Sunday, December 30, 2007

Listening Recommendations...

I told you about the Zune that I got for Christmas...

My first reaction was to load a bunch of music on it, but then I started subscribing to podcasts. For the last few days I've been listening to Andy Stanley. When I was living at home I watched his dad on TV -- "if you miss church, its ok if you watch Charles Stanley on TV ;-)"

Andy is amazing though, I highly recommend the series called "The Sinai Code". It is about the 10 commands and the purpose for each one. The thing that really struck me was the 4th commandment. Do you know what the 4th commandment is? The first three are about God. 1) You will have no other gods before me 2) Don't try to make anything that represents me 3) Don't misuse my name. What was the most important thing on God's mind after those 3? You will take a day off every week. hmmmm....

Listening to it will change your perspective on the Old Testament and New Testament law. Go here to subscribe via an iPod or go here to listen with your computer.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Catching up....

One of the big events this Christmas....Kathy broke a bone in her foot. It happened before the holiday and she's been hobbling around ever since. It was my fault because she was trying to call me while walking down the stairs. I'm afraid to mention it because next thing you know we'll have laws restricting cell phone use on the stairs. She can be a little stubborn determined at times and was convinced that she still needed to do all of the cooking that she normally does at this time of year (she is an awesome cook). Anyway, she's now concerned that she is going to have to continue wearing the brace after the next doctor visit. We'll see.

Yesterday, I accepted a position with Oakwood Systems Group. Oakwood is a consulting company based out of St. Louis. They have an office in Brentwood. I believe that this is a good step for me at this point. I am excited about starting after the first of the year.

The youth group at Church is encouraging the kids to read the New Testament out of 'The Message' between the first of the year and the end of school. I am going to try to do the same, I desperately need to get back into regular Bible reading.

For Christmas this year, I asked for and received a Zune (Microsoft's version of the iPod). Pretty cool device. To be honest, I've not listened to whole lot of music on it yet. My idea was to get it to listen to when I travel. I quickly realized that it is a tremendous training tool for both professional and spiritual training. I've heard of podcasts for a while, but I didn't have a device that could do it, so I didn't pay much attention. Real quick, a podcast can be thought of as an audio blog. You subscribe to a podcast with your device's software, and when new posts are made, the software automatically downloads them to your device. You can then listen to them any time. I started using it yesterday and I've subscribed to two professional feeds (.NET Rocks and The polymorphic podcast) and four spiritual feeds, two from Ravi Zacharius and two from the Northpoint Church (Andy Stanley). Any of you podcasters out there, let me know if you have suggestions about what to listen to.

Well, 2007 is about done with. To be honest, I'm not really sad to see it go. I don't really have resolutions, I used to set goals for the year, I've pretty much stopped that as well. At this point, I live from day to day. I think that's scriptural. I'm amazed at how God taught the Israelites to trust him, day to day. The manna came every day, you can't collect enough for tomorrow, just today. You must trust...you must believe.

Have a good day.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

A Christmas Story...

I heard this story a year or so ago. I fell in love with it. There is a version that is set to a musical background. I searched for it but could not find it. If anyone can find it, please let me know where it is....
Now the man to whom I'm going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind, decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn't believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn't make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn't swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man. "I'm truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, "but I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve." He said he'd feel like a hypocrite. That he'd much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed and they went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another, and then another. Sort of a thump or a thud. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window.

Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter, if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms. Instead, they scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn.

And then, he realized, that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me. That I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him. "If only I could be a bird," he thought to himself, "and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to safety ... to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see, and hear and understand."

At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells - Adeste Fidelis - listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.

Griping Works.....




About a month ago, I was supposed to go to the Titans game, we were trying to get a demo done at Digital Dog, so I passed up the opportunity to go. I was angry about it and I wrote this post at the time. My good friend Tara knew of some tickets available for the game today and gave me the opportunity to buy them. Kathy and I talked about it, I bought them as part of my Christmas present. I offered Sarah(doesn't understand football) and Kathy(hates to be cold) the opportunity to go with me, both declined, Chris was jumping at the chance so we went. I took some pictures with my camera phone. It was fun, it wasn't a very exciting game, but the Titans won. Cleveland lost like we needed them to so now as Chris said "All we have to do is beat Indy in Indy and we go to the playoffs"...Oh boy...

We had to go to Goodlettsville to get the tickets, its about a 25 or 30 mile drive, some highway miles...I thought it would be a good drive for Chris to make. He did very well, we went to Rivergate afterwards, he drove there too, a few rough spots, but he's doing well. I can't get over the weird feeling of putting my life in the hands of someone whose diaper I used to change. See Tara's post about Ethan's first drive

I'm not sure which is tougher, Chris driving with me in the car, or me driving with him in the car. He loves to point out the cases where I just might be a skosh over the speed limit....or if I forget to use my blinker...or whatever infraction (minor I assure you) I commit while driving. He seems to think he caught me going 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, I introduced him to the concept of parallax which affects the perceived reading of a needle based instrument (such as a speedometer) based on the position of the observer (I didn't mention that a speedometer would read slower when viewed from the passenger seat). I assured him that his dad was a good driver and that the policeman that pulled us over on the way to soccer practice (when he was 5) was just having a bad day....

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Has anyone seen my Ebenezer?

I am not a cook, I enjoy fixing food for my family, but cooking is not something I do regularly. The one thing that I do cook is breakfast. Last weekend, I decided to make pancakes. I got everything together, when they were finally ready, I called out "Pancakes Are Ready" and this little voice in the back of my head finished the old hymn by singing "...Come to the feast...".

That got me to thinking about the old hymns that I grew up with. A few years ago, I went on a men's retreat to see a baseball game in Atlanta. We stopped at a small local Church on Sunday Morning. One of the first songs they sang "Bringing In The Sheaves". It was a little bit jarring, I had not sung that particular song in a very long time. I can remember thinking as a kid, "What's A Sheave?", if we are bringing them in? where are they?

Even today one of my favorite hymns is "Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing", here is verse 2:

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.


So what's an Ebenezer anyway? (answer here) Do I have one? Why am I raising it? I loved the song, but did it really speak to me? not really.

My point here is....Jesus spoke to his time, I am amazed that whatever setting he was in, he was able to teach. On an open hillside he uses birds and flowers to speak of God's love and care. When speaking to farmers, he uses the concepts of planting and harvesting. When talking to fishermen, he talks about sorting a catch.

Christians now must speak to our time. Singing songs that use King James english will not speak to this generation. Many of the normal tools that Churches use to teach and communicate, will not speak to this generation. We must keep up with the times, we must adapt.

Here are some examples:

In my day, the big thing was to have a phone in your room. Today it must be a cell phone. However, phones are not to be talked on, they are used to text. How many youth groups are using this technology to communicate? How many Churches still have a phone tree?

Churches spend thousands of dollars in postage to mail bulletins to members. There is a certain segment of the population that will always expect a weekly bulletin. However, a growing group doesn't want information once/week, they want it as soon as it becomes available. Sending an email everytime an event occurs is complicated, however, RSS (the format used by Bloglines and Google Reader to 'subscribe' to a blog) would allow members to view the Church's information very inexpensively and quickly.

Churches are still struggling with putting together websites. Don't get me wrong, web sites are good, (I build them for a living) but the traditional Church web site is difficult to manage and goes out of date quickly. Using pre-built technologies like blogs or Facebook is much easier to maintain and keep current.

It's not just about Churches, individual Christians can do a lot using technology.

Blogs are cool, even though I've only been blogging for a short period of time, I've been able to see the readership grow. The thing I get most excited about is when I see that someone has reached my blog through some random internet search. This post that I did last August has gotten several hits from people searching for information about Euler's Identity. It is exciting to me that they found my post that said that it was proof that God exists. Did it have an effect? I won't know until the last day, but in my mind, the seed was planted somewhere.

Social networks are becoming very popular with young people. I have an account on Facebook and MySpace, I'm looking for people that I grew up with, there are not many, but, there are thousands and thousands of young people, college age or younger are Churches using this technology to speak to this generation?

