Entertain me!

Ok, I need all of you readers ( all two of you ) to leave me some witty or funny stories in the comments. I need some good reading. Tell me what, if anything, you are doing for New Year's Eve. Tell me any resolutions you have for the coming year. Tell me what great things happened to you in '08, or what you hope happens in '09.

Thanks, and God bless!

Bored

I'm rather bored at the moment. Nothing much to do work-wise.

So what is everyone doing for Christmas? Any fun things planned?

Sometimes I wish things in Photoshopped images were real, like this...



Merry Christmas everyone!

One year anniversary

This is the first anniversary of my life with diabetes. Made lots of progress in this first year, but I know the first year might be tough, but it's all the rest of the years that will make or break me. Not exactly a happy celebration, but better than not knowing and having serious health issues a few years down the road.

On a lighter side, it's like 73°F outside, and tomorrow is supposed to get up to 80! Now, I like warm weather, but I also want it to get cool and stay that way around Christmas.

On a darker side, had a bad dream last night. Not exactly a nightmare, but disturbing nonetheless. I was awake at 5:30am, and decided to read for awhile instead of trying to get back to sleep. It worked. I read for about an hour or so, then went back to bed. Then had another dream. Not disturbing this time, just...odd. I'm trying to figure out why my dreams don't include cute gals fighting for my attention. Oh well...

Ever feel like...

... you're headed nowhere, and at a snail's pace to boot?
... you'll never find Ms. Right, and at 38 the pickin's are getting slim?
... you want to change careers?
... you don't have any close friends that you can talk to?

Sorry, don't want to bring anybody down. Nothing to see here. Move along, move along...

Yikes.

I just remembered that I haven't posted anything in quite some time. My bad. I'll try to do better in the future.

This weekend was fun, but tiring (in the good way). Saturday our little worship team got together to do an outreach from a building owned by one of our pastors and family. Since last year the city had decided to disallow any mention of Christmas in the Festival of Lights parade he wanted to put up a "Merry Christmas" banner over the doors to the building, which was right on the parade route. Plus, we had the doors open and a small PA system so we could play worship tunes, Christmas carols, and a few other tunes for the people outside.



It was tough work to get everything set up and working, but it was so worth it. Now I kind of wish I could just go around and play like that all of the time. What a blast! One of my nieces recorded some video of my working on the intro to our arrangement of "O Come All Ye Faithful," but since she did it via a digital camera I had no idea she was recording video at the time. If you'd like the video is here.

How is everyone's December going so far?

Some songs

Here are the six songs our worship team did last Wed. night. I'm playing the organ. I totally blew the first song, it was awful.

http://area251.org/music.html

Let me know what you think!

Wherefore art thou, Charliesaurus?

We all miss your blog, Chuck. Drop by and let us know everything is ok with you!

Brrr...

It's a little chilly in the house this morning, around 65°F, but that's ok. I'm trying to save a little extra $$$ by not running the heat unless it gets really cold.

Nothing much to report here, excepting that I really need to get some new books. I'm stuck re-reading old stuff right now. Not that this is necessarily bad. I feel like to really understand a book you need to read it several times.

So, tell me about what's going on in your lives these days?

Blood test results

I'm excited!

I just got the results back from my latest blood test, and the numbers are great!

My glycosylated hemoglobin (A1c) result was 5.5%! That's down .3% from last time, and that puts me in the upper range of normal now! Yay! My cholesterol/triglycerides were all excellent as well. My microalbumin test was 4.4 mg, which is waaaay good. That means my kidneys are working like little champs!

I know no one is interested in this, I'm just so jazzed.

Good reads

In case anyone was looking for a good series of books to read be sure to check out the space trilogy by C.S. Lewis. Not the best stuff in terms of the sci-fi aspect, but almost all of his books are great. The trilogy consists of "Out of the Silent Planet", "Perelandra", and "That Hideous Strength."

Anyone have any prayer request you'd like me to add to my list? Leave 'em in the comments!

Election advice

Best advice: Prayer, and lots of it.

