The Next Illogical Step

I was speaking with someone the other day (think it was Jamison) about how society seems to be going down the toilet faster and faster.

He asked if I thought pedophilia would ever be legalized. I laughed and said it was ridiculous. No way! That would never happen!

Check out this article about some crazy Dutch folks who want pedophilia and more!

Makes my stomach turn...

Gardening At Night

The city of Bloomington has a community garden project. They have two pieces of land that they have plotted out for local residence to garden in. One is a more elaborate plot in which communities can rent out each year, the other a little less glamorous, yet free chunk of earth located in the middle of a city park.

Having missed any opportunity to garden over the last year and a half, Amy and I signed up for a free plot. Unfortunately we have been too busy to get out there over the last several weeks and so the ground that was nicely plowed for us became overgrown with weeds.

We were a little embarrassed going out there last week seeing our weedy rectangular plot sitting next to all of these finely tuned vegetable gardens. A local not-for-profit business has taken over the majority of the plots so that they might bring home grown vegetables for the poor. They have a large number of volunteers all who can spare time to come out each day and make their gardens looks wonderful.

So there me and Amy were, next to these beautiful gardens, sitting in a plot of tall grass and well established weeds. The hippy girls with underarm hair were all very kind to us, and were very excited to see our plot being used.

Several hours and a lot of sweat later and we had hand pulled and raked nearly all of the major weeds. As the sun set, we packed it up and headed out for the day.

It was a few more days before we were able to make it back to the garden spot. What we thought was a lot of progress previously, now looked like a whole lot of work still until we could actually plant. We toiled until well past sunset, with large street lights guiding our way through the moonless night.

The plot looked about as good as we expected to get it and we planted some nice tomato and pepper plants.

This morning we headed out again, blocking off our plot with string, making nice squares in which to plan our garden. We planted squash, onions and carrots before we ran out of seeds. Amy bought some garlic, beans and herbs today and we hope to get back out tomorrow evening.

I anticipate many more hours of sweating, weeding, and toil before our hard work sees harvest. Yet it brings me a great deal of joy to look at a well sewn garden, knowing how good those vegetables will taste having come from my own hand.

Controlling my own destiny?

Well I did it. I completed my work for Brad (you know that stuff that will determine if I get his account or not). I decided to let you guys see part of it. There are another couple pages, but I figured two would be enough. It was a lot of fun.

I've sent them to Brad and he said he would be looking at them tomorrow. Please keep me in your prayers, I really want to work for both him and AP. If this does not come through I will be working freelance until I find something else.

Stop P-ing

No this isn't a blog about why we should stop being members of ACPO. This is merely a test.

I think I fixed the problem with our blog and using the return key. There was a setting that allowed you to turn on and off hard returns. I turned them on.

I believe now Mullins (and everyone else), you should now be able to stop "p"-ing.

Church

I am getting way too close to being one of "those" people...

Those people who come to church, talk to few if any people...

Those people who sometimes don’t want to be there...

Those people who pretty much want to avoid social events with church folks...

Those people who bring others down...

Tonight was the last straw. My wife and I were skipping Wed class (working on VBS stuff in the work room... we do this every wednesday night till VBS... why go to church at all then?) and my wife mentioned how she is starting to notice her attitude slipping. I am 100% certain it is because of me. I know it is. Guilt swept over me... how could one of the sweetest, kindest women on earth have a bad attitude towards doing work for the church? Why you ask? Because of ME!

That was all it took. I canceled Tuesday night VBS work sessions, canceled one of the Saturdays, and told my wife let's finish this crap with a bang and never do it again.

I desperately sought out an elder with which to speak (We have 4... one I care not to speak to as much as I can, one seems to care little for anything, much less church related issues, and the other two who seem to know what's going on were not there...) I mentioned to the non-caring elder that I am not doing VBS next year. I had to stop it at that because I started to tear up and was about to cry.

Anger? Frustration? Saddness? Guilt? Joy? I don't know, I cannot pin-point the emotion.