Yeah, I'm a technology guy, I'm probably a bit myopic as far as this topic goes, but gracious, are Christians struggling to communicate the message in this day and age? Twelve guys were able to communicate the message with the whole world on foot. With what we have today, we should be able to tell the whole world instantly.

The most condemning item on this topic is...Satan knows how to use technology. (Click Here for some statistics).

This post has not turned out the way that I had planned. I really meant to just talk about the songs that we sing....how do we speak to the younger generation. It's got me thinking now though....hmmmm....

Thursday, December 20, 2007

I need a job....

This is what happens when programmers have too much time on their hands...

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

A Nashville Tradition Revisited...

Hello gang....sorry that it has been so long. Between keeping a job and finding a job and hair-raising rides with a new driver, its been tough to get time to update everybody on what is going on.

So...let's see...
the job hunt is going pretty well, I'm getting a lot of interest from companies. I should have good news on that front pretty soon (hopefully).

I had a strange experience last Friday evening. We went to the FCS basketball game. This year the team is young, very young. Mostly freshmen and sophmores. It was almost surreal to me to see these boys on a varsity basketball court. I've been watching most of the play since they were 8 or 9 years old. It just didn't seem right for them to be out there.

I've been driving the truck pretty regularly....I love it. Something about driving a 5 speed pickup truck reminds me that I'm not all geek ;-)

Here's some pretty cool news. Chris (who at times is quite a ham) is doing live online play-by-play of the FCS basketball games. He loves sports, but didn't really latch on to playing basketball. But somehow, he got involved in doing the play-by-play. It's pretty cool. The web site is http://atwsportscast.com. I'll let you know when they are broadcasting. I'm just waiting for him to do his Waterboy impression during a broadcast...

We've been having some mobile phone troubles as a family, last weekend, we added a new phone to the mix which meant everybody switched around. I knew that was going to happen and was looking forward to it because I knew that I would get a phone with a better camera. Many times I've seen funny or interesting thing that I wanted to photograph and share. The camera on my previous phone was terrible, but now I have one that is pretty good. Blogger + Flickr + a good camera phone is cool for a blogger. (see comments)

Last night, I had to go to Nashville to install a new version of software at one of my client's office. I talked to Kathy before I left and she said that I needed to take the loop around Nashville because they had a sign on the old American General Building. It took me a while to get to where I could take a picture, but I thought I would share it.

For those of you who "ain't from around here", this building was originally the home office for American General Insurance. When they were based there, they always had a sign on the building. As a kid, it was always exciting to drive around the loop at night to see what it said. Several years ago, American General built another building and moved to Brentwood. The office building was bought by the State of Tennessee. They don't put messages on the building much any more...but it seems like they do around Christmas.

If you don't stop by this way again before Christmas....Merry Christmas to you and your families.

Friday, December 14, 2007

An Angel in the Post Office

I've added Craig's List to my list of places to check for job postings. I had heard of some company's that post jobs there, I checked it out, it's pretty interesting. I found a couple of opportunities that I'm looking into. Anyway, Craig's list is a very simple posting service, some use it as kind of a community blog (if you will) to post messages to people that they don't know. The better posts appear on the 'Best of Craig's List'. I was reading through some of them (warning some are PG-13 or worse) but I ran across this post that was pretty touching. I thought that I would share it with you.

This is one of the kindest things I've ever experienced. I have no way to know who sent it, but there is a kind soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service. Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:

Dear God, Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith.

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith' in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies.' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away. Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by. Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you. I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I am wherever there is love.

Love, God


Have a blessed day.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Woo! Hoo!

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while, I've been getting cranked up on a new project and trying to get caught up on some work that had been building up.

Anyway, here's what's going on...believe it or not, my pickup truck is road legal. Taxes, tags and everything. If you don't know the whole story, you can read about it here , here, here, here and here .

Chris' birthday was Monday. He's 15, you know what that means, that's right, learner's permit. Got it yesterday. We've been tooling around the church parking lot for several months, yesterday was the first trip on the road. We have some work to do, but he did pretty good. For those of you who know me, the red zone is about a 3 block radius around my house from approximately 3pm until 9pm. I'll update you when we venture further out.

Job update....I've been shaking bushes, waiting to hear from folks, Nothing definite yet. I've got some contract work lined up for a while. But I've got to get cranking on something permanent.

My friend Tim told me about something that I was really excited about. There is a restaurant in East Nashville called the Family Wash. It used to be a laundromat, but they converted to restaurant with live music. On Wednesdays, during December, they have a jazz ensemble that plays the music from a Charlie Brown Christmas. If you remember the music from Charlie Brown, it was always some jazzy piano licks. It was written by Vince Guaraldi. Several of the peanuts songs, particularly Linus and Lucy and Cast Your Fate To The Wind are now jazz standards. Kathy was a trooper and said that she would go with me, we got there, the place was packed. Kathy avoided the whole jazz thing again.

Well, I've got some work to do this morning...if you have some room on your prayer list, please put my job situation on there. Thanks.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

The thrill of hope...

If you have even the most basic appreciation of jazz, you should buy this Christmas album (yeah, I still call them albums). I look forward to Thanksgiving every year because that's when you can start listening to Christmas music without feeling like a toad. This CD has one of the most stirring versions of O Holy Night ever.

Amazon has samples here.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

My reputation as a backgammon instructor remains untarnished....

When I was in high school, we had a mini-backgammon craze at the school. I was given a set for Christmas one year and just about any free time that we had was spent playing backgammon. I thought I was pretty good.

Zoom ahead 10 years or so. Kathy and I were dating (we may have even been married at the time) and I found out (to my horror) that she had never played the game of backgammon. I dusted off my old set and taught her how to play. After beating her in her first two games (see her revisionist comment ;-), I never let the facts get in the way of a good story), I have not beat her since. It's amazing, I've come close, but never beaten her.

Sarah has been grounded from just about everything except oxygen. She is bored out of her mind. She asked if I would play her in a board game. What game do I pick? Backgammon. I won the first game....but she beat me in the second. I spanked her and sent her to bed (teasing).

Friday, December 7, 2007

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

The mice in the piano....

Its been quite a day week month. I've been trying to write this post for several days. Here's what's going on: Friday was my last day at Digital Dog, on Wednesday the car that I normally drive (a Honda CRV) rolled over 100,000 miles. (I'm a run the wheels off of it, kind of guy. We don't trade very often.) Also, I just heard today that the truck passed the emissions test (yeah!)

Originally, I had planned to do a post about the car turning 100K miles. I took the camera along on the day that it turned over so that I could record the event for posterity. The most amazing thing that needed photographing, however, was the sky. For the last year or so, I've really started paying attention to clouds. They are like a beautiful picture painted on a huge canvas hanging over our heads. I wonder if God thinks of it that way. I was also struck by the blue sky behind the clouds, it was gorgeous. (I have a few more pictures here)

This reminded of a commercial years ago where a child asks a father "Why is the sky blue?" and the dad begins to explain the atmospheric absorption theory. Of course, the child has no interest in the scientific theory behind why the sky is blue.

It is interesting how we are affected by the color blue, I copied this from a page on the psychology of colors:

Blue

Physiological Effect: In contrast to red, blue proves to lower blood pressure. Blue can be linked to the throat and thyroid gland. Blue also has a very cooling and soothing affect, often making us calmer. Deep blue stimulates the pituitary gland, which then regulates our sleep patterns. This deeper blue also has proved to help the skeletal structure in keeping bone marrow healthy.

Psychological Effect: We usually associate the color blue with the night and thus we feel relaxed and calmed. Lighter blues make us feel quiet and away from the rush of the day. These colors can be useful in eliminating insomnia. Like yellow, blue inspires mental control, clarity and creativity. However, too much dark blue can be depressing.


But, the question really is...why is the sky blue? Does it all boil down to math and science? or does God use the physical laws of our world to paint us a beautiful picture or to calm us? I was reminded of a story that I heard years ago, I was able to find it through the magic of Google.


