My bud Tony McCollum does it again! He shoots and he scores!

Thanks, TMc!

Before there was Jim Brickman, there was George Winston. Before there was Liz Story, there was George Winston. And before there was even George Winston, there was George Winston. His Autumn was the precursor to his highly-regarded December project. And it’s perfect for the first Sunday Night Unwind of the fall.

Even though it was in the high 80s today, right now, there’s a pretty good breeze blowing, and with the window open, I can hear the wind chimes from the front porch. Add in a big ol’ ice cold glass of fresh local milk (that’s “local” as in “right down the road,” as opposed to “lo-cal,” as in “supposedly more healthy!” ) and some warm banana nut muffins, straight out of the oven, and it just doesn’t get a whole lot better than that.

Know who said that quote in the title? Sounds like a distressed worker, who is having to put up with all kinds of abnormal, terrible distractions, doesn’t it?

If you live in the great state of Georgia, and just in case you haven’t heard, our public schools will be closed Monday and Tuesday in an effort to conserve energy in the wake of two major storms. Gov. Perdue made this request Friday, and it has been honored pretty much all across the state.

The big article in today’s Atlanta paper talked about how much of a hardship this move will be. Hardship for whom? Students? No sirree Bob! They’re loving it! Teachers? Not really. School custodians? Naaaaah.

Parents.

Yep, parents.

Parents who suddenly are faced with what to do with their kids when their free day care school is not available for two days.

I understand that there will be some adjustments, in schedules, in carpools, in eating arrangements, etc. But you know what? All that comes with the territory when you choose to have kids. They aren’t some commodity to be thrown around. They’re your children, God’s greatest gifts to your family. They’re also your responsibility. Not the governor’s. Not the teachers’. Yours. Something tells me that if you can’t figure out what to do with your kids for two days, there is a larger problem somewhere in your life.

OK, I’m off my soapbox.

BTW, the quote in the title? It was uttered by one Heni Sandoval, whose daughter is a third-grader at Hunley Hills Elementary School in DeKalb County. Now it’s not like Ms. Sandoval is going to have to carry her daughter with her to her big shiny corporate office. It’s not like she’ll have to clamp down on the kid’s behavior and manners. You know what Ms. Sandoval does for a living? Well, do you? Here’s the quote again, in its context from the AJC…

“I won’t be getting any work done at all,” said Sandoval, an artist and stay-at-home mom.

Terrible, ain’t it? Un-freakin’-believable…your mileage may vary…

I posted a link to the Library Thing, an online book catalog thing. I listed about 140 or so of my books, just to see how it works. Very cool! (I’ll be ponying up the $10 for a lifetime subscription as soon as I can!)

But that got me to thinking…how do you, loyal readers, catalog your own library at home or in your office or wherever? Do you take the time to use the Library of Congress system? Dewey Decimal? Some other system? No system? Pile ’em on the shelves and hope for the best? Do you have your stuff in your computer? Do you take the time to use labels and put ’em in order on your shelves?

Currently, I’m trying to use a modified Dewey system I learned in seminary. It’s not as detailed as the “regular” Dewey system, and it does have some kinks that you have to work around, but it seems to work for me. It also works right now because my Brother P-Touch only does two lines of text per label.

A sample label, say from Walsh and Keesmaat’s Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire looks like this:

227
WAc

227 is the general Dewey subject area, WA is the first two letters of the author’s name, and c is the first letter of the title. Like I said, there are some minor issues, but it works for me right now. Got any better ideas? Better yet, got some time to come put all mine in order on my shelves?

Some stuff I found on the way to something or somewhere else. Some of it will make you go, “Hmmm.” Some will make you go, “A-ha!” Some will make you go “ho-hum.” But you’ll never know until you click ’em!

• A review of Six Disciplines for Excellence
• Transforming the middle aged self
• The 100-Minute Bible
• Retrieval, not storage: how to organize a drawer
• Library Thing: catalog your books online

Try this: If you use Microsoft Word, open a new document and type the word unchurched.

Unless you’ve changed some setting somewhere for some good reason, more than likely you’ll get one of those little red squiggly things (technical term there!) that identifies a misspelled word. Do whatever normally do to see the “suggested corrections” and notice the very first alternative on the list. What do you see?

BTW, I’ve thought about adding unchurched to the list of acceptably spelled words, but I decided against it. Why? Because I want to be reminded every time I type the word that they are “not yet” and that somebody – me? you? us? – is going to have to make the effort.

Just a thought. Of course, your mileage may vary…

Like a lot of churches in our tribe, we have a Wednesday evening mid-week “service” on our schedule. Virtually no one comes on a regular basis. Usually it ends up being me and one or two other guys, and we spend that time praying – for each other, for our families, for our church, for other churches in our area, and other stuff. It’s a personally and individually rewarding and encouraging time to which I look forward most weeks.

We also have a part-time student minister, who does the “big thing” for/with students on Wednesday evening as well. Our student group has been small, but it is growing in numbers every week. Here’s the thing…all of the kids who are involved in our student ministry are “unchurched” except for one guy, and he’s the one who has been the catalyst in getting the rest of the group there on Wednesdays.

