Videos of the Day

First, Michael Phelps playing Guitar Hero in his underwear. If only things like this happened in my living room...



And just for fun. A little Spin Doctors on Seasame Street. It's just funny. Elmo makes me laugh. I got this off another blog. The writer had been talking about Prince Harry and Prince William.

Katie's Headlines

1. The Phillies won the World Series. Boo! Should have been the Red Sox but they blew it and got beat by the Rays, which means the Rays would have been my next choice. I guess the Rays couldn't handle the cold weather.

2. THE NEW YORK KNICKS WON A GAME!!!!!! This is huge news since they haven't won a game in well, like, ever. Not really, but they have sucked it up the last several years. Last night, they beat the Heat (sorry Dwyane), 120-115. Only once last season did the Knicks get to 120 points last season. And they did it with Stephon Marbury and Eddy Curry benched. Thank goodness, NY got Mike D'Antoni.

I'm sure this guy is happy. And I'm happy he's happy. Just look at him. He started and scored 16 points. Ah, David Lee. "One win guys. That's one. Yippee."

3. Birmingham is cutting education budgets and handicapped bussing in Jefferson County because they don't have enough money. There is also a massive sewer debt. I'd understand this dilemma if our winner of a mayor, Larry Langford, wasn't spending millions upon millions of dollars to get the Olympics in Birmingham in 2020. Seriously, let's get all our ducks in a row first before we start stunting the future of our young people and before we take away the only way that our city's handicapped can get around and feel like normal people. I have friends who use that bus system everyday. A few weeks ago, they were going to go down to the city council meeting to state their case, but the electricity in their building (which is an assisted living building) just happened to go out before they were able to leave.

I'm all for restoring downtown and sprucing up the city and building a domed football stadium, but not when it costs our young kids' rights to a good education and our city's handicapped to a better way of life.

Mayor Langford, let's get our priorities straight. Take care of who makes up your city before you start worrying about what it looks like.

I Cheated And I Lied And I Left The Cap Off The Toothpaste...

Not really. It's just one of those random TV/movie quotes that pops into my head every now and then. This one is courtesy of "Saved By The Bell: The College Years." Very random.

Anyway, I did cheat though. A while back I said that I wasn't going to listen to Christmas music until Nov. 1. I was holding myself to that. There have been recent moments of weakness but still, I've kept strong.

Until last night. It was just too cold on my way home from work. I left work at 7:30 last night. It was dark. It was dark and cold. It was dark and cold and windy. When it's cold, one of the only things that makes me feel warm and toasty inside (besides a cup of yummy Wassel and a fire) is Christmas music. There's just something about it.

Soooo...I cracked open the CD case and pulled out my most favorite - Avalon's Joy: A Christmas Collection, put it in the CD player of my car and played track four. "Jesus Born On This Day". Also made famous by Mariah Carey. MiMi ain't got nothin' on Avalon's version of this song. It's so much better. Anyway, that song is followed up by one of the best version's of "Winter Wonderland", then "Light A Candle", "Good News", "The Christmas Song" (also a great version) and "We Are The Reason" (fantabulous version). That last song is one of the best. It really does remind you of what the season is all about.

"We are the reason that He gave his life. We are the reason that He suffered and died. To a world that was lost, He gave all He could give, to show us the reason to live."

If that doesn't get in your gut and wiggle around a little bit, I don't know what will.

So anyway, I cheated but I have no regrets. 'Twas all worth it.

Well wadaya know...

I talked someone else into joining the blogging world and I'm sure it's going to be interesting. My BFF Casey has finally decided to take the plunge, if not for anything else than to document the last few months of "Wedding Mania". I'm pretty excited because if she does blog about life, it should be pretty entertaining. She's got a pretty entertaining life. Check her out here.

P.S. She gives me props for setting up the blog for her. I really didn't set it up. I just made it look pretty. Which I'm pretty good at I guess, unless it comes to myself. Cheez.

