Random Thoughts

I just put some more photos up on the photo blog. Robyn and I walked around Lake Girard tonight after dinner during Golden Hour. We didn’t quite get a whole hour, but we did get some nice shots. Here are my favorites…

Click for the photo page

I’m sure it will be comforting to many of you that I’m back in the land of the connected. Actually, I never left, I just pulled the plug for a bit. It was an experiment of sorts to see if I could survive a week without blogs, e-mail, Facebook and Twitter. Turns out it was easier than I thought. When I came back online this morning, it took me less than 2 hours to go through my e-mail and get caught up on the blogs I follow. I checked in on Facebook (not a whole lot new there either) and just let my Twitter feed go. Maybe it’s because this is a holiday week and everyone has slowed down, or maybe I place too much importance on those things during the rest of the year.

So what did I do on my week off? Not a whole lot. And that was by design. I slept in every day until at least 9 AM. I normally don’t sleep that well, and it takes taking a week off to realize how tired I am most of the time. Possible goal for 2009; go see a sleep specialist and find out why I can’t sleep.

My wife, oldest daughter and I walked up and down Summit Ave. in St. Paul one afternoon. For those unfamiliar, Summit Ave contains the largest collection of Victorian architecture in the US. There are some simply amazing houses there. I would have pictures except every one of my rechargeable batteries failed in my camera when I tried to take a few shots. The sidewalks were largely iced over, so it was as much an exercise in balance as anything else. We’ll go back in the spring…

After the rechargeable battery debacle, I spent several hours researching battery chemistry. I learned a lot, and once my new batteries get here, I’ll have more to say about that. Like everything else, the equipment has to be matched to the application, and mine was not. In the end, it’s good news for churches who are looking to spend less money on batteries. Look for some posts on this topic in the coming months.

I got to run the snow blower a few times, which is always fun when you have a new snow blower. I’m sure that will wear off by March, but for now I’m looking forward to more snow…

We watched a lot of Discovery HD. I missed Planet Earth the first time it came out, so I TiVo’d the ones they’re running this week. It’s truly fascinating, and I found myself asking over and over, “How did they get that shot?” Even the girls enjoyed it. I also became totally addicted to Storm Chasers.

I bought a new DVD player when our 10-year old Sony decided to stop playing brand new CDs. I still can’t quite justify spending the coin on Blu-Ray (especially since I can download HD movies to my TiVo from Netflix), so I spent $58 on an upconverting Toshiba. I’ll have to say the picture of an upconverted DVD sent to my 50″ DLP is pretty amazing. We watched Prince Caspian last night and the picture blew me away.

I also spent some time just listening to music. I haven’t been able to do that in a while, and it was good to sit and listen. Of course, I had to fiddle with the various surround modes of my receiver, tweak the tone controls and mess with speaker distances, but I did enjoy the music.

Having some time off gave me an opportunity to read as well. I re-read a book from my college days, On Writing Well by William Zinsser. I had forgotten what a great book that is. I have also started The Shack. I wasn’t prepared for how good that was going to be either.

Finally, I put some structure to a book that’s been rattling around in my head for nearly a year. I have started writing it twice, and now that I have a plan, I expect to make some good progress on it by mid-year. Though the primary topic is the technical arts in the church, it’s probably not going to be what you expect. More to come.

So that was my week off. I still have 3 more days before I’m back to work. We have a few more movies to watch, and tomorrow the girls and I are trekking down to Minneapolis to walk around and have lunch. And it’s supposed to snow, so I may get the snow blower out again!

Happy New Year!

Yesterday I buried my father. It was one of the most difficult days of my life. For those who don’t know, he died quite suddenly on October 31. He was in the hospital undergoing what we thought was going to be a fairly routine procedure designed to correct some of the problems he was having with his heart. Complications ensued, and he died on the table. He had told my sister earlier in the week that he planned on being home Saturday afternoon. I talked with him 2 weeks prior, and he told me the same thing. I was going to call him that weekend. Sadly, I never got the chance.

Yesterday, I was given an opportunity to say a few words at the funeral service. The following is what I said. Well, it’s actually the improved version of what I would have said had I been able to speak clearly. I was completely unprepared for the flood of emotions that hit me when I got up to speak. So this is the what was in my head–even if it didn’t all come out.

My father and I didn’t always have the best relationship. However, I’m so thankful for the last 12 years that we had together, especially the ‘cabin’ years. The cabin became our rallying point; and looking back on it now, our time of working on the camp brought out so many of Dad’s characteristics. Dad was a very genuine guy. What you saw was what you got. There was no pretense about him. He was the same person everywhere he went.

One thing about Dad was that he was an “all-in” kind of guy. When he took on a project, it was all or nothing. That was made manifest in our cabin. Over the course of a few years, we turned a pretty ramshackle place into what was affectionately known as the “Taj Mahal.”

