Get enough candy?

I hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween. Our little backwards town decided to have it's trick or treating on Saturday night instead of on Sunday. They were afraid it might take away from church attendance. This funny because the big First Baptist Church work their services around the Super Bowl. Talk about being hypocritical!

My kids are too old for Halloween. This year the youngest gave out the candy. He enjoyed it I guess. He didn't have to work very hard though as we only had a handful of little ghosts. We didn't get papered or egged. That's always good.

I have enjoyed all the good movies that have been showing on TV. I mean the old black n white movies along with a few Hammer films thrown in for good measure. Vincent Price is one of my favorite actors. I guess my favorite old horror movie is the House on Haunted Hill. The new horror movies are too full of blood. Overkill is a better word. The stories and actors lack so they use blood to make up for it.

Well, sleep well....

Always chosen

Who ever pulls the strings in the universe sure does have my number. Have you ever been the person who gets to be the randomly selected person for something or other? It seems that I have that honor. Of course, it would be great if someone was giving out money, a vacation or some mediocre honor. No! It always requires some extra effort and it generally works out to where you have no choice. Yep, the universe is full of surprises. Unfortunately, they not always good surprises.

A little more than rain

We got a little more than we wanted today when we asked for some more rain. There a tornado outbreak in northern Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, up through Illinois, Indiana and other Mid-West states. West Tennessee only suffered minor damage this morning and stronger storms built up as they moved into Middle Tennessee this afternoon. I am not sure how the other states fared except Kentucky had some trees blown down and power outages.

I live in an area that has been commonly referred to as "Dixie Alley." While Tornado Alley run from roughly from Nebraska down through Texas, Dixie Alley runs from Kentucky to Louisiana and across Arkansas eastward through Georgia. Unlike the spring storms of Tornado Alley, Dixie Alley can have tornadoes forming at any time during the year. Some of our more dangerous occur between October through March. Then, we join with Tornado Alley to have more storms from April through June. Suffice to say, we can have a tornado at any time of the year.

The most recent tornado outbreak in West Tennessee that was really dangerous was in February 2008. Included is a video of the damage that occurred in Memphis, and Jackson Tennessee that centered on Union University. This tornado was estimated to be an F5. In May 2003, Jackson was hit with two tornadoes, an F4 and an F3. Damage was widespread.



When the sirens go off, Tennessee listens.

Rain at last

I was fussing in my last post about the different ways you could look at the percentage of rain chances as put out by the National Weather Service. Well, it turns out that our 30% chance of rain was really 100% chance. We got a good soaking last nigh in West Tennessee. I rained off and on during the night.

Don't get me wrong. We did need the rain. We are expected to get a few more showers over today and tomorrow. That is a good thing. All the crops are in and we need the rain for next year's plantings. It will take a lot of rain however to refill the ponds and lakes. We have all winter for that.

Chance of rain

West Tennessee has been way short of its rain quota for this year. It has been several years since we have done without so much rain. We have a 30% chance of rain today and 40% change tonight. What that really means is that today there is a 70% chance that we will not get any rain. I know, that might make me a pessimist. In actuality that makes me more of a realist.

Juan Williams

I think that Juan Williams is getting an unfair shake from NPR. There are a lot of Americans who feel the way he does about people who wear different cloths. It is something we are generally not used to, especially if you live in a more rural area that does not have a large diverse population. It is quite normal to stare and distrust someone who dresses or acts differently. That is human nature. NPR fired a man for having the same reactions as most, 'normal' people in America.

Our hard working water department

Our cities water department works hard to keep our water running and our commodes flushing. The amount they charge in both maintenance and taxes seems to be worth the cost, especially since they are reasonable. There is one caveat I would like to through in there however...they don't call the people in the neighborhood where they are working. It is possible to get caught in mid-shower with no water.

AT&T Fails at Customer Service

Let me describe what is in this photo. AT&T has a phone line that runs across my property and over my house. During the last wind storm, the line got blown under some of the shingles of my house. It should be a simple thing to call AT&T and tell them what the problem is and they come fix it. Well, it's ain't that easy!

I called AT&T about the phone line. Because of I do not have phone service with AT&T there was nothing they could do. WHAT! It's your property tearing up mine and you can't do anything? Their only help was for me to tell my neighbors and have them call it in. That would be nice if you could get a hold of your neighbors. I tried the Bat Tower in Nashville. I could not find one number for the HUGE AT&T building in Nashville. Now, I was getting mad.