Welcome to the world o' blogging, Casey and Dane. Don't make me have to hound you about posts. Here's a sneak peak of their blog. It's the pretty little header I'm responsible for.

There Are Black People In Alaska After All

This is a great video!

Pumpkin Party

I'm all too ready for Thanksgiving a few days away from work. The past week has been crazy busy and this week is just going to be worse. There is so much to do and not enough time for me to do it the way that I want it to be done.

Anyway, I wanted to share the fun that I had this weekend with everyone. First of all, Samford went undefeated this weekend in every sport that competed. Football beat the Citadel in the Homecoming game 28-10. Soccer swept on Friday and Sunday and volleyball pulled out two crazy wins on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday's match was probably the best volleyball I've ever watched. Two great teams scrapping for a win. It's was fantastic.

However, Friday night I got to have a little fun of my own. My roommate Kelly and I hosted a Pumpkin Carving Party at our house and it was great. We had a crowd there and there were some really creative carvings. Instead of telling you about it, I thought I'd just show you pictures. So here goes...

Jason and Sam getting down to business.

Raymond sports Sam's Hanna Montana wig.

Here I am, starting the process.

Tim is hacking out the intricate details of his design.

Say 'cheese', Dana!

Spiderman made an appearance as well.

This is mine and Kelly's pumpkin. It was supposed to be a rearend with handprints but there wasn't enough time to make it look good.

1st place - Tim's Wolves

2nd place - Josh and Raymond's Pink Flamingo

3rd place - Jason and Reagan's Ship

The girls - Kelly, Me, Dana, Reagan and Christa

Afterwards, we decided to get "Southern Living" with it and put the pumpkins outside on the ladder.

That's all I've got for you for now. There are a lot more things I want to share, especially some stuff that's been on my heart and things GOD is teaching me right now. I promise to share soon. Now, I must get to work.

Don't Taste This Rainbow

Chocolate Skittles. Have you seen this? Moreover, have you tasted this? I'm not a fan.

Today, Rucker, one of our assistant baseball coaches, let me sample this not-so-tasty delight. I did not like it at all.

I'm a Skittles fan. Seriously. It's like a party in my mouth. I literally "Taste The Rainbow." I even have my own obsessive compulsive system of eating them. I pour the whole bag out, separate them in to color groups, then I make ever group an even number. I then proceed to eat the castaways from least to favorite color, making sure to donate the yellows to the less fortunate, or just throw them away. Next, I eat each color group by two, from least to favorite color as well. I know, I know. It's crazy. But I've done it since I can remember.

So, today when Rucker introduced me to the Chocolate Skittles, I thought, "This could be interesting." Readers, let me inform you, there is no such thing as a chocolate rainbow: a) they all taste the same and b) the aftertaste is horrible. Stay away.

Feel free to taste the fruity rainbow. Not the chocolate one. I don't even think this would please chocolate lovers.

Transition:

When I was in high school, we had a competition called "Colonel Classics." It's where every class (sophomore, juniors, seniors - freshman got to help behind the scenes) got together every year and wrote their own 30-45 minute play, adding music and dancing to it. It was a big production. Really. Huge competiton. The winner got bragging rights for the next year.

Anyway, my junior year, our play was called "Taste The Rainbow". (We always had crazy titles. My sophomore year was called "Smack: The Mouse Does Motown" and my senior year was "Wee Bee Buggin'".) It was about an island, Rainbow Island, on which one side was inhabited by the Color People and the other side was "The Dark Side" where the prince with no color lived with his motley crew.

Every year, the Color People held a Rainbow Festival to "present the colors" for the rainbow to appear. Color crystals were dropped into a pot (i.e. the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow) and after a cute little step/dance routine from the Prism Patrol (holders of the crystals)...ta-da...the rainbow appears. (Yes, I was the white girl with rhythm, stepping on the prism patrol.)

