I’ve not taken (or made) the time to post on here. I’ve thought many times throught the day, “I’ll have to write something about that on StateDOG.com” but I never got to it.

It’s gonna pick up steam, I promise!

I’ve been out of town the last two Fridays, but giddy reminded me to do it, so here it is.

1. What’s the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country?
Outside of my state, I went to Panama City Beach for the Big Stuf camps. Out of the country? I went to Mexico on a school trip when I was a senior.

2. What’s the most bizarre/unusual thing that’s ever happened to you while traveling?
Um, on the trip to Mexico with my schools Spanish Club, we stayed in San Antonio for a few days before going in to Mexico. Our hotel was a basic hotel, but not as good as the big fat Marriot that stretched high above the near by mall (that was w/in walking distance).

One day, after riding the elevators to the top of the Marriot, we went to the exercise room. Even had the little attendant bringing us towels and water (he thought we were guests of the hotel.) Then we decided to go back to our hotel, get our swimsuits, then go back and swim at the Marriot. We must have looked suspicious, because just before we were jumping in the pool, a guy in a suit with a walkie-talkie who looked pretty important came and asked what room we were in. We didn’t lie; we came clean. So he got our SSN and escorted us out of the place.

We thought it was pretty cool (though I regretted giving him my SSN) and as we were walking back to our hotel, someone in a Mercedes was yelling our names and asking if we needed a ride. I knew no one in San Antonio, but I nievely thought that if they were driving a Mercedes they can’t be too bad, so we ran out in the street to jump in. Turns out it was our Spanish teacher’s wife and who was riding with a lady named Mrs. Robinson. She was David Robinson’s mom!

Oh, and later that same trip I got in trouble for walking on the ledge outside our windows on the 15th floor in Monterey, Mexico. But that’s a totally different story.

3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?
Well, I’ve always wanted to visit Oregon/Washington, but if money is no object, then I’d like to either stay a while in the UK, or in AU/NZ. Both of those would be quite awesome.

4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car?
Never travelled by train except for a freight train and riding on the engine or caboose. Travelling by plane usually means I’m going somewhere pretty far off and special. But I can enjoy a good road trip as well (as long as I’m in good company.) So I don’t have a pref.

5. What’s the next place on your list to visit?
Need to get a good vacation in sometime…we’ve not had one that’s just us in forever!

Well, yesterday was the day that Invision Power Board came out with it’s latest final version. There had been a few beta releases of 1.2, and then two Release Candidates, but the FINAL version is out now, so I’m backing up my forums before doing the upgrade. It’d totally stink to lose everything in the upgrade, but I’ve never had any problems before, so it’s just a precautionary measure.

After the upgrade I’ll try to find a new skin for it, or possibly just get one made for it. That might cost a little, but if it creates a custom look/feel then it could be worth it. I think that there is untapped potential for MissSportsTalk.com, but we’ll have to wait and see. It has grown mainly on word of mouth over the last year, but just tonight I sent out a press release to over 30 newspapers in Mississippi. That might sound a little hokey, but it was free to do, and who knows, it might actually make it into a paper somewhere. That would translate into some publicity and action, hopefully.

But all the more reason to get the new skin in place.

If you want to read the Press Release, just view the extended entry. I wrote it, then had a few friends comb over it to help clarify it. Tell me what you think.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Blake Thompson xxx.xxx.xxxx

Mississippi Sports Talk

XXX Xxxxxxxx, Xxxxx, MS XXXXX

admin[at]MissSportsTalk.com

www.MissSportsTalk.com

High School Sports Fans In Mississippi Now Have A Place To Gather On The Net

Amory, MS, August 8, 2003 – College sports fans have long had opportunities to meet together online to celebrate or bemoan the success and failure of their favorite teams. Mississippi Sports Talk (www.MissSportsTalk.com) is a new online community that focuses on high school athletics within Mississippi. Members of the community are able to interact on topics related to their favorite high school sports, teams, and players

Site founder Blake Thompson saw a need for high school sports fans to be given that privilege. “I know that there is a lot of passion for high school sports here in Mississippi, but there really wasn’t a top quality online community for people to get together and express it,” said Thompson.

