Joe's Blawg

Summer Plans, I guess they're a big deal...

2007-05-15T11:34:00.000-05:00

Well, school is out and I have, miraculously, passed all my classes with pretty good grades. So now the long summer awaits my enjoyment. My summer plans will include the following:

May 5 - July 9: Study for A+ Certification (have not yet set date for testing)
May 19: My sister, Grace, gets married
June 18 - 23: Go to Camp Moriah
July 18 - 22: Grace Chapel Meeting
July 10 - August 9: Take 2nd Summer Session class:

MIS 4800 - INFO RESOURCE MGMT	MTWR 05:30-07:30PM	2nd Session 07-10-07 to 08-09-07		3.00			SINCLAIRE, JOLLEAN K

MIS 4800 -
INFO RESOURCE MGMT

MTWR 05:30-07:30PM

2nd Session
07-10-07 to 08-09-07

3.00

SINCLAIRE, JOLLEAN K

A pretty exciting summer, huh? ...I know, I'm a loser and proud of it, but thats what it will take to graduate in the fall with a resume worthy of bragging on, and getting a decent job.

So otherwise, I believe there is one of those events that is "supposed" to stand out from the rest. One of those "once in a lifetime" events, you know. Perhaps this Saturday, I may be a little preoccupied in Selmer, TN on the first day of my life in which I will officially have a "brother."

So my sister will finally be getting married this upcoming Saturday, May 19. My sister, Grace Thompson, will be marrying Dustin Lambert. I understand that many of my blog readers, unfortunately, will not be able to make it to the wedding. However, if anyone knows Grace and would like to say something to her (e.g. Congratulations, wish you the best, etc.) please comment so for this post. I will ensure that all comments as such will be sent to and read by Dustin and Grace.

More information can be found at the website linked in the above paragraph. That URL, for your bookmarking pleasure, is: http://dustinandgrace.com.

God bless.

Countdown to Graduation: 222

Whats the scoop?

2007-04-19T23:18:00.000-05:00

In that short time in between my shower and gelling up my hair, I heard on the radio @ 6:15am this morning, on Drake & Zeke, 98.1 The Max, as they were reading the news:

"Helen Boe-champ, age 87, set the world record for high-jumping..."

An Unhealthy Truth

2007-04-12T17:03:00.000-05:00

What is most unhealthy: Dr. Pepper, Full Throttle, or a delicious double chocolate chip frappuccino?

I have been doing a lot of nutritional study the past week, and reached the horrifying conclusion that those delicious drinks we so often indulge in, are quite more unhealthy than we thought. My study consists of the following nutritional information:

(All nutritional facts are based on a 16 fl oz. serving of the listed product)

Product: Contents:	Dr Pepper	Full Throttle	*Double Chocolate Chip Frappuchino (Grande)*
Calories	200	200	580
Total Fat	0g	0g	22g
Sodium	70mg	140mg	370mg
Carbohydrates	54g	56g	86g
Sugar	54g	58g	65g
Dietary Fiber	0g	0g	3g
Vitamins	NONE	Vitamin b6 (20%), Vitamin B12 (10%)	Vitamin A (6%), Calcium (45%), Iron (20%)

Dr. Pepper Source
Full Throttle Source
Starbucks Frappuccino Source

So what can be drawn from this is that besides the Sodium (which I would conclude is mostly the excess caffeine in Full Throttle), there is nothing more substantially unhealthy about Full Throttle than there is about Dr. Pepper. Both are made with high fructose corn syrup, which is a disgusting substitute for sugar, that is highly damaging to the liver.

The very frightening conclusion from this is learning of the 580 calories in a Grande-sized Starbucks Double-Chocolate Chip frappuccino. In fact, from browsing through the linked source for Starbucks, I found that many of their drinks are very high in calories and carbohydrates. And to think that there was a possibility of such indulgence like Starbucks, without a price. I for one, would like to see Super Size Me 2 take aim at Starbucks. Perhaps a 30-day, all-Starbucks diet?

Blogging on the Mayor Race

2007-04-09T09:17:00.000-05:00

For those who have not seen it yet. I have decided to blog on the local mayor race. Anyone interested, please visit and comment if you like. I'm looking for various opinions of this election race, and anything you have to say is useful and appreciated. I'm also looking to incite interest in the election, from otherwise uninterested Memphis voters. The link for this blog is:

http://thememphismayor.blogspot.com

Its harder than it looks...

2007-03-25T22:34:00.000-05:00

That would be Congregational Song Leading. Something in which I've taken a great deal of interest over the past couple years. Something that I always seem to want to do every chance I get, ever since I completed my first singing school last June. But theres one little problem.

Not knowing every doe-ray-me, not being able to confidentially start a song without a soft & modest voice, not being able to keep consistent beat, and not knowing most of the songs usually called upon can make performing this task rather difficult. It was so easy back at Harmony Hill, just hold your hand up and start, you don't even have to let a sound out of your mouth to start the song, and plus people are always messing up there because its singing school, and everyone is there to learn. You also get to pick your own song at Harmony Hill. So why bother leading congregational singing? And after all, I don't have to do it. Everyone in the congregation would be just fine if I just asked another one of those talented singers to come up. No big deal, right?

Well, what about God? Does God say "if you can't do something to praise my name, that will also please the ears of other men, then just give up." I never can seem to find that anywhere in the scriptures. So, as embarrassed as I may be, I continue standing up there leading. And, as said back in the first paragraph, it always seems to be something I continually have a desire to do. Is that just my own personal pride, hoping that maybe this time I will do it right and hit every note? Or is that just God's glorious grace in my heart?

Now don't get me wrong on this, I think its wonderful that there are talented people out there who can sing so well and so beautifully. I praise God that Andrew B. can lead a song he is unfamiliar with. I praise God that The Promise can blend their voices together so well. I praise God that Sister Helen has taught a higher number of singing schools than most of my college test grades. Its great to see people like that with such talent, and to exercise that talent. But in the church, in front of the congregation, when they call on you to go up there and take that role, remember who you are singing to, because his name is mentioned in most of the songs.

"My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise." ~Psalms 57:7

"I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee." ~Psalms 138:1

Countdown to Graduation: 258 days

Countdown to Graduation

2007-03-21T22:11:00.000-05:00

Note: this post officially begins Joe's "Countdown to Graduation" counter. Please continue reading for details.

Countdown to graduation: 262 days

Well today after church, Bro. Matt and Bro. Tony told me that I needed to update my blawg. So tonight I come home, load up the laptop, and would ya know it this thing still exists!!! Its been the longest stint ever since starting my blawg in August 2005, that I have gone without posting. But not to fear, joe4444 has returned to the blogging world, and will thus hopefully revive the good ole misspelled version of a "blog."

Well, with that in mind, what to blawg about? Hmm... whats been on Joe's mind today. How about that trip to the advising office in the Business building. Yea thats what I'll blawg about. I learned today from my adviser that the following courses stand in the way of my Bachelor's Degree:

MIS 4800 - INFORMATION RESOURCE MGMT (3 hrs)
MIS 4310 - GLOBAL INFO TECHNOLOGY (3 hrs)
MIS 4760 - WEB SITE DESIGN (3 hrs)
MGMT 4710 - STRATEGIC MGMT (3 hrs)
+ 1 credit hour of any elective at the University I so choose

So I'll probably take Info. Resource (MIS 4800) over the summer since there is a 2nd session of it offered. That leaves 9 hrs for the fall, plus another class of my choosing, while will probably be 3 hrs (instead of 1) so that I can remain on full time (full time = minimum of 12 hrs) and remain on my dad's insurance. So what to take? Perhaps some freshman-level, Intro. to University, ACAD course. Yes, that would be perfect for a graduating senior. But wait!!! I've already taken it. So what else? Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions on this? Is there any class all the G.C. college folks, or the Green sisters, are taking together this fall? If so, I'd love to join in.

Somebody please help me out on this if you can. Thanks yall and God bless. And GO TIGERS tomorrow!!!

Who gets teased the most?

2007-02-09T16:46:00.000-06:00

A, Matt for being a Vols fan.

B, Me for being a Democrat.

C, Bro. Zack for talking very fast.

D, [Insert your own chioce here]

Please bear in mind the selection above is meant as nothing more than a joke, and is most definitely not meant to criticize anyone or hurt anyone's feelings in anyway. So, if anyone inserted for choice D please know for sure that they would be ok with it, and would take it as nothing more than sheer intended humor.

Well, outside of that, I know I am always asking for prayers, but I have had some pretty bad allergies this winter that have caused me to be sick a lot more the past couple months than I usually am. I haven't been feeling well the past couple of days, so any prayers for me would be much appreciated. Thanks yall and God bless.

The Funniest SNL Clip Ever

2007-01-24T01:23:00.000-06:00

Good news!!! I found "Da Bearce!!!"

So if any of yall are wondering who I am cheering for in the Super Bowl. Please watch the following clip:

Da Superfans

The Second Funniest SNL Clip Ever

2007-01-23T11:10:00.000-06:00

Well, I couldn't find "Da Bearce" with Chris Farley and Michael Jordan on youtube, so I only have it on VCR. Therefore, I decided to post the second best clip ever from SNL. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Mr. Robinson (parody of Mr. Rogers).

Warning: This video may contain one or two uses of adult content. Otherwise, enjoy ;)

Eragon = Roy???

2007-01-11T17:47:00.000-06:00

I think my buddy Roy's got a secret Hollywood life going on, what do yall say?

Top 10 Memories from 2006

2007-01-01T22:08:00.000-06:00

Well, 2006 definitely was not the best of years in my lifetime. In fact, its for the most part one of my most regrettable years. But amidst the bad memories, there were quite a few good ones. So I would like to present my collection of top 10 memories from 2006.

September 30
10. Being nutty enough to paint my face white and blue out of motivation for the Memphis/Tennessee game that ended with Memphis getting embarrassed in a 41 - 7 loss.
August 11 - 12
9. Taking a weekend trip to Alabama to crash my gradmother's house and hang with my cousin Andrew.

June 12
8. Becoming the laughing-stock of Harmony Hill when I attempt to lead on the first day.

August 25
7. Getting promoted to "Team Leader" at work so I can boss around future employees, like perhaps this Andrew Beauchamp fellow that we're going to hire.

May 16 - 20
6. Taking an awesome trip to St. Louis!!!
June 6
5. Inviting all my GC friends to a Memphis Redbirds game to see the Redbirds get stomped 4 - 2, but us still have a great time chillin' in the stands in the outfield.

Dec. 25
4. For Christmas, I got an awesome pink A & F shirt and two of the nicest cologne's to add to my collection.
March 25
3. Inviting my GC friends over to my house for the Memphis/UCLA Elite Eight game, that ended with a disastrous 45-50 loss for the Tigers, but still seemed to be a heckuva good time for everybody (I wanna do that again sometime this season, so please be on the lookout for an invitation if your one of my Memphis friends).

February 11
2. One word: SNOWGLOO!!!!
...and drum roll please, the number 1 memory from 2006 is....

August 3 - November 6
1. Returning a favor he did for my disabled friend 8 years ago, by campaigning for my good buddy HAROLD FORD JR!!!!!

If you want to know more about any of those 2006 memories, please visit my blawg achieves for the date mentioned above each top 10 memory. I would now like to conclude this post with my 2007 New Year's Resolution:

I would like to do as much as I can for others, and get as little credit, or even none if possible for it. If its possible to not even make my identity known for the good favors I do, that would be best.

God bless and a Happy 2007!!!!

Halleluah, Praise Jehovah!!!

2006-12-18T21:58:00.000-06:00

Well again I am overdue for a post. I wanted to make this one last week, but procrastination lasts quite awhile after the end of semester, I am afraid. So anyway, as yall know I have been really struggling in at least two of my classes this fall, and could've easily told yall a week ago I was probably going to make two D's on grades. Well, somehow, someway, the Lord decided to give me better grades than I was expecting, praise him!!! And I have decided to stick with MIS now that I've gotten two of the hardest MIS classes out of the way. Here are my grades:

Course #	Class	Grade
MIS 3775-001	DATABASE MANAGEMENT	C
MGMT 3510-006	BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS	B
ECON 4112-002	ORGANIZATIONAL ECON	C
FIR 3410-004	BUSINESS FINANCE	C

I know what yall are thinking "three C's and a B? hahaha thats pathetic!!!" But, I'm not nearly as smart as most people, and thats good for me, especially comparing to how much worse it could've been.

So anyway, if anyone is actually interested, here's my tentative schedule for the Spring:

Course #	Class	Time	Instructor
MIS-3790-001	NETWORK/DESIGN/ MGMT	MW 12:40-02:05PM	STAFFORD T
MIS-3770-002	SYSTEM ANALYSIS METHODS	TR 07:10-08:35PM	POSTON R
ISDS-3510-004	PRODCTN/OPERTNS MGMT	TR 05:30-06:55PM	LIU G
ACCT-3130-002	LEGAL/SOCIAL/POL ENVRN	MW 05:30-06:55PM	MOORE L

Thanks to everyone for their prayers. I could've have done it without God. And I don't believe God would have done it without the prayers of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Halleluah, Praise Jehovah!!!

Why Love the Primitive Baptists?

2006-12-01T23:37:00.000-06:00

Well I hate to eclipse my post on changing majors, because I still very much need prayers about that and my struggling situation in college right now, but this blawg is in serious need of an update, so I just want to post something motivating that I mentioned on the wall of the Primitive Baptists Myspace about our faith:

You know what I love about Primitive Baptists? Well look at these other denominations, its just go to church, sit through the service, and then leave, and the only way they really get to know each other through youth groups and such. But us PBs we stick around after the service and fellowship with everybody. Or we'll feast (with some of the best fried chicken in the south cooked up by some sweet ole elderly lady). Even sometimes we'll just gather around and sing more hymns after the service, just because we love it, and we never get tired of it. And you dont see any of these 10,000 member churches in the PBs where all your contributing to the church is a statistic. Instead we'd rather keep our churches smaller and more numerous. Thank God I'm a Primitive Baptist!!!

Potentially Changing Majors

2006-11-21T20:31:00.000-06:00

Well, theres a young college student at the University of Memphis. This particular college student has a completion of 86 course hours (needing 90 to become a Senior), and while taking 12 this fall semester is on pace to do it. However, theres a little problem there. Despite being a Senior, this student just might still decide to change major....

So thats where the problem begins. I am stuck in this Database course in MIS, and probably going to bomb it again this semester. I may just call-it-quits with MIS altogether. Afterall, is MIS really want I want to do with my career? Plus, teaching is just one big "ego trip" for all the MIS professors (unlike any other instructor I've had in the business department).

So here are the options for alternative majors:
a, Finance
b, Marketing
c, Management
d, Just drop out of college Joe, your a loser anyway
e, Stick with MIS, even though those low grades and repeat courses will look bad on your transcript and résumé.

Pro's: I am sticking with business, so a change will only set me back 3 courses (meaning, probably no more than one semester). I'm leaning towards Marketing simply because I enjoy it most. Also, my software familiarity and Excel Certification will go well, and is a good hiring point, in a Marketing position.

Con's: The question with Marketing is "what is the job market like for Marketing majors right now?" What about Finance or Management? Finance probably has a better job market even though I can't stand to have that kind of a job, while Management is definently easier. And could I still stick it out with MIS? Afterall, MIS is what kind of fits into my résumé right now.

Anyway, if yall want to check out my résumé that I did for Business Communications, just click here: Joe's really cool and updated business résumé.

Please offer any advice you can, believe me I need it, but please don't say "pick something you like, not something that you will make a lot of money with," they told me that when I started college, and I was thinking "if I were doing something I liked, why would I even be going to college in the first place?"

Thanks yall, I need your prayers as always, and God bless.

It's Not The End For Ford

2006-11-08T22:22:00.000-06:00

Today I am just at an utter loss for words. The election last night was not a victory for the Christians. In fact, the Democrats taking the House and the Senate was icing WITHOUT the cake. What I really wanted to see from this election was Conservative, Christian, and scripture-quoting Congressman Harold Ford Jr. pull out a victory. And let me assure you it is not because I am against Bob Corker. Although I felt Corker ran a horrible, sleezy campaign, I must give credit where it is due and congratulate him on a victory. This has been about Harold Ford Jr. for a year and a half now, for me. I always said that if I ran for President, and either of us were not from TN, then Harold Ford Jr. will be my running mate (no VP is allowed to run if he is from the same state as the running Presidential candidate).

So I would just like to take this time thank everyone that I spoke to about this campaign. I want to thank my fellow Jr. supporters for your hard work and support. I want to thank all the Corker supporters who challenged my views on the issues and made for some good debates, and I want to thank everyone else just for being you. I know this is not the last we will see of Harold Ford Jr. There have been rumors that he'll run for Mayor of Memphis (I'd vote for him, but I hope he goes for something a little higher), there have also been rumors that he'll run against Lamar Alexander for the Senate in 2008. And there have been rumors than he'll run for Governor of TN in 2010 (yea right, like future President Bredeson will step down). Whatever Ford does, I support him. I hope he goes for a state-wide position though, he's too good for these local positions.

Yall please pray for Harold Ford Jr, as well as our senators. God bless Tennessee and God bless America!!!

Parallel Parking, isn't it fun?

2006-11-01T17:26:00.000-06:00

If you are one of the 8 PB's who currently attend the Univ. of Memphis, I am sure that you have experienced trouble parking. There are two main parking lots at the U of M, Southern (which is on the south side of campus) and Central (which is on the north side of campus). I typically parking in neither of them.

