Rick's Blog

What's on my mind?

2008-02-04T10:14:00.000-06:00

Robbie asked what's on my mind, so here it is: classes.

This is a pretty busy semester. I am taking several classes with significant (in quantity) outside readings. Fortunately I really like the classes, and the readings are interesting, but this does not affect the about of time this consumes.

One of these classes is Introduction to Music Ministry. Right now we are reading "Music Through the Eyes of Faith" by Harold Best. This is a very interesting book, and the discussion that this provokes is very interesting and applicable.

Another one of these classes is Christian Worship. This is a class about the history, and different types of Christian worship. This class is also very interesting. It at least six visits to other denominations and styles of worship. That should prove to be very eye opening.

Although this semester is busy, I think that it will be a very good one.

So Robbie, that is what's on my mind.

Skiing

2008-02-02T20:17:00.000-06:00

Two weeks a go Jeremy and I went skiing. It was really really really fun. Unfortunately, that was a while ago, so that's not exactly what's on my mind now, but I would be doing an injustice if I didn't mention it. So here are just a few pictures:

This is after the ski lift ran over my pole, breaking it in half.

This is me on the snowmobile. Lots of fun!

This Past Week

2008-01-13T22:20:00.000-06:00

This past week has been fairly boring. Both my mom and Robbie went back to school this week. This left me home alone all day. The only significant thing I did all week was go to Malibu Grand Prix. On Tuesdays they have all the go carts you want for $20. So Robbie, my dad, and I raced go carts for over five hours. That was a lot of fun, but it made us pretty sore after that.

So the rest of the week I basically sat at home. Thanks to CNN.com Live I got to watch live coverage of the Mark Jensen trial all day. Mark Jensen is accused of poisoning his wife with antifreeze in 1998. Its pretty interesting. This past week was the first week of what is expected to be an eight week trial.

On Thursday we took my car to Auto Service Center for a check-up. While there they fixed the front passenger door's power lock, so it works now. They also replaced the coolant reservoir so that my dashboard isn't constantly warning me of low coolant. They also replaced the front brake pads, and rear brake cylinders.

Today I went down to visit Marty in Griffin. It was pretty nice to see him, and to go to a service at his church. I haven't been down there for a service in a few year.

So that's been my week!

GA Aquarium/World of Coke/CNN

2008-01-07T09:26:00.000-06:00

On Wednesday Jeremy came to Atlanta to visit Kenny and me. On Thursday we went to the Georgia Aquarium. That was a lot of fun, I had been before though. On Friday we went to the World of Coke. I had also been there before. But this time, in the tasting area, Kenny and I were asked to go behind the counter and play a game where a kid had to name the coke flavors. After that he had us help pour espresso for the taste testing. That was actually pretty fun. After that we went to the CNN Center. I really like the CNN Center. Unfortunately, Kenny had to get back, so we didn't have time to take the tour. I've done that before too, but I really like it. Here are a few pictures to prove we really did do everything I just said:

(Left to Right) Kenny, Jeremy and Me at the GA Aquarium.

Me with some Jellyfish

Jeremy and Me with the Coke Bear at The World of Coke

Me helping John Pemberton mix his new invention

Me in front of the CNN Center

The CNN Center food court

The CNN Center

I also got this slick CNN mug while we were at the CNN Center

On Saturday we also went to the DeKalb Farmer's Market

The Importance of Diction

2007-12-21T14:30:00.000-06:00

I found this on UAB Choirs blog:

Here are the actual words - but don't look until you've watched it without them at least once and tried to make sense of it!

1. Blessed city, heavenly Salem,
vision dear of peace and love,
who of living stones art builded
in the height of heaven above,
and, with angel hosts encircled,
as a bride dost earthward move;

2. from celestial realms descending,
bridal glory round thee shed,
meet for him whose love espoused thee,
to thy Lord shalt thou be led;
all thy streets and all thy bulwarks
of pure gold are fashioned.

Gmail

2007-12-17T07:22:00.000-06:00

Some of you may recall over 1 1/2 years ago when I reviewed the then new Yahoo! Mail Beta (now out of beta). In that post I praised Yahoo! Mail, and bashed Gmail. In the last year and a half, both of these services have changed somewhat. But more importantly, what I value in an email service has changed. Gmail offers for free what I pay 20$/year for Yahoo. Gmail offers free POP3and IMAP support. I can get all of my email (Yahoo! and Samford) coming into Gmail. Of course, I could already do that with Yahoo!, but the web interface is much better with Gmail. Gmail is much faster to load, it is more reliable, and it is more innovative. Where Yahoo! Mail is basically a traditional desktop application in your web browser, Gmail uses an interface that does not hog system resources, and is still just as fast and intuitive.

As some of you may know, I save every email. I have been doing this since June 2004. In that time I have accumulated over 20,000 emails. Because of this, I did not want to switch email services, knowing that all of my emails would be somewhere else. But because Gmail introduced IMAP, I now have to ability to upload all of my existing email onto Gmail.

So how is Gmail better? It is better in three ways: labels, archiving mail, and premium services for free.

Labels allow you to label an email, without moving them from you inbox or else where. Because I keep all of my email, my inbox was flooded. Why did I never create folders in other email applications? Because not every email could be categorized. With folders, I would have to have a few specific folders (i.e. newsletters, facebook emails, work related, etc.) and then on big miscellaneous folder of emails that could not be categorized. However, with Gmail, I can apply labels to the emails that need one, and archive all of my mail (which is my second point). Archiving mail takes it out of the inbox, but does not delete it. It is still searchable, and viewable in the "All Mail" view. This keeps my inbox clear, but still doesn't force me to categorize every email that comes in.

The last big reason why Gmail is better is because they offer premium services for free. As I've said, Gmail offers both POP3 and IMAP. They also offer free mail forwarding. Although Yahoo! Mail offers more storage (unlimited), Gmail's nearly 6gb is plenty for me.

I've said several times that Gmail's interface is both innovative and intuitive. I'll explain some of these aspects. When viewing an email, a reply box is below the email, allowing you to reply to the email very easily. If you click "Forward" then the reply box instantly changes, so that you can forward the email right from there. And Gmail offers filters, which can automatically apply labels, skip the inbox, delete the email, or forward the email (you could use this to forward it to you cell phone, thus alerting you when a specific email arrives). Also, Gmail offers seamless integration of AIM. This allows you to be online through Gmail. You can send and receive messages, and put up away messages.

Because of the numerous aforementioned reasons, I have decided to switch to Gmail.

My Semester Thus Far

2007-10-16T08:51:00.000-05:00

Well, its been almost exactly three months since my last post. I will summarize my semester so far.

First of all, here is my class schedule:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

8:00-8:50 Form and Analysis
9:15-10:20 Theatre Appreciation (Mon and Wed; Friday is trumpet lesson)
10:30-11:35 Music History
11:40-12:15 Piano Lesson with Dr. Sanders (Wednesday only)
1:00-2:05 A Cappella Choir
2:15-3:20 Handbells

Tuesday, Thursday

9:00-9:50 Diction
3:15-5:00 Marching Band

Also this semester I have started a new internship at Shades Crest Baptist Church. I get to work with Tim Mann there. My responsibilities there are to direct a beginner's children handchimes choir, sing in the adult choir, and play in the orchestra. I have to be there about 12 hours a week. Usually I go in on Tuesdays between diction and marching band for a few hours to total 12 hours a week. Usually when I do what ever Tim needs me to do. The last few weeks I've been working on cataloging the handbell music.

Also with this intership Tim gives me the oportunity to be totally responsible for teaching, and conducting one anthem per semester with the adult choir. This semester I'm doing Come to the Water arranged by Jack Schrader (from this link you can listen to the piece). We started this piece about three weeks ago, and the choir is doing very good on it. This will be the anthem on November 4th.

That's basically my whole semester in a nutshell.

The Summer

2007-07-17T07:47:00.000-05:00

I haven't updated but once in the past year, so I figure maybe its time for another update.

This summer I've been staying in Birmingham. I've helped for two weeks at a children's music camp at Samford. That was pretty fun. I just helped some kids practice and watched kids during their break most of the day.

One week Sadie and I went to Sarah's wedding in Columbus, GA. After that we went up to Atlanta for a few days, then down to Florida for a few more days. It was good to spend a week or so with her.

Now today I'm going to be going down to Dothan with Jeremy for a few days. We'll probably go to the lake some and just hang out. He wanted to go down one more time during the summer.

From July 30 - August 2 I'm gonna be helping at a preteen camp with Mountain Brook Baptist Church. That should be a lot of fun. I'm going to get to lead a Bible study with some 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. Sharon (the children's minister) sent me a rough draft of the Bible studies, and they look pretty good.

The week after I get back from camp (August 6) I will start my internship at Shades Crest. I'm going to be directing a beginner handbell choir. That should be very interesting, but I think it'll be fun and a very good experience. I'll also be singing in the choir, playing in the orchestra, and helping Tim (the music minister) out with whatever he needs. He's also said that he'll let me teach and conduct an anthem for both the adult choir, and youth choir this semester. I think that will be a very good experience. I took choral conducting this past semester and learned a lot, but when your only "lab choir" is half of the A Capella choir there's only so much you can learn about conducting a church choir.

That's all for now, maybe I'll have more in the future!

The Race

2006-10-30T16:22:00.000-06:00

yesterday me and robbie went to the nextel cup race at atlanta. it was fantastic. the race started at 2:55. me and robbie got there at a little before 10. we went around and looked all the team's trailers that were selling the memorabilia. robbie bought a jimmie johnson hat, and i bought another jeff gordon shirt. then we went to the nextel fan experience. in there was a free nascar simulator. that was a lot of fun. then we had some johnsonville brats for lunch. then at about 1:30 we went into the grandstands. we were sitting in between turns 3 and 4. before race some people were jumpin' out of planes and stuff. they also shot some t-shirts into the grandstands. despite robbie's valiant effort, i still caught one of them. then after the national anthem and all the race started. i have a video of that:

the race was so exciting. jeff lead for a good while. but then jaimie mcmurray rear ended him, but jeff fought back for 6th place finish. of course every time dale jr. go the lead the whole place went crazy. tony stewart ended up winning the race, and jimmie johnson finished 2nd.

here are a few pictures from the race:

after the race the traffic was ridiculous. it took us an hour just to get out of the parking lot, then another hour to get to the interstate (which would normally take about 20 min),

and then i drove back to birmingham. and that was my weekend!

The Lake

2006-05-22T06:04:00.000-05:00

this past weekend me, jeremy, and jason went down to the lake near jeremy's house down in dothan. that was a lot of fun. we rode sea-doos, which are basically jetskis but a little different. there's really not a whole lot to say about it, so here's some pictures, and a few videos:

here is me on the sea-doo

jeremy on the sea-doo

jason on the sea-doo

me and jeremy on the sea-doo

me jason and jeremy

this is a video of me riding the sea-doo

this is another video of me riding the sea-doo

this is a video of jason falling off the sea-doo

this video is of me putting mentos into diet dr. thunder. we randomly decided to do that on saturday morning.

The Frustration

2006-05-15T11:03:00.000-05:00

this has been a frustrating day...and its only 11:00.

so i had the rest of my piano exam today. first i did my diminished 7th arpeggios. those went alright. i have a few flukes, but nothing i couldn't fix when i gave it another shot. then i did my dominant 7th arpeggios. those were about the same as the other arpeggios. then i did my accompaniment. i played for perry on trombone. that didn't really go well. i don't know what happened. i was doing pretty ok by myself. then with dr. fouse and mrs. macon in there it just didn't go well. so after that i was expecting to pass technique (the arpeggios) but probably fail accompaniment. well...i failed both. dr. fouse said "it seems like ur just playing the arpeggios by ear." the frustrating thing is that these will never have any benefit for me. piano majors don't have to do diminished 7th arpeggios. obviously they don't think when a piano major is teaching piano lessons or accompanying a choir or playing piano solos that diminished 7th arpeggios will help them. so y do they think when i'm directing a choir, or teaching trumpet lessons that diminished 7th arpeggios will help me? it makes no sense. assuming i was playing them by ear, that would be much more beneficial for me than memorizing them. i mean, playing by ear is a good skill to have.

so now, i'm gonna have to work on scales (because apparently i can't just redo the part of techniques that i failed), and my accompaniment over the summer, then retest the week before classes start while i'm here for band camp.

but at least after i'm finally finished and once i get settled in my career i'll be able to stand before a choir in a wednesday night rehearsal, and play my diminished 7th arpeggios. and that will make me a better music minister...right...

2006-05-13T10:15:00.000-05:00

the last few days have been pretty good, but nothin' special.

wednesday was the last day of classes!!!

thursday was "dead day" (meaning no classes or exams) for everyone except me...i had my piano proficiency exam. that went pretty well. i still have to do the rest of it on monday mornin' at 9 though.

thursday night i finally saw gone with the wind. that's sadie's favorite movie. that's a really really long movie. i think it would be a really good 2 hour movie. but who the heck wants to sit there for four(!!!) hours watchin' this spoiled little brat (scarlet) take marry men over and over??

friday was a good day. i took my cp final. that took forever. it took 2 1/2 hours! but it was good to get it over with. i think i did fairly well on it, but we'll see.

friday night i went over to jeremy's for supper and to watch the fugitive (my favorite movie). we got some chicago style pizza. it was really good, but it was really really deep. then we watched the fugitive. that is such a fantastic movie.

today should be another good day. i'm gonna go to lunch in a while, but i'm gonna practice piano and trumpet for a while. my trumpet jury is monday. then i'm gonna watch the race tonight. i'm really excited about that. i've been really slacking on NASCAR lately. i havn't watched a race in a few months.

a side note: robbie's gone to barcelona for the summer. that's pretty exciting. and he's finally started blogging. that's pretty exciting. he's been really good about updating it. he tends to write a lot, which given his situation is a very good thing. so here's his blog: http://robbieinbarcelona.blogspot.com

another sidenote: a few days ago my key fob for my taurus stopped working. i got a new batter, but it still doesn't work. i'm gonna try reprogramming it, hopefully that will fix it. but its been pretty annoying not having my key fob working. i mean, i always loose my car in the parking garage, so i would just keep hitting the panic button and wandering around until i heard it. but now it takes me a while to find my car everytime...but hopefully that will all change today when i reprogram it.

