High on Paint

I have to say, I never thought it would take so long to paint such a small room. With the new additions to the house completed, and in an attempt to get most of mom's plants inside before the cooler weather kills them, we kind of went in to a frantic cleaning mode yesterday when the temperature was predicted to reach right around freezing. Brrr. First time all year, so off we go on a mad scramble to get room to move mom's plants in to the garage. In the two hours that we had, we were pretty successful. Of course, we didn't want them in the garage, so we failed miserable in that respect, but the addition requires a little work. First up is some waterproof sealer paint to be applied to the concrete blocks. So up I step to get this stuff painted. I think the room is maybe 10 feet by 18 feet or something like that. I figure it shouldn't take too long...but it took about 4.5 hours. And the latex paint that dad got was really pretty strong in terms of it's odor. My nose has been giving me this weird burning sensation all night. And I've felt a little weird...hopefully we'll be all good by tomorrow. Of course...there's the still the second coat to go.

Tonight I went with Mandi and her family down to Lauren's college (Bryan) in Dayton, TN to watch her in her last home volleyball game. They trounced the team they were playing 3-0 in a best of five series, and these were the conference champs. The college is quite small, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 students. The camps looked nice from what I could see of it. It's up on a hill, and I would imagine it's got quite a nice view if you have the chance to walk around and see it. It's just strange to me thinking of going to a college that has less people than the high school that you attended had. It seems like a nice school though, and judging by all the banners in their gym, they've got a pretty strong athletic program for such a small school. They even had Men's soccer. Take that UT.

Speaking of soccer, I added a Game of the Week description on the sidebar where I'll just put up a little blurb each week about the game that I'm most interested in from any of the leagues in the upcoming weekend. There's also a poll if you'd care to vote on it where you can pick who wins. So for the 5 people who regularly read this, there's a little something for you to do if you'd like. I was thinking there could be some cool prize or something, but there's not a whole lot that I can do in that department. I could perhaps proclaim your greatness on this blog the following day or something. How's that for incentive? Maybe we can even bet on it. This just keeps getting better. I just don't know how I'll get people what they've won. I guess if you vote and you're correct, you can have bragging rights or something. And I still need to implement a score guessing tie-breaker. How about if you actually do vote, post your score prediction as a comment, and we'll see how things go. Hoo-rah.

All Your Reasons

We've been having some very interesting discussions at our small group on Sunday nights. Our topics have been, well, the controversial ones I guess. The things like drinking/drugs, divorce, how to give, music in the church, etc. etc. I think next week is women's roles in the church. Although I'm not sure about that...it might not have been suggested actually. But at any rate, it's basically just a way for our group to discuss these types of issues, not with a goal of coming to a conclusion that we all agree with, but just to hear different people's opinions and other viewpoints that we might not have heard before. It's really been pretty neat, since there are a number of different backgrounds in our group, and getting to hear those differences, as well as just learning about new ways to view these things, has been pretty cool.

I think that one that surprised me a couple weeks ago dealt with giving. Apparently, this topic is quite a firestarter for some people, and I wouldn't have really guessed that. Some of the older people in our group have witnessed some heated debates about how to give, meaning, whether you should be putting something in the plate every Sunday, or whether you can give one lump sum one Sunday a month for the same amount. I wouldn't have really thought that it was an issue at all. Or whether you are obligated to be putting something in the plate every Sunday in the first place, since it's certainly not the only way that one can give. Am I saying that you should never put anything in monetarily? Absolutely not. But I certainly don't think that you should feel like you have to if your circumstances don't allow it.

Now, I know, we're certainly the most financially blessed nation, and even when we feel like we've got no money, we're really incredibly well off. I liked how our de-facto leader put it, when he said that giving comes of our abundance. And more importantly that money is not the only thing that we should be giving...it sadly just gets the most attention. I don't know...it's just been intriguing hearing these opinions, and all the reasons that people give for doing things a certain way.

One of the better things we've talked about deals with where you fall when the Bible is silent on an issue. You either see silence on a subject allowing you to go on with something since it is not expressly forbade, or you see it as a stop sign which you cannot cross. I think I fall in to the former category, although we've been in classes with other people that certainly fall in to the second group. And when you get in to these topics like divorce, or instrumental music, you get these viewpoints of what exactly we're supposed to do. Some will say that it's not mentioned that way in the Bible, so therefore we can't do it. Other's will say that the Bible is not our manual of minutiae and therefore shouldn't be expected to give example for every single little detail of our lives. (I'm not really entirely sure where I'm going with all this rambling...)