Being a Business major, I typically find myself parking somewhere on Patterson (north of Central) or on the small side street in front of Richardson Towers. There was one particularly difficult occurance a couple weeks ago that forced me to pity my car and the hard work it does to save me from a further walk. Last Tuesday (a

week and a day ago, same day as my last post), I forced my car, with the beautiful Harold Ford Jr. stickers on the back bumper, to muscle its way into a spot with about 2 inches to breathe on the front and back side, between the cars around me. And although I try not to be "proud" of things like this, I felt it was at least worth a blog post. Its just a little reminder about how aggressive one must be in parking at the U of M.

A Brown Recluse bite of pain

2006-10-24T22:56:00.000-05:00

Warning: Some of the contents of this post are rather graphic, please take that into consideration prior to reading this post.

Last week, sometime over fall break, I look at my waist to see a small bump of some sort. Nothing unusual, just something that I always see. So of course my natural expectation is that it will go away soon, no problem....

Well it wasn't quite that simple. On Thursday, I had noticed this "bump" had grown rather extensively in size, and was now rather sore. On Friday I went to the free Student Health Clinic on the Univ. of Memphis campus, where my bump was looked at by a nurse and was diagnosed as "some sort of infection" and I was prescibed for some antibiotic medicine.

Over the weekend was when this bump became most painful. It was nearly impossible to sleep at night, and I was forced to wear the loosest pairs of pants I own. On Monday, I went back to the clinic, as requested of me, and was asked to come back again Tuesday to see the doctor to "have it opened up and drained." I returned this morning, right after my Business Finance exam, at which the doctor examined it and said that it was too dry to drain, and he diagnosed it as "probably a brown recluse bite." He gave me a new prescription (a much stronger one), and asked me to stop taking my current one. I was also asked to return Thursday for further evaluation.

So here I lie this Tuesday evening, my brown recluse bite not being quite so painful anymore, but more itchy, as the skin is more-or-less dry and tender at this point, as it will stay for about the next month or so. Yall please pray for me. God bless.

Am I just stupid?

2006-10-18T21:18:00.000-05:00

The question has found its way into my mind many times. Especially when its like my entire class understands something, and I'm clueless. Well, on October 18, 2005 I was driving up Graham St, and turned into the Exxon just before Summer, and turned too sharply and hit the curb with back, right side of my car. I pulled up to a gas pump, got out, and saw that my back right tire was flat. I filled up with gas, and then drove behind the station and changed the tire.

So, today being the one year anniversary of this infamous incident, it only be fitting that I celebrate it the proper way (not on purpose, of course). I was driving along a parking lot in Cordova, glanced in a store on my left, and BAM!!! I felt the same right side of my car bang into the curb. I pulled over, got out, looked on the right side of my car, and well.... yall can do the math here....

It was about 8:00pm that I noticed this, umm... "celebrated anniversary" event occur. About 8:10pm I had the spare on and all ready to go, but noticed it being flat itself. I drove right around to the Fill-N Station, and wasted 50 cents on what should be free, air to fill up the tire.

Does this happen to any person in their right mind? What are the odds the same thing happens the same day exactly one year later? Am I in the Twlight Zone?

They say "the second time a dog bites you, its not the dogs fault anymore."

The Rebirth of Coldism

2006-10-13T01:40:00.000-05:00

Well anyone that stepped outside today has realized that something happened to summer!!!! It seems to be missing its key aspect....

....So here comes that lovely time of year again. Where walking to class becomes a pain, where the entire customer base at Hollister and Pac Sun go into hybernation, where the hose outside never runs, where the car ignition takes at least three turns to start for anyone who doesn't drive a Toyota, where when you watch football games you can always see the linemen breathe, and where I can complain for months about how racist Germantown is for not allowing "colored Christmas lights" in their city.

To prepare for the change of seasons, I have done three important things:

1. As you can see, I have finally gotten rid of that old sea cliff background, and replaced it with a shot of my neighborhood. The shot is set from the driveway of my house, facing west, showing the short road in which the street I live on runs, in the freezing cold snow from last February.

2. I have changed my hair styles. Actually this was about 5 days ago, but still, when I did it it was for the intention of preparing for the end of summer anyway. My old hair style was a straight-upward spiked surfer-look. Last Saturday, I got it cut. For the winter I decided to change it to a more Conservative, comb-over look. My only fear of this is looking like Ron Howard when it starts to grow out.

3. I decided to download some good Christmas songs for my iPod, Kenny Chesney style, and have been listening to them all day. My favorite is All I want for Christmas.

So far thats all I can think of doing. If anyone can think of anything else I may need for the winter (besides bundling up on clothes), then please help me out.

A new day

2006-10-08T20:58:00.000-05:00

I decided to delete my last post because I felt it wasnt really glorifying to God. Plus, I'd like to restablish the image of this blog as more of a personal blog, rather than a politically debating one. If anyone who was debating in that post or wanted to comment on it, I ask that you please send me an e-mail at: joe444477@gmail.com. So why the sudden change of moods? Well I experienced a rather blessed day today...

Today I visited three churches and witnessed two baptised, as the folks at Grace Chapel heard me testify this evening. Somehow, someway, it really touched my life, at this point where I have been so busy with classes, exams, work, etc... It really made me realize where the priority should be in my life. Praise the Lord!!!

Liberalism just doesn't win

2006-10-04T00:19:00.000-05:00

Looks like Liberal, Anti-Christian candidate Bob Corker just can't catch a break in the local TN Senate election. He is down 48%-43% to Ford in the latest Rasmussen poll. He is down 43%-42% to Ford in the latest Mason-Dixon poll. So, to shed even more light on the selffish millionaire, I would reference to the fact that Firefighters and Law Enforcement Offices have officially offered their support to Conservative, Christian Congressman Harold Ford Jr. Here's the details:

U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Harold Ford Jr. received the endorsement Monday of firefighters and law enforcement officers, who also backed Ford's claim in a controversial TV ad about their pay.

"It was a no-brainer for us," said Gary Moore, who is with the Professional Firefighters Association of Tennessee.

Moore cited Ford's support of federal legislation to give firefighters and law enforcement officers the right to collectively bargain with their employers.

During interviews with all the candidates during the primary, Republican nominee and former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker told first responders he did not believe they should have the right to negotiate with their employers for benefits.

And Moore backed Ford's ad that says Corker froze firefighters' pay while giving himself a raise when he was mayor.

Moore referred to the pay step program put in place to ensure Chattanooga police and firefighters get increases over time of 3 percent to 5 percent each year. Corker suspended the pay step program and substituted it with a 2 percent increase and $500 to offset a $600 health insurance premium increase, Ford officials said.

"He took away their step raises and in the process, gave himself a raise," Moore said....

Click here for Source, and to read the full article

Yes my past actually existed

2006-09-21T20:59:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder what it would be like if you were a PB that didn't have any other young people in the church, and had to go to Memphis City public schools to fulfill your educational needs? Now I'm not saying that it makes for a legitmate accomplishment or anything, but it does test one's faith to an extensive margin.

Anyway, I decided to post a few pictures from back in the Whitehaven days of my church. Back in Nov. of 2002 we (Whitehaven) decided to pack our bags and move, due to the declining ethnic environment around our church. After numerous break-ins, behind-the-church dumpings, thefts, vandalism, broken windows, etc... we decided to sell our precious 26-pew, greatly over-sized Whitehaven church building, and attempt to find land further south, below the Mississippi-Tennessee state border, in what we hope to be a safer community to locate our 15-20 member congregation. Often I think and imagine of the day when we will have a home of our own to worship and serve God in. What will it be like? Well, its been so long since we actually had a church building, I almost forgot what it was like. Here's a little reminder of some of those joyful memories I was blessed to experience at Whitehaven:

Here is our former Whitehaven church. A nice little isolated place in Southwest Memphis.

April 18, 1999: My Dad was ordained on this day as a deacon for Whitehaven. The following is a picture of the brothers that were present at my Dad's ordination service. There are five ordained preachers in this picture. I am positively sure that many of yall can name at least two of them, as those two are relatively well-known among the PBs. I would say about 60% of yall could get three of them, 20% could get four, and roughly 5-10% of my loyal blog readers I would estimate, could name all five ordained preachers that are in this picture. I will list the names of the men below, and challenge anyone who is willing, to try to name the preachers among them.

In this picture (from left-to-right): Brother Kevin Poe, Brother Joey -----, Brother Howard Case, Brother Danny Hardwick, Brother Myron Wilkenson, Brother Edwin Carter, Brother Calvin Warren, Brother Zack Guess, my Dad (Brother Dwayne Thompson), Brother Bobby Poe, Brother Howard Berry, Brother Mike Thompson, Brother Grady Camp, and Brother Jim -----.

Back when I was a wee lil' feller. As I told yall, I had no other wee lil' fellers in the church to socialize with.

O yea those Easter-egg hunts that Brother Warren always loved to have for us on Easter Sunday, its a shame we havent been able to have those since our days at Whitehaven, but they sure were fun. All the older members of our church would always bring their grandkids to church that day (the one or two times each year I had other wee lil' fellers to socialize with).

I would estimate the date of this picture to be Easter, around the year of 1992 or 1993. As yall can see I would dominate those Easter egg hunts. I tried to show Brother Warren that he raised a strong prospect for those Easter Sundays. However, soon afterwards I unfortunantely lost my touch, and was demoted to Triple-A Easter egg hunting.

Some sister's from those good ole days. I'm not sure of the date of this picture either, but it was on the same day as the previous two. The lady on the far left, Sis. Christine, was my grandmother (she was Sis. Mary's younger sister). She passed away (God rest her soul) in Feb. 2002, 3 months before I graduated HS, and 10 months before we sold our building at Whitehaven. Brother Warren and Brother Isaac Guess preached her funeral.

In this picture (from left-to-right): Sister Christine Thompson, Sister Beth Warren, Sister Mary Thompson, Sister Nina Thompson, Sister Sandra Wilkenson, and (not sure of the name or identity of the last sister).

So many people, so many faces that I haven't seen in ages, this brings back lots of good memories.

Perhaps many of yall who are unfamiliar with my church do not know about any of this and are probably bored by this post, but these pictures bring back an important, and memorable, part of my childhood. Growing up in public school, the main part of my life that built up such a strong Biblical background was the Whitehaven church. Brother Warren, who has been my pastor my entire life, has been a real blessing to helping develop me spiritually throughout these years, and its touching to look back at those pictures, and just remember the days of Whitehaven.

Vote for Harold Ford Jr. The Christian's Choice!!!

A day for the future Senator

2006-09-15T23:57:00.000-05:00

Well today was definently one of those days I will remember. For anyone who knows me well, should know that I am a member of the Harold Ford Jr. campaign committee, and will stop at nothing to get Congressman Ford elected to the Senate. A few days ago, I received a phone call on my cellphone from the committee inviting me to a rally this Friday morning that would included pastries, coffee, and more, at 9am at the headquarters. So, since I have no Friday classes, and am not scheduled to work at the time, I decided to attend. Before I get to the events of today, I would like to post a picture from the first time I ever met Congressman Ford.

May 1998:
On an 8th grade field trip to Washington D.C. my entire class heard Congressman Ford speak to them. Afterwards, we got a picture with the Congressman. The picture (from left to right) is of me, Jeff, Derek (my friend who had muscular distrophy, he passed away less than a year after this picture was taken), and Congressman Ford. Please click here for the story on my friendship with Derek.

Friday, September 15, 2006:
So I came to the Ford rally, downed a cup of coffee and half a blueberry muffin, and then the rally began with some guy in which I was unfamiliar with speaking briefly, yet motivationally. Anyway, following his speech, another lady came up to speak. As she was concluding, there was a loud applause from the entrance, and low-and-behold, there was Congressman Ford coming in.

Then Ford gets up at the podium and speaks. And let me tell you, he is one of the best speakers I have ever heard. Being A.D.D., I can hardly listen to someone speak for an hour, but Congressman Ford I could listen to all day long and never get tired. He's very motiving, and even throws in a joke here and there, to maintain the interest and enthusiasm from the audience.
Ford Jr. spoke for about 30-40 minutes. Over to the side, was his father, Harold Ford Sr. (in the bright orange tie, in the center of this photo). Ford Sr. shook my hand when I first entered that morning.
After the campaign speech, there was a crowd of people up at the front trying to get pictures with the Congressman, or speak to him. I fought my way to the front, and asked one of his security guards "will I have an opportunity to get a picture?" and he said "yes, right after this interview." So I watch Ford give a short interview to an unlabeled camera, then continued taking pictures with people. I finally got his attention and asked a man standing by to get a picture of us. He did, but then it turned out very blurry. My initial thoughts are "o well, I'm sure the Congressman is very busy, at least I had an opportunity" so I am about ready to head back to my car. Then the same security guard I talked to before asks me "would you like me to get a picture of you and the Congressman?" I said "yes sir" and then he asked me to go and approach Ford as he posed with another man (you see, most campaign security would have asked me to move along, but Ford and his campaign have always had a good reputation with this kind of kindness, they make sure always to treat their supporters and to allow everyone their opportunity to get pictures with the Congressman). Then Ford asked "are yall two together" (referring to this other man standing next to him and me), I responded "no sir" and Ford said that he would pose for seperate pictures for each of us. I stood aside, then after the other man was done, posed next to Congressman Ford, and......
......after the picture, the security guard handed my camera back to me. I shook his hand and thanked him for the picture.

So that was my morning, one that I will not soon forget. Having the priviledge to meet and get a picture with the Congressman that helped out my friend with muscular distrophy just 8 years ago was more than a blessing. I hope you win Senator Ford, God bless you!!!!

Tonight, concluding the event I experienced at the Ford headquarters, I got together with my family and we looked through all our old pictures for that one of my friend Derek along with Ford. After numerous searching, it finally turned up (thus the first picture in this post). I also happened to find a few old Whitehaven pictures that I want to try to get together for a post in a few days, so please stay tuned for that, it will be worth it. God bless yall.

The First Home Game

2006-09-14T00:08:00.000-05:00

Well its been a record-shattering 12 days since my last post. So though long-overdue, here I finally am again. Last Saturday was the first home football game this season for the Univ. of Memphis Tigers football team, and a huge group of us went to the game from Grace Chapel. We had a lot of visitors, due to the fact that Bro. Timothy was ordained Saturday morning (praise the Lord), so that was a real blessing. I am certainly looking forward to the Tigers football season this year. The wonderful high-fiving and dog-piling on each other everytime the Tigers score a TD, the best Turkey Legs ever smoked in the world, the face painted/hair dyeing, etc... O what a memorable football season this will be. Here are a few of my pictures from the game:

This is probably the best picture of Drewski that you will ever seen. I'm in tears over how wonderful this picture is.

Ms. Kathern and Ms. Lacey. These arent a pair of damsels I would brave to be around at this point in time. Thankfully, this is the only of the 5 posted pictures here, that was not taken by me.

This picture was supposed to be, and is, of Lacey and Mercy gettin' crunk at the game, but I just have to point out the look on Lydia's face. She's got that "get that camera off me or else!!!" look, with the clinched fist and everything. I was very scared, and nervous, about taking this particular picture.

SURPRISE!!!

Only in Memphis... Is it even possible to get any crunker?

For the rest of my pictures from the game, you can Click here. Enjoy, and God bless. Go Tigers!!!!

Summer 2006, One for the Memories

2006-09-01T22:07:00.000-05:00

Well, even though its officially been over for a week now, this is my first opportunity to give the summer of 2006 its proper send off, as it so deserves. So here is a recap of one of the most memorable summers of my life, in order of events.

There was that fun trip to St. Louis back in May, with the stop at the famous Lamberts, home of the throwing rolls.

Dustin and I looking up at the Arch during that fun St. Louis trip...

The only baseball team I got to see this year that is actually winning, GO CARDS!!!

The Redbirds game that I invited my good friends from G.C. to for my birthday. Thanks everybody who came. It was fun, the socializing that is, the Redbirds have been nothing short of a disaster this year.

In mid-June, right before Harmony Hill, I had the pleasure to go to the Tyler Meeting and stay at the house of some former Memphians who knew my dad well, the Machiavello's.

Ok Nawill I know you've been waiting for these next two pictures, so for your convenience, here they finally are. At the Tyler Meeting an intense, bloodshed game of pool went down between two friends and fellow church members, yet bitter rivals. Here we have the loser falling down on the pool table in utter defeat...

...And here is the reigning champion!!!!!

Harmony Hill, one of the windiest places this side of the planet.

Bro. Joey made us all amazing singers. Well, everyone except me, I still sing like a frog, and freeze up everytime I try to start a song when I am leading.

On the way back from Harmony Hill, I had many intellectual and rheotorical conversations during the 10-hour trip with my good buddy Davis Beauchamp.

Camp Moriah. I supposed this has already played itself out, but just a reminder of what kind of mess four guys in a tent can make.

In the hottest months of early-July, even right in the middle of the off-season, you still see us Memphians getting out there to play basketball every chance we get. This was during Seth's birthday, Nawill has to show off of course.

So during the latter half of July and the first week or so of August I had the priviledge of taking a summer course at the U of M. During it came the Grace Chapel meeting. Here is some of what we PBs do most, besides socialize, its sing!!!

In August, I decided to take a final trip to Alabama to cap off the summer, to visit my cousin Andrew. Here is when we went swimming. Being the mature young men we are we had to have fun with the inflatable animals.

Goodbye Summer 2006, you will always be remembered!!!

Bring on football season!!! GO TIGERS!!!! Boo Vols!!!!

