I’m happy tonight to introduce another member of the BJ Blogging family, Diane Heeney, who runs Strength for Today. Here are the vitals:

1. Title: Strength For Today
   • URL: http://strengthfortoday.wordpress.com
   • Author: Diane Heeney

Diane and 200 or so more bloggers connected to Bob Jones University can be found at The List.

Like Punxsutawney Phil, I have emerged from my underground tunnels once more to poke my head into the sunlight, squint, and scurry back into the darkness after seeing the shadows of a thousand cameramen eagerly staring at me. Poor thing - what in the world goes through his head? And why doesn’t he just leave the area?

I’d update on my life but nothing’s really all that interesting by way of updates. The New Roomie (the previous Roomie up and got married, which would have strained the current living situation a little) upgraded himself to a 32″ Samsung and a PS3, which means CoD4, Blu-Ray, and digital TV. Neither he nor I are particularly interested in DirecTV or anything we have to pay for, really, so we’re sticking with broadcast for now…when we actually watch it.

So, blogs. Got another four to add to The List: the husband-wife tag-team of Matt and Lee Jury, Mark “The Immovable Object” Smith, and Brian “The Irresistible Force” Buda.

1. Title: EvidentLee
   • URL: http://evidentlee.wordpress.com/
   • Author: Lee Jury
2. Title: Life is Worship
   • URL: http://lifeisworship.wordpress.com/
   • Author: Matt Jury
3. Title: budaful music
   • URL: http://budafulmusic.edublogs.org/
   • Author: Brian Buda
4. Title: Just Cognitizing
   • URL: http://www.justcognitizing.blogspot.com
   • Author: Mark Smith

No, I was not hit by a car (though I did almost hit a deer). And no, I haven’t dropped off the face of the planet, though that trip is at the tail end of the planning stages, and I expect to go through with it in the next few months. I hear it’s quite a blast, though getting back on the face of the planet is kinda troublesome. Let’s just say that, with a new job position, new hours for that position, and new forms of recreation at a friend’s house, I haven’t really been home all that much to do a lot of blogging. And let’s face it - the age of the personal blog (excluding those blogs that are specifically focused on a certain topic or area of expertise) has just about seen it’s demise, courtesy of “new” (not really new, but perhaps mostly mature) outlets like Twitter and Facebook, to name a few. For self-published news digests, how-tos, and other related miscellany, blogs remain the sine quo non of their fields. But for personal communication, social networking sites have taken over as the new standard in forcing your up-to-the-second status on people. Hey, at least with blogs people could choose whether or not to view what you were having for dinner.

All that to say, things have been quiet around here, with the exception of that HCSB thread that keeps getting traffic on a consistent basis. To all who have commented - you should be receiving yours shortly. My source apologizes for the delay.

And what back-from-the-grave update would be complete without a notification that more bloggers have been added to the list? Check this out:

1. Title: GraceFlow
   • URL: http://www.graceflow.org
   • Author: J. D. Coleman
2. Title: The Mercied
   • URL: http://themercied.blogspot.com/
   • Author: Rebecca Phillips
3. Title: The Confessing Historian
   • URL: http://timtaylor.edublogs.org/
   • Author: Tim Taylor
4. Title: One Little Hour
   • URL: http://paulmatzko.edublogs.org
   • Author: Paul Matzko
5. Title: Cafe Biblia
   • URL: http://www.CafeBiblia.com
   • Author: Craig Johnson

Some of you may have thought that The List was dead. Actually it’s still very much alive and quietly ticking away back there. And just to prove it, I’ve added another blogger - Noel DeLisle. Noel and I had a few classes together, sang in a few official and unofficial groups together, and basically did most of the stuff that music students in the same classes do together. After a long blogging hiatus he’s back on the grid with a shiny new Mac.com blog, so drop in and say hey.