He also taught me that if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right. Once again, the cabin is the perfect illustration. When we were trying to decide how to finish off the interior of the place, everyone told us to just leave it as studs and sheathing. We took another route. We insulated, vapor barriered, and drywalled. We had an 80 gallon hot water heater for crying out loud. When it was done, it was done right. 

I marveled at his ability to talk with anyone like he’d known them for years. Someone said that my Dad never met a stranger. When we would run into towns for supplies, which happened quite often–sometimes multiple times a day, he would always strike up a conversation with the clerk at the store, someone in town, or the waitress at the restaurant. He made everyone feel important and was genuinely interested in them. I’ve always envied that about him.

He also had the ability to make just about everything fun. He was known for his smile, and his laugh. He made up words that crack me up to this day. I laughed every time he would ask for a hammer by saying, “Son, hand me a schalaylee, would ya?” We worked really hard on that camp, but we had a lot of fun, too.

Which is not to say that everything always went smoothly. Last night, I was thinking of one particularly memorable story.And since Dad was also known for his stories, I’ll share this with you. Dad, my brother and I were up there one fall getting ready to close up. One of our tasks that trip was to install the range hood vent–because all camps need a range hood vent, right? I told you he was a “do it right” kind of guy. Anyway, we spent most of dinner gripping about the electrician and how the guy didn’t run power down to where the range hood was going to go. All three of us took turns throwing jabs at this incompetent electrician. Of course, Dad was the electrician.

The solution was for me to climb up into the attic and identify a cable we could junction off and run down the wall over the range. I found the circuit we needed and got ready to cut into the cable. Before I did I shouted down, “Dad, make sure the breaker’s flipped on this, OK?” “Yup,” he shouted as I heard him tromp back to the bedroom where the panel was. I heard a breaker flip, and he tromped back to the kitchen to check his work. “Alright, son, should be all set,” he shouted up into the attic. I grabbed my lineman’s pliers and prepared to cut. Just before I did, I decided to turn my head, close my eyes and stretch away from the cable. When I squeezed the jaws together, there was a loud pop and a brilliant flash of light.

“You OK, Mike?” “Yeah, I’m fine.” “Well,” he said with a big laugh, “I guess that wasn’t it.” I had to laugh as well. “Nope, I guess not.” I looked over at my pliers, which had been given to me as a birthday present by his father, and noticing the large chunk that had been carved out by the arc I added, “And you owe me a pair of Kliens.” He just laughed, said “I guess I do. I’m just glad you’re OK.” 

Well, that Christmas, I did get a new set of Klines. Unlike my 30-year old set, these had rubber grips on them. He also got me a non-contact voltage tester so I wouldn’t be cutting into any more live wires. I’ve used those tools hundreds of times in the last few years. And now they will hold and even deeper meaning for me as they remain a lasting reminder of my father.

I’ll miss you, Dad.

“Cause I live in a van, down by the river!” One of my favorite Chris Farley scenes ever. Today, I went down by the river. The Minnesota River, that is. I decided to take a drive down to nearby Shakopee and wander along the wandering river. I made my way down to the bank, and kept my eyes open. I had been wanting to try out some more HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos, so I brought along my tripod. 

HDR photos are created by shooting a series of bracketed shots (from 2 stops under exposed to 2 stops over exposed), and merging them together in Photoshop. When done correctly, the result is a  photo with significantly more dynamic range than you could achieve with a single shot. I shot four such photos, and one came out well. It’s the last photo of the series.

I was finishing shooting one HDR series, and out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. Two little birds with long legs were flitting around in the water. I quickly swapped lenses and put my long telephoto on. I spun the tripod around and started snapping shots. The little birds were quick, but I got a few good images.

I also came across a waterfall. I had been wanting to do more long exposure times with waterfalls, and this provided me a great opportunity. I nearly dunked myself in the creek in an effort to get in position; I hadn’t counted on the bank being so soft, and my foot sunk up to my ankle when I stepped to the edge. I actually wanted to climb out right into the water fall and shoot from there, but I couldn’t come up with a way to get out there and keep the camera safe and dry.

It was a great day of being outside. The light was nice, the temperature was just about perfect, and the sky couldn’t have been any bluer. I definitely want to go back to this spot in a few weeks when the leaves have turned. Check out the photos…

This past Sunday, we had a big announcement at Upper Room. The short story is that we’re going be planting Upper Room as a new independent church in a new location. You can read a lot more about it here.

Personally, I’m very excited about this move. I think it will be very good for Upper Room, and give us the opportunity to reach our target demographic more effectively. From a missional perspective, this is good. It will mean some changes, to be sure, but I’m not bothered by change. 

