Couple o' Thoughts

The This American Life live feed happened as planned last Thursday night. It was good. The show started with Ira doing a piece from the mixing console with a closeup of him on the mic. As the camera zoomed out and and moved to Ira's back, you could see that he was in a packed theater. I didn't realize that he controlled the bumper and background music and sound bites from the console while he was talking. I guess I just thought someone was in a booth at another console doing that for him.

The stage was set up in two sections. One side held the console, and the other had two chairs set up kind of like a talk show--a little like Inside the Actors Studio if you've ever seen that. A big projection screen hung above the stage so theater audience could see the video pieces.

The only technical issue of the 2 hour show was when Ira was introducing a piece for the upcoming season. He had been sitting in the "talk" area with the director of the TV version. Apparently someone was supposed to change CDs while he was doing that segment so that when he came back to the console, everything would be ready. Unbeknownst to him, that someone didn't put a cd in the player. So as Ira is introducing the piece and expecting to play a sound bite along with it, nothing happened. He calmly put the cd in and went about his business.

Having been involved with some production things here and there, I can imagine that this was a huge undertaking. I think Murphy's Law thrives in the world of production.

On another note, the "new" version of Adoration began last night. After 3 years of Adoration, this was probably the best one I remember--if you can say that about a worship service. I've never sensed the unity of real worship from the whole gathering of an Adoration like I did last night. So many people were involved in planning and carrying out the service. More people attended last night than we've ever had at an Adoration. The service didn't feel like a concert as it has in the past. There was just enough music. The atmosphere was nice. Jarrod did a great job with his message. The post-Ad hangout was good. For once I was able to walk away thinking that it had gone as planned. Thanks to everybody involved for your hard work! I think it paid off. Now we can get started on the next one.

Wanted: Better Processing Capability

In the last couple of days I've been dissatisfied with my brain's ability to process more than one set of information at a time. Here's my dilemma: I need to read a couple of books and some info on web sites to learn some things for work. At the same time I want to listen to something, but not necessarily music. I'd really prefer to listen to the last couple of This American Life podcasts that I haven't had a chance to hear yet. The problem is that I can't take in the reading material and the details of the stories from TAL at the same time. Why is it impossible for the brain (at least my brain) to process 2 sets of data at a time? It can give commands to and receive information from several body parts at a time. It can perform all the body's involuntary functions without blinking an eye...well, you know what I mean. I need a dual core brain. Anybody want to let me borrow some of your capacity? Thanks anyway.

Sound Familiar?

The industrialized world that surrounds us is filled with constant beeps and droning--the hum of your computer's fan, the a/c in your car or office, the buttons on a microwave, etc. I heard an interesting concept today. It sounded familiar to me because I tend to put the sounds I hear around me to music in my head.

I'll give an example. When I'm driving, and I turn on the blinker, it has a constant rhythm. From that rhythm I create different beats in my head and occasionally come up with a little tune. I know...it's pretty goofy. But when I drive another car, my wife's for example, I hear a different rhythm from which I come up with totally different beats and melodies. Sometimes I hear a droning sound or beep and hum a tune in that key (usually in my head of course). I guess it just makes the monotony a little less monotonous.

Anyway, I heard someone talking about the possible impact that industrial/technical sounds might have on society. Sounds have always been around, mind you, but you have to admit the world is a lot less quiet that it used to be.

The argument about sound's impact on society was from this perspective. The heater in this person's office and his computer hummed in a certain interval, a major 3rd, which is generally interpreted as happy. This should have caused him to enjoy being in his office, right? But the dial tone of his phone combined with the hum of the heater created an augmented 4th.

After doing some research, the guy found out that the Catholic church had assigned certain meanings to musical intervals in the middle ages. Interestingly, the augmented 4th was an interval that was detested and feared. It was considered the "diablas en musica," the devil in the music. As it turns out, the combination of the two drove him nuts (not literally).

The argument is that the droning and beeping of the world around us (your laptop, a firetruck, your refrigerator, an alarm clock, etc.) sometimes create discord, boredom, or anxiety, which in turn, causes us to live in a state of discord, boredom, anxiety, and so on. That's an interesting thought. It gives no credence to the spiritual man, necessarily. But an interesting thought nonetheless.
Unfortunately for you, it will be very difficult in the near future to find a "quiet" place. You're welcome.

