As we left church Wednesday, a rainbow appeared :)

Post #252...

It was great having my parents in town on Monday afternoon. They brought the top section of the wedding cake, and Michelle and I plan to eat it Sunday night. Whilst mis padres estaban aqui, we went to eat at Whole Hog Cafe. It was much fun until Michelle made the point of letting my mom know I did not eat the meatloaf Michelle had prepared the night before. I had forgotten how much I despise meatloaf, and just could not force it down. Oh well. I just asked Michelle what kind of flowers she would like, and made some chicken wings after she fell asleep.

Tomorrow, I have a test in Spanish. Joy. Then, in ethics, we are watching "Hotel Rwanda". After class, there will only be two more weeks in the summer session. YAY!!

Saturday we are meeting Mike and Dana Clark in Jackson to watch a game at Pringles Park, which is supposed to be one of the best minor league parks in the country. It will be great to see Mike and Dana.

Monday afternoon, we have a meeting with our social worker. We will be talking about our home study requirements and the upcoming paperwork. Later that night, I have my first football meeting of the year. For a guy who cannot stand meetings, I sure have a lot of them coming up. Oh well.

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...

I watched every shot of the final round of the Open Championship this morning, and it was great to see my man Tiger Woods win his 11th professional major, 14th overall. The thing that struck me the most is that after he putted out and sealed the win, he collapsed into the arms of his caddy, and cried on his shoulder for several minutes. Normally, his dad is always there to give him a big bear hug. But, as you may know, his father passed away earlier this year. Tiger got big bear hugs from his caddy, his coach, and his wife, but he said later that it was at this point that he realized his dad would never be there to see him win again, to give him that bear hug. I made a note to give my own father a big bear hug the next time I see him. Which, conveniently enough, will be tomorrow...LOL.

My parents are coming into town for the afternoon tomorrow, and it will be wonderful to see them. I remember in the days leading up to the wedding that mother was concerned about who would keep the top of the cake. Apparently, there is a custom that it be saved, for the couple to share on their first anniversary. So, my mom kept it and is going to bring it when they come. Eating year-old cake is not something Michelle and I are overly excited about, but it should be fun.

I have a short essay due tomorrow that I am going to write tonight, and a 5 page essay due Tuesday that I am going to do tomorrow night after my parents leave. Nothing like waiting to the last minute. Rusty influenced me in so many ways...LOL.

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...

Michelle got a phone call today from a High School principal, and it seems she was offered a job. I think his exact words were, "Do you want the job?". Usually, that bodes well...LOL. She has a meeting scheduled next week to meet him and tour the school. We are extremely excited!! As a bonus, the school is just a mile or so away from where we live. Cool!!

Michelle and I have been discussing selling my truck, in order to buy something with air conditioning. We do not think the baby will be able to ride in a vehicle with no A/C. Still, it is quite an emotional thing for me to even think about selling my truck. I think the plan is for Michelle to get the new (gonna be used) vehicle, and I will inherit her Explorer.

My team won our debate in ethics class today, so that was cool. I have no idea how, since if I had been a judge, I would have scored the other team much higher. I think the judges took pity on us since two of our members (one of whom was supposed to give an important argument) failed to show up. I ended up giving an argument in her place, in addition to my rebuttal duties. I also gave the closing remarks. Everyone who showed up stepped up and did as well as they could.

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...

Today has not been a productive day. Somehow, I made it both of my classes, but beyond that, I have not gotten much done. Tomorrow will certainly be better.

In fact, I have a debate in my ethics class tomorrow. My team will be arguing in favor of embryonic stem cell research. I will be helping with my team's defense (providing counter-arguments), and giving the closing remarks. It should be a lot of fun.

I also have a paper due in ethics class next Tuesday. Need to get started on that. Not to mention the exam this Friday in Spanish. Joy.


I have also been working on my seminary application. Still.

My sister has successfully moved to Nashville (click on the link to her blog for her account of that). I am excited that she is beginning her career. I am sure that she will do great!

I find myself thinking every day about how our son has yet to be born. Somewhere in Vietnam, there is a young woman, with no support system, who is pregnant and scared. She likely is poor and alone, wondering what to do. It blows me away that God will place the child she bears into our care. Only with our prayers and His guidance will Michael grow up to be the best he can be. This just blows my mind.

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...

Michelle and I continue to toss around ideas on names for the baby. Last night, out of nowhere, she asked me, "What do you think of the name 'Emerson'"? Without hesitation, I said, "Well, along with Lake and Palmer, it makes a pretty good band."...LOL. Michelle seems to like Emerson, Noah, Elijah, and Ethan, Michael and Cage. I know this because she "accidentally" left a last where I would see it...LOL.