Also, if anyone would like a copy of some or all of my sets of pictures for the summer of 2006 (I have a total of about 500 pictures), then please contact me and I will set you up with a personal CD of the pictures you choose, absolutely free of charge. God bless.

Potential for Promotion

2006-08-25T19:00:00.000-05:00

Well for those who know me I work rotating between two of the computer labs at the Univ. of Memphis (the only two 24-hour labs on campus), both operated by the Client Services Department. The entire summer, there's been talk among all of my coworkers of an upcoming vacant position, a student position, thats above the regular Lab Attendants (although at this position you still work in the labs doing the same job, you just have more to do and more responsibility placed on your hands). This is the position of Team Leader, and due to some recent graduations, they decided to hire one or two new Team Leaders before the beginning of the upcoming semester.

So there are four of us applying: Sam, Daniel, KT, and I. We all had interviews scheduled for this past Thursday with our boss and the current Team Leaders. I personally, prior to the interview, hold confidence that I am at least in the top two in the running for this position, with my closest competition being Daniel, but really its anybody's game so nothing is secure. Daniel probably held the best job knowledge, while Sam was the hardest worker. KT had assisted my boss with schedules earlier in the summer, so that got his name in well, and I was the most punctual. I also held the most veteranship among the four of us. All I needed to do was get through this interview without making any mistakes. I was indeed very very nervous, but afterwards felt fairly confident that I had done well. Thursday night was a very long night for me, as I got about 4 hours of sleep before coming in this morning for my 8am-1pm shift. So then comes the big day, Friday, where there is a scheduled training session for all the Lab Attendants in the afternoon and that is when the new Team Leaders will be annouced. Its really anybody's game at this point, all four candidates have a legitmate shot. I, being nervous about it all morning at work, could barely even sit down. So then comes the training, we have to sit through two hours of it (with free pizza and drinks), without knowing, and anxiously waiting this annoucement. After about 6-7 slices of thin crust pepperoni pizza and half a pepsi, and of course a quiz for all the lab attendants testing what we know about the job so far, finally comes the big moment. "For this fall we decided to hire two new Team Leaders, and they are Joe Thompson and Sam Cu......" Then came a round of applause as Sam and I stood up. O what a relief that thats over, now comes the hard part. With my new promotion comes a lot more responsibility and I will be very busy this upcoming fall semester, and probably through the rest of my college career. I guess we'll see how it goes.

God bless.

Gossip, a sin of frequent practice for some PBs

2006-08-23T01:04:00.000-05:00

Theres one thing in particular I've noticed about Primitive Baptists, that is that they seem to take the issues of physical romantic involvement and language very heavily, but then take issues of gossip, talking bad about someone behind their back, and pridefulness very lightly. The reason I'm finally opening up about this (which has bothered me for quite some time now) is because PB's so commonly love to share negative (and sometimes) untruthful stories among each other for the purpose of discouraging that person (who maybe a friend of the person being trashed on) from engaging in fellowship with them anymore, which is just downright cruel, and sadly I've seen it most prevelant in the PB's than anywhere else. Sharing gossip is one thing, but when someone actually has to question their reputation because of the people they talk to and hang out with, its just downright pathetic. I'm not saying every PB is like this, but just a few can ruin it for everybody. I'm not saying I'm 100% perfect about this issue too, I do sin plenty and beg of the Lord's forgiveness. But I'm not anything like some PBs who can just literally destroy the reputation and opportunity to fellowship of a newly converted PB, through gossip, just because they've found something they don't like about him/her.

By the way, yes I'm ticked off about this, and believe I have every right to be. I'd say its been about time I vent on that. (Note: this post is not aimed particularly at any of my frequent blog readers, but I think some of yall will know the particular people who I am talking about, though I ask that no names be revealed in any of my comments).

Liberals for Corker

2006-08-17T15:32:00.000-05:00

There is an upcoming election here in Tennessee for the seat of U.S. Senate that I have been expressly interested in and closely following over the past few months, so I would like to provide a little research I've done on it, from a non-biased standpoint. The candidates are former Mayor Bob Corker vs. Congressman Harold Ford Jr.

Insert from an email I received:

"The Congressman who is running to replace retiring Bill Frist as Senator from Tennessee has voted to outlaw gay marriage and to repeal the estate tax, and wants to amend the Constitution to ban flag burning. He supports getting rid of the handgun ban in the nation's capital and says the Ten Commandments should be posted in courtrooms around his state. He favors school prayer, argues that more troops should have been sent to Iraq and wants to seal the border with Mexico. He likes to tell a story about the time he campaigned at a bar called the Little Rebel, which had a Confederate flag and a parking lot full of pickup trucks adorned with National Rifle Association bumper stickers. When he went inside, as he tells it, a woman at the bar greeted him with a hug and exclaimed,

'Baby, we've been waiting to see you!'

None of that would be so remarkable were it not for the fact that this particular Senate candidate is a Democrat, an African American and someone whose last name is synonymous in Tennessee with urban-machine politics. But that's not the reason that both parties are suddenly paying a lot more attention to this state and to 36-year-old Harold Ford Jr."

On Abortion:

"Ford, a familiar face on television news interviews and often called on as a spokesman for the party, has not hesitated to vote with conservatives on key issues such as banning partial-birth abortion or for prayer in school. He voted to give President Bush authorization to invade Iraq and for cuts in the capital gains tax."
Click here for Source

"Corker says he opposes abortion except to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape and incest, a change from 1994 when he said he personally opposed abortion but government shouldn’t be involved in the issue."
Click here for Source

"Both Bryant, 57, of Jackson, and Hilleary, 47, of Murfreesboro, attacked Corker throughout their long race over a tax hike that Corker won as Chattanooga mayor and his shift in position on abortion. They called him a moderate, a "liberal" even, clothed as a conservative."
Click here for Source

Other links of interest to this election:

Congressman Ford's voting record

Mayor Corker's record

Blogging for Corker

Congressman Ford's review on Foreign Policy

One last weekend of freedom

2006-08-15T23:41:00.000-05:00

So I finished my Analytical Tools class Thursday, and learned that I had an unplanned weekend ahead of me, so I decided to take a trip down to Florence, AL to visit my cousin Andrew. Now my grandmother was out of town, so we crashed at her house. I drove down Friday after work, and Friday evening we ate dinner at Barnhills buffet, then went bowling, and then to the mall, then to Blockbuster and rented Wedding Crashers to watch back at my grandmother's house (we were going to see a movie at the theater but decided otherwise). And did I mention I we cruised town in Andrew's '98 Chrysler Sebring Convertable. Of course being the person I am I forgot to bring my camera with me on Friday night, so there are no pictures here from that.

Anyway the next day, Andrew had soccer practice in the morning. Then in the early afternoon we went swimming at the house next door. Below are some pictures from that. After swimming, we just got something to eat and then sat around playing Scrabble. At about 4:30pm, I headed back to Memphis. Well it was a better weekend than sitting around at home. Well here's the pictures I got when we were swimming:

Andrew jumping off the diving board. They had some blown up animals around the pool when we came over, so being a couple of mature young men, we decided to have a little fun with that.

I am grossly oversized for the shark.

Mr. Crocodile seemed to have a good time swimming on his back. :)

Floating in the middle of the deepend. I think the water was about 8ft. deep below me.

Andrew and the Crocrodile.

Riding on the seal, it wouldnt let me stay on it for long.

Can you guess why the Seal is smiling?

And that is what you get when two mature young gentlemen go swimming in a pool on a lovely Saturday afternoon.

Fried foods....

2006-08-07T15:49:00.000-05:00

So much have I been criticized for drinking the ever tasteful Full Throttle Energy Drink, but there is such a food that is by far more unhealthy than any sugar-filled product out there, and no one has seemed to say much about it. That food is "cooking oil" which is used in a majority of all fried foods, like chicken, fish, and worst of all french fries. They contain the dreadful trans-fats which if eaten in excess could cause one to have an instant heart attack (see the movie Super-Size Me). The worst place about this insane level of unhealthiness in food is McDonalds, and for the purpose of sanity I won't go into details about them on my blog, but would like to refer yall to a website about their history with obesity, which is right here (please scroll down to view a history of all their lawsuits).

I personally have not eaten a fried french fry in 4 months now (I have eaten baked ones, I bake them at home now in our oven pretty regularly). I have also limited myself to only 2 meals per week that include a fried food of any kind, and have not eaten at McDonalds in 2 months (and don't plan to ever again in my lifetime).

Well thats enough of my blabbing, so I'll just let the website do the talking.

"In Detroit, 11-year-old Vincent Ingram bites into a McDonald's cheeseburger and notices that it infested with live maggots. He later files a $1 million lawsuit against the restaurant."

Coach Calipari is a Democrat

2006-08-04T11:01:00.000-05:00

Well I'm not 100% sure about this, but I did see a "Cohen for Congress" sign in Coach Cal's front yard as I drove past a few times a few weeks ago. And of course Steve Cohen is a Democrat running for Congress in the Democratic primary election yesterday (not sure yet if he won, I haven't been able to find out the election results yet).

For those who are not from Memphis, this just interesting because Coach Calipari has been the Univ. of Memphis basketball coach for 6 years now and he would never admit what political party he was affiliated with.

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." ~Harry S. Truman

A Meeting to Remember

2006-07-28T20:42:00.000-05:00

Well now the moment you've all been waiting for.... *drum roll please* ... I have finally posted pictures from the Grace Chapel 2006 meeting. But first I would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to my good friend Nathan Guess who turns 17 today!!! Ok so here are the pictures:

It was a long meeting. Yall would be doing the same thing if you lead singing for about 6 consecutive hours.

What is it with these Memphis guys acting like they own iPods...

Yall know one of Harris's weaknesses in basketball is setting picks, so I had him practice a little bit with Claire and Eleanor on the swing...

It didn't turn out so well. (This was staged yall, dont worry).

Who says men can't wear pink!!!! Friday was officially "pink" day as Matt and Nathan both wore pink buttoned-down shirts, and I wore my pink Abercrombie & Fitch polo.

Man I look retarded!!!

Horrible picture of me, nice picture of my friend Katie, and my friend Marcy.... well just ignore the tie.

I rode with my friends from Maryland to the other church for the meeting one time. Here's (from left to right) Katie, Karla, and I don't know the other two.

Some more of my friends just hangin' out. (From left to right) Justin, Keith, Jason, and Daniel.

With my parents out of town and me having some guys over each night, guess who had to prepare breakfast? Of course you can tell this picture is staged because theres no muffins in the pan. Twas the finest bacon, eggs, muffins, toast, and whatever else I fixed that I have ever made, if I do say so myself. If only I hadnt burnt the orange juice.

As yall know I live in two trailers stacked on top of each other with a hole in the middle, out in the ghetto of Memphis. Yea it was tough growing up out in the suberbs, reppin' the C-town, I mean sometimes we had to lock our doors, and even close the garage at night, but I survived those hard days.

My living room. Not bad for approximately 5-7 guys a night, whom were all college-aged.

And that was the Grace Chapel Meeting 2006. Thanks for stopping by, tune in next year. God bless.

Intelligence, its such a blessing

2006-07-24T23:58:00.000-05:00

Ok so I wanted to post pictures from the Grace Chapel meeting here, but I dont have time to upload another string of them, so I'll get to that tomorrow. For right now, I'd like to leave yall with a wonderful, intellectual quote that I heard on the radio this morning:

"Hey Tiger Woods whats your favorite beer?"
"For me its the buh-weiser cos das da king-a-burrs, and you know I's da king-a-golf, so cos da buh-weiser be da king-a-burrs and I be da king-a-golf we just go together, ya know."

(some idiot impersonating a Tiger Woods voice), on "Rock-N-Roll Sports" with Marky-B, on 98.1 The Max.

A little problem...

2006-07-17T21:48:00.000-05:00

Well, good news is that I'm feeling all better, from a week ago. Thank you to all for the prayers and comments on my blawg. Now another problem has arisen, for G.C.'s upcoming meeting this Wednesday through Sunday.

My family has decided to go out of town to visit my grandmother for her birthday. This leaves me alone in a big 2 story house, with 4 beds, 2 showers/baths (jacuzzi), 2 blow-up mattresses, and a pull-out mattress, all for just one person. My parents and sister are leaving either Thursday or Friday, and have said I am welcome to have any visitors over that I wish, during the G.C. meeting..... Hmmmm.... wonder if I could take them up on that offer or if its too late?

Summertime just makes me sick!!!

2006-07-11T15:45:00.001-05:00

[Warning: this post will probably be boring to most of yall, as it does not include pictures, but just my own personal ramblings from the past few days]

Ok, no I'm not sick of summer. No I didnt title this because of the fact that I started my Analytical Tools summer course this morning. Its not because I'm through with all the camps, singing schools, vacation, and other craziness summer brings. It is because I am really sick!!! And I think it has to do with this summer weather.

Sunday I woke up with a sore throat. No big deal right? It'll probably go away after my shower. It didnt... It'll probably go away by noon? It didnt... It'll probably just be for today and I'll be fine tomorrow. It didnt. Of course it seemed to become more than just a sore throat by Sunday evening after I realized after a game of basketball with Nathan, Roy, and Andrew, that I was feeling quite light-headed. I somehow barely made my way home after skipping out early on their party that evening at the Beauchamp house, because I had to work at 8am the next morning. I noticed my head still thriving in pain when I got home, so I figured a good night sleep and hopefully it will be better in the morning...

Monday morning I wake up to more intense pain that I could imagine. Not only is my head throbing, it feels as though it is stopped up, my throat still sore as ever, and I'm feeling chills up and down my body, sounds like a fever? I took my temperature, and low-and-behold, 98.0. So I somehow managed to carry myself to work in this painful condition (because I want the money, and its just sitting there at the computer and once-in-awhile having to hear some stupid question). It seemed to get better throughout the day, as I took 2 throat drops and about 6 various headache pills (2 Advil and I dont know what the others were). I came home still feeling kinda ackward inside, but capable enough that I figured I would mow the lawn, although had anyone else been home they'd have probably advised me otherwise. I mowed the entire front and got the hard part of the backyard down before it became too dark to see. I came inside and nearly collapsed. I layed on the floor for about 15 minutes before getting up to cook a dinner that I would barely eat.

This morning its just gotten that much worse. Its now headache, light-headedness, inability to fully turn my neck in either direction, sore throat, and chills all through my body, all felt at the same time. So in hopes that somehow God would destroy this virus or whatever I have (possibly the flu) sometime today, I headed out to the first day of my summer second session class that begins today. Sitting in class wasnt too bad, and then I had to come in to work right after that for a shift I picked up Monday, after feeling sick and knowing I would probably not want to come in for this shift. So here I sit, having not eaten anything all day, and having eaten less than a meal yesterday. I'll probably force something down my throat later this evening, for nutritional purposes, but otherwise I still do not have the least bit of an appetite, which may make fasting tomorrow prove to be not much of a challenge.

O what fun the summertime brings!!! God bless!!!

Harmony Hill pics finally

2006-07-06T19:04:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I promised Harmony Hill pics, and I shall not disappoint yall, even if it is already after Boot Camp, 3 weeks later. So I shall begin with a certain someone wearing my former cowboy hat.

Apparentely Kris did something to Brittany's pants leg, and is "trying" to fix it (a failed attempt).

Somewhere between the previous picture and the next one, I had an embarrassing moment trying to lead for the first time ever on Monday afternoon. It was terrible and I felt completely embarrassed. But of course the Wednesday after that I was called on to lead for my class, and did well enough that I was asked to lead during the Wed. afternoon song service, so it all worked out well.

John had this toy mouse, and had fun kindly displaying it to all the ladies.

Do not be fooled!!! Roy is not quite as cool as he appears in this picture (j/k wit ya Roy, btw).

Can you identify some of your Harmony Hill friends by their feet? Well lets put it to the test (hint they are not all girls)...

M-Town representin' the Tenor section at HH. We pretty much were the entire section, plus Kris and Gabe.

I'm really making my M-town homies look good...

Bro. Joey Lowrance was our teacher, and he was straight up da man, we couldnt have gotten a better teacher, I love this guy.

Mr. Eric enjoying a Dr. Pepper as well as a couple of other things to his left (yall's right).

Best friends gotta stick together.

I may get in trouble for posting this pic, but we'll see. Here's my friends Gabbie and Kris.

Friday evening as we all sang together in one of the best performances I've ever been in.

This was the sunrise Saturday morning. I just thought it was beautiful seeing the sun come up right in front of the clouds behind the flag pole cross, so I had to get a shot of it.

So anyway I didnt socialize quite as much at HH than at camp being that I didnt know the people nearly as well, but its all good and I still had a great time. The memories will live forever of my first ever singing school, Harmony Hill 2006!!!

My day and Myspace

2006-06-29T14:39:00.000-05:00

So yea I know I was supposed to post pictures from Harmony Hill, but if yall dont mind I'd like to hold that off for a couple days so that I can annouce my new Myspace website, and perhaps talk a little about my day yesterday.

So I have a new myspace website that you can go to by clicking here. If you want the full URL its
http://myspace.com/joe444477.

Well now that thats said, I hope to have many new regular visitors here, but expect to gain at least a few, perhaps not regular ones. I also had an interesting day yesterday (well not interesting from anyone else's perspective, but its about as much interest as I can stir up over the summer), in which I bought a new brown polo from PacSun off the clearance rack for $10 that I wore to church last night. I know I usually buy clothes off ebay now for much cheaper, but I havent been able to find much PacSun products on there, and thats one of few name brands I had yet to own (now the only other being Hollister). Anyway I had to work yesterday morning from 8-1 so at 1 my boy KT and I went over to Oak Court Mall for lunch, and then walked around a bit after that and thats why I was at PacSun. So now I just sit here at work again, working a shift I only took to make up for the cash I spent yesterday, waiting for an ebay auction to end so I can get a Hollister polo/button front shirt off of it for somewhere from $5-$10.