Things have been a little quiet on the BJ Bloggers front. You guys keep bloggin’ away, but since the “blog boom” (wonder if that’s an original term?) fizzled out, there haven’t been many new additions to report. I would, however, like to post up four new bloggers to the list, only one of which is a recent addition. For some reason, the emailing feature that (is supposed to) email whenever someone adds a name half the time doesn’t, so when I logged in to approve one today I found three others going back to April. So, without further ado, here they are:

1. Title: It’s a Jungle Out There
   • URL: http://ajungleoutthere.blogspot.com
   • Author: Melissa Hays
2. Title: Here today and gone tomorrow
   • URL: http://heretodayandgonetomorrow.blogspot.com/
   • Author: Michael Schmid
3. Title: Have Your Fill
   • URL: http://www.haveyourfill.net
   • Author: Jon Eckert
4. Title: Keeping Up with the Joneses
   • URL: http://withthejoneses.blogspot.com
   • Author: Suzanne Jones

Stop by, enjoy the good times, etc. While you’re doing that, I’m going to eat dinner and go to bed.

Get yourselves on over to the list and check out the new bloggers:

1. Title: Broken Chocolate
   • URL: http://www.brokenchocolate.com/
   • Author: Philip Van Reijn
2. Title: Tangible Theology
   • URL: http://tangibletheology.blogspot.com/
   • Author: Rob McQueary
3. Title: My Mind’s Musings
   • URL: http://www.mindsmusings.wordpress.com
   • Author: Ben Howard
4. Title: InFocus
   • URL: http://www.givemetruth.net/infocus
   • Author: Jason Harris

Note on InFocus - that’s the former Fundamentalist Resource Centre (complete with British/Aussie spelling!) but has been renamed and redesigned into something a little less oblique. Otherwise the other three are all new additions. Go on by, pay them a visit, and thank them for associating with the fountainhead of all things BJ Blogging related, mounty’s corner!

Brook Coulson, of By Grace Elect fame, is the newest member on the list. Props to her…make sure to go by and catch up.

This, oddly enough, is post 500. I just now noticed this as I logged in to add juxtaposition, the official blog of Beth Murschell (BJU and, again oddly enough, UBCS alum), to the list. Congrats, Beth, on being the occasion of my 500th post!

Now I gotta go find a party hat for Groovin’ Guy (c)…

I’ve got two ministries that have been added to the list. First off, the BJU Music Ministry Team has a blog and photo gallery up - check out the homepage for the Sacred Sounds Ministry Team, run by Joey Hoelscher and the gang, and hosted alongside my site by me and Jared Sutton. BTW, we’ve had some additional sites come to our door, so if you’re thinking of breaking out into the blog world, now would be a great time to do it! </end_shameless_plug> The other site that just came to my attention is run by Brian M. Lievens and is for deaf Christians. The site’s called Edifying Deaf Christians, and the URL takes its cue from Colossians 1:10 [+/-] so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.. So by all means add these sites to your “must-read” list for 2007, and as always, happy blogging!

First things first, we’re proud to announce the entry of Pillsbury History Guy, otherwise known as David McGuire, ‘71 grad. David submitted his own site, and now that I’m off at a friend’s house getting (got, at this point) his new router running, I figured I’d pop on and confirm everything.
Click for more…

I’ve got five new ones to report at the list:

1. Title: Scotter Finazzio’s Adventures
   • URL: http://www.scootersadventures.blogspot.com
   • Author: Carol Selstad
2. Title: ryan’s ramble
   • URL: http://blog.broylesonline.com/
   • Author: Thomas Ryan Broyles
3. Title: The Chronicles of Blake
   • URL: http://www.bjunewsletter.com
   • Author: Blake Meyer
4. Title: The Jackson’s Journey
   • URL: http://jacksonsjourney.blogspot.com
   • Author: Leah Williams Jackson
5. Title: Hammond Family
   • URL: http://jandkhammond.blogspot.com
   • Author: Kelly Hammond

Stop by and enjoy.

I just upgraded to Wordpress 2.0.5 - as always, WP admins/users are strongly recommended to upgrade. The swag can be found at the usual place and is a painless download and upgrade. If you find something that doesn’t work quite like it used to, drop me a comment or something.