I may have invented a new category of moral theory. My ethics professor likes to assign us what she calls "blitz" writings, where we are given a topic and we have 5 minutes to write a paragraph or two about the subject. Earlier this week, we were talking about euthanasia (assisted suicide), and we were assigned one such writing. In ethics, we use terms such as "obligatory", "permissible", "forbidden", and "morally worse" to describe moral acts. In my blitz writing, I got myself in a vocabulary bind, and could not find the right word. And since I only had a few minutes, I could not start over. So, I said that passive euthanasia may be morally "not as bad" as active euthanasia. Passive euthanasia can be thought of as letting someone expire without taking extreme measures to save the person's life (an example would be a "do not resuscitate" order), while active euthanasia is the act of causing someone to expire sooner than he/she would otherwise. Had I started from the other direction, I could have said that active euthanasia may be "morally worse" than the passive kind. Anyway, my professor got a big kick out of it, making a big note of it on my paper, and kidding my in front of the class. It was all quite funny.

Yesterday, I bought tickets to see Eric Clapton October 18 in Birmingham. My brother Tim and I are super-excited about the show. Michelle and I are planning on seeing Bruce Hornsby here in Memphis August 16. We are really excited to see Bruce as well.

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...

I am sad to have learned that Syd Barrett--founding member, lead guitarist, lead singer, and chief songwriter my favorite band Pink Floyd--recently died from complications of diabetes. Truly one of the great "could-have-beens" his talent was never fully realized after his mental breakdown in 1967. So sad. I have been listening to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Wish You Were Here", two songs the band wrote in direct tribute to him.

Earlier today, I was asked to speak at the Clarksville church on September 3. It's really spooky how last week I felt led to write a sermon about 9-11, and then I get asked to speak the week before the anniversary. I am going to use that sermon, and a special version of The Eagles' "New York Minute". It is a 9-11 edit, which my friends and I in Houston created in the days after the terrorist attacks. It features the Eagles song, interspersed with various audio clips from media broadcasts about the events of 9-11.

Classes started today fro Summer Session II. I have Spanish at 7 AM every morning, then and ethics class immediately following. I have the same professor in ethics as I had in my other ethics class back in the spring. The difference between the two classes is that in the class last spring, we studied several (about 9, I think) different ethical systems, and did not get into too much depth about specific situations. In the current class (which is called Contemporary Moral Problems), we will deal with several very specific moral problems, such as genetic and reproductive biothechnologies, world hunger/poverty (and the ethics of human intervention), the death penalty and treatment of animals and the environment. These are exactly the kinds of things that interest me the most. This kind of ethics (dealing with very specific issues) is called Applied Normative Ethics, and is what I specialize in. I am so excited!!

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...

My brother Tim called me today to tell me that Pam Walker, a woman we had gone to high school with, committed suicide last week. This was quite shocking and disturbing to me. In fact, I spent the rest of the afternoon in a bit of a funk. I was supposed to make some progress in my seminary application progress, and I did make a little headway, but not nearly as much as I had wanted to.

I remember having a class with Pam. She was a year ahead of me (she graduated with Tim). In our class together (physical science), she sat next to me on the right. She was always a lot of fun to talk with. I understand that she had a child, about 9 years of age. So sad.

One of the problems we have with this type of tragedy is we are unsure what the bible teaches about suicide. Some believe that if someone takes his/her own life they will not go to heaven. This leaves friends and family in serious doubt and pain. I had a World Religion class at Austin Peay, and one of the assignments was to write a short essay on whether or not I believe that suicide is a mortal (unforgivable). I came to the conclusion that it can be, under certain circumstances.

I use the scripture John 3:16 and Romans 3:28 as the basis of my argument. It seems that across the vast majority of Christianity, most would agree that these verses are a large part of the core of our beliefs. These two verses, where John proclaims that Jesus' crucifixion gives everlasting life to ALL believers, and where Paul asserts that we are saved by our faith alone, and not our actions, seem to absolve a suicidist from persecution. If we are to say that Jesus died in order to pardon all believers for their sins, and if we are to argue that it is our faith in Christ, and not our actions, that enable us to receive mercy, it would seem illogical to me to say that God would condemn a believer. So, I would argue that a person who has accepted Christ as his/her savior would still receive mercy upon the act of suicide.

