Random Ramblings

Funny!

Quote :

Where in Canada were you?

We have been in British Columbia and Alberta.

Those videos would fit any suburban area.

Black Rider wrote:

Those videos would fit any suburban area.

Pretty much.....that's why just about every suburbanite can relate to it.

Driven wrote:

I got dinged by a speed camera almost a month ago and finally got the ticket today. Thankfully, I don't have any points on my license, but I wasn't happy about having to fork out the money. I can't contest it, but it wasn't that fast and it's at the end of a freeway where it transitions into a boulevard. Oh well, at least I know where the camera is now.

We have mostly done away with traffic cameras here in Tennessee.  Oh, they are still there, but too many people fought the laws and won their cases.  You are supposed to be able to face your accuser in court, and you can with a traditional police writing you the ticket.  With cameras, you cannot.  You get an automated ticket sent to the owner of the car--not necessarily the driver.  You could be getting charged for someone else's infraction.  The courts agreed in almost every case.

Add to that the cost of operating those cameras.  It cost some of the cities here $80,000 dollars PER YEAR for each of those cameras.  That is a lot of tickets.  So, the sensitivity was set so that tickets would be written more frequently which also was brought up in cases in court.

So, the cameras are still there but now aimed where they can see faces only.  It helps with manhunts or seeing wrecks at certain troublesome intersections.  Thankfully, it has been a few years since I heard of anyone getting a traffic camera locally.

My mother-in-law bought me a phone gimball for Christmas to help me with my "Hangin' With Pastor Chris" segments.  Well, it isn't working right.  So, even though I had a new segment filmed that I did back in April, I just dropped doing them.  However, I sat down today and began to edit the newest addition.  I'll be posting it later today.

I have also ordered a different phone holder to help with my videos.  I just wish I knew how to get people to watch them.  I am thankful that you all do, but I wish I could get more of an audience without having to do daily videos, paying for higher placement in searches, etc.

Gotta spend the money to get people to watch, nature of the beast. Or run naked through Wal Mart.

Black Rider wrote:

Gotta spend the money to get people to watch, nature of the beast. Or run naked through Wal Mart.

How about running naked through Walmart while licking ice cream and sticking it back in the freezer for another customer and then gargling with mouthwash and spitting it back into the bottle!  Yeah, that's the ticket!

I could end the series with eating a Tide pod! 

As far as paying to promote my videos, I wouldn't know where to even start or know who was trustworthy to help in that area.

messiaen77 wrote:

Time for my annual concert trek. This time: Death Therapy!

Hey mess. How was the concert???? 

rockerVu2 wrote:

Quote :

Where in Canada were you?

We have been in British Columbia and Alberta.

Ooooo, lucky!
Did you know I was born in British Columbia?
If you were in BC and AB then you must have been in the Rockies. LOVE the Rocky Mountains. Did you see any moose or elk, Yvonne?

Yesterday my Moto G6 said "system update". I decided to go ahead and update and it said it would take 10 minutes. Ended up taking about 45 and I think it put a new version of Android on it but I am unsure. Normally Straight Talk phones don't allow for upgrades but this is an unlocked phone from Amazon. Anyway, I believe it might be a new version because the layout is completely different. 

For some reason my Amazon Music Player can't find my songs. And my SD card says "explore" or "eject". When I explore I see all my stuff there so my songs are still there. Then I looked at Netflix and my downloaded movies would not play saying they were not there (and those were there too). That was a pretty easy fix, I just removed my phone from Netflix then added it back and it saw my files. 

The thing that scares me is in the settings there is an option to make the SD card "internal storage" and I think that reformats it which would delete everything. 

So to be safe I am copying everything from my SD card in my phone to an external hard drive. That way if I decide to do that at least my files will be backed up. but I think if I just "eject" then reinsert it in the phone it might see it again. Right now it is going to take over 2 hours to copy everything over from the phone to the hard drive.

EDIT: I just ejected and remounted the SD card but Amazon music still says "this song is no longer on your device".

