Tag: music

PLAYLISTS

On By nrfaughtLeave a comment

I’m a little behind on technology. When I was at UA in 1967 starting my engineering degree, one of my first classes was using IBM punchcard machines to run simple programs.To run a simple program you would have a stack of punchcards. If any one of them was done incorrectly, your program would not run.

Texas Instruments (TI) invented the first handheld calculator in 1967. I had one of those. It would only do math. It had no trig functions or anything like that. I wish I had kept mine.

One of my first classes was learning how to use a “slide rule”. (AI) “In 1967, a slide rule could be used to perform basic mathematical operations like multiplication, division, square roots, cube roots, logarithms, and trigonometric functions (sine, cosine, tangent) with a good degree of accuracy, making it a valuable tool for engineers, scientists, and anyone needing to perform quick calculations without relying on an electronic calculator which was still relatively new and not widely available at the time.”

Actually I never got very far past all that in technology! I do remember a lot of things about the 60’s. The JFK, MLK, Robert Kennedy,and Malcom X assassinations. The Freedom Writers and the Civil Rights Movement. The Cuban Missile Crisis and Bay of Pigs Invasion. Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong taking our first steps on the moon (I have a few of my students who really don’t think that happened). The 1967 summer riots in many major cities, Detroit being the worst (40 dead, thousands injured). The Soviet Gagarin was the first to orbit the earth in space. Woodstock, marijuana and LSD. Miniskirts introducted. The Vietnam “Conflict”, the draft, and war protests (and war protest songs like Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In the Wind”: my favorite was “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire).

Speaking of songs from the 60’s, I finally (several years after most people learned how to do this) learned how to do a simple Amazon Music playlist. I had already picked my favorite 200 songs of the 60’s, and now I have them all on 2 playlists. Some of my favorite groups were The Righteous Brothers, The Lettermen, The Association, Herman’s Hermits, and The Mamas and the Papas. My wife to be and I would listen to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass in my 64 1/2 white Mustang (the first mustangs sold) on my 8 track tape player that we installed in the car (that was before cassettes and CD’s). It wasn’t my favorite song back then , but perhaps is now is When A Man Loves A Woman” by Percy Sledge. Maybe my choice is influenced, not so much by memories of the 60’s, but by watching the Muscles Shoals documentary. The song was cut in the small studios in little Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Percy was an orderly in a local hospital. Percy Sledge said that when he originally sang this, he had in mind Lizz King, his girlfriend of three years who left him for a modeling job in Los Angeles. Said Sledge: “I didn’t have any money to go after her, so there was nothing I could do to try and get her back.”

BTW we are actually listening to “You Can’t Hurry Love” ( an original Supremes song) at our customary Sunday morning Egg McMuffin at McDonald’s. They usually don’t play songs from the 60’s, so that has to be a sign of something (not sure what except that it was a good time for this 60’s blog).

Most importantly in the 60’s I began liking and dating my future wife, Deborah. Her parents went to the same church as me. People say that I “married up” (way up according to some). I resent that even if is true. My version is that “she chased me in high school and I finally decided to let her catch me”. We have been married 54 years. God has blessed us with 3 great kids who have gone on to marry Christians and we now have a total of 10 grandchildren (5 of whom are adopted). God allowed us to do mission work in Trinidad, West Indies and Colombia, South America. I have been working in Christian Education for 35 years (as a principal or teacher). God has blessed us so much.

So stop right now and write out your memories of your teens and your life. Give God thanks and praise him.

I’ll try to get back to the deeper studies in the divided kingdom or the prophets! My wife just previewed this article and said that I will probably have more readers for this than the Bible articles, especially the history of Baal and Asherah worship!

YOU HAD A BAD DAY

On By nrfaughtLeave a comment

Most of us older folks remember the song “You Had A Bad Day” by Daniel Powter in 2005. It topped the charts in England and rose to #1 in the U.S. in 2006. It is a reminder that, even if you had a bad day once in a while, things will get better. Here’s the music video of the song that is really neat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH476CxJxfgx Powter plays the piano while a young woman and a young man go through a bad day at work. Just watch it: it has a really neat ending! Unfortunately, Powter was named Billboard magazine as the #1 one hit wonder of the 2,000’s for his song. It’s a feel good song that many sing or listen to in order to help them get through a bad day. Here’s the Coca-Cola commercial with the song as a guy has a terrible day but in the end a girl brings him a Coke and everything is ok. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JKYMdRS8_gx In America, Powter’s album was released in 2006, and this song became a hit when the TV show American Idol started using it as a theme for the “goodbye video” for the departing contestants who were voted off the show on the fifth season. Here’s that video. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xltph1?scrlybrkr=f2f8117fx I was sitting in the drivers’ license office waiting to get my star ID and I saw a teen girl walk out crying (I think she just failed her driving test). I don’t guess she would have appreciated me going up to her and singing the song, but I did feel for her.