I refuse to sacrifice my joy, my salvation, my eternity so some kids can make macaroni necklaces for mommy and get a sugar rush on cookies and kool-aid each night for a week. If VBS saves a few souls, awesome, but if it would be at the expense of my own soul, forget it. Call me selfish.

I get so ANGRY when people use the "over worked" excuse as a reason why they don’t work for the church very much, but here I am using it (though I am not using little-league as an excuse and I dont just come to fun events and avoid the work events...). I need to back off. I really think I do. I am a negative influence on my wife, my friends, my brothers and sisters.

I don't socialize like I used to. I shun being around alot of the people I used to long to be around. I am starting to associate this church building with work that I hate doing. Hense, I dread walking into the building at all.

Dare I say I am starting to hate going to church?

But it makes me sad. VBS is kewl. We are good at it. But frankly, I am sick of it and if I never do another one, it will be too soon, which again makes me sad because this is not the Jamison I have always been. Why the change? What does God want me to do? I feel like I am seeing my church, my brothers and sisters and everything in a different light. And I don’t like it.

Pray for me to find the zeal and passion I used to have. Pray for me to improve my attitude. I know God will answer that one. In high school my mom always said I had a bad attitude. I finally just prayed that God would improve my attitude and He did...

Love you.

did or didn't the dino..?

This is going to be easy, maybe... ~~~~~~~~


In no overly complex terms to you guys really believe in a literal six day creation? ~~~~~~~~


If this is the case do you believe that the world is roughly six thousand years old? ~~~~~~~~


If yes or no, do you believe that dinosaurs co-existed with humans? ~~~~~~~~


I’ll go into my theories once I get some communal kindling smoking. ~~~~~~~~

Name that Company (The Home Version)

This might be a really fun BLOG.

I'm letting you all in on the ground floor. I'm trying to come up with the name of a business that can also be a dot com (Emphasis on dot COM. It can't be .net or .biz). If you come up with something better than what I have below, I'll buy you a $10 meal.

Here's the RULZ of the game. (If you don't follow them, you are not eligible for the prize.)

First, it must have one of the following words (or variation of the words)

• graphic (but don't be crude)


• typeset (typesetting is also a possibility)


• layout


• design

Second, it can be no longer than 18 characters without dashes or other symbols. Letters and numbers only.

Third, you must check to see if it is available first. Go here: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp. Type in your ideas for a domain name like "super.com", if it does not have an "X" in the .com column then post it to this blog. If I like it I add it to my list. Should I choose your idea as my business name you will get credit on my Website and a $10 meal on me. The meal will be in the form of a gift card of your choice (if I can buy it online) or PayPal deposit.

Fourth, when you post your ideas, send me a separate e-mail with your entries to charlesmccown(at)charter.net. Replace "(at)" with @ symbol. This is my only way to get back in touch with you to send you your prize.

Fifth, if I come up with a variation of something someone else posts. Partial credit will be given on my site, but no gift card or PayPal credit will be givien.

Sixth, contest ends May 31st at 5:00 pm Central time. Check back on June 1st to see the winner.

Here's what I've come up with...

These three play on the idea of typesetting paragraphs and graphical layout:

    ParGraphics

    ParGraphic

    ParGraphical

I just like the sound of these:

    BarNoneGraphics

    GraphicsBarNone

    SoulOfGraphics

    TheSoulOfGraphics

These are other possibilities:

    MustBeGraphics

    GraphicsOfCourse

ENJOY THE GAME!

I'm Board so You Benefit

Well this is one way to get me to blog. I'm board at work. I haven't doe much of anything all day except some clerical work for the wife.

Here's your benefit...We are moving to Florida June 15th. It's official. No Job yet, but I'm still working on the Brad Harrub thing.

1. We officially have a spot at daycare. We had to pay for an extra month just to hold it open.


2. Once we get settled, please come visit our new place. We will be renting a house for about 7 months. Visit during the week even. Treat it like a beach bungalo (even though the beach is about 5-10 minutes away)


3. I have two friends with boats, if I don't have a job or I can swing a day off we can go fishing.


4. I already have a phone number...I'll give that later through a more secure channel.


5. Even this blog is boring. I feel like I'm just writing to write.

Hey, I probably forgot something, so if you have a question post it.

