Nancy Davis Owens
May 27, 1922 - January 9, 2010

Grandmom passed away at home last week. She taught me a lot about love and concern. I'm going to miss her.

Her obituary ran in a few papers last week:

Nancy Davis Owens, 87, of 404 North Broad Street, Columbia, died Saturday, January 9, 2010, at her home.

Born in the Alligator Community of Tyrrell County, May 27, 1922, she was the daughter of the late James E. and Nancy Pritchett Davis. She was married to George G. Owens, Sr. with whom she operated their family business, Owens Supply Company until 1983. She was a member of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church. He preceded her in death in 2008.

Funeral Services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church with Pastor James Koo officiating. Burial will follow in Azalea Memorial Gardens.

Surviving are three children, Sandra O. Cohoon and husband, Hal of Greenville, Nancy O. Davenport and husband, Haywood of Columbia and George G. Owens and wife, Wilma Rae of Columbia; grandchildren, Greg Cohoon and wife, Meredith of Greensboro, Chris Cohoon and wife, Olga of Waldorf, MD, Dana D. Spencer and husband, Kevin of Washington, Lora D. Guerra and husband, Rich of Humacao, PR, Hannah O. Rogers and husband, Steve of Creswell, Caroline O. Chandler and husband, Scott of Roper and George G. Owens III and wife, Nicole of Gatesville; great-grandchildren, Kaleb and Leah Spencer, Abby and Nilah Guerra, Emily, Madeline and Molly Chandler, Davis and Braeden Owens, Sidney Gardner, Ciaran and Ceilidh Richardson.

In addition to her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by a daughter, Laura Ann Owens; brothers, Harvey W. Davis, H. Edward Davis and Harry Lee Davis; sister, Milver D. Alligood.

Memorials are suggested to Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church, c/o Kim Humphlett, 1301 Levels Road, Columbia NC 27925.

The family will receive friends at Bryan Funeral Service on Monday, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and other times at the home.

I'm trying to win a FB contest from the local minor league baseball team, the Greensboro Grasshoppers. They're giving away a prize pack to the fan who can get the most people to "like" a post on their wall. So if you're on Facebook, please go to this Facebook Post and click the "Like" option. 'Cause I love me some baseball. And I love free stuff. Free baseball stuff is the best!

Thanks.

ETA: Tricky. Apparently you have to "become a fan" of the Greensboro Grasshoppers before you can "like" their wall posts. So if you want to help me out here, you'll have to (temporarily?) become a fan of the page on FB, too....

Happy Festivus, everyone!

In honor of Festivus, I got everyone who reads this a present. More accurately, I made a donation in your honor:

Be sure to boycot bagels today, too. In my opinion, this is an often overlooked aspect of the Festivus holiday.

I currently have three borrowed books in my possession. I really need to hunker down and get some reading done.

First, I have a book that my mother-in-law lent me several months ago. I don't remember the title, but it has something to with a historical study of Jesus. She really enjoyed it and thought I would like it, too. I'm not so sure, which is probably why I haven't picked it up yet. I would like to go ahead and start reading this one and decide if it's one that I'll enjoy or one that I can return mostly unread.

Second, last week one of my band mates lent me a copy of Skydog: The Duane Allman Story. That's been on my amazon.com wishlist for a few years. I'm really excited to have my hands on this one. I think once I start reading it, it will be a pretty quick read. It's kinda thick, but I'm sure the subject matter is going to keep me turning the pages pretty quickly.

Finally, I picked up a book at the library this evening. I heard about The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers on the Steve Brown Etc. show a few weeks ago and immediately requested it from the library. It was currently checked out, so I got on the wait list. It came in last week and I finally had a chance to stop by today and get it. Falsani had a great interview with Steve. I've seen about half the Coen Brothers' films, and I'm interested in seeing how she ties the theology in.

I guess I'll start on the Coen Brothers book first, since it's the one that has a due date.

Update 11/18/2009: I also have ccohoon's copy of I Am Legend, which he lent me about 57 years ago. I haven't even cracked it open yet, although I'm sure it's another one that I'd zip through once I started. I really need to get my reading on.

I just experienced one of the stupidest things ever.