The Formal

2006-05-08T16:53:00.000-05:00

saturday night was the formal. that was a lot of fun. there was some supper, a little dancing and just a whole bunch of random stuff. naturally i have some pictures:

sadie's pretty much a photoholic so there's lots more pictures, i just only put the ones of us on here, but here's the others.

after the formal was over a bunch of us went to ihop. and that was the whole formal night.

you can read sadie's more detailed account of formal here: http://slimsadie626.blogspot.com

2006-05-03T22:42:00.000-05:00

so today was an interesting day...

i got a call from jeremy at 10:15 this morning. he wanted to know if i had a 10:30 class, and if i didn't then could i go with him to the emergency room. he said he had been having chest pains since last night and was getting worried. well i did have a 10:30 class, but i offered to go with him after that. he also had a 10:30 music history class, and he decided that was more important than going to the ER, so he didn't go to the ER till after the class.

so then at about 12:15 me and sadie go to keep jeremy company in the er waiting room. finally after wandering around doctor's offices and the hospital for about 15 minutes we found the ER waiting room. jeremy had been waiting since about 11:45. finally at about 12:50 they called him into the ER.

once we get in there jeremy has to take his shirt off and put a little gown on (thank goodness he could keep his pants on since sadie was there...that might've been mildly awkward). then a guy came in and did an EKG, then they left and told us a doctor would be in a while. well to me, a while means at least 15 minutes.

so naturally we...well really mainly i, started to look around the room at all the things. one fun thing was the little reclining chair (like in a dentist office). well naturally i started playing with the controls. so i wanted to see how high it could go (this was while jeremy was still sitting in it). so i got it really high, about 4 feet off the ground, when the doctor knocked on the door and came in. we were all trying so hard not to laugh...i'm sure i had this really guilty look on my face.

then then jeremy goes to get a chest x-ray. then after that the doctor tells us that everything looks good, and it was probably nothing to worry about. but he said it may be a blood clot, so we had to stay and wait for them to do some some blood tests which took about an hour.

finally after an hour the doctor comes in the room. and says, "looking at the blood test it looks like there's a good chance it was a blood clot, but..." then his phone rang and he stepped out for a minute, then came back in and said "that was the blood lab, they got ur blood mixed up, u blood was fine and its deffinently not a clot." so that was kind of...scary, for about 20 seconds we all thought he had a blood clot. but it turns out everything was ok, and there's nothing to worry about.

here's a few pics from the fun afternoon:

here's me and jeremy waiting to hear back from the blood test

now i don't really remember exactly how this picture came about, but just keep in mind that jeremy did keep his shorts on

p.s. sadie just got a real blog today: http://slimsadie626.blogspot.com

2006-05-02T19:35:00.000-05:00

the end of the semester is starting to come to an end. its the last full week of classes before finals start on friday of next week.

this will be a fairly busy week. i've got some theory homework i've got to do this week, and i should probably go on and start studying for my cp exam cause i need to do good on that. and i need to start really practicing for my trumpet jury, and i really need to practice for my piano proficiency test which will be next thursday at 10:30.

this week is should also be a very good week. friday night is going to be the spring concert for the combined (a cappella choir and university chorale) choirs and orchestra. we had an extra rehearsal last night for that, and we've got another rehearsal thursday night.

then on saturday i'm going to the delta omicron/phi mu alpha formal with sadie. that should be fun.

i'm going to be working in the computer lab a lot these next few weeks. extended hours for the library started this week, so now we're open until 2 am rather than midnight. so i'm gonna be working until 2 am on wednesday night (thursday morning) for the next two weeks. then during exam week (week of may 15) i'm gonna be working a bunch. i only have one exam during exam week and that is on friday may 12, so i'm gonna be done except for juries. so i'm gonna be working 7pm till midnight on that tuesday night (may 16) and 12pm till 6 on wednesday (may 17). then i should be coming home on thursday the 18th.

my summer plans r still up in the air. its looking pretty doubtful that i'll get a music internship at a church like i had wanted. but i have gotten an...interesting job offer, but i'm sure i'll have lots to say about that later.

now for some reason i've randomly decided to add a picture for this afternoon at lunch of me and sadie, even though i look mildly retarded.

Have You Used Internet Explorer Lately?

2006-04-29T11:44:00.000-05:00

if ur visiting my blog using internet explorer u've probably noticed some changes...

most notably is the new page that comes up encouraging you to use firefox. i used a script that came from explorerdestroyer.com. it detects whether you r using internet explorer or not, and if you are then it will show you that page, but if your using firefox, then it will take you directly to my blog. here is a screenshot of what u get when you visit with internet explorer:

(click image to enlarge)

i'm sure many of you (statistically 94%) will find this pretty annoying. but if you switch to firefox it won't happen anymore. but in the future, u can by pass this page by using noff.ricksblog.org (the "noff" stands for no firefox), but i would encourage you to switch to firefox.

last i remember hearing about 8% of internet users use firefox. however, of my visitors only 6% use firefox. that's pretty disappointing considering i know i personally switched at least 5 of my readers to firefox.

here is a bar graph showing the percentage of visitors using each browser:

(click image to enlarge)

while we're on the subject of internet explorer versus firefox, this past week i downloaded the internet explorer 7 beta. although there are some improvements over the previous version of internet explorer, it is still worse than firefox. my biggest complaint is just the installation. microsoft just has to make a huge production out of everything they do. the installation file for firefox is less than half the size of ie 7 (ff is just 5 mb while ie7 is 12mb). and the installation of ie 7 took about 5 minutes. one of the biggest problems with ie is the fact that it is terribly intertwined with the operating system, which ie7 still is. overall firefox is just much more streamlined and easy to use than the new internet explorer 7.

for a less biased review (although they come to the same conclusion as i have) see pcmag's review of ie 7

2006-04-26T20:50:00.000-05:00

well...its been quite awhile since i updated last, so i guess i'll just start with this weekend.

this weekend had some good parts, and some not so great parts. i had to finish writing a paper that was due monday morning. that was no fun. but then saturday night i went over to jeremy's and hung out with jeremy, jason, kara, and sadie for a while. that was a lot of fun. then me and sadie watched lion king. i havn't watched that movie in forever. then sunday mornin' i went to church and we sang jesus paid it all (a nice sunday after easter piece). then me and sadie went to o'charlie's. that was really good. then i was all ready to watch the race when i got back, when i found out it was saturday night...i was kind of upset. then i finished up my paper.

and then monday , tuesday, and today have all been normal days...

Holy Week

2006-04-16T17:39:00.000-05:00

its been a good long while since my last real update, so i figure i'll just update u on this past week (holy week).

sunday i played in an easter program at fbc pell city. that was fun, i like doing that sort of thing. then i randomly saw mrs. criswell who i haven't seen in like 8 yrs.

then....pretty much the rest of the week was regular.

then friday (good friday) me and sadie went to eat at olive garden, then we went to see failure to launch.

then yesterday (anticipation saturday) i spent pretty much the whole day at vestavia hills baptist for the rutter requiem rehearsal. then that night we had the performance. i think it went very well, and it was a lot of fun. then after that some of us went out to cheese cake factory for a little dessert.

then today (easter sunday) i played in the orchestra at vhbc then right after the service i drove back to atlanta to have easter lunch with my family.

and that was my holy week.

Yahoo! Mail Beta

2006-04-08T11:08:00.000-05:00

falling in love with email all over again

yahoo finally let me start using the new Yahoo! Mail Beta. i must say it is very exciting. its like an email program right in your browser. i know that for some reason many people have fallen in love with GMail (i'm not sure if its the fact that google never deletes any of your emails, or that fact that google knows everything about you from you emails and searches) but the new Yahoo! Mail is definitely better. you can drag messages to different folders, messages load in the blink of an eye, and you can send an email very quickly. here is a nice little screen shot:

as you can see there is even a nice viewing pane on the bottom half of the screen. and it even uses tabs for writing new messages, forwarding mail, etc.

if your interested i have plenty of yahoo! mail invites...oh wait...you don't need one for yahoo mail, just gmail.

for a more thorough reveiw of Yahoo! Mail Beta visit here.

Spring Forward

2006-04-01T10:32:00.000-06:00

The clocks turn AHEAD [spring!] on Sunday, April 2nd at 2:00am
good time to change those batteries in the smoke detectors

well, its been about two weeks since a regular, informative post, so here's one:

this weeks been a fairly decent week. its been hard since its the week after spring break. i haven't quite felt up to par either. i think its been sort of a mixture of allergies (itchy eyes, sneezing, and stuffy nose) and somethin' else (cough, sore throat, and headaches).

so monday was just regular classes...

tuesday was some more regular classes, and that's when i started to feel less than 100%.

wednesday was a really long day, but it was really good too. i was busy from about 1:00 till 8:45 at night, then i had to work in the computer lab from 10-midnight. so we had uc at 1, that was in hodges chapel because we're singing at an evensong on tuesday night. the rehearsal was less than spectacular. we're trying to do all of the pieces (about 7) from memory. from what i hear, that would be a first for university chorale. unfortunately in a choir of about 60 there are only 8 basses. that means that each bass has to know all of it really well, which unfortunately we don't. so i'm a little concerned about that. so then i went to handbells, then i had supper at vhbc, then the college department had out first wednesday night bible study. that was really good, i really liked it. then there was vhbc choir rehearsal. that was really good. i'm really excited about singing rutter's requiem, i think its gonna be really good. i also agreed to play in the orchestra there on easter morning. so that'll mean that i won't get to atlanta for easter until about 2:45 or 3. but that's ok.

thursday was another normal day...but there was an a cappella concert that night. that was very good.

friday (yesterday) was a pretty good day. it was a normal too, but that night i went to old navy and got two new polo shirts. so here they are:

"Salmon Blue"

"Rooster Red"

and now today has been very normal so far, all i've done is workin' in the computer lab for a few hours.

once again, i was bored and was just watching some random (actual some popular) videos on google when i came upon this...i was thoroughly amused.

Nashville Star

2006-03-28T19:11:00.000-06:00

as many of you may know, i have been a huge nashville star (its like country american idol) fan. i have gotten every winner's debut album (my favorite by far is buddy jewel). it is now in its fourth season. unfortunately each season has been progressively worse than the last. and this year is by far the worst. they got new hosts. last year the host was LeAnn Rimes, but this year they have two co-hosts, wynonna judd and cowboy troy. i like wynonna ok, but its is very obvious that she is reading straight from a cue card. and cowboy troy is also obviously reading from a cue card, and i just don't like him. he's pretty much a "country" rapper. and they're little scripts that they read are unbearably cheesy.

unfortunately the hosts are the least of nashville star's problems. they replaced the third judge with a different guest judge each week. this sounds like a decent idea. the first week the guys judge was big and rich. like cowboy troy, they are simply not country. they're sort of rappers/hip hop. but at least they are "country" singers. however, last week the guest judge was larry the cable guy. he is far from a musician, but he is country. but to have a comedian as the guest judge is completely ridiculous.

however, the most important part of a show like this is the talent, which there really is none of. the first week (when big and rich was there) about 6 of the 10 contestants sang big and rich songs. these are not country, they terrible hip hop and rap songs with a country twang and with country themes. apparently when they say they are searching for the next country singer, they really mean the next hip hop/rapper with a country twang.

needless to say, i am not going to be watching anymore of this season of nashville star.

The Wedding

2006-03-23T16:54:00.000-06:00

well...the wedding was a pretty significant thing this past week. it was really exciting. there's really not much to say about it, but here are some pictures. you can see more here.

2006-03-13T16:36:00.000-06:00

wow...its been a log time since my last post. it's been a very busy past week.

last sunday (the 5th) i sang with the vhbc choir in the morning. and later that night i sang with them at "sing and shout". that was basically where 7 different birmingham area church choirs came together and did a concert. it was a lot of fun to see so many different choirs sing. there were different denominations and different styles. there were two black gospel choirs.

the from wednesday till saturday i was on wind ensemble tour to atlanta. that was a lot of fun, although i think it would've been better if it weren't to my hometown. we played at dunwoody high, my old stompin' ground. that was pretty fun.

yesterday was a good day too. i played handbells in st. peter catholic church. that was...interesting. then i went straight from there to vhbc and sang in the choir, and sight-read a pretty difficult anthem because i wasn't at rehearsal on wednesday and i didn't get there till about 10 min before the service started. after church all the college folk (about 7 of us) went over to dr. furr's (the preacher's) house. the food was really really good.

and today has been a really good day since as i'm sure you already know, its my birthday. in music theory jessica brought brownies for us all. that was really good....although by now i've had about 6, so i'm starting to feel kinda of sick. and apparently lots of people saw that it was my birthday on facebook, because of gotten almost 20 birthday wishes on my wall, and marty sent me an ecard, my my parents sent me a real birthday card (via snail mails [which they timed perfectly because i did get it today]).

