Please be Praying for my grandparents.

I am really lucky to be where I am and still have all four of my grandparents. I don't see them very often because they all live in the Sacramento area but I still consider myself blessed. My mom's dad has gotten some sort of weird infection in his knee. Below is an excerpt from an email from my mom. Please be praying...

Hi there:

I talked to Grandma earlier this afternoon (around 2 p.m.) Grandpa was in surgery for them to clean out his knee area. His white blood count was over 400,000. Normal is around 12,000. They will culture the junk they take from his knee and see if they can figure out what type of infection he has. That will take 3 days and they will keep Grandpa at the hospital. At that time, the doctor said he did fine during surgery. Aunt Jamie called me about 8:30 p.m. Apparently, Grandma didn't get in until about 8 p.m. to see Grandpa because he had difficulty after surgery with his blood pressure and heart rate. I know Grandma didn't expect to wait that long to see him. They are keeping Grandpa in the Intensive Care Unit tonight to keep a better eye on him. At this time, that's all I know. Grandma doesn't want anyone to come to Sacramento, at least not yet. She has even told Uncle Rick and Uncle Dan not to come to the hospital because there isn't anything they can do and Grandpa is pretty much out of it for now. Please pray for both of them.

We are concerned about Grandma too. She will probably rest better with Grandpa in the hospital because she was so worried about him. Also, it was so hard for him to get around at the house, and Grandma is exhausted from trying to take care of him.

Call if you want to tomorrow. I'll share whatever news I have. If I hear anything more, I'll contact you.

Love you all,

Mom

The Phone is back... yea

I found the phone today, it somehow ended up under the pool table under one of the legs... I am blamming my roommates dog....

Dang It!

I lost my cell phone, this sucks...

New Studio Monitors

Well the home studio has a new set of killer monitors to work with....

A pair of JBL LSR4300 should be on their way soon....

I can't wait!!!!

My Ode to the SM-57

I run sound for a lot of different events. Most often they are rock shows that are centered around worship. The average church using acoustic drums has fallen prey to the joys of the small clip on mic and given up on the power of the sound of a '57

Granted the 57 takes more effort to get into place, its larger and requires its own boom stand but the sound rocks. I mean seriously its great. I have been using the Sennheiser mics alot and they do sound good but they seem to have an EQ pattern that gives every tom a ring that lasts way longer then the actual tom does. I have been able to work around that effect but that means I am using up my EQ, gates and compressors to "repair" the sound not to tweak the sound to desire.

In my opinion (and I believe fact backs this up) there is nothing that replaces mic placement as the first and most crucial variable in the sound of an instrument. For example while my love for the 57 may never cease no matter what you do if you dangle the mic over a guitar cabinet the sound is gonna suck. The sound just doesn't enter in the mic correctly, the physics of it make it so. Not to say you can't screw around with it for an effect but thats not gonna get you what you are looking for live.

Now I realize that the SM-57 is not the best mic for every situtation but if I had to choose only two mics to last me for the rest of my sound careers one for sure would be the SM-57...

stay posted for the other mic

Empire Strikes Back?

Apple and the evil AT&T Empire appear to be striking back at lowly users of the iphone...

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/08/rebel-iphone-us.html

I can hear .justin seething from here....

this makes me smile...

Hold Music and lots of posts...

During my whole career in the Computing Industry I have had to make so many phone calls for tech support. Actually I consider it the bane of my existance... why you might ask? HOLD MUSIC. I have had to listen to some elevator music until I was ready to just end it all, and as soon as you don't think you can handle another second someone answers the phone. Oh the joy of no more music, well its quickly dashed when they place back in another queue. So that brings me back to the fact I have been posting a ton today. Its because I am testing our hold system due to an equipment failure.

Out of respect for people I have done my best to pull together a reasonable playlist of music. The hold music used to be on a CD jukebox with whatever CDs were dumped in there. I appologize profusely to anyone that had to listen to that music, I am sure it violated your consitituional rights in some fashion. Well I just modernized our system significantly and took all the CDs out of the juke box and ripped em with iTunes onto a machine. I think to and got someone to run mic wire from the phone closest to the server room and have been able to take the builtin sound card and drive our hold music from itunes. I can now build playlists and filter through the hours/days of horrible horrible blue grass music and pull out some acceptable music for all to hear. While its not the ideal mix its a start. Here it is:

• Jam In The Pocket - Phil Keaggy
• All Right Here - Sara Groves
• Our Love Is Loud - David Crowder Band
• Majesty (Here I Am) - Delirious?
• Satisfied - Crystal Lewis
• Everything - Delirious?
• Smellin' Coffee - Chris Rice
• Spanish Fantasy - Phil Keaggy
• Every Minute - Sara Groves
• All Creatures Of Our God & King - David Crowder Band
• Above All - Paul Baloche
• Flood (Live) - Jars Of Clay
• Nothing To Say - Andrew Peterson
• My Glorious - Delirious?
• Thought Menagerie - Sixpence None The Richer
• The Cross Has Said It All - Matt Redman
• Love Song For A Savior - Jars Of Clay
• God You Are My God - Delirious?
• Love, Salvation, The Fear Of Death - Sixpence None The Richer
• Healing Rain - Michael W. Smith
• Come On Back To Me - Third Day
• Did You Feel The Mountians Tremble? - Matt Redman
• Epilogue/Amazing Grace - Phil Keaggy
• Praise Adonai - Paul Baloche
• One Of Those Days - Chris Rice
• Thirsty - Chris Rice
• Thrive - Newsboys
• Amazing Grace - Jars Of Clay
• You Are Mine - Third Day
• Inside Outside - Delirious?

