Stuff

• My last post I had  shared that I was planning to ride a bicycle sprint for the Kansas City Corporate Challenge and I am glad to report that I did, in fact, not fall over.  I also got to race on the Kansas Speedway itself for two laps at 8min 57sec for an average speed just a fuzz over 20mph. So I hit the modest goal I had and I've continued to ride regularly and I'm looking forward to the race next year.  I may even try a few time trials here around town for fun.  There's several guys at church who ride and it's been fun encouraging and being encouraged to stick with it.  If it stops raining we may get together and hit the trails...
• This last Sunday the worship team had the pleasure of having the father of one of our singers (Jessica Robins) visit and play acoustic guitar.  He's a great guitar player and since he was in town we couldn't let him just sit in a pew without giving us a hand on stage.(I learn a lot by just listening to him play).  It's great to hear how much a really good guitar player can add to our group and we got several great comments on worship. The whole group was really relaxed and enjoying the worship.  Thanks again Randy for sitting in... 

I'm still here... but on the road again.

I've been away for awhile I know... No reason really, I just haven't had any blog-able material.  I'll blame work for sucking the energy and creativity out of me lately.   Anyway, I've started riding my road bike again. I rebuilt it a few years back as a single-speed, no shifting gears, just one very big gear up front and a tiny one in back.  I used to ride regularly years ago as a way to keep in shape for the ski season and just got out of the habit as "life" got underway.   Two years ago I signed up for a KC Corporate Challenge event; a 5000meter (2.5 miles) sprint as a way to get motivated to get in shape and set a goal.  Well, I developed such bad tendinitis in my elbow and numbness and pain in my hands (not good for a guitar player) that I couldn't ride.  After finding some relief from that, but not until well after the event, I set my sites on the next year.  The next spring some of you may remember that I broke my ankle a year in a horrific (i.e. embarrassing) accident walking across a street while texting on my BlackBerry.  (Yes, I'm that guy)  So, here I am roughly a month away from the event and no severe pain is racking my body.  Thank You, LORD!  I've gotten several training rides under my wheels and my performance is improving.  It's not quite to the performance goal I've set but I've still got time and the rain is drying up a little.  I've even ordered a few cycling gadgets to make the ride a little better...   If you choose you can witness the spectacle (me in cycling gear should be hilarious by itself) on Wednesday the 26th at 7pm at the Kansas Speedway.  That's when the people in the middle of the age bracket race... :)

Disjointed Musings and Observations (I refuse to use the word random)

• Some very good (maybe even excellent) stuff on worship at: www.worshipmatters.com  I would greatly encourage you to check out Bob Kauflin's posts. Here's a snippet: "We will reap what we sow when we lead people to worship God as well. If we sow to musical experiences, we’ll reap a desire for better sounds, cooler progressions, and more creative arrangements. If we sow to feelings, we’ll reap meetings driven by the pursuit of emotional highs. On the other hand, if we want people to glorify God, we must sow to His glory. We must paint a compelling, attractive, grand, biblical picture of our great God and Savior."-Amen brother
•  I am trying to sell some stuff on ebay, wow what a hassle.  No wonder Craig's List is successful.  Anyone need a handful of 5meter single-mode simplex 9/125micron SC-SC fiber-optic jumpers?!?!  Anyone...? (crickets, crickets, crickets)  They're yellow...  (crickets, crickets, crickets) just as I feared.
• I continue to baffle my office mate by being a Christian that doesn't slide easily into the pigeon hole that he has prepared for me. I think it is mainly due to my unwillingness to die on any sword other than the one Christ has prepared for me in his Gospel.  If my office mate regards me, I want it to be in the context of my Christ-follower-ness (yikes!), not my "conservative" views, my midwestern sensibilities, or my snappy attire. :) He has declared me to be "not in the norm" and I find that deeply satisfying... and I hope the LORD finds that satisfying as well. 
• As I sit here, a flower that my wife has placed in the vase on our kitchen table is opening up and I am reminded of Sherlock Holmes and it is worth your time to find out why.  I will leave you with that little mystery to uncover for yourself with only this clue... "What a lovely thing a rose is..."

Today is kinda stinky...

It's cold outside and my little boy is having trouble breathing with strep and a cold... despite being in the hospital he has a remarkably great little attitude.

From Taking It From The Five*

It was warmer then...

Here are a few pics from this last summer where the only thing that was close to 16 degrees was the internal temperature of a dippin' dot...

From Taking It From The Five*

From Taking It From The Five*

That's big...real big

    

I've always been a fan of engines. I like jet engines, turbines (Teslas are neat), diesels, stirlings, steam, superchargerd and turbocharged; you name it, I like it.  Cylinder and crankshaft configurations I have pondered and doodled, and I have even downloaded the sounds of engines because I find the sound of racing motors to be rather exhilarating. (believe it or not but there are extensive collections of such things) You may or may not share my exhuberance for such things mechancical but I hope you find this a little interesting.  It is a whopper of a motor, the Wartsila- Sulzer RTA96C.  It was designed to move cargo ships. Here are a few specs:

power

up to 6030 kW per cylinder, 36,180 to 84,420 kW (49,200 to 114,800 bhp) altogether

engine displacement

1820 litres per cylinder (111,063 cubic inches)

engine speed

92–102 revolutions per minute

torque

7,603,850 newton metres (5,608,310 ft·lbf) @ 102 revolutions per minute

Here is a picture of the turbocharger that goes on it...  I'm super curious as to what kind of racket this thing makes.

