Billy's Blog Cabin
Absurd tales from the guy who goes on eBay to buy 18th century woodworking tools. Communication...technology...worship...and news from the homestead.
3/2/2010
living well writing little
According to the CNN weather man, yesterday was the first day of the meteorological spring. I think I can feel it. I don't want to be inside even though the day looks pretty dreary. For close to a year now I've suffered some pretty major writer's block... or rather lack o
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1/20/2010
tracking health kits for haiti
Those who know me know my fanaticism dealing with the notion of social networking and disaster response. As a result, I've been tracking the global Haiti relief effort. Partially as an experiment, but mostly as a legitimate request I created a facebook event yesterday to get people to pu
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12/4/2009
k
So... walking to class today, a friend of mine texted me about lunch plans. I responded to his text with "K" instead of "OK". It occured to me that I'ved reached a new level of lazy, if I feel compelled to abbreviate a two letter word.
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12/2/2009
heat
Some days I wonder if anything productive can actually be accomplished between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Well at least on campus before finals start. It's pretty obvious that most people (myself included) would rather be doing something else. Today it's rainy and cold, which is a
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12/1/2009
the harlot comes home
The Nunnery came home today. She's a money grubbing harlot on wheels. Six months at a repair shop (though the repairs should have taken less than a month) and around $4,000 in bills I believe we're about to part ways. I used to call it the Nunnery for comic effect, now I understand
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11/30/2009
a new name
As of this day, I'm officially changing the name of my blog, which has previously simply known as "blog" to "Billy's Blog Cabin". It's a name change I've wanted to do for some time but have hesitated due to that infernal DIY Blog Cabin show. But, I figure their time w
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11/20/2009
student blogs... the weird and the weirder
For those who like conspiracy theories...http://redemptor-mundi.xanga.com/
For those awkward fictional narratives (or voices in your head) http://wakingdaydream.blogspot.com/
And of course zombies... http://handsome-truth.xanga.com/
Or Broadway... http://www.broadwaybabble.blogspot.com/
Vanity i
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11/9/2009
a new book
I think I'm about ready to start on another book. I need to get the writing work that's currently on my desk off my desk and then we'll see. I've also thought about a documentary of some sort, who knows maybe both. I have realized that I need to re-engage the literary part of my mi
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11/9/2009
dancing shoes
I'm still trying to get used to my mini notebook's keyboard. It's the perfect size for an eight year old. Typo's must be forgiven for awhile...
Take your cautionary tales
And take your incremental gain
And all the sycophantic games
And throw 'em all away
I used to start these off wi
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11/2/2009
finding the right words
I'm a storyteller by nature. If I'm teaching or talking to somebody, there undoutably will be a point that I'll tell a story about something that happened to me or somebody I know. It's one of reasons I dig the teaching style of Jesus. Somebody asks a question and he responded with
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11/1/2009
motion
It's been a busy weekend in the hollow...
Props to the Lady, she's a champ. We pulled an eighteen hour day on Saturday working the fall festival. She was up until 1:30 baking only to get up at five so we could set up our tent by six o'clock Saturday morning. Over the course of the
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10/15/2009
sheet game and anger management
So this is the big story of the day. I'm thinking the term "grounded" will have a whole new level of meaning in that household.
I would say it's a lovely day in the Hollow, but Thursday is my longer than crap day at the University. Factor in the youth event Sanctus played last
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10/13/2009
major award
I am a major award winner. A few months back I entered my shop in a "Best of" contest by Wood-Mizer, (the company that made my sawmill). I figured the free hat I got for entering was probably the last I'd hear about it. That was until I got around to checking my mail yest
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10/12/2009
here I go again
And for the record...everything is fine. The last post was a little on the dark side, but fear not there are no mental breakdown's planned for the future. Just because the writing had stopped, doesn't mean the thoughts have. I guess I'm just vomiting out th
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10/8/2009
washed up on the shores of the disenfranchised misfit island
I've come to the conclusion that I'm a terrible blogger. Well that's probably not the best description. I think perhaps I'm a disenfranchised writer. I seem to be lacking a certain degree of motivation or something along that line. Back in the day it was easy. The
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5/12/2009
Awesome House for Sale
After building this house 10 years ago and finally building the shop I always wanted, we've decided to sell our place in Wildcat Hollow so that we can relocate to our farm. This page is for anyone who might be curious about the place.