Anyway, so the Dark Prince devises a plan to steal the crystals so the Color People can know what it is like to live with no color. Long story short, crystal are stolen, crystals are found, Dark Prince learns how to "feel emotions" and they live happily ever after.

During our finally, we threw out bags of Skittles. Fun times. Sometimes I miss those days.

Anyway, all the Skittles talk made me think of that. And all the talk of rainbows made me think of my favorite movie and favorite song, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," from The Wizard Of Oz."

I thought I'd share my favorite renditions of the song. Starting with American Idol's Katherine McPhee.

And finally, the original...Judy Garland

Paul's Letter to America

My dad blogged a little about this the other day and it peaked my interest so I googled it to read the whole thing. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a sermon almost 62 years ago entitled, "Paul's Letter To American Christians." It's an imaginary letter written to today's Christian Americans as if the Apostle Paul was writing it. It's lengthy, but it was so good, I couldn't not share. I contemplated just linking the speech and just citing my favorite parts, but the more I read, the more I really felt compelled to post the whole thing.

As my dad said, I truly believe that if Dr. King had not be assasinated, that this world would be a different place. Or at least it's fun and interesting to think about what the world would be like. I don't claim to be a history buff but I do find myself intrigued by many historical happenings. Especially, assasinations. I often wonder what life would be like if figures like Abraham Lincoln, JFK and MLK had not be killed. I tend to think it would be a bit different. Don't you think?

So without further ado, I give you Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, Paul's Letter To American Christians as delivered November 4, 1956: (I've bolded the parts that I stuck out to me)

I would like to share with you an imaginary letter from the pen of the Apostle Paul. The postmark reveals that it comes from the city of Ephesus. After opening the letter I discovered that it was written in Greek rather than English. At the top of the first page was this request: "Please read to your congregation as soon as possible, and then pass on to the other churches."

For several weeks I have worked assiduously with the translation. At times it has been difficult, but now I think I have deciphered its true meaning. May I hasten to say that if in presenting this letter the contents sound strangely Kingian instead of Paulinian, attribute it to my lack of complete objectivity rather than Paul's lack of clarity.

It is miraculous, indeed, that the Apostle Paul should be writing a letter to you and to me nearly 1900 years after his last letter appeared in the New Testament. How this is possible is something of an enigma wrapped in mystery. The important thing, however, is that I can imagine the Apostle Paul writing a letter to American Christians in 1956 A.D. And here is the letter as it stands before me.

I, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to you who are in America, Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

For many years I have longed to be able to come to see you. I have heard so much of you and of what you are doing. I have heard of the fascinating and astounding advances that you have made in the scientific realm. I have heard of your dashing subways and flashing airplanes.

Through your scientific genius you have been able to dwarf distance and place time in chains. You have been able to carve highways through the stratosphere. So in your world you have made it possible to eat breakfast in New York City and dinner in Paris, France. I have also heard of your skyscraping buildings with their prodigious towers steeping heavenward. I have heard of your great medical advances, which have resulted in the curing of many dread plagues and diseases, and thereby prolonged your lives and made for greater security and physical well-being. All of that is marvelous. You can do so many things in your day that I could not do in the Greco-Roman world of my day. In your age you can travel distances in one day that took me three months to travel. That is wonderful. You have made tremendous strides in the area of scientific and technological development.

But America, as I look at you from afar, I wonder whether your moral and spiritual progress has been commensurate with your scientific progress. It seems to me that your moral progress lags behind your scientific progress. Your poet Thoreau used to talk about "improved means to an unimproved end." How often this is true. You have allowed the material means by which you live to outdistance the spiritual ends for which you live. You have allowed your mentality to outrun your morality. You have allowed your civilization to outdistance your culture. Through your scientific genius you have made of the world a neighborhood, but through your moral and spiritual genius you have failed to make of it a brotherhood. So America, I would urge you to keep your moral advances abreast with your scientific advances.