Imagine a family of mice who lived all their lives in a large piano. In their piano world the music of the instrument filled all the dark spaces with sound and harmony. At first the mice were impressed by it. They drew comfort and wonder from the thought that there was Someone who made the music - though invisible to them - above, yet close to them. They loved to think of the Great Player whom they could not see. Then one day a daring mouse climbed up part of the piano and returned very thoughtful. He had found out how the music was made. Wires were the secret; tightly stretched wires of graduated lengths which tremble and vibrate. The mice must revise all their old beliefs. Some, however, still held on to the faith in the Unseen Player.

Later, another explorer carried the explanation further. Hammers were now the secret, many hammers dancing and leaping on the wires. This was a more complicated theory, but it all went to show that they lived in a purely mechanical and mathematical world. Now mothers told their little ones about the myth of the Unseen Player.

But the pianist continued to play.
(from the LONDON OBSERVER)


As we learn more and more about our universe we learn that we live in a finely tuned universe. The slightest change in any one of many factors would mean that we could not survive. Are we here because everything just fell into place? We won some cosmic lottery? Or, was this universe made for the specific purpose of us being here? My belief is that we are here because God wants us here. The sky is blue because blue makes a beautiful canvas and the sunset is God's way of saying goodnight...

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Connecting and Reconnecting

I am fascinated with the whole social networking scene. Blogs, myspace, facebook...it's really quite interesting. I've met several people via this blog that I would have never met any other way. I've also begun reconnecting with names from the past. I thought that I would try a 'release the helium balloon with your address' kind of experiment and post some information to see if any new connections result. I love reconnecting with people who I knew in the past.

Anyway, here are some details, either my network or random Google searches may reconnect me with some people.

I attended B.C. Goodpasture Christian School from 1970 to 1982. I was in the marching band from its inception in 1979 until graduation. We won 4 Class A State Championships.

Churches I've attended:
Lischey Avenue,Parkwood,Northside,Jackson Park,Woodmont Hills,College Street,Highland Heights,Maple Hill,College Hills.

Places I've worked:
Compton's Food Town, K&S Associates, Network Data Corporation, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, The Medstat Group/Inforum, Metro Information Services, Investment Scorecard, American General Insurance, Dialogic Communications, Metro Nashville Davidson County, Digital Dog

Here are some random names of people that I would like to hear from, I only know maiden names for the ladies:

Keith Morgan,Randy Jones,Byron Oakley,Tina Parks,Sheila Freeman,Lisa Freeman, Vincent Horton,Larry Parsley,David Foley,John Megar,Lehman Garrett,Sam Williams,Janice Horn,Shelly Johnson,Brandy Boone,Cindy Vineyard,Vickie Vineyard,Randall Martin,Ginger McCoy,Seresa Terry, Carla Childress,Kelly McAffee,Lee Anne Filson,Terry Biggs,Rhonda Biggs,Mark Wright,Catherine Rainey, Dana Dye,Kim Graham there are many more, I'll add more as I think of them.

If you have any connection with me even, if even you are a random blog surfer, I'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment or I'm on facebook and My Space. If you are on both, I prefer facebook. Of course, my email address is also listed here.

Happy Monthaversary


On June 4 1988 God gave me an angel of my very own. On the 4th of every month we celebrate our monthaversary. Sometimes it's a card, sometimes it's a 'Happy monthaversary!', sometimes we forget. Today, it's a blog post.

Thank you for the most amazing how ever many months its been ;-)

I love you...

A whole new audience for my blog....

Thanks to Google Alerts, I found out that my previous post had been linked to by My Rap News - http://myrapnews.topmsrs.com. I'm sure its a site that automatically links to any blog post that mentions rap or specific group names. I guess this will bring a whole new audience to my blog though.....yo yo yo! Baby got backlink

Blogging and the job hunt
The whole blogging thing is sort of interesting. I had a job interview last Friday and the fellow that I was interviewing with mentioned that he had found and read some of my personal and technical blog. I had been somewhat uneasy about that as I look for gainful employment. How would a prospective employer view the fact that you blog. How would they feel about someone who expresses their spiritual views this way? So, I asked him. He said that he liked it. I don't know if others will, its an interesting thought though.

I had a hot date with a younger married woman
It used to take an act of Congress for Kathy and I to have a night out alone. Now, sometimes it just happens unexpectedly. Sarah was staying overnight with a friend. Chris wasn't feeling well, so Kathy and I went out to eat alone! It was interesting that several times during the evening Kathy would say "Don't blog about that"......."Not that either".....I did ask if I could blog about her telling me what not to blog about....she said I could ;-)

Dinner Conversation
Chris likes learning, he would never admit, but he does. Whenever he's interested in something, he'll ask us a question to see if we know what he knows. The question last night was 'Do you know how they know what the Carbon Dioxide levels were in 1960?' My first guess was tree rings...that wasn't right, my next guess was to take core samples of the polar ice cap. That one was correct. (Trust me, all of our dinner conversations aren't this cerebral) Anyway, that lead to a topic that I have some interest in....is our earth billions of years old? or is it thousands of years old? I know that evolutionists need the earth to be billions of years old to give evolution the time that it needs. However, there is evidence that our earth is very young. One evidence was a story that I told the family last night. Some warplanes from WWII are trapped in the polar ice in Greenland. The fascinating thing about it is that this gives us a very good time reference for the accumulating size of the polar ice caps which speaks directly to the issue of the age of the earth. There is a very good, though quite heady explanation here.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Missing the Rodeo.....



Rodeo was my brother's nickname. He got that name because he could do everything on a softball field. He had speed, good glove, good arm and could hit the ball a ton. I remember watching him play on a field with no fence in left field. He was the lead off hitter and hit the first pitch of the game over the left fielder's head and it rolled a mile. The umpire called it a 'no pitch' because he didn't have his mask on before the pitch. Everybody gets reset, the left fielder backs up (obviously) and then, Steve hit the next pitch further than the first.

Steve passed away in July of 2003. Both of my brothers have passed, but Steve and I were the closest. Sometimes he would call me, and we would talk for hours. I miss that. He's was the kind of guy that people just naturally gravitate to. He loved to play golf, loved to hunt and fish, but nothing was more important than family.

He had an infectious smile. In many ways, I think Chris is just like him. Not long after Steve passed, Chris got his braces off. Whenever he smiles, I see Steve. One time, I was hitting grounders to Chris in the backyard, I hit one harder than I intended, it took a bad hop and Chris made a fantastic play on it. He knew he had done something good...he flashed that smile...I saw Steve. For the rest of the day, it was like Steve and I were playing in the backyard again.

I was the baby of the family. There's at least 13 years difference between me and any of my siblings. By the time I was old enough to walk and talk and and know what was going on...they were driving. Steve fell in love with a girl named Vonnie. So did I. When they were going on a date, I would beg and plead to go with them. Sometimes, believe it or not, they would take me.

Here's a couple of my favorite Steve stories...

Steve married Vonnie and they have two children. Thomas and Christi (Christi is the baby in the picture, she's 22 now and absolutely gorgeous). Anyway, when Thomas was about 9 or 10, rap music was the thing. He wanted to see Run-DMC when they came to town. Steve couldn't stand the stuff, but said that Thomas could go if I would take him. I agreed. Thomas invited one of his friends and whenever Steve saw the other boy he would tell him "my little brother is going to take you"...."my little brother is going to take you". On the night of the concert, I walked in. I can clearly remember this 9 year old boy standing at my feet and looking straight up. Steve said "You ought to see my big brother".

Steve was a good golfer. For a time I thought I had the time and money to take up the game so I started playing. One morning, he and I went to Montgomery Bell to play. We were on the first tee at 6am. As we were getting ready to hit, two deer walked out of the woods and stood in the middle of the fairway. I was puzzled and said "Why did they do that?" Steve's response...."They know that they are safer there".

Steve loved nature. He loved to hunt and fish. One time while he was hunting, he found a baby squirrel that had been orphaned. He brought it home, raised it and let it go. I can remember seeing pictures of him standing in the backyard with this squirrel climbing on him like he was a tree.

When Christi caught her first fish, it was small of course. But they brought it home, and kept it for a long time. He kept two kiddie swimming pools one had the fish, the other was getting ready for the fish. He would transfer the fish from one to the other so that it had clean water. He spent so much time on it, the fish was not scared of him. He could stick his hand in the water and the fish would swim to him and he would catch it and move it to the clean water.