2006-03-04T18:19:00.000-06:00

the last couple of days have been pretty exciting. on thursday was mah (music activity hour). kirill goncharenko played and oboe solo (this is the same oboist that played a vhbc last sunday). he was very very good. he played telemann's sonate g-moll.

friday was pretty normal. after classes and went over to jeremy's and just hung out, then i went to spain park high school for the handbell festival. that was a lot of fun. there were 15 handbell choirs including vhbc, and hunter street baptist. we had 5 rehearsal; two on friday and three on saturday. they were all at least an hour. it was long, but it was a lot of fun.

the samford basketball team made it to the ovc tournament. they won last night, then today in the finals they lost against murray state...kinda saddening, but that's ok, there's always next year.

2006-03-01T22:41:00.000-06:00

this week has been long...and its only half over. tuesday night was a double header basketball game, and the pep band had to play at both of them. so i spent from about 4:50 till 9:30 sittin' in the gym blasting the trumpet.

tonight i went to vestavia hills baptist. they had a ash wednesday service, then i stayed for choir. i really liked choir. on the saturday night before easter they're gonna be doing john rutter's requiem. that should be really good. i'm plannin' on singing with then this sunday.

the rest of the week should be pretty regular. this weekend is a handbell festival. the samford handbells are going to that. there's gonna be a rehearsal on friday night, then 3 or 4 rehearsals on saturday, then a concert at 3 on saturday. that should be a lot of fun.

The Parking Garage

2006-02-26T22:33:00.000-06:00

the west campus parking situation has made me sink to a level i never thought possible. in front of mountain view there is one fairly small parking deck. that is the only place to park that is even somewhat close to my dorm. unfortunately that small parking deck does not hold near enough cars. often times if u get there after 10 on a school night then the lot is absolutely full. that would leave u having to park in the overflow lot which is about a 5-7 min walk to the dorm. clearly that is an absolute last resort. this situation leaves u with few reasonable options. you can either resort to the overflow lot, or park on a curb which has a very likely risk of a $15 parking ticket. neither of the options are good. this is where my tactic comes in. when the lot is full i've started to camp out infront of the dorm and wait for someone to walk out to their car. the problem with this is that about 80% of the people that leave the dorm after 10 are parked in an illegal spot, but u can't tell this until u've driven around to see where they walk to. but then there's the other 20%, the few who leave after 10 and give up a parking spot in the deck. watching them leave the dorm. then trying to see which level they walk to. then driving to the appropriate level and driving slowly behind them, close enough that u'll be the first to get their spot, but not so close that they freak out. this whole process often takes between 20 and 30 min, but its worth it because of that feeling u get after u've gotten a spot. that's the feeling that makes it all worth while.

2006-02-26T12:42:00.000-06:00

its been a good long while since my last post. i reckon everything's been goin' pretty normal. this weekend was fairly good. yesterday i finally went to see harry potter and the goblet of fire. that one is a lot different than the other three, but i really liked it. the theatre i went to wasn't too nice, although it was the dollar theater so i guess it was as nice as i could expect.

today's been good so far. i went to vestavia hills baptist again. the service there was pretty nice. after that i went to lunch at the cafe. now i'm fixin' to finish some theory homework, then i'm gonna watch the race.

2006-02-14T22:08:00.000-06:00

these last few days have been very good. this past weekend my moma came to visit christy, and to get a dress for my moma for christy's wedding. my moma did still find time to see me. we went out to supper and texas road house on friday night (i got a very nice big steak).

on saturday i worked in the computer lab for 8 hours (9-5), then after that i went to supper in the cafe.

sunday i went to vestavia hills baptist church. that was pretty good, although the sermon was kind of...interesting. it was a guest preacher (ken corr). after church me, christy, oscar, and my moma went to supper at olive garden. after that i watched the bud shootout (which was supposed to be saturday night, but because of rain they had to reschedule the race for sunday afternoon). denny hamlin won. he's a rookie. i didn't really like how he won. his teammate, tony stewert, pretty much gave him the win. he was in second place blocking people from passing denny. after the race i went to the dawson hispanic service where they were having a special sunday night lord's supper service. that was pretty good. there was lots of music.

monday was a normal day, but then i went over to christy's apartment for supper. she had 8 eggs that we going to be expired on feb 14, so we had to finish them off. so i made omelets for us using all 8 eggs. they were very good. we also watched stealth while we ate. that was a fairly good movie, but it was your typical robot goes crazy and tries to kill everyone.

today was a normal day, then we had a basketball game tonight. they guys lost...barely. it was a really close game.

2006-02-09T00:15:00.000-06:00

my week's been going pretty well. not really anything out of the ordinary, just the normal stuff. for some reason the computer lab was really crowded tonight. usually at 11 there's like 10 people, but tonight there were about 30. that's about the most exciting thing to report on. here's another pretty cool video:

2006-02-06T18:18:00.000-06:00

saturday was a fairly good day. i ended up not goin' to the symphony though. i reckon i just didn't really feel like it.

on sunday mornin' i went to vestavia hill baptist church. that was a very good church. of course there's a few things about it that i don't quite like. i don't quite like the set up of the sanctuary. its not very deep, but its very wide. its almost like a semicircle. another thing was that in the pew rack there was a scarlet letter that they expected you to pin to your clothes if your a visitor. naturally, i did not do this. but other than these few flaws, i really did like it. there's quite a few samford faculty there. there's dr. lawhon (voice teacher and director of university chorale), dr. price (dean of the school of performing arts), dr. bugg (director of operaworks), and dr. shepherd (piano teacher). and that's just the music faculty.

after church i went to lunch, then i went over to jason and jeremy's to watch the monk marathon. i'm proud to say that i watched none of the super bowl.

and that was my weekend...now for the video portion of this post. i stumbled upon this video a few weeks ago and was thoroughly entertained by it, so i decided to share it with my dear fans.

2006-02-04T09:14:00.000-06:00

i had a great day yesterday. classes weren't too bad at all. i think i like my new cp class much better than last semester's. last semester was just reading, and listening to lectures about a whole bunch of stuff that i don't really care about, like greeks and romans from thousands of years ago. this semester, though its still reading and lectures, is much better. rather than being about boring stuff from a long long time ago, right now its about the history of some christian denominations. we're studying martin luther and the reformation.

after classes were over i went over to jason and jeremy's. on my way there i got a new pair of wrangler's jeans (which i'm wearing right now) from target. i only had one pair of jeans that still fit me real comfortably, the others have gotten too tight (i reckon its that infamous "freshman fifteen"). once i got to their town house, i had the opportunity to do some laundry (for free). while my cloths were washing, we fixed a really good supper. it was chicken parmesan, and some pasta stuff, and some good bread (though the bread was somewhat burnt, because jeremy asked me to watch the bread, but failed to mention it was broiling). while we were fixing supper, we also watched seinfeld on dvd (of course). then after supper, jason decided he needed a new gamecube controller, so we went to best buy. while there, i noticed that seasons 5 and 6 of seinfeld were only, $24.99 and buy one get one free. each season usually costs about $30 each, so getting both for just $25 was a very good deal, so i decided to get them. so i am now the new proud owner of seinfeld seasons 5 and 6. jason unfortunately was not as fortunate at best buy has i. he could not find an acceptable controller, even though that had three different ones to choose from, none were acceptable. his only reason was because they were not purple, and his gamecube is purple, so they would not have matched.

when we got back from best buy, we watch monk, then i went back to samford and watched two episodes of seinfeld, then went to bed.

now that i own the dvds i've been contemplating how to incorporate the extra features. each episode has its own extra features. i could either go through the entire two seasons watching just the episodes themselves, then go back and watch the extra features. or i could watch an episode, followed by its corresponding extra features.

tonight there is a basketball game at 4 that the pep band is playing in. then after the game i am going to be going to the aso (alabama, not atlanta symphony orchestra) concert. i'm really looking forward that.

tomorrow should be another fantastic day. first i'm going to go to vestavia hills baptist church in the morning. then in the afternoon i'm gonna go over to the monk/seinfeld house (aka jason and jeremy's) and watch a monk marathon starting at 3. it should be very good.

2006-02-02T21:38:00.000-06:00

my week has been very good so far. its been the first week of workin' in the computer lab. finally, next friday i'm gonna get paid from last semester. last semester i didn't get paid for my last two weeks because they didn't see my time sheet in my folder. so that means that my check next week should be a fairly nice one.

today there was a brass master class with karen schneider. it was pretty good. the first half of it was her lecturing about embrasure, and breath support, and good posture. the second half was her listening to people play, then working with them with certain things. speaking of trumpet players, here is a phenomenal player:

2006-01-31T23:18:00.000-06:00

i have learned a valuable lesson. in life, we all have our gifts and talents. some have the gift of music, others the gift of discipleship, and others the gift of acting. over the course of the last several months after having 7 fish die under my care (one of my fish died under someone else's care) i have come to the unfortunate realization that one of my many talents is not fish keeping. perhaps it wasn't entirely my fault...maybe the samford water is bad, or the walmart fish are no good. but whatever the reason, i've decided to give up on fish.

(you may have realized by now that james died)

2006-01-29T23:41:00.000-06:00

mary died. she is no more. however, james is still doing very well. i think that my fish keep dying because they're from walmart. i don't think they have very good fish there. but i think that james will be able to live for at least a few weeks...but we'll see.

New Fish

2006-01-28T22:48:00.000-06:00

today has been a very good day. the pep band played at the guys basketball game. they won. then i went over to jason and jeremy's and washed my car. it was pretty dirty. then we ordered some pizza. then we decided to go to walmart. while i was there i bought two new fish. right after i bought them, as i was walking away from the cash register. well all of a sudden, the bad slipped from my hand...and...splash!...right there on the floor of walmart in front of register 27 my two new goldfish plummeted to their deaths. fortuantly they did give me two new ones for free. so now my new fish's names are mary and james. here is a video of them taken with my digital camera. the gold one is james, and the silver one is mary.

if the video dosn't work, then you can download it here.

2006-01-27T16:33:00.000-06:00

the first week of classes is over. i think this oughta be a pretty good semester.

last night the pep band played at the girls basketball game. that was more fun than i was expecting. i think i would rather play at a guys game though. that's what we're gonna do tomorrow (saturday). both the girls and the guys won, so that's always good.

tonight i'm gonna go ever to jeremy and jason's and have a little supper and hang out, then we're gonna watch monk. i really like monk, but i didn't really watch it at all last semester, i'm lookin' forward to watchin' it tonight.

tomorrow the pep band is playin' at another basketball game. this time its gonna be the guys game. i'm kinda lookin' forward to that.

i've also decided i'm gonna get another fish. i think i've learned a lot since the last few time i tried to have a fish. and after several months of mourning i think i'm ready for a new fish. i've learned to be sure and dechlorinate the water first, and to wash all of the rocks and fake plastic plants very thoroughly before you put the fish in the bowl. also be very careful about who you let fish sit.

2006-01-25T19:10:00.000-06:00

classes finally started today. i'm really lookin' forward to parts of school, and not so much other parts. i'm excited about university chorale, and handbells, and wind ensemble, but i'm not too excited about papers and readin'...but i guess that's all part of it.

on tuesday dr. remley announced that he was going to retire. for those of you that may not know: dr. remley (a.k.a. "Doc") was director of bands at samford until this year, when he took a year off. he became the director of bands (or somethin' like that) for jefferson country. he's decided to keep that position, and retire from samford. i never really knew him, so i'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but i know that many people that knew him well think its a good thing. the big question is who will replace him. some people suspect that dr. min (the interim director of bands this year) will stay through next year, but few people think there is much possibility that he would stay past that.

last night i went over to jeremy's a just kinda watched some seinfeld. then today i had classes. here's a little look at my schedule:

monday:
8-8:50: music theory with dr. fouse
9:15-10:20: communication arts with dr. janas
10:30-11:35: cultural perspectives with dr. vaughn
1:-2:05: university chorale with dr. lawhon
2:15-3:20: handbells with dr. strickland

tuesday:
8-8:50: music theory lab with dr. jensen
9-9:50: class piano IV with mrs. macon
11-12:50: fitness walking with mrs. donnelly
3-5: wind ensemble with dr. min

wednesday:
8-8:50: music theory with dr. fouse
9:15-10:20: communication arts with dr. janas
10:30-11:35: cultural perspectives with dr. vaughn
1:-2:05: university chorale with dr. lawhon
2:15-3:20: handbells with dr. strickland
3:30-5: wind ensemble with dr. min

thursday:
8-8:50: music theory lab with dr. jensen
9-9:50: class piano IV with mrs. macon
11-12:50: fitness walking with mrs. donnelly
2-3:00: mah/seminars
3-5: wind ensemble with dr. min

friday:
8-8:50: music theory with dr. fouse
9:15-10:20: communication arts with dr. janas
10:30-11:35: cultural perspectives with dr. vaughn
1:-2:05: university chorale with dr. lawhon
2:15-3:20: handbells with dr. strickland

2006-01-22T21:09:00.000-06:00

i'm back in birmingham. classes don't start until wednesday, but i have wind ensemble "camp" until then. since i got several comments (not on my blog but in person) about the last video i put up, i decided to put another one, so here it is:

The New Car

2006-01-20T15:55:00.000-06:00

well i've had a great day. i finally got a new car. its great. its a forest green 2000 ford taurus ses. its pretty nice. we bought it from auto clearing house. i would not recommend buying a car there. for a place that supposedly only sells used cars, it sure doesn't seem to be their top priority. here's some pictures of my new car:

2006-01-17T15:41:00.000-06:00

wow...quite a while since my last post. i reckon this is my first post of 2006. everything's been goin' pretty well. i haven't really been doin' much of anything. i've been home since december, which gets pretty boring sometimes. not really too much to report on here. we've been lookin' for a new car for me. we're lookin' at ford tauruses. i think we're going to go look at one tomorrow morning. i also bought a little mp3 player. its a 2gb sandisk sansa m250. i really like it. its not as nice as an ipod, but its a good bit cheaper. that's pretty much all that's been happening here...

and here's a video that i saw that i thought was pretty funny.