My credit and debit cards do not have my signature on the back of them. Instead, I wrote "SEE ID" where the signature should go. The signature on the back of the card is pretty useless, so I'd rather have a retailer ask to see my ID when I use a card. Most of the time, the retailer ignores it anyway. Sometimes, they ask for my ID, but a lot of those times, it's just the store policy to do that anyway. I know that technically, the card is not valid unless signed -- it says so right on the card. I've never had a problem with it.

Today, I went to the post office. After ringing me up and looking at my card, the teller informed me that he couldn't accept the card unless it was signed. No big deal, I've heard about that happening to people who write "SEE ID" on their cards. You can fix the problem by just signing the card on the spot. I didn't have a pen on me (I need to get back in the habit of keeping a pen on me) so I asked to borrow his. He gave it to me. I made some scribbles that was not my signature on the card and handed it back to him. He was cool with that and rang up the transaction. When he gave me my card back, the ink of my scribbles was still wet, so I just wiped the scribbles off.

How many ways was this whole transaction wrong?

1. My card wasn't signed to begin with. According to the card, that means it's invalid.
2. When the teller refused to accept my invalid card (good for him, I guess), he allowed me to sign it in front of him and accepted the card.
3. I "signed" the card with scribbles that looked nothing like my signature.
4. My scribbles were never compared with the signature on the credit card receipt that I did sign with my real signature.
5. When it was all done, I just erased the scribbled "signature" off my card.

What is the point of requiring a signature of the back of the card in order for the card to be valid?

So today is the release date for the NLT Mosaic Bible (available at amazon.com). Tyndale is hosting a virtual launch party, complete with a contest. Full disclosure: the prospect of winning a copy is part of the motivation of this post.

I first heard about this Bible a few weeks ago while I was on vacation. Tyndale alerted me about it since I participate in their Blogger Review Program. I was too busy vacationing to follow up about it, and by the time I did, all the review copies were gone. They're hosting a blog tour associated with the release, so everyone who did get a review copy will also have some "value-added" content on their blogs: guest posts from the editors, Q&A sessions, etc. I think that's a pretty slick turn of marketing on Tyndale's part, and a great way for me to discover more Bible-related blogs to read.

This edition of the Bible itself looks interesting, too. As I've stated before, the more time I spend with the NLT, the more of a fan I become. The features in this edition have the possibility of being very promising. From their website:

Holy Bible: Mosaic is about helping you encounter Christ in a deep and authentic way, through insight from every continent and century of the Christian Church. Historical and contemporary art and writings from across the globe offer a depth of Scriptural wisdom and understanding as you read and reflect on God’s word.

Mosaic is arranged so that every week has variety of content for reading and reflection. Each week follows a theme appropriate to the Church season (such as Advent, Easter, etc). The content included for each week includes full-color art; Scripture readings; a historical reading; a contemporary reading; a prayer, creed, hymn or quote; and space for reflection.

Over the past year or so, I've been much more interested in the history of the Church. (Yes, ironic since I'm now a worship leader in a more contemporary (Dare I say emerging? No, probably not.) setting). The time I've spent with my TDP over the past year has been a true blessing. I should spend more time with it. Another resource with similar content is something I'd love to look at, especially if it's something that I could take with me when I travel. The TDP is really too big and bulky to travel with in addition to a Bible. This might fill both roles.

On the other hand, there's a tremendous opportunity for Tyndale to fail with this endeavor, too. I didn't find any good examples of what the pages look like, so I don't know how they integrate the information with the Bible text. Or how good the information is. Based on what they put out with the NLT Study Bible last year, though, I have high hopes for this edition. I'll be watching the blogs that are reviewing it in order to decide whether or not to add it to my "gift list" this birthday/Christmas season.

Or maybe I'll get lucky and win a copy.

I bought a baseball glove last night. So if you're ever in the Greensboro, NC area and want to play catch, look me up.

I have done a lot of stupid things in my life. This weekend, I will add one more thing to that list: running a half-marathon with no training.

When I signed up for the Virginia Beach Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon a long time ago, I had every intention of training throughout the summer and being ready to run an awesome race. Then I got really busy at work and completely neglected my training. Once things got less busy at work, I never really picked up the training again. I think I've been on exactly two runs since my last event (the Krispy Kreme Challenge last February) -- about 3 miles each time.