My role has already started to morph. I’m doing less and less video work, and more IT-related stuff. I’m currently in the midst of developing a project that would include setting up a new Mac Server (an XServe) and converting the UR staff over to all Macs. If you know me at all, you’ll know this fits in with my master plan from the start. And I’m getting better at it. It took me over a year at Crosswinds to start the transition to Macs. Here in under 9 months, I’ve been given the go-ahead to move us over. I should get commission. For real.

So there you go. Sorry I’ve not been updating here much, but most of my spare writing time goes into my Church Tech Arts blog. And I Twitter a lot, too.

How many times did you spell that as a kid? Hundreds, probably. Today, I not only spelled, but I walked over it, and next to it. I’m referring to the river, not the state. If you’re not up on your geography, the Mississippi River starts in Minnesota. And it runs through Minneapolis. Today, we decided to talk a walk next to Ole Miss, and see what we could see.

Turns out, there are some really sweet parks along the river in the Cities. We went to one called Mill Ruins. It’s so named because the “ruins” of a flour mill and associated water powered mills are there. It was actually quite interesting. I’m fascinated with what people could build before the modern age of concrete pumpers and huge cranes. 

We parked behind the Guthrie Theater, which is a local landmark. It’s also an engineering marvel. There is a cantilevered lookout balcony that extends a hundred foot or more with no vertical support. Seriously, it’s amazing. The balcony looks out over the river and to the Stone Arch Bridge, which was built in the 1800’s. The bridge spans the river, and is itself a marvel. Especially when one considers that it was built in a spot where the river fell a few hundred feed over just a few thousand feet. It used to look like Niagara Falls, so they say. But then they built a wooden spillway. Tough folks, these Minnesotians. 

Ironically, the 130+ year old Stone Arch Bridge is just a few hundred feet up river from the under 40 year old 35W bridge that collapsed just over a year ago. The new one is almost done. Let’s hope the new one is built more like the Stone Arch Bridge than the “modern” bridge that collapsed. I got a good view of just how far down it was when it fell. That would have been incredible (in a “scare the crap out of you” kind of way) to have seen that.

Anyway, take a look at some of the pictures I took today. I’m really pleased with a few of them.

Peace.

I haven’t written in a while. Sorry. Been busy.

But here are some new pictures. They’re of Robyn and the cheer squad. Go team!

This is the first Sunday I’ve had off all year. And I like it! This weekend is Hope Walks, a joint CPC-Upper Room fund-raising event to help AIDs victims in the Congo. As a result, we don’t have our normal 5 worship services between the two communities, but a walk around Lake Normandale, followed by an outdoor worship time and a BBQ. All of that adds up to me not having to work today. And since I get to take Memorial Day of as a floating day, I took Friday. So it’s been a nice, quiet weekend. I did take a bunch of pictures of Hope Walks, which you can see here.

I just realized that I’ve haven’t posted anything here in over a month. Sorry about that. I think because I’ve gotten so into Twitter, I’ve been laying off blogging. So, once again, we’ll do a quick post, bullet-style catch-up.

• I’ve been able to mix sound for CPC a few more weekends, which is something I’ve very much enjoyed. It’s great to be behind a board again, and I’m digging the digital console we have. So much fun.
• A few months ago, I was invited to be part of a podcast targeted to church tech types called FaithTools. You can listen to it here. So far, I’ve been on two episodes. The other guys on the podcast are great, and I have had a lot of fun following them on Twitter and getting to know them.
• In early June, I flew to Chicago to attend the Willow Creek Arts Conference. I had gone last year and loved it. This year, it was another great conference. Last year, I was really tired when I got there, and the first session was a great time of rest and healing. This year, I wasn’t struck the same way by what was happening. Then I realized I was in such a better place this year, and it became a time of celebration. Then the rest of the week was great. I even got to meet a fellow tech director/blogger that I’ve been following for a while. We hung out for dinner one night and had a great time. I blogged about it extensively, which you can read about here, here, here, here, and here.
• Our meal group wrapped up, and sadly, 2 of our couples won’t be returning next season. As our facilitators won’t be back, I’ve offered to step into that role next season. So we’ll get to meet some new people next year.
• For summer, our staff has decided to change our schedule up. We’ve normally met as a staff on Wednesday mornings at 10:30, which means most of us take the first hour or so off. This summer, staff meeting is moved to 9 (which I’m not crazy about), but then we take off Thursday at 3:30 and head up the road to Laredos for happy hour. It’s great to spend time with everyone outside of work and just hang out. And as a bonus, our resident sunglass expert and kids ministry director Katie W. has been getting each of us new sunglasses to match our personality. I got mine this week, and they’re very stylish. 
• Last week, we had Matt, Suzie and their girls, Macy and Georgia over for dinner. Matt & Suzie are the contemporary worship music directors for CPC. They’re great folks, and we really enjoyed our time with them. Except when they beat Katie and I at badminton. Twice. Oh well.
• Friday night, Denise and I went over to Steve & Emily’s for Steve’s birthday. Steve is my office-mate and UR’s Missional Director. It was a good time, and I sent most of the night taking with Steve’s brother-in-law Charlie, UR’s resident keys player. That and listening to the 25 worst demos ever submitted to Word records. That was quite funny. 
• Yesterday, Robyn and I went over to help Katie W. move. It was a very efficient move, and was over in less than an hour. It was fun working with some new faces, and some friends. As it says, many hands make light work. 