2005-12-31T17:33:00.000-06:00

its been a very good week. on tuesday and wednesday i went to augusta and saw my dad's side of the family. they were my grandmother, aunt, uncle, and three cousins. it would be an unjust to my readers if i didn't have pictures, so of course i have lots of pictures. i took them with my new camera. unfortunately my new huge 512 mb sd card still hasn't come, so i was usin' my tiny little 16 mb card. because of that i was taking the pictures at pretty poor resolution. i took about 175 pictures total, but to "do a favor to all my readers" (as my dad put it) i deleted many of the bad ones, but that still left over 100 pictures. so here they are: barbara's house december 2005. the little girl is mary beth(she's 2 yrs old), the older little boy is will (he's 8 yrs old), and the younger little boy (the one in the reflective gap pull over) is matt (he's 6 yrs old). they are all my cousins.

on thursday i went to phipps and ate some lunch and saw rumor has it. that was a very good movie, i would definitely recommend it to everyone.

today i had some fun cleanin' and fixin' the gutters. as hard is it may be for some to beleive, i didn't not fall off the ladder or anything. of course i have some pics:

so what about tonight? its new years eve so of course i'm gonna go out and party...not quite. i'm gonna be sittin' at home watchin' the ball drop on tv. but which channel do i watch it on? the nye tv shows are a mess this year. they've got regis (normally on abc) doin' fox's show, and dick clarke and ryan seacrest (normally on fox) doin' abc's show. so where does that leave me? i'm normally loyal to abc and regis, but tonight i must choose: is it abc or regis? i have not yet decided. (so how much of a loser does this make me? nye and i'm tryin' to decide between abc or regis).

i also added and deleted some of the pictures from my christmas album, so i may want to take another look: christmas 2005.

My First Christmas Blogging

2005-12-26T08:37:00.000-06:00

i had a fantastic christmas. we started the day by opening our stockings...that was very interesting. the most exiting thing in there was Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (like from harry potter). and there really was every flavor, like vomit, and dirt, and grass, and soap...very exciting. then my moma made the traditional coffee cake, and christy made some sausage cheese balls. then we went to church. church was great, nothin' real out of the ordinary. then we came home, and waited for marty to get home (cause he had to be at his own church that mornin'). then he finally got there so we opened presents. so what all did get?

3 very nice ties, and the new rent soundtrack from christy.
the first 3 harry potter movies (although i think i may trade those in for other dvds).
a very nice tie clip, and another tie chain.
a little thing to help hold coat hangers in your car.
a nice fleece blanket and funny postcard from marty.
jeff gordon cologne and a tire gage from oscar.
and most notably, a new canon powershot A520 digital camera.

so after opening presents we played some apples to apples (a gift marty got) while we waited for oscar to get there. once he got there (at about 6:30) we had our nice big christmas feast. that was very good.

naturally with my new digital camera i was taking lots of pictures. unfortunately, i've found how easy it is to accidentally format the memory card, so i only have about 27 that i didn't accidentally delete, but there they r: Christmas 2005

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

2005-12-23T16:23:00.000-06:00

apparently nobody liked what i had to say about the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. i found kalah's comment most disturbing, so i'll rebuttal that one first:

kalah seemed to be under the assumption that i didn't understand the parallels to the bible. i never said that. i saw them, i'm sure there's a few little ones that i missed but i diffidently understood the main ones. but that dosn't make it a good movie. as unchristian as u may think it is of me to say this, but not all movies about God r good...some can be pretty dumb
secondly, what do the reviews have to do with anything? i mean, i don't care what some random guy writing an article for a newspaper has to say about a movie. sure i'll look at reviews to see if a movie might be good, but just because a moive get good reviews does not make me obligated to find the good in the movie. often times people disagree with them anyways, so u can't really go by what they have to say.
thirdly, kalah said "it was a Christian book written by a well known Christian author." once again, y does that matter? some Christian people can be pretty bad writers. i'm not saying that clive was a bad writer, i'm just sayin' that being a Christian dosn't make you a good writer, so that's completely irrelevant.
and fourthly, y would i want to read a book, just so that i can enjoy a movie. i didn't like the movie, i can accept that, i'll just move on and enjoy a different movie that i don't have to read a book to appreciate. i think that when they make a book into a movie, they should make it so that you don't have to read the book just to enjoy the movie.

now marty's comment (which was backed up by jeremy and jessica) was a good comment, except he made the same mistake as kalah (and presumably most everyone else) that i didn't see the allegory in it. i saw the allegory, i just didn't like the movie. once again, a movie with an underlying Christian theme is not by default a good movie.

Movies, Movies, Movies

2005-12-20T08:28:00.000-06:00

well...this post will mainly be my take on some random movies.

on friday i saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. now...this was an...interesting movie. i must not have much of an imagination, because i never could get past the fact that there were a whole bunch of random pieces of creation (ie beavers and rhinoceroses, etc.). then even when the weird, random, talking animals weren't fighting, it was just kinda boring. and then the entire story is pretty ridiculous...i mean goodness some random girl walks through the back of some wardrobe? then she finds herself in narnia? then all of a sudden her entire families are the heirs to the thrones?? does that really make any sense. then on top of the ridiculous plot, there's the animals fighting each other.

friday night i saw The Phantom of the Opera (2004). that was a fairly good movie. i'd never seen any version of the phantom of the opera, so i reckon it was high time i did. but i think it was a good movie. the entire plot was kinda...unrealistic...but i guess i could get past that because the music was pretty good (and there were no random animals fighting each other).

on saturday i saw The Notebook (2004). for the last year and half i've been hearing about how phenomenal this movie is. and it was a great movie. it wasn't quit as sad as many people had portrayed it to be (christy wouldn't watch it with me cause she said she would cry too much). but it was very good.

then on monday night i saw Mystic River (2003). now, compared to this movie, chronicles of narnia was pretty good. what made this movie so bad? well...first of all there was this completely irrelevant and unexplained part of the movie. for some reason that was never explained one of the main character's wife would not talk to him on the phone. she would call him just about everyday but never talk, but we know she is not mute. that would be ok if it was part of the plot, but it had nothing to do with anything. then i didn't like any of the main characters. one of them was kinda rocky balboa meets the godfather. another character was sexually molested when he was 8, then when he was like 45 he randomly went crazy because of it...after 38 years he finally goes crazy. then the last worst part of it was that this was a mystery movie. the whole time your wondering and trying to figure out how this girl died, which is good, a mystery is good. but then at the end they never really explain what happened. the explanation was about a 15 second guy talkin' real fast, i couldn't really understand what happened at all. i think in that kind of situation u really need a reenactment of what happened.

Predestination Revisited

2005-12-15T13:33:00.000-06:00

several people have told me that my idea of predestination is not what predestination is at all. but from what i can gather, the only difference in what i say predestination is and what they say it is just that they say it in a very different way. dr. rich lusk, the preacher at trinity presbyterian church (the church that i visited) sent me the following email regarding predestination. i emailed him, asking him if my idea of predestination (the one i put on my blog) is correct. here is his reply:

The good thing is, no one (least of all Presbyterians) believes what you just described. No one believes that certain people are going to hell "no matter what they do." And no one believes others are going to heaven "no matter that they do."

I think you may be starting at the wrong end. Everyone is a sinner. Therefore, everyone deserves hell. Now the question is: Why does God choose to save some (I would say a great, great many) of those sinners? Why doesn't he just leave them all to themselves, and let them get what they deserve? It's because he is a God of grace and love.

When God saves a person, how does he do it? His design to draw his chosen sinners to himself through the preaching of the gospel, through the example of other godly Christians, etc. As he draws them to himself, he transforms their hearts so that they believe in Christ, repent from sin, and begin (however imperfectly) to obey. Only those who do so trust and obey will be saved; but the only ones who can trust and obey are those God sovereignty works in.

The only alternative is to make salvation a matter of human effort and work. Ask yourself: Why did I choose Christ when countless others do not? Is it because I'm better smarter, wiser, etc.? If so, you get to take credit (at least partially) for your salvation. This is why God has revealed election to us -- so that we'll understand our entire salvation (including even our free choice to repent and believe the gospel) is a gift of God's grace.

this still leaves many questions unanswered. i recently had a conversation via facebook regarding predestination. here are the highlights:

Jessica: Yes, we're predestined by God, but we also have the free will to choose Him. However, it's God softening our hearts that enables us to choose Him. Don't you remember Pharaoh and Moses? There were plenty of reasons he should have become a Christian. Just look at all of the signs and miracles that Moses did! But yet, God HARDENED his heart and he was unable to repent and believe. Therefore, God knew that he was not going to be saved. He knew that his heart was going to be hardened. He knew exactly what was going to take place. You ask, but why does God send people to Hell when He wants everybody to go to Heaven? Well, why would Heaven be such a big deal if everybody in the world goes there? God glorifies himself through the sinners going to Hell. He shows He's a merciful God by granting salvation (softening hearts) to his chosen people. He shows He's all-powerful and all-knowing by contrasting Heaven/Hell and people going to both places.

Rick (Me): The reason Pharaoh did not accept God was not because God didn't want him to; it was because he was too stubborn to accept Him. God wishes that everyone would accept Him and go to heaven, because he loves everyone equally. Since he loves everyone equally, how does he choose which people go heaven and which do not? He doesn'?t, the people choose. God made us in his own image, why would he want to send anyone to Hell? Just to make the ones that get into heaven feel more special, and to make heaven "a big deal." is that really love?

Jessica: We're all sinners. We ourselves do not have the ability to save ourselves. Only through God is it possible to get to Heaven. It was God who hardened Pharaoh's heart. God has to soften our hearts in order that we may accept Him. I believe God does love everybody, but only through Him can we be saved. He uses the ones who are not saved to reinforce the fact that we are sinners, without Him we would be nothing, we could do nothing, and it also helps us to fully realize and appreciate God's sovereignty and grace. Without His grace and mercy, we would all be going to Hell. We ourselves are not capable of saving ourselves. It's through God's forgiveness that we're saved.

Rick (Me): God loves us all. And we are all sinners and its through God's grace and mercy that anyone gets into Heaven. Everyone is capable of accepting God's mercy and grace, but not everyone does. It'?s not because God has "softened our hearts" that we have accepted God; it is because we have chosen to accept Jesus. Jesus died on the cross for everyone, not just those that God has chosen. God chooses, and wants all his children to be with him for eternity, unfortunately, not all of his children want that. Those that don't want that freely choose not to accept Christ.

i just thought that that was a faily interesting conversation and that some of you (although probably not many of you) might be interested in it.

Wikipedia

2005-12-14T18:18:00.000-06:00

wikipedia.org has been in the news a lot lately (or at least the geeky computer news that i read). wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can contribute to and edit. naturally this has many people concerned. a few months ago i made a entry all about me. this was promptly deleted by other users who said that it was overly self glorifying, which it was.

according to jimmy wales, the founder of wikipedia, people will quickly fix any inaccuracy that people may post. however, someone anonymously wrote a biography entry that linked former USA Today Editor John Seigenthaler Sr. with the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. this ridiculous article stayed on wikipedia for several months.

i was curious to see who long, if ever, it would take for someone to fix a very insignificant error. on the George Frideric Handel on wikipedia and changed the age that handel started composing. originally it said he started composing at the age of nine, but i changed it to twelve. this has been like this for about 6 hours, and i imagine it will stay that way for a very very long time. this may not seem like a very big deal, but if your writing a paper on handel, you'll sound like an idiot.

so, can u really trust wikipedia?

according to an article on yahoo! news wikipedia is almost as accurate as the encyclopedia britannica:

The British journal Nature says it gave independent reviewers 42 pairs of articles from both encyclopedias. The reviewers were not told which article came from where, and were asked to check the entries for accuracy.
"Only eight serious errors, such as misinterpretations of important concepts, were detected in the pairs of articles reviewed, four from each encyclopedia," Nature reports.

"But reviewers also found many factual errors, omissions or misleading statements: 162 and 123 in Wikipedia and Britannica, respectively."

Nature says "Britannica's advantage (over Wikipedia) may not be great" when it comes to science, and comments that this result is "surprising" given the eclectic way that Wikipedia's articles are written.

so, can you trust wikipedia? my personal opinion is no. a very small group of people could easily change very many things, that people would not be able to keep up with them in fixing these "errors".

1:17 PM Dec. 15 2005 update: someone changed the handel page on wikipedia back to being nine, and my username was blocked from editing pages anymore because i was a "frequent vandal". however, i tried to change it again when i was not logged in, and i could edit the page. so, although it only took a matter of hours to correct the article, i am still able to change it right back.

Dr. Neil Shepherd Jr.

2005-12-14T10:16:00.000-06:00

as some of you may know, on monday Dr. Betty Sue Shepherd's husband died.

Dr. Betty Sue Shepherd is a piano teacher here at samford. she's been teaching piano for many many years. here is the obituary for Dr. Neil Shepherd Jr.