Thats my life.... until next time, and even after then, God bless.

"Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth."
~Proverbs 4:5

Camp Moriah 2006

2006-06-26T11:39:00.000-05:00

I have now been to both Harmony Hill and Camp Moriah in consecutive weeks, and let me say that I am exhausted. But nonetheless both were a lot of fun. I must say that I found Camp Moriah to be a lot more enjoyable though. It was my first year at HH and I didn't really know a lot of people there, so I didn't socialize just a whole lot. I did meet a few new people and had a lot of fun though. At CM I knew lots of people and don't think I even managed to talk to everyone I knew like I wanted to. It was my fourth year at camp and I must say its probably been my best of the 4 times I have now been to camp. Here's some pics to share the memories with yall.

On Tuesday Roy brought a tent and he, Nathan, Nick, and I all stayed in it for three nights, and on the last night (Friday night) it was Roy, Nathan, Tyler, Logan, and I all sleeping in it. Here's the tent and my car parked next to it (where we kept our luggage and stuff). You can't see our cooler in this picture but for the most part it was kept right outside the tent.

Can anyone make out who these "supposedly" girls are?

Tommy and David. David was our counselor this year in the cabin devotion, and what a fine job he did as that. Now if I can only find that verse I'm supposed to send to him....

Tuesday night got a little crazy.

Hey kids, wanna hear a bedtime story?

It was a full moon.

Gettin' late.

Kaity was just so excited to be at camp this year, and you can tell by the look on her face.

Four guys in a tent (two of them in college), what else can you expect after three days? The cooler was in the trunk of my car at the time of this picture, because I was sick of everyone coming up to take all my Cokes and Dr. Peppers so I left it there to reserve the rest of the drinks for only the guys in the tent and maybe one or two other guys (hey I tried to be generous with the drinks but I can't get carried away). I had to run into town and refill it with ice three times over the course of camp.

My boy John, dude knows how to dress too. Here's him at the bon fire in a pink American Eagle polo. Who says guy's can't wear pink?

(In order from left to right) Daniel, Keith, John Rogers, and Jesse Couthen. Those guys were hilarious.

Bethany and Barry, whom I got to know really well this past week. They are great, I hope I become closer friends with them too.

Not sure what to say of Tyler and Micheal here, it was late, and as you know those guys are always very serious. Theres also a little bit of Allison on the left side of the pic.

This is the guy that says he would never wear a pink shirt because apparentely its too "feminine." I'll let yall be the judge of that one.

And that was Camp Moriah 2006. I'll post some pics from Harmony Hill in a few days. God bless and have a great week everybody.

"What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid."
~Romans 9:14

Hi and bye

2006-06-19T00:14:00.000-05:00

Here I am finally having made it through a week of my first ever singing school, Harmony Hill, and learning how to lead only to be called upon to lead just about all of the song service at Grace Chapel this evening, after co-leading with my dad through the song service at Southaven this morning. But you know what? I loved it!!! I loved Harmony Hill and the leading experience, not for prideful reasons, but for just love of being able to better sing praises to God's name.

So now I finally made it home from a 9-day trip to Tyler PBC's meeting and HH, and am heading right out the door again tomorrow morning for a week at Camp Moriah. Of course camp will be a little better. Since its only an hour and a half away I am taking my own car, so there will be plenty of space for everything plus leg-stretching room. I will hopefully be able to give Nawill a ride, so we can sing along to Rascal Flatts the whole way. And I'm taking a cooler filled with everything from water to Dr. Pepper to Gatorade, to share with my friends at camp, my treat. So I'm looking forward now to a week of fun, pleasure, excitement, but most importantly Christian fellowship and praising God's name.

Gone for the week

2006-06-08T23:28:00.000-05:00

I'm out for the next week for Tyler PBC's meeting and then Harmony Hill to hopefully, finally learn to lead the song service to help out at church. In the mean time all comments on my previous post (the one about the Redbirds game) are very much welcome. Yall have a great week and God bless.

Birthday at a Redbirds game

2006-06-06T17:38:00.000-05:00

So for my 22nd birthday I decided to invite some of my friends out to a Redbirds game at Auto Zone Park in downtown Memphis. Specifically it was Nawill, Seth, Rebecca G., Anna Grace and Gabrielle Fulmer, (this cool mexican guy that was a friend of Rebecca's, I forgot his name though), Andrew, Roy, Harris, Ryan, Lydia, Tyler, Luke, Matt and Rebecca C., Grace and I. Of course my birthday was last Tuesday, and for it I received a digital camera, so I decided to make use of my new gift by taking a few shots to remember this occassion. Here are some that I'd like to share with yall:

Matt, on the way there.

Nawill, and I think some other people.... at the entrance.

The whole crew. We switched around seats a lot so if you notice some of the pictures below of us in different seats please do not be alarmed. The game was more of a social event than actually watching the game (and with the kind of season the Redbirds are having thats about the only way to have fun at it).

Starting pitcher for the Redbirds, Anthony Reyes. In the bottom left corner of the picture there is also a nice shot of Nawill's fingers.

Grace, Royster, Anna Grace, Rebecca and Matt. Grace thinks that I wasnt including her in the picture.

After the first inning, Rocky the Rockin' Redbird goes around on a four wheeler to high five all the kids. As you can see there were a couple of over-grown kids that he got to high five last night (*cough* Nawill and *cough* Roy *cough*).

Lydia, Gabrielle, and Andrew having a good time at the game. I wanted to get a better picture of Andrew, but after searching through my camera, I couldnt find any other of him that I took, so you'll have to settle for a shot of him in the middle of a yawn. However Gabrielle and Lydia certainly do look lovely as always.

And here's another shot of those lovely young ladies at the game.
Anna Grace and Seth just enjoying the game.

As you can see, Matt met an interest young lady at the game that he sat by. However, she was just so embarrassed to be seen with him having that pile of orange trash on his head that she was too embarrassed to be seen in a picture with him. Better hope Rebecca doesnt find out about this mysterious young lady.

Ryan. He wasnt too social, but seemed to have a good time watching the game.

Grace and I, at one of the few moments I did not have the camera in my hands.

Roy thought he could handle two BBQ Nachos...

On the way back I got a couple shots in the car. Here's one that I was threatened to receive rather harsh treatment if I posted it. Valuing my life, I decided to cut out the part (on the left side) that would have inflicted this harsh treatment upon me. So here's the "silly" picture of Rebecca C., Harris, and Matt.

Thanks to everybody who came, I had a great night and a great birthday. And a special thanks to Gabrielle and Anna Grace, as well as Lydia and Ryan who gave me a rather touching card making me feel so much better about going through this awful tragedy.

More St. Louis Pics

2006-06-03T18:33:00.000-05:00

Well for the first time this week it appears I am bored on a boring ole Saturday afternoon while I'm sure everyone is having a great time out in Georgia at the Fulmer's Ball, so I figured I should post those pictures from the St. Louis trip from a looooooooooong time ago, that were on Grace's camera. So anyway here are final memories from the trip, and then we can let it drift into the past. Enjoy!!!

Here is at the science center, in some weird shaped house. I'll let yall try to figure it out for yourselves.

Right at the bottom of the Arch looking straight up.

Grace and Dustin's view at the new Busch Stadium. (If you click on the picture and look closely in the outfield, you can see the score of the game and when the picture was taken). Also you see the green grass area in center field, two rows to the right of that, and right about in the center of the section, are where my dad, my mom, and I sat.

The Batman ride at Six Flags (of course we rode it).

In the Farris Wheel with all of Six Flags behind us.

At the exit, just after I rode the log ride (you can tell I'm a little wet).

22 down, 78 to go

2006-05-30T10:28:00.000-05:00

Well today is a very special day for a certain someone. Not because its the day after Memorial Day, but because 22 years ago, a certain child was born. Back in 1984, the year Walter Mondale lost an embarrassing landslide election to Ronald Reagan, the year that the Apple (shown in the picture) was invented, and exactly one month and 15 days after Rodney Carney was born, exactly 7 months before LeBron James was born, a young child was born by the name of Joseph L. Thompson. So today I have turned 22 (or rather, at 4:40am this morning), and yet grows another grey hair on my already-whitened head of hair, while my beer-belly grows a little fatter, from a keg into a full-sized beer truck.

So anyway, in other news, I have decided to register for a summer course today. Why? because the instructor for it is probably the easiest in the entire Business department, and this summer is likely the last semester he'll be teaching this specific course. However, this is a second session course, meaning it starts on July 11, so I won't miss Harmony Hill, or Camp Moriah, or any of that other fun stuff over the summer.

Course	Days Time Location	Session and Dates	Credit	Call Number	Instructor
ISDS-3711-201 ANALYTICAL TOOLS BUSN	MTWR 10:50-12:55PM FCB 127	2nd Session 07-11-06 to 08-10-06	3.00	03070	RACER, MICHAEL J.

An interesting afternoon...

2006-05-24T15:15:00.000-05:00

Well so this morning I had an appointment to take my car in to Barlett Auto Upholstry to have some work done. Specifically, having the head-rest repaired, the driver's side seat sewn up, and some leather arm-rests being sewed on to the arm-rest on each door in order to hide and protect an ugly-looking damage to the arm-rest that I've had on the passenger's side of the car since I bought it. So now I can finally stop using the seat cussion on the driver's seat in my Celica, yay!!!!

Anyway, he told me it would be about 3 hours to do the work, so after dropping off my car, I walk down Stage Road (this is a busy 6-lane highway) to the second-run movie theater and see that the earliest showing is Final Destination 3 at 12:55pm, so I then proceed to walk down to Bartlett Lanes (about 3/4 a mile to a full mile from the Upholstry shop my car is at) and bowled about 3 games. Of course not having my ball or shoes on me, I am forced to resort to what the lane provides me in each of these catagory, and let me tell you its literally impossible to bowl a hook-shot with one of those lane balls. I bowled three of my most mediocre games ever, a 107, 100, and 137. After leaving the bowling alley I proceeded to walk back to the movies, by the time I was nearly there it was about 12:45pm, but then I got a call that my car was ready, so I continued walking to Bartlett Auto Upholstry to pick it up.

Having got my hopes up on seeing this movie, I decided to go ahead with it (after all, it was only a cheap matenae [sp?] at a second-run movie theater, who cares if I'm by myself, thats prideful thinking anyway). I must admit, it was not a bad movie at all, but they could have made the death's a little more gruesome, like the first two. Nonetheless it was still rather gross, and had an interesting story-line. I give it 3 and a half stars.

So all in all, not a bad day for a Wednesday afternoon. And I guess almost something worth blogging about.

St. Louis Vacation

2006-05-21T16:20:00.000-05:00

So over the past week or so I have been on vacation to St. Louis with my parents, my sister Grace, and her fiance Dustin. Here's how our adventure went:

Day 1, Tuesday (trip up to St. Louis, Lamberts):

So on the way up we decided to stop at Lamberts (Home of the Throwing Rolls) for dinner. Here's Grace, Dustin, and my Mom.

And me and my dad (check out my goofy smile).

It was a long trip...

Day 2 (The Zoo, The Science Center, History Museum):

Me and some turtles...

The whole bunch of us. Notice how only one of us is smart enough to wear SHORTS on vacation.

There was some pretty wacky stuff at that science center.

Day 3 (Cardinals Game, The Arch, Downtown St. Louis):

Here's the new Busch Stadium. Here's the view my parents and I had from the outfield. Grace and Dustin sat in some seats behind home plate that I scored a good deal off of on e-bay (they had better seats than us). Actually 4/5 of our tickets we purchased off e-bay (and trust me you get really good deals off e-bay, way lower than the retail price of each ticket) and then one from a scalper.

I look so nerdy in my glasses.After the game we make the walk right over to the Arch.

Looking down from the top of the Arch. Notice how they design it so that you have to lean over to look out, and this way if you look straight down out of the window, you feel like your hanging on 600 ft in the air by a thread, and its very scary, which I loved.

Looking straight down from the top.

Day 4 (Six Flags, Chillin' at the hotel):

We spent pretty much all day at Six Flags (9:50am-5:15pm to be exact, and it was open from 10am-6pm). Here's us men (me, my Dad, and Dustin) waiting in line for, I think it was, The Batman roller coaster ride. The line was about 45 min. to an hour, but it was worth the wait.

Here's the park from some place high up in the air. The roller coasters visible from this pictures are Mr. Freeze (the blue one in front), The Boss, and The Screaming Eagle (both wooden roller coasters in the back).

The new Superman ride that opened that day that we were there. It broke down consistently, but we managed to get a ride in on it that scared Grace to death.

On the Ferris Wheel...

Day 5, Saturday (Grants Farm, trip home, Lamberts again):

Here's a slobbery animal at Grants Farm. They allow people to feed them after paying a fortune for animal food. At least they were kind enough to provide complimentary hand sanitizer afterwards.

We decided, since it was once in a long time thing, to stop at Lamberts again on the way back for lunch. Dustin ordered a Chef's salad. Trust me its much bigger than it looks in this picture.Here's the whole thing, with a portion of my face trying to get into the picture.

And that was our 2006 vacation to St. Louis!!!
(More pictures to come in a few days when I show yall some off Grace's camera)

I'm Out

2006-05-16T13:57:00.000-05:00

*scans through blog*

Man all these pictures of myself, I'm really coming off as rather stuck up. Anyway, hopefully I'll get some more pics of my family and such this week in St. Louis. I'm out, cyall Saturday evening when I get back.

In the mean time be sure to keep letting yall's Christian light shine, if you need help, you can study the pictures below. God bless.

How to Kill Time

2006-05-12T15:06:00.001-05:00

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine,
this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine,
this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine,
let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!!!!!!!!!

Money Saving Advice

2006-05-07T21:30:00.000-05:00

Well as you all very well know by now, gas prices have gone enormously high again, and with summer approaching they probably wont be going down anytime soon. So, to compensate for the surging prices, I have developed some money-saving priorities that I would like to share, and anyone who wants to save money too is welcome to copy any of them:

Replace all shopping formely done at Target/Walmart with shopping at Fred's/Big Lots/Family Dollar/Dollar General (with the exception of food and clothes, neither of which I would dare touch at a closeout store, except for socks and boxers).

Dont buy anything at Best Buy or Circuit City anymore. Instead, go to these stores and check out the price of the item you want, then go online and buy it for less than half off of E-Bay.

When buying clothes, still go to the name brand stores (Aeropostale, American Eagle, Pac Sun, Old Navy, GAP), but either shop off-season or buy off the clearance rack (certainly supply is limited, buy if you look hard you can usually find some good steals at great prices).

When driving, leave the car in 5th gear as much as possible, anytime the car is going faster than 25mph.

Don't buy books or movies. Rent them from the library or from blockbuster.

Get a haircut only once every two months (if even that frequently). In between then, if you need a little trim, get a parent, relative, or trustworthy friend to do it. Or, I know a young lady who is an experienced haircutter (even though she denies it), but I dont think she wants me giving out her name or promoting her as a haircutter. But yall get the idea...

When going to buffets, go early, around lunch time, and eat a good long meal, then wait around and let your food digest. Get into a long, detailed conversation with your waiter/waitress. By the time this conversation is over, it is dinner time, so you have your dinner for free.

Just avoid department stores at the mall, period. Except for Sears or Kohls, but still if you must go, buy off the clearance rack (my last dress-shirt was $15 from Sears, and included a tie in the package, it was off the clearance rack, and I think it was a good buy).

Instead of buying those delicious Starbuck's frappuchinos, I make them at home with my blender (most of the time).

Finally, get a job, or work extra shifts/hours at the one you have.

Well thats all the tips I have to offer yall for right now. If anyone can think of any other ways to save a little $$$ here and there, please offer any suggestions for the rest of us to know. Lets help each other out. Thanks, and God bless.

My new cowboy hat, the sign of summer...

2006-05-05T01:35:00.000-05:00

Hey yall, well its now official, I finished my last final Wednesday, and summer is finally here!!!!!!!

So now after a semester that has by far been my most challenging so far in college, is now complete. I am hoping this will help clear away this stingy, cranky attitude I've had for the past few months (although it certainly shouldnt take this lack of continued stress to make me into the kind of person I should always be).

Anyway to celebrate the start of summer, I met Ryan, Tyler, and Andrew all at the Paradisio at 10pm tonight to watch Mission Impossible 3. Walking out of the movie shortly after midnight Andrew and I noticed a tall black guy coming from the opposite direction. Upon him coming up closer we noticed it was Rodney Carney (for those who don't know, he was the star basketball player for the Elite Eight U of M Tigers this season, and he'll likely be a lottery pick in the NBA Draft in a couple months). So we walk outside (Andrew, Tyler, and I) and are standing there next to Rodney and the girl he was with, Ryan then comes out acting like its all cool as I point out the fact that Rodney Carney is standing there feet away from us (but of course he's just as shocked as we are, on the inside). Anyway I just thought that was cool so I thought I'd mention it before it fades from my mind.