*end transmission*

James Burke

I've been watching the great series by James Burke, "Connections" again. I remember first seeing this many years ago, and I was hooked. If any of you would like to view all of these great videos here is a great link:

http://www.youtube.com/profile_play_list?user=JamesBurkeFan

I would suggest starting with all of the Connections series, then do The Day the Universe Changed. Apart from some of the obvious humanist tendencies there is so much good information in there, and Mr. Burke is a tremendous teacher.

Tired and Uninsp...just tired, I guess

Been a long day. Had to go to the bank, then over to my brother's house ( he lives around 50 miles from me ) before we both went back into town for worship rehearsal. The bad part is when I got to his house I accidentally let their two horses out of their property. We spent like the next hour trying to corral them. It's been a long time since I've run that much. Oh, and horses are much, much, much faster than I am. So after finally getting the horses back home it was now almost time to leave for rehearsal.

Things didn't go smoothly at rehearsal. The other team that rehearsed before us went late. This meant that I had to scramble to set up my rig, and I was flustered and sweaty by the time I was done. Then some of the songs didn't go well. I was definately not up to par tonight. There were other sub-par offerings as well, but the good news is our new drummer worked out great.

Now I'm exhausted and rambling. Sleep beckons.

g'night

Just don't know

I'm trying not to dislike this person, but they are making it very difficult. I have much work to do on myself on this one. I wish I didn't feel like this.

Funky arrangement

I just got finished writing the first draft of an arrangement of Paul Baloche's song, "Open the Eyes of My Heart". It's a much funkier R&B type arrangement. Not sure if it will sound ok, or if our worship team will decided to do my version, but it was a good exercise nonetheless.

Ugh, getting too warm in here, gotta turn the A/C on, just a sec...

Ok, better.

Well, I was just reminded that the choir is joining us for the next set, and they have already been working on the other version of the song. I'll just save my version for later down the road.

Beautiful day!

I drove to the bank today with the top down on the Mustang. Great day for driving!

This past weekend my brother (and family) and I drove a couple of hours to surprise our Mom on her birthday. It was a nice time. I stuck around and talked too long and had to drive home late, arriving right at 2am, but it was a nice drive. Lost count of the deer alongside the road. Good thing none of them decided to kill me.

Going to bed

I think I'll go contrary to my usual late night habit and go to bed early tonight, but get some reading done as well.

So what's been happening with everyone the past few days? Any happy/funny news to report? I could use some.

Some good news, well, sort of good news. I don't have to rehearse Mon. night for the worship team, as the sr. pastor effectively disbanded it. This Wed. night is the last time we'll play as the old team. It'll be weird to not do something that you've done for the past 13 years or so anymore. Guess it is time to turn the page, eh? I'll still be playing every now and again with one of the new teams, so at least I won't stagnate. Much.

Blargh...

So, I'm coming off quite possibly the worst week of my life. The upside is that during this time I never felt like eating, so I dropped 4 or 5 pounds. The downside is I wasn't sleeping much, so I felt like poo. I think things should get better now, though.

I did get a check for some freelance work I did a couple of weeks ago. Not a huge amount, but very welcome right about now. I've started on the next items on my freelance list, so hopefully I'll get some more cash in a few days. Yay!

Made some of my tasty spaghetti tonight. Om nom nom nom! Plus I get to eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

If any of you wish to say hi via IM, I'm LarsJesterton on AIM. I'd love to chat with you guys.

Goodbye, Little Kitty

Tonight a little after 8:30pm I said goodbye to Little Kitty and had him put to sleep. His anemia had returned even after the transfusion and medication, and I didn't want him to get that sick again without knowing if he would ever get better.

I hope I made the right decision.

I'll miss you, Little Kitty. I thank the Lord that He brought you to my house a year ago, and that He gave me the wonderful gift of the chance to love the snuggliest kitty in the world.

Little Kitty update, part deux

Really quick kitty update. Second day home for him, and I think he is feeling better. Poor thing has to take a bunch of medications, but hopefully all of this will get him healthy. Unfortunatly I may be getting sick now myself. Hope not.

Little Kitty update

Heard from the doctor this afternoon about Little Kitty's progress. She said he was feeling much better, and his red blood cell count was up. He wasn't eating as much as they'd like, but he was eating some of their high-calorie food, so it should be ok. She is keeping him one more day to ensure the red blood cell count is going up. Hopefully he can come home sometime tomorrow.