SHEPHERD, DR. C.A. (NEIL) JR., age 82, of Vestavia Hills, died Monday, December 12, 2005. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 15th, at Vestavia Hills Baptist Church with burial to follow at Elmwood Cemetery. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service. He is survived by his wife, Betty Sue Garner Shepherd; two daughters, Susanne Elizabeth Shepherd and Jacqueline Yvonne Shepherd Johnson; son-in-law, Robert Johnson, Jr.; and two granddaughters, Audra and Courtney Johnson. Dr. Shepherd attended Woodlawn High School and Auburn University. He earned his B.S. degree from Howard College in 1948 and his J.D. from Cumberland School of Law, Samford University in 1966. While at Auburn University and Samford University he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He served as the Director of Institutional Advancement at Judson College and Director of Alumni Affairs at Samford University. Dr. Shepherd was a former member of Ruhama Baptist Church from 1925 until 1968 and was currently a member of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church. He served as 1st Lt. 14th Air Force (B-24 Pilot) and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Dr. Shepherd was very active in and a former president of the American Cancer Society and a former president of the Vestavia Hills Rotary Club. A member of the Mason's, Dr. Shepherd was a former National Registrar General in the Sons of the American Revolution. He was also a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Dr. Shepherd was awarded many honors including his induction to the 1979 Woodlawn High School Hall of Fame, Men of Achievement, Who's Who in Flying, and Who's Who in the South and Southwest. The family suggests memorials be sent to the Neil Shepherd Memorial Fund at Vestavia Hills Baptist Church. Services are under the direction of Ridout's Valley Chapel (205-879-3401).

you can see the obituary at: http://www.legacy.com/birmingham/LegacySubPage2.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=15977474

30gigs.com revisited

2005-12-12T21:35:00.000-06:00

30gigs.com has some very interesting plans. most of it seems completely unbelievable, but if it really happens, then that would be very exciting.

note: all of this comes directly from the 30gigs.com Development Blog

File upload system: Inside your inbox, you will have a link to a file upload center, where you can upload files and organize them with folders. There will be a 600 meg limit for uploaded files via this system.
30Gig web hosting. This will include 30 gigs of transfer and 30 gigs of space. Mysql and ftp access will be included.
POP/IMAP access
Anonymous email, the ability to press "send as anonymous" instead of send.
New mailbox formats are much more efficient and will lead to a speedier login time.

just to give u a little perspective on this: most free web hosting services either have very very annoying ads and not very much space, or cost fairly much. one that i've considered using has an ad bar at the top of the page, and only 50 mb of space and 1 gb of transfers/month. i find it hard to believe the 30gigs.com will really do all this, but i can at least hope.

Are You A Fan?

2005-12-12T21:11:00.000-06:00

are you a fan of my blog? is so, u can buy a tshirt proclaiming this! it costs only $21 with free shipping.

click image to purchase

2005-12-12T18:01:00.000-06:00

this weekend was pretty good. saturday was pretty boring, all that i really did was just go over to jeremy's apartment and watch some seinfeld, but that pretty much makes the whole day worth while.

sunday at dawson was a very good day. mornin' was pretty normal. i got 3 people (two of which don't even speak spanish) to go with me to the hispanic service. after church i went to lunch with steve, jeremy, and his parents at carrabba's. his parents are very nice people. after that me and jessica went to the messiah, then (since jessica's a piano performance major) an emanuel ax concert, then to waffle house. (that was the thesis statement [can't u tell i've been writtin' too many essays this semester]).

the messiah at dawson was very good. three of the four soloists where samford professors (Dr. Sharon Lawhon, Mrs. Wanda Banks, and Dr. W. William Bugg). they all did pretty good. much of the orchestra was from aso (alabama symphony orchestra). the trumpet play was John McElroy. although he only played on one piece, he sounded really good, i was impressed. if there was one thing handel (the composer of the messiah) really knew how to do, it was to drag things out. he made one line of text take 5 minutes. don't get me wrong, the music was great, but when u've got an emanuel ax concert to get to at 8 (messiah started at 6), it feels really long.

fortunately we did get to the emanuel ax (a very good professional pianist) concert in time, although i got back from the bathroom just as they were closin' the doors. but the concert was great. for the first half emanuel play a few twenty-first century stuff (by chen yi and kaija saariaho [those were not my favorite]). he also played brahms ballades, op. 10 (andante in d minor, andante in D major, intermezzon: allegro in b minor, and andante con moto in B major), and franz liszt's ballade no. 2 in b minor. i think from the first half the brahms was my favorite. then durin' the intermission, we saw cahill there (he's a huge piano geek). he told us there were empty seats up front by him, so we sat up there for the second half. during the rest of the intermission cahill was just talkin' about all the music. he even brought some scores with him, so he could follow along (he also wanted emanuel to autograph them), and he was takin' notes. the second half was my favorite part. emmanuel played four of chopin's ballades (no. 1 in g minor, op. 23; no. 2 in F major, op. 38; no.3 in A-flat major, op. 47; and no. 4 in f minor, op. 52) cahill was talkin' an awful lot about these pieces (fortunately not in the middle of the concert).

after the concert, we had a little supper at waffle house, since jessica doesn't tend to eat there very much. and that was my sunday.

today was a very good day. i think i did very good on my theory exam. hopefully i did better than jessica, cause if i did then she owes me a candy bar, if i didn't then i owe her a candy bar. then i think my jury went great. the only part that was a little shaky was when joe (the trombone teacher) made me tongue a chromatic scale. for those of u who r not brass players (i believe y'all r strongly in the majority) tonguing a chromatic scale is just somethin' ur not typically asked to do. i don't think i've ever tongued a chromatic scale. so my tongue didn't quite line up with my fingers, but other than that i think i did great. i'm pretty excited to see what i got.

The Computer (part 2)

2005-12-12T17:54:00.000-06:00

well...as some of u may know, i got my computer back last friday only to find that while hp had it, they broke the CD drive. that was pretty disappointing and aggravating. i called them on saturday about it, and fortunately it only took them about 20 minutes on the phone, rather than the 6 hrs it took last time. but now next monday (the first day that i'm back in atlanta) i'm gonna have to mail it back to them so they can replace the cd drive. hopefully they won't break anything else this time.

A Prayer For Final Exams

2005-12-10T19:32:00.001-06:00

Not too much has happened since my last post. Today has been a fairly dull day. I went to lunch, then I went and practiced for a while. Then I tried to help Jessica make a webpage for her CA project, but I didn't really help her, I just kind of looked at pictures on Facebook while she made the webpage. Then I went to supper, and now I’m doing' laundry, and after that I’m going to go over to Jeremy’s to watch some Seinfeld.

Here’s something' that I thought was pretty humorous:

A Prayer For Final Exams

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not flunk;
He keepeth me from lying down when I should be studying.
He leadeth me beside the water cooler for a study break.
He restoreth my faith in study guides.
He leads me to better study habits
For my grade's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of borderline grades,
I will not have a nervous breakdown For Thou art with me.
My prayers and my friends, they comfort me.
Thou givest me answers in moments of blankness;
Thou anointest my head with understanding.
My test paper runneth over with questions I recognize.
Surely passing grades and flying colors shall follow me.
All the days of my examination,
And I shall not have to dwell in this university forever,
AMEN!

2005-12-09T17:55:00.000-06:00

this week has flown by. classes r finally over, so next week are finals. i think those should go ok, i just gotta do some studyin' and practicin'.

i finally got my computer back. unfortunately, now the cd drive doesn't work. so i'm gonna have to call them tomorrow and have a hissy.

2005-12-04T22:52:00.000-06:00

this will be a fairly lengthy post i'm only puttin' in the highlights.

tuesday: hanging of the greens service. that was pretty nice, uc and handbells did a pretty good job.

thursday: dress rehearsal for festival of christmas.

friday: festival of christmas. that was great. uc and ac and handbells and orchestra were all in it. my family came, we went to ihop afterwards.

saturday: saturday was a good day. i went to lunch at logan's with jessica. then we went and saw rent. that movies a lot better the second time. i guess the second time ur not surprised by all the sketchiness, so u can just watch the movie. then jessica was goin' to the nutcracker with her ballet teacher and another ballet student, and someone else, but that "someone else" was sick or somethin', so they had an extra ticket, so i got to go to that too. did u know that in a ballet there's no talking? absolutely none. who knew. then when i got back to my room, i realized i hadn't had supper, so i went to sonics, then to walmart.

sunday: sunday was interesting. i went church with jessica. she's presbyterian. that was pretty interesting. u had to kneel to do some confessions, and there was lots of songs. they printed all the "hymns" (which by the way, some hymns have to time signature, u just kinda....play it. kinda weird) in the "bulletin". it wasn't exaclty a bulletin, u usually think of a bulletin as being a small pamphlet with the order of service and a few announcements, but no, this was a 23 page "bulletin." it explained in it everything they believe and y they do everything they do. naturally i didn't have time to read it. i mean, normally i read the bulletin durin' the sermon, but this one would take a few hours to read.

the lord's supper, or i mean communion, was much better here than at most places. the bread was homemade bread instead of those hard, stale crackers they they buy from the lifeway store. and they had both wine and grape juice, which was pretty considerate to those visiting baptists.

the sermon said something interesting with regards to predestination. in the car afterwards we got into a little discussion about that. she didn't make a very convincing argument for it though. i find it very very difficult to believe that there are certain people that God just doesn't want into heaven. and if ur one of those people then ur just out of luck. i think that God wants everyone to accept him and come to heaven, but people have to make that decisions for themselves. although God has the power and ability to force people to accept Him, He doesn't take advantage of that. He doesn't force people to accept Him. i think that God knows who will and will not accept Him, but He doesn't choose that, people choose that for themselves. i mean, if u believe in predestination then they might as well just go out and get drunk, and not bother with forgiveness or any of this church stuff. i mean, ur either goin' to heaven or ur not. no sense in wasting your time with church if its already determined that u will or won't go to heaven. although i don't believe in predestination, i don't' think that that makes u any more or less of a christian. i think that predestination and baptism at birth and things like that r just details that people disagree on, but they're not important to being a christian.

well that's my little predestination ditty.

The Tire

2005-11-27T22:39:00.000-06:00

story time...so, tonight me and christy r comin' back to birmingham from atlanta. when all of a sudden about 20 miles from birmingham, we feel this rumble. we look at each other, and, since this is alabama with awful highways, figure its just the road. but then suddenly its gets much worse, and so we decide the smart thing to do is to pull over. so we just pull over on the side of the expressway, and boy am i glad we did. when i got out of the car the first thing i smell is burning rubber, so i knew it was a tire, and sure enough the right rear tire was good and flat. so the first thing is think is, let's change it, it'll be a fun little adventure. so i say to christy, "christy, get the flashlight that ur always supposed to keep in ur car for instances just like this," and she says, "what flashlight?" and so i just thought, oh my goodness, who doesn't keep a flashlight in their car?? (although she's supposed to be gettin' one tomorrow to keep in the car). so then, we get out the spare tire, which is pretty hard when can't really see. and i figure, before we go any further, we should call dad, just to make sure i remember how to change a flat tire. sure enough, i remember exactly how. so we go to check the pressure on the spare tire, and it doesn't have any pressure at all. but trust christy had a second spare tire, apparently she went to a junk yard and got another one for like $5. so i think, oh great, we have a second one, let's try that one...same thing, no air at all, but atleast we had two flat spare tires instead of just one (which is another thing's she's supposed to do tomorrow; fill both her spare tires). so i was kinda bummed, i was lookin' forward to gettin' to change a tire. i've never really done it before, although my dad did show me how a few years ago. but we just end up calling AAA so they can come change it for us. fortunately for christy i was there, because she doesn't have AAA, but i do (which is another thing she's supposed to do tomorrow; get AAA). AAA was real quick, they took maybe 20 minutes to get there. so the guy fills up one of the spare tires, and puts it on, and sends us on our marry way.

The Computer

2005-11-27T22:33:00.000-06:00

saturday was a long frustrating day. after spending about 6 hours on the phone with the hp guy, reformatting my hard drive, and then reinstalling windows (which took about 3 hours) they figured that the hard drive and gone bad. so they r gonna pick it up tomorrow (monday) to put a new hard drive in it, and i should get it back by friday. so i'm gonna have to go almost a week with no computer...i reckon i'll be living in the computer lab.

i just found out that my uncle bill reads my blog. he is a former compaq (compaq and hp recently merged, so u can see the relevance), so i should say that this is all under warranty and that i think nothing less of hp (or compaq) because of this. lol...my dad said i should give a shout out to my uncle, so there it is, a whole paragraph.

Thanksgiving Break

2005-11-27T22:26:00.000-06:00

i had a very good thanksgiving break. i got to see my whole family together, which has become sort of a rarity. we played lots and lots of games, like mad gab, and taboo, and phase 10. but i had a great time. for thanksgiving we went over to my aunts house (my moma's sister) and had turkey and stuffing and everything. my grandmother (my dad's moma) came in from augusta and spent the whole week with us, that was very nice. so overall my break was great.

30Gigs

2005-11-24T10:04:00.000-06:00

i finally got an invite for 30gigs.com. what is that u ask? well, its a free email service that, you guessed it, offers 30 gigs of free space: that's more than 11 times the space that google's gmail offers. the interface is not very good, and its very stripped down. its says that it is still in a "heavy beta". i couldn't find what the attachment size limit is, so its probably pretty small. one web forum said that it was 2mb, but i don't know how accurate that is. the site isn't very reliable either: sometimes its reasonably fast loading, but other times its very, very slow, or it just won't work at all. but i'm very happy with my 1 gig at yahoo! mail so i'll be sticking with that. which yahoo! mail, by the way, is testing a whole new interface. i don't know when its supposed to go public, but its supposed to be more like gmail's, but i'm not sure if that will be a good thing.

