March 2007


AHQ&Audio&Music31 Mar 2007 05:18 pm

I was going through some old AHQ recordings I have and thought I’d throw this piece up on ITF just for the anyhow.

This was from a program we did maybe in ’03 sometime, I’m not sure. It was at East Fairview Mennonite Church, in Milford, NE. The mix isn’t great, but it’s not bad for a live mix.

AHQ Live – My Soul’s Been Anchored (2.1 MB)

This doesn’t really have anything to do with AHQ, but I’ve been thinking recently about unofficial live recordings and how they can reveal the humanity of professional singers. It can be pretty interesting.

As I recall, even the illustrious Guy Penrod isn’t immune. A recording of George Younce’s funeral was made available online, and the Gaither Vocal Band had sang in the service. Guy chunked the ending of “I Believe in a Hill Called Mount Calvary” pretty bad. It made me wonder of the big boys are subject to morning voice too.

More recently, Roger Bennett’s funeral service is also available online. I just listened to a couple of spots, but Frank Seamans of Legacy Five was having a rather difficult time hitting his notes on the tag of “Jesus Saves.”

Anyway, nothing profound or earthshaking here, just very interesting to me.

Sports28 Mar 2007 08:02 am

The Indiana-PO-liss Young Equines have put their Super Bowl trophy on tour so that Hoosiers far and wide can experience the incomparable thrill of touching this present day literal idol, their trophy. I was listening to my favorite local radio station (WOWO) the other day, and it was pretty funny. They had some of their broadcasters at the event, interviewing people who came to touch the trophy.

People ranted and raved about how special this was, how much it meant, how wonderful everything was, on and on. The creme de la creme, however, was the sobbing woman.

Even the broadcasters couldn’t believe it. They said, “You’re crying! Why are you crying?” She replied, “Oh, I know, I just can’t help it! It’s so special, etc., sob sob sob!”

Unbelievable. Are that many people’s lives really so shallow?!

Family&Personal26 Mar 2007 11:46 am

Recently I was unfortunate enough to find myself trying to buy airline tickets online. As usual, it was an awful experience. This time happened to be the worst ever though, it was terrible.

Priceline gave me some excellent prices, so I tried to buy. Error error error, sorry, too bad. I went back and tried again. The offer I just tried was now gone, but several others of the same price were there.

I went through this same procedure about 4 times, finally with the last one I got a different error message. I was emailed a customer support number, so I called it to find out that the last deal didn’t go through either. Sorry, tough luck, we just put those really cheap prices up there to mess with your head.

Poozer slackers.

Then I went Sidestep (I’m not giving any of these outfits the dignity of a link) where I found some more smokin’ deals. Now near as I can figure, Sidestep finds you a deal then forwards you to the airline or the site with the deal and you buy it there. So I clicked through the dirt-cheap tickets they told me I could get, only to find that the price was $111 more than Sidestep said it was.

Not impressed. What a bunch of raging incompetence and deception.

ITF Business&Sports23 Mar 2007 11:56 am

As you know, I’m a sports nut, a complete fanatic. What I don’t know about sports would fit on the head of a pin.

Right. Anyway, I’m often invited to participate in athletic event outcome-predicting competitions as the control group. In other words, I toss my hat in the ring and make predictions that end up relatively equivalent to those of a chimp on too much Mountain Dew. This is to prove to the other participants that they actually know something about sports, at least if their predictions are actually better than mine!

This is a valuable service I enjoy providing. Sometimes I think the other participants are pretty embarrassed about the occasional short distance between their picks and mine.

Right now I’m in a something-or-other “bracket” having to do with basketball. You’re given a ton of basketball teams you’ve never heard of and asked to pick who’s going to beat who in several levels of somefer tournament, or “bracket.” It’s extremely complex and convoluted.

I rely on my usually uncannily surprising instinct to make my “picks.” So far it looks like I’ve let myself down a little bit, but I do have fairly close company! So it’s not all bad. I enjoy helping others try to overcome their obsessions with athletics.

Family20 Mar 2007 09:14 am

My wife and I were having a “discussion,” and I asked her “Do you remember the Golden Rule?”

“That,” she replied somewhat haughtily, “does not apply when you’re pregnant!”

Financial&Misc17 Mar 2007 01:37 pm

As if you don’t get enough just plain junk in the mail, you’ve got to watch out for scams too. I have experience being ripped off by direct mail, so something I got today raised a red flag.

It was an official-looking envelope and letter with a return address (and letterhead) of Pennsylvania Ave, DC. However, the reply envelope is addressed to Northbrook, IL.

The single-page letter generously offers to send you a Certified Copy of your Property Deed for only $59.50. Wow, how gracious of them.

And sure enough. I found a bunch of references to the same rip-off, and even some recent news items about it. It seems they’re targeting Northern Hoosierville right now.

You can usually get a property deed from your local County Recorder’s office for a few bucks.

Hoosierville&ITF Headquarters14 Mar 2007 02:29 pm

Last Sunday evening all the youth from church came over to our house. There were lots of people here. Lots of shoes too.

One thing that took me quite awhile to get used to here in Hoosierville was the shedding of the shoes. Any time you go over to someone’s house, you take your shoes off just inside the door. That made me uncomfortable for quite awhile, but I’m getting used to it.

Isn’t that like an Oriental custom, or something? And there’s not much about Hoosierville that’s Oriental, so it seems pretty weird to me!

The parking lot was overflowing.

It reminded me of when I was young and wild.

Medical09 Mar 2007 12:07 pm

Awhile ago I had an endoscopy, and then just recently I had another one. It wasn’t quite as eventful, they shot me up with enough happy drip that I stayed under this time.

I took the camera in with me. I wish I could have had someone take some pictures of the actual procedure, but that might be a lot to ask. They probably wouldn’t allow it. Poozers.

Mentally preparing myself for surgical invasion.
Happily sleeping off the happy drip.
Snappily regaining my trademark wit and energy.
Medical06 Mar 2007 10:42 pm

I asked an actual midwife herself today what you call a male midwife, or if there was such a thing. She said yes, there were, and the term was correct.

As Dorcas commented, “midwife” goes way, way back, and the “wife” in it refers to the expectant mother. Something like that anyway.

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