Monday, August 21, 2006

Carol's Sabbatical

As a child, my Grandmother asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I smiled and confidently replied, "Famous." I think that desire haunted me sub-consciously for years.

I learned through blogging that any popularity requires maintenance. I always think of a well-liked blogger who said she had to cut down her blogging to 5 hours a day. It takes a lot of time to not only write a blog but visit others as well. Blogging involves community but even 3 hours a day is too much. (It is good to ask oneself, how much time is too much?) Besides to me, "too much" eventually means burnt out.

I don't know how long I will be gone for. Enough time to breathe deeply, re-focus and hopefully achieve some of that elusive balance.

Maybe there will be a new mission or format for the FFMB. Maybe the band will be available only in re-runs only, I don't know. It sure has been fun, any way.


Regarding the Discussing Creationism series, I have learned enough to see what some of the differences are between Creationists and Evolutionists. To the Creationists, I say, educate yourself with facts on both sides. To the Evolutionists, I say, don't make Evolution your God. Man's ideas are awesome but not worth worshipping.

Ultimately, we might never know the answer while on this earth. It reminds me of this fellow who was talking about a mystery novel he had read. He said that he would never have figured it out on his own until he read the ending.


Lastly and most importantly, I want to share with you once again, the Biblical plan of salvation. I invite you to look at these passages. I am a member of the Church of Christ.

Hear
Believe
Repent
Confess
Be Baptized


Thanks for listening and take of yourselves, not only emotionally and physically but spiritually as well. Be open to the truth revealed in God's Word.
I love you all. God bless.
Carol


Friday, August 18, 2006

Friendly Friday Flashbacks



Welcome Friends of the Friendless Marching Band to our 1st Anniversary party...A mist overtakes the band as we are transported back to our humble beginnings where inspiration struck a tuba player during an I Love Lucy episode. On Lucy's Last Birthday, Lucy encountered the Friends of the Friendless Band. They mistook her for a friendless drunk and asked her to join the band. A weekly mission was born.

Friends of the Friendless Marching Band Statistics: (What is a party without statistics? Fellow band member and list-maker , *-R- nods and takes the minutes for the party.)
  • There have been 47 Friendly Fridays.
  • We have visited 117 friendless sites.
  • There are currently 53 FFMB members.
  • (Click on the *links for party participants! I'll try to keep them updated as they roll in)

The bloglist fades away and the band emerges onto the first Friendly Friday.*Mompoet was the first Featured site and has been a faithful kazoo player ever since.

The first blogger to join the band was Zeb. I love his enthusiastic all night guitar playing and music lessons.

Stephen of Edge to the Center was winner of the 2005 Friendless Site of the Year. He was the second featured friendless site visited. It sure has been an experience to play with this cool baritonist.

*Barbara, our flutist, has always been an enthusiastic band member. Remember the contests? Yep, Barb has always been on top of it. Is it her competitive edge that explains why she started the Blog Olympics.

Do you remember when Kathy was just Kathy and not the Humor Queen and blog reporter, *Lazy Daisy?

Who can forget * J. Andrew's heartwarming testimony for the FFMB? Conductor has to stop for a minute...excuse me for just a moment...

Sabrina, another featured friendless blogger, hands the Conductor a kleenex and her tuba. "Will you play us a song?" "Sure!"

The clanging of pots and pans, tambourine stops the Tuba Player from continuuing. (Okay, what was that remark, Jennifer?)*Sister Celtic arrives along with Emily.
"It is so good to see you all," the tuba player smiles.

Just that moment, Dave who plays the double bass, opens his bass cover and out jumps Lucy. Everyone screams at her arrival at the party.Okay, so this is a dream sequence...


























Lucy leads the band in a fun-filled rendition of Friends of the Friendless and other various tunes. Sorry Some Person, no Nickelback today.

*Imran, guitarist, and Su, the trumpeter, transcribe the lyrics.