With over 500 members and nearly 10,000 posts in just over a year of existence, MissSportsTalk.com has become the quality online community that Thompson had hoped it would become. “We’ve been very encouraged by the growth of the community so far, created primarily by word of mouth. But I believe we’ve barely scratched the surface of the growth potential”

Membership to the site is free, and there are many other topics besides high school sports. “We have many people who love to post about the SEC and we all enjoy spouting off in the “Trash Talk” forum from time to time.” Thompson points out that there is also a “Coaches Only” forum designed exclusively for high school coaches to be able to discuss issues out of the public eye.

“Our goal is to become a complete community where all are welcomed to share their enthusiasm for Mississippi high school sports.” Visit www.MissSportsTalk.com to join the discussions.

###

Today I pick up the Explorer that messed up on me last week. It is going to end up costing, grand total, around $350. I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes. But we’ve had a heat control valve replaced, new plugs, new wires, new fuel filter, and maybe a new air filter too.

Now it’s time to find a mid 90’s pickup and then maybe trade in the Explorer for something. All this is over a span of a couple of years, but those are the plans. Hopefully everything will stay in working order til then.

If you’ve been reading much at all lately, you’ll remember my points of the early service our church had this summer was tried as a Contemporary service. It was very successful. But it was originally slated as a Summer service, with the intent to review it at the end of the summer to see if it would continue through the fall. I think the success of the service surprised many.

So now, the issue is whether to continue it or not. I thought it was decided, but maybe it’s not. If our church were a beach, I think there’s either a red flag flying or a pretty strong yellow. I think there’s becoming a strong under tow that is pulling people in different directions. There’s people in strong favor for the service to continue. There’s people with strong oppinions in opposition of the service continuing. And were do the people meet in the middle? Or do they meet in the middle at all?

All this to say, please, please pray that God’s will would be done at our church now. Not my will or anyone else’s but God’s. He know’s what’s going on better than anyone else, and I hope that our church follows His lead.

Seems that George Bush is taking a dip into some potentially turbulant waters. He’s being fairly vocal about his beliefs about homosexuality, the sanctity of marriage, and the ban on gay marriages. I expect there to be much discussion about this in the media.

I’ll have to say I probably agree with Gee Dub about most of this.

Had to go to Camp Lake Stephens for a meeting this afternoon. When I was about 30 minutes or so from Camp I noticed the Explorer doing a little funny business. Not sure what it is, but just a shimmy that it doesn’t normally do when going up some hills and all. It begins to become more noticiable as I progress along. Then I notice the “Check Engine” light blinking. I look it up in the car manual and read that it is mishitting or misfiring or something like that and I should get it serviced as soon as possible.

I call home and talk to my normal service guy and ask if he thought I could make it home and get it checked out in the morning. He suggested that I get it looked at in Oxford before trying to drive home on it (75 minutes away). But I have a meeting! But thankfully a friend at camp offers to take it to a local shop for me while I meet.

He calls me on the cell phone, the $40 computer diagnostics test tells me I need a new heat sensor valve something or other. So what can I do except say go ahead. He comes back to camp with my vehicle later and says it does fine. I finish my meeting, eat supper, talk to a few friends, write a check for over $100 for the repair, then hop in the Explorer for the assumed smooth ride home…but it aint smooth. No way, no how. It shimmies and trembles all the way home. I call my friend and he tells me it rode from the shop to camp fine…I’m perplexed.

So in the morning I have to call the shop, ask them why it’s still messed up, what I can do about it, and if I can get my money I threw away back. Then I have to figure out how to get the thing fixed here in my town, and hope I didn’t cause more damage by riding on it when they said it was now fine.