Thanks for all of the prayers, both Little Kitty and I really appreciate it, more than I can say.

Sad news

I had to take Little Kitty to the vet today, and it turns out he is a very sick kitty. They are hospitalizing him tonight and tomorrow to give him a blood transfusion and lots of antibiotics. I'd appreciate any prayers on his behalf, and for me as well. I'm still an emotional wreck right now.

Blue skies!

It's absolutely gorgeous outside today. About 79° outside, not a cloud in the sky. Simply wonderful.

Well, I have a lot of work to do today on the songs we are doing tomorrow morning at church. A couple of these tunes are rather complicated, so I need to do some serious listening today, especially on the parts where I'll be emulating a brass section on my keyboard. Trying to sound like a real brass section isn't the easiest thing to do. I just hope it comes off well enough.

Charlie: Yep, I'm single. Not sure why, except that I really am quite shy, and there seems to be a critical lack of single ladies my age at church. One of my problems is that when I think about it, I don't feel like I'd offer much to the gals. I'm not rich, don't look like a movie star, I'm not Mr. Exciting. I know there is more to it than that, but that's how I feel sometimes.

Convertable

Right now is the best time to have a convertable! I drove home from church tonight, and it's around 64 degrees F. Nice clear skys, beautiful stars, vintage rock on the radio. The only way this could've been any better would be if I had a gal to share it with. Still, it was awesome, gal or no gal.

Yuck

I'm feeling a bit sickish this morning, and yesterday as well. Think I'll take it easy today.

Ennui mais oui!

Ever felt like you should be doing something, but everything you think of sounds tedious? That's the way I feel now, like everything is a waste of time and a useless endeavor.

I think my attitude needs to be rebooted.

Sweet!

Seems like the weather ( at least at night ) is getting a little cooler! Yay! My favorite time of the year is nigh! And it goes perfectly with football! Even my old man kitty Boomer loves this time of year. He gets all frisky-like when it cools down.

Sorry...

... for not getting a blog up this week, I've just been way too busy all week.

Thanks for the comment Chuck, I think I know what you meant about being like Jesus, but I wish that statement were true in so many different ways.

The love bugs down here are a' swarmin'! In all my years I don't think I've ever seen clouds of 'em like I do right now. It's a mass insect orgy! I am careful to let the single ones go, as I feel a kinship with them. Good luck my single buggie buddies! Here's hoping you find a gal with more success than I am having!

Worship update: a week from Sunday I'll be playing with one of the new teams again like I did last Sunday, but this time I'll be more at home playing my Hammond XK-3 Organ and my Motif ( doing strings and brass parts, I think ). I love playing on this team, the leaders' vision more closely matches my own, and we have fun ( which has been missing for quite some time ). The only downside to playing on Sunday is that I have to wake up at 6am to get ready to be there on time. I am definately not a morning person.

Well, I've started up playing WoW again just to see if I want to do it again. So far not sure, but I'll give it some time.

Oh, and if anyone wants to chat sometime my AIM is LarsJesterton.

Crazy people

Ok, just a quick update. For some reason everyone down here in N. Florida just went nuts the past couple of days because of Hurricane Ike. There was some rumor going around that there would be a gas price hike/shortage, so there were horrible lines everywhere, and quite a few gas stations ran out. This was aggravating for me because I was actually low on gas, and knowing that I had to drive 30 miles to church tomorrow morning I went out Friday afternoon to try to get a couple of gallons. No such luck. The good news is I left around lunch today (with barely enough gas to go anywhere) and found a station not too far away that had plenty, so once again God comes through!

I've already had to do several hours of work this weekend, and I'll probably have to do more tomorrow. Stink-O. Oh, and we're playing some sweet tunes tomorrow morning for worship, and I'm going to do my best to fill in for the elec. guitar guy, because he is filling in on drums. It's musical chairs! I hope everything goes well and sounds ok.

Well, I'm going to get some rest as I'll have to go to bed early tonight to get to the church on or before 8am tomorrow morning. That's going to be nasty, but I've done it before, so it'll work out ok.