We are Friends of the Friendless
yes we are
yes we are
We are Friends of the Friendless
be they near
be they far
We are here for the downtrodden
and we sober up the sodden
We are Friends of the Friendless
yes we are
yes we are

*Sarah clogs to the tunes while Pat Paulk plays along with his glass armonica.

Oh, look! Wandi is here and she has brought her Grand-daughter to the festivities. Yes, we can arrange to have face painting for all the young 'uns. Where is Art Puppy, anyways?

Chrixean,piano player, rouses the band to do on an impromptu march around the room. Kai
and Mar keep the rhythm.

Then DPTH International starts a game of "What Does My Blog Name Really Mean?" I jump in with an indepth analysis of my own. *David is trying to figure out what date he joined the band. "I dunno," and try to figure out the undercurrents to the names Sugarloaf Mountain and Bad Alice.

The auditorium is filled with music and laughter. Band members that we haven't seen in ages are present..., or is it another dream sequence?

Tuba player notices Kathy in the corner conversing with her invisible tiger sidekick. He never did join the band. Pity, I hoped he would be the mascot.

Anyways, there is reminiscing about past performances. Ah, yes...remember when we were the bronze medalist party hosts for the 2006 First Ever Blog Olympics. Many of us had participated in the events.

Who can forget Barbara's Birthday Bash. That was fun with so many participants.


Now Killired knows how to throw a party, even a pink one! The FFMB had a great time playing for that one.

The Conductor gets up to speak and there is a hush throughout the auditorium.

Dear Friends not only to the Friendless but to each other, I have been looking over the sites we have visited over the past year and am still impressed by the talent and creativity out there. It has been fun to discover these blogs. There are a lot more out there. The FFMB mission is not yet accomplished. It is up to you, FFMB, to be friendly bloggers to the unappreciated out there. Smile and look outwards for there are bloggers in need of this band. As a friend has told me countless times, "Its not all about you, y'know." Ouch!



Remember that this thank you card was designed by *TNChick,in between twirls.

Mango stands up and raises her glass of lemonade hi in the air,

"Hi Carol,
My toast to you:
Here is a toast to our fearless leader- a madcap intellectual with
a penchant for showband tunes.
She has gallantly led her collection of travelling troubadors into
the true final frontier- blog space.
Under her nimble direction we have gone where no one (at least very
few) has gone before.

"Everyone has a story to tell." Carol has shown this to be true. In
a world where people want to
talk but very few listen, she and her marching band have listened.
Stay tuned.

To Carol, everyone say, "Hip hip hurrah! Hip hip hurrah! Hip hip
hurrah!"

Sincerely,
Mango Lane




*Friday's Child is hosting a feast for the occasion. Anybody hungry?

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

It Has to be on Friendly Friday


I know the actual anniversary date is on Saturday, August 19th, but I just can't imagine it being on any other day but Friday.

Are you with me on this?

I know, I know, I send announcements saying Saturday...but a girl is allowed to change her mind!!

So
Friday
, August 18/06 is the official date for the Big Blog FFMB Anniversary Party...but I have a feeling it could be an all-weekender anyways.
Yahoo!

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Discussing Creationism Part XXIII

Can the Bible and evolution be reconciled?

The Bible states that God created the world in 6 days and that Adam, Eve and Noah were historical figures. Science can not accept this and instead teaches that the Creation of the world and the flood are myths.

Evolution teaches that man and ape decended from a common ape-like creature. The Bible teaches that Adam was created from dust.

After the flood, drastic changes occurred in all life. Evolution and Natural Selection teach that biological changes occur over millions and millions of years. According to the Biblical timeline, the flood happened about 1650 years after Creation, leaving not much time for the slow changes of evolution.

How could this have been?













Sources:
About.com Evolution and Religion Most interesting. Be sure to read the last paragraph.