One counter-argument to my argument might be that in order for a person to be forgiven for his/her sins, that person must repent and ask for forgiveness. Obviously, a dead person would not be able to do this. I would argue, however, that one who has professed a belief in Christ as the savior is forgiven at the moment of the sin. Accepting Christ as the redeemer of one's sins (all sins) seems to preclude the need for redemption of any one sin. I may be wrong here (and I am sure many people would say that I am), but this is what I believe at this time. Just my opinion.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...

I enjoyed watching the World Cup Final between France and Italy this afternoon. In fact, I watched more of this World Cup than any previous World Cup, by a large margin. It was weird, though, that until today, whatever team I rooted for had always lost, with the one exception being Trinidad and Tobago winning their first match in group play (was that a run-on sentence?). For no reason in particular, I rooted for Italy today, so it was nice to see them win. Michelle and I have talked a little about maybe retiring to Italy, so maybe that was why I was cheering for them. I dunno.

We ate dinner at a local Pizza Hut tonight, and it was really good. Funny thing was, the young son of one of the employees was hanging out inside, with his skateboard. I could not resist the temptation to jump aboard, although I did not do any tricks. Robert Frost tells us that one could be worse than a swinger of birches. True indeed.

I bought a couple of new albums from iTunes yesterday. First, I bought the Goo Goo Dolls (relatively) new album, "Let Love In", which came out last year. Then, I bought K.T. Tunstall's current CD, "Eye to the Telescope". There are still about 10 CD's and/or DVD's out that I would like to have, but I will hold off for now. Michelle and I joke about the days of yore when, if I saw a book/CD/DVD that I liked, I bought it and no one gave any flack. Now, I have to consider that their will soon be three mouths in this house, so my purchasing decisions take much longer. LOL.

Unfortunately, Michelle cannot stand K.T. Tunstall's big hit, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree", so I am limited to one listen per day. Darn. Memo to self: Gotta find my headphones.

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...

This morning, we went to a seminar at Babies R US, where we first learned about how to spend several thousand dollars decorating the baby's room. In the second session, we learned how to baby-proof the house, which was much more helpful to us.

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...

You may have noticed that I changed the look of the blog. I chose this template because 1) It is considerably brighter than the previous one, thereby reflecting my general disposition these days, and 2) It seemed like a nice way to come back to the world of blogging.

The other day, I started thinking about the movie "Almost Famous", in particular the bus scene that features Elton John's "Tiny Dancer". I remembered that the Patrick Fugit character said the Kate Hudson character "I have to go home". She, in turn, said, "You ARE home". And he got this quizzical look on his face as if just realized that amidst all of the chaos that is a rock-and roll tour, indeed that was now his true home.

So, I got inspired to write a sermon. It is basically about how amidst the chaos of our lives, we can always find refuge in God...that if we allow Him to be our true home, we can always find comfort. My original Scriptural basis was the prodigal son story, but I have decided to use something else--although I haven't decided exactly what.

I found the movie scene on Youtube.com, and embedded a player below.

I have been reading and doing research all morning. It feels good to get some stuff done. One day last week, I was inspired to write a sermon. I have no speaking engagement scheduled, so it was kind of weird. Nonetheless, I ran with it, and wrote what I think is a pretty good sermon.

After lunch, I am going to read some more. I have bought several textbooks online in recent days, and I am still waiting for them to arrive, but I have plenty on hand to keep me busy.

Last night, we went to the Redbirds game to see them play the Nashville Sounds. What we did not know, however, was that there would be 100 people from 42 countries who were receiving their U.S. citizenship. They had completed all the necessary steps, and the ceremony was held after the game, on the field behind home plate. The crowd was enthusiastic, and gave several standing ovations. It was incredible to see these folks become Americans. When we adopt our son next year, we will have already completed to requisite paperwork, and when we bring him back, the moment the plane lands he will become an American citizen. That will be awesome.

It feels good to be blogging again, if not for the act itself at least for the fact that I have time to sit down occasionally and collect my thoughts. During my hiatus, I was not able to read the blogs that I normally do, so it has been nice to "catch up" with them. I also found out that Mike and Dana Clark have a blog, and I posted a link to it in the left column.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Peace...

I have been watching the Women's US Open 18-hole playoff this morning, which has kind of been a blowout. Annika Sorenstam has been in complete control.

Later today, I am umpiring a double-header at a park that is close to home. One of the major differences between my umpiring here, and when I was in Clarksville, is that now I rarely have to travel more than 15-20 minutes away from home. I remember driving over an hour to Hendersonville, Gallatin, Murfreesboro, et. al., for games. It's nice to go just a few miles down the road.

