Year: 2009

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 14, 2009

Going back to the last couple of months of 2007 Tuesday is the most-visited day of the week of this blog by a fairly substantial margin over the running average of the other six days of the week.

This weekly blog series is why that is so:

1. I am so glad to be back at home again using a computer that actually works properly with the rest of the world (cyberspace). We had rolling Internet blackouts today at work. It affected some people more than other people. I couldn’t do much on my computer system at work from about 7:30 AM until the time that I left work this afternoon. Hopefully they will fix all of those problems between now and tomorrow morning. I have work to do at work !

2. I would be very upset if my brand new A.C. condensing unit (outside) was not working properly. I am not upset at all. It works fabulously, and my home hasn’t felt this comfortably cool and dry in many years. I’m glad that I finally got that taken care of before the hot and humid summer season begins.

3. A late-season cold front will sweep through America’s Riviera late tomorrow (Wednesday) night. This will mark the start of about 5 days and 5 nights of more bearable springtime weather with maximum daytime high temperatures right around the 80°F mark and minimum nighttime low temperatures in the refreshing low-to-mid-60s.

4. Checkers may have wings, but the wings that I had from them last week were not big and meaty but rather tiny and tasteless. They were downright pitiful. The fries however was just as delicious as I remember them to be once upon a time ago when I used to go to Checkers every week for Lunch. The fried apple pies (2 for $1) were the absolute BOMBZ ! Nobody makes apple pies like that anymore !

5. On Monday May 11TH 2009 U.S. postage climbs 2¢ to 44¢ for a typical first class letter of one ounce or less. 10 years ago in 1999 we were paying 33¢. 20 years ago in 1989 it was 25¢. 30 years ago in 1979 it was 15¢. 40 years ago in 1969 it was 6¢.

SPECIAL BONUS 6. ! This Thursday and Friday I plan to see two movies at the box office – “I Love You, Man” and “Adventureland“. I’ve been in a box office drought so far in 2009 having seen only one flick – “Slumdog Millionaire“. I need to catch up with my current movie viewing. I can’t watch everything via Netflix.

Those are my thoughts on this Tuesday night. Thank You for spending some quality time with me.

God Music

Monday Night Countdown

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 13, 2009

For over 23 years now (since the end of 1985) I’ve been compiling my favourite hit songs of the week. At this hobby’s peak I was compiling two TOP 40 music charts every week. At one point it even became a TOP 50 music chart. For nearly a dozen years (1995 to 2007) these weekly hit music charts appeared on the web at MASSIVESMASH.COM (my former popular web site). Nowadays I simply compile a TOP 15 music chart every week (offline). The TOP 5 out of the TOP 15 is posted here on the blog at this location.

Here are my TOP 5 current favourite songs:

5. The Unavoidable Battle Of Feeling On The Outside – FM Static

4. Control – Clemency (former # 1)

3. Back To The Five – Ruth (former # 1)

2. The Difference – Philmont (former # 1)

1. Set The Dial – Run Kid Run

I’m a big fan of Run Kid Run out of SE Illinois / NW Kentucky. I like their style. Every single song that they’ve released to the radio since I’ve been on this journey with them has been a great song – “I’ll Forever Sing”, “Sing To Me”, “Captives Come Home”, “Sure Shot”, and “Set The Dial”. This is a band that I would love to see LIVE in concert. I’m a fan. Oh yeah – this is the most important part of it all: They love and follow Jesus Christ. That makes them rebels. I dig that.

God People

Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 12, 2009

– Happy Easter Sunday !
– It was extremely foggy early this morning in Homestead.
– Visibility was near zero for several hours.
– I could barely see the dozen or so signs along the road for Life Pointe Church.
– Those signs worked.
– The main lobby of the movie theatre was crammed in between services.
– The parking lots had traffic jams developing.
– People were pouring in for the 2ND service as much as 40 minutes after its start.
– I hugged Ela LIVE and in person.
– That alone made it a very special Sunday morning.
– Ela is perhaps the most inspirational person that I’ve met in my entire Life !
– Tom greeted me at the front door upon my arrival.
– Tom was rescued and saved by God from evil and darkness.
– Jesus Christ saved Tom’s Life !
– We watched his totally awesome testimonial at the start of the service.
– I want that video to be available on You Tube so that I can show it on here.
– I hope to walk with Tom for a very long time as we both follow God.
– Pastor Travis kicked-off a fresh new message series this morning.
– It’s the first week of an 11-week series based on 1 Peter.
– Simon Peter was a mad crazy rebel.
– This week’s teaching was based on the following 23 verses of The Good News:
   – 1 Peter 1:1-12
   – 2 Timothy 3:16-17
   – John 20:1-9
– Everything that we need for Life and Eternity is in The Good News.
– It’s the rebel’s handbook.
– We do not follow what the world is saying and doing.
– We do not follow false idols.
– We follow and obey Jesus Christ and His Good News.
– Walk with us.

History Life Music Radio Television

Saturday Night Retro

In 1979 I was an 11-year-old that became a 12-year-old in June. I graduated from Magnolia Elementary School in Lanham Maryland (right in my own neighbourhood):

Magnolia Elementary School, Lanham Maryland

That was my school for Kindergarten from 1972 to 1973, and then again for 3RD, 4TH, 5TH, and 6TH grades from 1975 to 1979. The street that I lived on (Red Wing Lane) was located directly in front of the school by a couple hundred yards, but that was not the proper way to walk to and from school because you had to climb the fence and walk in other people’s yards to do so. The proper way to walk to and from school was up / down the hill and over to the left-side main entrance.

Incidentally the more things change the more things stay the same. That school looks exactly the way it used to look 30 to 35 years ago – right up to the facade of the building, the spray paint residue on the left-hand side, the breezeway out front, and the lightposts. A lot has changed since the mid-1970s. The outside of that school is not one of those changes.

If you walk through the front entrance, take an immediate right at the first hallway, and take that hallway down all the way to the very end you should come across a big painted map of the U.S.A. directly on the surface of the wall (if it’s still there). My class painted that as a special project way back then. I specifically painted Hawaii. It was a masterpiece !

It’s amazing the things that I remember from back in the day.

And now for your ultimate ‘Saturday Night Retro’ review I present to you this # 1 gold pop smash that everyone was singing and dancing to in their living rooms and in their cars just before 1979 morphed into 1980. This my friends is English musician Robin Scott – better known at the time as simply ‘M’. Here’s the official music video for “Pop Muzik” – one of the first videos ever made for television – more than two years before MTV even went on-the-air. This video was sleek, stylish, solid, and state-of-the-art for its time. Check it out: