Balloons?

The other day, they were having a hot-air balloon festival, I guess you could say, so Mandi and I decided to go on over there and check it out. It wasn't really anything more than a bunch of local artists setting up their shops to sell some of their home-made items, and having about 20 balloons or so set up and lit-up once it got dark. It was a fun time, and we actually got in at quite a discount since we ran in to a church friend who was one of the people taking payments as people were coming in. How great is that? Here's a couple pics, including the Energizer Bunny hot-air balloon, which they said is currently the largest one in the world.

Soccer has been ongoing, and our team is doing alright so far. We didn't play all that well yesterday, but still managed to pull out a 2-2 draw. Mandi has been playing quite well recently, and even completely schooled a guy on the other team a couple weeks ago. I don't think he really did much else the rest of the game after that. I have to say that I was quite impressed. It's still been fun, which is really the main thing, although there seems to be more and more teams that are really complete jerks. And not just the guys either, but even the girls on the teams are jerks. I'm really not liking the fact that everything was combined in to one league like it was, but what can I do about it? At least our team is pretty cool.

Other than that, not a whole lot else going on. Dustin is still looking for a job, so keep him in your prayers as that goes on. Work is going without too much trouble. We're busy, but not overwhelmingly so which is really about where we want to be at. We're having an open house this week in honor of the company being around for 10 years, so I spent a lot of the past month taking pictures of people and all the instruments at work that I'm allowed to for displays that were set up and such. I guess it really is a big deal to have been around for that long, especially with the start that they got. It should be interesting. Just have to see how many people actually show, considering that they sent invitations out to probably around 1000 people. Should be a good time, nonetheless. One thing is for sure though...we won't be working hardly at all that day.

The Feeling

Dustin's graduated. It's pretty crazy to think that my brother has finished up his undergraduate college education. I spent this past weekend in Gainesville, Florida in order to attend his graduation ceremony. They split up the college of liberal arts, since it would have been about 2000 people total going in one ceremony, so we had the early session. Now, I don't know exactly how many people graduated at Harding during my walk, but I figured this had to be just about comparable, and I felt like my graduation took about 3 hours. Well, they defied my expectations...and managed to do everything they needed to do in 2 hours. I was impressed. I hadn't heard names read that quickly as students walked across the stage at any graduation I've been to before. The students all had a card with their name on it, getting rid of the need to have a specific list and order to go by, and they simply handed the card to the reader who would spout it off as quickly as possible and move on to the next one. The ceremony started at 2, and we were out the door by 4. I think more graduations should subscribe to the auctioneer style of reading off the names.

Today we drove back down to Atlanta to drop Dustin off for his final national frisbee tournament. He was flying out to Boulder for the week before college nationals kicks off next Friday. He won with Florida in 2006, but they lost last year at some point around the quaterfinals I believe. He's fairly certain that they've got a good shot again this year, but of course they'll have to play well as always. We'll see what happens when next weekend rolls around. Speaking of frisbee...I need to go and vote about captains for the team for the upcoming club sectionals...in September...since when did we do stuff early?

Since we were in the area, we went to the Georgia Aquarium, located in downtown Atlanta. This is the only aquarium in the world to hold whale sharks, and it has 4 of them. They are housed, along with a number of other fish and small sharks, in a tank that contains about 6.2 million gallons of water. The wall of glass holding this in is 2 feet thick, and consists of 6 panels about 50 feet high that were molded together by heat once they were brought on site. It really is a pretty spectacular place to go see. It was even featured on the Today show a number of months back, so if you're ever in the area, I would certainly recommend it. Plus, just across the street, you can go to the World of Coca-Cola if you so desire.

I'm fairly pumped about the next few months of music, as there will be a number of releases which I am looking forward to (in case you hadn't seen the ever-growing listing on the right). Right near the top of that list is the new Kutless cd which releases in about a month on June 24. They released a single for download for free on their website yesterday, so off I went to get it so I could get a little sneak-peak at the album. I'm a fan of it, so check it out if you've liked any of their stuff before. It'll take about 2.5 minutes of your time...or probably about as long as it took to read through what I've written today.

The European soccer season is quickly drawing to a close, with many of the final round games being played either this weekend or next weekend. In Spain, Real Madrid has already clinched the title, and they were applauded on to the field by the arch-rivals Barcelona. As if that were not humiliating enough, they were trounced 4-1, allowing Real to sweep them for the first time in about 20 years. Ouch. The English Premiership also has a day of tense games tomorrow, with the title and relegation teams being decided over the course of hours. Manchester United and Chelsea are tied on points, with United having the lead based on goal difference. Should United win, they will retain the title they won last year. Any other result would require Chelsea to not win in their final game. At the other end of the table, 3 teams are battling to keep from being relegated, or sent down a division. There are 2 more relegation spots left, with each team needing a win to keep from going down.