...don't have no mercy.

I did my second gig at the Comedy Zone. It was a bit@h!
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I doubled my emailing of the poster, as you guys might have noticed, and the CZ hit the street a bit harder, though I’m not convinced they couldn’t have done more.
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Anyway several folks from church showed and the little girl that attempted to sing has some folks show up and that was about it. It was like prying teeth to get a good laugh. I pulled a guy on stage that happened to be the signer’s dad and he was an ass. He does a stupid prat fall walking on stage and I knew we was going to be a jerk the whole time. I was right and let my vengeance be the fact that his daughter is a terrible singer.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The rest of the show was decent but the audience was still dead for the whole thing. Josh and I had a good bit at the end with the dueling banjo’s and a few improved things but it was tough.
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Work update…
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I decided that it is again time to actively pursue what Scripps calls a “conflict of interest.” In placing my job on the line I recently met with another production house in town that’s doing some really good work and showed them some “writing samples.” I also took them a “sample” of a project for someone like NBC. Everything over two meetings has been received pretty well.
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As I was walking into work this morning gazing into a brilliant blue sky framed with trees I was praying for guidance and inspiration with my work and as I reached my desk a phone call was waiting on me
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As I reached my desk today I had a message from the VP of Development of the same production house. They were curious about how far I’d taken the samples because he wanted to take my ideas into a development meeting and see what they could do with them.
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If something works and a show goes into development I’ll get a handsome check based on a percentage of the licensing fee and I’ll have created myself a job at a new production house. At that moment the doors will swing wide.
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Moment of Irony: Say a pray for something to work!

Fishing

Me and Sip went fishing together in Luverene. It was a grand day of fishing. Granny gave us a guilt trip for not cleaning them so we cleaned and fileted them. Day was good, very good, see pics....

Oh, the gas station sign is a sign I pass almost everyday a few miles from my house... I think it sums up American capitalism, and is funny...

Two Down ? To Go

I finished the second draft for my second novel last Friday. I've actually been finished with the first draft for a while, but I hand write all my first drafts, so I had to type it up/edit simultaneously.

The Tower Quail is about a young girl who unwittingly goes through something I call a "time bounce". The time bounce allows her to look into the past and future and subsequently leaves her with haunting visions of events she largely has no control over. It's something of a departure form my last book, but I'm really excited about it!

Once Rachel looks it over, I'm going to send it through my editing mill and then I'll send it to all you guys. By then, it'll be ready for submission, but I'll continue to refine it even then.

I plan to keep writing books. I have started about 3 others and have at least 10 other ideas, but I might slough off some along the way as some are better than others. It's fun and rewarding. Maybe it'l go somewhere. Who knows?

In any case, I just wanted to pass on the good news.

A Dream

I was in my high school during some sort of break period. I was with two young men, who I actually did go to school with, Billy Medford and Brett. We decided to ditch the place and began walking the hallways. For some reason I was sitting in a big office chair, which I did not leave and in fact rolled through the halls in.

In reality my high school set in a building that was very close to my junior high building. The junior high building was in fact connected to the middle school and elementary school building. In the dream even the high school building was connected to the others via hallways.

We began slowly walking down the halls to the elementary school. We looked at the young kids walking by, studied our old lockers and generally reminisced. Eventually we came to the end of the building and walked outside, me finally leaving the chair.

It was recess, and there were all kinds of kids running and playing. Over there was the BigToy, and just in front was a lively game of softball.

I watched the boys play softball as the batter lobbed a ball directly to the third baseman. A pudgy kid, the third baseman was, and he promptly dropped the lob, the proceeded to fumble with it off the ground, allowing a man to score. When he finally got the ball under control the play was over and he tossed it to the pitcher amongst some good ribbings from his teammates.

At this time an elementary school teacher, Mrs. Buchfink, noticed us and asked what we were doing. Billy immediately walked over making up a story about it being break time at the high school and we got bored playing a game.