Oh, and interesting redesign on your blog, Charlie, but I couldn't see where to post comments. Lemme know if I just missed it, if you are reading this at all.

Grace -n- peace!

Phew...

I'm done working for the day, after putting in a good 9+ hours in today on a frustrating project that for some reason has been tagged as "urgent." My head hurts, and I can stands no more!

I really need a vacation. Badly.

Happy Birthday, Quinn!

Yesterday I was gone from the house all day to attend the birthday party for one of my nephews, Quinn. It was great fun for the kiddies, and I got to spend some time with a friend from church with whom I haven't had lengthy converse in quite some time. It was nice.

The great news is this is the first weekend of the 2008 NFL season! W00T! It's going to be fun to watch the games, and keep track of my fantasy team today.

Looks like I'm going to be playing elec. guitar for one of the new worship leader's team a week from today. I've playing it before, but as it's not my primary instrument I'm not as proficient as I'd like, but we'll give it a shot. I like the leader's attitude and the way he is approaching the set. Should be lots o' fun, and hopefully it will sound fantastic. The only bad part is rehearsal is tomorrow, and on top of trying to get some guitar parts down I also have to rehearse tomorrow for my regular Wed. keyboard gig. So the downside to all of this is that after Monday night I'll have three sets ( which usually have six or seven tunes ) in my head to practice and prepare. Having around 18 songs to work on at once is not going to be pleasant, but I'll manage something.

Ah well, it's about time for me to start turning on the NFL pre-game shows on and basking in the atmosphere.

Ta ta, my lovlies!

Ouch. Me brains hurty...

Had to figure out some nasty problem this morning whilst attempting to export some data from SQL Server to Excel. Took me almost two hours to do a task that would ordinarily only take a few minutes. The upshot is I did learn quite a bit during my research, so all is not horrible.

We get to attend a meeting tonight for the mature ( read "old" ) worship team folks tonight after church. I'm expecting to be basically told that we will be ousted around the first of the year for the young folks. I'm still contemplating retiring earlier than that, but I'm still undecided. Need more prayer about this.

Bleh

• Not much to write about today, just relaxing a bit since I don't have to work.


• Little Kitty just came in the house and was sitting in my lap for a bit. So cute.


• I may work on my scales some today, if I feel motivated later on


• Spent some time late last night praying for some issues going on with a friend (you know who you are)


• Got an email update on the progress with the last book in a series I was reading. It's not going to be finished until next Spring. Pooh.


• I think I'll make spaghetti tonight. Yum!


• Classic ST:TNG is on today, I think all day. Sweet!

I'll try thinking of more interesting stuff to write about later, if I can.

Draft day!!

Today is the draft for our fantasy football league!! Unfortunately I'm drafting at the 10th spot, so I'm not sure what my team will look like this year. Hopefully some other owners will make some unusual picks so I can get some good players dropping down to my slot.

I think I'll have to do some yard work today, if it doesn't rain again. Let's hope not!

Had Enough

Ok, I'm done for the day. This has been a hard work day, and I have more to do tomorrow along with working on the worship set for Wed. night. I'm gonna go watch some tv and read some more in my jazz theory book. Won't help me much, but I like learning new stuff.

Oh, and it rained today. Again.

Results

So playing my elec. guitar tonight worked out pretty well, although I'm rustier ( is that a word? ) than I thought. Guess my chops need more work, as usual. Our sound guy said having the second guitar (me) really added quite a bit to the sound of the couple of songs that I played it on. It was kind of nice to play that instead of just the keys all night. Y'know, variety, spice of life, that stuff.

Just had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and everything was splendid, or as splendid as it gets for me now. Still having trouble losing more weight. I've been stuck at the same mark for over two months now. I suppose I'll have to step up efforts to get over the hurdle.

Time for bed. Night all.

Axe time tonight!

I think I've talked myself into taking my elec. guitar to worship team rehearsal tonight, as we are doing a couple of multi-elec. guitar tunes. To say I'm rusty is a gross understatement, but hopefully I can contribute some. I'll play keys on the other tunes.

Finally...