Well anyway, I dont think I annouced this, but just last week I bought myself a new cowboy hat. Yes it is one I intend to bring to Harmony Hill, Camp Moriah, and anywhere like that else I go this summer. My mom found the USB cord to my parents' digital camera, so thanks to that I am now able to provide yall pics of me with my new hat (please bear in mind that I have not shaved under my chin, my sideburns, and the area between my nose and mouth, since before the Zion Rest meeting almost 2 weeks ago, so I kinda have that rugged-look with the facial hair, right now)

Also one final thing to mention and I will get to the pictures. Its not until the end of this month until it is my birthday (when I hope to get a digital camera, at least a cheap one) so until then, the only camera I have to use to provide pictures for my blog is my parents' camera. So any pictures you see until then are probably going to be only of me, and of my family. Well everyone have a great summer, and God bless:

(btw my hair doesnt really have that much gel in it anymore, not nearly what it appears in this picture, that is the just the way the light from the camera hit it, so it's giving a much brighter glow than it should)

This week

2006-04-29T16:12:00.000-05:00

As school finishes up, as college students are in finals week, I'm sure the last thing anyone wants to do is read a post full of all text, and no picture. However, I am just about out of any pictures to post, and there is still one month until my birthday when I will (hopefully, and Lord willing) get a digital camera. Not to mention I have misplaced the USB cord to my parents' digital camera so until I get my lazy rear end to Best Buy to purchase a new one, or find the old one, I cannot transfer pictures from their camera to my computer.

Well anyway, enough of the complain, time for the stuff I wanted to post about. Whats been going on this week? Well I got a haircut yesterday (my first hair cut in 21 weeks and 6 days) at an Immitation Barber Shop (you know, a place that calls itself a Barber Shop but has women working there, sorry yall I'm not sexist, but when it comes to Barber Shop the place needs its full masculity to be official) so now my hair no longer looks like a big wad of hair-gel.

In other news, I have not shaved in certain parts of my face for 8 days now (since right before the Z.R. meeting). I have decided to try to grow some form of a beard, and some side-burns that stretch all the way down to my beard, and possibly a mustache (depends on what it looks like when it grows out, whether its ugly or not). All I have shaved is my cheeks on the parts that are closest to my nose.

Also, I got Microsoft Excel Certified on Tuesday. I took the test for one of my classes, and you need a 690 out of 1000 to get certified (getting certified counts as an A on the test for the class). So when I get done I see that my score is an 893, which counts for a 97 test grade in the class. And any day now I should be receiving my certification in the snail-mail. I have been told this will look great on my resume, so I'm pretty excited.

In final news, Ribs for dinner w00h00!!!! (specifically Dry Ribs, authentically-smoked Memphis style)

Well thats all I have to say right now. So until next time, God bless, and best wishes on finals for all yall college students out there.

Petition to have more ZR meetings

2006-04-25T13:28:00.000-05:00

Well I've been doing a little thinking since the Zion Rest meeting ended Sunday, and wouldnt it be great if we could have a meeting like that every month?

So here's a petition to have Zion Rest have a church meeting every month. 12 meetings a year instead of 2, everybody who agrees please copy/paste the petition into a comment on my blawg and then add your name at the end. Thank you.

1. Joe Thompson
2. Emily
3. Derrick "Patch" Kitchens
4. Laura
5. Maitlyn
6. Adam
7. :)

Zion Rest Meeting

2006-04-24T14:53:00.000-05:00

Well I had quite a weekend. This is about the only opportunity I'll have in the next few days to post, as my schedule is loaded with tests, finals, and such. This weekend I went to the Zion Rest meeting and had the best time ever. I'm sorry that I do not have pictures to provide from the meeting, but for Christmas I had the choice of asking for an iPod or a digital camera, and I think I made the right move (Nawill would agree). Anyway if you want to see pics check out the Lydginator's blog.

The meeting was most humbly blessed by the preaching of Bro. Glen Blanchard and Bro. David Montgomery. The fellowship was more than I can talk about. And a thanks to the Water's and the Kitchen's for letting me stay over at their homes each night we were there. So Friday night all of us guys went swimming in the Water's pool. And Saturday night we had an intense game of basketball in the dark at the Kitchen's house. Sunday we stayed for communion, which was the most emotional part for me. I teared up during the footwashing. I've never been to a church before where others will kneel down with you and help you wash someone's feet. I like that though, it shows how much love everyone has and it just humbled me.

Anyway, theres so much more I could talk about from the meeting, but I'm drawing a mental blank (all these tests are getting to me) and I need to get back to studying. So anyway I hope everyone else had a great time. Have a great week everybody and God bless.

"How many Primitive Baptists does it take to change a lightbulb?"
"None, they just sit around in the dark and preach about the days when they had light."
~Brother Glen Blanchard

"Why don't Primitive Baptist church's have seminaries?"
"Because we don't like to think of our church as a career option. 'Well I flunked out of engineering school, its off to the ministry for me."
~Brother Glen Blanchard

My New Pic Finally

2006-04-18T13:29:00.000-05:00

Check out my new pic yall!!! That was this morning, at work, in the McWherter lab, because I was originally in the Smith lab but there was only one person working in McWherter and 3 in Smith, with the only person in McWherter being a new person, so I had the priviledge of going over there to work with her this morning. Also, in other news, while at work, I received a call from Ryan, which I had to step outside to answer. He told me that he would not be able to give me a ride to Zion Rest (for reasons I do not feel I should mention publically), but just at that time, Andrew B. came up sporting his wild new haircut, so I asked him about riding with Sis. Helen. So if anyone that is going with Sis. Helen can give me any set time, between now and Friday, at which she is leaving (hopefully after 1, because my class ends at 12:25 Friday and I really need to go to this one) then I would appreciate it very much.

In other news, I have decided I'd like to get an official haircut again. Its been 20 weeks and 2 days since I've had my haircut at a real barber shop (or had anything cut besides a trim on my sides). I dont really want to go back to my old barbershop though, because they always cut too much off. So if anyone knows a good place to go to get a haircut (none of these shops or chains, like Super Cuts or A Great Cut, I like to get it done at a real barbershop) please let me know, thanks.

Also in other news, I have changed the song playing on my blawg. No its not because of you Andrew F. I didn't want my wedding song playing for more than a day or two anyway, its a little too sappy for this blawg.

Have a good week everybody.

Explanation of the song...

2006-04-15T12:00:00.000-05:00

I'd like to draw attention to the song you can hear playing on my blawg now. Why is it significant? Well, unless my future wife objects, it is the song I must have played at my wedding reception. I just think it sounds beautiful, and has beautifully written lyrics for such an occassion. Luther Vandross has been my favorite R&B artist (he passed away late in 2005, God rest his soul), and he and Mariah Carey have a beautiful sound in this song combining their two voices together like this.

So anyway, I'll probably just keep this song up and playing for a day or two, not much longer. Just thought I'd give yall a taste of the song that brings a lot from me, and some of Luther Vandross's fine R&B music.

Quote of the day:

"Have I done my taxes yet?"
~Me (asking my mom, this morning)

The return of teh Surge!!!

2006-04-08T19:17:00.000-05:00

Today I learned something. Something that probably most of yall know already but anyway I'm going to say it just because I want to and I need something like a blog post to procrastinate me from getting started on some homework I should have been doing hours ago.

So yall remember the soft drink Surge? Lord knows I do, I was clinically addicted to it back in the late 90's until it went off the market. Well I was at work today (and still am, btw) in the McWherter Computer Lab, and decided to take a break and walked over to the administration building at the Univ. of Memphis and get something to eat. I bought a bag of chips, and then decided to spend $2 of my hard earned money on one of these strange non-alcoholic beverages called an "energy drink." This was not my first time drinking one of these, but it was the first time I really recognized something about the taste.

These new energy drinks that Coke puts out called Full Throttle is what I had to drink. And I found something strangely familiar about the taste when I drank it today. It tasted just like Surge!!!!!

So now it all makes sense, Surge went off the market back around 1998 or 1999 because it was making kids too "hyper." And now, finally, that rich taste it brought to my mouth is back, in a more expensive bottle.

Speaking of hyperness yall should really check out the latest post on the Hyper blog. Thanks and God bless.

lol, I got bored today

2006-04-04T14:22:00.000-05:00

How You Are In Love

You fall in love quickly and easily. And very often.

You tend to take more than give in relationships.

You tend to get very attached when you're with someone. You want to see your love all the time.

You love your partner unconditionally and don't try to make them change.

You stay in love for a long time, even if you aren't loved back. When you fall, you fall hard.

How Are You In Love?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Slacker Kid

High school was a place you showed up occasionally, but you didn't really leave a mark.

You hated rules, authority, and structure. In fact, you still do.

Who Were You In High School?

Programming Problem, Please help!!!

2006-03-31T20:48:00.000-06:00

Here's the instructions for a program I am having trouble with, please help if you can.

Instructions: Write a program that simulates the rolling of two dice. The program should use rand to roll the first die, and should use rand again to roll the second die. The sum of the two values should then be calculated. [Note: Since each die can show an integer value will vary from 2 to 12 with 7 being the most frequent sum and 2 and 12 being the least frequent sums.] There are 36 possible combinations of the two dice. Your program should roll the two dice 36,000 times. Use a single-subscripted array to tally the numbers of times each possible sum appears. Print the results in a tabular format. Also, determine if the totals are reasonable; ie., there are six ways to roll a 7, so approximately one sixth of all the rolls should be 7.

Here's what I have so far:

What I am having trouble with is figuring out how to set up arrays so it will display the different odds for each number (eg. 7 being the most frequent, and 2 and 12 being the least frequent). I also cannot figure out how to calculate the percentages for the last two columns (expected and actual), so if anybody can please help with that I'd very much appreciate it.

Btw, if you dont know anything about this, please don't comment with something like "I dont know anything about programming" or "let someone else help you, I'm stumped" or something pointless like that. No offense, but its a little frustrating to get a comment and think someone has a solution to my programming problem, but they are just saying "Its all Greek to me" or something stupid like that. Not to sound mean but this is serious business and I'm kinda worried that I'm not going to be able to figure this out and possibly fail Programming.

A Night to Forget

2006-03-26T15:13:00.000-06:00

Well what to say.... Yesterday was a tragic day that will forever be remembered in history.

No it was not tragic because I had Dan, Andrew, Roy, Harris, Seth, John, Rebecca, Tim, Meredith, Katheryn, Bro. Kevin, Ryan, and my parents (and Nathan giving a call to say hi) in my living room. Or because we all had pizza and snacks. Or because we were all dressed in our Tiger blue and screaming and cheering at the top of our lungs. It was because the #1 seed Tigers played the slowest paced game I have ever seen, which resulted in a disappointing 45-50 loss to a not-even-worn-out-at-the-end referee crew, I mean UCLA team. There goes the season. There goes Carney. There goes Waki Williams. There goes the record-breaking 33 win season. There goes our first trip to the Elite Eight ever without Finch. There goes our chance for our first trip to the Final Four since I was 10 months old (March of 1985, in 1984-85 season).

O well.... maybe next year?

Come One, Come All, ELITE EIGHT PARTY!!!!

2006-03-24T12:43:00.000-06:00

Memphis in the Elite Eight!!! YEA!!!!!

Party at my house Saturday to watch the game. Everyone in the Memphis-area is invited, or even if your not in the Memphis area and just care enough about me that you still want to come, your invited too. There will be pizza, drinks, and other snacks (nachos, peanuts, heck I might even fry up some funnel cakes). I've sent emails to all the G.C. guys but anyone else is welcome to come too. If you want to come please email me at joe444477@hotmail.com. I'll be at G.C. at 5:20pm to carpool out to my house in Cordova for the game at 6.

Thanks, everyone please come!!!!!!!!!! and please WEAR YOUR BLUEST OF BLUE!!!

GO TIGERS!!!

Facebook Braketology

2006-03-21T08:22:00.000-06:00

Fierce competition, tons of smack talk, players cutting and diving at one another for the top, shocking upsets right and left. This is what its been like the past weekend..... No I'm not talking about the NCAA Tournament, I'm talking about our Facebook Bracket Competition. Here's the standings:

Player.......Bracket.....R1.....R2 .....R3.....R4.....R5....R6...Total
Andrew Beauchamp....view.......30.......44.......0.......0.......0.......0.........74
John Guess............view.......31.......30.......0.......0.......0........0........61
Joe Thompson......view.......35......24.......0........0.......0.......0.........59
Dan Beauchamp.....view.......28......28.......0........0.......0.......0.........56
Emily Kitchens.........view.......45......10.......0........0.......0.......0.........55
Derrick Kitchens.........view.......25......26.......0........0.......0.......0.........51
Stephen Rogers...........view.......28......20.......0.......0.......0........0.........48
Laura Kitchens........view.......27.......18.......0.......0.......0........0.........45
Colvin Franklin..........view.......26.......16.......0.......0......0.........0.........42
Ryan Poe................view......23.......14.......0.......0......0.........0.........37

So after a hard fought, gritty weekend, I have fallen from 1st to 2nd when Emily won an upset of Northwestern St. over Iowa that gave her the lead, but however faultered in the 2nd round as these upset teams proved themselves in capable of advancing to the sweet 16. However, in round 2 Andrew B. tore up the brakets with predicting the Wichita St. and Georgetown upsets. Even at the last minute John G. pulled up some serious points that put him over me as well, so I have now dropped to third (temporarily, of course).

The scoring system is based on 1,2,4,8,15,25 for each round, with upsets giving bonus points for the seed winning minus the seed losing, multiplied by the points given for the round (eg. say Team1 is a 12 seed, and they knock off Team2 who is a 4 seed, in the second round, if you correctly predict that upset, you get 8 bonus pts for the upset, multiplied by 2 because its the 2nd round, so you get a total of 16 bonus pts for that one game).

Btw, I am not posting this to embarrass anybody (lol Ryan), but just to display the skill and accuracy of prediction that prove why us Memphians are the kings of basketball.

Politics Test

2006-03-16T22:10:00.000-06:00

You are a
Social Conservative
(28% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(25% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Totalitarian

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Right where I belong, in between the Democrats and Republicans, yet opposite a Libertarian. Take that Ryan Poe, thinking I'm such a Liberal because I dont agree with all his die-hard right-wing views!!!! MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Also I just want to take this time to annouce, due to correctly predicting the upsets of Wisc.-Milwaukee and Montana, I am #1 out of 10 in the facebook brakets (along with the Kitchens, Andrew and Dan, Stephen R., John Guess, Colvin, and Ryan). My only incorrect pick so far was Marquette over Alabama. I am 25th ranked at the Univ. of Memphis!!!!

March Madness

2006-03-13T20:42:00.000-06:00

Well for those who dont know, I graduated from the Univ. of Memphis a few years back with my bachelors in Bracketology. I now, being March, have an opportunity to put those skills to good use. My Final Four: Memphis (of course), Duke, Connecticut, and Ohio State, with a championship of Memphis vs. Connecticut and Memphis winning. Not really too many upsets this year, but if yall want to see my brackets here they are in an Excel file done for my dad's work.

Also, I just want to advertise a few blogs if yall dont mind. A few of my friends in Maryland now have blogs. Yall know Marcy Cook? Her and her boyfriend Andrew have a blog that you can go to by clicking here. Also, if any of yall know Colvin Franklin and Elsa Solek, they have a blog together that you can see by clicking right here. Thanks yall, just wanted to help them promote their new blogs, please go comment on them if yall can.

Whats going on

2006-03-12T16:01:00.000-06:00

Ok I would like to sincerely apologize for my misinterpretation in my last post, that appears to have created much excessive, yet unnecessary, worry among some of my friends. No I am NOT suicidal, I'm not nearly that stupid. However, I'd be lieing if I told yall it didnt flash into my mind a few times. But I'm not stupid enough to consider it as any kind of option. What has really been bothering me is the way I have been treating some of yall. Yall are my friends and instead of being just a fun, outgoing, and friendly person, I start problems, pick fights, begin arguments, embarrass people, behave immaturely, get carried away with jokes and take them to a cruel level, and everything I do just makes things a problem for everybody and I hate it that its in my nature to act this way (on Tuesday a displayed a horrible example of this that lead me to make that post). Its something I have not worked nearly hard enough to fight through. I shouldn't be burdening you all with all of this, I want yall to be happy, and if I'm going to act this way then yall just should not be talking to me.

About the "I'm sick of life" part. Well just so yall know, I havent really opened up about a lot of this except to one girl that I am good friends with, but I feel it might be necessary to give yall a scratch of the surface about some of the problems in my life (not to burden anyone, though). My sister was just recently illegitimately baptized (meaning: baptized at a non-Primitive Baptist church) which my dad and I have been very upset about. I also have about 3-4 family members on one side of my family, who smoke weed, and I know at least 2 of them are jobless and have been for quite awhile (and arent really actively looking), its beginning to really become discouraging that I always have to argue with them about how I believe marijuana should be illegal, when they disagree and actually have facts to backup their counter-argument. I don't want to use their laziness as an argument, because it just seems cruel to point it out to them that they haven't had a job in years while I've been going to college full-time with holding a secure job for the last 3 and a half years. Also, schools been quite intense this semester, its been my hardest semester (academically) ever. I've got a lot more things going on too (emotionally), on top of life's everyday struggles and problems that God presents us with, but I won't burden yall with anymore of what I go through. I just ask that yall please pray for me now. I really should not have caused anyone to worry about me, or whats going on with me, just please don't let me bother yall with anything. I know true friends will listen, well yall've been doing a lot of listening lately, a lot more than any true friend would put you through....

Also, against the wishes of a couple people I have spoken to, no I will not delete my previous post, I feel it is necessary for it to be there. I am fully aware of what it might do to my reputation, but that presents no reason not to make yall fully aware of whats going on.

[stuff]!!!

