Sleeping in Airports…your guide for cheep way to catch some z’s far away from home.
Cell Phones in Church
I had the closing prayer at church tonight. I felt as though I messed it up. It started out good. I had alot of things which I wanted to say in it. The only problem was that in the middle of it, someone’s cell phone rang. I could hear it all the way from the pulpit. It distracted me enough to where I just ended my prayer then and there. I meant to mention the sick and all the other pertinent things, but the cell phone completely distracted me. So my prayer was much shorter than I had planned. ARGH!!!
This happens all the time. Someone’s cell phone goes off during church and everyone is distracted by it. I wish there was some type of electronic blocker of cell phone calls. It would seem to me that it has happened enough times that people would be very much aware of it to where they would be highly embarrassed if it happened. Somehow I think there’s some people who are frivolous about their Christianity who laugh it off and don’t do a thing to prevent it from happening again!
Maybe we need to get one of these things.
Stop Emailing Me Jokes
I may have done it now. I politely asked a friend of mine to stop sending me forwarded jokes. Now she won’t answer my instant messages. Might have to work some damage control. Friends, if you are reading this, PLEASE don’t send me any of those jokes or inspiring stories. I won’t read them…..it means very little to me. I’ve already been through the email stage where I forward each and every joke, urban legend, or virus alert to my friends and family. That heyday has ended. It’s time to move on. I always enjoy reading personal email messages, but forwarded jokes I can do without.
It has happened before. In years past I met a lady at a church function. She asked for my email address. I told her I’d give it to her, but told her please don’t send me any of those forwarded jokes. A few months later the forwarded jokes start. Usually it was a few jokes every few days. Here’s how the dialogue went down:
Me: Hey I appreciate you thinking of me, but please don’t send me any of those forwarded jokes via email. I just don’t have time to read them.
Joke Forwarder: No response
Later on the forwarded email jokes start appearing again.
Me: Hey, could you please stop sending me those forwarded jokes?
Joke Forwarder: You’re rude!
Me: I apologize if I sounded rude. I didn’t mean to hurt you.
Joke Forwarder: That’s okay! 🙂
Later on, I still get an occassional forwarded joke from her. ARGH!!!!! Some people just don’t listen.
The Enola Gay…the plane that
The Enola Gay…the plane that helped end WWII.
The Elvis and Star Wars Connection
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?
Fountain Head VBS
I was at Fountain Head Church of Christ in Portland for their VBS tonight. It was good to see some old friends. I even saw a preacher friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in a while. It has been literally years….. I guess among church of Christ circles everyone’s path will usually cross at one time or another, so it was bound to happen sooner or later…
I was thinking about those church camp pictures on the church webpage. I have to remind myself to give everyone equal time…..ie not have too many pictures of certain people and not enough of others. I’ve noticed that I’ve got 3 pictures of Brian, our youth intern, and only one picture of Phil, our youth minister. So the display makes it falsely look like Phil didn’t do much. In reality Phil just wasn’t in the pictures that I’ve got on display. In any case I might need to redo them.
It is always surprising when friends tell me that they read this weblog everyday. I don’t have anything interesting to say. Why is this interesting to some people? I’ll never know. I don’t try to write interesting entries for friends to read. I’m writing for myself.
Weblos
I went to Kentucky today to see some friends in their Eagle Scout ceremony. Made me think of my brief years in the Boy Scouts. Actually I technically never made it to Boy Scouts. Instead I only got to Weblos, which is the step in between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. I was in 5th grade at the time. Our meetings didn’t seem to be fun anymore. It was pretty much all work. So I dropped out. I’m not much of an outdoorsmen myself. I couldn’t identify a tree to save my life. And I certainly couldn’t make fire. So I guess I wouldn’t have made a good Boy Scout.
In fact 5th grade was a pretty tough year for me. My teacher was a real nuisance. She gave way too much homework….much of which was pretty pointless like writing spelling words ten times each. Usually took me 3 hours each night to do all of my homework.
The Breakfast Club Effect
Comes from this discussion in the movie, the Breakfast Club:
Brian: “What is gonna happen to us on Monday? When we’re all together again? I mean I consider you guys my friends, I’m not wrong, am I?”
After spending a significant amount of time with other people you tend to wonder if supposed new friends will acknowledge you in real life situations afterwards. This can happen on vacations, camps, etc…. For the most part kids at church, who I got to know better at camp, seem to seek me out at church services to be friendly. During previous times, I have been ignored by people after returning, but seemlingly this time it is different. I guess I made myself known to the kids at camp. I had a personality, better than in other years.
Summer is pretty much over for me. Josh might end up having an end of summer boat party, but I sorta doubt that it will happen. So it’s just a couple of VBS’s this week and then I’ll declare the summer over with. I had a good one. The new friends I’ve made….the experiences I’ve shared….have all made me a better person. God has certainly blessed me.
I am looking forward to Fall activities. It’s just that there is so much less to do in the fall. Plus fallen leaves tend to get really messy when trying to rake them up. Fall is not my favorite time of year.
Finally got my car back. It was only after calling them a couple of times did I get any work done on it. Seems like no one could answer my questions as to if the car was ready for pickup.
Narrow Way Productions…it’s Josh’s birthday
Narrow Way Productions…it’s Josh’s birthday today. So why not visit his website?
Head Injuries
A young friend of mine is in the hospital due to a head injury. I think he jumped from a moving trailer and hit his head. He cracked his skull and had a concussion. But it looks like he’ll be able to go home tomorrow. It’s always a bit frightening when someone young is seriously injured. I wanted to go to visit him today, but they said no visitors, so I stayed home.
My Concert review of the Better than Ezra and Cracker concert is online. While I was taking notes at the concert of the playlists and interesting parts of the song, people kept assuming that I was with the band or a newspaper. One lady asked if was with the Tennessean newspaper. Nope. I just write concert reviews for my website. It’s how I remember the concerts. Plus it provides a unique offering on my website for viewers like you.
Throughout the concert I was very much aware that I was alone. So I kept my eyes behind my shoulder at all times. It was probably being overly protective, but you never can tell. Buncha drunk people all over the place there. I still don’t understand why some people feel the need to drink themselves silly in order to have a good time.
Plus I did see some people who I knew were from Lipscomb. They were drinking of course. This made me remember why I hated certain things about Lipscomb. It was those hypocrites in chapel. Drink to get drunk on weekends, but still sing “Oh How I Love Jesus” on weekdays in chapel. Then again these people probably didn’t sing in chapel at all. However I always questioned why people like this would want to go to a Christian school which frowns on drinking.
My car is still in the shop. The replacement parts for the air vent and radio arrived today. But they didn’t have time to repair it today. So it’s been a week without my car.