I would like to see something similar to this in American sports. There really isn't any drama at the end of a season, except for who will/will not make the post-season. Sure, it's disappointing if your team doesn't make the cut for the playoffs or whatever, but there's always next year. There's no threat of being sent down a league and having to play your way back up, you just are humiliated for a season at not advancing out of the regular season, and come back again next year on level terms with everyone. I know nothing like that would ever happen...but I think it does make for a better over-all season, knowing that every result counts, and that not getting the results can see you demoted.

At any rate, it's nice to be back home, as it's been an incredibly long week. It was non-stop at work from Monday at 7 through about Friday at 3:30 or so...and I'm just worn out. It's time to just kick back and relax for the night, which is quite an inviting proposition.

Move Me

Once again, it's been a while. However, as I type this I am sitting in my new apartment that I have been moving in to over the past couple weeks. Slowly, but surely, things are starting to get settled in. There's still a lot of boxes laying around, and I'm finding random things that I had forgotten I even had, but it's starting to get cleaned up. So that's essentially the thing that's been going on. Couple that with the usual work, as well as soccer coaching and stuff, and well...the weeks just fly right on by.

Work is still going quite well. It's been busy this week, although not quite to the point that I thought it would be since my boss has been out of town all week visiting his family. We've gotten some new instruments to play around with at work which has been exciting. It's an updated system to what we've had before, but it makes everything easier, so now things that needed to be done with polaroids and a ruler can now be done all on the computer screen while you're working with a sample. It's good stuff. I've also been running the project that was assigned to me a couple weeks ago to do on my own, so it's enough to keep one going through the day without realizing where the hours are going.

Soccer has improved since the incidents of earlier in the month. The team still isn't as good as you would think a group of middle schoolers would be, but we've come to realize that and are just trying to make it fun, while hopefully getting the ones that really are far behind in terms of skills a little bit better. We'll see how it goes. There are possibilities for it to be a good year, but just as many for it to turn out pretty horribly. We're just really hurting at a number of positions that are key, such as not having a true forward, and a goalie situation that really is not all that great. But what can you do?

At any rate, just wanted to throw something up here. I've got the weekend to get things cleaned up some more with Mandi at a girls retreat for the weekend, so I'll be cleaning and relaxing for the most part I believe. Hopefully I'll get back to putting up some things of substance in the near future.

Island

As many people who write these things probably do, I had grand schemes of posting more consistently, and further even having compelling things to blog about. And here we are 3 weeks in to the year, and I've failed miserably in both aspects. Even tonight, I really don't have anything of interest to talk about. I just felt compelled to put a little bit up here since it's been right on a week since I last updated. How lame.

The past week has been busy as well. The job is continuing nicely, although today was quite slow. I put together a long string of left-over paperclips from all the paperwork that I go through while I'm there, I read the news (a lot), I went to a training meeting which lasted for about 30 minutes, and then I started playing around with new computers and equipment trying to get it working. I also saw how you etch a surface of a metal (you get cool chemicals like HF, HCl, and HNO3) and place it on top of the metal, and let it eat it away. It's used to see the grain boundaries (the way the material is fitted together I believe) in a failure analysis, since they're investigating a piece of something that broke during use. Pretty intriguing stuff. Tomorrow morning we're bringing the heavy-duty stuff. I've also been sick with some sinus/head cold symptoms, although it has finally passed I believe.

On a pretty exciting front, our small group is putting on a dinner (for Valentine's day, but not until the 24th) for the 55+ group at church. We're cooking for them (there's a professional chef in our group), and having some games, a slideshow, and pictures of each of the couples that comes that night. I think that it will turn out to be pretty cool stuff. Mandi and a couple of the other people in the group are planning, and I'll be helping out with some of the slideshows and game things. Speaking of games, we're putting on a Newlywed Game type thing with a few of the couples, and a couple from our own group and seeing how they do. So if you can think of any good questions to ask either the husbands or the wives, let me know.

It's been bitterly cold here the past few days. Really since about last Thursday. I know, it's really nothing compared to those northern states, but for getting down to 12 and 13 degrees around here, it's getting pretty cold. I envied the Murphy's in AmSam when they posted the other day about the temperatures. Those were days that I wished I lived on an island as well...Hopefully, in the next few days, I'll have a post of substance. But until then...

Here It Goes

Usually, when there is a long break in posts by someone on a blog, it means that they have been exceptionally busy. For me...that usually just isn't the case. However, in this one particular instance, it really can be attributed to that. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

About 3 weeks ago, I sent in an applications on the recommendation of a friend. While I was doing that, I happened to see another position that I thought I might be semi-qualified for. So I sent one off for that as well. I wasn't expecting to hear much, with the Christmas holiday coming up, and figured they would end up like many of the other things that I've sent off. I'd picked up dog-sitting for a family from church for the Christmas break as they were going to be in Europe, so we (my brother and I) head off to go to the house and see the dog and let them explain to me everything that they're going to want me to do while they're gone. While there, I get a phone call, and it happens to be from one of the employers that I had just sent a resume to. They wanted me to come in the next day and meet with them to discuss possibly working with them. Of course, I'm thrilled, so I go in the next day, and after about 3 hours of talking with a number of different people, they say that they want to bring me on. It's a small company, and so they want to have a trial period to allow both of us to feel out the position and see if it would work. They ask me to come in on January 3rd to get started, and I agree, going away happy.

The next morning, I wake up and get a phone call from the other company wanting me to come in for an interview with them as well. This position is with a large coke-producing (the burned coal variety, not the beveridge) company called SunCoke. I went in for my interview with them on the 2nd of January, which worked out nicely. I would be working with them as an enviornmental engineer, doing some management work, and travelling to their sites in Indiana, Virginia, Ohio and Brazil to see that everything is being done correctly and that everything is being done in an enviornmentally safe way. They said they'd get back with me in a couple weeks time either way. At this point, I don't really know what I would do if they offer me a position as well...it's kind of a good position to be in I guess.

The small business is called Materials and Chemistry Laboratories (MCL), and they are a small forensic research company. Basically what that means is that they find out what things are that people don't know. Or maybe people do know what it is, but they want to know the exact composition of the materials. Really, it's just a bunch of work to tell people that they have certain metals, radioactive elements, asbestos, or whatever else they can manage to fit into things these days, inside of their buildings, samples, or any other thing that they send us. It's a bunch of chemistry (I know, I'm a physics major...), but it's been enjoyable for the past couple days. I've already prepared samples for a TEM (transmission electron microscope), which is a multi-step day-long process, I've atomized carbon to coat samples, and of course I've done the grunt-work of logging in samples and updating the computer files. But it's been fun, and I think that I would enjoy working there for the next couple years.

The reason for going to the second interview is that the position at MCL that I'm in currently is classified as a temporary full-time position. As I said, it's about a month-long trial period, although I really feel as if I've fit in over the past two days. The people are also training me on just about everything, and not just having me log data, which I would have thought would have been the majority of the work if it was more trial than just a safe-guard for their overall business and everything. I guess you can't really hire on full-time with a substantial salary if they're not sure the person will stick with it or work well for them. So it does open up the option of taking the other position if they decide to hire me...it's really a tough call. Mandi and I had a good discussion about it the other night for a couple hours just weighing everything, and didn't even really get to a conclusion. It's just a lot to think about, and will be even more to consider if it does end up that I get an offer for the other one. I guess that it's a lot better position to be in than I have been for the past 6 months though.

Throw in New Years Eve celebrations (I'm going to have to get pictures off Mandi's camera of our "Ugly Christmas Sweater Competition" sweaters and put them on here), time with the family, hanging out with Dustin, playing some volleyball, Mandi's upcoming birthday, and just all around general holiday craziness, and it's not all that hard for me to see where the past week has gone. It's been a good Christmas/New Years, and it's been a good week, albeit a very busy one. A belated Happy New Year to all who read this. I, for one, am looking forward to what 2008 has in store. So, here it goes.

I'm Dreaming of...South Carolina

This afternoon Mandi and I will be heading to South Carolina to see Josh and Amber for the weekend. It should be some good times. It'll be nice hanging out with them, Josh will have just finished all his finals, and Mandi will have a long weekend, so we'll just get everyone re-energized before the holidays arrive late next week. In addition, by the time we're back home, my brother will be home for Christmas break as well, so we'll hopefully be getting some good volleyball action going at church as well.