Sheesh…and we had been talking about trading that one in for something. Bye bye trade in value.

Just a random thing…but what are your top 5 movies?

In no particular order

* Top Gun
* Braveheart
* The Patriot
* Gladiator
* The Shawshank Redemption

There’s a quick list, I’ll revisit them and explain what I liked about them later. Heck, they may change by then.

Well, after talking about the early service some week before last, we had a meeting at our church tonight for the Worship Committee. We were to decide (actually “they” were to decide. I’m not on the committee, but was invited to attend because of my involvement) whether to continue the service into the fall instead of stopping in early August like we’d done the past few years.

The discussion began with some praises of the early (contemporary) service. People boldly spoke to the fact that they liked it, even “older” people really liked it. But then the people who had some issues with it spoke up as well. The concern, once again, was whether it was going to cause division within the church between the two services. Also, I heard the comment that the service seemed maybe a little too “non-denominational” instead of flavored with the sprinklings of our denomination in it. I wasn’t exactly sure what “items” it was missing, but anyway. Other concern was what about the more “important” services (Easter, Christmas, All Saints, Promotion, Children’s Sabath) and how it could be unwise to not have the entire community of believers there together.

After much discussion, the end result was what I thought would happen. We’ll continue the early morning service and seek to target certain dates that we’ll combine the two. I expect it to be a traditional service with a little blending of the contemporary aspects. We’ll see how it goes. It’s better than nothing at this point. But I’ve seen people who have seemed to have truly gotten excited about going to church attending the early service. Heck, getting teenagers somewhere by 9am on a Sunday morning is an accomplishment in itself!

But I still pray that God will use this service for His purposes, and not make it into religion.

Well, after being out of town and out of touch for a while, here I am…back in the saddle. This week will probably be a busy one, but not to bad. The week in Florida was great. Spiritually energizing while physically draining. I think it was the cold that slapped me around the whole drive back. But I think I’m rested up and good to go now.

Looking back on last week, we went to Panama City Beach (not the same as Panama City..just next door. It can fool you about all that when you’re traveling) for the BigStuf camps. It has been our sixth summer to go to these camps. They are professional, organized, and create environments where students (and adults) experience God’s presence in their lives. Hopefully it will carry over to the “at home” life.

Stuart Hall and Louie Giglio were the speakers for the week. The combined to do a fantastic job while the Big Stuf Band kicked some serious booty too. Stuart spoke on using our bodies for God’s glory (Created by Him, for Him, and for His glory). He spoke Monday evening, Tuesday morning/evening, and Wednesday morning. At that point, the kids were saying that Stuart was a fantastic speaker and they got a lot out of his talks and that they might like him better than Louie. But then Wednesday night Louie came to camp and blew everyone away.

He spoke on the difference between hearing a story about Jesus and saying, “Hmmmm”, or having it really impact you and saying, “Wow!”. The stories of the Bible are not “Hmmm” stories. Those things don’t happen everyday. Jesus should cause us to say “Wow!”. Then we thought he was over.

But then he went into what I thought was going to be a short explanation then a prayer time, but as he explained the Passover and then what was going during the time leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion you could tell he was getting pretty serious. Then through his telling of the Passion story, he quite effectively illuminated the story of Jesus and His journey to the cross in a stark light. He brought a “Wow-ness” to it that really affected a lot of people. I want to get the disc of that message. Louie spoke again the next morning and Stuart closed up the talks on Thursday night.

As I said, worship times were top notch (as always) and really channeled a lot of the focus for the week. As far as the beach goes, the pretty red flag was up that meant it’s best not to go into the water. Apparently there had been some deaths in the coastal waters earlier in the summer so they were quicker with the red flag than usual. It rained on us a little too, and washed out the beach volleyball/parking lot basketball tourneys. But it didn’t bother us too much.

I HIGHLY recommend taking a group to the Big Stuf camps if you ever get the opportunity.