A little bit about the place...
Ten years ago I sea
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4/29/2009
Thoughts on Rethink Church
A friend of mine sent me a link to this post on the UMC's new Rethink Church campaign. I posted a response, but since this place has been gathering cobwebs, I thought I'd post my here too.
I’m actually someone who came back to the church after I saw the Open Hearts, Minds, Doors m
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1/20/2009
cool technology introduced when the new guy came to town
It was a lovely day in the hollow. I suppose a historical one even. It seems a bit redundant to go on about the inauguration since that's what everyone else is doing, but I can say that the shop officially has big ole barn doors with the most amazing hinges you ever saw. I guess th
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1/19/2009
i have a dream
The full version of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
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1/16/2009
trailer park professor or steeple envy
I think I've mentioned in the past that the professor position that I hold isn't really what I expected it to be. Well scratch that...it is and it's not at the same time. By that I mean it doesn't fit in with the stereotype that I knew it wouldn't fit to begin with. As long as that
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1/15/2009
a follow up to the Missouri Minister's School
I gave a lecture yesterday on changes in communication and understanding social media (aka Facebook) and how you can use it to communicate with younger adults and ended up fielding a few questions that I wish I had a little more time to talk about. But first of all...if you want to access the
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1/8/2009
another day on the shop and invasion of the television
It's a lovely evening in the hollow. The stars are out and it was a lovely day to be outside, but according to a History Channel special we're four years away from doomsday. Bummer. This evening marked an odd event. We now have satellite TV. In an effort to cut expenses
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1/7/2009
a general update and plans...
It's another lovely evening in the hollow. The stars are out for the first time in days. The hickory and black cherry logs burning in the fireplace are creating a nice aroma that mixes well with the smell of the Lady's baked goods from the evening. All seems well.
I didn't make qu
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1/6/2009
the pursuit of the muse
It's a lovely evening in the hollow...
The Lady has retired for the evening to be good and rested up for her 5 a.m. appointment with her current novel and treadmill. Me, I'm kicked back with a bottle of New Belgium's 1554 "Enlightened Black Ale" and waxing philosophic. Funny t
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12/29/2008
a bowl full of dirt
My sermon from yesterday's speaking engagement...
I grew up on a farm. It’s the kind of childhood I wish I could grant to more kids of this age. Because it was a childhood of dirt and grime. It was a childhood of long summer days and hard work. Of building hay bale
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12/3/2008
Seth Godin...Meatball Sundae
Is Today's Modern Church Busy Making Meatball Sundaes?
By Milan Ford
www.streamingfaith.com
With the emergence of such social networking websites like MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook, not to mention the 70 million people worldwide who host their own blogs, it is clear that the times have
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12/1/2008
run to mobile...run now
So I just downloaded the Shazam application for iPhone. Essentially if I hear a song I like and don't know who it is, I can hold my phone up to the speaker and it spits back the song, artist, album and how to buy it on iTunes. I have no idea how it works, but it has to be one of the
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11/25/2008
cell phone etiquette
Here's a piece of advice. If you're meeting with someone...anyone. Turn your cell phone OFF. If you actually answer that phone you need to be beaten with it. It's disrespectful and acutally just plain old rude. While advising a student yesterday he answered three...coun
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11/21/2008
pushing passion
In some form or fashion we all want our particular "thing" to spread like a wildfire on a hot windy day.