It would appear that some of my wishing for colder weather might be happening, as they are predicting some snow and such in the mountains this weekend. I don't really have hopes that are all that high, as this happens all the time, with predictions of snow, people freaking out, and then it turning in to a nice summer's day, but it does seem as if it will cool down a little. It's going to have to do so pretty quickly as a number of us are wanting to get a ski trip for sometime in January, and well...with pictures that they had from the mountains around us, the hills are nice and green, which the last time I checked, wasn't very conducive to skiing. But then again, it is Ober, and you can't really base your idea of good ski conditions on them...

As we just had our monthly "guys night" the other day, I got to thinking about the movies that we'd seen over the past year. Since that's about all that most of them are interested in doing, we just go out and eat, and then go see some "manly" movie that's out playing. The ones that I can remember off the top of my head are: Hitman, The Bourne Ultimatum, American Gangster, The Kingdom, and 3:10 To Yuma. All of them, with the exception of Hitman, were fairly good, although I didn't really care for American Gangster all that much either, although that fact that it's based on a true story is interesting. I'm kinda hoping that they'll get to a point where they might want to do something instead of just watch a movie, but the last time I suggested that it was almost like nobody heard the suggestion and just kept on deciding which movie we'd go see when nobody really wanted to see any of them in particular. Oh well. At any rate, it's time to get packing; South Carolina is beckoning.

House-sitting

The weekend provided an unexpected getaway with me house, or rather, dog-sitting for some friends from church that were going to be gone for Saturday night and would need someone to look after him so they wouldn't have to put him in a kennel for the entire weekend. I obliged, and it was nice to just have some time to myself and everything yesterday. I also got to spend some time working on my Guitar Hero abilities in practice for the New Year's Party that our small group will be having replete with XBOX and Wii. Should be good times when it comes around. But there's lots of stuff in the meantime, such as our impending trip to Charleston this weekend. I'm looking forward to it.

Of course, when you think about Christmas, one of the things that always comes to my mind at least is snow. I love it when it snows. It's all sorts of fun to play in, it cancels anything that you're obligated to be doing for the day, it's just all around good news. One of my most vivid memories around the holidays was during the "Blizzard of '93" where we got all sorts of snow here in East Tennessee, and I think that schools and everything else were closed for over a week. Now, for some people, that probably doesn't sound like much, but for Oak Ridge schools, that was huge since we were usually the only ones going to school when everyone else was out with some frost on the grass. At any rate, we were back at the house, and with a huge hill and a steep driveway directly next door, it became logical to start sledding down this driveway.

Across the circle that we live at the end of is a bunch of forest area with large trees, and a fairly substantial drop-off (especially when you're 10). But at any rate, that didn't really concern us. As most boys will do, we (my brother and I) decided that it would be spectacular to create a ramp in the circle that we would attempt to hit and go flying off in the wild blue yonder. So off we go constructing our ramp, and proceeding to go even higher up on the hill before attempting to hit it as fast as we can. Over the course of however long we were out there, the snow was gradually turning to ice due to our constant sliding down it. As we continued on, we figured out that you go faster if you're both on the sled. As we careen down the hill, which was essentially packed ice now, we start to think that it might not have been best idea. Once we hit the ramp, we know it wasn't a good idea. I'm pretty sure that Dustin flew off the sled in mid-air and landed somewhere in a snowdrift up against a tree, and I proceeded to fly down in to the ditch and in to a tree myself, cutting myself right above the eye. We got some nice air on the jump, but, needless to say, we got quite a scolding from mom when we came back in later.

The possibility of snow is not looking all that promising given that it is currently 73 degrees outside. I'll keep holding out for it though. Hopefully at some point it will actually feel like winter and there might be a chance at some snow. Given the overall hatred of the Little Drummer Boy, perhaps I'll fare a little better with the 12 Days of Christmas? Here's hoping.

Party Time!

So tonight is Mandi's company Christmas party. I'm not entirely sure what to expect, and I don't think she does either, but all I know is that there is lots of alcohol and some food or something. Oh, and a dance floor, although I'm not sure how many of the drunk co-workers will be able to dance. I don't think she's all that excited about going as she felt more obligated to go since she's on the event planning board rather than specifically wanting to. But at the least, we'll be able to sit around and mock all the people that are making fools of themselves, and Mandi will have some laughter throughout the year whenever she sees any of them at work. Apparently it's going to be a relatively small group this year due to the fact that it's not at a hotel, which means people can't get quite as trashed since they'll have to drive home instead of getting a room with 3 or 4 other couples...which apparently happens to save money or something...