I guess in the end, for me at least, I just figure that you need to at least know all your reasons for doing and believing something. I don't think there will be ever be two people who will agree on all aspects of anything, whether it's religion-related or not. But if you know why you believe something, and you have your personal study to go with it, who's to say that you're wrong on something that's not said to be one way or the other in the Bible? I think on the whole the CoC is getting better about the "we're right, you're all wrong" thing that has given us the stigma that many others place on us. It's sad that it happens as that whole grace thing gets forgotten a lot it seems, but it's not like these types of issues will just go away.

I think what I'm learning is that I don't need to post stuff where I need to think this late at night. If this was incoherent, my apologies. Oh, one other thing of humor/surprise/shock. So, I go to church on Sunday, and I'm looking through the reading material during the slow periods (the announcement sheet) and see that church service for Wednesday has been switched to Tuesday. Now, we meet at the local YMCA, so you might think there would be a pretty good reasons, like maybe they were holding some meeting or the building was going to have some work done on it or something. Nope. They've moved it since Halloween is on Wednesday. I guess they wanted to make sure we work the Halloween spirit in to our week.

Different Directions

The camping trip that was last weekend was quite a bit of fun. As I said, it's weird being able to go camping and have it not get below the mid 40's up in the mountains in the middle of October. It was good times though, and having never really been up to Cumberland Gap it was pretty cool. There's a nice overlook where you can see Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee all at the same time. I would not recommend eating too much before you make the drive up to the top of the mountain though. At least, not if you're easily prone to motion sickness. Like I am. Ugh.

So, while I'm waiting to find out stuff from the UT interview that I had over a month ago now, I'm signing up to be a substitute teacher at the Oak Ridge schools. It's a pretty involved process, as I'll be going to get fingerprinted later on today, and I've apparently had a background check done as well. I guess they need to nowadays. But it should be fairly interesting. I don't know if I'll actually get around to do any teaching, as it depends on how quickly the UT stuff comes through and whether I get it or not, but as it seems like it will be at least 3 more weeks, I might be able to pick up a few extra bucks on the side. I don't really know how much preparation teaching a couple labs for a couple years gives me...but I figure it can't be that much different. Except that they'll be 12-18 years old instead of 18-19...I guess it's not that much of a difference. And besides, it never seemed like subs did anything except give an assignment and sit there and make sure they didn't burn the room down. We'll just have to wait and see how things go.

Speaking of substitutes...I'm sure everyone can remember the sub that was hated and dreaded above all subs when you were in school. I can't really remember having a cool sub...but then again, they don't get much of a chance to make an impression outside of reading the instructions and telling you to be quiet repeatedly. But there was one that everyone feared having, and that I honestly don't know why she kept up with it since she always seemed to be angry. And everyone always gave her grief as well. First, her name was Mrs. Muckenthaler. I think you can imagine where that might have been taken by a bunch of 16 year old guys. Second, she was older, so she had a hard time hearing anything. Third, she had a propensity for sending people to the office. I think I was in a class once that had 6 people sent there during one period. That had to be some kind of record. Oh well...hopefully those situations won't be what I'll be getting in to.

There's something a little different in the media player. It's a piece off The Bourne Supremacy soundtrack. Good stuff.

The Angel of the Lord

As I mentioned on Wednesday, Patrick Mead was in town giving some lessons over the course of the last week. Unfortunately, I had to miss the first 3 sessions (4 if you count Sunday morning class). Luckily, they are all taped, so I should be able to get some copies and listen to what he had to say at those times. But Wednesday's lesson was really quite interesting to me, as it was focused on something that I hadn't quite heard before. It dealt with the Angel of the Lord (otherwise, this post would be titled something different.