There are also three more bloggers to report over at the list. First off, Pastor Jeff Davis up in Wilson, NC, submitted his blog shortly after the Calvary Quartet (minus me) ministered at his church. Go on by and check out PastorJD’s Weblog. Up next is Susan Elwart, family webmaster and winner of today’s Catchy Title award - I can see her blog now saying, “Hey Guys! Over Here!” And the most recent addition to the list comes from Alysia (and husband Ethan) LaVigne, proud parents and owners of The LaVigne Family blog. Do yourself and these folks a favor and check out the fine blogging on a variety of topics.

Finally, I leave you with a bit of my vacation. This picture (click for the whole thing) was taken on the rocks at the Portland Head Light in Portland, Maine. It was cold, windy, and absolutely gorgeous. There was some concern about whether we were allowed to be out there beyond the fence…meh.

Aaron Dickey, of Digital Equinox fame, recently sprouted his own blog, imaginatively called Digital Equinox - Blog. And I would like to state for the record that the words “digital” and “rhythm” are really hard words to type quickly. Finally, the obligatory link to BJBloggers.

I’ve got one more addition for you folks - Matthew Sims (et al) run Under Sovereign Grace, a blog on some spiritual topics - from my perusings it kinda looked like an online blog-commentary. (Not a commentary on blogs, but a commentary in blog format.) You should check it out at the list.
Click for more…

…I’ve added a captcha test to the submission forms (both on the list page and the submission applet). I know it’s an annoyance and an inconvenience, but recently spammers have been flying high with emails and spam submissions. As of late the contents of these spams have been unrepeatable. So, to stem the tide, I’m using a simple captcha. Should be enough to discourage the lengthy URL-filled submissions, as well as the occasional operamail.com or gmail.com spammer with fifteen different names per submission.

Jared tells me that, as server admin, he has the right to request blogging on demand - in other words, he wants a blog, and it’s my responsibility to blog. I don’t necessarily subscribe to that theory, but since I’m chilling (literally - it’s freezing in this hotel room…just the way I like it) in very southern Georgia I figured I might as well catch up on some bloggers. In that line of thought…

Tonight marks the up-and-over landmark over at the list - we hit 200+ tonight! The most recent entries, in no particular order other than most recent to most not recent, are:

1. Title: kimchi corner
   • URL: http://kimcheecorner.blogspot.com/
   • Author: Larry Fitch
2. Title: A Voice for Wisdom
   • URL: http://avoiceforwisdom.blogspot.com
   • Author: Larry Fitch
3. Title: Tropical blonde
   • URL: http://tropicalblonde.blogspot.com/
   • Author: Kate Gardenghi
4. Title: Crucial_Force
   • URL: http://www.xanga.com/Crucial_Force
   • Author: Zach Smith
5. Title: SpecialK703
   • URL: http://www.xanga.com/specialk703
   • Author: Kelly Mooney
6. Title: jonkilp
   • URL: http://jonkilp.wordpress.com/
   • Author: Jon Kilpatrick
7. Title: The Lord’s Battles
   • URL: http://dustinbattles.blogspot.com/
   • Author: Dustin Battles
8. Title: CLAWS
   • URL: http://robstopher.wordpress.com/
   • Author: Robert Laws

Some are present students, while some are former students; some are people I know quite well, while some I’ve never met. But the point is they’re BJ-related, and I’m over 200.

Now, while I’m thinking of very southern Georgia, let me ask my northern-impaired brethren and sistren a few things:

1. What’s with the adjectival phrase “ever-lovin’”? For instance, “I’ll preach the ever-lovin’ sense into ya’ll!”
2. Do you really use the phrase “Can I get a witness?” in normal conversation? I only ever heard that in two places - as part of a comedy routine and as the name of a song by Marvin Gaye (yes, I had to look that up, and no, I didn’t intentionally listen to it - it was playing as I was walking out from, of all places, a department store).

A third question, harkening back to my Charleston vacation a few weeks ago - I got the part about that not really being a crescent moon on the SC flag, but what’s with the occasional red SC flag?

