Random Thoughts

This week was nuts, a perfect storm, really. First, I had more media than normal to put together for the weekend. And some of it involved other people’s schedules. We had our staff meeting on Wednesday, followed by our bi-monthly lunch. Finally, one of our projectors in the sanctuary started turning itself off at random intervals during the service.

Rather than being able to spend Thursday producing media, I spent it on the phone and in emergency meetings trying to get rental projectors delivered and pushing the property committee to free up $20,000 to purchase new ones. Oh, and there was 3 hour meeting Friday to go over the details of Good Friday. All of this leads to why I spent 4 hours today working on a video for tomorrow.

It’s not all bad news, though. We made some significant progress in key areas this week and I feel like I have a good set of marching orders for the next few months. Now I need to figure out how to manage the workload effectively. More than anything, I need to protect my days off.

Otherwise, things have been good. We went from -12 on Wednesday to nearly 30 today. It’s forecast to be 44 on Monday, 6 on Tuesday. I’m still fighting a cough that just won’t go away, which is something I seem to fight every winter now.

We spent some time tonight watching the US Figure Skating Championships, which are being held just across the river in St. Paul. That’s kind of cool, though I’m not sure why.

Denise and I finally got our new Minneapolis phone numbers this week. I sent out an e-mail to that effect, only I managed to mix up all three numbers (including home…) so I had to send out another one.  That was funny. If you haven’t gotten an e-mail with the new numbers, I either haven’t gotten to that list yet, I forgot or you’re just not that important. If you really want the numbers, though, shoot me an e-mail and if you can answer the secret question, you’ll get it. Oh, and there may be request for payment.

Have you noticed that most of the top US women (it’s hard to call them women, they’re all under 18) figure skaters are Asian? Just an observation…

Robyn was asked by her string teacher to form a trio with two of the top violinists from the orchestra. Way to go, Robyn! She’s becoming quite a musical prodigy. It just seems to come very natural to her. She reminds me of my friend, Zach, who in addition to having great musical talent is also a gifted thinker and techie.

That’s about all I’ve got. Nothing too profound this week. Peace.

So we woke up this morning to our first double-digit negative temperatures. It was -11 at 8 am. I think it’s warmed up to around -.07 right now. It really doesn’t feel too bad out as long as you stay out of the wind. The sky is bluebird blue, and the sun is shining bright. It’s on days like this that you really appreciate the power of the sun. Just standing in the kitchen this morning with my dark blue robe on, I relished soaking up the warmth of the sun as is streamed through the windows.

Yesterday, I was a chaperone for Robyn’s 6th grade class’s ski field trip. Yes Virginia, there are hills high enough to ski around here. It’s actually not far from the house, less than 5 minutes. Though not a big hill, the snow was well-groomed and fast, and it wasn’t that crowded. I think it was about 7 most of the day, which really felt fine as we were dressed for it. I actually felt too warm skiing by myself, and had the hill been more of a mountain, I would have been too hot. It’s all about how you prepare. I wish I had taken a camera as the sky was cobalt blue and perfectly clear. From the top of the hill, you could see all the way to downtown, and quite a ways in every other direction. Very picturesque.

It was Robyn’s first time on skis (save a short stint at age 4 that didn’t go well), and she did admirably. After about an hour of lessons, she and I hit the “big” slopes. She fell a few times, and took one nasty spill (sliding head first down the hill on her face…she has marks), but by the end of the day looked really good on the skis. The hill was pretty small for me, but it was good to get back on the snow. I got lazy on one run and while paying more attention to Robyn than my own skiing,  caught an edge and took a pretty hard fall. It was the first time ever I’ve been glad I was wearing a helmet, as I smacked the ground pretty hard. Still, it was a good day, and I think everyone enjoyed it. I didn’t hear any reports of frost bite either.

The work-week had an enjoyable pace to it. I feel like I’m far enough ahead that I don’t have to scramble at the end of the week to get ready for Sunday. Even on Sunday we were done almost a half hour early and had time to relax. That’s such a nice change of pace from the first month here.

I had breakfast with my sound and lighting team leaders yesterday. We’re starting the process of formalizing those positions. We’re calling them “Staff Volunteers” or “Volunteer Staff” (I don’t recall…). Either way, the idea is to have key volunteers with actual job descriptions who take on a designated and recognized role in the church. I will lead to them, and they will lead to their team. Hopefully this will have the effect of multiplying my efforts and making me more effective. My two leaders in these areas are really great guys, and I’m looking forward to working more with them.

Last night the house was filled with girls. Katie had two friends over (one of whom spent the night) and they watched movies all afternoon and evening. Robyn went over to one of her friend’s house after school. It’s good to see them making connections. I’m really proud of how well they’ve transitioned here, and they’ve done a good job of choosing friends.

That’s about it for now. I may head out to Home Depot today and pick up some caulk and expanding foam to keep sealing up the house. When it’s ten below and windy, it really pays to cut down on drafts. I just wish I could install a wood stove. Maybe in the next house…

I’m now a licensed Minnesota driver. I finally went to the DMV on Monday and passed the test. Yeah, they actually make you take a test. I was surprised at how tough the test was. But I passed. And sometime in the next 4 weeks I’ll actually get the license. For now I have a wadded up piece of paper in my wallet.

On the plus side, I was impressed at how well staffed the DMV was. I planned on it being an all-day affair, but in fact it took just under an hour, including drive time. And that was for the license and registering the CR-V. We never had to wait for more than about 5 minutes, and they were actually helpful.