He started in John 1:1 where we learn about the Word being with God, and being the same as God and being there from the beginning. Of course, we know this to be Jesus. He then said that the first time Jesus had been on earth was not when he was born in Bethlehem, but rather from way back in Genesis. If you go to Genesis 16, you see that the Angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar as she was fleeing from Abraham and Sarah. He talks with her, and sends her back to them. The time that I think his point was most apparent to me was in 2 Samuel 24 when David directly disobeys a command and counts the men of Israel. When David realizes his sin, God presents him with 3 options for punishment (vs. 13). David chose to suffer the plague rather than be turned over to his enemies. After 70,000 people had died, it says that the LORD was grieved and told the angel of destruction to stop. It says that the angel of the LORD was at the threshing floor of Araunah (vs. 16).

Of course, I'm not doing the argument any justice, since I'd only heard it one time. His argument was that the translation that we read as "Angel of the LORD", the Word, and Jesus are really all the same thing. The reason for John using the term "the Word" is because of how it was described in the Old Testament when referring to the "Angel of the LORD". He had a fancy word that I can't really remember at the moment for this particular idea, but it made equivalent John's description with those of the Angel of the Lord in the OT. I thought it was a pretty neat concept to think that Jesus had been on earth before he was born in to the world, and that even then he was interceding, and helping those in need of help. I really wish that I could do a better job of explaining it...maybe after I have the tapes and am able to hear it again. I will say that if you're ever in the area where he's speaking, it would be worth your while to go and hear him.

As a side-note, dad made it home fine yesterday after being in the air for about 15 hours, and awake for something closer to 30 probably. But everything is fine on that front. Mom comes home in a little over a week. On the agenda for this weekend is a camping trip with our small group from church up in Cumberland Gap State Park near the Kentucky border. Should be fun times. Who would have thought you could go camping in October and do fine in t-shirts and shorts?

Youth Retreat

I had the privilege of going on our church's youth retreat this past weekend, and basically spending the whole weekend playing around. I didn't really go on all that many youth retreats growing up since most weekends were usually spent either at soccer tournaments or piano related things, so I didn't really have the experience from a child point of view. But working at PBC and this past weekend has shown me some of the things that I probably missed out on. Our "your professionals" group had about 6 of us out there just helping out with our main purpose to be there and to hang out with the kids. The majority of the group was comprised of middle school aged kids, probably about 2 to 1 for high school aged people. The theme was following the voices you hear, related to sheep and their shepherds. This was used to facilitate building relationships not only with the elders of the church (who were out there for the majority of the weekend as well), but in also realizing the importance we each have in helping guide every other brother and sister to be more like Christ. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend.

One thing that I learned not related at all to spiritual matters is that Mandi is ruthless at Knockout (where you've got 2 basketballs and the person that shoots second tries to make their basket first and get the person in front of them out). She went on a hot streak, and got about 7 people in a row out (including me) on her first shot. She'd just step up and drain it. She ended up winning that round, but it was pretty impressive. And it's not like she was just beating up on the 6th graders, as there were adults playing as well. I also learned a game called Ha! Yeah, that's the name. I can't really explain it on here...it's basically just a game of reactions with as many people as you want. And weird posing. And lots of yelling...like a ninja.

Patrick Mead is here this week at Highland View in Oak Ridge. I had heard him last spring when he had come to Farragut and really enjoyed his lessons. This week he is talking about the Battle being the Lords. We missed Sunday (due to the retreat and soccer), and Monday (since we were getting Mandi a new car). Yesterday's talk was on the Lord of Hosts and basically was about how there are times when God is that kind, meek person that you see depicted so often, but that at many other times, he is a warrior, a general, who commands legions of angels behind him to do his bidding. He's Irish, funny, engaging, and usually puts a new spin on things that you've heard many times before. I look forward to his lesson tonight on the Angels of the Lord. For a glimpse in to what he's like, check out his blog.

Dad gets home from Japan tomorrow at 5 PM, probably after flying for about 24 hours (or more depending on delays and such), so remember him if you could in your prayers. Mom comes home about a week and a half later if all goes to plan. My reign of terror at the house is coming to an end. I better get to work on getting things looking like a semblance of how they were before they left. It's really not that bad, I promise.

Selling It

I've been looking through a few Consumer Reports issues over the past few days seeing if Dad had saved any regarding cars (no luck on anything relevant for what I needed), and this back-page section caught my attention. You usually see things like this on Leno or Conan or something when they highlight humorous ads that seem pretty ridiculous. I guess sometimes you just have to do everything you can to get ahead in the world of advertisement.

