the world is bright and beautiful

This is the first time I've ever had a problem with a foreign worker: The guy at Burger King gave me a pack of syrup with my Cini-Mini's, not icing as is expected and supposed to be paired with my delicious tiny rolls. This is the first time I've ever felt like telling someone to learn the language or go home.

On Tuesday morning I logged into my gmail account (yuck) and found an email from a Young Adults pastor in Gaithersburg, MD. He wanted to know if I was still looking for a full-time ministry job. I responded by telling him that I was employed part-time by a church currently but would love to talk with him. Wednesday morning he called me on the phone and we spoke for about an hour about my background and what I would have to offer the ministry. He told me a lot about the church and what is going on way up there, and what my role would be should I get the job. We had a great conversation, the highlights being him freaking out when I told him I worked at the Apple store, and him telling me that if the church wants to move forward with me, they would most likely fly me out the second or third week in November to lead worship for their campus church and meet all the pastors.

Freak out.

The church's worship pastor called me a few hours later to get a little more in-depth with me into what I believe and what Worship is to me, and he loved what I had to say and thought I had "a great perspective." They requested a more in-depth resume of my musical experience to bring to their senior pastor, so I shot that off yesterday afternoon. And now I'm waiting.

…

I often forget how wonderful the David Crowder Band is, but as soon as I start any one of their albums (generally Illuminate or A Collision,) I feel it. Truly magical worship music; every element in use and everything done with excellence. I will probably always maintain that DC*B is the absolute most creative, professional, and best mixed/produced Christian band in the world. But anyways. Yesterday I had a nice bout with the 24-hour Flu, which I suspect came from Hoshi. Needless to say things got off to a rough start at around 4am when my dinner rather rudely and suddenly announced that it was no longer happy being residenced within my stomach and would be seeking better conditions elsewhere. It finally made its triumphant escape around 5:15, about the same time as the fever began. Most of the rest of the day was spent on the couch being lovingly cared for by Ricci, who brought over soup, crackers, Ginger Ale and her binder full of movies. I love this woman. We watched copious amounts of Spongebob and The Office until my fever broke around 5pm and I decided that I needed to see the outside world at least once before the sun went down. So we took a brief trip to the mall where she, having incredible taste, found a great pair of shoes for herself. I however, struck out in the shoe department, but it was okay. I wasn’t really there to shop, I was just in need of a change of atmosphere. But sadly my fever started to creep back up around 6:30, so we picked up some take-out for Ricci and came back to my apartment to watch Transformers. Awesome movie but for a few things: The two main characters are supposed to be in the 11th grade? Nice try Shia and Hussie. If girls are looking and dressing like that in 11th grade now, my kids will be homeschooled. Second: why do we still have to have the hard-rocking Linkin Park/Disturbed soundtrack? When the double bass and power chords kick in, we are all reminded that an altogether-too-mainstream director like Michael Bay is in charge of our beloved Autobots and that this movie is still 100% Hollywood. But apart from the atrocious soundtrack (ever heard of an orchestra, jackass?) and somewhat (entirely) unbelievable “heroine,” the movie was fantastic, and a rare occasion in my life I can honestly say I hope for a sequel. BTW: Tons of Macs in the film = awesome, plus the Transformers were created using Apple software. PWND.

I suffer from post-Harry-Potter-depression. I feel best when the weather is grey, cold, and wet. To me, happiness is watching season 1 of The Office in one sitting with your beautiful girlfriend. It is seeing your breath on a sunny morning. It's shopping and having your breath be taken away. It's playing Orisinal games and feeling super relaxed and peaceful. It's picking up "To Kill A Mockingbird" for the 50th or so read. It's imagining new songs and new sentences for stories. It's reading "Deathly Hallows" for the 3rd time and feeling sad and happy at the same time because you feel like you were a part of something special, even if it was for a short time. It's listening to the () album for the trillionth time and still feeling lulled. It's peppermint hot chocolate, even when you ordered espresso in it. It's a pretty girl in her new jacket smiling at you under a perfect sky. It is being emo and blogging all over the place. I am a happy kid.

Well, as I am enjoying my Ramen and Ham+Turkey sandwhich here at work, I get to enjoy a few things. One, my recent discovery that my blogger account has a post-via-email option has really upped my desire to blog, as I no longer need to actually log into blogger to post. Very nice, as it furthers my "move every aspect of life onto .Mac" agenda. Just need to get Facebook routed and I'll be all set until I can start hosting my blog on my own next year. But the really cool thing is that Marshall actually responded to my email! I shot them a line because I was hoping to find the matching tap-tempo switch for my new Echohead, and the very next day (today) I had an email back informing me that the pedal is not sold in the US, but they were able to reccomend a Korg switch as a viable replacement. Nothing like excellent customer service from a giant company. I am excited to start tapping in my Echohead's tapey goodness and "landscaping," as it were. I will hopefully find a way to get some audio clips up, because this pedal sounds really awesome and I want to show it off.

Well, I have just returned home from camp, and while I am thoroughly and wonderfully exhausted, I am so so happy. We had an absolute blast up at Camp Timberline in Estes Park. Of the 100 or so kids that show up on a regular basis at youth group, 73 came up to camp to rock out, zipline, frisbee-diskify, overeat, and dress up in silly outfits for a '70s dance-off competition. Such a phenomenal time. The entire room was jumping up and down during worship times, even the kids who tend towards wallflowery were on their feet going crazy. It was a blast. Other items of interest: I was at Guitar Center stocking up on strings and picks when I spotted in the used case a Marshall "Echohead" delay pedal. Now, most of you know that I am a sucker for delay pedals, and I had watched a pretty nice review of this particular pedal on Comcast. (Ridiculous, I know.) But asking me to shell out $69 on impulse is too much, especially when I had told myself that morning that I would not spend more than $45 on any one item. So what do I do? I ask if they can knock down the price at all, and the gal says "I really can't go lower than $45." SOLD. The pedal sounds really, really nice on each setting. The "Hi-fi" is a pretty standard digital delay, but with a huge range of delay times, something missing from a lot of great delay pedals. The "Analogue" mode really delivers that warm, glassy decay that we all love, but the "Tape" mode is by far the most lush and wonderful delay sound I've found in a while. With high feedback the wow and flutter turns your notes into a beautiful, shimmering array of overtones that make me melt, especially when paired with my other delays. And the icing on the cake? Stereo outputs and an input for a tap tempo switch. The perfect pedal, under $50. Hot deal.

Hey all. I’m adding a link to one of (if not the best) music blog(s) I’ve ever come across. Very insightful and well-thought out posts. Even I have a hard time disagreeing with any of his opinions because he is so point-by-point. Enjoy!

musicforants