2006-03-07T23:23:00.000-06:00

[the content of this post is not necessary to be displayed anymore]

Boot Camp

2006-03-06T14:07:00.000-06:00

This weekend I was at Boot Camp down in TX. Yea I know, I'm a bit too old for it, but its Spring Break, everyone at GC was either going to BC or Birmingham, practically all my coworkers posted their shifts up because they'd be out of town, and of course most of the rest of my friends I like to hang out with have Spring Break plans as well. So what else was I going to do?

Anyway I'm really glad I did go because I met some really cool people and had a great time.

Here's some pictures from on the way there:

Just so yall know, Logan did NOT pose for these. Actually he has no clue that I even took them.

So on the way there is pretty much just the guys in the back playing around on my laptop (playing NBA Live 04, NFL Madden 04, etc...) and my iPod. I spent most of the time talking to Britney and Lydia in the front.

There at BC I spent most of the time hanging out with people like Will Giles, Britney Price, Rebecca Brown, Gabbie Webb, etc. Well... some pretty crazy stuff happened there, and had it not been for good friends like Will and Britney theres no telling what would have happened, so I just want to thank them for everything. I'd have never had such a great time this weekend if they weren't there.

Well anyway, Sunday morning we all have to get up early and leaving by 6:30, to make it back to Memphis in time for the evening service where Bro. Guss Harder (sp?) from the Phillipeans preached. So we had our own sort-of church service in the van. It was really cool. I really enjoyed the singing, especially some of those songs with tenor and bass solo's (that was a new experience for me, I've never sang a solo in my life until then, I've never been to any of these singing school these others have been going to their entire lives). So anyway here's some pictures from on the way back:

So Aaron, Tyler, and Lydia sat in the back. They pretty much just picked on Lydia the whole time, but I think for some reason she enjoyed it. In the front Rachel and Mary (Logan didn't ride back with us) sat, and just acted like regular pre-teen girls, gossiping away between each other. So Britney and I are in the middle, attempting to having a rather sophisticated conversation. She's actually really cool and I'm glad I got to go on the trip and get to know her, as well as the others I mentioned above.

Well thats all to say about my weekend. It was great to see everyone. Take care yall, God bless.

My rather enjoyable day

2006-03-01T21:38:00.000-06:00

Lydge is not the only one with new sunglasses for Boot Camp. Muahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

Please read below for the story behind this.

It has occurred to me that when you fast, the Lord just might bless you to have a good day. Thats what he did to me today. So I wake up and do all the normal stuff (minus the eating) this morning. And for the first time in a few weeks, I have the opportunity to wear shorts!!! So I put on a pair, along with a tee shirt and a button-down shirt that I got in Pensacola, FL a couple years ago, that has palm trees and a beach on it so it gives a very summer look. I drive to school with my window rolled down the whole way, feeling the warm Memphis breeze of the 70 degree Memphis weather. I went to Programming class for a rather enjoyable class, where I'm actually the most talkative person in there. Then I went to Management class for a quiz that I had not studied at all for. No big deal though, after all this is Management, its not like its rocket science. So I'm pretty confident I aced this one. After another hour of Management after the quiz, my instructor lets us out about 15 minutes early. So I walk out to my car, did I mention to yall that I got a pretty good parking space!!! Right on the side of the street outside the FedEx Technology Center. So I drive towards home.... And stop at the Walmart, which is just down the street from my house. As soon as I walk in, I see this big stand of sunglasses for $10 each (well $9.95, but yall get the point). So I look at it, and see this one in particular type that I just love (pictured above). Seeing as I still had about $20-25 left on a Walmart gift card I got for Christmas, I decided "what the heck, these would looks nice at Boot Camp." So anyway I come home, study for a couple hours, go to church at Grace Chapel for a fun and entertaining service as always. And then on the way home I stop at this coffee shop just down the street from my house (as is the rest of the world) called Faith Music. And then come home, get on my laptop, and here I am now....

So, I know, it wasnt very exciting, and your all probably bored to tears from reading this (assuming anyone actually did), but thats how my day went. And with the semester I've had so far, this is definently one of my better days.

Yall who commented on my controversial pictures, please show me thats not what I have to do to get yall to read my blawg. I'd appreciate comments for posts like these, if ya don't mind. But anyway its all good. Have fun at Boot Camp everybody, hope to see lots of yall there.

New Font

2006-02-28T12:16:00.000-06:00

Ok I need a new post because its been almost a week now, so I hope this will fulfill that requirement. I have no pictures, no link, or any other fun stuff to talk about. Except...... well as you may notice my sidebar appears to have text that looks rather different, like this. Well, I've been playing around with different fonts all morning actually, and this seems to be the best of them all, so far. If anyone is interested in getting a new font for either their sidebar or in the text of their posts, please get on Word or some other program and search through all the fonts until you find what you want to use, and then get in touch with me and I'll work you through the rest. All it takes is an extensive amount of work on html in your template. ;)

Yall please leave your feedback on my sidebar's new font, do ya like it? should I change it?

My former dawgs

2006-02-23T15:18:00.000-06:00

Well today is the one year, and 2 day anniversary of the death of my former mutt-dawgs that we got from the animal shelter, Termite and Jill (guess which one was named after his/her favorite food?). They were both only 8 when they died. They had heartworms that were already infested in their hearts, and my family and I, ignorantly, forgot to give them regular heartworm treatment to keep that from occuring. So the vet gave us 2 options: pay $500 a piece to have them treated, and even then there was a low chance of survival, or have them put to sleep. After lots of thought, we decided the latter would be the better decision. So even though it hurt a little bit, we were forced to have them put to sleep. So RIP Termite (June 13, 1997-February 21, 2006) and Jill (June 19, 1997-February 21, 2006).

For those few of yall who read my blawg, please try to guess which dawg is which, I could use the extra comments. ;)

Also we have a new post on the hyper blog so please be sure to check that out.

Reactions to my last post

2006-02-20T12:14:00.000-06:00

I just want to say thanks to those who were mature enough to laugh about my last post, rather than to be offended by it. Those who dish out the same kind of insults to President Clinton, Gore, and Kerry should at least be able to take them back when comments are made about less-Christian leaders like Bush and Cheney. Most people were mature enough to laugh about it, and they set a fine example for the Republican party and have shown me that there are many mature Republicans out there, and perhaps restored a bit of my faith in that party. However, there was one or two disgruntled people (not people who commented on the post, but others who said something to me in private) who set a bad example for their party, by trying to make me feel horrible for the pictures I posted, and for that I will tack on a few extra days to leaving my new profile picture up.

If the Republicans just had better economy strategies, better ideas for big-business growth, more efficient environmental plans, and weren't war-hungry, they'd be the perfect party. If its McCain or any other decent candidate (eg. anyone not associated with Bush in any way) in 2008 versus Hillary Clinton, the Republicans can count on my support. ;)

God bless yall,
Joe

Lady's and Gentlemen, I present to you the leaders of our great nation!!!

2006-02-18T13:52:00.000-06:00

[Warning: this post will offend most, if not all, of its readers. Please be aware of the humor involved and do not take it personally. Yall did the same thing to Clinton so no complaining!!!!]

Hyper blog

2006-02-15T22:39:00.000-06:00

Hey, everybody please Go Here and check out the new blog for Hyperism recorded on AIM!!!

Also please check out my friend Andrew Franklin's blog. Thanks yall

Happy Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T10:14:00.000-06:00

Tis Valentine's Day, the most depressing, loneliest day of the year...

Someone please cheer me up. :`(

Building a "snowgloo"

2006-02-11T12:24:00.000-06:00

What do you get when you have two creative, less-than-mature college kids in a house surrounded by at least 5 inches of snow?

Well it turns rather interesting, see what happened in our backyard last night...

Thick snow

The start of the largest snowman in Memphis:

The 10 foot tall abominable snowman!!!!

After the snowman (which fell over, lol, you can clearly see it leaning in the pictures), we decided to build an igloo out of snow:

It proved to be hard work... after starting on the roof on the back end, we had some problems getting it really going, but after some creative ideas (eg. wedging two big snowballs together to create a "crawl-through" door) we managed to start making some serious progress:

Getting the top of the roof (the area shown above in the picture where Grace is inside the snowgloo) was the hardest part. We tried every form of packing snow into it we could think of, but couldnt manage a hole in the top any smaller than about 2 feet wide. So after Grace decided to just give up and go inside, I, being so determined to get this done, decided to roll about four smaller balls together and push them all against each other on the top, and then pack snow around them. Finally this prove successful as the roof was created at last and the snowgloo was complete!!!!

Here's pictures of the completed project (which was at about 11:30pm-midnight when I finally finished it):

So for those of you who I told I would be at Ripley PBC today for their meeting I apologize. I woke up this morning at about 6:45am with every bone in my body aching pretty bad from all the packing snow from last night, and decided "I'll just skip the morning and afternoon services, and go to the evening one." And now I find out a little bit ago that they arent even having evening services. So I'm very sorry yall!!!! I'll try to make it next time, I promise!!!

Snowing in Memphis

2006-02-11T11:59:00.000-06:00

Well what a day yesterday was. Where to begin....

Well, against my prediction, it snowed!!!! Here's some boring pictures around our block from the front yard.

Out of the window of my room:

Down the street in both directions:

Me, my dad, and me again:

Grace comes home from UT Martin for the week (driving through the snow for at least an hour of the way):

Bored?

2006-02-09T00:57:00.000-06:00

I recommend fulfilling your need for entertainment by going to play the Button game on my friend Gabbie's blog. You could also play it by going to Gabbie's Blog and looking at all the beautiful pictures from Hawaii and then scrolling down below them where the Button game is located. Thanks yall.

Cooking with the Joe4444

2006-02-04T13:39:00.000-06:00

Well after a long, and stressful evening last night filled with Database work on Access and Management homework, while working a 1-10pm shift in the computer lab after my only Friday class, I was indeed rather fatigued after returning home to a house comquered by the beast shown in the first picture that you will see below.

So my parents have gone out of my town to visit my grandmother, and with Grace off at college, I "run dis mug" for the weekend. So its a lovely Saturday morning, I wake up around 10:30, take a shower, and then go downstairs to prepare breakfast, for the first time in who-knows-how long. Here is footage of my excursions:

Basking in the sunlight, one of the favorite Saturday morning past-times for my cat.

Me trying to cook breakfast, with the iPod on. This is the first ever blog photo displaying my new hair style, how long it will last? I dont know, since I am still growing it out and it has been exactly 13 weeks now since my last official hair cut. Let this be a hint for anyone who has not yet done so, to please vote in my poll ------------------------------------>

Skillet-fried pancakes, yummy!!!

Eggs, need I say more?

A nice herty breakfast of burnt eggs, burnt pancakes, a tall glass of orange juice, and the Sports Section.

Jackson Meeting

2006-01-29T22:33:00.000-06:00

Well where should I begin.... The Jackson meeting of course was a very blessed meeting. Great sermons, great food, and wonderful people to socialize with, and even meeting a few new people was a blessing. I rode down there Friday afternoon with Ryan, Lydia, Seth, and Eleanor and we stayed through Saturday night, then Ryan, Seth, and I rode back and got back into Memphis around 2:30am last night. One of the parts of the meeting I really feel the need to comment on was when all the young people gathered around to sing, and we were able to sing one of my favorite songs, Hide Thou Me. The reason for my interest in this song, besides just the beautiful way the tune flows, is that it is just so encouraging, especially when I get discouraged. And after some of the rough times I have faced in the past few months, and being just so discouraged to some very low, and horrible-feeling points at times, being able to hear songs like that (which are just so spiritually encouraging) gives me motivation for life. I was very touched to hear everyone sing that particular song so beautifully.

Also Ryan, Seth, and I had the pleasure to stay at Lacey Madden's house where we stayed up into the wee-hours of the morning (11:30pm) playing some of the all new, high-tech video games (on Super Nintendo), and that was definently a blast.

Well anyway, thats all I have to comment about for right now, I'm still looking for more comments so anyone (perhaps someone I might have met at the meeting and mentioned to them about my blawg) that comments are definently very much appreciated.

God bless yall.

Survey

2006-01-23T19:09:00.000-06:00

Well first of all I'd like to ask everyone to visit my friend Gabbie's new blog, which you can do by clicking right here. If you know her then go comment on it and say hi, if you don't then please be friendly and say hi anyway. Thanks yall.

So anyway, here's my post, its this survey that everyone is taking now. I apologize that I could not get the link to work to allow anyone else to take the survey online, but I put the entire thing into a Word document, so if you have Microsoft Word on your computer, you can take it by clicking on BlogSurvey. Once filling everything out on the Word document, hit "ctrl & a" then "ctrl & c" and then go back into blogspot and hit "ctrl & v" in your blog post to post your survey. If you have any problems email me at joe444477@gmail.com or joe444477@hotmail.com.

*TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey*
Name:	Bob... (what do you think my name is?)
Birthday:	May 30, 1984
Birthplace:	South Memphis (Whitehaven representin')
Current Location:	East Memphis (Cordova)
Eye Color:	Hazel
Hair Color:	Light Brown
Height:	5'11
Right Handed or Left Handed:	Right mostly (I shoot a basketball left-handed though)
Your Heritage:	no clue, and I'm not that eager to find out
The Shoes You Wore Today:	my Nike running shoes (not sure what exact kind)
Your Weakness:	my knowledge, and understanding things that are difficult to read
Your Fears:	God
Your Perfect Pizza:	Pepperoni
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year:	to be a better member of my church
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger:	lol
Thoughts First Waking Up:	what time is it? do I have time to sleep a little longer?
Your Best Physical Feature:	no clue... I guess my chest (dont laugh)
Your Bedtime:	whenever I get tired
Your Most Missed Memory:	playing out in the streets with all the neighborhood kids when I was 11 or 12
Pepsi or Coke:	Pepsi, although Coke has better products
McDonalds or Burger King:	Burger King, though I'm eating healthier now-a-days
Single or Group Dates:	if the girl has a strong view either way I'll go with her choice so she'll be more comfortable, if she doesnt care, well it depends on the situation
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea:	Lemonade!!!!!!
Chocolate or Vanilla:	Vanilla
Cappuccino or Coffee:	Coffee, though I prefer Frappuchinos
Do you Smoke:	no
Do you Swear:	no
Do you Sing:	yea, when my dad is leading I'm the only Tenor voice at my church
Do you Shower Daily:	no, more like every 8 hours
Have you Been in Love:	yes, in an unhealthy way too
Do you want to go to College:	no, I just spent the last 4 years lieing around doing nothing
Do you want to get Married:	of course
Do you belive in yourself:	no, I'm not really here!!!!
Do you get Motion Sickness:	hardly ever
Do you think you are Attractive:	if I say "yes" does that make me "full of myself?"
Are you a Health Freak:	yes I try to be
Do you get along with your Parents:	most of the time
Do you like Thunderstorms:	yea I love them
Do you play an Instrument:	I used to play the trumpet, and tried out the guitar, but right now: nothing
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol:	yes
In the past month have you Smoked:	no
In the past month have you been on Drugs:	no
In the past month have you gone on a Date:	no
In the past month have you gone to a Mall:	yes
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos:	uhhh no
In the past month have you eaten Sushi:	no
In the past month have you been on Stage:	does behind the pulpit at my church count?
In the past month have you been Dumped:	nope, thankfully
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping:	does taking a bath in my jacuzzi count?
In the past month have you Stolen Anything:	no
Ever been Drunk:	no
Ever been called a Tease:	no
Ever been Beaten up:	no, but have come pretty close
Ever Shoplifted:	no
How do you want to Die:	anyway as long as its to God's honor
What do you want to be when you Grow Up:	a servant to Christ, and possibly a Programmer or doing something in Networking
What country would you most like to Visit:	Antartica
*In a Boy/Girl..*
Favourite Eye Color:	doesnt matter
Favourite Hair Color:	blonde or brown is nice
Short or Long Hair:	long
Height:	doesnt matter
Weight:	below 140
Best Clothing Style:	as long as it ain't FUBU
Number of Drugs I have taken:	none (or if any, you must be very well reformed from a dark past)
Number of CDs I own:	as many as you want
Number of Piercings:	nothing except for the ears
Number of Tattoos:	none
Number of things in my Past I Regret:	lots of stuff

I need your help, call Crime Stoppers if you have any helpful information!!!

2006-01-20T15:36:00.000-06:00

Twas a lovely Thursday morning. I wake up around 9 or so to the sound of my alarm clock. I turn it off, get up, still half-asleep, and make my way to the bathroom to take my morning shower. So as I walk into the bathroom, I open the door to the closet to get my towel and washcloth, and LOW & BEHOLD!!! A mysterious beast is holding all the towels and washclothes captive, what was I to do!!!!!

I did manage to capture live footage of the beast (pictured below) so if anyone is able to identify this mysterious creature, please call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-Joe-4444.

Closing the Smith lab

2006-01-18T00:02:00.000-06:00

First of all a thank you to Andrew for being the only one to actually comment on my last post. Yall should try to follow his lead.... Now on to the post.
___________________________________________

Sunday night was a fairly interesting final shift of the fall semester for me, as me, and my boy KT were supposed to close the lab once we left at 10pm (instead of keeping it open 24 hours, like we normally do, in waiting for our overnight relief to arrive). We closed the lab for MLKJ Day. You see, closing the Smith lab is harder than yall think. We had numerous hardships and struggles in getting the lab closed, like getting all those stubborn students out, but we finally managed to do it. O what hard, stressful work our boss puts us through. Here's footage of how our struggle went down:

ITS BIG FOOT!!! (hey we had to get the students out of the lab some way...)