As you can imagine...the are a ton of memories and stories to tell. I always remember him this time of the year. The holidays are just not right without him and his family.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Pardon my spinning propeller...

Ok, here's something that might be of interest to you bloggers out there.

I was recently looking through the statistics on my blog and noticed a new name pop up on the referral list. It was from Carlin Brooks who is an elder at the Maple Hill Church where we used to attend. I had no idea that he was blogging...or reading mine. He had some nice things to say (thank you Carlin!).

Anyway, I got to thinking, I only knew he did that because someone clicked on the link. How could I know if someone links to my blog (or web site or anything) even if no one clicks on the link? Some time ago, I was researching a programming problem that I was having. Someone had mentioned a similar problem in his blog, and the developer of the product commented on it and helped him fix the problem. He mentioned that he found the post using Google Alerts, so I thought I'd check it out.

Google alerts lets you create search terms that will be automatically executed for you on a scheduled basis. The results will then be emailed to you. Anything that has already been sent to you will be filtered out so that all you receive will be new information.

Here is an easy way to set up an alert for your blog. Go to Blog Search @ Google, type link:yourblogaddress.com (I typed link:constanttransformation.blogspot.com. When the results are displayed, there will be a link that says:

Create an email alert for link:constanttransformation.blogspot.com

Click on that, enter your email address and you are done.

I received my first notification this morning and look what it was:


Google Blogs Alert for: link:constanttransformation.blogspot.com
My evil friend Donnie...
By John Grant(John Grant)
My evil friend Donnie "tagged" me. Can't he see that I struggle just to post, much less to play blog games? His comment on the game?... "Man....that's a lot of work, I hope these don't come around too often...." ...
Finding Our Place -- reflections... - http://johngrant.blogspot.com/


See, I never would have known about this had I not set up the alert since nobody reads John's blog anyway (just teasing John, I know Amy reads it) ;-)

A note to LSU from the educashun state



Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Truck Update

I've not mentioned the ongoing saga of my truck here in a while. Main reason is..there's been no news in a while. The truck is still at the shop, originally taken there on Sept. 9....2007. I heard through the grapevine that they had found the problem, they had to drive it the distance to get the OBD computer to cycle again. Wow...an adventure this has been.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

We need some monuments....

When the children were small, Kathy and I used the envelope system. When you get paid, you separate cash into envelopes dedicated to budget item. When the cash for that category is gone, you are done. It's a great system, but it can have its downfalls to be explained here.....

I had just gotten paid so our envelopes were freshly stocked. I needed go to town to run several errands so Kathy asked me to stop by the grocery store. I took the grocery envelope with me and headed out. I had several things in my hands when I was getting in the car. I had to go take something to Kathy's sister, Walmart (I think) then I stopped at the grocery. At the grocery, I picked up several things, got to the checkout line.....no envelope. I looked in the car....no envelope. Uh oh.

I explained the issue to the manager and told them if someone turned it in, to call me. I went home and explained the situation to Kathy. That was not a fun evening. Finally, we go to bed....I hear this big sigh.

"What's the matter honey?" (dumb question huh?)
"Somebody has our grocery, money"

As I laid there, it came to me. I had laid the envelope on top of the car while I was putting the stuff in the car (I'm pretty sure that my intellectual biorhythm was at a low point that day). I don't remember picking it back up. I got up, got dressed, and headed out. It was about 11pm at this point, 3 hours after my original trip.

I retraced my steps....slowly driving along the path that I followed earlier looking for the envelope. I drove all the way back to Leeville Pike where Kathy's sister lived at the time. I was just about to give up and turn around when...in the middle of Leeville Pike (a busy two lane road) there sat our envelope. All the money still there. It was amazing.

I've always wondered why Peter, after the transfiguration, said...
"Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."

Someone explained to me that the Jews were always big on monuments and festivals. It's all about remembering. Remembering what God has done for you in the past, so that you will trust him in the future.

I know of several places where I would need to build some monuments. I don't think that they will let me put one in the middle of Leeville Pike.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Crazy blogging games....

Ok, so being fairly new to the blog world, I am totally clueless about these crazy blogging games (are the anything like reindeer games? I don't know). So, anyway, I have been tagged by LeBlanc with a game called meme.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Ok, here are the facts about me....

1) All my life I was going to be a professional musician. I grew up in Nashville so I didn't have to make a long trip to watch my dream fall apart, I could watch it crumble from the house that I grew up in ;-). I wouldn't trade the life I have for that life anyway.

2) I love magic. I love to watch a good magician, though I've never studied it that much. I like David Copperfield (though he's gone a little cooky lately), Chris Angel, and the other guy that I can't think of his name. (David Blaine)

3) I am nearly deaf in one ear. I ruptured both of my ear drums when I was about 12 shooting a .22 pistol at Short Mountain. My right ear healed back pretty well, my left one didn't.

4) I love to watch sports, but I get pretty angry at the referees/umpires. I'm working on this one, though I didn't do to well just today (sorry)

5) When I was in high school, I worked at a grocery store. I love grocery stores. I would love to manage one, though, it would have to be a neighborhood grocery not a huge Ubermarket.

6) I am allergic to cats and not just a little bit. My eyes and my throat swell shut. I had an old allergist (Eugene Bishop) tell me that the worst reaction he had ever seen was my reaction to cat hair. (sorry, Amy)

7) In my opinion, there is no such thing as too much peanut butter. If you can breathe after biting a pbj sandwich, you don't have enough.


Ok, Amy, Donna, Terri, John, Tara, Cary and Kelli....it's your turn.


Man....that's a lot of work, I hope these don't come around too often....

Sunday, November 25, 2007

This guy is crazy good...

More on my eclectic taste in music. The family and I were at John and Amy's this afternoon and we got to swapping interesting youtube videos. I showed them this guy. Not sure how I found him, but this is crazy....

The Love of God

I love this verse from a hymn written in 1917. It was on my mind this afternoon for some reason. I thought I would share it.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Ok, I'll stop whining....

After I wrote post this morning, I tried to catch up on some reading of the blogs that I subscribe to.

I read this Amy's blog
Then some how I wound up on this page
LeBlanc blogged about this case in Georgia
I read Tara's blog about Richard (a good friend, who saved my life) being sick and his sister Becky (who I mentioned in this morning's post) completing chemo treatments and 30+ radiation treatments.

As all of that rattled through my brain today. I realized that I was upset and whining about something that really wasn't that big of a deal. I realized.....how selfish I've been....how self-centered. Forgive me...

God is good....all the time....

My good friend Richard told me of his sister and her husband who are working in Brazil. He said that no matter what was going on, how dire the circumstances, they always said...
God is good....all the time
I've never forgotten that.

There was a time (not too long ago) that if something like this had happened, I would be in an absolute panic. I'm at a different place now. I wanted to be sure that the kids knew what was going on. I told Kathy 'hey, some day they may lose a job....they need to see how God works'.

As you can imagine, starting a job search the week of Thanksgiving is not an ideal situation. Folks are either out of the office for the week, or if they are in the office, they don't want to schedule interviews or anything like that.

After hearing the news officially, I went straight to one of my own clients. Unbeknownst to me, they had been making plans for a renovation of their site. They gave me a 4 week full-time commitment. That takes care of my family through the end of the year. New projects and new positions usually come available at that time.

Also, on yesterday, I had a previous client and one that I had never done work for call me about projects that they wanted to do. Since I knew them both personally I asked 'have you read my blog recently'? They both said no.

I joined facebook a few months ago, with a few minutes of signing up, I was contacted by David Hinson of Sumner Systems Management. I worked him with many moons ago (back when we both had hair and knew everything). David is one of those guys who is technically brilliant and business savvy. He has been a great advisor to me since we reconnected. He has introduced me to several contacts.

There is a story about dealing with change that I heard Jeff Walling tell on a video.

The story had to do with watching people swim in the ocean who are not accustomed to it. He said that they are three types of people:
  • The first type is resistant to the waves. They are determined to stand still and overcome the power of the waves. Of course, they can't resist and are eventually overcome

  • The second type are the submariners. When a wave approaches, they dive under the water. They are able to maintain, they avoid change, but they miss all the fun.