As I mentioned in the last post, I'm a big fan of the Little Drummer Boy. Well, at least of the song. I think probably every kid at some point or another had to sing that song in some Christmas play or skit...in my case, I had to play it on the piano at some recital. But it's always been a tune that I've enjoyed. Of course, I don't know where Pa rum pum pum pum came from in terms of lyrics...but what can you say? It's been around for close to 40 years, along with a number of the other songs that people can't really get through Christmas without hearing. I've got a version by Jars of Clay in the player that I've grown to like quite a bit over the past week or so while listening to Christmas music off and on. I would suggest that you have a listen, and while you do that, I'll be getting ready to laugh at a bunch of people making complete idiots out of themselves. Should be good times.

A Guide To Marine Life

The weekend at Searcy turned out to be quite a bit better than I had thought it would be. I had an enjoyable time, even though I didn't really play all that much frisbee. I got to see Doc, which hadn't happened for a while, and also see his two daughters (he didn't have any when I left). He was doing well, and he's going to be moving soon. Crazy stuff. I spent Saturday playing on and off with a team from Little Rock that Jordan and Brett play on, and in between watched Mandi play with the girls team, and got myself a haircut so that I can look professional when I (hopefully) go in for an interview or two in the coming days. Sunday was spent watching and talking with people for the most part...at least until one of the torrential downpours that Arkansas is known for decided to hit Searcy. Now, on it's own that wouldn't have been all that bad, but once we started on our way home, it decided to follow us. So for 9 hours, we drove through pouring rain. I think it had to be one of my worst weather condition drives home from Searcy in all of the times that I've made that trip. In the future, when attempting long trips, check the weather, and if it's possible to not be driving in a hurricane by leaving a little earlier...make sure you do that. But we made it home, even with all the rain, and were certainly glad that we had made the trip out there.

On the job front, I've talked today with the guy from AGT in one of those initial phone-screenings, so hopefully once he's talked with a few other people they'll decide to bring me in for an interview at their company. I'm cautiously optimistic on at least getting that far. I'm still waiting to hear back from Aerotek regarding the position that they've submitted me for. Given the lady's stringent policy on what she's looking for, I'm not as hopeful for that one...but you never know what will happen. At some point, everyone has to hire for the positions that they need. I'm just hoping one of those will end up being me.

Today it kind of clicked in to being Christmas. My dad and I put the lights up on our tree, which I always enjoy looking at when it's dark outside and seeing the lights on in the living room. It's cool, just going through that each year, and having this massive temporary decoration in the middle of the house. I'm sure if I googled or wikipedied the origins of putting up trees at Christmas I'd learn something new. It's neat though, to look back through the trees that we have put up. There have been smaller ones, bigger ones, some bizarre shaped ones, but they've all looked nice by the time they're all decorated. And of course, there are always the favorite ornaments that you always look for once you've got them all put up. At my grandparents house, it was always a game when they first put the tree up to go and look for the ornaments that played music. They had 3 specific ones that all played songs when you pulled the strings, and we'd come in and immediately go and look for them, and not do anything else until we found them. In fact...I still do that. At our house, there was a bizarre light on one of the strands that we'd hunt for. It really looked like an ice cream cone covered in sprinkles almost. And then there was a musical one hidden away somewhere.

There is also the requisite Christmas music. I've always liked the Little Drummer Boy, Do You Hear What I Hear, and of course, the 12 Days of Christmas. I'll put up the Relient K version in a while when we get closer to actual Christmas time. Christmas also signaled the year-end Christmas Recital for piano, where we'd play some songs for our parents and any other students parents. There was usually some standard classical fare, and then some fun Christmas stuff mixed in with some sing-along material. I generally liked this recital the best out of the yearly ones, I guess just because it was more laid back and mostly about having fun rather than putting on a good performance. And besides, how can you be nervous when you're thinking about having a holiday, and presents, and food? I think pretty soon I'm going to have to go find our Christmas music books and bust out some songs.

But here it begins, the countdown to yet another year. The theme for the rest of my posts this year will probably be recollections from the past year. And Mandi, no comments about my inability to remember things.

Strangeness...

I'm sitting here in Stone and Whitey's apartment dining room, and it's really just kind of strange. Brett and G-Dub are here as well...and while it's not like when I was big on the frisbee team, but it's almost the same. We've just been sitting around chatting and laughing and everything, and now they've got the TV on, so I figured I'd do a little typing and check all my emails and such. I think there will be more people coming back, like Jake Beveridge and Luke Dockery, so it should be good times. I don't really even know if I'll be playing tomorrow, as I don't want to play on the Harding team since they have their own thing going on and I don't really want to interfere with that. There might even be enough to sort of form an alumni team...but we'll just have to see at some point.