EDIT 2: I called Amazon Customer support and they told me to log out then back in and all of my songs would reappear but my offline music from Amazon would have to be re-downloaded. No big deal, all fixed now!

If your Moto phone is unlocked, then you will get whatever upgrades that all Moto phones get.  Only actual Straight Talk phones (not our unlocked phones) don't get system upgrades.  I don't know why, but I am sure it has something to do with them leasing tower space from other networks.

I spent 35 minutes on hold with my current insurance company, only for the call to drop. I spent another 45 minutes on the second round to complete a 3-minute transaction. All I had to do was tell them I wasn't renewing... I was switching for a better price elsewhere, but I think it's a better service with my new company too.

And my mom wonders why I hate calling companies.

Yep, Jen, I've seen one female moose and two female elk.
The rockies are so beautiful.

The next days we can enjoy a heatwave. It can be 40 C.
It never was so warm here.
Please let the heatve be over soon.
I really don't like it.

Please give some heat to me, Yvonne. I'm wrapped in a blanket at the moment and wearing a woolen hat (inside!). Brrr.

We have been in the upper 90s for several days.  Then storms came through Monday night and dropped things back to the mid 80s.  Summer never felt so good!

We are doing vacation Bible school this week.  Having mostly old people in my congregation, we were afraid we would have no one.  My wife was praying for 5 and I was praying for 10 kids.  We had exactly 10 kids--most of which are not churches at all.  It was chaotic, and our schedule got blown to smithereens!  However, the gospel was presented to these rambunctious children.

Also, I am already hurting from leading the music with all the hand motions.  VBS is not for the faint of heart or for the aging!  LOL

Glad to hear it started off well.  Hopefully it'll continue that way and maybe more kids will show up as well.

Through The Dark Radio wrote:

Glad to hear it started off well.  Hopefully it'll continue that way and maybe more kids will show up as well.

I am specifically praying for 13 tonight!

Our numbers were pretty dismal the rest of the week despite having volunteers from other churches coming to help us do VBS.  The older folks just wouldn't volunteer for anything so we recruited from past churches.  Even the cookout we had last night ended up mostly being for the volunteers that came.  One family did come for that that had been there all week.  

Even then, though, we kind of had our joy stolen as the lady said they were Catholic and would be looking for that kind of church.  It seems that the more we try to reach out to our community that we get sucker punched at every turn.  The church has gotten smaller since I came due to people moving for jobs, moving in with family because of their age, going home because you financially couldn't make it here, etc.  I don't know what to do anymore.

That's tough man, praying you have wisdom.

I went to a little roadside dance last night.  For you city folk, this may be a piece of Americana that you never experienced.  In my childhood and teen years, every good sized town had a dance.  Someone would rent out a large building and get a band together.  They'd play country and bluegrass.  People would square-dance, do waltzes, two-step, and line dance.  The band would play for hours.  You'd pay a small fee to get in and they would do concessions there, too.  If you wanted to have liquor, you had to keep it in the car and sneak outside for it.  It was meant to be family friendly.  These dances popped up because people weren't going to drive into Nashville for all the big fancy night clubs. 

My dad played in one of these bands for many years.  He did one in Cedars Of Lebanon State Park and later at the VFW hall in Gallatin, TN.  I got in free because I helped carry in gear for the band.  It was a good place to go to take girls if you were dating.  My wife and I dated there quite a bit as I only had to pay to get her in.  Even though I didn't like country music, I learned to two-step.

It took us back in time for a while.  Like I said, many city folk may not have experienced this little piece of Americana.  For a little while, worries don't matter and you are truly free.  You don't care if the Democrats and Republicans are fighting over this or that.  You don't care if all your bills are paid.  You just came for the music and to dance.  I might be a rocker, but I am proud to have experienced the roadside dance halls.

That's cool!  I've only seen things like this in movies.

Well, it's back to the world of the working stiffs!  It is hard to believe that school starts again tomorrow for students.  I go back today, and the teachers went back on Monday.  Not counting breaks and holidays, we just have 36 weeks to go!