  • The third type, learns to move with the waves. They first learn to rise and fall with the wave, they eventually learn that they can ride the wave to a new place


I thought that was a great analogy. Surf's definitely up, lets see where we go.

Yesterday, hits to this blog were 3 times their normal amount. Whether you know me personally or not, If you have introduced me to a friend, or done anything to help me and my family I want to thank you.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Is your hut burning?

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stunned with grief and anger. "God, how could you do this to me!" he cried.

Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. "How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

It is easy to get discouraged when things are going bad. But we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain and suffering. Remember, next time your little hut is burning to the ground it just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God.


My hut burst into flames today. For the first time in 21 years of employment, I was laid off from a job. When the boss told me, I told him the above story.

Hey, anybody need a good .NET developer? Here's my resume

Friday, November 16, 2007

American Idol Revisited

The only TV shows that my entire family watches together tend to be the competition shows, American Idol, Last Comic Standing, and the dance show that I can't think of the name. Anyway, last season was the first time that I watched American Idol all the way through. I saw the silly auditions all the way through the finale. I even went to see Melinda Doolittle when came home to Nashville.

I wasn't blogging then, but there was plenty to talk about. A good friend Trent and I would debate the merits and downfalls of each singer after the show aired each week. As the show came down to the final few, we picked our favorites and debated and cheered as they competed.

On my recent post about my taste in music Trent 'Anonymous' Arwine accused me of being a Blake Lewis fan. I just wanted to address that accusation in this post. Please bear with me ;).

Blake Lewis was only in the final three for comic relief. He was the vocal equivalent of Gilligan between Ginger and Mary Ann or Barney Rubble between Betty and Wilma. Come to think of it, he looks like Barney Rubble. And why did he let Sanjaya do his hair? Blake Lewis didn't belong in the same zip code with Melinda or Jordin. Melinda was by far the best singer, however, as you remember, I predicted that Jordin would win because she had the smile, the beauty, the whole marketable package.

Sorry that they rest of you had to see that, it's all in good fun. ;)

In the final weeks when Melinda came home to Nashville, Kathy and I went to Belmont University (where we met and fell in love) to see Melinda. As luck would have it, the camera happened to pan over the crowd at just the right time to get a picture of big goofy me sticking up in the background. So, in case you missed my 15 milliseconds of fame, I just happened to have it Tivoed.


My American Idol Appearance
See me way in the back?

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Happy Anniversary...



In my post yesterday, I talked about my parents. On my way to work, I talked with my mom and she reminded me that today is their wedding anniversary. 61 years ago today, my dad had just returned from WWII and my parents were married.

Happy anniversary, I love you very much. You've not been dealt an easy hand, but you've been a tremendous example for many.

I love you very much. Happy anniversary.

Rocking around the family tree....

Check out this post on snopes.com about the 2007 Lowe's catalog. I guess we are to believe that this tiny little mistake just 'slipped by' the proofreaders. Come on guys, everybody knows that Christmas is responsible for a majority of your income. There is nothing more important than the 'holiday' catalog. It is carefully crafted and poured over for months before being published. Don't do something like this and then try to weasel out of it. Stand up and say "We think there's more money to be made by appealing to non-Christians than Christians". Please don't insult our intelligence by trying to pass it off as a mistake.

On the flip side now, this begins the season where there will be many stories about company policies and retailers banishing the word Christmas from the workplace. There will be stories about Christians standing up for their right to say Merry Christmas or decorate their cubicle or whatever. My issue here is that I'm not sure that anyone is drawn to Jesus by people standing up for their 'rights'. If you are offended by someone saying 'happy holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas' Jesus gives us some pretty clear instructions on how to deal with offenses.

If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.


I don't believe that in his teachings or in his example, Jesus was very concerned about our rights.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Stand on my shoulders.....tell me what you see...

Last weekend, I was watching Sarah play basketball. She has really improved since last year. But, as I was watching, I was overwhelmed with the sense that my purpose in life was in she and Chris. I don't why I felt that way, but I did. I had a sense of calm that I've not experienced in a long time.

My family is very interesting. I am the youngest child of a youngest child. For most people my age, their grandfather fought in WWII. My dad was at Iwo Jima. For most people my age, their great grandparents were alive at the turn of the 20th century. My grandmother was born in 1885.

My dad lived a rough life growing up. His father was a share-cropper. Owned no land, but did all the work. My parents are part of the "Greatest Generation". They lived through the depression, fought the wars and helped make this country what it is today. My father left high school in his Senior year to join the Marines. He couldn't swim a lick, but the Marines took him anyway. That's what it was like in '41.

My parents worked all the time to send me to a private school. The neighborhood that I grew up in was pretty bad. The schools were bad. They felt it was worth it to sacrifice their time and energy for me. The college deal in my family was this: you will go for one year. You may choose to continue or quit after the first year. If you continue, we will pay for it. When I got my diploma, it was paid for. Amazing stuff for a firefighter.

God's timing is amazing. I believe that we sometimes limit God's plans to our own lifetime. His timing is so much more far reaching than that. His plan for my family may come to fruition 3 generations from now. One day it will all become clear.

I don't remember where I heard this quote from a father to his children, but it means a lot to me:

Stand on my shoulders, but tell me what you see....

Monday, November 12, 2007

No time today....

Today, I have much to say, but no time to say it. My gift to you today is a quote that I saw on my iGoogle page.

"In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing." Mignon McLaughlin

Friday, November 9, 2007

My taste in music....

Wednesday night was quite a turning point for me.

I watched about the last 30 minutes of the CMA awards. (yikes)
I knew who most of the nominees were. (double yikes)
I was actually emotionally invested in who won. (I give up)

Yeah, it's still a a little hard to admit, but I do listen to country music now. Music has always been a big part of my life. My tastes have always been varied. I was a volunteer usher at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in high school so that I could see the symphony for free. Rush was my favorite rock band. I've seen them live nine times. I will never forget the day that I heard the song Eruption on Van Halen's first album. I've always thought that Boston's first album was one of the best albums ever made. They thought a lot of it since they basically remixed it for the next three albums.

Growing up, my mom loved Hank Williams (Sr. not Jr.) I heard all of his songs a hundred times. I remember going to the Grand Ole Opry as a kid. I enjoyed Marty Robbins, he was quite a character. If at any time you had asked me, I would have told you that I couldn't stand country music.

I find now that I listen to different music for different reasons. I listen to smooth Jazz like Jeff Lorber, David Sanborn or Dave Koz when I'm working. The fact that it doesn't have lyrics helps me concentrate. However, if we are approaching a tight deadline, then I listen to rock for the energy. I usually listen to Daughtry (whose first album may replace Boston in the aforementioned category). I usually listen to country when I'm in the car.

I listen to jazz to hear the musicianship. I've found that I listen to country to hear the songmanship.

Here's a couple of examples of what I mean. Brad Paisley's song Online has in it one of the most well put together lyrics I've ever heard.

I drive a Maserati, got a black belt in Karate and I love a good glass of wine


Or this line from Chuck Wicks' Stealing Cinderella

To her I'm Prince Charming, but to him I'm just some fella....Riding in and stealing Cinderella


Compare those with one of the worst lyrics I've ever heard from Van Halen's Why Can't This Be Love

Only time will tell if our love will stand the test of time.


I knew that I was getting old when I began worrying about what my kids listen to. A few years ago, Chris loved Nickelback. They came in concert and I took him to see them. I had not listened to any of their music and I enjoyed the concert quite a bit. After that, I loaded their CD on my computer. Once I could understand the lyrics, I was pretty shocked. The whole experience was a turn off of for Chris. He started listening to country after that. He said it was 'cleaner'. I said Well, instead of singing about sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, they sing about cheating, drinking and more cheating.

I'll close this somewhat rambling post with one of my favorite music jokes sent to me by Corrie Wells.

What's the difference between a blues musician and a jazz musician?
A blues musician plays 3 chords in front of 1000's of people.
A jazz musician plays 1000's of chords in front of 3 people



Have a good day...

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

It's deer season....