Year of the Turkey

2007 will go down as the year of the turkey burger at my house. In an effort to maintain a healthier lifestyle, we submitted to the turkey substitute phenomenon. After choking down many a bird burger, fowl taco, and winged spaghetti dish, I think I've finally convinced my wife that turkey is not a good substitute for beef. Glory, glory, hallelujah! Back to beef it is. Truthfully, we've seen no real health benefits from our feathered friend. Usually, only frowning and disappointment prevailed when trying to enjoy one of life's greatest table treats. Sure the bearded bird is great as a sandwich meat, and can only be rivaled by honey-smothered pig bum as the main meat of the holidays. But to allow it to push aside the hoofed-wonder? No way. Not in my house. Not anymore. Yep, the beloved bovine is back between the buns where it belongs. Yippie!

Musical Marli

So I've been away for a while. I didn't really have anything worth posting, and I grew tired of seeing my same ol' posts, so I took a bit of a hiatus. But I'm back for now with good reason.

I have to brag on (one of) my musical daughter(s) a little bit. She's always dancing and singing and playing piano. She's figured out 3 Christmas songs on the piano this week. It's fun to watch. She's also a little performer, and last night I caught her "playing guitar" and singing Sufjan Christmas songs. She's as big a Sufjan fan as I am. I thought if she saw me video her, she might stop, but she didn't. So here's a sample:



...and another:



and one more.

Halloween Baby

Robert Samuel Carter was born yesterday to Bob "I just hope I don't pass out" & Greta "I just hope it's not born on Halloween" Carter. Well Bob didn't pass out, but little Sam was born on Halloween. Greta's only other request (that she didn't need a C-section) was fulfilled. From what I understand, Sam was a rather large baby as newborns go. Not sure of the measurements...somewhere around 21 3/4" and about 8 1/2 lbs I think. Mom and baby (and Bob) are doing well. Thanks be to God for a healthy delivery and a new life! Congratulations B & G!

As you may or may not have guessed, I'm back in Little Rock. Today was different than most. I was able to get away from the office for most of the day. The company that we're doing this project for has moved into their new building across the river. It's nice and brand spankin' new. I spent most of the day there dealing with files. No rats there. Confused? Read the earlier blogs.
On my way back to this side of town, I stopped in a newer area to grab lunch. It reminded me of home. Crazy traffic and roads that don't go n, s, e, & w. I found a McAllister's. I'm typically not a big fan of McA's, but I thought it would be a nice change of pace. Boy was I right! I don't usually thank God for my food as I'm leaving a restaurant, but considering my usual food choices on Geyer Springs road, this was fantastic!
I got back in the car and headed for the office. I missed the turn to get back on the freeway, so I decided to take a stroll through downtown about 5 miles away. That was fine. I got on the freeway downtown and knew where I was then. Not paying attention, I missed another turn. That one was not fine. It turned out the next exit was about 10 miles away. That's right. Ten miles to turn around, and ten miles back. Yuck! In all, a 5 mile trip cost me about 30. Oh well, I had nothing better to do. Right?

the sweet smell of ethanol & the sporting conundrum

yesterday was great. i had just gotten back from arkansas thursday night. i went in to work friday knowing that it would be a fairly slow day...just a few things to get started before the weekend. then quinn called. and where was he? you guessed it! at barber motorsports park watching irl testing. after lunch with michelle i headed for barber and the sweet smell of ethanol. i always thought i wanted to be a race car driver, specifically road racing. but now it's a little bit of an obsession (confession). there is nothing like indy cars screaming by right in front of you--except maybe f1 cars.




incredible. many thanks to quinn for the call. you gotta love that kind of surprise.

today ole miss and alabama are playing. that's a tough deal. i love both teams. i want to be faithful to ole miss because that's how i grew up. but if ole miss wins that could damage alabama's chances for an sec championship. ole miss doesn't really have a chance for an sec championship. it's quite a sporting conundrum.