Chances also are that there are few people in this world who are more passionate about your (insert product, business, organizations, cause, service, etc.) than you are.
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11/10/2008
questions on freedom
It's a rainy day on campus. To quote Guns and Roses, it's a "cold November rain". I can't believe I just quoted Guns and Roses. That's so cheesy.
Speaking of November, we've hit the holy month of sportsmen, otherwise known as deer season. It was a beautiful weekend
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10/31/2008
cruel, unusual and entertaining
So yesterday I had around half of my students show up early for my 11 o'clock class. We were picking up where we left off on Tuesday's notes so the PowerPoint was already up on a slide with notes. I told them for fun we were going to tell everybody else that they were an hour late for cl
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10/27/2008
connect - serve - move forward
It's my mom's birthday today and I know she's going to read this. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!
There were two Arkansas stories on that made national news last night. One that warmed my heart and one that broke it.
These two happened less than 30 miles from each other. I'll admit i
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10/20/2008
deer camp
It's a chilly morning in the hollow...
Still no wood cut, I may be burning some scrap lumber before the week's over...
It was a good weekend. I spent the majority of it hanging on the side of a white oak tree. The only legal buck I saw was Friday afternoon (before it was legally black
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10/15/2008
raising expectations
It's a lovely morning in the hollow... There is a symphony of frogs, crickets and early rising birds outside. The Lily Lu is becoming an irritation again with her barking. When we first got her she was scared of her own shadow and barked at absolutely everything unusual to her.&nbs
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10/13/2008
building a homestead
It's a lovely morning in the hollow...
Daylight is slow to come this morning due to the cloud cover. The weekend was lazy and productive. I finished the roof on the shop. For whatever reason, I'd put off the roof of the north wing until now. But now the tin is all in place w
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10/10/2008
signs of communication breakdowns
It's a cool morning here in the hollow. It's still dark but the sky is beginning to lighten in the east into the grayness of early morning. It's still quiet here as the world has yet to awaken. I can hear fishing boats setting out on the lake and the occasional neighbor leavin
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10/6/2008
homesteads and ozark streams
It's a rainy night in the hollow...
It's a slow rain. A soaking rain. A therapeutic rain that taps on tin roofs and counsels the soul. It's too early in autumn to be a cold rain. There is no wind and so the precipitation must fall on its own merit through dying leaves.&
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10/3/2008
saying goodbye to the hollow
It's a foggy morning in the hollow...It's early autumn...the season of fog.
Truth be told, I'm trying to get some projects finished up around the hollow so I can say good bye to it. Projects meaning the remaining bits of the shop and a little clean up in the back yard. And then the
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9/29/2008
Due to the state of the US economy I offer this video
So I've watched the Dow fall about 100 points in less than an hour... so it must finally be the end of the world as we know it. If you listen closely, you can hear the poo hitting the fan.
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9/5/2008
presidential compare and contrast
Here are the full length acceptance speeches for both presidential candidates.
And here are the VP speeches...
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9/4/2008
the roach and the rat story
It seems dear Gustav has passed us by in the hollow, but not without leaving us copious amounts of rain. Oh well, it is what it is. I want to share with you a true story that I've been sharing for years in my training events when I talk about evangelism and community perception of church
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9/3/2008
learning from wal-mart
A while back I caught a documentary on Wal-Mart. And whatever your opinion of the place, it's the largest corporation mankind has ever known and as a result there are some lessons that can be learned from them. Since I'm a big fan of databases, the thing about them that caught my attenti
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9/2/2008
a new purpose for commercials
It's a rainy day on campus. As brother Gustav makes his way across the state we're getting light showers today, but apparently are on tap to get a good washing tomorrow and Thursday. The state has it's fair share of folks from Louisiana visiting, but I'm afraid it isn't nearly the e
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8/28/2008
red state update
It's a fairly warm day here on campus. But the first game of the football season is tonight and at home so the campus is bleeding green and gold. Well at least around my office it is because we're in the shadow of the football stadium. The Sig Eps have been tailgating since lu
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8/27/2008
decaying information
A student brought this to me today... It fit perfectly with today's lesson.
