She said yes....

So this weekend was kind of a big deal. Ok it was a really big deal and it was a lot of fun. There are a lot of stories about this weekend most of them revolve around the surprise party after I proposed to Alyssa.

So here are the details of the day, first I showed up to her parents house to pick her up after work. I hung out and waited (as usual) for her to get there and ready to go. We then left and I told her that I was going to be going up to Seattle that night to hang out with Kenan at an Irish Pub (this is one of many many stories she bought....) but that I wanted to hang out with her. The first thing we did is we drove over to our church because I needed some help in dropping off a speaker (to the rest of you sound nerds the JBL-VP7315 and they sound sweet!) that was in the back of my truck. So after Alyssa helped me drop off the speaker we borrowed a couple of tables for our friend Darianne to work on an organizing project for a wedding company she just bought. Actually the tables were for the buffet line at the party but that was just another story she bought, thankfully she USED to trust me.

We then left the church and headed out to grab a bite to eat for lunch. We stopped by Qdoba for some knock off mexican food that I really like and just sat and talked for a bit. Then I took her to the store to by some alergy medicine and "just because" it was on sale I bought a bunch of pop. Again another convient story. We then left Safeway and drove off to Redondo beach, this is where we went on our first date. We parked and walked along the same path and sort of recreated the first date. I walked down the boardwalk with her and we were just enjoying the warm but muggy weather. I think she was expecting me to propose her but instead I turned us around and we walked back to the truck.

We then drove up from Redondo out by this place where we looked at Christmas lights. Just a side note, this place we looked at Christmas lights was really cool but I think that was when I first realized that this girl has issues with being cold. I had my head out the window for cool air because her little honda has a heck of a heater. Anyways back to the main story, we then drove by the theater where we meet (our church was meeting there), by the park where we hung out and took pictures one day. Finally we started heading to the Tacoma waterfront, we went to the Tully's by stadium so I could get a coffee and we drove by stadium high school. This was one of the first places we talked or hung out much because we had some friends (Jeremy and Erin Gibbons) get married there.

We then went down to the waterfront on Ruston Way in Tacoma. We parked in the same spot we always do and walked along the water towards "Our Log". We were just walking and talking about things and we began to approach the place where we have sat and talked about many many things. In fact "our log" is the place where we decided we were going to start dating. As we got closer Alyssa saw that some lady was sitting on our log, not only did she notice this but she was really indignent. The thing she didn't know was that this "lady" sitting on our log was Nikki Gibbons and that Jordan Gibbons (her husband) and Jaime Gibbons (his brother) and Vinny (Jaime's friend) were all hiding out with cameras and video camera's. Well we got to the pre-arranged spot and I asked her if she would marry me. She kissed me really big and then realized she hadn't said anything. I think the answer I eventually got from her was uh-huh (it was her speachless yes). I then placed the ring on her finger and we walked away.

We headed back to the truck and I told Alyssa that I wanted to get some of my favorite salsa thats sold at a Thriftway in the Stadium District. So we swung by the store and bought 4 things of salsa and she was a little ring struck and didn't realize that I didn't need 4 things of salsa but I told her I was wanting to have to some extra but I needed to take it to my house to put it right in the fridge. Well we drove to the house and we were just talking about things and we turned the corner up to the house and all she could see were cars everywhere. There were tons of cars and she was starting to freak out just a little bit because there were tons of people with cameras and they were all our family and friends.

We got out and got completedly covered by silly string and bubbles as we walked to the front door. After the entrance everyone went out back for a BBQ and hanging out. The final surprise of the day was when Jordan Gibbons showed up with pictures for Alyssa of the day. She got to see the proposal and realized that this "lady" on "our log" was Nikki.

Everyone was finally gone at 11 and we were all exhausted from the day. It was a great time and good food. I would really like to thank the following people for their help.

• Gary and Cindy Van Hee - without your help I could have never gotten her there and she would have suspected the whole thing.


• Rick and Donna Hanson - thanks so much for the food and the flowers for Alyssa. Not sure about you guys writting a card to thank us but only saying something to Alyssa though.


• Justin and Darianne Westscott - thanks guys so much for hosting the party and letting us mess up the house a bit. I am really thankful for your friendship and hospitality.