American Atheists



Previous Discussions:
Discussing Creationism: The Initial Argument
Part II: Two Questions about the Ark
Part III:The Volume of the Ark
Part IV: The Weight and Sturdiness of the Ark
Part V:What is a Myth
Part VI: Gilgamesh
Part VII: The Biblical View of Noah
Part VIII: Gathering of the Animals
Part IX Evolution
Part X The First Evolutionist
Part XI The Notebook
Part XII Erasmus Darwin
Part XIII Aristotle
Part XIV Middle Ages
Part XV Kant's Quotation
Part XVI Kant in Context
Part XVII: The Beliefs that influenced Darwin
Part XVIII: John Henslow
Part XIX: Darwin's Infallibility
Part XX: Darwin's Thoughts on Apes and Human
Part XXI:Lyell's Principles of Geology
Part XXII: Natural Selection

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Sign Up Now While

Many strange and wonderful ideas are flooding the FFMB headquarters.
Don't miss a beat, sign up to be a part of the First Ever Anniversary Party of the Friends of the Friendless Marching Band.

For details of the party and how you can participate and make this party the best that Blogdom has ever seen, press here.

No actually, press here.




The Movie Of Your Life Is An Indie Flick



You do things your own way - and it's made for colorful times.

Your life hasn't turned out how anyone expected, thank goodness!



Your best movie matches: Clerks, Garden State, Napoleon Dynamite




Brainy Kid



In high school, you were acing AP classes or hanging out in the computer lab.



You may have been a bit of a geek back then, but now you're a total success!

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Discussing Creationism Part XXII

Darwin observed the Artificial Selection used by plant and animal breeders to keep certain desirable traits in the breeding stock. By this process they were able to maintain a certain variety of the animal. (eg. in dogs-Labrador Retrievers or Poodles )

Darwin observed the varieties of life and their similarities and concluded that Natural Selection had occurred. The competition for survival and reproduction had caused the stronger variations of the species to survive. Eventually, a new species developed.

Natural selection is dependent upon the environment. Different environments would produce different species as different adaptations would be required to survive in them. Thus more than one species could develop from one ancestor.

During this time, Darwin became growingly agnostic. Not only was God not needed in natural selection but he felt that the intraspecies competition was incompatible with a benevolent Creator.



Sources:
Evolution by Edward J. Larson
Origin of Species by Charles Darwin


Previous Discussions:
Discussing Creationism: The Initial Argument
Part II: Two Questions about the Ark
Part III:The Volume of the Ark
Part IV: The Weight and Sturdiness of the Ark
Part V:What is a Myth
Part VI: Gilgamesh
Part VII: The Biblical View of Noah
Part VIII: Gathering of the Animals
Part IX Evolution
Part X The First Evolutionist
Part XI The Notebook
Part XII Erasmus Darwin
Part XIII Aristotle
Part XIV Middle Ages
Part XV Kant's Quotation
Part XVI Kant in Context
Part XVII: The Beliefs that influenced Darwin
Part XVIII: John Henslow
Part XIX: Darwin's Infallibility
Part XX: Darwin's Thoughts on Apes and Human
Part XXI:Lyell's Principles of Geology

Friday, August 04, 2006

Friendly Friday

Hello Friends of the Friendless Marching Band.

I gotta tell you something...sob...your conductor is...pooped. I have been conducting the FFMB for almost a year now and I have decided...sob...to give my tuba (and baton) a rest.

But first there will be a huge party on August 19th to commemorate the FFMB's first anniversary. I'll need your help with this huge shindig. Anyone can contribute. Sign up now.

Then make a post about the FFMB on Saturday, August 19, 2006. I will link to that post on that Saturday.

Suggestions of contributions:
  • find friendless sites and state why you like them
  • write a FFMB poem
  • find a picture of the band
  • make your own illustration (I love those)
  • say what the FFMB has meant to you
  • etc
  • ...sob
I am counting on you guys to keep marching...

Tuesday, August 01, 2006