day 3: i'm a little discouraged today. michelle and i were supposed to see jay clifford tonight at workplay to celebrate my birthday. i was really looking forward to that. obviously it won't happen because im in little rock. i did bring my mandolin, so that has kept me occupied somewhat. i played for hours last night, songs that were never meant for mandolin. but it was nice to put a new twist to them.
in the office printers are down and need to be replaced. jobs aren't finishing when they are supposed to. no big deal. i'm just ready to be done with this.
i stayed up way too late last night and had some issues with peeling myself off the bed this morning. just couldn't get to sleep for some reason. i'm looking forward to my big comfy bed which will contain my beautiful bride. looking forward to holding my girls too. i miss them. i think this trip took kaelyn by surprise. she didn't realize i was leaving so soon. it's tough to talk to them on the phone sometimes, especially marli. she doesn't understand how much i miss her, so she's easily distracted by other things when i'm talking to her. plus she's a little too young to carry on a deep phone conversation. it's a lot of yes's and no's. kaelyn was distracted last night, which i understand. she thought she upset me so she called back to apologize. she's sweet. brittney would talk to a stump, so you don't have to work very hard on the phone with her. she volunteers plenty of information.
other than these few items, there's not much to talk about. we'll see what the rest of the day brings.

day 2 in the little rock office: it was tough to get up, but i managed. not a lot going on today really. the project is actually running smooth for a change. everybody made it to work today, which is good, and they're all doing their jobs...ahhh...
i guess the highlight of my day was going to el chico for lunch. i walked in and saw a waitress sitting sprawled on the waiting bench looking like she had had a rough day. shortly after being seated, my server (my 1st server) came over to take my drink order. she seemed kind of strange, like she was heavily medicated. she talked really slowly and almost had a look of confusion. she never came back.
the host came by after several minutes and asked if anyone was helping me. i told him that my server took my drink order and never came back. he took my drink order and returned promptly. the waiting waitress walked by slowly. another came to take my food order. she didn't come back. a third came to ask if i had ordered. i told her i had and she went looking for server number 2. shortly thereafter, server number 2 appeared with my meal. nothing special.
all the while there are 2 men and 2 ladies sitting at the booth next to me. apparently they're coworkers. one of the men, the youngest of the bunch, probably in his late 30s, was fairly obnoxious. he whined about his bathroom fan at home, saying it didn't work right and that it was basically a p.o.s. the example he gave was from this past sunday morning as he was showering for church. he smoothly segued into a rant about his church, specifically his pastor: "do your churches ever have sundays where the whole freakin sermon is about tithing? our preacher did that this sunday. i hate that. he starts by telling us that sometimes you have to tell people things they don't want to hear, and they have to listen. then he goes to this scripture where jesus is telling the 'apostles' that if someone sins against you seven times in one day, you have to forgive them seven times. then he goes from there into how people don't focus enough on giving. that's when it really pissed me off. they've always got to talk about money." one of the ladies responds, "well you have to realize that organizations need money in order to function. they have building and utility costs and salaries and that kind of thing." "yeah, but he's telling us that our giving is a reflection of our relationship with God. what kind of crap is that? it's not about my relationship with God. i don't want to go to church and hear that." i think the ladies were becoming a little annoyed. "does your church have bulletins that tell you what the sermon will be about?" "yeah, but i don't read it. i like the pressure of having to find the passage before the pastor starts to read from it." this went on for a while. i wanted to strike up a conversation with him, but i didn't. oh well.
server number 3 comes to refill my drink and asks if i need anything else. server number 2 comes to give me my check and says "sorry about the 1st server. she's a little out of it." i didn't ask any questions. when i walked out, the original waitress, the one taking her break when i came in, was seated on the bench outside. she was smoking a cigarette. she smiled and said "thank you." i returned the thanks. then i laughed. i don't know why i thanked her. i don't know why she thanked me. we had contributed nothing to each other.
i went back to the office and checked to make sure everything was still on the move. it was. as i walked from the warehouse to the office, i noticed a rat on the ground. i stopped and looked for a couple of seconds. it shook back and forth a little. i thought it was dead and the wind was moving it. turns out i was wrong. it was alive, but not by much. those shakes turned out to be something like hiccups. i got closer and it didn't run away. i went inside and got my camera (to exploit the dying rat of course). i thought one of the workers might be interested, so i took him outside. he was interested. the rat slowly turned around to face away from us. he didn't like the attention apparently. i thought about smacking him with a rock to put him out of his misery. i left him alone.