• Patty and Carl Brumfield - thanks for the food and for the grilling, the food turned out great.


• Jordan, Nikki, Jamie and Vinny - thanks so much for taking the pictures down at the beach. You guys did a phenomenal job.


• Jaymie Quale - thanks for the decorating and the silly string. I appreciate the help in keeping her in the dark.

To everyone who took pictures Alyssa and I thank you for them. She loves to scrap book and she has plenty of pictures from the party to remember everything by.

Well, I am now stepping out into a new area of life. Its gonna be an interesting journey and I can't wait to see where it takes us.

Here is the link to all of the pictures.

Derek's Picasa Album for the Engagement Party



For those of you interested we are talking about a late fall wedding, keep the date of October 25th open..... more details to come

The Shure Dynamic Microphones

Last Sunday I was mixing sound at church on a Yamaha 48 Channel M7CL which I have become very comfortable on. This primary reason I enjoy using this console is that I can mix monitors on the faders. Its a really handy feature that I found on the other Yamaha Digitial Mixers (like the DM1000 and the DM2000). The monitors were a mix of powered wedges and non-powered stage monitors. These monitors were scattered throughout different areas of the stage and they provided a fairly even coverage of sound.

The problem came in with the microphones and the singers. The mics we were using were the Sennheiser e906, the Sennheiser e945, and the Shure Beta 58. The problem with the e906 was that it was hung over a slant mesa cab which works great for straight cabs but the slant cab the mic ends up being about 4 inches away from the grill, then to compound this issue the monitor was originally placed at a 90 degree angle to the mic. The problem is with the mic being that far off of the grill and the monitor being right in its major pickup lobe we had some issues with low end feedback. I was really annoyed but once we were started it was too late to change things up. Nothing is more distracting then a guy placing a mic stand on stage during a sermon.

Secondly the I am starting to dislike the use of cardiod mics for vocals. These mics have such a tendancy to pickup too much ambient noise on a live stage and the monitor mixes tend to suffer especially if the vocalist is not deliberate on how they hold the mic. Due to these issues I am becoming a much bigger fan of the SM 58(or Beta 58) or similar dynamic microphones. The Shure Mics have done such a good job of rejecting sound that is not front and center to the diaphram that they have been great for small rooms. The reason I think they are great for a small room is that they tend to reject the ambient noise that would otherwise be ripe cause for feedback.

Optical Mice as a Fire Threat

With the April Fools Day just around the corner an office joke has officially become an office wide prank. Today we sent out the following email from the IT department to all the employees here.

After a conversation prompted by the Thurston County Fire Marshall and our corporate insurance agents we are going to be implementing a new corporate policy. Due to a potential fire threat, all optical mice with red lasers must be placed on a MouseDock® when not in use for more than 45 minutes. We will place an order for enough holders for the entire company; until these holders come in we do have six samples that the Fire Marshall has left for distribution. We will distribute these on a first come first serve basis. If you are not able to get a MouseDock® please turn your mouse upside down when you leave your desk for more than 45 minutes.

It is imperative that you place any optical mice on a hardened plastic mouse holder over night to prevent the laser in the red optical mouse from potentially overheating the formica on your desk. These lasers have the potential to cause the glue to heat up and reach a combustion point that may pose a serious fire risk. In the few cases where the desks are made of stained wood, the tests have confirmed that the lacquer coats on the desk are highly susceptible to overheating and spontaneous combustion. In addition to you being required to utilize the MouseDock® here at CCI Solutions, we advise you purchase one for your mouse at home. We will be placing a bulk order to outfit CCI Solutions with the MouseDock®, if you would like to be part of the purchase of these please let us know by 1:30 today and we will include your purchase in our order. The more units purchased the bigger our discount. If you choose to participate in the bulk purchase, your account will be billed once they arrive.

Thanks for your support and compliance in this important fire safety matter.

Rick Schnabel

Information Systems Manager

CCI Soluitons

I will keep you posted as the day goes on with comments about how this is being bought. So far its going great! Thanks Brad for the help.

UPDATE: Here are the photos of the MouseDock® that we are distributing to our employees. These "MouseDock®" devices are really the spool that our wirelabels come on.

For your viewing pleasure:

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?