a musical testimony . . .

Here's a link to a piece written by a fellow on the 77's listserv. His thoughts and experiences with "Christian" music mirror my own. check it out.

www.thewindrush.com/writing/lostdogs

if you aren't familiar with the bands he mentions, check out some of my links.

"time keeps on slipping . . . "

"time keeps on slipping into the future" - Steve Miller Band

It's been a crazy week and time management is not my best skill. I feel like I've just barely kept my head above the surface. Each day has its own set of tasks and expectations. There are kids to care for and discipline, a house (& lawn) to maintain, papers to grade, class preparations to complete, a God to worship, work goals to be accomplished, a wife to serve and spend quality time with, church activities to participate in, a blog to write, a body to exercise and care for, and hobbies to indulge in. How is one to prioritize and balance all these demands on time? I'm struggling with this question.

As it is, sleep has become an increasingly precious commodity. I'm up at 5:20am and down between 10-11pm.

Its seems that all our modern day, time-saving devices have only freed us to cram more into a day and increased our stress load.

One area in particular that I struggle with is how and where to fit in personal hobbies and interests (board games with friends, listening to music, reading a book or playing computer games). What is an appropriate amount of time to devote to such activities? How does one come up with a budget to manage time? If time is precious, how does one prioritize one's interests?

I don't easy have answers. I believe that my roles as husband, father, teacher, worker, worshiper, etc . . . should take priority over personal indulgence. But my actions aren't always consistent with these beliefs.

Anyone have any thoughts. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Say cheese . . .

Here I am  

The True Geek Test

Here's my results. I'd say its pretty acurate. Follow the link below and tell me how you scored?

The Simple Geek You answered 66% of the questions as a geek truly would.

You don't seem to sway in either direction, however you still seem to have some latent geek attributes within you. Maybe you're interested in computers but not a gamer? Maybe you've got geek hobbies but none of the awkward social tendencies. You may be slightly geekier than you thought and in denial! The simple geek usually has various quirks that friends may make fun of, but in general can be considered a fairly normal person. Your geek attributes make you less likely to conform to society. The popular kids don't hate you but the geeks don't either, so it's a respectable demographic. In a nutshell, you answered enough questions with geek tendencies and enough questions without geek tendencies that it's difficult to pinpoint your exact alignment.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 25% on geekness

Link: The True Geek Test written by ambientred on Ok Cupid

Bethel College

I was asked what the deal is with Bethel College. Here's my reply:

I teach survey American history in a condensed format. Its broken into two classes: History I covers European exploration through Reconstruction (1877) and History II covers The American West (1877) to the 1980 presidential election.

Bethel College's main campus is McKenzie, TN (west of Nashville), but they have a satellite campus here in Nashville. The satellite campuses only offer one degree program (BA in Business) tailored to meet the needs of non-traditional students. Most of the faculty are adjunct. Students are expected to complete a certain number of general education requirements (called College Start) and then work toward their degree.

Most of the students I teach are in college start (meaning they haven't begun work in their major), but I do have students who take history as an elective.

The link on the left will tell you more.

my weekend continued....

so after an eventful Friday and a late bedtime, we awoke bright and early to the sounds of our girls ("Wake up Daddy, the Sun is up!"). I'm afraid they get their early morning sunny dispositions from my side of the family.

Saturday was workday. You know its a hard workday by the number of outfits you go through.

My first project was to clean out a portion of our gutters. I didn't just remove a few leaves, rather I flushed the line out with the garden hose. Lots of muck and water. Shirt #1 was soaked and filthy.

The next project was to pickup a load of mulch. So after a quick change, Taylor (my 4 year old) and I hopped in my Dad's pickup and headed to the nursery. Taylor loved the ride in the pickup. She normally doesn't get to sit up front or ride so high up. She's been begging to take another ride in "papa's truck" ever since. There was a Nissan commercial years ago that used the phrase, "Dogs Love Trucks." I think that applies to little girls too.