So now, I’m legal to drive and both cars have land of 10,000 lakes plates. Kinda weird.

Tomorrow, I’m off to go skiing. Robyn’s 6th grade class is going on a field trip and I get to chaperone. Because we got our permission slip in early, I even get a free lift ticket. Tonight Robyn and I went to Sports Authority and got her suited up for some cold weather. Turns out tomorrow will the coldest day of the year thus far. I think the high is forecast for about 5 and windy. Should be a bit nippy.

We’re watching the original Spiderman movie. I forgot just how campy it is. William DaFoe is just plain creepy and Toby McGuire is about as sappy as they come. The whole movie is just predictable and  cheesy. And not even good cheese either, it’s more like processed cheese food. Especially the final fight scene. Bring on the Velveeta.

So that’s all for now. Peace out, Yo.

After living here for a month and a half, I’ve made some observations. What follows is a list of things I like about it here. This is not exhaustive, or exclusive, just a bunch of things I’ve noticed that I like.

Right Hand Turn Ramps at Intersections
A lot of intersections have these right hand turn “ramps,” for lack of a better term. Instead of coming to a complete stop, then turning right, you just take the ramp, yield and off you go. Very efficient.

Dry Cold
Sure, it’s 3 degrees out there right now. But it’s a dry cold. I went for a walk, and if it weren’t for the wind (which is more blustery than normal today), it would have been very pleasant. I can recall with great clarity being absolutely freezing when the temperature is only 20 in other parts of the country I’ve lived in. Here, I’ve yet to feel so cold I don’t feel like I can warm up (well, take that back—the first night we were here I was that cold).

Friendly People
This is not to say people in other parts of the country are not friendly. But here, they seem more so. I’ve already had more conversations with my neighbor here than I did in 2 1/2 years in Canandaigua. People just seem to like conversation here. It’s kind of nice.

It’s Super Convenient
We’ve determined we don’t have to drive more than about 5 miles for just about anything. Yet we don’t feel like we live in a strip mall. We can be at one of 6 grocery stores in about 5 minutes; 3 malls in under 10; Best Buy, Circuit City and a host of other specialty stores are just a few miles away. At the same time, we can drive 5 miles west and be in a pristine nature preserve. How cool is that?

Organized Streets
It’s really easy to get around here. Mainly because somebody actually thought about it and set it up well. Numbered streets run east-west. Avenues run north-south. From Lyndale west, they are even alphabetized. Not sure where you are? Just drive until you see a street or avenue you recognize then work from there.

Sunshine
We get a bit more sun here than in Western NY. Today it’s incredibly sunny, and is forecast to be so for a while. It really makes the cold much easier to handle.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I have truly enjoyed the last 6 weeks here. Now if only we could get satellite reception…

Yesterday, Apple announced the new 8-core MacPro. Yup, two quad core processors on board, for a total of 8 discreet processors. Makes me wish I could have waited…

Check them out here…

Well, here we are, 10 days into the new year already. My office mate and I were talking today about how fast the weeks go, especially when you only work 4 days during the “week.” I have a lot of meetings Tuesday and Wednesday and by the time I get to Thursday, my week is half over, but it’s only my third day of the week (Sunday’s don’t count, they’re a day in and of themselves). Anyway, it’s pretty crazy.

I made progress today. I fixed the three sanctuary cameras that have been broken since we came up to interview. I also cleaned up the tech booth a bit. I now don’t feel quite as much like going postal every time I go in there now. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot wrong, but I’m making progress.

I’m also having fun learning to use the new tools at my disposal. I’ve been playing with Soundtrack Pro more to work on my, well, soundtracks. Today I took one into the sanctuary on my laptop for a final tweak through the house sound system. It was quite an improvement, and a radical change when I compared the two tracks back in my office. I like having the ability to do that.

Our newly repaired camera came back from Canon today. The FireWire port was bad when I arrived. Turns out it’s been broken for a long time. See a pattern here? I’ve been here a month and I’ve already fixed stuff that’s been broken for months. But it’s what I do.

Yesterday, I worked on Kurt’s laptop (Kurt is director of Upper Room). He has a MacBook, and has been frustrated with the lack of ability to sync his iPhone to the Exchange server. Since our IT doesn’t support Macs, I figured it out. It was pretty simple really. Only had to spend $54 and we were up and running. Kurt was amazed. I think I’m going to hit him up to get the software for my Mac as well so I can sync my calendars as well. Then there’s the iPhone… I also updated  his printer drivers to fully utilize the new printers we have. Sounds like I’m taking over IT, but I’m not (I hope…)

Kurt told me today (again) that he’s really stoked to have me here. We had a good chat while is iPhone was syncing for the first time.  It’s good to feel like I’m making a contribution. Earlier in the week, we had a meeting with the CPC folks to delineate the new sanctuary technology leadership structure. Basically, I’m in charge now. As we talked about the state of technology, I told them what a total disaster much of the system is, and one of the CPC pastors was laughing and said, “Mike, I love your honesty!” No sense in sugar-coating it, I figure. It’s a mess. Let’s fix it, not tell ourselves it will be fine.

So now I lay awake at night, visions of video racks drifting through my head. And audio schematics…and lighting plots… Oh, and I found the as-built prints for the sanctuary today. Amazing what you find when you clean. Now I know (or can find out), how the place was wired. Then I can fix it!

That’s my life, how’s yours?