Tonight, I watched and listened to a little of what was going on after the “student meeting” got over. (They have a band – don’t all high school kids want to play in a band? And the band “rehearses” after the “meeting” gets over.) Anyway…

We have all kinds of kids in that group…

We have one girl, “L” who is an interesting combination of Gothic look and Broadway voice. Tonight, she and another girl who I didn’t know, were singing highlights from The Phantom of the Opera. (Yep, I told them the story of how I ate some Phantom tickets last night. Their comment? “That sucks!” (Why would you have expected them to say anything different?)

We have another girl, “K” who is an interesting combination of Gothic and surfer chick (with an uncanny resemblance to Sheryl Crow – with maroon hair.) She has had some exposure to church in the past, but she’s not buying into it very much right now. (For the record, she was at our Sunday service this week, and her comment afterward was, “Pastor Charlie, you’re a good preacher!” Whatever…)

There are a lot of other interesting kids that hang out in and with the group. One girl claimed to be an atheist a couple of weeks ago, and was very vocal and certain about that philosophical position. She tried to initiate a heated argument in the group, and much to the credit of our student minister, he was able to talk about Jesus and share His grace in a pretty profound way. Tonight, a couple of weeks after that incident, I overheard her asking for prayer. (One side of me wanted to ask her to whom should we pray for her concerns. But that side was quickly and happily overshadowed by the side that said, “Yea, God!”)

We have bass players, we have guitarists, we even have a drummer who always reminds me of the stupid joke I told him the first night I met him. (What do you call somebody who hangs out with musicians? A drummer!)

Then we have this guy, “Z,” who has just shown up the last month or so. He’s a kind of scrawny little guy, and I’m not real sure what color of nail polish – fingers and toes – he’ll have next Wednesday night. I had the opportunity to chat with “Z” for a minute tonight. In an attempt to initiate a conversation, I asked him, “So what do you do? You don’t sing, you don’t play guitar, what brings you around this bunch?” His response: “I just like the atmosphere.” I asked, “You mean the atmosphere of the band, or the place, or what?” “Z” said, ” I just like the atmosphere of this place. The only reason I come here is because I feel like nobody’s looking down on me here.” Interesting…

If you’ve got a minute tonight, and a couple of extra prayers, would you use ’em for “L,” “K,” and especially “Z?” God’s up to something in this bunch. I’m not sure what it’s going to turn out to be, but I’m almost certain it’s not going to be your “typical” youth ministry thing. I’m watching and waiting and praying and encouraging and picking up Coke cans and candy wrappers and listening to Broadway songs and loud unrecognizable tunes and closing refrigerator doors and turning the air conditioner off and locking up after they leave on Wednesdays. All because something cool is going to happen…

If you’re going to be in Atlanta tomorrowtonight…

I have 2 tickets for The Phantom of the Opera at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in Atlanta for tomorrowtonight, Tuesday, September 20. The show starts promptly at 8:00 p.m. and you�ll probably need to be there a little early, according to the Fox people.

These tickets have a face value of $50 (US) each. I�ll let you have them for $37.50 (US) each, for a total of $75.00 (US).

The tickets are available in .pdf format, and I can e-mail them to you immediately, if you�re interested. You�d have to print them out and take them with you to the Fox.

We�ve had something come up and we�re not going to be able to use the tickets, and I�d hate to see them go to waste.

But time is of the essence�you need to let me know ASAP if you�re interested so I can get them to you in plenty of time.

Think about it, it�s a great deal, if you can go.

BTW, this is the live stage version of Phantom, not the recent movie version. It�s the last week, and you might be sorry if you miss this deal.

The tickets are for seats ORCH JJ 25 and 27 (they really are next to each other) and you can check out the seating chart at the Fox Theatre�s website.

Thanks, and hope you can make use of the tickets. Let me know ASAP�first come, first serve!

Many moons ago, I discovered the Musical Heritage Society. I can’t even remember how many of their “re-packaged, generic white” LPs I had in my collection. I do remember that you could score some pretty good deals on some great – and often obscure – classical recordings. Now that you no longer have any purchase obligation, and since they are releasing great stuff without the bland, generic packaging, I re-upped with them.

Now, of course, they also have the Jazz Heritage Society, which I’m really into right now. My initial shipment came Friday, and I’ve just had the first opportunity to put ’em in the old CD player.

At this very moment, Ella is singing “How High the Moon,” a performance that still knocks me out after all these years! Throw in a little scat, a little “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” and a few more, and it makes “How High the Moon” a pretty amazing exhibition of Lady Ella in her prime.

Oh, and the Jazz Christmas CD? What can I say? It’s after Labor Day, right? So sue me…I love Christmas music!

OK…this site bills itself as…

An Indirect Line to God, for the Godless.

I’ll let you make your own conclusions…language alert for some of you in the comments.

(Thanks – I think – to the good folks at MetaFilter for the link.)