303gigs.com is by invite only, but there seems to be a glitch with their invite system, because one invite will work over and over. so here's a link that'll probably work, but if it doesn't then i do still have 19 invites.

http://www.30gigs.com/accept/83952/b63d36fa696daf8a2e7c73fa8ff8509e

2005-11-20T21:37:00.000-06:00

so...what's been goin' on these last couple of days?

thursday night i went to adam's trombone recital. that was very good.

then friday was a pretty good day. went to cheesecake factory for supper to celebrate jeremy's birthday. then we went back to his apartment and watched some seinfeld for a while.

saturday was a pretty good. we did a serivice project for ca in the morning. we went up to miles college to try adn help a little debate team of middle schoolers they have there. that was alright. then i went to keith's recital. that was pretty good, i don't think that was the best he's sounded, but it was fairly good. then i went to olive garden, then i went and saw walk the line. that is a fantastic movie. everyone should definently go see it.

then today i just went to church, then to dr. lawhon and dr. randal richardson's recital. that recital was pretty good. dr. lawhon sounded very good.

the nascar season is finally over. tony stewart (who i don't really like) won the championship. jeff gordon did get 11 place in points (which, since he didn't make the chase was the best he could finish). here's a countdown to next year's daytona 500:

&lt;A HREF="http://www.7is7.com/otto/countdown.html?year=2006&amp;amp;amp;month=2&amp;amp;date=19&amp;amp;hrs=0&amp;amp;amp;min=0&amp;amp;sec=0&amp;amp;amp;title=Countdown%20To%20the%202006%20Daytona%20599&amp;amp;lang=en&amp;amp;bgcolor=%23DFFFFC"&gt;Countdown To the 2006 Daytona 599"&lt;/A&gt;

2005-11-16T20:01:00.000-06:00

well...this has been a pretty good last week. not really a whole lot has happened. i went to the mikado on friday night. that was really good. i really liked that. then...that was pretty much my weekend. then its just been classes as usual since then. we have this stupid huge project for my cp class. we have to perform 2 scenes from king richard III. we have to memorize all the lines. i have about 80 lines. my group is goin' the tuesday before thanksgiving. it'll be really good to have that all done.

2005-11-09T22:10:00.000-06:00

i'm at a loss. i don't know what to do. let me explain my dilemma to u. right now i have ricksblog.org forwarding to my old rmw313.blogspot.com page. unfortunately one problem with that is that it takes a while to load the changes on someone's computer. u see, u need to refresh the original rmw313.blogspot.com, but unfortunately if u got to ricksblog.org and refresh that, it won't work. u have to go to rmw313.blogspot.com and refresh that, which i'm sure is a hassle for everyone. so then the second option is to use a free hosting service. one free hosting service, fateback.com, is good, except that there's only 50mb of space, that's plenty right now, but i think i might fill that up after a while. it also has a filesize limit of only 200kb. and it adds a annoying little ad bar at the very top. another option is hostultra.com. this one offers unlimited space, and no annoying ads. the catch? well, the max file size is 1mb. i think i could manage with that, i would just have to host pictures either at photbucket.com or imageshack.us. and, they have a very annoying pop up. both ie and firefox block this however. so i can't decide if that is worth it or not. so...if i switch to either fateback.com or hostultra.com them ricksblog.org will be down for a few days, by my blog will still be at rmw313.blogspot.com

here's what my blog would be like at both of these hosting sites:

fateback.com: http://rmw313.maclenet.com
hostultra.com: http://free.hostultra.com/~rmw313

2005-11-08T21:27:00.000-06:00

samford apparently decided that blogger.com was inappropriate because they decided to block it for the last three days. so, after emails to computer services to try and get it unblocked (because there's not reason that it should be) they finally unblocked it today, so now i can update my blog again.

last week was all pretty normal.

friday night i went to miss samford. that was ok. it was kinda boring at times. the talents portion was both my favorite and least favorite part. jessica, who is a piano performance major did a very good job on her piano piece. then there were a few other fairly good ones. then the rest were borderline excruciating. i think that when people can't think of a real talent to do, they just try and sing. (fyi, jessica didn't win, it was contestant #3)

then saturday i just sorta wrote a paper.

sunday was a good, but an out of the ordinary day. first of all, the contemporary and hispanic services at dawson finally moved out of the family recreation center (frc (gym)) and into the new chapel. i think that's very good for the hispanic congregation, but unfortunately i don't think its big enough for the contemporary service. this service is fairly new, and they decided not to publicize the service until it kinda got settled. well, the chapel was completely full already, and that is before they publicized the service at all. so i don't really see how it can stay in there very long, since it's expected to keep growin' a little.

so after church there was a free college lunch after church. that was really good. then after that i went back to my room and watched some of the nascar race. then i went to jeremy's recital. that was very good. the greig concerto in a minor was my favorite. then after the recital jeremy's parents treated him a few of his friends to supper. some how i managed to make the cut for the supper. that was very good, even though it was at macaroni grill. as some of u may know, i never have like that place because i could never find anything that i liked. well, this time, i tried their chicken parmesan. it was very good. i don't' know if it was better than olive garden's but it was very good. then after that...i don't really remember what i did the rest of the day, so i guess it wasn't very memorable.

and that was pretty much my weekend.

2005-11-02T19:07:00.000-06:00

they say that one of the most important things to having an "internet presence" is to have ur own domain. so, i decided to get a domain name. i registered it at 1and1.com it costs only $6.99 per year, so i think it is well worth it. my new domain is http://www.ricksblog.org that is where my blog is going to be from now on.

2005-11-01T18:09:00.000-06:00

this weekend was pretty good. it was homecomin' so the band did a lot of stuff for that. friday night there was a bonfire. the band played some stand tunes there, then we played our halftime show while they set off fireworks. that was pretty cool.

then saturday mornin' there was a little parade. that was alright, but not great. then we had some lunch, then there was the game. that was fine, nothin' out of the ordinary. chase was in town cause his mom graduated from samford a while back, so his whole family was here for homecomin'. so i went to supper with him and his family to the fish market. that was really good. then chase spent the night in my dorm on saturday night.

on sunday there was a homecomin' church service at samford. somehow i was appointed to play trumpet in there. so i guess that was good. it went fine, nothin' too excitin'. then the rest of sunday i just kinda bummed around and watched the race (which jeff gordon came in second in).

then monday was normal, and tuesday's been normal so far.

2005-10-26T19:24:00.000-05:00

hey y'all. classes started back today. its kinda nice to get back into the routine, but the break was really nice. as a lot of y'all already know, on monday i decided to get my dad to buzz my hair. and it just wouldn't be me if i didn't provide plenty of pictures to document the momentous occasion.

here's the before pictures.

i didn't ever realize how awful my hair looked from the side.

i decided to take a picture right after my dad buzzed just
one line right down the middle. it didn't turn out as
good as i had expected.

and here's the after pictures.

is that my head on the ground?
oh no, just all my hair.

unfortunately i didn't completely think this through. i never realized how warm my hair was until now. today it was maybe 5o° and my head and ears go very cold. so, because of this i decided i needed to get a nice warm hat, so i did. i havn't decided how i feel about it. i mean, its not really me, i think i look like edgar.

_________________________________________________________

now, on a much more serious note: over the fall break i left victoria (my fish) with a girl who i thougth i could trust. unfortunatelyy, i found this not to be the case. my fish passed away over the break. now i'm distrught about what to do. i mean, i really liked havin' a fish, just not when it dies. so i might give it one last try, but not yet.

2005-10-25T09:13:00.000-05:00

this week has been pretty good. classes as usual until thursday. his weekend was fall break and so that means we have monday and tuesday off. but some teachers chose to be generous and give us friday off too. fortunately for me, all my friday teachers were generous, so i had not classes on friday. so i came home on thursday night. it was very nice to be back home, and see everyone again. but now its tuesday, and i'm back at samford. its good to be back. today i have to do community service for my ca class. somehow my teacher figures judgin' a debate is community service, so that's what i'm doin' this afternoon. then i'm gonna be workin' in the computer lab from 6-12, so that should be some nice extra money.

last weekend my family came to visit me and went to the football game. here's some pictures from that.

2005-10-17T10:27:00.000-05:00

my weekend was very good. thursday taylor got here. we hung out a little bit, but i had stuff to do that night, so we couldn't hang out very much.

then friday we hung out a lot more. we threw some frisbee, ate in the cafe, played some goldeneye on n64, and played some pool.

saturday was very good. i got up good and early cause my family came in town. we were supposed to have some brunch before i had to be ready for the football game, but the place we were gonna go was closed. so we ended up just kinda all talkin' around the cars, but it was good. then i had the football game. that was fun. i saw with my family and oscar for about half of the second half, and still played with the band. unfortunately, the show was pretty bad. i reckon nobody was focusing. then after the game me and my family and oscar had lunch at moe's. that was pretty good. but then they had to head out, cause marty doesn't like stayin' up past 10. i reckon he figures he's gettin' too old for that. so then i went back to samford. and watched some of the race. then taylor came over and we played some more goldeneye.

sunday i went to the contemporary service at dawson. then went to sunday school. then went to the hispanic service with christy. i really like that. the whole atmosphere is very different. it seems more like the people there r worshipin' rather than just there because they go every sunday. then after the service i went to lunch with jeremy. then we went to krispey kreame and got two dozen donuts cause he had a coupon. then we decided to stop by his apartment real quick just to divvy up the donuts. but then one thing led to another, and 7 hrs later i left. we had been playin' lots of goldeneye. and since i had played that so much that weekend, we decided to watch the movie, which i had never seen. so then i went back to my dorm and went to bed.

and that was my weekend.

2005-10-13T13:00:00.000-05:00

unfortunately henry (my fish) died yesterday. victoria's still alive though. but i don't think i'm gonna get any more fish for a while, since my tank seems to be the tank of death.

well this weeks been fairly good, just pretty much the usual. in marchin' band we're learin' some new drill, so that's kind of frustrating. it tends to take me longer to learn the drill than most of the people around me, which is frustrating for me and them.

this weekend oughta be great. taylor l. is comin' in town. unfortunately his car has broken down on the side of the road, and he's still waitin' for help. but it should be good to hang out with him this weekend. them on saturday my whole family's comin' here to see me. that should be great. they i think we're all gonna go out to supper. and that's pretty much my whole weekend.

then there's just one week of class, then its fall break. i'm really lookin' forward to that. between workin' in the lab till midnight twice a week, and writin' papers constantly, and just hangin' out with folks, college is pretty exhausting, so a break will be fantastic.

2005-10-12T10:26:00.000-05:00

here is christy's account (undetailed) account of the proposal: Christy's Blog

2005-10-11T13:19:00.000-05:00

its official. last night oscar proposed to christy (and she said yes). so in a few months (unofficially about 6-7 months) i will have a new brother-in-law. i guess i really do need to get to know his family now.

2005-10-08T19:48:00.000-05:00

i just got a new fish. i went to pet supplies plus, and they told me i needed to get an additive for the water. so i did that. and i got a big goldfish. his name is henry. i pretty much redid my whole fish vase. i cleaned all the rocks because someone told me i should've done that before i put them in the vase. lots and lots of blue powder stuff came off. i guess that stuff really wasn't good for the fish. so i'm countin' on this one lastin'. if this one doesn't last then i think i'm gonna have to rethink this whole fish thing. but i think this one should last, since it didn't come from walmart, it should be a little better quality. but as usual, here's a picture of henry.

2005-10-08T10:02:00.000-05:00

more tragic news: charles has just passed away. now i'm back to just one fish.

i think i need to talk to somebody at a pet store about this. i've been hearing different things about the water. some say just let it set for a day then it'll be good for fishes, others say there additives to get the water ready, and others say i need to get distilled water. so i think i'm gonna go to a pet store and see what they say.

2005-10-08T09:42:00.000-05:00

i had another similar night last night. i went over to jeremy's (who recently became a blogger by my recommendation) apartment and just kinda hung around and watched the village. that's a great movie, i would highly recommend it to anyone. after the movie we just hung around, we read some good music jokes (some of which may be appearing here at some point). then we went to wendy's and got some frosties. then at about 1:00 in the mornin' we went to walmart and i got another goldfish. this one's name if victoria. then we went back to jeremy's apartment and watched about 4 episodes of seinfeld. then i got back to my dorm at about 4:30. here's a pic of victoria:

And Then There Was One

2005-10-07T12:03:00.000-05:00

Tragic News: elizabeth has just passed away.

and i was just made aware that i coincidently named my fishes after the associate pastor at second ponce (charles) and his wife (elizabeth).