This is not the way to train for a long distance run.

I checked the information about the course, and they're planning on keeping it open for four hours. That means a pace of about 18 minute miles will let me complete the course before they close it. I'm pretty sure I can walk at that pace (or better) for four hours, so that's my back-up plan.

If you really want to track my progress during the race, you can do so at Competitor Wireless, but it'll cost you $2. Let me save you $2: I'm going to be slow, near the end, and work my hardest to make sure I finish. I'll probably tweet when I'm done. Heck, maybe I'll tweet throughout the race, so just follow my twitter feed instead.

Whatever happens, I'll be seeing the Black Crowes after the race Sunday night. That'll be fun.

This is an example of the beauty of baseball: Bruntlett ends Phils win with solo triple play.

Wow, wow, wow. I wish I had seen it when it happened, but at least there's YouTube:

1. Bruntlett catches the batted ball before it hits the ground, causing the batter to be out.
2. The baserunner who was on 2nd was on his way to 3rd, so when Bruntlett steps on 2nd base before the baserunner returned to tag up, that baserunner was out.
3. The baserunner who was on 1st was on his way to 2nd, and Bruntlett managed to tag him out before the baserunner became safe by standing on any base.

It would be fun figuring out how to score this play. I'm guessing an L4 for the batter, an a CS for both of the baserunners. Anyone know a more correct way?

Hey, look. I still blog here. Sometimes. It's been busy lately, so this is one of those posts where I post about a bunch of stuff.

Sunday School

I got to church early enough to practice my guitar with the band a few minutes before we had to get off stage because a service was about to start. During the Sunday School hour, I decided to visit my old SS class and catch up with some of the folks over there. I miss them. Today's lesson centered around Deuteronmy 6 (with emphasis on Shema Yisrael). The teacher did a great job, some of the discussion made me thing about some things, and I really enjoyed being with that class again. I'm not going to be a regular visitor -- the folks in class still looked to me for answers when there's a part of the discussion that stumped the teach. If I were a regular, I'd just end up being the "shadow teacher," and that's not fair to either me or the current teacher. I'm probably stop back in for a visit in another few months.

One thing interesting happened. One of the ladies in class pulled me aside and told me that she was in the process of planning her mother's funeral. (Her mother is in fine health for an 80+ year old and the need for a funeral is not expected soon, but it's not a bad idea to plan for these things.) As part of the planning, the daughter wanted to know if I'd participate in it. I was honored, told her so, and agreed. I'm going to try to get in touch with the daughter again soon and find out more of what she had in mind. But, wow. I'm really humbled and honored.

Church

Today's service at The Mount went really well. The band was tight. We had worked up a pretty high-energy set of songs for today's service and it worked out nicely. I especially enjoyed getting to debut my wah-wah pedal in one of the songs. Next week, I'm going to switch with the bass player -- he'll cover guitar and I'll cover bass. We're both really excited about doing that.

We're going to be getting some better lighting for the room soon, too. The current lighting is very harsh and the addition of some theatrical lighting should help a lot.

Today's sermon dealt with making the most of every opportunity, and it was a good message. Our pastor had been away for a couple of weeks and it is nice to have him back.

After church, yarbiedoll and I joined a couple of other worship leaders from The Mount and picked up school supplies for over 20 children that are attending The Mount and would have trouble getting the money together to get supplies on their own. The Mount seems to have (semi-)accidentally started to reach out to a local population of international Christians. Many of these people are refugees from Rwanda and other African countries. It's not the typical demographic that has been at our church throughout the years, and it's really exciting seeing that they are finding a worship home in the service that we're working to provide. It's also great that the church is not just stopping at inviting them to the service, but is supporting them in other ways. It felt really good to be part of getting those supplies together.

Baseball

After getting back home from school supply shopping, I had just a few minutes to get some things together before heading downtown to the ballpark. One of my coworkers was taking his 2-year old son to his first baseball game, and I was happy to have an excuse to go to the ballpark.

I got to the ballpark about an hour early, in plenty of time to see the announcer introduce one of my friends who works with Baseball Chapel, an organization that works to make Christian services available to baseball players and umpires. During the season, it's hard for players and umpires to be able to attend services at their home church (especially when they're the visiting team), so Baseball Chapel helps provide opportunities for players to nurture their faith throughout the season. I headed down to the field to let my friend know I was at the game and he introduced me to his co-chaplain. I headed back to my seat and they headed off to do whatever else they needed to do before the game started.

