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.

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.

There really are two 6 o'clocks every day....

I am involved with a humanitarian organization that is trying to help folks living in Nigeria. I'll be writing more about that later on, but yesterday, we had some fun trying to set up a meeting to discuss how the organization could reach out to more people. There were 4 of us trying to coordinate a time and place to meet. Two of us have real live 8-5 type jobs in Nashville.

After all was said and done, it took approximately 34 emails to coordinate the meeting. Greg Smith is also on the board. He has a quirky sense of humor and is obviously NOT an early riser. We discussed meeting at 6am at Panera Bread because they have wireless internet access. Greg's responses were hilarious, I hope that he doesn't mind me sharing them here:

"There are two 6 o'clocks in a day?"
"Why are we worrying about internet access at 6am? They don't turn the internet on until around 7:30"

and finally, once he arrived at the meeting in the dark...

"So does the sun just come on all of a sudden?"

Funny funny guy....

I am an early riser, you might notice some of the posting times on this blog are quite early. Are you an early riser? Night owl? and the big question....are you a morning person? or not?

Small Town Funnies

First, let me give you a little background. I grew up close to downtown Nashville. I don't think you could call it the inner city, but I could get there on a bicycle. For the last 15 years (almost) I've lived in Lebanon which is about 35 miles east of Nashville. It would be called a 'small town' though that is changing.

Before we moved, I started working in the IT department for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and knew many people in town. When we moved here, I was uncomfortable. No matter where I went, I kept running into people that I knew. In Nashville, you rarely run into people that you know in public.

My first real dose of small town life was when I was trying to call the local insurance agent to move my policies from the agency in Nashville to the one in Lebanon. I looked the number up in the phone book, but dialed the wrong number. The conversation went like this:

Donnie: May I speak to so-and-so?
Helpful Lady Oh, you've dialed the wrong number, he works at the Farm Bureau, their number is..
Donnie: (dumbfounded silence)

The idea that a random wrong number would know who I was asking for and be so helpful as to give me the number was completely foreign to me. I mention this because I had a similar conversation yesterday. I was calling to check on my truck (It was a good deal, I promise). I dialed the number for the repair shop (so I thought) and a lady's voice answers...

Helpful Lady: Hello.
Donnie: I'm sorry, I believe that I dialed the wrong number.
Helpful Lady: Yes, you did Donnie.
Donnie: (dumbfounded silence, I'm good at that)
Helpful Lady: This is Tara.

I had called my good friend Tara Beard whose phone number was strikingly similar to the repair shop's number.

I love this place.

Relax....

Ok, I've been posting on some serious subjects lately. I'm actually a fun loving guy, just have had a lot on my mind. Anyway, I thought that I share some jokes today. The picture is one of my favorites from Sarah's kindergarten graduation. Hard to believe that she's in the 6th grade now. I wish I could say that it was a well thought out planned shot, but it really was a snapshot.

Anyway, we've had some good family time together this week working on Chris' leaf collection project for school. When he and I were riding to collect some leaves, we started trading jokes, I thought I'd share some of the best ones

How many Irishmen does it take to change a lightbulb?
20, one to hold the bulb, 19 to drink until the room spins

How many Vanderbilt football players does it take to change a flat tire?
2, one to mix the drinks, one to call his daddy

How many UT football players does it take to change a flat tire?
1, but he gets 3 hours credit

and....my personal favorite...

How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb?
Just one, but the lightbulb has to want to change