Tonight, we are going downtown to see the city's fireworks show on the river. It should be nice. Last night, we went to a huge Baptist churches for their picnic/concert/fireworks show. It was really great. We had some Corky's BBQ and watermelon for supper. We enjoyed the concert, and the fireworks were awesome. It was much fun.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday. Peace...

Michelle and I have spent the better part of the day relaxing, lounging and reading the newspaper. Later, we are going to a picnic/concert/fireworks show. That should be fun.

Speaking of concerts, we have been trying to decide whether we want to see Journey/Def Leppard in Nashville, or Bruce Hornsby here in Memphis. Tough decision...lol.

I am umpiring a couple of games tomorrow afternoon, then at night we are going downtown to see the fireworks. Tuesday, we are going to the Redbirds game (AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals). Funny thing is, they are playing Nashville, who we used to go see regularly when we were in Middle Tennessee. After the game, there will be a fireworks show. So, we should have our fill of fireworks for this year.

I am getting ready for classes to start a week from tomorrow. I am planning on working a little less in order to be able to do well in my classes. The Summer II term will be 5 weeks, then I have a one week break before the fall semester starts. It blows me away when I think about how this will be my last semester as an undergrad.

I hope everyone in doing well. Peace...

Hello, world...I am back. Back in the world of blogging. It was a great vacation.

Obviously, I took quite a lengthy break from blogging, and for no particular reason. It started out as a by-product of being crazy-busy after I got back from Israel. I had papers due in two different classes almost immediately after I got back. For some reason, those professors expected everyone to work during spring break...lol. One of them went so far as to say to the class, "I will be in my office during the break, so there is no reason you cannot work, too." Then, we lost access to the free wireless network at our old apartment. Our neighbors, who had let us use their network, moved out of range. So, my internet access was restricted to the time I spent on-campus, which was not much last semester. Once we moved into our new apartment, and got our own network set up, I started thinking about blogging again, but just did not feel motivated for a while. So, that leaves me here.

I will try to update everyone on the goings-on, by starting where I left off.

The spring semester was an incredibly busy one, with several really tough classes and the Israel trip mixed in. My grades were decent...I got one two A's, one B+, one B-, and a C+. The C+ was in Ethics, which is one of the classes where I had a paper due right after break. Since I turned it in late, I got deducted big time, and it really hurt my grade. The funny thing is that it was my favorite class of the semester.

I took a Spanish class in what is called the pre-(summer) session, which is an abbreviated three-week term. The class met for three hours a day, five days a week. It was grueling, but it eventually ended. I am near the end of a five week break, then my next summer session will start. I am taking a Spanish class, and also a Philosophy class, which is called "Contemporary moral Problems". The professor is the same as my Ethics professor, and I am excited about the class. Fortunately, I have already read most of the material we will be covering in the class.

Back in the spring, Michelle and I found out that we will not be able to birth children, so after investigating all the options, we decided to adopt a child. After investigating all the options available within adoption, we decided to adopt a baby boy from Vietnam. We are just kind of getting started in the process, so everything is a blur right now. Last week, we received OFFICIAL word from our adoption agency that we have been approved, so that was a huge relief. Now, we are working on stuff for the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service). That will take about 3 months or so to complete. The entire process should take until about May or June of next year, with us bringing home a child. What a staggering thought.

We have been busy getting our house ready. We have painted the baby's room, and decorated it in the theme of Winnie the Pooh. We really like the way it looks. We acquired a toy chest and a new desk this week, both for free. That was really cool! We also have been spending an inordinate amount of time at Babys-R-Us...LOL. Last night I made a deal with Michelle--1 hour there in exchange for 1 hour at either Comp USA or Home Depot (both are next door the Babys-R-Us. So we spent about 30 minutes at Comp USA before Michelle could not take it any more...LOL.

I have been busy working on my application to seminary. I am required to provide three references, one each from a clergy, academic, and layperson. Since I am aware that at least one of those people reads this blog, and in order to protect the innocent from ridicule and/or scorn (you greed to refer HIM?!?!?), I will not mention their names in this forum. So let me just say that I am grateful to all three people who agreed to refer me. That means a lot to me. I have a few more things to complete on the application before I send it in. Stressful, indeed.

I got an email from one of my fellow Israel travelers yesterday, and in my response to her, I told her that I still think about the trip every day. To be more accurate, I could have said that I think about it several times a day. I was certainly one of the most profound experiences of my life. I definitely want to go back for a more extended period of time...like a semester or a year...or for many years.

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...

