Month: July 2008

Cleaning House and Updating Links

Posted on By Tom No Comments on Cleaning House and Updating Links
Internet, Miscellaneous

One of the hardest things about maintaining ANY website, whether it be a blog or just plain ol’ HTML, is keeping external links updated. Websites change, become irrelevant, or just stop working altogether. Every now and then you just have to clean house. When I first started using WordPress there was a component called “links”, … Read More “Cleaning House and Updating Links” »

Audio Journeys – The Anderson Jockey Lot

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Audio Journeys – The Anderson Jockey Lot
Local, Things Overheard, Weirdness

Jesus and Knives

Paul and I made our annual trek to the Anderson Jockey Lot. We always try to take a newbie with us – someone not yet immersed in southern flea market culture. Lately this has been a new faculty member at Furman, and this year was no different. Karen Buckmeuller was our victim this time. She couldn’t convince her new husband, Herman Holt, to come along with us. Several others were also supposed to go with us, but wimped out, too.

As I’ve learned, the denizens of the Jockey Lot get very nervous around cameras, and with good reason. We saw several less-than-legal items for sale. I was still able to snap a few shots, though. Most useful was the little Sansa Clip recorder. I clipped it to my shirt and left it recording the entire time we were there. I got some fascinating conversations. I’ve edited it down to the best clips and added a little background music, then posted it to Boomp3.com. It’s about six minutes long.

boomp3.com

In this audio clip, you will here the following, in order:

  • Question about the price of a Megatron helmet
  • Haggling over the sale of a car
  • A discussion about a breed of dog
  • The benefits of using fake security cameras
  • A bird saleslady
  • A call to repentance for stealing cars
  • A discussion of spicy pickled tomatoes
  • How society has been destroyed
  • The problems with Dale Earnhardt candles and Teresa Earnhardt
  • Good beans
  • Night blooming plants
  • A rooster crowing
  • Another dog salesman
  • And finally, selling big time

There were several more conversations I would have loved to have captured.

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Adult Braces – Eleven Lessons Learned

Posted on By Tom 2 Comments on Adult Braces – Eleven Lessons Learned
Miscellaneous

A post bordering on TMI… These lessons are probably not much different than those dealing with adolescent braces. However, I think the choice of foods and situations would be quite different. Install a food disposal unit in your bathroom. Either that, or brush your teeth over the kitchen sink. The Water Pic is the greatest … Read More “Adult Braces – Eleven Lessons Learned” »

Diving into Social Networking

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Diving into Social Networking
Internet, Miscellaneous

I’ve spoken of my hesitance to get involved with the whole Facebook/MySpace thing. However, it seems that I’m slipping deeper and deeper into the Social Networking abyss. First there was blogging, then Flickr. Those were the gateway drugs leading to Twitter, Virb, and Facebook. Now I think I’ve taken the ultimate plunge. I helped Laura … Read More “Diving into Social Networking” »

Scenes from a Southern Funeral

Posted on By Tom 3 Comments on Scenes from a Southern Funeral
Miscellaneous, Uncategorized

Funeral-of-John-Lafayette-Smith

(Photo – Funeral of John Lafayette Smith, my great-grandfather)

This past week the father of a friend of mine passed away. I had known the family for ages, and I now work in the same office as my friend’s wife. I attended the funeral both as a long-term friend and a representative of his wife’s employer.

I wasn’t sure I should go. I had lost touch with this friend for over twenty years until his wife started working in our office. While I knew his family, I hadn’t been in touch in most of that time. Then I remembered one of my favorite essays from the This I Believe series on NPR. Deirdre Sullivan’s essay was entitled “Always Go to the Funeral,” and is summed up nicely in these excerpts…

“Always go to the funeral” means that I have to do the right thing when I really, really don’t feel like it. I have to remind myself of it when I could make some small gesture, but I don’t really have to and I definitely don’t want to. I’m talking about those things that represent only inconvenience to me, but the world to the other guy. You know, the painfully under-attended birthday party. The hospital visit during happy hour. The Shiva call for one of my ex’s uncles. In my humdrum life, the daily battle hasn’t been good versus evil. It’s hardly so epic. Most days, my real battle is doing good versus doing nothing.

In going to funerals, I’ve come to believe that while I wait to make a grand heroic gesture, I should just stick to the small inconveniences that let me share in life’s inevitable, occasional calamity.

The funeral took place in a rural Baptist church that was founded in 1806. The family received friends and guests before the service, so a line had formed outside the church. To combat the heat while waiting, the funeral home staff passed out fans and bottles of water.

With the long line, it took awhile to get to the family. My friends seemed truly grateful that I was there, and that made it worth the visit, regardless of anything else that might happen. Since my friend is a Baptist minister, he took part in the service itself. I was amazed at his composure, and ability to speak eloquently at his own father’s funeral. As with most evangelical churches in the South, not only were there comments about the life of faith just concluded, but concerns expressed for those in the congregation who might have strayed from that path.

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