Growing up in Nashville, I didn't see a lot of deer. Years ago, I had a job in the middle of Brentwood. The building that I worked in was right next to the interstate but there was a large wooded area next to the parking lot. Every once in a while, a deer would walk up to the building. It was always a big deal. Everybody would stop working and come look at the deer.

Now that I live in Lebanon, seeing deer is not such a big deal any more. They are everywhere it seems. Seeing a buck is rare, but doe seem to be all over the place.

My dad didn't hunt, so I never went hunting as a kid. I don't have any real problem with it, it's just something I never did growing up. When we moved to Lebanon, I was fascinated by the number of people who hunted. Deer season is a big deal.

I'm fascinated by the amount of preparation that goes into deer hunting. I know that you have to get up very early. I know you need a tree stand. I also know that deer hunters use special soap to keep deer from smelling their scent. And you have to be very quiet, and never look a deer in the eye.

I'm puzzled though, if deer hunting requires all of that preparation, why do deer get hit by cars? I picture some unfortunate guy, stuck in a tree for 6 hours in the freezing cold and returning with nothing while some mom wearing Ralph Lauren perfume listening to Brad Paisley in her Honda gets a 10 point buck on the way to get her kids from school.

Life's not fair I guess.

The unsavory truth about Sonic coffee

I had an experience yesterday that still has me shaken a little bit. First, I drink a lot of coffee. Unless I'm outside doing something outside, I usually have a cup of coffee with me at all times. Usually, in the mornings, I'll stop somewhere and get some breakfast to eat on the way to Nashville. My favorite place to stop lately has been Sonic.

Yesterday, I pulled up to the order stand and order my usual:

Order Taker: Welcome to Sonic, may I take your order?
Donnie: I would like a breakfast burrito and a large coffee.
Order Taker: I'm sorry our coffee machine is not working right now.

Ok, at this point I went through a long thought process. Something like, hmmm grounds + water + heat, there's not a lot to go wrong there. What do I do? leave? McDonald's is close by. What else is there to drink? Finally, I had the bright idea


Donnie: Orange Juice, I'd like to have orange juice.


After a few minutes, they bring my order to me.

Donnie: You have an emergency call out to fix your coffee machine right?
Delivery Girl: No, what happened is that somebody forgot to thaw the coffee.
Donnie: ?!?!?!?!!?!?!?????!?!!!!!
Delivery Girl: It's a machine like they use in hospitals where the coffee comes in frozen blocks and you have to thaw it before you can put in the machine.
Donnie: yikes


Now, I'm not a coffee snob, at least I don't think I am. It doesn't have to cost $4 before I'll drink it, but I'm really struggling with the idea that its too much trouble to brew the coffee right there. I'm sure that there are lots of reasons to do something like this from a business perspective. But wow, that was a little bit of a shocker.

I know the local Sonic franchisee and he is a believer and a good man. But, I'm sure that decision is made by someone at the corporate office.

Monday, November 5, 2007

My house is bugged....I'm sure of it...

This weekend, I was angry....very angry. Won't go into details, but just picture me angry.

Was supposed to go to the Titans game, but couldn't. If I had gone to the game, I would have missed Church on Sunday Morning for the second week in a row. Instead, I was at Church. But I was angry.

As soon as I reached the auditorium, they began singing "This is My Father's World" which is a hymn that I've loved since the sixth grade. Hymn after hymn was uplifting and I began to relax and become less angry. The sermon was about "Worrying", which is what I was doing. The scripture reading was my all-time favorite passage:

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[b]?

28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.


At the end of the service, they introduced Paden who I baptized the week before last. John Grant also read the except from my Letter To Paden. For the first part of Sunday School period I went to several adult classes and talked about a fundraising dinner that is being planned for Arewa Aid. This organization is trying to raise money for some humanitarian aid in Northern Nigeria. This is a place where 9 year old boys are begging in the streets and water is so scarce that if you have some, you will use it for 3 or 4 different purposes before you discard it by watering your plants.

At the end of Sunday School, I felt like the luckiest man in the world. Anybody remember what I was angry about?

Sunday, November 4, 2007

I love fall...



I love the fall, I always have. Football...basketball...cooler temperatures....I love everything about it. For some reason I even like the clothes that you can wear in the fall better than any other season. I remember in college, I had bought this cool jacket and I couldn't wait to wear it. Kathy and I went to a football game at her alma mater. It was one of the first games of the season (still summer), but I wore my jacket.

One of my most fond memories of fall, is when we used to have a family reunion in Gatlinburg every year. I have some family in Georgia that would meet us every year. It was always a great time. I loved Gatlinburg. We usually stayed at a lodge called The Brookside Resort. They have a bridge with benches built over the Little Pigeon River (which is a creek at that point). Sitting on that bridge on a cool autumn evening is one of my favorite places to be.

As a severe allergy sufferer, I believe that the first frost should be a national holiday.

Friday, was FCS's homecoming. They played MJCA which was a game we thought Chris might actually get to play in. He did, and had another long touchdown run! It was cool. The local radio station has a coach's breakfast where all the local football coaches meet at Shoney's and are interviewed about their games. The coach called Chris' name for scoring a touchdown which was very cool to hear.

Saturday was pretty busy. Sarah had her first basketball games. She and her team did well. They played a regular season game at FCS then we drove to Carroll Oakland School to participate in a Jamboree with 3 other teams. On the way to Carroll Oakland, we took Cedar Grove Road. I'd always heard of that road, but, I don't remember ever driving on it. I've definitely never driven it on a bright sunny fall afternoon. It is a very curvy tree lined road. In one of the curves, there was rugged fence with trees all around. I was struck by it on the way there, we stopped on the way back just long enough for me to get a few pictures.

Sarah had a birthday party with her friends Saturday evening. Our friend Bonita who sells for Mary Kay came over and showed the girls how to pick colors for make up and they all did make overs. One of Sarah's gifts was a dance game for the Nintendo Wii. She and her friends had a blast playing that as well. For some reason Chris and I usually have to be somewhere else during the friend birthday party.

Chris and I had the chance to go to the Titans game today. He's going to go, but I had to back out because of work responsibilities. I'm a little miffed about that one. Anyway, fall is always busy. I love the fall...

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Girl Crazy...





In my younger years, there were a lot of ways you could've described me, but the way I would most likely be described would be Girl Crazy. I just couldn't help it, it's who I was. I felt very fortunate to have survived my teenage years without it getting me into any serious trouble.

As I've gotten older, I've realized that God has a tremendous sense of humor. You see, now, I'm in my upper-early 40's and find myself being the dad to a long-legged-blue-eyed-blonde. Now, I get to be the worried dad. I'm on the other side of this fence. My only hope now is that long-legged-blue-eyed-blondes will go out of style. Any chance of that?

When we were expecting, we found out that we were going to have a girl. I told Kathy that I was ok with having a girl as long as she was ugly (didn't happen). I then backed off that and said "Ok, she can be pretty, but she needs to know Jujitsu". Later, someone pointed out to me that knowing Jujitsu was one thing, being willing to use it is quite another. Yeah....I guess that's right. (Notice in the picture that she has not one but two phones in hand....trouble)

I've always known about the special connection that exists between a son and his mother. I really didn't know about the connection between a father and his daughter. When she was young, she was very much a momma's girl. She really didn't even like me that much, and told me so. As she's grown older, we've developed that special bond that exists between a father and his daughter. I guess it's a whole different kind of girl crazy now.

Happy Birthday Baby, I love you very much...

Here's another thing on the long list of things that make me cry....

Ok....Now this is getting rediculous....

You may have notice that I've not mentioned my truck purchase in a while. Well, that's because it has been at the shop for about 3 weeks. The new shop that I took it to is a little more sophisticated. They have more equipment and are located right next to the emissions testing station, so they know how to get it passed.

Anyway, they found a problem and had been driving the truck trying to get the on-board computer to cycle. As I've mentioned before, it takes a long time for that sucker to go through its paces. I went and picked it up last Friday since I drive to Nashville everyday. I figured I could get it to roll over pretty quickly.