I, too, walked over and began discussing how long it had been since I was on this side of the school. I waxed nostalgic with Mrs. Buchfink on how things had changed and how old it all made me feel.

A current coworker, Monique, appeared and I asked her how long she had been at this school, to which she replied she came last year.

I began talking about the parking situation with the teacher and then I awoke.

While this may seem a very bland and boring dream to most, and in fact it is rather dull, there is something I find quite interesting about it. You see Billy Medford was a real student at this school and one I had an odd relationship with, and have dreamed about before.

I was very shy in school, and quite unpopular. Like a lot of kids not on the popular roster, I wanted very much to be there. I was simply too shy to get anywhere near it. In order to not be a complete loser and absolutely alone I often hung together with other unpopular kids, even if I didn’t particularly like them. As if being seen with some jerk was better than being seen alone.

Billy Medford was one such kid. I never particularly liked him, but for different classes and projects we grouped together. Mostly we tolerated each other, though sometimes we fought both verbally and even once physically (though the pacifist in those days I deflected most of the punches without throwing my own).

Since leaving high school for good, I have often dreamed of Billy Medford. In those dreams he is always the annoyance and tormentor. In my dream life he is that much more of a jerk and spends his time doing everything to irritate me to my last nerve. The dreams are never exactly the same, but his role in them is identical.

It is in this most recent dream, which he has taken on a new role. For the first dream ever, Billy is not tormenting me but rather being nice to me, if not exactly a talkative friend.

Sacrifice

Last night (Monday) our Ladies' class watched The Passion of the Christ. I had seen it once and honestly did not plan to watch again as it was so graphic and heart-wrenching. Now I'm not promoting the movie or even trying to critique it. But it really got to me and has occupied my mind a lot.



What kept going through my head was "Why?" It's a question that bothered me a lot years ago while I was going through a questioning/testing period in my faith. How could this physical pain and suffering atone for the spiritual evil in man? Why did it have to be this way?



The answer to the question "why" is simple: love. And two other things put me on a path to understanding the sacrifice of Jesus. One is that he had to suffer any and everything his followers would suffer, and we know about the great persecution that many endured in the early days of Christianity. The other thing that convinces me is this. God is good. There cannot be anything evil about Him or He ceases to be God. But for us to be with Him sin must be eradicated- killed. And this is what Christ took with Him to the cross. I still find it hard to comprehend how sin was transferred to Jesus on the cross, but I do understand why.

The same yesterday, today & tomorrow

Romans 1: 18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

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I believe that the Bible is timeless, what you read is obviously historical and directly relating to being in the moment when it was written. I also believe that it connects with its readers today. So, as I was reading the above passage last night all I could think about was today’s modern scientific world.

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Humans have been living in a world where the design and designer are really beyond all comprehension yet, through his grace we are allowed to get glimpses “behind the curtain” to see how things work and why. Still, and understandably I guess, many people refuse to acknowledge their place in the nebulas soup and have: V23”exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”

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It’s a bit encouraging to see that perhaps Paul was dealing with these yahoos just as Christians are dealing with them today. V22 seems to be a direct call to those who seeking to explain away the designer in favor of our little species taking center stage.

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This of course is easy for me to say because I do have faith to fall back on. Still as I’m trying to move my faith forward it seems more and more difficult for me to figure out how people can consider the Bible to be a fake. Even the Gospel of Judas, no matter what you might think of it, screams that this person called Jesus walked the earth and was a real man.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In this book the followers of JC are telling their brethren to straighten up and fly right and look at the obviousness of Gods creation over their own fabrications of what they think is right.

prayer paths

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I touched on this a while back and I’m not sure if it went as far as I had hoped.

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I know that we are told to pray (Biblically and socially) for various reasons and I know that we offer prayers for those folks who are sick and what not, as recent posts have shown, but what are we really doing?

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Do we really have the power to alter the course of Gods plan? In the OT there are several instances of people getting God to sway on various subjects namely revolving around the smoting of a person or persons. The NT seems to revolve around guidance, bolstering faith and enlightenment of sorts. I know JC in the garden prays to “let this cup pass” but I’m not guessing he thought he might actually get out of what was going to happen to him in the next several hours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have tried to adjust my prayers to the understanding, guidance and acceptance of what happens in life over attempting to change things to our likings?