A little later, I ran into them again and we all sat together. As it turns out, the co-chaplain is also into scoring baseball games. Since I've been teaching myself how to do it over the past several weeks, I was excited to be able to sit next to someone who really knew what they were doing and pick up some hints. I had a great time, and hope to run into him again at the ballpark sometime.

My coworker and his son arrived in the 2nd or 3rd inning. They had a great time and it was really cool to watch a little boy be overwhelmed by the spectacle that is a live baseball game.

The Hoppers lost (no surprise there) 5-2, but the last several innings were pretty enjoyable. I'll be heading to Durham to watch the Bulls next Sunday. And the day after that, I'll be back at the Greensboro game for their last home game of the season.

I'm adding a baseball scorebook to my Christmas list this year.

Ham Radio

One of the other things that has been keeping me busy lately is ham radio. We're in the process of connecting the W4GSO repeater to the Gateway, so it will be able to connect to other repeaters and reflectors all over the world. It's been on the Gateway for about 2 weeks now, and we're still experiencing growing pains. But we're getting there, and I'm pretty excited about it. It's really neat to be able to key up a handheld radio and make a UHF call that ends up getting heard in England.

I'm one of the administrators for the Gateway, partly because I have some Linux experience. It's really neat to be able to help out with this. After we get all most enough of the gremlins worked out, I'm looking forward to exploring some of the cool things you can do with the Gateway.


Hopefully it won't be so long between blogging here again....

I went for my first run this morning after several months off. I've got a half marathon scheduled for next month, so I really need to shape up quickly.

My shoes still work.
My legs still mostly work.
My lungs don't really work.

I've got some work to do.

Happy birthday to my brother, ccohoon! Congratulations on making it through yet another year without dying!

Happy Bastille Day! Today, we celebrate the French defeat at the hands of...

...the French!

Thanks again to Laura Bartlett and the blogger review program at Tyndale House Publishers, I've been looking at a copy of Psalms, Proverbs (Cornerstone Biblical Commentary) over the past few weeks. This is part of a projected 18 volume series (not all volumes are available yet) covering the entire Bible, using the New Living Translation (NLT) as its basis.

I wish I had this commentary when I was teaching Psalms last year. While teaching the Psalms, one of the difficulties I had was dealing with unifying themes while exploring each individual Psalm. Before going into the commentary on the text, the book provides a 25-page introduction for Psalms as a whole. This is one of the best book introductions I've read. It talks in detail about the authors of the Psalms, the date and occasion of writing, the audience, the use of the Psalms, the literary style, the major themes, and theological concerns. The majority of the attention is focused on the literary style and the theological concerns and I found both sections especially insightful.

Moving into the main portion of the book, I love the way it is laid out. First, a portion of the text is presented. Next, textual notes are presented. Finally, after the notes is the commentary. The commentary is well-written and informative. It is especially helpful for preaching and teaching, but would also be useful for personal self-study. As a simple test of the commentary, I turned to the familiarity of Psalm 23 and read the notes and commentary on it. There are 2 pages of commentary, focusing of the focus of depending on God (as a shepherd) for daily bread and daily guidance.

The section on Proverbs is just as interesting and as the section on Psalms. Again, this is the kind of commentary that I'm particularly grateful for because I am so much less comfortable with poetry than with other forms of biblical literature.

This is the second volume in the Cornerstone series that I've reviewed, the first being the pastoral epistles. The more familiarity I gain with this series, the more I like it. I highly recommend this series to anyone who teaches the Bible.

Logos Bible Software is celebrating the launch of their new online Bible by giving away 72 ultra-premium print Bibles at a rate of 12 per month for six months. The Bible giveaway is being held at Bible.Logos.com and you can get up to five different entries each month! After you enter, be sure to check out Logos and see how it can revolutionize your Bible study.

The Logos online Bible looks pretty cool, but if I've got my computer hand (instead of being at a random computer with a web browser), I always fire up Accordance for my Bible needs -- simply the best Bible software available on any platform.