KT gives his sign for errbody out there.

I does the same

No comment, just a lousy pic...

Good news/Bad news for Sping Semester

2006-01-14T12:03:00.000-06:00

So here's my schedule for the Spring 2006 semester at the U of M:

Course	Days Time Location	Credit	Instructor
MIS -3745-001 APPLCTN PROG DEVELOP I	MWF 11:30-12:25PM FCB 267	3.00	ZHANG, XIHUI
MIS -3775-002 DATABASE MANAGEMENT	TR 07:10-08:35PM FCB 267	3.00	BROOKS, LLOYD D.
MIS -2749-015 INTRO BUSN MICROCOMPTRS	TR 05:30-06:55PM FCB 373	3.00	BURKS, TOM D
MGMT-3110-002 ORGANIZATION & MGMT	MW 12:40-02:05PM FCB 369	3.00	CHEN, JIUN-SHIU

Great!!! 2 Chinese instructors, won't this be fun...

So anyway its not the class schedule thats really the good or bad news for me, but rather the work schedule:

Tuesday ------- 8am - 1pm -------- Smith
Tuesday ------- 1pm - 5pm -------- Smith
Wednesday ---- 5pm - 10pm ------ McWherter

So there it is, a meager 13 hours a week. Good news: I no longer have to work 5-10pm Sundays!!! Bad news: I now have to work 5-10pm Wednesday, which will hinder me from a regular attendance at Grace Chapel on Wednesday nights. And giving up the Wed. night shift isnt really an option right now, seeing as how I am working that shift alone right now, they're still looking for someone else who can work Wed. nights.

Solution: Well I've posted my 5-10pm Wed. nights for the last week in January and first week in February, so far, but yet to have any takers. If I cannot make it Wed. nights to G.C. I may start attending on some Sunday nights.

Anyway someone please comment!!! I am becoming quite discouraged from the lack of comments on my blawg. It doesnt have to be all guys that comment either....

Thanks yall,
God bless,
Joe

A poem from boredom

2006-01-11T14:12:00.000-06:00

So whats going on.... well its now been exactly 9 weeks and 4 days since my last haircut. I also have about 4 more days of freedom (counting today) before returning to the dreadful school with a semester filled with the enjoyable Programming and Database Management. Anyway I was at work yesterday in the computer lab, bored (as usual) so I decided to type up a (corny) poem in notepad while I sat there at the workstation, send to myself in email, and post it on my blawg whenever I felt the need to make another post. So here it is, please try to enjoy it yall.A quiet day at work

Boredom, while sitting here at work,
on the computer I play;
a quite small crowd of students lurk,
on this not-so-busy day.

So a poem I have decided to write,
reflecting thoughts on this book;
Sense and Sensibility seems just quite,
a confusing story from the look.

So absent minded I have amounted to,
confused and dazed is now my mind;
what the story is, I wish for just a clue,
nothing more I can seem to find.

While I sit here searching online,
looking for something just to bring about;
what more can I seem to incline,
besides to what writing this poem can amount.

As I sit here on this computer so light,
and so comfortably my mind shall lay;
Simply nothing more can I find here to write,
in this lovely boring poem today.

Pride & Prejudice, Part 2 (The Movie Analysis)

2006-01-07T11:52:00.000-06:00

So now that I've read the book, I decided to watch the movie (the 6 hour one), and it did change my opinion quite a bit about my analysis of the characters. I watched half of it Thursday night, and half last night. Please, again, DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK OR SEEN EITHER OF THE MOVIES!!!

I did gain a little more respect for Mr. Darcy, but he still seemed a rather negative character, he should have smiled more towards the end. Interesting how the original title of the book was "First Impressions" before it became P&P, seems to make perfect sense based on their situation. I loved Pemberly though, the "fancy golf course look" is what I want for my ideal home.

Mr. Bingley and Mr. Bennet were probably my most favorite characters. I just like that sense of charm Mr. Bingley puts on without any sneakiness covered up by it. And I like Mr. Bennet's sensibility, although he obviously had horrible taste in women. I could never be able to stand a mother like that like those girls did. Some of the girls I found to be most attractive in the movie were actually Mary, Kitty, and even Darcy's sister Georgiana. Oddly enough, I'm attracted to the more shy and innocent type. Elizabeth and Jane didnt seem to be all that attractive, to be honest. And no comment about Lydia as far as that subject is concerned.

Mr. Collins actually turned out to be quite a bit more of a klutz than I originally figured of him. I actually felt bad for the guy a little bit, but he turned out happily married so I guess he was fine.

Well time to go run to the library and return this P&P movie before I get hit with a late fee, so I will leave yall with a beautiful intellectual quote to always remember.

"OWW police OWWW dont beat me, OWWW!!!!"
~Rodney King

Pride and Prejudice

2006-01-04T11:22:00.000-06:00

Well just before the GC meeting I finished reading my first Jane Austen book, Pride and Prejudice, so I think I'll discuss it here. If anyone has not read the book or seen any of the movies, please DO NOT read this post. I'll try not to give away too much of the ending, but no guarantees.

I must say I probably wasn't as fond of Mr. Darcy as most. Granted he did turn out to be quite a genuine character, I still don't think he fully explained out all of his pride and arrogance. And really I think I would have gone to more of an effort to gain family approval before requesting Elizabeth's hand in marriage (eg. the situation with his aunt, Lady Catherine, and of course Mrs. Bennett wasn't too fond of him either). Funny how all the girls, assuming any read this, will be down my throat about this particular opinion.

One character I did like was Mr. Bingley. Of course he was a little boring, and didnt take much of a role in the book, but I liked how he had more family support as far as his marriage with Jane. The only problem, I think, was Bingley's sister, but of course that could easily be forgived within time. And she didnt even have a problem with Jane, it was Elizabeth she didnt like.

Everyone is so quick to criticize characters like Lydia and Mr. Collins. Personally I made an effort to look at the brighter aspects of these characters. Lydia I still cant stand, when she was bragging about her "good fortune" of her marriage to Mr. Wickham, I just wanted to smack her and tell her to shut up and that she's thrown her life away. As for Mr. Collins, I really think he made an effort to be a good person, but I lost a lot of respect for him when he proposed marriage to Elizabeth, and even more when he proposed to Caroline. But still, he seemed to remain a good and friendly character threw the book despite having a very unusual taste about him.

So now I need to go watch the movie (the 6 hour one), which I'll probably do in the next day or two. Following that I'll probably start reading Sense and Sensibility.

God bless,
Joe

2005, A blessed year

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

I actually wanted to make this post within the year of 2005, but did not get an opportunity to do so before Grace Chapel's meeting, and didnt have time to get to a computer and type out all my thoughts during the time of the meeting. So anyway I'd like to talk about everything that has happened in the year of 2005 for me that has made it a truely blessed year. In 2005:
-I started attending G.C. on Wed. nights regularly
-began taking a bigger role in my church, and started annoucing the prayer list, as well as making my first open prayer in front of the congregation and have since been called on regularly to pray
-built my church a website which will hopefully encourage new people to attend in the future
-attending Camp Moriah for the third time and started making many new friends (unlike the past year)
-started a regular routine of bible reading and frequent praying

...there are so many more things that I could list. But on top of all the wonderful things God has blessed me with the desire to do, there have been things that have made this year fairly difficult for me. Getting involved in something that I will not name (not ashamed, but out of the respect of privacy for some people that may not want me going into detail openly about some of the things). They have caused me a great deal of stress and grief, as well as much happiness and joy, which has made it a rather impacting year for me.

It has also been a great blessing to make new friends at GC upon my regular attendance, as well as becoming much closer to some of my current friends there. I certainly hope they are not annoyed by my regular attendance, it has been a great blessing to my life for God to have given me such good friends to be close with. I feel like I have been rescued from the Joe of my High School days when I, even though never cussing or doing many of the things my peers did, was a very worldly person in my thoughts and the language that I used, and even encouraging worldly behavior among others.

I certainly do look forward to a new year of establishing even closer friendships with many of my fellow Primitive Baptists, as well as taking a bigger role in my efforts for my church (and doing so without pride or feelings of self-worthiness). Thank you to all my friends in Christ for all your support, encouragement, and love you have shown me this past year, as well as all the time you have known me before then. May 2006 be an even more spiritually blessed year.

Also, I want to mention the GC meeting. I didnt bring a camera so unfortunantly if anyone wants to see pictures they will have to visit some of my friends' blawgs and blogs. The meeting was a blessing, there were excellent sermons preached, and so many good friends in Christ that were there. And congratulations to 'Drew and Nawill for winning the 2-on-2 basketball tournament Sat. night. Hope everybody has a wonderful 2006 and may the Lord richly bless you all.

God Bless,
Joe

Christmas presents

2005-12-26T22:53:00.000-06:00

In the picture ----->>
you can see the wonderful presents that I was given for Christmas, but anyway just for the sake of taking up blawg space I will describe them. In the lower right corner you will see a lovely mini-iPod with 30 gigs and that plays videos (these are new on the market) along with a grip holder thing for it. In the upper right and middle I have received some Stetson cologne, because 15 types of name-brand cologne wasnt enough for me. In the lower left corner there is a body-size pillow case (which will go with the body-size pillow I sleep with every night). In the lower middle is some incense to add to my collection. And in the upper right corner there is a box of some Starbucks cookies that I really like. Also in the very top right of the picture you will see a bit of wrapping paper from the big pile that I created, and in the very lower center of the picture is a small portion of my foot (very interesting, indeed).

Other presents I received from other relatives included a bible cover, some green cargo pants from Aeropostale (to wear at basketball and football games, because I love to wear cargos to games for reasons you will have to ask me in person about), and some chocolates.

Well anyway, I've had a fun day today (today being National Return Our Christmas Presents to the Store and Wait in a Long Time to do so Day). I went to Bro. Isaac's house to watch the Motor City Bowl (Memphis vs. Akron) with Nawill, Matt Case, John G., Seth, and Bro. Zack as well as Bro. Isaac's kids. And tomorrow I am hoping to get to go to the Gonzaga game in the FedEx Forum with some of the GC guys. Not to mention I'll be able to see them at church Wed. and throughout GC's meeting, so we'll all probably be sick of each other by next week. Also I'd like to say that I am 19.69234% of a member at GC, but the other 80.30766% of me still belongs to Southaven.

I'd like to conclude this post by again reminding anyone who has not yet visited my church's website to please do so by clicking here.

God Bless yall,
Joe

Christmas Eve Blawg Post

2005-12-24T17:16:00.000-06:00

Due to strong influence by a certain friend of mine I have decided to make another blawg post because I "dont make them often enough." So for you wonderful blawg readers who have grown impatient for me, here is something to satisfy your needs for a little while.

In case anyone is wondering why I have not been idling on AIM every second over the past 2-3 days, I have been out of town, in Florence, AL, visiting my folks for the Christmas holidays. Here are some lovely pics of my grandmother (widow of my late-grandfather who passed away just a month ago) and my other cousins and family.

My dad, my Grandmother (aka Muhner), and my cousin Lucas who is about 9 (I think).

Andrew 15 in the pic, 16 today, and me, as you can see he is very entuasiastic (actually he was sort of sick) and I am giving my lovely pscyho-face look.

The three pictures below have a more interesting story behind them. You see we (being my dad, Andrew, Grace, and I) went to Big Lots one afternoon and bought some cat nip for 80 cents. We decided to try some on this big obese dull cat that lives across the street, in an attempt to see something lively out of an otherwise life-less cat. We all got a pretty good laugh out of watching this cat get "stoned" so here's some shots of it all:

Also I just want to wish a Happy Birthday to my cousin Andrew (pictured above) who is turning 16 today, and my good friend Lydia Poe (aka teh Lydginator) who is turning 15 today, and will be driving soon (everybody prepare for Lydgination!!!) and we all know how wonderful of a driver she will be (we're all doomed!!!).

Church Website

2005-12-19T14:16:00.000-06:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, its finally here!!! Its my church's website!!!! Check it out, you can click HERE!!! or you can scroll down on my sidebar and click on Southaven PBC.

Primitive Baptist Church map

2005-12-13T23:13:00.000-06:00

Primitive Baptist Church map

Yall please go to this map page, and zoom in and find your church's actual location (actual street address) and put a marker there. In the "Name" box please put the name of your church, in the "Message" box please put your pastor's name (Elder/Brother and then the pastor's name), and in the "Link" box please put the link to your church's website if they have one, if they dont then it can be left blank.

I've already put in a marker for all the churches in the Memphis area to show how it should look like. Those markers have been put at the exact street address for those churches. Please reference to those if you have any confusion. If you still do not understand please email me at joe444477@gmail.com or joe444477@hotmail.com.

Also, one last time and I'll stop bothering you blog readers with my rambling. Please everyone post this link on your blog and get the word out!!! I want this map to be huge, like nation wide, maybe we can even get churches in India, the Phillipeans, and/or Tanzania on it!!!!!

My Sister Got Engaged!!!

2005-12-10T13:22:00.000-06:00

Well its official now (though I must confess I've known about this little secret for a few months now). My younger sister, Grace, is now engaged to Dustin!!! Personally I have mixed feelings about it all (too early...), but of course I know its not my place of business to have anything to say about any of that. I've seen it happen before where family and/or friends tries to intervene in a personal relationship like that. It was not a good experience, so I refuse to be a part of any of that, and I will just be happy for the both of them. Here's the letter I was sent:

Hello, all! I have some great news to share with y'all! As many of you know I have been dating this wonderful guy named Dustin Lambert for exactly 7 months and 3 days. Well, last night, Frday December 9th, Dustin proposed to me, and I said "Yes"!!!!

But now I have to tell ya how it happened.... OK, there's this student organization here in Martin, TN called the BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry) and every month they have this event called He-Brews Coffee House. It's for anyone of any denomination/religion/whatever to come and hang out with a great bunch of people and drink free coffee and snacks and have free entertainment.

Well, because his birthday is Dec 16th which is next Friday, I decided to set a surprise up for him at Coffee House. I bought him a cake and I asked this guy named Ben to go up to the microphone at a certain time and Say something to get the audience to start singing happy B-day to him, then i came out while they were singing and gave him the cake with all teh 21 candles lit...

So, we are standing in front of the stage, in the middle of the room, he just blew out the candles, then a guy on stage hands him a microphone and he says "Well, I had something planned, but... " Then he hands me a beautiful rose and on the top of it is the engagement ring! At this point I almost drop the cake, which is still in my hands, but I manage to set it down on the stage. He takes the ring, gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him. I, of course, say “Yes” in this tiny little squeaky voice. And then we hug and kiss for like 5 minutes and all the while everyone is clapping and screaming. Then all the girls go up to me and hug me. All the guys go pat Dustin on the back and then lift him in the air.

By the way, Karen Taylor (one of my best friends and my future maid of honor) was there and a bunch of my other friends. Now that I think about it, there was a huge turnout at that event yesterday… haha… that makes sense now. It turns out that Dustin had a big thing ready. He was going to do a devotion about the love of God and then ask me to come up and then he'd propose, but I messed things up a little. It's OK though, he doesn't care and we agreed that this worked out better!

So, now I have finals to look forward to next week, I haven't started studying for a one. Then i'll be back in Memphis late December 16th or early December 17th. I can't wait ot show everyone the ring, its GORGEOUS!!! For those of you who don't live in Mempho, I will be sending pics out ASAP!

Everyone have a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, good luck on finals, and God bless!

Love, Grace

My new found fame

2005-12-08T20:08:00.000-06:00

There it is, the school newspaper that contains the comments from yours truely. All because my boss came up with the brilliant idea to schedule me to work 1-5pm in McWherter on Tuesdays for the semester. So with my new found fame I'd like to say that me and my fellow quoted coworker Brad will be holding an autograph session next Tuesday at work, we'll both also be available to have your picture taken standing next to one of us, for a small fee of $4.95. Proceeds will go to the lady GCS basketball team to help them fund for those uniforms so they can stop trying to fatten me up with donuts.

(Also, just to rub it in, please note that my quote was on the FRONT PAGE of the school newspaper. Whereas Ryan's, back a long time ago when he had his time of fame, was in the middle somewhere where nobody reads)

Whatever you call this stuff...

2005-12-08T01:03:00.000-06:00

Not that I really wanted to be a part of this "trend" this, but since I was tagged by Ryan I am left with no choice. So here it goes:

1. To do before I die:

--Play in the NBA.
--Become a millionaire so I can buy our church a new building finally, so we can get out of that hotel room we've been stuck in for the past 3 years.
--Travel to the upper Northwestern part of Northwestern Territories, CA, or somewhere in Antartica.
--Get married and have a family.
--Become a much better Christian and better member of my church.
--Move out of my parent's house.
--Preach a sermon.

2. I cannot do (and would very much like to):

--Be left-handed.
--Play PG for the Memphis Tigers (and start on a gamely basis).
--Have a blood type of AB.
--Take an interest in things like plays, opera's, and musical (wouldn't say 100% that its a "cannot do" but indeed its not very likely).
--Lead singing (this will change soon, I hope)
--Make straight A's, or at least all A's and B's.
--[insert any from the above question, because they are mostly the same answers as I would have put on this one]

3. That would attract me to my future spouse:

--Faith.
--She has very attractive looks.
--Friendly/personable.
--She likes to laugh about stuff a lot (not too much) and she is one whom I can make laugh.
--She isnt all nit-picky about small stuff, she is someone who still would like me despite our differences on some things (because no two people are the same, but that doesnt mean that those two people arent necessarily perfect for each other, sometimes difference is a good thing).
--She loves my desire to always set up nice ambiences (eg. when I like to set up a lovely candle-lite dinner)
--She will encourage me in many aspects of life that I may struggle in (eg. how to become more of a intellectual person, or to be in better control of my emotions).