My wife befriended AT&T on Facebook and posted about our problem. We got a message saying that if we sent our contact information they would contact us. Well, 24 hours later, we have not heard from AT&T. We ended up filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. We will have to wait and see what happens.

Nightwish - The Islander

Another Nightwish.

An Outageous VA visit

Saturday morning, October 16th, I had to make another visit to the VA hospital in Memphis. Much to my surprise, I guess it shouldn't have been, I discovered that you can find cleaner bathrooms along the interstate that the two I saw at the VA! It was clear that the bathrooms had not been cleaned for several hours.

The first bathroom was adjacent to the Emergency Department. There was urine on the seats and the floors were damp. When I reported it to someone, she started giving excuses about how Housekeeping doesn't get around as much as they should. This is a hospital!! The bathrooms are not supposed to be left unattended long enough for urine to dry on the seats! The second bathroom was in similar shape. The floor was wet with urine. Dried urine had yellowed the front of the commode. In addition, the sink had dark gray splotches of some kind of dirt.

This us utterly outrageous!! The first thing for me Monday morning is to call the VAs Inspector Generals office and complain. The VA system was supposed to get better! Is this how America treats it's veterans?

Nightwish - Bye Bye Beautiful

I've talked about Nightwish. Here's a video.

The War takes another life

I have found out that I may lose friend of mine. He was another casualty of the War in Iraq. He was in Iraq in 2004 when the war began. During his tour of duty, he lost his entire truck crew. Only he survived. On his return home, he fell into drugs and alcohol. Six years later, the death took another hero of the war. After an argument with his wife, he went into the yard and hanged himself. The last I heard he was on total life support.

My friend, the war hero, who took all of life that he could.

Deadly Cell Phones

Pay-As-You-Go and used cell phones are a small part of the terrorists kit. Pay-As-You-Go phones, you've seen them at Wal-mart, can be bought and do not require little if any information to activate. Once activated, they can be 'charged' with minutes. Both the phones and minutes can be purchased using cash making them virtually untraceable. The July 2005 terrorist attacks in London were planned using such phones.

Used phones are also a good item to have in a terrorist kit. They are cheap and easy to get. Many are bought on eBay, sent overseas and used in other countries to plot and execute terrorist attacks. GSM phones, like those on AT&T's network, are particularly of interest because the majority of the world cell phone companies use the GSM technology. Verizon phones with SIMM cards can be used worldwide as well.

Cellphones are a vital tool for terrorists. The are essential for communications and a must have for IED (Improvised Explosive Devices). To help stop this, the government should pass regulation requiring cell phone companies to collect used cell phones when a customer upgrades, with the customer's consent. This would reduce the number of cell phones around the world, especially in the US.

Not much today

I don't have much on my mind this morning. I finished my Facebook farming, watched a select few videos or YouTube and watched a little TV. It is a beautiful fall day in rural West Tennessee. I guess it's just up for the rest of the day to shape and see what happens.

VA still sucks

I recently returned from Iraq. I needed to file a claim for compensation. I got a letter in the mail a few weeks ago informing me of an appointment at the VA hospital in Memphis for a doctor to look me over. So, this morning I drove three hours to get there and was seen in about 30 minutes. Not too bad. You wait that long going to just about any doctor. I go in and sit down and this doctor asks me about a scar that I had on my head that I had gotten 20 years ago. I showed it to them, they noted it and even took pictures.

I had some more serious conditions I needed them to look at but the doctor said that i wasn't scheduled for anything except that scar. I would be getting different appointments to discuss those. Yes, but I drive 3 hours to get here and this is all you are going to do? I'm sorry that is all. She was polite, concerned and knew that it was not the best answer to give me, but that is all she could tell me. I went to the travel office and cashed in my travel voucher.

For my three hour drive, I got $97 and a few pictures. I have to go back in three days for some x-rays and an ortho appointment AFTER another 3 hour drive. It is a good thing that I am relatively healthy. I can't imagine how some veterans get to their appointments just to run into a similar problem. VA may be better, but it still has a long way to go.