2005-10-07T10:17:00.000-05:00

this weeks been pretty much the normal stuff, until last night. last night i went to a play at samford called shadowlands, its about the life of c.s. lewis. it was really great. i really like that play. then after the play i had to work in the computer lab till midnight. so i go do that. then somehow some people decided to go to sonic after that. so we go to sonics at midnight. then i decided we should go to walmart and get a fish. so at 1 in the mornin' last night i went to walmart and got 2 goldfish. i really like them. it wouldn't be like me if i didn't include some pictures, so here they r:

this is the "tank," it was
actually just a vase, but i liked it.

this is both the fish together, the solid orange one
is charles, and the white and orange one is elizabeth

2005-10-04T18:55:00.000-05:00

this weekend was pretty good. on saturday i worked on a paper for cp, then saturday night i hung out with christy. we went to home depot to try and copy a key, but they couldn't. then we went to walmart and got some steaks, and broccoli, and ice cream for supper. then we went back to her apartment and played some ddr.

on sunday i went to dawson for church. that was very good, then that night was the chapel dedication service for the new chapel. the hispanic choir (led by christy) sang in that service.

then monday and tuesday have just been the regular stuff.

today i took an online quiz to determine my political label, and this was the result:

You are a
Social Moderate
(56% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(35% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Centrist

Link: The Politics Test

2005-09-30T19:12:00.000-05:00

my weeks been pretty good. last night we had a football game, so naturally the band played. that was sorta interesting. the game was being broadcast on espn university, so because of that there were a few extra festivities. one of those included fireworks during pregame. well unbeknownst to the band, those fireworks were set to go off right in the middle of our pregame show about 5 feet from us, but they insisted this was perfectly safe. in the middle of the fight song, right before a big step off, the fireworks went off. we could feel the ground rumble, a we a nearly fell over. naturally after something like that we all quit playing, and we missed the step off. so that really messed it all up.

well i think that's about all i have to say, here's some pictures from band practice a few days ago:

2005-09-27T17:51:00.000-05:00

in response to several questions about the word verification when you're commenting on my blog: here is an excerpt from blogger's help:

What [word verification] does is to prevent automated systems from adding
comments to your blog, since it takes a human being to read the word and pass
this step. If you've ever received a comment that looked like an advertisement
or a random link to an unrelated site, then you've encountered comment
spam. A lot of this is done automatically by software which can't pass the word
verification.

what's this mean? basically a growing problem has been computers "commenting" on blogs. they use it as a way to advertise. word verification prevents that from happening. here is an example taken from wilber's blog:

Anonymous said...

Venus and Serena: Unreal
I'm watching the US Open right now - and also reading this article in Newsday - and the Williams sisters continue to amaze.
fermage dagric is the owner of
agriculture department
which is a premier resource for agriculture department information.
for more information, go to http://www.agriculturea.com

Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!

I have a agriculture department site/blog. It pretty much covers agriculture department related stuff.

Come and check it out if you get time :-)

so, basically, word verification is to prevent that from happening.

2005-09-26T18:14:00.000-05:00

hey y'all. sorry about the recent less than adequate posts. i reckon i've just been good and busy. so this weekend was pretty good. friday night i went to p.f. chang's, then we went to someone's room and watched when harry met sally. that movie was pretty good. then after that we decided to go play sardines in the music buildin'. that was a lot of fun. but then we had to quite when they were lockin' up the buildin'. then on saturday i worked 7 hrs. that was ok. workin' in the lab really isn't bad at all. its pretty good. i don't get paid real well, but i don't really have to do anything either, and what i do have to do i enjoy. after i worked i went and saw just like heaven. that was a pretty good movie. then on sunday i went to brookwood bapitst church. that church was ok. i didn't really like the contemporary service very much, it wasn't quite contemporary enough for me. but then the traditional service was ok, but not great either. i guess i do like the feel of it better than at dawson. it just seems a little more...personal than dawson. but over all i think i like dawson better. i really didn't' like the preachin' at brookwood. but it was an interim preacher (roger lovette), so i guess i might visit again once they find a new preacher. but until then i think i'm gonna go to dawson.

there's also i chance i might help out with the sound at the hispanic service at dawson (where my christy (my sister) leads the music). they're current sound guy is givin' them some problems. they're gonna be movin' into the new chapel buildin' before too long. here's an excerpt from christy's latest post on her blog regarding this issue:

The sound is still giving us problems, not the system but the operator. Hopefully when we get in the new chapel and he receives more training (and hopefully a new, more talented sidekick [possibly me]) we'll be doing better. I think I'm going to not play keyboard this week and see how that sounds. I've been told one too many times that there's too much going on and that the volume is too high, and since apparently the sound guy doesn't know how to adjust or hear what needs to be adjusted, I'll do a little adjusting myself!

so i may be helpin' out there.

the rest of this week is pretty much just gonna be the normal stuff. i think i'm gonna go to ucf again on wednesday night. but then thursday is our second football game. i'm lookin' forward to that. but i think that's all for now.

(how's that for a post like the good old days? like back when i actually had time to write long posts, complete with links. unfortunate i don't have a camera here, so i can't take pictures of pieces of creation, and household appliances.)

2005-09-23T15:33:00.000-05:00

so what've i been up to this past week? well its mostly just been the usual stuff. on wednesday i tried out ucf (university christian fellowship). it was pretty good, its comparable to 7:22, definitely worth another visit. now tonight i'm gonna be goin' to p.f. chang's with some people from band, then gonna hang out at someone's apartment. then on saturday i'm workin' a whole bunch, like 7 hrs, then gonna go see a movie that night. then on sunday i'm gonna be goin' to brookwood baptist church. lookin' forward to seein' what that's like. then on monday its back to the usual routine of classes.

2005-09-14T10:38:00.000-05:00

hey y'all. its been a good while since my last update. last week was just pretty much the normal stuff. on friday i came back home for the weekend. that was really good. it was good to see everyone again. on sunday afternoon was a reception for jenny, cause she's leaving to go to first baptist gainsville. that was kinda sad, but its really good for her. today i had to do a speech in ca. that went ok. its was a little too short, so i think he's gonna dock my grade for that. and i was kinda nervous, but i think i did ok. i suppose that's pretty much everything.

2005-09-05T21:00:00.000-05:00

christy finally sent me the pictures from the football game. here r my favorites. unfortunately she couldn't tell which one i was when we were on the field, so there rn't really any good ones from the actual half-time show. there's lots of other ones that u can see on yahoo photos.

2005-09-04T20:10:00.000-05:00

this has been a pretty typical week. classes are still goin' great. we had our first football game. i thought the halftime show went very well. considerin' i'd never marched before i think i did very well. last night (saturday night) i watched the georgia tech/auburn football game. in case ur not aware, auburn went undefeated last year, and tech beat them last night. very excitin'. today i went to dawson memorial baptist. i went to the contemporary service, then sunday school, then the traditional service. i really like all of the services and sunday school. i'm gonna give brookwood baptist a try in a few weeks, then decide between the two of them. but i really like dawson. after church i went to lunch with christy and a bunch of her friends from her church. that was pretty good.

i was lookin' around the samford band page and realized they have a whole bunch of pictures from band camp. i've put all the ones with me on my blog here:

the last practice the day of our first game

some rehearsal inside

another inside rehearsal

we're practicin' march onto the field for pregame

another rehearsal inside

the devotional after practice

practicin' our slide marchin'

part of the half time show

looks like i'm takin' a break

practicin' marchin' onto the field for the half time show

the very openin' formation

practicin' steppin' off

mornin' calisthenics

takin' our early mornin' walk

sectionals

mornin' calisthenics

practicin' our slide marchin' some more

that was one of the only times i got completely lost durin' practice

practicin' slide marchin' again

part of the half time show

slide marchin' again

christy took a lot of pictures at our first game, but she still hasn't sent them to me, but i'll put them up if she ever does.

i took took this fun little linguistic test online today. here's the results:

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English

25% Dixie

15% Yankee

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

who knew i talked %15 yankee?

2005-08-30T23:14:00.000-05:00

sunday i played in the orchestra at dawson memorial baptist. that went pretty good all things considered. i was sight-reading all the music, and i was the only trumpet. after two weeks of blastin' out third part trumpet for marchin' band, by sunday mornin' my lips just weren't ready to play above a C5 (learned which C is C5 in theory yesterday). so that was interesting. but it went well over all, just took a lot of things down an octave. dr. remley (aka doc) didn't give me any dirty looks, so that's a good sign. and they welcomed me back anytime.

monday was the first day of classes. first was music theory 101 with dr. fouse. i think i'm really gonna like that class. i think i really like dr. fouse. at least i do so far. and it seems to be right at the right level for me. then i had ca. that should be interesting. dr. jensen is my professor for that. i think i'm really gonna like him as a person, but hate the class. we're gonna have to write papers out the wazoo, and a few speeches. so that should be interesting. then i had class piano. i'm a little bit concerned about that. i got placed in level 3, which means i should know all my major and minor scales and arpeggios, except i don't. so i can either drop back to level 2 or just work hard and learn my scales. but my skill level is very different. i can't play scales at all, but i can play music and sight read just fine. so a lot of level 3 yesterday was boring. there was one thing that we sight read that was just alternating quarter notes between a c chord and d minor chord in the left hand for about 20 measures. we took it at 50 bpm. i just about went crazy, it was so boring. so i really don't want to go back to level 2. but i'll talk more to dr. macon. i bet we can work somthin' out where i don't have to go crazy durin' class with that stuff. but we'll see. then i had university chorale with dr. lawhon. i think she's gonna be really good. i'm really lookin' forward to that. then was handbells. that was a lot of fun. i love playin' handbells, so that's kinda automatically makes it good. i got the a and b above middle c (the number for the octaves is different with handbells than the rest of music, so i don't remember the number for that octave with handbells [i'm sure marty'll have a comment about this]). so those bells r fairly active, but not crazy, so that's very good.

today i had theory lab, i think that class'll be ok. from what i've heard about this professor, he'll be really easy, but i won't learn hardly anything in there. so that's not really a good thing. then we had openin' convocation. i felt like i was in hogwarts. all the professors (about 200 of them) processed down to the front. all of them wearin' their black phd gown things. then dr. colts (the president of samford who is leaving after this year) basically gave us a 25 minute autobiographical speech. that was kinda interesting at times, and real boring at times too. then we closed with the singing of the alma mater. after convo i had cp. that class should be...there's gonna be lots and lots of readin'. and i'm not a real big fan of that. and from what i've heard about dr. lasseter, she'll make us do really random assignments. but she seems like a real sweet little old lady. then after that i had marching band. that went very well. i think we're gonna be good and ready for our first game on thursday.

then i went to office max with young-bin. got some essential supplies and some other odds and ends. i didn't need nearly as much as i thought i would be. but i was very excited about one thrilling purchase i made. although this requires a little explanation. as u may know, one of the nascar races each year is the sharpie 500 (just so happened to be last saturday night, i'll go into more detail about that later [it also just so happens to be my favorite race of the year, at bristol under the lights....i get excited just thinkin' about it]). because of this relationship with nascar, i am naturally a big fan of sharpies. so for the past few moths i've hard about these sharpie minis. and i've really wanted to get one. but i wanted a black one, not some funny color. but i never could find a black one. i saw them in the 4 and 8 packs, but they never had a black one. well, today at office max i found a 4 pack of sharpie minis that did have a black one. i was thrilled. so that has been a recent addition to my key chain, a new black sharpie mini.

nascar update: as i mentioned earlier the sharpie 500 was this past saturday night. it was thrilling. this was a very important race for jeff gordon. u see, jeff gordon must be in the top 10 in points by the end of the first 26 races in order to be eligible to win the championship. goin' into the sharpie 500 jeff gordon was 12th in points, about 45 points out of 10th place. the cut off for the race to the chase is in only 2 weeks, so its by then that he needs to be in the top 10. jeff finished 6th in the sharpie 500, which moved him up to 10th spot, but only by 11 points. lately jeff hasn't quite had his A game one. he hasn't had a top 5 since may. but if he can get in the top 10 then he'll have a shot at the championship.

2005-08-27T14:47:00.000-05:00

this week's been about like last week. more marchin' band. for the most part band is a lot of fun. since i've never marched before it is frustrating sometimes. and the people around me get frustrated with me sometimes too. but we've learned the whole show, and pregame. so that's very good. now this week we're just gonna have to perfect it. but we've only got three more rehearsals. our first game is thursday night, i'm lookin' forward to that.

i might be playin' in the orchestra this semester. i haven't decided if i want to or not. they meet every monday night from 7-9. that would mean that mondays would be very long days. the biggest reason that i want to do it is because dr. price will be directin' it. this is his last year as the dean of music at samford. so if i don't do the orchestra with him this year, then i'll probably never be able to be in an ensemble of his. from what i've heard he's really good, so i'd like to do it.

tomorrow (sunday) i'm gonna be playin' trumpet in the orchestra at dawson memorial baptist church. i'm lookin' forward to that.

this week classes start. that should be interestin'. so here's a look at my day-by-day schedule:

monday:
8-8:50: music theory with dr. fouse
9:15-10:20: communication arts with dr. janas
11:45-12:40: class piano III with dr. macon
1-2:05: university chorale with dr. lawhon
2:15-3:20: handbells with dr. strickland

tuesday:
8-8:50: music theory lab with dr. jensen
11-12:50: culteral perspectives with dr. lasseter
3-4:50: marching band with dr. min

wednesday:
8-8:50: music theory with dr. fouse
9:15-10:20: communication arts with dr. janas
11:45-12:40: class piano III with dr. macon
1-2:05: university chorale with dr. lawhon
2:15-3:20: handbells with dr. strickland
3:30-4:50: marching band with dr. min

thursday:
8-8:50: music theory lab with dr. jensen
11-12:50: culteral perspectives with dr. lasseter
3:30-4:50: marching band with dr. min

friday:
8-8:50: music theory with dr. fouse
9:15-10:20: communication arts with dr. janas
1-2:05: university chorale with dr. lawhon
2:15-3:20: handbells with dr. strickland

my roommate (nate) moved in on sunday mornin'. so here's some new pics of the dorm with some of his stuff in it.