There's been a number of things that have changed in the past year since I got here. The construction that was going on as soon as you got off Interstate 55 was finished, with a 4 lane road going on for about 4 or 5 miles once you first get off the interstate. There's a new Burger King across the street from the McDonald's on Beebe Caps and there's an IHOP next to the Wal-mart. That's about all the changes that I can remember right off the top of my head. I've been here for about 6 hours or so, and the first bit of it was spent just lounging around. I went with Brett to a concert in the Benson with a singer that I've never heard of before. She was pretty good, and it was mostly just mellow, bluesy, piano-driven ballads. We only stayed for about 4 or 5 songs, and then went for Sonic.

The drive down was really enjoyable, as I finally got to spend some time with Mandi and talk with her for more than a few minutes at a time or on the phone. It was good times, and probably one of the quickest drives down here to Searcy from Knoxville in a long time. It's really been a long time since Mandi and I were able to spend some time together like that, so it was really a good thing. After this weekend, back home for a couple, and then off to Charleston.

There has been some movement on the job front. I've been called by a company in Knoxville called AGT (Atmospheric Glow Technologies), and they were wanting to talk with me about a position that I applied to on Sept. 3. I haven't actually gotten a hold of anyone to talk with them yet, but I should on Monday, so maybe something good will come out of that. Just have to wait and see. I think it would be pretty cool, although I don't know if I really qualify as a Senior Technician...but maybe they'll have something that I can jump in with.

Last night was excellent. I didn't really know what to expect from the concert, but Keith Urban puts on quite the good show. He's one of those people that knows how to engage an entire arena. I had a good time there, and I'm pretty sure that Mandi did as well. As that was only my second concert, I'd have to say that I've been to 2 excellent, if rather different, concerts. Maybe I'll be able to go to a few more in the coming years if I can get myself a job and make some money.

I just realized that it's already 1:00 AM. And we got up way to early this morning after our late night...and all that driving...I'm out.

Excitement All Around

It's been a crazy week, and it's looking to be another one coming up. Of course, with Thanksgiving, we had family in town, and we all went to my grandparents house for a Thanksgiving dinner with my aunt and uncle and 3 cousins from Nashville. Speaking of the 3 cousins, they are all just about taller than me. The first is 6-3, the second is 5-10 or so, and the third is about 5-3 (and he's just 10 years old). I don't know what they're feeding them up there, but they're giants. My aunt and uncle on my mom's side from Missouri also came in for the weekend, so we got to spend some good time with them, and played lots of cards with my uncle as that is something we always do. Dustin was in for the weekend as well, so there was some good volleyball action going on as well. It was an excellent (tiring) weekend.

I don't know if it was out of stupidity or being tired or what, but I thought it would be fun to get up ridiculously early on Friday and go and see what specials we could pick up. There were a number of good deals that I saw in all the ads that I thought would be steals, so I suggested it to mom, and after talking for a bit, she got excited about the idea, so off we went at 4:30 in the morning to Knoxville to the shopping area that every guy would probably like to live in the middle of. You've got Dick's Sporting Goods, Best Buy, Lowe's, Circuit City, and 4 or 5 restaurants all in about a 300 yard circle. We just went and parked and then went to wherever we wanted to go. We waited outside Best Buy for about 45 minutes, which wasn't anywhere near as long as I thought that it would be, and managed to get some steals on electronic stuff and DVD's and such. Circuit City proved to be the longest wait of all, mostly because the store is small and so they couldn't have a lot of people in there at a time. I think I've gotten my share of this early morning shopping for a while...but who knows. Maybe next year it'll be the same. I don't think I'll ever get to the point where I'm camping out on Thursday afternoon to get in though...

This weekend will be my first trip back to Harding since Mandi graduated. We've decided that we'll be heading back to Armageddon II, mostly just to see friends and such, although I'm sure we'll end up playing some as well. I think I'm staying at Whitey's place with Stone and about 7 or 8 other guys that are going to be there for the weekend. It's going to be crazy. We're also going to a Keith Urban concert tomorrow night here in Knoxville, which should be good times. And a couple weeks from now I'll hopefully be in Charleston, SC if it works out with a place to stay and such. I'll need to get with Josh on that one...