The guy at the shop told me I needed to get abut 200 miles on it before it could be tested again. I wanted to get some miles on it pretty quickly so I got up early Tuesday and drove to Cookeville and back. That got me about 80 miles on it, I drove it to work Tuesday, that got me another 60 miles. One more round trip to work and we've got it right? Well, on my way home last night, the lovely 'Service Engine Light' came back on.....Lovely. I called Kathy, she met me at the shop....we left it there. Hopefully, it won't be another 3 weeks.

On another note, this is kind of interesting. Being mostly a by-the-book kind of guy, I purchased a temporary tag when the truck didn't pass emissions on the first try. If I was going to have to take it to the shop, it should be legal right? Well, as the saga has progressed, that tag expired. I talked to the folks at the County Clerk's office, they said that they could sell me another if I had proof that it was being worked on to pass emissions testing. Cool, I didn't have the title with me so I couldn't purchase the tag immediately.

1. I run home...get the title....go back.
2. Kathy had signed the title so she had to be the one to buy the tag (Why? I don't know)
3. I take the paperwork to Kathy, she goes to the clerk's office.
4. It's been more than 30 days since the last emissions test, you can't buy another temporary tag (Why? I have no clue)

If there is a point to all of this, it is, that the people sitting at the counter of the County Clerk's office are not the ones that make the stupid rules. They are put in the uncomfortable position of having to enforce rules that they probably don't even agree with.

Another observation, as a software guy, its kind of interesting to look at this situation. When writing software, the standard function of the software is usually pretty simple to write. Most of the time and energy is spent handling the 'out of the ordinary' situation. My own philosophy in this is, if there is even a 1% chance that a particular situation could arise from a legitimate use of the software, then you must allow it. It does not appear that government works that way.

Monday, October 29, 2007

What a weekend....

Well, all in all it was a good weekend sports-wise. FCS won on Friday night to secure a spot in the playoffs. I love the small town, Chris' picture and name was on the front page of the paper Saturday morning evening though he didn't play a single snap in the game. He evidently made a picturesque celebration leap when they won. My apologies to the lineman who do all the hard work and seem to not get any recognition.

Saturday was good....UT beats Steve 'I'll throw my hat at you' Spurrier that's always good. The Titans play horribly on Sunday but luckily played a team that played worse. I almost forgot, Rockies win 21 of 22 then lose 4 in a row. Wow... It's interesting to watch the rise of the BoSox and the decline of the Yankees at the same time. They announced during the game last night that A-Rod was leaving the Yanks. I'm pulling for A-Rod, he seems like a decent guy, and he's the best hope we have that Barry Bonds won't hold the home run record long. Go A-Rod!

Most of my weekend was spent working. We are releasing a web site this week and it's been quite a challenge to get it ready.

You know how some folks buy a car every 2 years? I've figured out that you need to buy a new house every 15 years. That seems to be when everything starts breaking.

We had a nephew and niece spend the weekend with us while their parents were out of town. Kathy spent most of the weekend keeping up with them and trying to figure out how to get the normal stuff done (laundry, grocery etc..) done now that she has a 5 day/week job. I told her that she should get her no good husband to help.

Chris went to the church youth hayride. It brought back stories of last year when he went. Last year it was the first real activity that he went on with our new Church. He managed to have an ember from the bonfire land on his jeans and start a small blaze. He wound up having to take his pants off in the woods so they could put them out. From then on, he was the 'boy that burned his wiener' at the Church hayride. He takes teasing and kidding much better than I did at his age....his response..."I'm good, but thanks for asking"

Sarah is excited and ready to play basketball. I believe that she will do well this year. She has a lot of hustle and a very good attitude. The coaches seem very interested and have a good track record in coaching girl's softball. We'll just have to see.

Well....that's the news and I am outta here....

Saturday, October 27, 2007

A letter to Paden....

I wrote a letter to Paden the morning after I baptized him. I was desperately trying to help him understand the picture of Jesus that I now have. As I've mentioned before, my picture of Jesus has dramatically changed over the years. He's not the cosmic accountant tallying up my good and bad to see how the balance tilts at the moment I die.

Anyway, in my letter to Paden I came up with this word picture that I felt a child could understand. I thought I would share it with you....

Have you ever been separated from your mom and dad in a mall or other busy place? If you haven’t, picture yourself in a very crowded place like an airport or a train station. People are whizzing by with no time to talk to you or help you. Your mom and dad are nowhere to be found. You can’t find a policeman to help. Can you imagine what that would feel like? Then, after a long time, you hear your mom’s voice and you see her, kneeling down, arms outstretched. You run to her and embrace. Can you imagine what that would feel like?

That is the best picture that I can come up with of what your relationship is with Jesus. You and I and everybody are separated from God. We are lost and without hope. There is one and only one person that can help. His name is Jesus. He’s the one that is searching through the crowd to find you.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Cry baby....

Yeah yeah, Rockies lost again....whatever...

On to more important stuff. Many of you who read this know me personally. Some don't. For those that don't, I'm fairly big guy by normal standards. I'm about 6'2" tall 270ish pounds. Small for an athlete, but fairly big for an average Joe. Many times people equate size with toughness. I don't know how many times I've heard people say, I wouldn't mess with him, look how big he is. Truth is...I'm probably the only person you'll ever meet that got in trouble at school for NOT fighting (it's true). I got in trouble for fighting also, but I did get a stern talking to from a principle for not standing up for myself.

Anyway, something else that you might not expect is that many times I'll cry at the drop of a hat. Sometimes, if I'm talking about something that is important to me, tears will just start. It's embarrassing sometimes, but I can't help it.

Baptism is one of those things that makes me cry. I've mentioned before that I went through a really tough time about 11-12 years ago. It was during that time that a counselor helped me make the connection between my spirituality and my life. It sounds funny to say that now, but there really wasn't much connection before that. I was compartmentalized. Spirituality was a slice in my life. Finally, somebody said to me if your life is a pie, spirituality isn't a slice, it's the crust. I guess if you are going to get through to me, an analogy involving food is the way to do it.

Once I went through that time in my life, and I really made the connection, baptisms have always made me cry. Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of baptizing my nephew Paden Robertson. I was telling my boss that I needed to leave early so that I could baptize my nephew. Yeah, you guessed it...when I was telling him I felt the tears come. I held them back, but it was close.

Baptizing a child is one of those things that makes people uncomfortable. Chris was baptized when he was 9. He had been talking about it for a while, I kept putting it off because I wasn't sure he was 'ready'. Sarah has been talking about it, is she 'ready'? does she understand? that always seems to be the concern.

When I look at my own experience, I was baptized at church camp when I was about 11, because everybody else was. At 16, I realized that I had done it for the wrong reason, so I was baptized again 'to be sure I had done it right'. Well, I look back now, I certainly didn't have the understanding then that I have now. So was I 'ready' at 16?

As I struggle with this, I think about Phillip talking to the Ethiopian in Acts 8. He was obviously a spiritual guy already, but he didn't know Jesus. Phillip talks to him as they are driving down the road. We have no idea how long they talked, but it seems to me that he went from 'not ready' to 'ready' in the course of a single conversation. How much do you need to now before you are ready?

Jesus is the one...He's the Good News from God. Do you believe that? As far as I can tell....you are ready.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

That sinking feeling...

Some of you may not have experienced this, but there's a certain feeling that I would get in high school when a teacher would come in and start handing out a test that I had forgotten about, or asked everyone to turn in a project that I hadn't done.

Evidently, the Vols forgot they had a game last Saturday.
The Rockies forgot that they had a game last night.


When Alabama pulled off a successful onside kick on the opening kick off....I heard it put best that Sabin was playing Chess and Fulmer was playing checkers (I think tiddly winks would have been funnier).

When Pedroia (a rookie) hit a lead off home run for the BoSox after the Rox went 3 up 3 down, I knew we were in trouble. I didn't realize how much trouble, but the Rox were in trouble.

Oh well, still a National League guy, but not very loud and proud right now.

Did somebody make sure the Rockies know they have a game tonight?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Rockin' Sockin'

Today marks the first game of the World Series. It's kind of sad for me, this is the first year in about 10 years that we didn't make it to at least one professional baseball game. Unless someone suprises me with World Series tickets, I guess we won't make it.

