Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Microphone Explodes

The microphone explodes
Shattering the molds

Rage Against the Machine
"Bulls on Parade"
Evil Empire (1996)

Wow. Apparently Evil Empire is thirteen years old. Doesn't matter; it still rocks harder than most of the stuff that's getting spewed out these days. I'm getting distracted, though.

My biggest client is gone for the rest of this week, off to attend a conference in Bermuda. Since a big chunk of my time is usually spent taking care of what he needs, in his absence I've got a void to fill. I'm thankful for it, because I have a lot of stuff to fill the void with. We'll be getting back to homeschooling as we start our second school year at the beginning of August, so Holli and I need to finish preperations. Likewise, I need to make sure I'm fully caught up on work and sleep before we do so, because it's hard to catch up on either once school starts back up again.

With that in mind, I've got a big slate of work-related tasks to catch up on this week. I've got a couple of small projects still outstanding that I want to get nailed down. I've also got some internal projects I'd like to get finished, too, including my third new website that I'm just dying to get out there. Finally, I've got some little business-related odds and ends ot tidy up while I'm at things.

Wish me luck!

Friday, July 10, 2009

Fortunately, It Is Impossible to Rock Out Too Hard for God

God of wonders beyond our galaxy
You are holy, holy
The universe declares Your majesty
You are holy, holy

Steve Hindalong and Marc Byrd
"God of Wonders"
New Song Cafe, Vol. 1 (2003)

It's Friday, so it was my turn to be "on the wall" with Marvin's Friday morning team at WVIHOP doing our Harp and Bowl set. Things didn't start off well this morning, as some personal nonsense had me get there about twenty minutes after I normally do and had me in kind of a sour mood. They continued to go poorly in their start, as we struggled for about ten minutes to figure out why my guitar wasn't making sound through the loudspeakers only to realize I had my volume turned all the way down. Fortunately, though, that was rock bottom.

I had so much fun out there today. We started off with God of Wonders, which is a song that I've practiced for quite some time alone here at home, and I'm pretty comfortable with. We also did Mighty to Save in our opening three worship songs, another song that I'm really pretty decent with. The net result is that, despite my mood coming in and my fumbling with my stupidity about amplifiers, I settled in and got pretty comfortable with my playing.

While I was there, the Holy Spirit did some work in me. He dropped a couple of verses onto my heart that ultimately had a huge impact on dealing with my issues from the morning later in the day. More importantly, though, the Spirit lifted the burden from me, and I was able to throw myself into worshipping God through my guitar rather than worrying about life. So now I'm not only comfortable with my guitar playing, but the Spirit has liberated me. This is like a firestorm of things for Larry to embarass himself.

We got towards the end of the set and had our rapid-fire prayer time, and the rabbi from the Messianic Jewish community here in town gave the last prayer. I don't know his name, and unfortunately, he left before I had a chance to talk to him, but he's an awesome man of God and that really comes through in his prayers. Today was no exception, and he took a room full of people who were already fired up for God and just lit a fuse among us. The worship team followed his lead, and Marvin led us through a simle G-C chord progression (although I was taking the liberty of playing Cadd9 because my hand hurt) whlie we sang this chorus:

When the enemy comes in like a flood
The Lord will raise up a standard

Everyone was clapping and stomping. So I'm confident in my guitar playing so far for the day, the Spirit has freed me, and now I'm all fired up for God. So I start absolutely hammering the strings on my guitar, bouncing back and forth in my chair, and actually singing at the top of my lungs along with the chorus (an amazing thing for me becuase I cannot play and sing at the same time usually). It was righteous - the room was just filled with the presence of God, I was worshipping the Lord, my family was there to share it with me, and I had more fun than I'd had in ages. That, my friends, is living.

Friday, July 3, 2009

So Did I, Emums

I tooted.

Erin Swank
Last night, while our guests were still here

We had the Sabelhaus family over for dinner last night in a bartering of services; we made dinner for everyone, and Frank taught me how to change brake pads on the van. It was an awesome time. We really enjoyed hanging out with the Sabelhaus clan, the kids all seemed to have fun, and I learned a new skill. Nothing wrong with that.

Changing the brake pads was much easier than I thought it would be. I expected it to be a big production, but you just take off the tire, take off the brake, and there they are. It was almost a little disappointing; I expected to have to kill a gremlin or something to be able to get to the pads. I was impressed with the engineering of the van, though; it is solidly built. I suppose that makes sense, though, seeing as how it weighs thousands of pounds and rolls down asphalt at high speeds. It would need to be solid to handle those sorts of stressors.

For dinner, we had Holli's Famous Spaghetti Sauce, some stuff to dump it on, and the associated breads and salads. The sauce was the star of the show. It's very sweet, but it's got a lot of spicy kick to it. Bobby Flay would approve. It also has the unfortunate side effect of making me fart - frequently and loudly - and last night was no exception. I actually woke myself up with a couple of them last night, so I can't imagine how bad it was for Holli.

That's right. Potty humor in my blog. If you're shocked by this, you obviously don't know me that well.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Meteorology Stinks. Music Does Not.

We're always playing with the weather prediction algorithm in an effort to make it more accurate and do away with meteorology once and for all.

www.RandomForecast.com

One night, Holli and I were sitting around and she had the idea that I should put up a site that randomly generated a weather forecast. I loved the idea and went to work on it right away. Holli's brainchild has finally been born, and you can witness the fruits of her ingenuity and my labor at www.RandomForecast.com.

I like weathermen. I really do. They're my favorite of the newscasters, because they, more than anyone else giving us the news, seem to actually care about and enjoy what they do. Sports guys occasionally get close, but the weathermen are so consistently happy about their jobs, it's hard not to like it. And don't even get me started on Jim Cantore. He's like Superman in a rain poncho.

So I like weathermen. Weatherwomen are cool, too. It's just that the science of their chosen field leaves a little to be desired if I can, with a moderate amount of accuracy, randomly generate a forecast. That's all I'm saying.

Tomorrow's going to be a musical day for me. I'll get up and make my way over to the WVIHOP to play guitar again, which is fantastic. I've been looking forward to this for two weeks. Then later that day, Holli and I will go out and have our anniversary dinner - a little early, but that's okay - before heading up to Indianapolis to see Casting Crowns play live! Woot! That is so awesome I can't even put it into words. I love me some Casting Crowns.

Alright, that's enough yapping. I've got to go work on some Flash.