So that’s about it. I think that makes you up to speed. Still one more day off then it’s back to work. We have some extremely exciting things coming up with Upper Room. Once things are finalized, I will be able to share more. Good stuff coming, though!

Normally, I get Monday’s off, so having Memorial Day off was not an especially big deal. It was a good day to get some yard work done, and a good excuse to have one of Katie’s friends over and cook some ribs on the BBQ. The backyard smelled like the Dinosaur BBQ all afternoon. Delish! The girls played some badminton, and watched a movie. The day started off nice, but got cooler and cloudier as it wore on. By dinner time it was a bit chilly, and with not sun and a bit of wind, starting to feel cold. Still, not a bad way to spend a day off. And since I normally get Monday’s off, I get to take an extra day off sometime in the next month or so. 

Click the picture for more photos.

On June 29, we have a special joint service planned and I won’t have to do anything, so I can take that Sunday off. We’ve decided that it would be great to take that Friday off as well and have a 4-day weekend. Something I haven’t had in a very long time!

Otherwise, things are going well here. I’m still really liking the job, and so far the seem pretty happy with the work I’m doing. We’re beginning a search for a full-time Technical Arts Director for CPC, so if you know of anyone, let me know. I’m looking forward to that, because it will make my job easier.

The girls are doing well; Robyn’s getting excited about cheerleading starting up in a few weeks, and Katie is looking forward to school being out and is considering looking for a job. Denise finished up her work at DRC, though she’ll be going back for a 2-week project in July. She still hasn’t decided what she’ll pursue next.

Well, I need to get some hots on the grill. Can’t wait for those ribs!

Right. So it’s been a while since my last post. Now that I’m Twittering, it’s seem less important to get stuff up here. Still, it’s been a few weeks, and I thought it would be fun to “bullet-blog” what’s been happening. So here goes. (in rough chronological order)

• We had a “dumpster day” at church and cleaned out a lot of junk. It’s really amazing how much material we go through.
• I am now on two new committees at church; the Technology team (TEK) and a subset of the facilities planning group. Both have had several meetings. We’re really far behind technology-wise, and I’m lobbying to fix that. So far, I’m encouraged with the results.
• We had another meal group at our house 2 weeks ago. I made stake and chicken fajitas. Everyone was very happy.
• After being told that there was no way to interface our house lighting system to our stage lighting system, I found a way to do it. I now have the factory and an engineer working on a quote. Achievement is one of my top 5 strengths according to Strengths Finder 2.0.
• I got to run sound for CPC last weekend, which was a blast. I’ve missed mixing a lot. The bass player stopped me afterward and said it was the first time ever since he’s been playing at CPC that he heard his bass in the system.
• I spent many hours prepping for a training session on our new presentation software. Three of my four volunteers weren’t there or were late.
• We had an all-staff retreat that I really didn’t want to go on (too much to do). Ultimately I enjoyed it, and the change of pace was good. 
• The UR staff  had an “off-site” from the retreat; we saw Baby Momma. I laughed almost constantly for 96 minutes.
• My friend Charlie loaned me  a really cool DVD of the making of Steely Dan’s Aja album. I still maintain that is perhaps the best-sounding album ever.
• I was asked by a national church technology magazine to co-write an article on church presentation software.
• A new iMac arrived to run presentation software for our services. Until it’s permanent installation, I now have 3 Macs in my office.
• I told the leadership of the church that they need to spend $60,000 on new speakers in the sanctuary in the next 12 months. That went over well…
• I spent 2 hours getting my lawnmower running after 3 years in hibernation. It got the grass cut, but it’s clearly not happy about running again.
• We set up a badminton net the other day. This one required an engineering degree from MIT to figure out. I’m pretty good at this stuff, too. I pity the fool who is mechanically challenged.
• We pulled off a scene from a musical in church yesterday. It required setting up a 32 foot long wall upstage, 3 actors, 3 video projectors projecting on the wall and a click track that changed tempo 8 times. Remarkably, it came off great.
• Yesterday was also one of the higher-stress days of my time here. So today I’m chilling and doing nothing productive.
• My credit card info was out of date with my webhost, and my sites were down for a few hours. 
• Last night I slept for almost 8 hours. 

OK, you’re now up to date.