Semo.net Weblog

I had to maintain my cover as that very, very, good little girl—while playing, while lunching, while watching TV—and then to strike quickly and silently, without leaving a trace!

When I was a little girl, I learned at least one very good reason to do as my mother instructed. Of course, as has been the case with little ones throughout the ages, I learned it while blatantly defying her instruction.

I may have been hovering about the five-year-old mark when Moom brought in the shopping one morning, and, after putting the groceries away, gave my little brother and me something to taste for the first time. “Try this,” she said, offering us a bit of vegetable topped with the most delightful substance! “What is this, Mommy?” I asked, wanting more on the spot. “It’s French dressing,” she answered, promising we’d have plenty on our salad that night. While that sounded all well and good…I still wanted more on the spot.

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The semo.net Surfers baseball team is raffling off 4 Field Box tickets (Section 162, Row 6) for the May 16th evening game against the Rays for only $5 each.

Stop by before Friday 5pm and buy a couple of tickets OR if you have an account with semo.net, call us (573.686.9114 ext 4) and we’ll bill your account for your raffle ticket order.

The drawing is on Saturday, March 1st and the winner will be announced online and contacted by phone.

Actual value of the 4 tickets with tax is $40 x 4 = $160.
These are great seats and only $5 for a chance to win them!!!!

I’m not sure exactly why I agreed to do a guest spot for this column, as Toni has asked. You’ll notice she still gets the byline, and I get squat, as the saying goes. But since I consented, allow me to introduce myself. I am The Little Wolf, or “The Six-Year-Old-Raised-By-Wolves”, if you will, residing within the very person of our earnest writer—and willfully sabotaging her every attempt at making better health a way of life! BAHhahahahahaha!

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Having sung with, written for, and often fronted Shekinah Glory Ministry to now, Tarver felt it was time to venture forth on a solo project; entering Billboard’s Top Gospel Album chart at #16 with “Draw Nearer” certainly wasn’t a bad way to start.

Phil Tarver has come far since pouring his energies into what he terms the “club band, garage band thing” in his native Chicago. Tarver is the son of Poplar Bluff resident Gerald Davis, and the grandson of area sports great Lonnie Davis, an esteemed figure in the athletic and business life of Poplar Bluff from the 1950s until his death in May of 1986.

This past fall Phil Tarver released his solo-debut CD, a no-holds-barred praise and worship celebration entitled Draw Nearer, through Universal Music’s new Christian Music division.

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A little over a week ago, I vowed to eat smart; immediately thereafter, as if in a walking dream, I went on a three-day doughnut binge, then followed that up with buckets of barbeque potato chips, and had late-night, Henry-the-Eighth-style dinners throughout the week. I reported my starting weight to have been 137 pounds; now I’m at 138! What happened?

OK, so who’s bright idea was this, anyway? After one single day on the Lenten quest for bodily improvement…After one single day’s walk about town, music spurring me on, the cold pushing me ever forward for what warmth I could generate…I was about ready to hole up in the house and never come out again. Then came the waves of sleet and that subsequent blanket of ice—a perfect excuse to just pack it in! (more…)

The tiny gold dolphin dangling from his ear on his return the first summer was just the beginning.

He hasn’t always been this way; that’s part of the conundrum. “I went off to college, and according to my mother, that’s when I began losing my ‘foundation’,” this recent graduate reports. When asked to describe this “foundation”, he happily—indeed, proudly—launches into a litany of principles and teachings central to his traditional, deeply religious upbringing here in the Bootheel. They include honesty, industriousness, thrift, regular church attendance, and general social conservatism. The first four apparently presented no problem for him during his years away from home; it’s the last of these areas in which, to the dismay of both his parents, he began “failing miserably” quite early on in his college career.

The tiny gold dolphin dangling from his ear on his return the first summer was just the beginning. (more…)

Sorry…did I mention the Gorgeosity Factor here? It was as if he’d escaped from a GQ photo-shoot just to give me directions to the P.O….

I had an East-Asia memory that recently brought a smile to my face, and so I thought I might share it on Valentine’s Day. First, the back story:

Once upon a time, I lived in the then-Portuguese territory of Macau, across the bay from Hong Kong. Just out of college myself, I taught English at Macau’s University of East Asia. But I hopped over to Hong Kong regularly to hang out with friends, eat Western fast food, shop, see movies, do mailings (faster transit from HK), and generally stretch my legs in a bigger set of islands than the uniquely beautiful ones I then called home. (more…)

The semo.net Traveling Baseball team is looking for one more player to finalize its 2008 team roster.

Player should be experienced 10 year old boy (maximum age is 10 years old on May 1st, 2008). Nine (9) year old boys can be considered but must be able to compete against 10 year old players.
Team will be USSSA sanctioned and will play in the Missouri State tournament in St Louis as well as attempting to qualify for the USSSA World Series in Jackson, Tn.

For a tryout or more information, contact head coach Mike Coleman at mcoleman@semo.net or 573-429-7629.

Update, Feb 15: It appears that the phone company is having problems with some local lines again.  Until they are able to resolve this problem, if you need technical support, please email support@semo.net.

Due to inclement weather, our front office is closing at 10am on Feb 11th. Our technical support department will operate with reduced staff until 5pm.

We will resume business at 12pm on Feb 12th.