America's Religious Hatred

There was quite a stir when the Delaware senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell admitted to dabbling into witchcraft. No one would have cared if she wasn't running for office, obviously. Christian American's have such a fear of any one running for political office that isn't a Christian. They, American Christians, say that people of other faiths have no moral values. They say this after they are getting dressed from sleeping with a woman who isn't their wife or talk to a lawyer because they got caught stealing. Christians demand their 1st Amendment Rights but work to take them from others. Hypocrisy is alive and well in American's Christian churches.

There is a fine line between being a Christian and being an American. It's hard for some to separate themselves from one the other. If you are a Christian, then you cannot be a good American because you are too busy trying to deny others from their religious rights. If you are an American, you have to settle with the chance that a non-Christian will trample your rights. I am an American first and a Christian always. I know the fine line. You can be a good American and a good Christian. Some need to just work at being better Americans and better Christians.

A Dark Passion Play

For most Americans, music is Europe is largely unknown. Often times we equate music in Europe as being decades behind. It is time that we looked again. I have discovered a band that has been touring Europe since 1997 and had produced some of the best rock music I have heard. I know that a most people who might run across this blog have never heard of the symphonic metal bang from Finland, Nightwish. If this is the first time you are seeing that name, then you need to get their definitive album "Dark Passion Play." Once you hear the combination of metal and orchestra, I think you will be hooked.

There is no band in America that comes close to the music produced by Nightwish. Metallica's "S&M" is the closest thing that the US has that could even come close to Nightwish's power.

Happy Columbus Day!

Yeah, a guy begged for some money and took a trip. He found a few islands then went home. End of story. Actually, it was much more than that for Columbus. We know that he discovered something that was discovered at least twice before, the Asians around 10,000 BC and the Vikings around 1000 AD. But, Columbus had something they didn't...a PR campaign. Good PR makes all the difference in the world.

Enjoy your day off, government employees.

Not Forgotten Families

I have been doing genealogy for 30 years. There have been ups and downs since I started. That is the way of things. It came to my attention yesterday, that I had not done any research on the step families. I was embarrassed. All of my step family have been truly wonderful and I cannot imagine life without them. Make sure you cherish ALL of your family, steps and in-laws included.

I never knew Hobart Melton. I only knew of Roy Green Ellis as my great-grandfather. I remember his patience and how he took care of my grandmother. Neither did I know, very well, Collis Scott, my grandfather. I only know of James Bouldin as my grandfather. He taught me all I needed to know about horses. Without these men, I would be a lesser person.

The Genealogist

No one gets up one morning and decides, "Today, I am going to research my family." It usually starts by someone asking a question about a grandfather or aunt. From there it explodes in to a lifelong passion. I mean 'explodes.' It has developed into something more a kin to looking for the Lost Dutchman's Mine than just collecting pictures and a few census records. While genealogy isn't wandering through a desert with only a mule for company, you need to spend a few hours looking through pages of a microfiche reader or driving down country roads looking for a lost cemetery. But, I love it! You should see the stuff I have collected.

I got started looking up my family's history in 1979 when I had to do a paper for high school and needed a project. It was easy. I asked around and got dates of birth and, at that time, seemed an endless list of names. I knew most of the people on my list and heard stories about those that had already passed on. Suddenly, I wanted to know who I was and where I came from. As I said, it 'exploded.' From then on it was no turning back and so far I haven't. There have been times when I would spend months or years without giving it a thought. It never takes long before I am back at it bothering people with questions.

There are fears and worries that go along with the research. My greatest fear is that in the future, all of my research will be tossed or allow to decay due to lack of interest. How does one get their kids involved enough with your life's work to carry it on? How does one show how important it is to keep the records? What does one do with the past in the future? Memories are precious. They are tangible and irreplaceable. I have found that the greatest loss is not being interested enough in our elders to sit down and talk to them about, well, themselves. I know from experience that I have let opportunities pass by that will truly never come again.

Truly, it isn't about me. This isn't my hobby. I do what I do for everyone that has come and gone. I do it for those who will come after me. I wanted to know where I came from. Tomorrow, someone will ask the same question.

Like all good topics, this one has an ending befitting an Oscar win. I want to thank everyone, living and dead, for all the effort given to helping me accomplish my life's work. It would be futile to try and list everyone. You know who you are. Oh, did I say 'accomplish'? I am in no way finished.



Sometimes, it is embarrassing to be a Christian.