Three Things... OK, Four; Five at the most.

• I still like my Jeep coming up on 4 yrs.  It's starting to show some age, but the kids still fight over who gets to ride with Dad.  It always feels like I'm driving a Tonka truck... :)
• A guy at work spotted me a can of Heritage Dr. Pepper last week.  Hmmm, not sure during the first few sips, but by the time the can was gone I was starting to like it alot.  Had a regular high fructose fountain one at lunch today and it tasted too syrupy and sweet by comparison.  Admittedly, fountain versions are inconsistent in quality.
• I am eagerly awaiting baseball season... not sure when I really became a fan.
• I still prefer Star Trek to Star Wars.  
•  A good healthy Church is too positive of a thing to not enjoy.  If you're not enjoying it (all other things being equal), you may be doing it incorrectly.  So, to paraphrase instructions given in times of fiery danger, Stop, Drop, and Pray...
• "Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
  Let this blest assurance control,
  That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
  And hath shed His own blood for my soul." -for Madison.

String what...?

I've been reading a book on physics recently.  Particularly a book on quantum physics and string theory.  Keep reading, don't worry.  I have no intention of trying to explain something I can't comprehend myself.  Let's just call most of it a "strechting" exercise for my brain.  Well anyway part of this book is a refresher (as if it was all something I was super familiar with before) on physics in general from Isaac Newton up to current thought.   What I have found truly awe inspiring is how the book keeps describing the laws of physics but also keeps confirming my understanding about God and his attributes as they are found in the the Bible.  Even at the quantum level His creation shouts of His glory...

Special Music

  Practicing with the worship team on sooooo many songs recently with out Christmas Eve set, the New Years lock-in set and this last Sunday has been very satisfying and we've been hammering out a lot of good stuff but,  even with all that I've been enjoying playing some on the acoustic at home the most.  The other night my 4 year old was singing Joy To The World along with my guitar. That was just great fun to hear his little voice pick out the melody.  Both my boys are great fans of the song How Many Kings by Down Here and they provided some percussion backing for me late last week on that song. Corban was on the bongos and Josiah was doing a good imitation of Animal from the Muppets band with his little drum and sticks. Corban was really trying to keep the beat with my guitar and was hanging on pretty well. He's got a good sense of rhythm and you can catch him singing to himself quite often.  There's something very special about playing music with my kids...

Worthy of Mention...

• I scored a raging +3 on a certain blog's (Stuff Christians Like) worship leader rating sysetm...  I won't go into it deeply other than to say the only reason I rated at all is that I drink coffee and wear jeans on stage and rock a goatee (yes, I said rock). I  lost half of my points due to the brand of jeans that I wear.  I'm still not sure I qualify as a worship leader... still wrestling with that one.  (David Crowder scored a +7 but had to add his own questions to get his score up.)
• When I started playing electric guitar I was certain that I would not have a massive number of effects, but I'm up to 4 pedals now and thinking about more.  Most recent addition is an MXR Dyna-Comp, a very subtle effect and I'm using it more often than not.
• We are hip deep in Christmas musice... trying not to burn out.
• Here's a good David Crowder Interview
• Ever notice how God does have a plan and answers prayer.  His timing is perfect, I don't understand it, but it's perfect.

Ground Hog Day and other Random Thoughts

• There's something my crew at work has noticed lately...  at certain times it seems we are experiencing ground hog day,( like in the movie).  For all the world it feels like ground-hog day for us but not them. Every day seems to be a bright, shiny, new thing and we patiently wait for them to "re-experience" the world around them and ask the same questions they asked last week.What's even stranger, and to the credit of my crew, we aren't upset by this at all, rather we find it mildly amusing, perplexing, but amusing still..
• There seem to be vastly differing opinions circulating on the safety and efficacy of home-made scaffolding. I've heard several people this week discussing methods and tactics. I will leave you to your own judgement and personal level of "risk adverse-ness".
• Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess... I love this book... I paraphrase it a little when talking to my boys... such as "You've got what it takes, with your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet."  Not even a close second to Scripture, but there's some handy stuff in there...
• We need a different  blog label other than Random Thoughts. A cursory glance at Chaos theory and Fractal Geometry may lead us to believe there is no such thing as "Random"... (sorry kids.  I know "that's so not random" won't have the same ring to it.)  I just somehow knew that there was no such thing as luck.

Veterans Day...

Thanks to all the Veterans.  This day always brings a mixture of pride and sadness to my mind. My wife said it very well at http://alisa-thesweetlife.blogspot.com/

HandGolf

Yes, handgolf... It appears that it is a sport unique to NorthEast Kansas and that there may be only one course in existence. I'm proud to say I'm a course regular and took second place at this years Men's Retreat Tournament.