I am impelled to write you concerning the responsibilities laid upon you to live as Christians in the midst of an unChristian world. That is what I had to do. That is what every Christian has to do. But I understand that there are many Christians in America who give their ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs. They are afraid to be different. Their great concern is to be accepted socially. They live by some such principle as this: "everybody is doing it, so it must be alright." For so many of you Morality is merely group consensus. In your modern sociological lingo, the mores are accepted as the right ways. You have unconsciously come to believe that right is discovered by taking a sort of Gallup poll of the majority opinion. How many are giving their ultimate allegiance to this way.

But American Christians, I must say to you as I said to the Roman Christians years ago, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Or, as I said to the Phillipian Christians, "Ye are a colony of heaven." This means that although you live in the colony of time, your ultimate allegiance is to the empire of eternity. You have a dual citizenry. You live both in time and eternity; both in heaven and earth. Therefore, your ultimate allegiance is not to the government, not to the state, not to nation, not to any man-made institution. The Christian owes his ultimate allegiance to God, and if any earthly institution conflicts with God's will it is your Christian duty to take a stand against it. You must never allow the transitory evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God.

I understand that you have an economic system in America known as Capitalism. Through this economic system you have been able to do wonders. You have become the richest nation in the world, and you have built up the greatest system of production that history has ever known. All of this is marvelous. But Americans, there is the danger that you will misuse your Capitalism. I still contend that money can be the root of all evil. It can cause one to live a life of gross materialism. I am afraid that many among you are more concerned about making a living than making a life. You are prone to judge the success of your profession by the index of your salary and the size of the wheel base on your automobile, rather than the quality of your service to humanity.

The misuse of Capitalism can also lead to tragic exploitation. This has so often happened in your nation. They tell me that one tenth of one percent of the population controls more than forty percent of the wealth. Oh America, how often have you taken necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. If you are to be a truly Christian nation you must solve this problem. You cannot solve the problem by turning to communism, for communism is based on an ethical relativism and a metaphysical materialism that no Christian can accept. You can work within the framework of democracy to bring about a better distribution of wealth. You can use your powerful economic resources to wipe poverty from the face of the earth. God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth, while others live in abject deadening poverty. God intends for all of his children to have the basic necessities of life, and he has left in this universe "enough and to spare" for that purpose. So I call upon you to bridge the gulf between abject poverty and superfluous wealth.

I would that I could be with you in person, so that I could say to you face to face what I am forced to say to you in writing. Oh, how I long to share your fellowship.

Let me rush on to say something about the church. Americans, I must remind you, as I have said to so many others, that the church is the Body of Christ. So when the church is true to its nature it knows neither division nor disunity. But I am disturbed about what you are doing to the Body of Christ. They tell me that in America you have within Protestantism more than two hundred and fifty six denominations. The tragedy is not so much that you have such a multiplicity of denominations, but that most of them are warring against each other with a claim to absolute truth. This narrow sectarianism is destroying the unity of the Body of Christ. You must come to see that God is neither a Baptist nor a Methodist; He is neither a Presbyterian nor a Episcopalian. God is bigger than all of our denominations. If you are to be true witnesses for Christ, you must come to see that America.

But I must not stop with a criticism of Protestantism. I am disturbed about Roman Catholicism. This church stands before the world with its pomp and power, insisting that it possesses the only truth. It incorporates an arrogance that becomes a dangerous spiritual arrogance. It stands with its noble Pope who somehow rises to the miraculous heights of infallibility when he speaks ex cathedra. But I am disturbed about a person or an institution that claims infallibility in this world. I am disturbed about any church that refuses to cooperate with other churches under the pretense that it is the only true church. I must emphasize the fact that God is not a Roman Catholic, and that the boundless sweep of his revelation cannot be limited to the Vatican. Roman Catholicism must do a great deal to mend its ways.

