Chappy's Free Chicken

 As I drove to an appointment in downtown KC today, a question popped into my head: What’s, going on with all these old churches? I assume it’s the typical response: older generations passing on, people moving out of the city, maintenance costs, denominational ownership, lower attendance as the next generation buys into the idea there is no need for God, and so on.             I kept pondering it into the night, and since I’m currently what the Army calls a “geo-bachelor” (my family isn’t with me on this assignment), I thought it to be an appropriate time to ask my new friend, ChatGPT, what the world suggests might be the answers. What I’m going to do is share the prompt and the ChatGPT responses. Obviously, I’ll be directing a conversation with AI, but I think it might be interesting to see what the summation of ChatGPT will provide.   Prompt #1: Good evening. I am a seeker. [I am not a seeker. I am a believer. I ha...

 If you’re like me … you want to save time because time is the one thing you can never get back!   Money … you can always make money … you just gotta be willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen and bring the cash in.   Relationships … they come and go … but, with a little effort, you can always rebuild a broken relationship … especially if you’re the one who created the brokenness. If it’s worth having, it’s worth putting in the sweat equity to earn it back.   But time … no matter what we do … or don’t do … we’ll never get back time. It’s the one commodity that’s a limited resource in this life.   How do you spend your time? Or, maybe, how do you waste it? How do you invest it?   The prophet, Jimmy Buffett, sang, “There’s a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning.” That thin line is time.   Think about it … what do you really do with your time?   The sacred text of Ecclesiastes states, “For everythi...

  The stretch of highway, known as HWY 61, intersects HWY 180 North of Deming, NM in a little one-holer of a “town” called Faywood, NM. It ends at the bisection with HWY 152 a few miles North of what they call San Juan, NM. Mind you, of the three “towns,” only Deming looks like a municipality which could successfully sustain any kind of human life beyond a week of isolated camping scenario. Justin considered them “drive through blink” towns. If you blink when you drive through them, you’ll miss their very existence. Justin Andrew Conrad. Born in Monterey, TN the year before 9/11 and now serving in an Infantry Platoon in an Armored Battalion at Fort Bliss, TX. Fort Bliss is the home of “America’s Tank Division,” 1 st Armored Division. Justin still could not understand why an Infantryman, any Infantrymen, was sent to the barren wasteland of West Texas to work their tradecraft. Every Infantryman knows this: when an 11B is assigned to a Heavy Armored Brigade Combat Team, you end up ...

            I am uncertain who said this first, but I will attribute it to Lieut. Gen. Milford Beagle when he addressed our Command and General Staff Officer College class earlier this academic year. He was “briefing” the class. Regarding his technique in presenting, he suggested, “Tell them what you’re going to tell, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.” His statement resonated with me. Like most things, when it clicks, you seem to hear or see it or recognize it more frequently. This “frequency illusion” is the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Kate Kershner and Austin Henderson write, “This cognitive bias occurs when something you have noticed or recently learned suddenly seems to appear everywhere. But is it really appearing more frequently or is your brain just paying more attention to it?” [1] I reckon, my brain is just paying more attention to it … and that is a good thing. Or is it? Kershner and Henderson further s...

 Been a pretty good time thus far ... Arrived at Shawnee, KS to spend a few nights (27th & 28th) with my cousin, Mike T. Mike's a West Point grad, former All Army Rugby player, and a retired Colonel. He's been a target I've been chasing for many years while serving. Beyond all his accolades, he's been a great older cousin. Absolutely enjoy spending time with him. Mike fed me with various BBQ dishes which force me to double-down on my diet when I get a few days away from his house! hahaha. The last time we were together was when I was headed out to Fort Carson back in 2015 ... way too long. I was able to offload the trailer in the RV Lot at Leavenworth (28th) which has made driving around the area much easier. On the 29th, I was able to link up with an old buddy, Ryan VW, from our 1-66AR days back at Fort Carson. Ryan is one of the best leaders I've met in the Army. He genuinely cares, listens, leads, and laughs. Hard to top that, IMO. He's got a great family...