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This might sound really hard but someone passing away might serve a greater good for another. I don’t want anyone who is a father, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter of anyone to die under a difficult situation but people do and the best we can hope for is that the person was ready and that they were received by Christ. Maybe we should pray to relieve our and potential the passing persons suffering. Having been in this situation more than once, that is the only prayer I can offer.

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Perhaps the instances of answered and unanswered prayers (relative to one situation of course) are less of a miraculous event and more of Gods plan simply moving from A to Z.

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I guess part of this relates to various scriptures referencing the need to put God before our family and everything else in the world in every situation.

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I think if we should take anyone’s advice it would be that Jesus guys when he said in Matthew 6 “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” I know that’s nit-picking scripture but how broad of a stroke on telling someone “how to pray” should you draw, especially when that message comes from JC himself.

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If God knows what we’re going to be doing at every moment then wouldn’t praying for intercession and it working be altering Gods ultimate plan for our lives? Do the paths of coincidence/fate/destiny and prayer cross more than we want to think it might?

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Please don’t get me wrong I believe in prayer whole heartedly, I just think the prayer has to be moving in the right direction. All too often I think we’re trying to dictate the direction of the pray adjusting Gods position rather than our own.

Outside the Box

Well I may finally do it. I might be my own boss pretty soon. I'll be keeping you guys posted.

I've been talking with an old co-worker , Brad Harrub, and he now has a journal that he's paying $5,000 a month (yes, a 5 with 3 zeros) to have typeset. That includes the company finding the pictures to illustrate the journal. It's 32 pages long and would take about 2 straight weeks per month to complete. I told him I could do it for a flat $3,000 per month. He said, "Hello!" Which is Bradeeze for "keep talking, I'm listening." I could do that and Discovery for $500 per month (2 to 4 days work) and make $42,000 per year before taxes. I would still have over 15 business days per month to do other things, work part time elsewhere, find filler work or other accounts, etc.

It sounds awesome on the surface. I would have to invest about $6,000 to start-up. That includes:

1) A better computer and second monitor

2) Software

3) A used laptop (Jamison you got a price for me yet?)

4) A Tabloid color laser printer

5) A monitor and printer color optimization tool.

In reality investing $6,000 into a start-up business is nothing. I'm really giving this a lot of thought. Your prayers would be appreciated. I'll be calling Brad sometime today to see if we can work out some details.

(And on a side note...Where's the Mullinz video, Jamison?)

Graduation

Rachel, Luke, and I took my in-laws up to Nashville last weekend to see my brother-in-law, Paul, graduate from David Lipscomb University.

Y'all know I'm weird anyway, but I'm probably one of the few people in the world who really enjoys going to graduations. There's something very dignified and important about the passing of the intellectual baton from one generation of academia to the next.

The weekend was filled with lots of events from picnics to the ceremony itself, so we didn't get out to see the city much. Alhough, it didn't matter to me since I've seen Nashville plenty of times. But, it was heartening to see all these students walk proudly across the stage and grab their diplomas, not having much of an idea of what was happening to them.

I was the same way, as the rest of you probably were. I graduated, got the diploma, etc. but didn't and couldn't grasp the significance of the day until much later. What helped was something my brother told me later. He and his wife and my Mom decided to walk to the exit while we marched out, but Dad told Sam (my brother) that he wanted to wait till the graduates were gone before he left. At the bottom of the steps, Sam looked back up and saw my Dad crying. When he told me that, I realized what it meant. I saw that in the eyes of my in-laws and wife this past weekend.

We all reach those mile-markers in life when we know something big just happened, but can't understand exactly what it is. When we were baptized, graduated, had children, and other things, we knew our lives would never be the same, but not until much later did we realize how changed we were. I am honored to have seen a "new birth" after a kind and hope to know my own rebirths and their significance well.

Leanne Durden (Edmonson)

I wouldn't generally blog something like this, but it's urgent.