There is another thing that disturbs me to no end about the American church. You have a white church and you have a Negro church. You have allowed segregation to creep into the doors of the church. How can such a division exist in the true Body of Christ? You must face the tragic fact that when you stand at 11:00 on Sunday morning to sing "All Hail the Power of Jesus Name" and "Dear Lord and Father of all Mankind," you stand in the most segregated hour of Christian America. They tell me that there is more integration in the entertaining world and other secular agencies than there is in the Christian church. How appalling that is.

I understand that there are Christians among you who try to justify segregation on the basis of the Bible. They argue that the Negro is inferior by nature because of Noah's curse upon the children of Ham. Oh my friends, this is blasphemy. This is against everything that the Christian religion stands for. I must say to you as I have said to so many Christians before, that in Christ "there is neither Jew nor Gentile, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus." Moreover, I must reiterate the words that I uttered on Mars Hill: "God that made the world and all things therein . . . hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth."

So Americans I must urge you to get rid of every aspect of segregation. The broad universalism standing at the center of the gospel makes both the theory and practice of segregation morally unjustifiable. Segregation is a blatant denial of the unity which we all have in Christ. It substitutes an "I-it" relationship for the "I-thou" relationship. The segregator relegates the segregated to the status of a thing rather than elevate him to the status of a person. The underlying philosophy of Christianity is diametrically opposed to the underlying philosophy of segregation, and all the dialectics of the logicians cannot make them lie down together.

I praise your Supreme Court for rendering a great decision just two or three years ago. I am happy to know that so many persons of goodwill have accepted the decision as a great moral victory. But I understand that there are some brothers among you who have risen up in open defiance. I hear that their legislative halls ring loud with such words as "nullification" and "interposition." They have lost the true meaning of democracy and Christianity. So I would urge each of you to plead patiently with your brothers, and tell them that this isn't the way. With understanding goodwill, you are obligated to seek to change their attitudes. Let them know that in standing against integration, they are not only standing against the noble precepts of your democracy, but also against the eternal edicts of God himself. Yes America, there is still the need for an Amos to cry out to the nation: "Let judgement roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream."

May I say just a word to those of you who are struggling against this evil. Always be sure that you struggle with Christian methods and Christian weapons. Never succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter. As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. Always avoid violence. If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in your struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.

In your struggle for justice, let your oppressor know that you are not attempting to defeat or humiliate him, or even to pay him back for injustices that he has heaped upon you. Let him know that you are merely seeking justice for him as well as yourself. Let him know that the festering sore of segregation debilitates the white man as well as the Negro. With this attitude you will be able to keep your struggle on high Christian standards.

Many persons will realize the urgency of seeking to eradicate the evil of segregation. There will be many Negroes who will devote their lives to the cause of freedom. There will be many white persons of goodwill and strong moral sensitivity who will dare to take a stand for justice. Honesty impels me to admit that such a stand will require willingness to suffer and sacrifice. So don't despair if you are condemned and persecuted for righteousness' sake. Whenever you take a stand for truth and justice, you are liable to scorn. Often you will be called an impractical idealist or a dangerous radical. Sometimes it might mean going to jail. If such is the case you must honorably grace the jail with your presence. It might even mean physical death. But if physical death is the price that some must pay to free their children from a permanent life of psychological death, then nothing could be more Christian. Don't worry about persecution America; you are going to have that if you stand up for a great principle. I can say this with some authority, because my life was a continual round of persecutions. After my conversion I was rejected by the disciples at Jerusalem. Later I was tried for heresy at Jerusalem. I was jailed at Philippi, beaten at Thessalonica, mobbed at Ephesus, and depressed at Athens. And yet I am still going. I came away from each of these experiences more persuaded than ever before that "neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come . . . shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. This is the end of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may.

I must bring my writing to a close now. Timothy is waiting to deliver this letter, and I must take leave for another church. But just before leaving, I must say to you, as I said to the church at Corinth, that I still believe that love is the most durable power in the world. Over the centuries men have sought to discover the highest good. This has been the chief quest of ethical philosophy. This was one of the big questions of Greek philosophy. The Epicurean and the Stoics sought to answer it; Plato and Aristotle sought to answer it. What is the summon bonum of life? I think I have an answer America. I think I have discovered the highest good. It is love. This principle stands at the center of the cosmos. As John says, "God is love." He who loves is a participant in the being of God. He who hates does not know God.

