Random Thoughts

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!

I just realized that it’s been nearly a month since my last post. Sorry about that. I guess with the Twitter feed going, I feel less inclined to post a lot. Since I’m writting this on my iPod (new v.2.0 software update and the Wordpress app…) it will be brief. Here’s a recap of the last month.

• Robyn went to cheer camp in the Wisconsin Dells.
• Katie flew to NY to spend some time with my brother’s family at camp.
• Denise worked a short project grading the tests of kids who failed last time (and didn’t do much better this time).
• I’ve been able to mix (sound) for CPC some this summer, and finally got to mix Upper Room last weekend. I had a blast, and got lots of compliments on the sound.
• I had an article published in Technologies for Worship magazine. It was a full-length feature about presentation software. That was cool.
• I was on the FaithTools podcast again. I really enjoy those. Great guys to get to know.
• We’ve had great weather almost all summer, and I’ve been loving spending time out on the patio.
• We’re getting ready to head back to NY for a few weeks. We’ll be arriving on Aug 1. Get in touch with me if you want to hang out. We’ll also be in Cleveland for a few days before and after.
• I think my tech blog is going to hit 3000 views this month. Go visit and push it over the top.

So that’s about it. It’s getting dark and the bugs are coming out. If you’re reading from Cleveland or Rochester, I hope we’ll see you over the next few weeks!
Peace…

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. 

Whew, today was a day. I’m really tired today, though it wasn’t really that hectic. The craziness came in spurts, and right now my back feels like it needs some adjustment. I made the mistake of wearing the wrong shoes today.

Earlier this week I got a call from CPC’s contemporary service music director asking if I knew of anyone who could run sound. I said, “Funny you should ask…” I’ve been wanting to get back to mixing and spent a fair amount of time online looking for another local church I could go and volunteer my mixing skills once a month or so. Then it hit me; CPC needs people, maybe I should talk to Matt. Then Matt called.

So there I was tonight mixing away. Overall, things went well. We’ve recently done a lot of changing of wiring at front of house, so I had to fix a few bugs in the digital board. Not bugs really, just things that needed to be switched on or off. And I’m still getting used to it. 

Then there was our video switcher. We’ve had problems with it lately randomly muting the audio. So tonight, one of the pastors said, take a look at this video. After an interminably long pause, the video started playing. With no audio. That was special. I spent almost 2 hours after the service tracking down the problem and fixing it. Well, I think it’s fixed. It’s a random problem…

Perhaps the coolest application of technology today is being able to run the sound mixer software on my Mac, in Windows. Yup, my Mac runs Windows. And in Windows, it runs Studio Manager, which means I was able to sit in my living room and set up all my patching, routing and channel naming for this weekend’s service, then push it to the board. I had to make but a few tweaks. It’s pretty cool, really.

Now I’m at home, enjoying the peace and quiet. I stayed up way to late last night, and I have a long day (10 AM-9:30 PM) tomorrow, so I think I’ll hit the hay early. Monday is a day off, but I have another script to write for Adobe. I think I’ll go stake out a Caribou somewhere and write. Then it will at least feel like I’m not working. And I’ll come home smelling of coffee. I wonder if Denise is attracted to that? ‘;)

Here are some pictures of Katie opening presents. Note the new haircut!

Well here it is, Katie’s 15th birthday. She’s been celebrating all week, and even wore a crown to school yesterday. It’s hard to believe the years have gone by so quickly. I don’t know how she got to be 15, because I don’t feel 15 years older. Then again, some days I do. Either way, it’s here.

This is the year she’ll start driving (yikes!), and she’s finishing up a freshman in HS. The best part of all this is just what a wonderful woman she’s become. All who know her love her, and we constantly get comments from teachers, youth leaders and other adults just how much they like her. As a parent, that makes you feel pretty good. Not that it’s all our doing, but you like to think you had a small part in helping your kid grow up well.

So Happy Birthday, Katie! Enjoy the day, and I will try to have my camera ready a t 4:02 so you can open presents exactly 15 years after you were born. Of course, since we’re in CST now, that should really happen in like 2 minutes, at 3:02.