The job hunt is going...slowly. I've had a little response from a recruiting company called Aerotek who has a few places that they are looking to place people that thought I would be a good fit for. They're currently compiling info on me to send to these companies and then reviewing it with them, and hopefully I'll be able to get an interview with one of them and maybe get myself a job here in a month or so. In the meantime, I've been looking for some type of temporary or part-time stuff, but nobody really is looking for any as far as I've found yet. Who knows. Hopefully something will come up soon in some fashion or other. I'd take rejection letters now just to know that it's actually being looked at. But oh well...I think this is probably the hardest part, just getting that first job. Once you've got some experience it surely can't be this hard. Oh well...it's back to the hunt for now.

Before Tomorrow Comes

The holiday season is here. In what is probably many people's favorite time of the year, we have almost a month where there are family get-togethers, an abundance of food, gift-giving and receiving, and just a general time of joy. It's funny, looking back at these times over the years that have passed, and just seeing how much has happened. At the same time, there's a lot that hasn't changed either. I just looked back over some of the things that I wrote about this time last year. Speaking of changes and everything...this time last year, I was finishing up some big projects for school, I was grading lab finals, I was playing in a frisbee tournament in Knoxville where Jake got his face busted, and Mandi was still at Harding. I am definitely looking forward to the end of this year though, and all of the things that will be happening over the next month.

Luke's last post on gratitude is an exceptional little piece on what we as Christians feel towards Christ for what he has done. I suggest you head over there and give it a read when you get the chance. Being as it is the Thanksgiving season, it is especially appropriate...which I figure is the reason that he wrote it. And there are many things to be thankful, and grateful, for, such as family, friends, and the many multitudes of blessings that we enjoy every day.

Along the lines of what Luke was saying, these blessings, and our own feelings about them, should compel us to make a difference. Something about Mandi that I've always admired is her desire to do something that will change the world. And I don't say that in a flippant manner, as it is something that she truly wants to do. And the more we've talked about what she wants, and the types of things that she's wanting to get involved in when she's finished up school and everything, I've seen just how much this means to her. I think that she sees how blessed she is, and she wants to go out and make a difference for people in any way that she can, wherever she can. She will do great things in the future.

I'm sorry to say that the attitude she exhibits is one that does not come easily to me, but I can't help but to be excited about it and want to help as well whenever she does talk about it. I have no idea what I will do that will have a huge impact, or whether anything I ever do will have what could be described as a huge impact, but the important thing is to get out there and do something. I have to thank Mandi for making me realize this. Given our incredible blessings, we should feel moved to go and make a difference for others who are not as fortunate as ourselves. Does that mean we need to move around the world in order to do this? Not necessarily. Does it mean you need to get out of your comfort zone? More than likely. All I know is that I need to take steps to make a difference. Before tomorrow comes, you could change everything. There's only one way to find out though.

A Few Nights of Culture

This past weekend was quite busy. On Friday, I got to spend most of the day with Mandi for the first time in a while since she didn't have to go to Nashville for classes. It was a welcome break for her, as she's done for the semester. Just has a paper to write in the next couple of weeks. To celebrate, we went to Taste of Thai...possibly the best restaurant ever. At least when you're looking for Asian food. Josh, next time you're around here, we'll go to Magic Wok and then we'll go to Taste of Thai. You just can't be disappointed.

Saturday was filled with more work on the new additions in the house. Dad worked on getting wall studs put in so that we can put up electrical boxes for the room, which will allow electricity for the lighting and hot tub to get put in. I put on the second coat of paint in the room while he was drilling holes in the concrete floor. Maybe tonight we'll finish up some of the wall things in order to get the switches and such put in. It's coming along though. That evening, Mandi's dad had got tickets to a surprise something or other. I didn't know I was going, but at about 3:45 Mandi calls and says that there was a misunderstanding and I was supposed to be going with them. So I get going and show up to their place, and we leave about 5:40 with these mystery tickets. It turned out that the Knoxville Opera was doing a performance at a church in town, and since Mark's company was promoting it, he had gotten tickets for everything. So we were there from about 5:45 to 8:30 that night. Not the best example of opera as it was just piano and singing, but it was alright. Certainly nothing compared to Carmen that Mandi and I saw earlier in the year.

Sunday was a good day as well. Church in the morning, where we're doing an interesting study through the book of Acts. Yesterday's discussion centered on the story of Annanias and Sapphira. You remember the story, where they sell some land and bring the money, but falsely claim that they are bringing the whole amount that they received. They are both struck down and die immediately after they lie. The question that was discussed was mainly, why such a harsh punishment for this act? And how much blame could really be given to Sapphira who either had the choice of hanging her husband out to dry, or lying to Peter? Was she completely at fault herself? Or was it because she was married to Annanias and therefore was sort of brought along due to his sinfulness and harshly punished? It was interesting to think about.