For the most part, we are a baseball family. One year, not long after we got married, Kathy and I decided to paint the entire inside of our first house. The baseboards were stained dark and we were painting them white so it took a very long time. We both took a week of vacation and painted. It just so happened that it was the week of the World Series.... we painted, watched baseball, painted, painted, more baseball. It was Atlanta's worst to first season. I don't remember the year, but we still talk about that week.

I'm a sports fan in that I like to watch the games. I know some of the most popular players, but I don't know all of the statistics and all of the players involved. I guess I'm just a casual fan.

Sarah, doesn't care much about baseball, she usually goes to the other room when we watch any sport. Chris is a died-in-wool Sox fan. He has the Atlanta A and the Boston B painted on his bedroom wall. I'm pretty sure that Kathy will be pulling for the Sox as well.

Me....I'm torn...for some reason my heart is with the National League. Lately, it seems that American League has dominated the series and interleague play, but my heart is with the National League. I think it all goes back to the idea that ALL players should bat. I have a philosophical problem with anyone that would call themselves a baseball player but then not bat. I know that when the pitcher comes up to bat in the National League its like the last boy that was picked in elementary school. I can just see all the guys in the field yelling "EASY HITTER!!!", But anyway, baseball players should bat. American League pitchers should bat. National League pitchers should do a better job of it.

I'm also pulling for the Rockies because of Todd Helton. He played for UT, I remember watching him when he was in college. So, I've made the decision (just now) I'm pulling for the Rockies.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Three Holes Left




This week has been a week that I've dreaded in some ways. One of the first things that they do at the beginning of the school year is to take the school pictures. At the end of the first nine week period, the prints are usually ready to be sent home. This week was the week that we received the prints.

Its not that I don't want their pictures, the problem is these frames that Kathy bought several years ago. You've probably seen them before, each school year you place their picture in the frame and then the Senior picture goes in the center. Each year, it's been a celebration when we put the new picture in the frame. This year, it wasn't so much of a celebration because we saw that there are only 3 holes left in Chris' frame.

When you look at the pictures, you may see the laugh in the kindergarten picture, the slicked back hair and smirk in third grade. Alfalfa hair in fourth grade, braces in the sixth grade that lead to the million dollar smile that he has now. But all Kathy and I can see is the three holes that are left.

We've had such big plans, I've desperately wanted to take both of them to Chicago, out west, a baseball tour of New England area and a cruise in the Caribbean...but the time is getting away.

To be honest, we are not done yet. There is so much that I want to teach them. Are they really ready to be on their own in a college atmosphere? Surely, we weren't as young at that age.

All along, my mom has told me, "They grow up so fast". I never believed her. But I am absolutely amazed that we have only three holes left.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Who is the pearl?

Three years ago, when Chris was in the 6th grade, I went with him on a school field trip to Land Between the Lakes. It was a really cool experience. One of the neatest things that they did was a challenge course. A group of kids goes through this course together. They were faced with several challenges. Parents went along, but we were under strict orders not to help. The challenges were designed so that the kids had to rely on one another to complete the task. It was cool.

One night before we went to bed, we had a campfire devotional. The devotional thought was presented by Jason Miller and I thought that it was fantastic. I was reminded of it when I read a story about the guy who bought a rock (20 years ago) and it turned out to be a sapphire (so he claimed). Anyway, self esteem has always been something I struggled with. There are times when I've just felt worthless and useless. Fortunately, I've not experienced that in a while. Thoughts like the following have really helped me, so I thought I would share:

In Matthew 13 Jesus tells several 'Kingdom' parables. The first two parables are about a farmer. When he explains the parable of the weeds to his disciples in verse 37, he tells them that he is the farmer. And I believe that most of the time when we think about these parables, we consider the farmer or sower to be Jesus.

If you skip down to the Parable of the Net, you see a picture of a fisherman separating the good fish from the bad fish. Jesus tells us that the angels are the ones that are going to come on his behalf and separate the good from the bad. Essentially, he is the still the main character.

The most interesting parable that Jason mentioned is the Parable of the hidden treasure in verses 44 and 45.

44"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

45"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.


I don't know if I was taught this or not, but when I think about these parables, I've usually put myself in the place of the man and the merchant. Something like, "When I find Jesus, I should give everything else up for him". There is nothing wrong with that interpretation, however, as Jason pointed out, why do we make ourselves the main character in these parables when all of the surrounding parables have Jesus as the main character? What happens when Jesus becomes the main character? We become the treasure...we become the pearl.

Do you feel that way? To be honest, I don't. Whenever I think about it, I am so humbled that it brings me to tears. He found me...and considered me to be a hidden treasure....a pearl of great price.....sold everything he had....and bought me.

Wow...great thought....

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Hair Management Day

Well, yesterday was the day that I looked in the mirror, find that there are a few (very few) hairs sticking straight up on top of my head and they need to be put in their place. One of the cool things about being bald, is that when I need a haircut I can do it myself (for the most part)

A few random thoughts on hair from the bald guy:


  • We bought some clippers 11 years ago for $35 to cut my hair with, I've saved a ton.

  • Cleaning up after a haircut doesn't take as long as it used to.

  • I really don't worry much about what kind of shampoo I use any more, that used to be a big deal.

  • What are split ends?

  • If measured in something like follicles/Donnie I'm probably in the plus department compared to when I was in high school

  • I never saw my dad with hair, I guess that's why I don't worry about it much

  • My dad always carried a comb, he said he used it to scratch his head.

  • Hair is like real estate. What's important is location location location

  • I used to use shampoo and conditioner, now a bar of soap works in a pinch.

  • I used to use a blow dryer, now a towel works as both comb and dryer

  • I do miss the social aspects of going to get my haircut

  • Thank you Michael Jordan for making bald cool!


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I love quotations, always have, in my blogroll I have a service that give quotations every day. Today's post had a quote from G.K.Chesterton, it was pretty good:

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

I noticed that I could click on his name and see all quotes in the collection that were by him...This one caught my attention:

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

Here is the full list of G.K. Chesterton quotes

Sunday, October 14, 2007

By definition....

These two words are used a lot in mathematics. 'By definition' basically means "don't ask why, it just is".

Please bear with me, there is a point to this...
Here's a quick example, in the field of probability they use a mathematical function called the factorial. The factorial is represented by an exclamation point, the easiest way to explain it is to show an example:

3! = 6 (3 x 2 x 1 )
6! = 720 (6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1)

Now, here's the kicker....

0! = 1 ?!?!?!!?!?!

Why? 'By definition', don't ask why, just accept it.

Now the real point...
Yesterday, I was talking with someone who was having some pretty deep struggles spiritually. He asked a question that I struggle with. It boiled down to this idea.

If God is good, and all powerful, why does bad stuff happen?

I was reminded of a broadcast that I listened to from Ravi Zacharius. He was having a question and answer session with some students at a prestigious university. One of the students asked Ravi, "Is it right for God to do such and so". Ravi spent several minutes talking about the fact that there is no sense of right and wrong that exists outside of God. God is the one that defines right and wrong, so if God does it, it is right and good 'by definition'. Don't ask why, just accept it.

The story that I think of here is the story of Joseph in Genesis. Everything is doing just fine then suddenly, your family turns against you, you are now a slave in a foreign country. You work your way out of that hole, then suddenly, you are accused of a crime that you didn't commit and now you are in jail. The story goes on and on until the climax where we find that Joseph is right where God needed him to be to save his people. The whole story is in Genesis 37-45.

When Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, he says something amazing:

"And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. " 8 "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

We all have our definition of good. My definition includes me and my family being healthy, all of our bills are paid, we have good friends, basically nothing bad happens. Anything different from that is not good in my book. But what if God needs me in a different place? What if, like Joseph, he needs me to go through a little bit of hell to be where he wants me to be? I might not like it, but I'll need to go through it.

I don't pretend to have all of the answers, does God make bad stuff happen? or does he just allow it to happen? I don't know that it makes a lot of difference either way. I don't understand, I just have to remember that God is good, by definition. I heard this quote several years ago, I tried to find the original source for it, but couldn't. I think it is appropriate here:

"A God that is small enough for my mind, is not big enough for my knees"

Amen