Rumors of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Hello world! Obviously, it has been a long time since I have posted. In fact, my parents and grandmother have been on the verge of reporting me missing to the state police...LOL. Sorry to be out of touch for so long.

Things have been out-of-control-busy since I got back from Israel. I had 3 assignments I was supposed to work on during the break (damn those evil professors), and since I was unable to get any of them done while I was gone, I have been trying to get caught up. Add to my schoolwork the fact that the store where I work has moved to a new location, requiring me to work a ton of hours since I've been back, and one might understand how I went through a period of several days where I was completely overwhelmed, and depressed. I did not know if I was ever going to get everything done. I am still not done, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I need to finish a paper and a journal for ethics class, and I will be back on track.

I forgot to mention that I got my western philosophy mid-term back last week, and I only got a 77. I worked my arse off for that test, knowing it would be crazy hard, and that was the best I could do. Jeez. I was quite dispirited about it for several days. On the bright side, I got a 95 on my math mid-term, which was a pleasant surprise. Leaving the test room, I felt I had probably missed 3-4, but I only missed one. Cool! That lifted my spirits somewhat.

Everything else has been going pretty well. I have a baseball game later today, so it will be great to spend some time outside in the sunshine.

I have an appointment with my advisor tomorrow morning, so hopefully that will go well. I have been trying to finalize a scenario that will allow me to graduate in December, but it will be tough. I am going to have to take some classes this summer, and I have no idea how I will pay for them. Oh well. Most of the classes I have been looking at for next semester seem really exciting, so that is something to look forward to. I am also going to try to do some independent study stuff, so it will be cool to CHOOSE what I want to research. That's refreshing.

I have been listening to a lot of Neil Young lately, in particular his newest album "Prarie Wind", and older stuff like "Unknown Legend" and "Needle and the Damage Done", and "After the Gold Rush". Great stuff.

I am going to try to put together a presentation on my Israel trip, and have it ready by Easter weekend. Michelle and I will be in Clarksville, and I hope to have something to show to those who are interested.

Peace...

The URL for my Israel trip blog is located here. I will posting there while I am away. I will resume posting here when I get back.

Peace...

The Western mid-term consisted of me filling almost 6 full pages of stuff on Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. It was probably the 2nd most difficult test I have ever had. Second only to one of my mother's tests in 4th grade math...LOL. Seriously, I was glad that it eventually ended. Whew. Now, I have got a debate at 1:00, then finish some stuff tonight, and spring break can officially begin.

Michelle and I are going to try to do something special Saturday before I leave. I have not got a plan yet, but I will think of something.

I will send out an email tomorrow with all my contact/hotel info, along with the itinerary, for those who are interested.

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...

My Western Philosophy class met at the professor's house tonight for a 3 hour study session. The test tomorrow is going to be insane. One of my classmates and I are taking a break at Buffalo Wild Wings. Then, I am going to finish my ethics reading journal (due tomorrow) before hitting the rack. I plan to rise early to study more for the western test. Over lunch, I will prepare my stuff for the debate in Ethics class. My team is debating in favor of the abolition of the death penalty. I am supposed to give our opening remarks. I personally do not give a **** about this debate, as I have way too much other stuff to do.

I am beginning to develop a distaste for Tuesdays. Last Tuesday, as you may remember, my Israel trip was cancelled, albeit temporally. Yesterday, I was told that I will not be working my first D-1 game today, in its stead I will be working at Dyersburg. Jeez. I was not given any reason why this happened, other than a "mix-up in the schedule". Oh well. I will get my chance.

Later this morning, I have my math mid-term. Immediately after that, I leave for my game. Tonight, my Western Philosophy class is having a study session at the professor's house. The mid-term for that class is tomorrow, and is shaping up to be quite difficult.

I left ethics class yesterday in a quite-pissed off mood. We were given the assignment for our next paper, which is due the Thursday after we get back from spring break. Which means the professor is expecting us to write most of DURING spring break. With a chuckle, she dismissed our complaints by saying, "I will be in my office during the break", inferring that we should work too. I thought the idea of a spring break was to take a friggin' break. Jeez. One guy turned to me and said, "Aren't you going on that Israel trip?". I replied in the affirmative. He then said, "You'd better take your laptop and do it on the plane". I told him that I had already planned to write two essays for film class on the plane. So, I have no idea how I will write the paper. Also, she gave us the instructions for the second debate, which is tomorrow. As if we do not have any mid-terms this week. Jeez. This class is the most difficult I have ever had in terms of the work load. My Existentialism class was the most difficult in terms of understanding the material, but the sheer work load in this class beats anything I have seen.

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...