On a somewhat unrelated note, has anyone besides me ever used the word “belie” in a sentence? I looked it up - it’s a real word, pronounced “bee-LIE” and it means “to give a false impression of” (thanks, Merriam-Webster online). I’m on the bus heading down here this morning, and somehow or another we start talking about clip-on ties. I note my propensity to break out in rashes if I’m in close contact with metal for any length of time, and I used that word to delicately and succinctly point out that it wouldn’t look very good for a BJ student to be wandering around town with a nice big red rash on his neck. So, I simply said that said rash would “belie my single status.” That touched off a ten-minute discussion on what I meant and why I phrased it why I did…which time would have been saved had I just come right out and said I didn’t want to look like I had a massive, well, you know. Lesson learned: um…well…so I didn’t learn any lesson. Live and don’t learn, that’s me.

So yeah, that’s about all. I hope Jared (and all the rest of youse) in readerland are happy. Go Eagles, and go my fantasy football team.

And no, I’m not talking about the riotously funny Stargate SG-1 episode this past Friday. (Side note: one of the marks of good writing is the ability to make fun of oneself. Say what you will about that episode - but they made fun of themselves and their parent genre in general while still staying true to form. Nothing was sacred; everything was fair game. A steady diet of that is no good, but it’s definitely fun once in a while.) 200 is the next milestone to be reached on the list. And today we inch two bloggers closer, bringing the total to 196. First off, Barbara Harper, with familial connections of some sort to Jeremy Harper, I think, commented and left info about Stray Thoughts. A little closer to home, for me, was the inclusion of John MacInnis, fellow survivor of American Hymnody and…bah. What am I talking about? Everyone survives an Uncle Fred course, even if it looks like they’re gonna die when they get the final exam. Anyway, John and I spent many hours (minutes?) thinking deep thoughts in the best tradition of seminarians. We even had productive deep thoughts, on occasion. But I digress. Perfect Diapason is up and running now, and you’d do well to go read. And check out the design - he’s got a nice clean layout which should be noted by web developers.

All I need is four more bloggers, and we’ll hit 200. Which reminds me…I need to outfit Groovin’ Guy for a party…

Welcome to this, another post in the “strange yet somehow vaguely enigmatically-named posts” series. First, a BJ update. You know how we shake our heads at all those new-evangelical churches that have live video of the pastor displayed on the side screens in the auditorium? Well, BJ is officially new-evangelical, if that be the only criteria. Dr. Stephen Jones finally decided that, after many faculty, staff, students, and student leaders all asked for enlarged video of the chapel platform (especially us faculty/staff/GAs up in the balcony - impossible to see from up there!), he would finally approve a video screen of the speaker. Now if they could just get rid of those mic cables dangling in front of the screens…

This “Oof” post contains a whopping number of updates to the list that have been accumulating. Since the server change, I was unable to log in and make changes to the queue of new bloggers. Now I can, so I did. And wow, the changes. Many thanks to Caroline Lee, whose site is listed below, for the excellent work she did scaring up these sites. Props, Miss Lee. Now, here are the billion or so updates:

1. Title: Fundamentalist Resource Centre
   • URL: http://www.givemetruth.net/articles
   • Author: Jason Harris
2. Title: JDHarper.com
   • URL: http://www.jdharper.com/wordpress/
   • Author: Jeremy Harper
3. Title: Juniata
   • URL: http://www.bensfriends.com/juniata/
   • Author: Michael Gembola
4. Title: by caldron pool
   • URL: http://caldronpool.blogspot.com/
   • Author: Justin Rettger
5. Title: music in the mountains
   • URL: http://musicinthemountains.blogspot.com/
   • Author: Scott Moore
6. Title: sweet nothings of shortcake
   • URL: http://www.thesweetnessofnothings.blogspot.com/
   • Author: Jessica Velez
7. Title: The Life of a Violinist
   • URL: http://violinguy.blogspot.com/
   • Author: Jacob Frank
8. Title: MissLine86
   • URL: http://www.xanga.com/missline86
   • Author: Caroline Lee
9. Title: The Abbott Builder Family
   • URL: http://www.theabbottbuilderfamily.blogspot.com
   • Author: Ashley Abbott
10. Title: To the Praise of His Glory
    • URL: http://www.xanga.com/sdubois305
    • Author: Sherry DuBois
11. Title: Mark’s Blog
    • URL: http://mark.wmdboom.com
    • Author: Mark Johnson
12. Title: In Whatever State I Am
    • URL: http://www.xanga.com/ebabe860
    • Author: Lea Ann Garfias
13. Title: Stephens Family
    • URL: http://www.musicmom100.blogspot.com/
    • Author: Andrea Stephens

The overwhelming majority are present students or very recent graduates, but there are a few “sages” thrown in there for good measure.