Y'all might remember Trey Durden and Leanne Edmonson. Well, they're married and have one girl and just had another baby. There were major complications and she's in rough shape. PLEASE pray for her and her family. Here's an update:

The following is an update on Leann Durden (Faulkner alumnus) sent in by hersister-in-law, Misti Edmondson (Faulkner alumnus):

Hey guys!! I know by now you all have heard and been praying for Leann. We still need those prayers. The doctor just came in a little while ago and saidshe looks good but what we are concerned about now is when she bled out and shedid bleed completely out.

She lost everything so they are trying to put it backin her and her body has been through so much trauma. She is on a respirator forher breathing, she is on medicine to make her kidney's function and she is onelectrolytes for her liver. She is not really doing anything on her own andright now and that is what the doctors want because they say it is helping herheal but at the same time that means we don't know what she can do on her own.They are worried about complications and the possibility of infections.

She is not out of the woods and we are not sure when she will be. The doctors said thisis one of the hardest things to go through because they can't give us a timelineon when she will be better it's just a waiting game. So please continue to prayfor her because we need it so bad! Thank you for all being so GREAT!! The prays have gotten her this far!!

One more thing we ask if you want to do this. Leann was given 44 units ofblood and so many people have wanted to know what they could do to help. If youwill give blood at a Life South they are going to track it and tell Leann howmany people gave in her honor over the next 10 days or so. You just tell themthis is in Leann Durden's honor. The web address below is for Life South and youcan go on and check for a local one in your area. I know we have one in H-villeand they are doing blood drives all over the place usually.

Again thank yall so much for your prayers and keep sending them!!!

Love, Misti Edmondson (in case you don't know Leann's sis-in-law)

Blog is Back In Town

I've temporarily uploaded my blog here.

It is through wordpress which seems ok. I really like that you can assign each post a category. This way if someone wants to read all articles about my adventures in France they can click the France category and immediately see all of those postings.

It doesn't allow you to change the template at all, so all of my little sidebar pictures and what not are done. Kind of annoying, but acceptable at this point.

In my searching I found out that yahoo allows you to register a domain name for like 5 bucks a year! So, I'm thinking about getting one and just putting the name on top of the clunky wordpress one. The question is, what should I name my domain?

I'm thinking about:

www.midnightcafe.org

which seems kind of cool, and makes it old school. However, I've had the "Brewster's Millions" name rolling around for so long that it has developed a little title recognition. Meaning there are a few folks out there who now know me and my blog soley by the "Brewster's Millions" name. So, I might lose them if I change names.

Anyways, what do you fellas think I should nam it?

You Sneaky People!

A gentleman from Apologetics Press name Kyle B. called yesterday. Rachel was in the bathroom (again[pregnant, you know]) so I took the call. The conversation went something like this:

Kyle: Hi, is this Josh S?

Me: Yes...

Kyle: This is Kyle B. does your wife want a freelance, part-time, from home, graphics design job?

Me: $#%@%!? I mean, she'd love it! Let me have her call you back!

Kyle: Good cuz Chuck's leaving :(

Anyway, I'm guessing Chuck gave Kyle the low-down on Rachel's skillz. If so, thanks Chuck! If not, who did?

Rachel called him back and they'll be trying her out on a trial basis. This is a dream job for her. Please keep her and our family in your prayers. She'd love to do it and she'd be great at it! This is an answer to prayers and an amazing opportunity.

You say box with strings, I say Dulcimer...

Went to Chattanooga this weekend. Mom shows me this ancient looking piece of work you see above and asks me if I want it. For some reason, I am entralled by handmade musical instruments so of course I say yes.

I can only assume it to be a dulcimer. It has four strings and is a lap instrument. Mullins, what do you think? Sip?

Mulls, when I started to play the mando, you gave me some very nice (though elementary) books on playing the mando (Of which I still have if you want them back). Any chance you have dulcimer books as well?

Will a music store sell "dulcimer strings"? Is it a slide or pick instrument?

Anyway, thought it was kewl. Was made and/or played by my dads great aunt Mary Katherine. About 90 to 100 years old.