A 20th Century Fable
In the beginning was THE PLAN
And then came THE ASSUMPTIONS.
And the assumptions were without form. And the plan was completely without substance. And darkness was upon the fa
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8/25/2008
glass bottles and maslow's heirarcy of communication
It's a lovely morning on campus. The sun is shining, the students are scurrying and the cows across the street are chewing their cud. I'm here in my office catching up on the news. I should be able to finalize my grade book after today. I've already had half a dozen students
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8/20/2008
it has begun and the death of facebook
It's kinda hard to say where it's a lovely day from anymore. Classes started for the Lady Monday and for me today. As part of our transition and to save money on gas, the Lady is for all practical purposes living in the Nunnery in my parents' front yard. Or rather out by the g
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8/13/2008
back on campus and a redneck girl
It's official, the Lady and I are back on campus. Both of us have been thoroughly oriented, luncheoned and generally introduced. Now is the peculiar time of being 'at' school but not necessarily 'in' school as we wait the arrival of our new students.
It should be noted that yesterday, t
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8/8/2008
stupid computer
It's two o'clock in the morning and I'm on hour three of fighting with one of my computers. Specifically, my video editor. I hardly ever surf the web with it and as a result I seldom update it. It's one of those "If it ain't broke don't fix it things". But
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8/4/2008
dog days
It's a hot stinkin' day in the hollow. You know that wave of heat that hits you in the face when you open the oven and check on a batch of cookies? Walking out the door feels a lot like that, except there's no yummy smell of cookies.
The AC is working overtime and I'm hiding from the su
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7/31/2008
work on the shop...and that's about it
It's a lovely day in the hollow...
It's a little cooler today so I managed to hold out and work longer on the shop getting all the siding finished on the upper north wall and a size-able amount on the western wall. The shop is 32 X 32 with a 16 X 16 foot loft and I've been saying that it's ju
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7/30/2008
kids and rasputin
What's that sound? I can't quite seem to figure it out...there's something different...oh yeah...silence.
Glorious silence....Ahhhhhh
I've been out of internet land for a few days due to the house being invaded by two nieces (6 & 8) and a nephew (2 1/2) that we brought home from Dallas o
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7/23/2008
the shop and four legged friends
It's been a lovely morning in the hollow.
Rain came to town mid-morning and has kept the heat at bay allowing me a rather productive morning on the shop. More siding is up, the biggest exterior wall now has studs and I was able to mount the big blue cabinet I salvaged from the Lady's sc
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7/22/2008
coming home
It's a sweltering day here in the hollow...
I've rearranged my daily schedule. Before, I would do all my work in the morning hours and once complete spend the remaining hours doing what I needed to do around the house. But since we started breaking the 100 degree mark in the afternoons,
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7/15/2008
more wii and a dog addicted to cantaloupe
It's a lovely morning in the hollow.
I'm afraid the caffeine hasn't quite kicked in this morning so I'm going to keep nursing that mug for a while longer. I was up late again writing, not necessarily because I have to, but rather because I prefer to. The Lady is in the living room using
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7/14/2008
sawmills, canning, nasty rats and wii fit
It's a lovely morning in the hollow...
At least for the moment the temperature is cool and the humidity is low. Now is the time to take care of any outside chores.