I’m sure everyone can relate to this song. Yesterday I had 2 plumbing leaks to deal with in our house. I’m crawling around on my belly in our crawl space under the entire house to check for leaks and my new super bright 12k flashlight goes out completely (I didn’t keep it charged), leaving me crawling around in the dark. That’s when you think, “Are there any snakes down here?” We have had copper heads in our driveways in my neighborhood. My lower back is hurting bad from crawling around in the crawl space. I was a little impatient with a few students (is yelling at them considered “impatient”) and thought “Why am I doing this?” My WordPress blog site pops up and immediately goes blank on Chrome (I am on Safari for this article). Then there was a potential serious health issue for someone that I love that I was thinking about all day. The snow and ice is coming and the difficulties that go along with that. A few other inconveniences and things that didn’t go right, and I said to my wife, “It’s been a bad day.” She replied, “No, a bad day is what our friends are going through today. One lost her husband to cancer, and another is being driven in an ambulance to a hospital in Nebraska for a possible 2nd heart attack In a week (winter storm conditions are terrible there right now). Another friend is being treated for a brain tumor. Another is experiencing a marriage break up. I could go on with many other situations.

The chorus to Powter’s song is: “Because you had a bad day, you’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don’t know, you tell me, don’t lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day, the camera don’t lie
You’re coming back down and you really don’t mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day.”

The song “I had a bad day” is a “sad song” that we sing when we are having a bad day “just to turn it around”. You fake a smile at work even though this depressing cloud of a bad day hangs over you. The songs says “Well, you need a blue sky holiday”. What a neat thought! Not just a holiday from work, which we all look forward to. Well make it a sunny, blue sky holiday instead of a rainy holiday.

A key thought in the song: “So where is the passion when you need it the most? Oh, you and I
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost.” You lose your normal passion for what you love doing. You are a teacher and you teach kids because that is your passion in life. A young person I talked to said se chose teaching as her major. She could have chosen a more certain career to make more money. Often it is hard to get good, safe environment, teaching jobs. One can make more money working in a nice cubicle for government money with less stress. But that young person said she chose her “passion” over money. I told her she was making the right choice. My wife and I chose our passion of doing the Lord’s work, wherever it might be (we did mission work in Trinidad, West Indies and Colombia, South America and then 35 years in two different Christian education ventures), whatever the pay (we never took a ministry job b/c of what it payed or turned it down for what it didn’t pay).

But the Lord has blessed us so much. We have more money than we need. We have converts and Christian friends and co-workers all over. I got an email from someone in Trinidad wanting my phone number so her mom could call me. She said she was the daughter of the first family we baptized in a town in Trinidad, the key founder lady with 5 kids of the church we started in that town. I’m always suspicious of scammers using info like that to get my personal info, but I replied and sure enough the mom called me and we had a wonderful chat. Her kids are all grown now and the church is doing very well. That was so rewarding to me. We baptized a lot of people during 3 years in Trinidad and I wonder how many are still faithful today. I do know of many who are. I have an engineering degree from UAB and started work as an engineer with Alabama Power Company in 1971, but resigned 2 weeks later to move to Louisiana and attend a 2 year school of preaching. We went from there to Trinidad for 3 years. I often wonder, “what if I had just stayed as an engineer in Birmingham for those 5 years after graduating from college?” The Lord could have used me as an engineer, I’m sure, but I would never have met and baptized that lady in Trinidad. I think all 5 of her kids have become Christians and started Christian families long after we left Trinidad in 1976. We didn’t make a lot of money, but I wouldn’t trade money for those memories that we have now. That’s my testimony for today of what God has done for us. Too many Christians are living for what money they can make and what they can buy. I hope you don’t fall into that snare. 1 Timothy 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” I struggle with being content, being at peace, and not worrying. I have so much more possessions and money than I ever had while living in Trinidad, and yet I probable I am less happy than when in Trinidad. I need to restore my “passion” for doing the Lord’s work, wherever that might be. I teach students every day whose lives God might use me to change.

Enough about me. You might be saying, “let me tell you about my bad day; hey, I’ve had a bad year.” Some readers have had some really tough times in 2024. The loss of loved ones. Major health issues. Divorce. Family problems. Economic problems, etc. But let’s take it one day at a time. When you have a bad day: 1) Sing the song “I had a bad day” and wish for a “blue sky holiday” that will inevitably come. 2) Think of others who are doing a lot worse than you are. 3) Think “what is the worst thing that could happen”. In view of the hope of eternal life that you have in Jesus, does anything bad that happens in this life really matter? Nope.

So, my wife inspired this blog article. If the article helps you, you can thank her! Enjoy the videos if you haven’t already.