2005-08-20T21:11:00.000-05:00

so what've i been up to? last night i went with some people from marching band to jim'n nick's bar-b-q, then we went back to one of the guy's apartments and watched saved. it was a lot of fun. then today i finally got to move into my permanent dorm room. that's very good, i finally have a room that i can get good and settled in. my whole family came for the momentous move in day. it was really good to see all of them. we had lunch at olive garden, then went to walmart to get a few things, then back to the dorm room to settle in. to document this momentous move in occasion, i took a few pics with my web cam. the quality's not great, but u can get an idea of what my room looks like.

i'm not really sure what i'm gonna do tomorrow, i don't know what church i'm gonna go to. i guess i'll just have to go wherever i can get a ride to.

then monday its back to the usual band camp routine of practice all day.

2005-08-19T12:13:00.000-05:00

i've been at band camp at samford since monday. its goin' really good. before i came i wasn't really lookin' forward to it at all. i figured how on earth could runnin' around a football field all day in the hot sun possibly be fun? but it really is. the hardest part is playin' while i march. cause when i walk my head moves so much that the horn keeps fallin' off my mouth, but i guess i'll figure it out. but i really like the show. i'm excited about it. our show has kind of a hispanic feel to it. its really cool. we've also just about got the pregame show done too. it still needs lots of work, but i've got just about all the music memorized for pregame, and the drill isn't too hard either.

so here's a look at my average day:

7 a.m.- calisthenics
7:30-8:15-breakfast
8:30-11- rehearsal outside on the practice field
11-11:15 - devotional
11:30-12:30 - lunch
1-3 - sectional inside
3:30-5 - rehearsal: this week its been inside, but today and next week its gonna be outside
5-6 - supper

so that's how everyday goes. its a lot of fun. its slowly startin' to settle in that this is where i'm gonna be livin' for the next four (or more) years. so far it just kinda feels like its just a week of camp, hasn't really set in that i'm stayin' here.

my whole family's comin' up tomorrow to help move me into my permanent room. i'm lookin' forward to that. it'll be great to be in my permanent room, and it'll be good so see all of them.

2005-08-15T21:35:00.000-05:00

these past few days have been really good. on yesterday (sunday) we had church as usual, then afterwards we went up to gainesville to jenny and chris's new house for a cookout. that was a lot of fun. after that i went to parkway point to go see the skeleton key. that was a pretty good movie.

today i got to samford for band camp. its pretty good so far i guess.

2005-08-10T11:08:00.000-05:00

saturday night i went to eat at longhorns, then i went to see charlie and the chocolate factory. it was a pretty good movie. very different than the original, but very good. on sunday the prelude went pretty good. me and marty left to go to ridgecrest at about 3:45 and we stopped at a little hickory house on the way for supper, it was ok. but then we had to wait about 45 min for a piece of pecan pie, but it was pretty good. and then when we got here we didn't really done anything. just kinda...hung around. we played cranium (if u don't know what that is then u can look it up...lol), my team won. we played spades, my team won that too. we played taboo, my team lost that. and that's pretty much all we've been doin'. oh, and lots of ping pong. i'm pretty good at that, but so is robbie and my dad, so sometimes i win, but i lose a lot too. monday night we went to the olympic flame, which is a little italian restaurant somewhere around here, so that was very good.

yesterday we had a lot of fun. we went to the asheville fun depot (http://www.ashevillesfundepot.com). there was putt putt, and rock climing and go carts and all the video games u could play for 1 hour. we did a lot of dance dance revolution, marty and christy really like that. i'm not very good at ddr, but that's ok, it was a lot of fun. there's some really funny videos of us doin' that. but i'll put those up when i get home.

but my favorite part, by far was the go carts. that was SOOO much fun. even though marty spun me out once. i was passin' everybody, except marty because he spun me out.

we were gonna go to the biltmore estate, but that was too expensive so we went to the fun depot instead. after that we went to supper at harbor inn, where i got another steak. so i've had steak 3 of the past 4 days. i do love steak. then we came back to the lodge and played cranium and scatagories (u can look that one up), and 25 words or less (that one too).

then today i think we're gonna go through a lot of old pictures my moma brought of all of us, so that should be fun.

we've been takin' lots of pictures, but i'll but all those on the blog when we get home, it would take way to long to do it on the dial up.

we're gonna be comin' back after lunch on friday, so i oughta get back friday at about 6 or 7.

2005-08-06T11:50:00.000-05:00

wednesday was just pretty much a normal day. that night at church we made cards for dennis, who has leukemia.

thursday was an interesting day. me, maria, lauren, and taylor c. went to six flags. that was fun, then we went to lunch at cracker barrel. after lunch we decided to drive to parkway point to watch a movie. traffic on 285 was really bad, so we went north on the connector. while we were on the connector i rear ended a pickup truck in the mercury. of course his bumper was higher than mine, so his car was fine, but the mercury's grill was knock in pretty good. fortunately it didn't really mess up any of the engine or radiator and stuff, so that's very good, although my dad did say the radiator was shifted a little bit, but not bad. so then the police come and all that jazz. then the police leave and i call my moma, and she tells me to take maria, lauren, and taylor c. home, then i'll drive home. so i get goin' and all of a sudden the hood flies up into the windshield and cracks that real good. fortunately i didn't hit anything when that happened. so then i drove it to a little parkin' lot, and my moma comes and takes maria, lauren, and taylor c. home, and i stay and wait for AAA to come to tow it home. robbie came and waited with me, so that was real nice. finally after about an hour and twenty minutes the tow truck comes, and tows it home.

but on a much better note, my new hp laptop came thursday. its really nice, i like it a lot.

yesterday i went back to six flags again with robbie and marty. that wasvfun spendin' time with my brothers.

then today my family all went to north carolina except for me and marty. i didn't go with them because i have to be at church tomorrow because i'm gonna be conductin' the chuch orchestra on the prelude. the piece is gonna be "my savior's love." i'm also gonna be fillin' in for my dad leadin' one of the sunday school classes in hymns. but then me and marty r gonna go up to north caroline sunday after church to meet up with the rest of the famiy. then we'll be comin' back next thursday or friday.

we just got the pictures developed from last week when will came to visit. u can look at the pictures at Yahoo! Photos

2005-08-03T07:40:00.000-05:00

monday night i went to see "must love dogs" with wilber and betsy. i really liked that movie. it was pretty good.

then tuesday i went to walmart and i got a new GE cordless phone for my dorm room and a few other little odds and ends. then me and my dad also went to delta computers and got a new wireless mouse for my laptop, which should be here friday. then we went to auto service center to pick up the mercury since it had a little bit of work done on it. and that was pretty much my day.

so i was mulling over the internet again today, when i came across this pretty interesting/funny video at CollegeHumor.com. Its a video of Kenny Muhammad beatbox with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

2005-08-01T12:54:00.000-05:00

so what've i been up to these last few days? well yesterday (sunday) we had church, then we had the fith sunday fellowship. that was pretty good. then i came home, kinda napped durin' the braves game. then me, taylor l., lauren, and nancy had supper at sonics. then the four of us met up with maria to go bowlin'. that was pretty good. i was plannin' on spendin' the night at taylor l.'s, only i think the sonic cookie dough blast i had kinda hit me the wrong way, so i didn't feel too good. so i didn't spend the night.

then today so far i had a trumpet lesson, and then i went to old navy. i got two polo shirts (each $12.50). and here they r:

Ranger Red

Cheetah Yellow

and then tonight i'm gonna see must love dogs with wilber and betsy. so that should be fun.

2005-07-30T10:18:00.000-05:00

this week has been pretty good. on wednesday me, my moma, and my cousin will went to stone mountain. we road the riverboat there, and we also watched a really neat 4D movie. that was pretty neat. then on thursday me, my moma, robbie, and will went to six flags. will's not really too much for roller coasters, but he did ride the mine train. then on friday my dad, moma, and will went back to augusta. and my dad drove home the mercedes that we just bought from my grandmother there. here's a picture of that.

all this week i've been dog sittin' the klein's dogs, roly and charlie. so i decided to put a pic of both of them:

Charlie

Roly

and yesterday i went to see stealth. i thought it was pretty good. not quite as good as i was hopin' but still pretty good.

now today christy and oscar r gonna come and visit a little while before they go and pick up oscar's sister at the airport.

2005-07-26T14:01:00.000-05:00

yesterday i went to see the fantastic four. that was a pretty good movie. it was funny and had action. then today my cousin, will who's 8, came to visit us. he's gonna be stayin' till friday. he just got here, and we just played some uno. here's some pictures of that.

This is Will playin' Uno.

Another picture of Will playing.

This is me and Will playing.

tomorrow i think we're plannin' on goin' to stone mountain, then on thursday i think we're gonna go to six flags. so i'm lookin' forward to spendin' some time with him.

2005-07-23T17:08:00.000-05:00

i just got back from passport. passport was great. the mission site that i worked at was a government funded apartment complex where we just played with the kids. that's pretty much all that's been goin' on this week.

2005-07-14T09:57:00.000-05:00

yesterday me and wilber went to six flags. we had a pretty good time. he's not much for roller coasters, but that's ok. he did ride the cyclone though, but that was pretty much the only coaster he rode. we had to leave six flags kinda early cause of rain. so then we came back to my house and took showers and just hung out till it was time to go to church. we had supper at wendy's with the youth group, then we went back to church and played price is right. that was a lot of fun.

today i was sittin' in my breakfast room, when all-of-a-sudden i look up at the window, and there's a squirrel clinging to the screen. he was tryin' to get at the birdfeeder to get some food. well i thought it looked pretty funny so i took some pictures. they didn't turn out too good cause of the screen and the glass, but that's ok.

2005-07-12T12:53:00.000-05:00

these past couple of days have just kinda be the same old.

on sunday i went with my youth group to the braves game. that was a lot of fun even though the braves lost.

monday was a pretty borin' day. i didn't do anything except sit at the computer and watch tv. but we did get a new dishwasher. here's a few pictures of it.

now today i had a piano lesson. after my piano lesson my car wouldn't start so my dad had to come over. he took a look at it and got it runnin' so it all worked out. now i haven't really got anything planned for the rest of the day.

p.s. my big sister, christy, just got a blog. its http://cewatts.blogspot.com

2005-07-09T20:00:00.000-05:00

so what've i been up to the last few days?

wednesday i didn't really do anything.

thursday i had to do some yard work, then me, my moma, and my dad got some braves tickets from our next door neighbors so we went to the braves game. it was really good, the weather was perfect, the seats were perfect, they were on the first row of left field, and the braves won.

friday i went over to taylor c.'s and met up with edgar and met up with taylor l. we didn't' really do too much, we just went to garden hill's and threw frisbee and swam.

then today i went to go see deep water. it was ok, it was kinda weird though. during the summer i've had some times where i was very very bored.

during one of those boredom sessions i decided to make a little video. its me singin' along to part of "NASCAR Races" by Cletus T. Judd.

(thanks sean for hosting my video)

2005-07-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

on saturday i didn't really do much, i just cut the grass.

on sunday i went to church, then home for some good lunch, then back to church for pasta on the plaza: that was pretty good.

on monday marty came home for the 4th of july, and robbie did too, so we played a few games together, then my grandmother also came to the house for a good 4th of july supper. then i went to lennox to watch the fireworks with taylor c., michele, lauren, and her family. that was a lot of fun.

tuesday was pretty much just a normal day. then tuesday night i went to see batman begins. that was a pretty dumb movie. it was really borin' and confusin'.

2005-07-02T09:17:00.000-05:00

where do i begin? two weeks ago on sunday (june 19) i had some old lasagna for breakfast and i think it made me sick. sunday afternoon me, my moma, and dad drove up to ridgecrest, nc for music week. on the way up i didn't feel very good, then that night i had a fever and felt real bad. so then i stayed in bed all monday mornin' till about 1. we had to go audition for the handbell choir. after that i felt ok. music week really started up on tuesday. everyday from tuesday through friday i had orchestra rehearsal from 8:00 a.m. - 10:00, then we went straight over to the sanctuary to play in the worship service from 10:30 - 12:00. then we went back to the lodge and had lunch. then on tuesday and wednesday we went to a music readin' session at 1:30, and then on tuesday, wednesday, and thursday we had handbell rehearsal. handbells was a lot of fun. that was probably my favorite part of music week. we had our handbell concert on thursday at 4:30. the orchestra was directed by jeff cranfill. he's a very well known church orchestra arranger. i really liked him. he's the orchestra director at first baptist atlanta. then on saturday we left and went over to kentucky.

on sunday in horton flatts, ky we went to the church service of the church we were gonna be buildin'. it was kinda interestin'. then on monday we started work. we got the work site at 6:30 a.m. by about 9:30 all of the outside walls were up. by about 11:30 all the inside walls were up. then we had lunch. then after lunch we put the rafters up. that was pretty interestin'. a lot of times they use cranes to do that, but not here. here there were about 6 people on the ground that kinda hoisted them up to about 5 people that were up top that would nail them in. so by the end of monday all the rafters were up. then on tuesday we but chip-board on all the outside walls and on half of the roof. we also put tarpaper on half the roof and some of the house wrap on. then wednesday we finished the tarpaper, and put the windows and doors in. on wednesday night we had a little church service inside the church, that was pretty cool. then after the service at about 8, after we were supposed to be done we had to hoist the shingles up on the roof. each one ways about 70 lbs. that's really heavy. then thursday mornin' a lot of people went home, but we stayed and helped but the back porch on, then we got home thursday night.

then friday night i went to see war of the worlds with lance. that wasn't a very good movie. it was just kinda the same thing over and over again, then the end was really really dumb; it was like they ran out of money and just had to end it.

and that's everything that's happened since june 18th.