It is a game played by throwing softballs (preferably the dimpled kind used in pitching machines) on a 18 hole course similar to golf. You can knock the course out in 45 minutes or so with 3-4 players. Any of the snobbishness associated with regular golf absolutely goes up in smoke with the first "hurl" of the ball. There are very few rules but here's a quick shakedown:

• underhand throws only
• one foot must stay on the spot where the ball lands on all shots after teeing off.
• person with the fewest strokes/hurls win

You get the idea... golf without clubs, gadgets, expensive lessons, carts, or special shoes. There is a great deal of skill involved in "reading" the course and it's condition since it's only grooming is the kind of mowing regimen reserved for good pasture. Mole hills play a large factor in the longer holes. A good straight "hurl" can be instantly diverted turning a potential one under par into one over in the blink of an eye. Tree limbs can knock balls right out of the air adding 1-2 hurls to a hole since most holes are directly under trees.

Our game even has it's heroes and memorable moments like regular golf but is mostly an oral history at this point. ( Current rumor has Kyle Dolenski as course record holder.) I had thought at one point that formalizing the game would add to the fun but I'm not sure now... although I wouldn't mind a course closer to home. Maybe a 9 holer somewhere in the Dotte... you know just to keep the skill level up.

Worship!

I have been inspired once again to blog, that yes indeed, there is a need:

This last weekend my wife and I went to Tulsa to visit friends (our old worship minister) and to see David Crowder in concert. I was not only a great deal of fun and a great worship time, but a reminder of something that occurred to me not long after I was involved in worship at my home Church... which is that music, the amazing gift from God, is the bridge between what's between your ears and what thumps in your chest. It is a powerful thing indeed to balance the emotive with the intellectual in way that is more that the sum of its' parts. While I admittedly only possess moderate intellectual and musical skills; I am thankful that I am allowed to experience the process while playing (and occasionally singing) on stage. Ah... another unexplainable mystery that brings me to the point of awe and childlike glee.

A exuberant exclamation of praise is in order at this point... (I will leave you to your own devices and good judgement to accomplish such as you deem appropriate)

• Two things that seem to win no matter what the game is, rust and gravity.

• Rust: I decided to take some much needed time sprucing up the jeep. Not long after I bought it I replaced the mirrors with a type that attached to the body instead of the doors so that I could legally drive it with the doors off. Now rust has not only made the mirrors look lousy, but I can't get them off. I even came close to twisting one of the bolts off after a healthy dose of penetrating oil. The bumpers also need to be taken off and wirebrushed and painted. Not sure how to tackle the rust on the wheels...

• Gravity: Last week I was walking up the stairs on our deck and notice that there was a little more give than I was comfortable with. Upon further inspection something had caused two posts on the lower deck level to shift, allowing the stairs to be beaten by gravity. This will cause some major rework of the deck. I will get to use hydraulics jacks in the process (take that gravity). We have had thoughts of replacing the deck with something a little more useable, but hadn't planned on doing anything soon (ie, no plans to shell out the cash).

• Yesterday was the last day our rythm/acoustic guitar player would be able to play with us for quite a while. He is being deployed. Although I'll miss his guitar playing, I'll miss his desire to serve the LORD, his reliability and level headedness most...

• I've been looking for a new/used acoustic guitar and have been foolish enough to start looking before I saved up my money. So of course I've been finding several "perfect" guitars that I just can't afford yet which has caused considerable angst. In the mean time I've become an armchair expert on several "not quite vintage" Gibson, Guild and Mossman guitars but have only played a handful of Gibsons (all which carry astronomical price tags. Kansas City just isn't saturated with used guitars like someplace like Nashville for example. In fact there are so few that it may be worth my time and money to drive to Nashville and spend a day hitting all the guitar shops. If I had the money I could pick up whatever guitar I wanted, but with limited resources I have to be pretty picky. You see, in the 70s Gibson was bought by a company called Norlin. To a collector this started a dark era for the Gibson brand. For a player it has left a small group of guitars that are made in the same factory by the same people with the same quality materials and same (mostly) design that made those guitars great, but without the collector interest driving the price up. So... if you have an early 70's Kalamazoo made Gibson J45 or J50 with the big pickguard laying around let me know.

First Posting!

So... I thought I should my first post should be something paradigm shifting, provocative and entirely cool. That just isn't gonna happen this late on a Sunday. Sunday's are huge for my family and all that's happening at the homestead tonight is my wife relaxing on the couch recovering from a particularly busy weekend. The kids are asleep (the youngest fell asleep on the couch right after dinner)

This morning started with a fog drenched drive to open the church building and get things ready for an early practice with the rest of the worship team. Worship went great, the vocals were tight and the band played well. Our minister delivered the Word with the usual high marks for solid biblical doctrine and several familys went to eat lunch together to enjoy the company of friends from out of town (that I was pleased to have stay with us).

That's it! That's mostly what I'm about, God, Family, Friends and Music . I'm sure my blog won't stray too far from that... I'll save the paradigm shifting, provocative and cool for later.