Finally, a warm word of welcome to all the students returning for the fall semester: GET OFF MY HALL! GET OUT OF MY PARKING SPACE! GET OUT OF THE DINING COMMON LINE! IN FACT, GET OFF MY CAMPUS!!!

Sorry…it’s just that this place becomes tolerable, population-wise, during the summer and Christmas breaks. Though, fear not, because I’m really not all that ticked off. Truth be told, it gets a little lonely without everyone around. That’s fine - I’m sure you don’t want to be here, either. But you are, so hey. And now, since I have absolutely no idea where this train of thought is even still on the tracks, I’m going to end right now.

Another three bloggers have added themselves to the list. First off, Erin Oliver runs and so it goes…; Joel & Cynetta Seekins run a family blog at The Seekins Family; and Jason Harper, a current student, views life from Grandpa’s Rocking Chair. Check these sites out and remember, the list is always searchable.

First, a list update: Allison Meena, a current student, runs Ergo, a site dedicated to asking, “So what?” I’ll tell you, that’s my kind of site. I ask that question all the time. I’ve stumped seminarians over dinner with that question. That was after they spent 45 minutes debating the slant of a handful of writers for or against some six- or seven-syllable “-ism.” For all the time they spent talking about it, they couldn’t convince the average layman that it was anything really important. But lest I go on my semi-annual rant against seminarians and new pastors who haven’t worked a real job in the real world in their entire lives, I’ll stop now and let you folks debate whether or not someone who spent every summer, save his church internship summer, at the Wilds and who, rather than getting a part-time job in town, sits at home and reads the latest theological journal can truly understand what the rest of us who do have “9-5″ jobs go through when we’re invited to the annual Christmas office party.

An update on my life - I’m on some really cool painkillers at the moment, so if I start randomly spinning words, you’ll know why. It all goes back 10 years or so. City Boy here has never been fond of nature. Give me a good skyline over a majestic mountain view any day. I tolerate it, and I will go out into it, provided I’m eqiupped with the proper weapons and armor. But this day ten years ago, I decided to go on a hike. First time out, and I slip and sit hard on a tree root. Gave me a world-class spinal re-alignment. Four years later I had surgery to repair one disc that had popped loose and was killing the sciatic nerve down my right leg. I still have nerve damage there - no reflexes to speak of and no sensation of pain down the back of the leg. Came in handy running - I could never feel that leg getting tired, so I got more distance ouf of it before it collapsed enirely. Well, a few months ago I started feeling an intermittant pain down my left leg, same sensations as before on the right leg. It was sporadic until two months ago, when it became constant. Only last week did I finally see the doctor, who perscribed a few high-power meds, hoping that if she could kill the pain and let me walk on it normally, it’d pop itself back into place. I think it’s working - it’s been feeling better every day, and the Oxycodone is enough to put me out for 15 hours like it did this morning. Took it at 10p last night, didn’t wake up until 12:30 this afternoon. Except for…

…my next rant. Don’t ever assume that, just because you happen to be awake at 8a on a Saturday morning, that everyone else in the world must be, too. Someone called my room this morning at 8:30 or so and let the phone ring for what seemed like an eternity. Probably let it go for a dozen rings or more. Now, my parents taught me that, if someone doesn’t pick up after three or four rings, just hang up, because it’s rude to keep the phone ringing if the person on the other end of the line doesn’t want to pick up. It’s especially rude to let it go 12 times before hanging up, and even more rude when both people in the room are trying to sleep. (Talking with my roommate this afternoon, we discovered that the phone woke both of us up, but neither of us had the energy to actually roll out of bed to answer it. Which is why I typically take the phone off the hook Friday night.)

I’m still feeling the effects of sleep inertia, I think. I’d better close before I get myself into trouble. Cheerio…