Lunch was a spectacular Indian curry that Cathie made. I had not been a huge fan of my previous experience in Indian cuisine, so it was a pleasant surprise at how good this was. Actually, I think she said she got the curry from people from Qatar. So Qatar curry I guess is more appropriate for a description. The evening was finished off with a chocolate fest as one of the ladies in our small group was celebrating a birthday, so we brought all sorts of different chocolate desserts to the party. There was chocolate cheesecake prepared by a chef in our group, we made chocolate-peanut butter pie, there were cookies, chocolate fondue, ice cream cake...I'm pretty sure we were all on a sugar high. That might help explain some of why I'm not feeling all that well this morning...but it was worth it last night.

Something pretty cool that my mom does is the Foothills Craft Guild. Essentially it's a bunch of artists from around the area that are in this guild to show their crafts and artistic abilities. They are having a show this weekend where they are all displaying and selling their creations and such. It's really pretty neat. Mom will be displaying her Temari balls and her baskets that she makes, so she's pretty much frantically working on getting some things together since she's only been home for the past week or so. I've never actually gone to the show before, but Mandi and I plan on going this weekend at some point to look around. Should be pretty cool to see some of the things that people are making in the area. With all this culturizing (is that a word? I don't think so...) I don't quite know what I'll do with myself. I'll have to hold off for a while after this thought I'm thinking. Even so, in honor of culture (somewhat), the music in the player is from the Transformers movie score.

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?

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.

My Home

For the next 3 weeks, I have the house. It's just me and the cat running the whole place. I'm sure my mom is terrified. She kept telling me that she wanted it all to look the same as it did when she left...I don't know why she's personally so worried about it. It's not like I'll be calling up all sorts of people to have wild parties out here and everything over the next few days...or will I?

That reminds me of a classic story from the days of 1106 where the Murphy's and some other good friends lived for a year. It involved the "Shaggin' Wagon", a Friday evening, and some girls at Harding. Seeing as the 1106 guys were taking it easy on this particular Friday evening, they decided to go out and about in Paul's affectionately remembered minivan. It was amazing how long that van ran for them. I think it's still going somewhere. At any rate, they all piled in to the van and went driving around. I think some of them might have even had some goodwill suits on (although I might be confusing that with another story). As they were driving, they happened across the girls laundromat on campus, and seeing as there were a number of women inside doing their laundry (on a friday night?), they thought they might go in and ask them if they'd like to go and hang out for a while. How serious they were about this proposition, I don't really know, but it elicited a classic Harding response. After the question was asked if any of them would like to go out and party and have some fun, one of the girls said, "We don't party here". Dejected, the guys in the shaggin' wagon had to spend the rest of the evening by themselves. At least, that's how I remember it being told. You'd have to ask P-Murphy himself for the actual account. Mandi and I frequently joke about "not partying" in mockery of that whole story. I mean, I know sometimes you just have to get the laundry done...but really. And who wouldn't want to hang out with the guys from 1106 anyway? Well, maybe not the present occupants, but the ones from 2 years ago were certainly top-notch.

The song that's in the player now reminds me, however, that my home is not this earthly place that we inhabit at the moment. Our home is with God and Christ, and that one day we will be reunited with him. It's essentially the same theme as the classic hymn "This World Is Not My Home" but...rockified? And different lyrics. Here they are:

This place is many things, but I'd never call it home,
It's just a building in a city, everywhere I go
This place is many things, but I can't call it home,
Home is the place you are and I just wanna let you know

And I've done a few things I wasn't proud of,
I've said a few things that hurt you,
But you're still the only one who fills me up,
And every night spent alone, was worth it

You are my home, you are my everything, when I feel so alone,
You are my home, you are my shelter, when all my hope is gone

And I've seen many things, but they don't look like home,
They're just the bright lights from a city glowing all night long,
And I've seen many faces, but they all look the same,
Home is the place you are, and I just wanna let you know

That I've done a few things I wasn't proud of,
I've said a few things that hurt you
But you're still the only one who fills me up
And all the tears that we've shared were worth it

You are my home, you are my everything, when I feel so alone,
You are my home, you are my shelter, when all my hope is gone
You are my home, you are my everything, when I feel so alone,
You are my heart, you are the one, when it all comes undone
When it all comes undone, when it all comes undone

At times it's difficult to remember that we are supposed to be in the world but not of the world. My home, for eternity, is with Christ. Mandi, I hope the title made more sense to you this time around.