The nursery is really more of a landscaping wholesale outfit (no plants - lots of tractors, lawnmowers, etc....). They have a fiberglass statue of Marilyn Monroe (the famous skirt pose). Taylor took one look and commented, "Look daddy, it's an angel!" She also enjoyed watching the guy dump the mulch into the back of the truck with a front end loader. We then cruised back to the house with the windows down and the radio playing ("There She Goes" by Sixpence NTR) .

Our wheelbarrow was stored on top of a compost pile the previous owner started (I don't really know the first thing about serious gardening). When I removed the wheelbarrow, to my surprise, one of the several stray cats in the neighborhood leaped out and ran away - leaving behind two kittens (probably no more than a couple of days old). The cat had dug out a nest in the compost (mostly leaves). We've had problems with strays and this was the third pair of kittens we have discovered on the property over the past two years. As cute and cuddly as they might appear, to me and my neighbors they represented more nuisance and the threat of a spreading stray population. I confiscated the kittens and placed them in a cat carrier. I would have to make a trip to the county animal shelter.

Well, the remainder of the morning was spent pulling weeds, cleaning out the flower beds, and spreading mulch around our landscaping. Lots of sweat and dirt. Shirt #2 was down for the count. After another quick change, I was off to deliver the kittens and return some videos to the library. On a previous trip to the shelter, I had merely handed off the kittens to an employee and left. This time I had to fill out paperwork. The woman behind the counter, then asked me to sign off on the "final disposition" of the kittens. So I signed their death warrents and proceeded home. You wish that every animal could have a home and be cared for, but the reality is much different.

That afternoon, I graded some papers from my American History I class. Janell was able to make babysitting arrangements so we had a date scheduled for the evening. I was feeling stressed. I had ten papers to grade and wanted to get them done over the weekend. I didn't want to leave too many for Sunday, so I worked down to the wire. There was just enough time for a quick change (#3) before we were off.

We had dinner at O'Charleys. The restaurant was having an off night. First the waitress brought us our rolls (our friends the Rushings dubbed them "crack rolls" because they're so delicious and somewhat addictive), but the bottom of the dish had ketchup on it - making a mess of the table. Then when our meals came, Janell's steak was overcooked (that got us a free dessert). Finally, my plate was apparently at the end of its lifespan. It had a good size crack running through it allowing the steak juice to run out - making a second mess of the table. All was forbourn with a pretty good sense of humor on our part and the staff gave us above par service in spite of the mishaps. And the food was very good.

After dinner, we walked over to the theatre to watch a dozen movie trailers.... a feature presentation made its appearence eventually. After much debate over which film to see (Revenge of the Sith, Batman Begins, War of the Worlds, or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Janell settled on Batman.

Neither of us was disappointed. We thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it far exceeded the previous Batman incarnations. Lots of fun. One of my top three favorite super hero movies (up there with the Spiderman and X-men frachises).

I think we'll go see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on our next date. The trailer looked much more impressive on the big screen.

Well this is my biggest post yet. Gotta run now.

a busy weekend

Its been a busy time ....

• 4:30 a.m. friday - airport run for my parents and their missions team who were headed to the Dominican Republic via Miami. Ironically, their 6:45 am flight was delayed til 1:00 pm, so the loss of sleep was for naught.
• 7:00 am. - my church's weekly men's bible study - a small crew this morning.
• 9:00 am - arrived at work a tad bit late and a little sleepy
• 6:30 pm - attended a my pastor's daughter's birthday party - our kids had a blast playing at the park. The guys practiced their chip shots and conspired to play poker.
• 10:00 pm - Texas hold'em with Daniel, Greg, Marty, Troy and Tony - we wrapped up shortly after midnight and I managed to be the short stacked of the two remaining players.

Saturday's events coming soon.

Here I am with my better half, Janell.

I'm out here in blog land - what took so long?

Greetings to those of you passing by, both friend and stranger. I'm just getting my feet wet, so be patient and stop by again soon.

I am inspired to join this blog trend by my friend Scott who started his own blog (Theology Talk) in order to get in the habit of writing on a daily basis. Since then, I've been a blog junkie - checking in with several of my mates daily to see what's new.

So now its time to for me to step out here and just do it.

I have a very wide range of interests so there is no predicting where the conversation will turn around here.