4. Things I say most often:

--"I"
--"Go Tigers!!!"
--*banging into my front door after running downstairs*
--"yall"
--"main what!!!!!"
--"cool"
--"o boy"

5. Seven books I love-- (I'm supposed to come up with 7!!! please dont laugh yall)

--The Bible (KJV 1611)
--Requiem for a Dream
--The Great Gatsby
--The Outsiders
--The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
--Waiting for Godot
--The Odyssey

6. Movies I could watch over and over:

--The Longest Yard (actually pretty much anything with Adam Sandler is good)
--Halloween 1, 2, 4, 5, H20, The Resurrection
--The Ring (the original one)
--The Village (well.... it was ok, I just really couldnt think of anything else to put)
--Anchor Man
--Signs
--Birth of a Nation
(I havent really seen a lot of cool movies lately, plus I have sort of a different taste than most of yall)

7. People I want to tag--
--Adam
--Lacey
--Justin
--Lydia
--Seth C.
--Kaity
--Tommy

A Week of Worldliness and Politics

2005-12-03T18:16:00.000-06:00

This post is for everyone out there who has debated, or seen me debate politics, and viewed me as more of a Liberal than a Moderate.

So I believe my last post explained what happened at my Grandfather's funeral. Well I'd like to speak a little more about my family and my altercations with them as I spent time with them over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Basically a lot of my family on that side of the family, have been very worldly. My cousin was arrested and (as I found out from his younger brother that weekend) the charge against him was "vehicular manslaughter." Also I have an uncle and an aunt (both siblings, and son and daughter of my late Grandfather who's funeral we were all in town for) who seem to live very worldly lives sometimes. I believe it was Tuesday evening that I got into a little debate with them over the usual, politics and faith. Them, both being hard-nosed liberals, put me in the conservative seat on this debate for the most part, which got it focusing more on religion, because that is where I have a most conservative view on things. And of course the discuss just had to lead to the issue of "legalization of marujuana." Now my uncle voted for Nader in 2000, and guess why? Yes, I shamefully admit that my uncle smokes weed on occassions. And he has really done his research too, because he gave me every argument in the world for why marujuana should be legal in America. He basically has me convinced that marujuana is safer than cigarettes and alcohol (not that this really convinces me it should be legal, but convinces me more into thinking that cigarettes should be illegal too). The only thing that was really difficult about this, was to explain to him why I disagreed, and why I thought marujuana should remain illegal, because to be honest, I dont know all my facts on the particular issue. Personally I dont think I did a very good job of debating with him, but what hurt was what he was saying just a couple days later.

We were playing cards late at night (around 2-3am) a couple nights later, and of course the same issue comes up again. This time my uncle was more frustrated because I had just beaten him in Rook 3 times in a row, and when I win, I am rather open about it. I actually struggle not to act braggy quite a bit. But anyway, he goes so far as to pretty much encourage me to try weed. Me and my partner after a hand of Rook, have a score of 420, and yes he had to make a smart comment about "wow, first time ever Joe scores a 4:20" (for those who dont know what 4:20 is, count your blessings).

So after this night, I have questioned myself about whether I ever want to see this particular uncle of mine again? None of my efforts to influence him of a more Christ-like behavior have been successful, and its very discouraging to continue speaking to him about all this. I even told my parents once we got back home, about what he said, and they were both very upset with him about it. Most of my behavior after this Thanksgiving trip seemed to be a lot more worldly for awhile, until I heard a good and encouraging sermon from Brother Warren on Sunday about Sin, and how we should flee from it. It also lifted me back up a great deal, to hear Brother Isaac Guess's study Wed. night on some of Hannah's Prayer in the book of Samuel. It also felt good to see some of my P.B. friends again, and to speak to them face-to-face.

So through all this that happened over the past week, being able to speak to people on the other side of the political spectrum, than who I speak with on the TROG forum or in person when I have political debates with most of you conservative blog readers, what would yall say, am I a liberal, or a moderate?

God Bless,
Joe

My grandfather's funeral/Thanksgiving

2005-11-27T17:56:00.000-06:00

Well this past week has been rather interesting. There was some good and some bad, I'll start with the bad. My Grandfather, after spending the last 5 or so years on an oxygen tank and slowly declining in health, passed away last Sunday evening. My received a call on my cellphone from my dad just 30 minutes before the end of work that evening to inform me of this. The funeral was going to be held off until Wednesday (I think in an attempt to allow all the family time to come to town for it), so we decided to leave as soon as my class ended Tuesday, and I would skip my Wednesday classes. So all according to plan, we left Tuesday and made it down there an hour before visitation that evening. We of course went to visitation, where I met up with my good friend and cousin Andrew. It was mostly just a bunch of boring socializing, everyone seemed to be ok despite the passing of a loved one, I think because we had been expecting it for such a long time. So me and Andrew hung out most of that evening and just cracked jokes with each other as usual, and I even met some people around my age from his church (he goes to a Church of Christ), the Bradford family.

The next day, irony begins. By the way, did I mention to yall that I was a Paul Bearer? Well I was, and due to the events that happened on this day I became just a little bit more important than that. We arrived an hour before the funeral services begun. In fact when we arrived, we had the pleasure of seeing my pastor and his wife, Brother Calvin Warren and Sister Betty, pull up. So for the next hour, just the usual socializing, then they called us Paul Bearers to the back while everyone took a seat. They were going to let us make an entrance once everything was set to go, except for one little problem... The preacher for the funeral did not show up!!!

So we waited for about 15 minutes, and then decided to go ahead and start playing some music for the people in the santuary that were waiting. My mom, my grandmother, and some other family members then came back to see what was going on. After a few minutes, my mom suggested the idea of asking Brother Warren to conduct the service. I personally did not like the idea because I knew that Brother Warren didnt even know my grandfather. So I told her I would do it instead if necessary. I went outside to look for my spare bible which might have been left in my car, but could not find it, so I asked the funeral director if they had a bible we could use. They brought us one, and not having the time to look and see if it was a KJV 1611 or anything like that, I opened it up and wrote down on a bookmarker the passages that my grandmother wanted to have read for the service. We decided that I would go up to read the scriptures, but instead of the message that would have been given, we decided to have family members come up to share their memories of my grandfather when that time comes, and we reluctantly asked Brother Warren to say the closing prayer, but I asked my dad to inform him of this first before we start the funeral, which he did.

So after all of this panic, we decided to go with our scratched up method for conducting the funeral service, and to be honest, it worked out great. Brother Warren even got up and gave a nice message about the love that he noticed we all shared for my grandfather before he said the prayer, he did a wonderful job. After that everything worked out as it should. We drove up to the spot for his burial, and he was given a military burial (you know, with 3 shots fired in the air, and then Taps is played). O by the way, I also forgot to mention my grandfather was in the Air Force, and was in WWII. He didnt fight in the war, but he flew planes for combat (I dont know the details exactly). After the funeral we all went back to my grandmothers house (where we were staying for the nights we were down there anyway), and had a wonderful reception.

The next day, we had a nice Thanksgiving dinner there at my grandmother's. I think God planned my grandfather's death at this time, because he wanted us to be together like this for Thanksgiving. Although most of my family on that side is very worldly, they are good people that I enjoy hanging out with, even if my attempts to convert them havent been too successful. We had a lot of fun playing football in the backyard, and playing games at night.

On Friday, we drove back to Memphis, and went to have Thanksgiving with the other side of my family, my dad's side. We got in around 1pm Friday, and went over to my Aunt Gwen's and Uncle Dexter's at 2pm, to have another delicious meal, at which I, this time, was the only dark meat eater, so I enjoyed the pleasure of gobbling up both of the turkey legs. Afterwards, my Aunt Gwen gave us two tickets to the Memphis/Lamar game at the FedEx Forum on Monday night, that they are not going to use. The tickets are on the club level, and I definently want to get there early. So, Lord willing, I plan to skip class Monday night (its a pointless class anyway, to be honest), to get there, which should be a fun game, despite a blowout.

Well thats pretty much all the news I have for now. Except, o wait, the scores for the week: Memphis 26, Marshall 3, Tigers are bowl eligible and likely!!!! Hopefully we're Hawaii bound, I think that would be a nice send-off for DeAngelo. Also, after wins against Alabama and UCLA, the Memphis basketball team just barely lost to Duke Friday night, it was a heartbreaker, but o well.. if our team of Freshman can compete like that with an established Duke program, this early in the season, that makes me very optimistic about what we have to offer as the season progresses.

So anyway, God Bless,
Joe

P.S. What happened to the preacher that was supposed to preach for my grandfather's funeral? He was working out in the garden and lost track of time.... He even came over to my grandmother's house after everything and was very apologetic, and my grandmother spoke as if she held absolutely nothing against him. I admire her forgiving heart, but personally, I could not think so highly of someone who leaves a mourning family at a time when they want to give a loved one an honorable funeral. RIP Ray Lawson

Gmail

2005-11-20T20:12:00.000-06:00

I gots Gmail now so anyone who uses Google Talk please add joe444477@gmail.com to your list. Also joe444477@hotmail.com will still be my main email address since pretty much everyone knows it by now and has it saved on their list, but I also will check joe444477@gmail.com so feel free to email me there if yall want.

God Bless,
Joe

In Loving Memory of Derek Cournoyer

2005-11-16T11:31:00.000-06:00

I would like to dedicate this post to a good friend of mine named Derek Cournoyer.

Back in the day, I used to live in the south part of Memphis. Fox Meadows, to be exact, which is west of Hickory Hill, and east of Parkway Village and Whitehaven (aka Blackhaven). Around when I was 10 years old and halfway through 5th grade (about 1994, or 95) we moved to an appartment near there and started searching for a house in Cordova. The next summer we found a nice house, which we still live in today, in Cordova. So we moved out there and I started the 6th grade at Cordova Middle School. When I started school there, I noticed a particular student in my class that year who was in a motorized wheelchair, named Derek. I ended up becoming good friends with this particular boy. Me and him and some of our other guy friends (because at that age hanging out with girls was still unpopular because they still had "cooties" in those days) had a lot of fun all the time hanging out with each other and became really close. This really helped me understand what its like not being able to ever walk around anyway. So why was Derek unable to walk? And why did he need a motorized wheelchair instead of a regular one? Well Derek Cournoyer had an illness known as "Muscular Distrophy." This illness was discovered when he was about 4 or 5 years old, and it is very rare for anyone to live longer than 10-15 years once this illness is discovered. So why did Derek spend all this time going to school if he wasnt going to live for very long? We'll he had hopes that one day scientists would find a cure for Muscular Distrophy and that he would be able to walk again.

Throughout 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade Derek and me, and our friend Jeff were very close friends. Even in 8th grade when our entire class went on a field trip to Washington DC, instead of riding on the bus like everyone else, me and Jeff rode in a van with Derek and his mom, and Jeff's mom. As I mentioned in a previous post I could not find a particular picture of Derek, my dad, Jeff, and me all standing next to Congressman Harold Ford Jr. (this was around April or May of 1998). But there is a picture from that trip shown below, of us in a restaurant there in DC.

So anyway when we made it to 9th grade Derek, Jeff, and I all went to Cordova High School together. We even had another friend, Ross, from Cordova Middle, that went there too, and he was a good friend to Derek also. So time moved on and we maintained our strong friendship with each other. Until later in the year (around March or so, of 1999), I went to school one day to have a teacher call me out into the hall in the middle of my first class to tell me something. This teacher told me that Derek Cournoyer had passed away in his sleep that previous night!!! They took me to a room in the Guidance Counselor's office where Jeff and Ross were, and let us sit in there alone for awhile to talk with each other and mourn over the loss of a close friend of ours. Jeff and Ross cried a bit, I did a little, but not as much. We then spoke to each other about our feelings and decided that we would not be able to go through a day of school. Ross decided to stay at school for the day, but Jeff and I decided to go home. So his mom took both of us home.

The next day I left school early again. This time it was to attend his funeral, at which I was an Honorary Paul Bearer. I forgot the name of the church it was held at, but it was at the corner of Walnut Grove and Walnut Bend in Cordova, the church where Derek and his family went to. Then the burial was at the Memphis Funeral Home on Poplar, just west of I-40 and east of Yates street.

So what to make of all this? I felt that my friendship with Derek was a blessing for both of us. I hope that I was able to make his life on earth much better despite his disability, and he definently made mine much better. Not only for his good friendship with me, but for helping me to look at disabled people with a great respect for them. He helped me see them, not as something unique because they were disabled, not to stare at them at a store because of their difference, but to just look at them as any good person that I could be friends with. God richly blessed my life to give me a friendship with Derek.

Here is a picture of our trip to Washington DC back in 1998. Derek is the one on the right (of course), his mother (Mrs. Susie Cournoyer) in next to him, my dad (further left) is in the back, and halfway cut off on the far left end is Jeff.

RIP Derek Cournoyer

Please click here to return to my main blog page to continue reading my post about Congressman Ford.

My weekend all across the horrible state of TN

2005-11-14T13:20:00.000-06:00

Well as I have told many people, my dad bought 2 tickets to the UT/Memphis game in Knoxville off of Ebay. So we took the trip up there Friday night. The game was Saturday at 1, but it was a 6-7 hour drive so we left Friday night. We stayed at the Barber's house Friday night (many thanks to them for their gracious hospitality and warm invitation into their home). We wanted to stay there Saturday night too and go to Covenant PBC Sunday morning, but unfortunantely we had already made plans to meet Grace and Dustin in Jackson, TN at 2pm Sunday afternoon and then I would need to get back home pretty earlier Sunday evening to do some Accounting homework. So anyway, on Saturday we left for the game. Matt Barber and Greg Peterson came with us. We parked my car at Greg Peterson's work and just took one car up there. Once arriving at the game, we at first sat in our original seats way up in the nosebleeds, but due to a lack of oxygen supply we were forced to move down. We spotted Matt Case and his wife in the lower level along with Michael Rushing and his girlfriend and decided to move down there. Eventually Matt and Greg joined us so it was the 8 of us with only 2 dressed in a horribly ugly shade of orange (I was getting on their "Case" about it the entire game). Although rather disappointing after having a 13-0 lead and then barely losing (remind yall of the UAB game?) it wasnt bad. I wasnt too opmistic without DeAngelo out there. But it was still fun. Anyway after the game, my dad and I drove to Cookeville, TN for the night, where I had to buy new dress shoes because I left my only pair at home. The next morning we headed up to Nashville and went to church at Radner PBC. I saw quite a few familiar faces there including Dan Beauchamp. We werent able to stay for lunch though due to the fact that we had to rush off to meet my mom, Grace, and Dustin in Jackson, TN to celebrate her birthday. We went to some 50's style restaurant there and had a nice 3:00 in the afternoon meal. We even had the embarrassing pleasure of all the waitresses coming over and annoucing to the whole place that it was Grace's birthday. They made Grace do some hilarious dance that I was trying so hard to take a picture of, but couldnt get the camera ready until it was all over. So unfortunantly I am unable to post a picture of it here for yall's humoring entertainment. Well after that me and my parents came back to Memphis and Grace and Dustin went back to Martin and that was pretty much it. I'll post some more stuff on here in just a day or two so please keep coming and read yall.

God Bless,
Joe

P.S. O btw I was already considering this, but due to popular request, I am growing my hair out to the same style as in the picture posted below (when I was 17). Or at least I'll be making an attempt at it, I cant guarantee I'll ever be able to make it look that good though.

Take my quiz

2005-11-09T22:31:00.000-06:00

Take my quiz yall!!! Please!!!

Pictures from my childhood

2005-11-08T13:42:00.000-06:00

So I was sitting around my room yesterday (Monday afternoon) and should have been studying, but didn't really feel like it. So I decided to rummage through my old pictures and look for a particular one of a former handcapped friend Derek Cournoyer (who had Muscular Distrophy), and my dad, and I all in a picture standing next to Congressman Harold Ford Jr. back when we were in 8th grade and on a field trip to Washington D.C. By using the word "former" to describe Derek, I am not indicating he is no longer a friend, but that God decided to take him home a year or so after that particular picture was taken, he was never cured of Muscular Distrophy, but I'll go into more detail when I get a picture of him on here. But of course since I was looking for the picture, it did not turn up anywhere, but I did manage to find some other cool pics I thought I'd scan and post on my blawg. So I'm here at work today, and tried to scan all the pics (which btw I saw Ryan come in to the computer lab while I was scanning, and to my knowledge he's still in here). I didnt manage to get all the pics scanned because the scanner was too slow and I havent yet developed a sense of patience, but I did get a set of 3 scanned that I thought it would be cool to post on here, and since I seem to love to post all my pictures in sets of 3, here they are:

This picture was taken, assumably, in December of 1985 (evidence of the month by the Christmas stockings in the background). Yep, I was a rather handsome young fella' back in my younger days.

Here's a lovely picture of when I was probably 7 or 8 (probably 1991 or 92) or so. Also pictured is our lovely former cat Emily. Unfortunantly Emily passed away in Febrauary of 2001, just about 10 days or so before her 20th birthday. A little over a year later, March 30, 2002 to be exact, we got a new cat that we currently have to this day, pictures of her are below on this blog, and I'll probably post some new ones of her very soon.

This one was during the summer of 2001 (I think), at Mobile, AL. I was just a young 17 year old then, ahh the good ole days....

My Car

2005-11-07T11:59:00.000-06:00

Aint it purrrrrty?