Outside of that, things have been fairly low key. I was in Nashville on Friday/Saturday to watch some of the guys from Harding play at Itchfest, where they eventually got 3rd place. Not a bad weekend, and especially more-so after going undefeated on Saturday while playing against Vandy and UTK. There was even a sighting of Rufio somewhere in there, but it was hard to tell because he was wearing a black shirt...

I really hate this job hunting thing. It's been about 2 weeks since I've heard anything regarding the position that I interviewed for, and over the past couple days have tried calling and sending an email to get some more information on where the process stands and everything, but nobody answers the phone or responds to the email. Frustrating. On the bright side, I guess they would have called and said no thanks if they had moved on (you would think, anyway), so it's not all lost. I was just hoping that it would move along faster than this. Oh well. On the agenda? Guy's night tonight, which means wings at Wild Wings Cafe. Excellent. Helping out for a day at the church youth retreat this weekend. And then finding ways to help Mandi relax and enjoy her first weekend where she won't be traveling in probably about 2 months. Good times.

These Hard Times

It's been a rough day. Mandi has had bad news about her car, and I believe that I pulled my hamstring tonight playing frisbee in an attempt at a D. At the moment it doesn't feel too terrible, but I have a feeling that tomorrow will be quite a bit worse. For the moment, though, it's sleeping with it elevated, and putting ice packs on it and attempting to stretch it. I've never really had a pulled muscle in all my years of sports, which is quite surprising because I am certainly not a very flexible individual. I've had all sorts of problems with cramping, but never a pull. I guess I just don't really know what to do, but we'll see how it goes. Maybe it'll turn out that I just tweaked it a little, and I'll be good as new tomorrow. One can only hope.

Being one of the 3 shows that I watch on TV on a regular basis, I was remiss in not inviting all who read this (I'm sorry if you're among those...) that House started again on Fox last Tuesday. Seeing as how it is once again a Tuesday, the second episode of the season aired tonight. It started quite promisingly last week, and for those of you (Paul) who failed to see the end of last season, you'll probably be confused at what is going on (but rest assured when you get back I'll hopefully have all the episodes from where you left off). But it looks like it's going to be a good season, and who can really not love the character of House anyway. Hugh Laurie is quite the actor, and I'm inclined to think that I should maybe see some of the other things that he's been in. If you're new to the show, let it be known that he's British, and if you hear him speak on the show, you'd never guess. In addition to being a talented musician, he's a skilled actor who really makes that show tick. Catch it if you have the time.

The UEFA Champions League continues with Matchday 2 today and tomorrow. It's unfortunate that ESPN2 has been stuck with some pretty boring games the past 3 broadcasts. Not that it's their fault, as Manchester United is a potent attacking force with some brilliant players, but they have failed to spark the imagination this term, and has led to some rather slow games. Tomorrow is Liverpool vs. Marseille, but I don't know if it will be much better given Liverpool's previous outing. Of more interest are the games on ESPN Classic that air at 5 ET that show Barcelona and Real Madrid playing. It is still early in the season, so it can only get better from here though.

In music news, today was the release of the matchbox twenty retrospective album "Exile On Mainstream". This is exciting for me since they were the first band that I actually bought an album of, and the fact that I like their music, and they haven't done anything new for 5 years (their last release was in November of 2002). If you head to their web-page you will get to hear the 6 new tracks that they've written for the album (including the track for the title of today's post). Of the 6, I probably like All Your Reasons the best, but all 6 are good. They are certainly different compared to their earlier songs, mainly due to the fact that the band as a whole is writing the songs, rather than their lead singer Rob Thomas writing everything on his own. I think the collaboration does the band well, especially since Thomas has a successful solo career as well after his 2005 release. At any rate, I'm excited about the new songs, and looking forward to what they do in the next couple years.

I got to see one of the funniest Sonic commercials to have come out for a while last night. It was the husband-wife team, with them enjoying the new ice latte's I believe. So they're drinking them, and the wife says, "Ha! I've got a mustache!" The guy casually continues drinking his while saying, "You can only see it in direct sunlight." The wife glares. And I can't stop laughing. Classic.