I love iTunes (yeah I said something positive about a Mac product I know justin) its been stable and has don a great job of just running. The only thing I would ask in the next version is if they would give me a 31band EQ to work with instead of a 10band EQ. I could really use the extra control since telephone service is such a limited bandwidth.

Oh one question? Does anyone know how to make an EQ the default EQ so that iTunes always loads it?

Young Adults Ministry

Hey so I have been asked to prepare a plan for a young Adults ministry for Family Life Christian Center. I love my church, I love the heart and the effects of my church on the local community. I am hoping to build a ministry that builds up the church, that is safe for the un-churched, that is challenging for the churched, that is relevant for people. So here are my questions:

• What events do you host? Specifically, what types of events are going to reach out to the young women. Let me clarify this point, I am looking for ideas to develop a balanced ministry (roughly a 50% split on gender lines) and have tons of ideas about how to get guys in but very few ideas for bringing in the ladies.

• What events do you travel to for training, for education, and to build up the believers? Are there any other groups similar to ThoughtLife Northwest or the Resurgence?

• What are great ways to develop an active and visible role in the community?
  ie Building Teams to play in the Community Sport Leagues, Hosting Concerts, plays, comedians

Any help, thoughts or ideas would be really appreciated. If you are interested I will also send out the plan that is in development, it would come with only one string you MUST give feedback. I need/desire everyones in put, if we are to build a church group that is not church centric but Christ centered and one that shows the light of Christ to the world around us I NEED HUGE AMOUNTS OF HELP!..

thanks

Seahawks: 1-0, Hilltop Hitman: 0-1

Well the first part of this post is great news. The Seahawks are 1-0 and I think they are going to be a good team. We have a divisional game next week which will be important to come out and crush the Cardinals. Am I the only one tired of hearing about how they (and the 49ers) are supposed to be this up and comming team? I remember how the 49ers scared me last year but I think we were looking at a drastically different Hawks team.

Ok so now on to the not so good news, I got destroyed. Absolutely, entirely inhaliated in my opening week of Fantasy football. The Hilltop Hitman (my homeage to the area I live) were destroyed 95-143 because Tony Freakin Romo through for a million yards, at least a dozen touchdowns and ran for a couple more just for kicks. Freakin Giants Defense, where were you guys? Seriously? Ok so the stat line may be exagerated but Romo and Owens combined for 59 points!!! Thats over half my what my whole team got. Lame!!!

Back to the drawing board....

Go Hawks!!!

Midgets?

Ok so I was driving across town yesterday to pickup a battery for an old voice announcement device in our phone system listening to KISW (99.9FM) and the Men's Room Show was on. I usually enjoy listening to the men's room cause there real guys, not the wussy guy type. Well yesterday they were talking about how Tommy Lee and Kid Rock got into a scuffle and there question for the day came from that. It was "Have you ever got punched in the face and what did you do to deserve it?" Well I can honestly say that I never have been punched in the face but one of the ladies that called show told a story of how her 6'6" 300lb boss got slapped by a drunken midget he was trying to talk some sense into. This caused a bunch of hysterical comments and questions but the one I keep coming back to is: Is it ok to punch a midget?

Seriously, its not ok to hit women or kids and its always been like women and kids get taken care of first in an emergency but where does a midget fit into that scheme? I just don't see how you punch a midget. According to the wiki Midgets are under 4'10" and thats a tall midget. So back to the question, would you ever hit a midget? And if you wouldn't, how many midgets would have to attack you before you fought back?

44 runs, a gallon of blood and two wins later.....

I am writting to announce the first victory in the playoffs for Sheltowne! We are now a stellar 2-10. We played excellent defense (for us anyways) and had the bats going all night. The manager Brad Hanson put together an excellent batting order and had people in the right positions to make plays. There were two downsides to the evening, the injury to shortstop Bryce Jacot and an eruption of blood from the face of the first baseman (ME!!!)


Bryce was hurt sliding into third, he was caught in a pickle and slide into the base catching a toe and injuring his knee. He played through his last at bat for the game and went home. Unfortunately for the rest of his team that was the first game and that took us down to 10 players for 10 positions. It also dropped one of the best hitters on the team from the line up.



The second injury (photos to be added later) occured in the third inning of our second game when a left handed batter stepped to the plate. He rifled a ball down the line and I slide over to pick it up, as I slide down to get over the ball I noticed the ball take a really really bad bounce. Up it came right into my face. When all was said and done the ball cracked me right in the mouth and caused my face to swell up huge. It sucks and is gonna take forever to heal, guess no asking any girls out anytime soon...

But the best part about this whole day is our two wins put us into the semi-final game for the league. We have not won a game all year but yet with two strategic wins in the post-season we are only a game away from winning it all? I bet someone out there is pissed, oh well I am loving it....


Update:
Being the drugged and in pain somewhere in the process of writing this blog I feel asleep and never actually posted it. So here it goes up, only 5 days after the initial writing.

Hello World!

As in all classic programming examples I am shouting hello world because I finally decided to jump on the blog bandwagon. I will be using this blog as a way to post thoughts on living a relevant Christian life, serving in ministry effectively, working with audio, leading a band, running sound, playing volleyball, lessons that have been taught, and other random notes and comments. I love run on sentences and the excessive use of the period......

I hope that I can use this blog to chime in with my thoughts on ministry, audio gear, reviews of concerts and albums. I am a big fan of theology and a big fan of hair metal, isn't that a great combo. Also anytime any one wants to discuss the finer points of English soccer you can meet me down at Doyle's in Tacoma and we can talk the advantages of a flat back 4 vs running a diamond vs running 3 and cramming 5 in the middle..... I love that stuff...

Well this is gonna be a good start for tonight, time to get outside and enjoy the sun.

Later all,
Derek