Timothy's Thoughts

Not having anything better to do, I decided to celebrate our country's independence with these people. I was surprised to learn that some people camp out all day just to get a good view of the fireworks in the evening. I took the photo below at about 9:30 in the morning. The laser show started at 9:30 at night. It wasn't until about an hour and a half before that show when I realized that there was no room to put a lawn chair if I had had one that I understood why people would spend all day starring at a giant rock. I climbed that big rock and along the way I saw the kids below, trying to get closer to one of the buzzards that landed near us. After having worn myself out climbing, I chose to ride the lift back down. I ate dinner at Miss Katie's. The food was good and there was plenty of it, but their concept of throwed rolls is laughable. Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, Missouri started this throwed roll craze. I've been there and it made sense. A guy is walking ar...

I suppose they got to where they were going. Last Friday, I saw about forty kids and five teachers get off a plane in the Atlanta airport. They all wore brightly colored T-shirts. "Stay with your groups. Stay in this terminal area and don't go out past baggage claim," the older of the two male teachers said loudly. Concourse D, where we were, is big enough as it is to lose a few kids if they failed to check in as they were instructed. Baggage claim is about a mile from gate D2. In between there are several concourses the look very similar. I was just glad that I was getting on the plane they had left and not responsible for getting them all on another plane three hours later.

Today Rachelle Gardner posted a brief blog post written by yours truly. It deals with the discussions writers have with each other. It was an honor to be asked to share my thoughts on her blog, so please go check it out and leave your thoughts there.

I was in Atlanta on Thursday, waiting for a flight back to Fort Worth. I was standing, watching out the window at gate D-4 as a plane prepared for departure. Apparently, the windows were dirty or something because, while I watched, one of the pilots opened the left cockpit window and climbed partially out of the Boeing 737. In his hand he held a one liter bottle of Dasani water, which he poured on the windshield. They used the wipers to wipe it off before he poured more of it on. He eventually emptied the whole bottle. I assume they were able to get the window clean. The next time you get on a plane, you can feel safe because the pilots have cleaned there windshield with bottled water.

I just got back from the annual meeting of the Baptist Missionary Association of America (BMA). I went as a messenger from my church and I am also the Secretary/Treasurer for the Baptist Music Fellowship. Overall, the meeting was very harmonious. There was disagreement, but no one was disagreeable. When the BMA meets each year, it brings together many churches that agree on doctrine, but have different opinions on many other things, such as worship styles and preferences of Bible translations. It is good to see that these people can work together to accomplish a greater good.

Valerie Anne Faulkner has posted a review of Searching for Mom . The lead-in is interesting, though I had the sound of Ron Howard singing The Wells Fargo Wagon running through my head after reading her comments about the UPS truck. The review is a the bottom of the post.

In the current system, just before a book's release date, an author or a publisher will send out review copies of a book, hoping to generate buzz. They want the book to sell well, from day one. Bloggers across the Internet post a review on their site and their readers, the author hopes, will go out and buy the book. The problem that I see with this is that people who read don't time their purchases around when a publisher releases a book. A few authors may have fans anxiously waiting for the next release, but most authors don't. People who read a lot may go ahead and purchase the book, knowing they will get to it eventually, but many won't buy a book until they are ready to read it. That may be weeks, months or years after the release date. I see so many reviews that I mostly ignore them. I happened to scroll through the reviews at novelreviews.blogspot.com. Most of what I saw didn't interest me, but I noticed a review of My Heart Remembers, from fifteen day...