So American Christians, you may master the intricacies of the English language. You may possess all of the eloquence of articulate speech. But even if you "speak with the tongues of man and angels, and have not love, you are become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."

Charleston View

If you couldn't tell by my last couple of posts, I was in Charleston, S.C., this past weekend with the Samford volleyball team. I think this is the most horrible and most fun trip I've ever had with them. The eight-hour trip up took 12 hours for various reasons (see below posts) and after we had an hour added, we got to the hotel in Charleston at 2:45 a.m. on Friday and had to be up by 10 a.m. the next day.

We had breakfast at Breuger's Bagels, which is my new favorite place. They have the best cinnamon sugar bagels ever.

We completely bombed against College of Charleston (the other top team in the conference besides us), had our 12-match win streak snapped, could no longer say we were undefeated and pretty much got our hineys handed to us on a platter.

So to cheer us up, one of the girls' parents has a friend who owns three beach houses out in Mt. Pleasant, I think. We had dinner at one of them and it was great. I really wish I had gotten my camera from the hotel so I would have pictures of the beautiful view but so it goes.

Anyway, we got back to the hotel early, 9ish, and everyone crashed. Well, except me and Jen (one of the assistant coaches). We had to stay up and watch the Red Sox win.

The next day we started off with breakfast at IHOP. Yummy! Then we headed to the Citadel to play the last match of the weekend. This place is neato. It's like your driving into a medieval fort of some sorts. Very interesting. I've included some pictures of this because I remembered to get my camera out of my bag before I put it on the bus. Enjoy.

The view from across the drill field. I sort of wish we would have been there on a weekday to see all the groups drilling on the square.

A plane. This plane was actually flown by Citadel graduates. Cool, huh?

The national anthem. It kind of had a different feeling in this place. If you looked around, there were lots of people just standing at attention, looking straight ahead. Very cool. These were someo of the nicest people though.

Lineups. In blur mode. I had my camera on "action" but it still came out this way.

A lamp post.

My feeble attempt at being artistic.

And last but not least, boys in uniform on guard duty.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Too bad the Mississippi State Bulldogs couldn't pull out a "W" and the Red Sox got cheated out of trip to the World Series. Oh well, Go Rays, anyway.

The Happening

Have you seen this movie? It's full of craziness. We are watching this movie on the mammoth bus ride home from Charleston, S.C., and I'm starting to wonder why we put it in the DVD player in the first place.

We are only halfway through and it's been on crazy "happening" after the other. You should here the screams that are coming from this bus, not to mention the crazy comments.

"Don't breathe when you go outside!"

"Run from the wind!"

"Shut the window you idiot!"

"That old lady is one crazy _____!"

I don't what is causing all the "happenings". It seems to be some crazy supernatural pollen-type substance in the air, making its way through the Northeast by way of the wind. It seems to be causing some pretty intense allergy headaches because all these people start walking backwards and then killing themselves. These guys must not have heard of Zyrtec. Otherwise, we wouldn't have this problem

I'm speaking from experience that allergy headaches are nothing to mess with. I've had some doozies lately but never have I wanted to kill myself or bang my head through a glass window.

Ok, so it's just the movies and maybe it's something more than just pollen but whatev. This is a crazy movie.

I'm also pumped about my wireless internet card from AT&T. I've got internet on the go and now I'm currently keeping up with game seven of the ALCS -- GO SOX!

Ok, the movie is over and it was the worst ending ever. If you must, rent it yourself. At your own risk.

Now we are going to play Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who picks out the next movie. Good luck, Dex (our coach) is the only person who brought movies. And he was weird taste as you can tell. The Happening belongs to him.