So rather than just think about doing it I finally started in on my piano workouts last night. Spent a bit over an hour working on left and right hand scales. Need to do this every day if I can stick to it. In the past I've seen pretty good results in hand independence after just a bit of this, so hopefully I can make some solid progress. I know, I know, big words from a small mind. I'll try to update my progress here if I remember. Y'know, the mind goes when you get old...

So tired...

Didn't sleep well last night, due in part to the thunderstorm, but also to weird dreams I was having. Dreamed about an ex-girlfriend that I really don't want to have in my dreams. Oh well.

Nothing to see here, move along...

Pretty standard fare going on down here, which is to say not much. A bit of cooler weather came through which was nice for me to get some yard work done without too much heat.

I think I'm going to learn yet another tune from Wicked, "As Long as You're Mine." Should be fun to figure it out.

I'm hoping my next shipment of books comes today or tomorrow, as I've nearly exhausted my supply now.

:random:
Little Kitty is sleeping on the couch. So cute. He stayed outsite all of last night. Can't blame him, as it was a bit cooler.

Back on the wagon

I've recently gotten back into the habit of reading a bunch. I've always loved reading, but for quite a while I hadn't read anything new. I've been reading the "Dragons in Our Midst" series by Bryan Davis. Although it was primarily targeted to the teen crowd, it is still a good read for old folks such as I. You should look into it.

Zee leetle grey cells

Alas, one of the great dangers to working from home is that sometimes the days pass by so similarly that you actually can forget which day it is. That happened to me this past Wednesday.

For some reason my dizzy brain was thinking it was Tuesday, so I didn't practice any of the tunes for worship that night. The worse part is that my brother called me right before 6pm to ask me where I was, and it took me a few seconds to even understand about what he was talking. Although initially I told him to tell everyone I wouldn't make it, after I hung up I decided to try. Keep in mind I live more than 30 miles from the church.

Well, I ended up making it there with 15 minutes to spare, and, other than hitting quite a few clams because I didn't have time to warm up, it went ok. It was still a little sad to think it might have been one of my last nights to play, but ya gotta move on.

Grace and peace, y'all!

(Un)Planned Obsolescence

This past Monday night after our weekly worship team practice we had a bit of a bombshell dropped upon us. Our pastor was there, and basically said he thinks the worship music we have been playing is poor, and he wants to bring in much younger musicians to eventually replace all of us old folks. Now, I've been saying we needed replacing for quite some time, although my reasoning was just that one should always be seeking his eventual replacement in any ministry. What made me a bit angry was the way we were portrayed. Our pastor said that he believed that the younger musicians were talented ( which I suppose means we are not ), and they all seem to play multiple instruments ( which quite a few of us old folks do as well ), and had more energy.

While some of this is undoubtedly true he neglected to even talk to the old folks about what he was planning. In the meeting he said he talked this over with a few of the young guns he's bringing in. Strange he didn't talk to any of the old gray hairs that have been doing this for more that a decade. Along the way he also said that there are several talented young musicians in our congregation that we are keeping from being able to play because they don't want to play our crappy music. This is where it got personal to me. We are always looking for new people, and we have had several events where we asked anyone that was interested to come out and find out more about being on the worship team. Very few people ever showed, so I doubt the veracity of that claim.

What frosts me is that for quite a few years I, and other team members, have been trying to make these very changes happen, but we met with no success due to our worship leaders disinterest, or desire to do it his way. This is why it frustrates me so much. I'm sure the younger folks will have an easier time because our pastor essentially removed the worship leader from actively leading ( he sings and plays acoustic guitar ). Therefore they will not have to deal with the impediment that we had.

I do wish them success, and I've known this chapter has to close at some point, I just do not like the way it happened.

p.s. I accidentally left the CD recording at the end of our practice. We sometimes just do random jams, and this is a rare time that it was actually recorded. I'm playing the keyboard, along with my brother on bass (although the level is a bit low to hear very well), our Wed. team guitarist, and drummer. Poor quality I know, but it wasn't intended for this. Still if you want to listen here is the link: Dead Men Walking .
The title I just made up, and yeah, it's a little snarky. I figured since our days were numbered now it was appropriate.

and remember, keep it on the one!