The weekend proved fairly productive. Despite four separate rain storms that soaked me to the bone, Saturday I managed to
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7/11/2008
pork rhind
A piece of advice for you guys. Using a nickname to your significant other that involves the word "pork" isn't a good idea. Specifically the name "pork rhind" when used in conjunction with a comment about the serving size of an item of food is a particu
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7/9/2008
mending fences and sawmill construction
The rain has stopped for the time being and I want to take a nap. No really... I want to take a nap. It's a little after noon and I've been going for 6 hours. Dad called last night with a special request for me to come fix a fence ASAP so I could move my horse out of the barn
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7/8/2008
fried bologna and a hyperactive garden
Amazon.com Widgets
I heard a guy on NPR the other day mentioning that pretty much every culture that eats a traditional diet has very few diet related health problems. The big culprit is the diet of the western culture that is loaded with processed food. The diet throws the balance (th
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7/7/2008
the sabbatical
I've been taking a sabbatical from the wide world of web. There is a list of reasons. I've been busting my butt at it for a couple of years and had reached a state where it had worn me out. Working with Brick River to get 7Villages up and running was taxing in itself. T
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4/14/2008
To IM or not to IM?
Here in the South spring is full swing. Now that the rain has given us a break we've been left some days that make it very difficult to stay inside. I'll be the first to admit that green grass, blue skies and 70 degrees make a keyboard quite unappealing. But, these are some of the
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4/7/2008
Established Communication Systems
I suppose I should have mentioned in the last newsletter, but the last couple of Mondays I was unable to get a newsletter out due to being on a long needed vacation. Spring break was spent sailing the Western Caribbean Sea on the Carnival Cruise Ship "Conquest". But now
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4/4/2008
The Hughes Agency Promo Video
Here is a word from one of my clients...Check them out! www.hughesstaffingagency.com
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3/17/2008
It's Not Easy Being Green...
Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
This week's Soapbox update is coming from music city known by the locals as "Nashvegas" but known to the rest of us as the home of the Grand Ole' Opry and country music. I'm spending St. Paddy's day in the lovely town of Nashville, Tennessee.
It's
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3/10/2008
Listening
Last week was a crazy week for Arkansas weather. We had two...count em...two snow days in my area! Total snowfall was probably in the neighborhood of a couple of feet, but it melted pretty fast. What makes this crazy is that's about the same amount of cumulative snowfall we've had
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3/3/2008
Feedback
If you're a musician, feedback is bad. It's what happens when somebody steps up to a microphone and suddenly a squeal that renders the entire audience deaf seems to come out of nowhere. What actually happens is the guy at the microphone creates some sort of noise through a biological pro
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2/25/2008
Telling Your Story
Recently an F4 tornado wreaked havoc on a neighboring community and several other communities in the state. Actually a lot of communities across the south were hit by tornadoes that day. People died, millions if not billions of dollars in property was destroyed in just a few short h
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2/17/2008
Consistency
Another word I want you to put in your head and then put into practice is the word "consistency".
If you want people to stay informed, then you need to create consistent communication. In other words, information needs to come at consistent times and through consistent channels. We are
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2/14/2008
Choosing a Channel
In my workshops on communication technology I ususally give a brief history of communication. Essentially it works like this: I establish a time line of major shifts in communication, oral, print, wired, broadcast and digital. The first shift took several thousand years, the second
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2/13/2008
"Engage" and "Respond"
In the world of crime prevention there is an acronym called "CPTED" that stands for Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. In commercial applications CPTED uses design techniques to curb crime. For example a store owner may only put big heavy items near the entrance of
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12/5/2007
e-zekiel.tv
I've been talking to my friends at E-Zekiel and they have a great new service out this week. E-Zekiel.TV is their new video hosting service. In the spirit of YouTube e-zekiel.tv is a great new way to post worship videos, devotionals, short films or really anything you can think of.&
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11/30/2007
Human Communication Styles
Human communication can be a tricky business. I think most people realize that the general population don't necessarily think in the same fashion as we do. We've heard it before...left brain vs. right brain thinkers and so on and so forth.
But what about communication? &n
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11/15/2007
Let's get this party started
Hey gang!
There is still plenty of content left to add to this site, but I want to go ahead and get it off the ground. Welcome to Soapbox Communications!
Billy
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