I have been a Christian my entire adult life. I grew up in a conservative Baptist church in rural Tennessee. As I have gotten older, I have become slightly more moderate in my beliefs but still hold to my Baptist upbringing. The same basic Christian values are still firmly entrenched. However,...

As I have gotten older, I have noticed that some Christians tend to be backward, ignorant and hypocritical. A recent blog by Dr Albert Mohler of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has reminded me of this fact. He teaches at the largest Baptist seminary in the world, turning out Southern Baptist ministers. For a seemingly educated man, he is fairly ignorant.

I had never head of this man until today when I was directed to his blog about "The Subtle Body — Should Christians Practice Yoga?" In his article he says, generally, I'm not quoting, that Christians should not do yoga because it requires one to become part of a spiritual movement that is contradictory. He says in his blog,

"they must either deny the reality of what yoga represents or fail to see the contradictions between their Christian commitments and their embrace of yoga."

There is no direct connection between yoga that has the elements of Hinduism and what people do for exercise. I think he is afraid of the word 'meditate.'

"these positions are teaching postures with a spiritual purpose. Consider this — if you have to meditate intensely in order to achieve or to maintain a physical posture, it is no longer merely a physical posture."

Meditation is not an evil word. Meditation is the same thing when you pray and wait, sitting quietly waiting for God to reveal an answer. Medication is another way of listening to what your body is saying or concentrating on what you are doing. I meditate all the time when I am doing things like blogging or to remember the answer to a test question. Have you ever seen some one take a death breath before doing something critical? That's meditating.

There are yoga classes that teach the fundamentals of yoga using the teachings of the 'religious' form. The yoga classes I have attended are purely physical. Yes, you have to listen to your body. I wonder what Dr Mohler thinks about martial arts? They are full of motions and exercising that have their roots in religion.

It is disheartening that Mohler talks about such things. It's embarrassing. What he needs to be talking about is how Christians need to be less hypocritical. Teach what Christ taught. Don't be adding stuff to inflate your status. That is, all he is doing.

Why Klingons are always so angry.

It just occurred to me why Klingons are always so angry. The love to fight and drink to excess. They must be what we can expect from Windows in the future.

On the other hand, the Federation is peaceful. The Federation must run on Linux.

We love our monsters

I have noticed lately that Americans, possibly the entire world, are enthralled with monsters. Not the usual bevy of dragons, vampires, werewolves and elves. I have seen at least 6 shows dedicated to the search of monsters such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, giant squids and the chupachabra. The History Channel has MonsterQuest, the SyFy channel has Destination Truth and Beast Legends. The Animal Planet is getting into the act with Lost Tapes. Not to mention, ghosts, while not 'monsters' are quite the hit as well. Oh, don't forget the aliens and their flying saucers. I can't count the number of different series and specials on ghosts.

Why do we have such a fascination with such. You would think that in the 21st Century, Man would have out grown the need such creatures. It must go deeper, buried in our psyche, to need to believe in things that are not part of our 'normal' experience. Not all of this need are not just crazies who see large, hairy men walking in the woods, but very intellectual, college educated people. They see something that is completely contrary to their education.

I have no real opinion on this. Some stories are more compelling than others. So compelling in fact that they seem hard not to except. I firmly believe that anything is possible. I stay open minded and hope to see my little piece of these monsters.

Governments failure to it Vets and such...

Surprised?

The government told me that I would have everything I needed to help me be a successful in meeting my educational goals. This maybe true but it is very misleading. They provide the funding that is true. But, you have to jump through hoops to get the funding. They change programs in mid-stream and when you need the funding they don't tell you until after you start a program THEN you are told about the changes. You have to start over. While you miss deadlines and either have to postpone your plans or pay out of pocket.

Wait! I'm serving in the National Guard. You would think that the National Guard would take care of its service members too. They do not help that situation either. An example, I have been taking classes in college since 2006. Yesterday, I found out that they have to approve an degree plan before I can get any more money for college. Guess what, they have been required an approved degree plan for EIGHT years. I had never heard of it until I needed money for college. Give me a break!

The VA fails to meet, in a timely fashion, the needs of some of its beneficiaries. Not only has VA failed veterans in their health care, they are also failing to meet the educational requirements of it's veterans. All the while, the VA and the Senate, House and White House pay lip service to those, same veterans they promise to help. It is a never ending cycle of failure. When is it going to stop?