update: the rat's dead.

so i drove west last night. birmingham to little rock. i caught the last 10 minutes of a q&a session with ravi zacharias at georgia tech. it was a nice way to pass the time (10 minutes).
i made a short stop in my old stomping grounds of southaven. i stopped by back yard burger for a quick pick me up. byb is a mississippi original. it's changed a lot since the early days of the double drive through semi trailer. it's just a big modern burger joint like all the rest now. but they still have some pretty good burgers.
it got dark as i entered memphis. whoever designed the freeway system in memphis is a maroon. i55 north becoming a one lane clover leaf to get to the bridge? i mean come on.
downtown and the river are pretty at night (when you can't see all the grime). grime is good sometimes too though.
i crossed the river into arkansas. west memphis is a gorgeous place. truck stops and adult video stores! what's not to love? arkansas must have the largest truck population in the country. i bet the trucks to cars ratio is 5 to 1. not much fun.
the drive from west memphis to little rock calls for some manufactured entertainment. nothing to see, especially at night. although i did pass by what looked like a burning rice field. it was some kind of field anyway, and it was on fire. in fact lots of fires were on it. i whipped out my camera and tried to take a picture, but i didn't turn the flash off, so i got a picture of my camera taking a picture in the car window. oh well. i probably never would have looked at it again anyway.
i made it into little rock around 9:30. same hotel. same deal. except this time when i got to my room it was tiny. and it had a tiny bed. and a huge bathroom. and it smelled like a hospital. so i thought to myself, this is no good. i went back to the front desk and told the lady she must have given me the wrong room. she asked for the room number. i told her 209. she said 209 is a handicap room. i said yeah and i'm not handicapped, at least not so much that i need a room for it. she gave me a different room. 3rd floor ok? what do i care? i'm not sleeping on the stairs. i just want a room that's bigger than a closet. i know...selfish.
so one night down and a few to go. update on the little rock office: it's still a bad soap opera, just a few new actors is all. at least i knew what to expect this time.

104

Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.
He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved. You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.
You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills; they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches. From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart.
The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees. The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. You appoint darkness, and it becomes night, when all the beasts of the forest creep about. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening.
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.
These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.
Let the glory of the Lord endure forever; let the Lord rejoice in his works; he looks on the earth and it trembles, he touches the mountains and they smoke! I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. let my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord. Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!

"When God opens his hand, I am filled with good things." What a true statement.

i'm feeling it today...the little rock experience...12 griping women...a baby daddy...a kid from the bronx...and me...yes indeed...i'm an onion in a big bowl of jello...not a good mix...but it could be worse...it has been before...

well here i am on the road again...isn't that a bad bob seger (sp) song...little rock has received me well...it could have been really ugly...i had plenty to do to keep me busy today though...i just hate sleeping in hotel rooms miles from home...but i've had enough experience...i should be used to it now...i miss my wife...my kids...my friends...my dogs...i have my God though...thankfully he's always with me...he's really good about letting me know that too...not that he has to...but he wants to...that's the cool thing...pray that i'll take advantage of the extended amounts of time i can spend with him over the next few weeks...i need it...

we retreated again last week...pastors and staff and their spouses...what a good time...it was nice to relax and spend time with everybody...i wish we could do that more...mucho profitable...a few people didn't get to go...i was disappointed about that...i was really looking forward to hanging out with them...but we pushed on anyway...

my daughters were baptized yesterday...wow...what an experience...marli was first and she told everyone at oak mountain why she was getting baptized...it was great...kaelyn went second...she was quiet and only responded to pastor harry's questions with an "mm-hmm"...she's such a sweetheart...those girls love jesus...

it's tough to live in a world that requires so much aquisition...i've got a lot more stuff now than i used to...i always told myself 'if i could just have one of these and one of these and one of those then i'll have everything i need'...turns out i didn't think long and hard enough about it...i'm still wanting more...my mistake came in the beginning when i started thinking about the stuff i needed...i just didn't plan well enough...i should have set my goals really really high so i wouldn't find myself disappointed when the next aquisition didn't satisfy...but you learn from experience...with the next big aquisition i should be set...