses to accept such garbage.
What do you hate about it?
Good ole boy politics. Having only 2 lanes instead of a much needed 4 lanes on Mt. Juliet Road. No good restaurants in the city of Mt. Juliet. No retail establishments like Kmart or Wal-Mart….then again maybe that’s a blessing.
That the area completely shuts down if there is a hint of snow in the wintertime.
What qualities really stand out? (good or bad)
Kudzu in the summer. Those vines grow long and deep. I saw some up in Portland, TN, not too long ago. I should have taken a picture of it. Sometimes the south is seemingly the only place you can experience Kudzu.
The heat. It can get really unbearable in the summer time.
Plenty of lakes for water recreation.
Would you recommend it, and why?
If you are just like me, yes. Otherwise if you come in trying to change it with big city Yankee ideas, then don’t bother. I like it the way it is, thank you very much. This might be a testament to my supposed closemindedness. Or maybe I just don’t like change.
If I were to move there, what would I really need to know?
If you are coming from up north, you will absolutely have to have a car with air conditioning. I’ve heard they don’t have air conditioning as standard equipment on cars up north.
There are insects called “chiggers” which will bite you when you are out in the yard. I only emphasize this because I saw a news report about them opening the Saturn car plant in Spring Hill, TN. They had to educate the Yankee workers about this insect.
How is it different from other places you have been?
I’ve been to China and Canada before. It is different in that it is home. Everything is familiar here.

First Day of School

Posted on by

For many kids around here, today is the first day of school. It’s been quite a while since I had a first day of school. My last “First Day of School” was when I was taking classes at Lipscomb in the Spring of 1999, but those days are long gone.
Here are some random memories of the first day of school:
Just a few days before school started, my mom would take me and my sister out to Wal-Mart or Target to buy school supplies. In the early 80s, we’d buy our stuff at the Big K (since there was no such thing as Wal-Mart around here). It was somewhat exciting to get new stuff for school, but there was always a sense of sinister foreboding that seemed to follow you around at those back to school sales at the retail stores. It was a sense that your fun time was over and it was time to get back to work.
It was a big deal in Junior High and High School when you picked out your wardrobe on the first day. You only get one chance to make a first impression, so I always put alot of thought into it.
Then there was meeting my teachers. My sister usually paved the way for me since she was a good student. If I got one of her old teachers, I usually had an advantage since the teacher would assume I was a good student too.
On a related note, I think I will go to my old elementary school and pull my permanent record to see what’s in there. In order to instill fear onto students, teachers would always say “This will go on your permanent record.” Well what exactly is “Your Permanent Record” ? Does it show all the grades that you ever made? Does it show that “B” I made on that obscure spelling test in the 2nd grade? Stanford Achievement Test Scores?
My friend, Roy Agee‘s girlfriend, Kristie Ridgon, made it onto a story on CNN.com with this AP photo.

Knocking the Clock off the Wall

Posted on by

We had another baptism at church tonight. It was another kid who was in my cabin at camp. Somehow I guess this revival we’ve been having at church has influenced him.
We had a slight mishap during church service. One of the audiovisual guys (not me) knocked off a clock on the wall. So there was a loud thud during the songs right before the baptism. Everyone thought that someone might have fallen off a pew or something.
I really wish I had something profound to say. But I am out of ideas. Or maybe I have a case of writer’s block. Stay tuned.
Finally had time to put up the camp pictures from Maury Christian Camp online.

Darrell and Tracy’s Wedding

Posted on by

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.

Getting my Little Caesars

Posted on by

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.

Willard Scott

Posted on by

Why does the Today Show still have Willard Scott on occassionally to wish happy birthday to those centaurians? Willard obviously knows nothing about the weather….never went to meterological school….. As I understand it, Willard started off playing Ronald McDonald. Al Roker doesn’t even have a degree in meterology….instead he got his degree in communications. For once I’d like to see a morning show with a weatherman who actually knows what he is talking about.
What started as a nice wish to one 100 year old lady grew into a lame worn out cliche. It means nothing anymore. EVERYBODY gets their grandparents on the Today show if and when they turn 100. Everyone except my family. We tried to get my great grandmother’s picture into Willard’s grubby little hands when she hit the 3 digits – 100 – way back in 1991. But Willard already receives hundreds of submissions (imagine that, there are 100 people around the USA who turn 100 each day?). So instead we got a nice form letter back from NBC.
New (and old) songs I’ve recently discovered:
Neil Young – “Heart of Gold” – I love this song. The harmonica in it is great. They were playing it on the local classic rock station.
Dropline – “Fly Away from Here (Graduation Day)”
Moby – “Extreme Ways”

Church Misc

Posted on by

Now I don’t feel obligated to burn CDRs full of camp pictures for everyone at church. Kevin already burned 16 copies for everyone, so everyone should be taken care of by now. What I didn’t like was almost immediately after camp, I was being bugged to burn CDRs for people….and these were people who before rarely gave me the time of day. Now they were begging me for CDRs? Hmmmm…..
We’ve got an area wide youth devotional at church tonight. I volunteered to be the person to show the songs on the big screen. I probably will leave immediately afterwards simply because I have very little in common with the people there.
Here is the picture which is on the front of the Mt. Juliet church bulletin this week. I would like to point out that the caption on the church bulletin is wrong. It states “Summer Intern Brian Manning teaching Bible class at Summer Camp.” This could not be further from the truth. In actuality, I am teaching the Bible class and Brian Manning is just dazed and confused. So it is me and me alone who is responsible for putting that kid in the background asleep.
I have demanded that the church secretaries print a retraction.
A word about the suit. You’ve been seeing pictures of me wearing this ugly suit at church camp. The day before camp, I bought it at a thrift store for $6.50. I wore it to all the devotionals at night as a joke (thank goodness for those air conditioned chapel areas). However I don’t think the kids ever really got the joke. Instead they always asked me why I was wearing the suit. Some people don’t have a sense of humor.
Turkmenistan President wants to rename months on the calendar after himself. This doesn’t make any sense. Apparently he wants to rename April to simply “Mother.” I would suggest he name May as “Mother” since Mother’s Day is in May.