These "news"
entries are listed in chronological order from TOP to BOTTOM
**JANUARY 2010**
1 January 2010
fritter status <12:40am>: "We often seek answers about which path
we should take -- but knowing where NOT to walk is just as important. I am a
person who makes many mistakes -- but thanks to God, I haven't dropped my dreams
yet -- praying that in 2010, dreams become reality...!!!"
HAPPY
NEW YEAR!!
. . .
fritter status <10:15am>: "Sometimes we have to take a step of faith that makes us
seem like fools to others -- I feel I'm about to do that in 2010!! 'Yet I am not
ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able
to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.' ~ 2 Tim 1:12"
. . .
fritter status <5:13pm>: "If the decade just ended was the
Naughties, are we now in the Teenies?!?!????"
2 January 2010
fritter status <11:33am>:
"Some people like to be the STAR -- they like the
attention, and they get a rush from the applause -- but more and more, I'm
realizing that I'd rather hide in the shadows of the orchestra pit, free to play
my OWN melody, than stand in the bright lights of the stage, following someone
else's script..."
4 January 2010
Here's a little slideshow of shots I took over the holidays of
the Louisville Japanese Christian Fellowship. I'm only,
what, about 2 weeks late with
this? But a number of distractions (some good, some less so) have kept
me from finishing earlier.
The photos include shots from their rehearsals for the Christmas
program, a mid-week Bible study, and finally from the Christmas worship itself:
(You can hit the small button on the bottom right of the player
to make it play full screen)
NOTE: The LJCF is one of very few Japanese Christian groups meeting regularly in
this part of the USA. We're all so excited because very soon (as soon as the
visas are sorted), Pastor Iwao Satoh will be coming to help them! And THAT's
cool because Pastor Satoh was one of my closest co-workers and friends when I
was in Japan...
Come on, Satoh family!! They're waiting for you!!!
TECHNICAL COMMENTS:
This is the first time I've ever tried this kind of Flash slideshow thing, and
the results are, unfortunately, consistent with that!
First, was the problem of photos -- I'm no photographer,
obviously, and add to that the fact that I tend to take a LOT of photos of 4 or
5 people (with whom I'm most comfortable), and very few photos of anyone else. I
need to get better at spreading the photo luv...
Then, there was the issue of the audio -- my original
(brilliant) plan was to use actual recordings of the rehearsals and
performances, and then match the photos to the audio appropriately. This was a
GREAT (but alas, foolhardy) idea -- I learned, after WAY too many hours, that I
didn't pay enough attention to the audio recorder, so all of those recordings,
hours of them, are almost completely unusable. Don't think I didn't spend HOURS
listening and then trying to "fix" them -- I did! -- but I finally
just gave up. It was easy to get the audio sounding good, actually, but the bigger problem was
lining up the edited audio to match the photos, or vice versa -- I just don't
have the right software to do that easily.
Speaking of which: I downloaded and demo'd TWO different
programs trying to get this whole thing to work, but neither one could actually
do everything I wanted. One of them gives me a GREAT result, and total control
over timing and transitions between photos, but it won't give me the Flash
output I needed to embed here. Then the OTHER program (which I did end up
using), gives me EXACTLY the output I need, but offers almost NO controls
whatsoever, and is absolutely a pain in the
rumpus to get it to do what I want.
Which, if you are following what I'm saying: I now have a pain
in my rumpus...
6 January 2010
(Still getting used to putting the "1" in the right
spot in "2010" -- you too?? Yeah, even when I'm thinking in my mind,
"2010, 2010" -- I still almost always type
"2-0-0_" == doh!! == and then have to hit backspace and retype the
"1")
Had a GREAT time Monday night -- went over to Sounder Studios to
record some sax parts for Brad Cassetto -- you can find his stuff on iTunes or
Amazon.
I absolutely LOVE this guy's music -- veering between epic and
intimate in just the right measure; somehow sonically vintage and yet 100%
contemporary; thick, clustered vocal harmonies that add real punch to his lyrics
-- which actually SAY something, by the way -- I mean, look, I'm serious, I just
LOVE his music!!
Well, so Brad asked if I'd try laying down some sax on one of
the songs for his new CD, and it took a lot of self-control to not dissolve into
a blubbering mess -- "Sax? That old thing? Oh, well, yeah, I guess I could
blow a little if you want me to" -- I mean, really, I was trying so hard to
be cool about it, but actually, I was pretty stinking excited...
Now the PROBLEM was, once I actually got in there, I struggled
like NUTS to get anything decent down. Like, WOW -- majorly struggled. As in,
"I haven't struggled this much on a recording in a long time" -- and I
say that, noting that I always struggle, ha ha...
I mean, yeah, it happens, right? You put on the headphones, step
in front of that RE-20 and they hit "roll" and, well... NOTHING... I
played, I honked, I tooted -- sure enough, I got a SOUND and all -- but I just
wasn't SAYING anything...
So what Brad had casually suggested would be a 45-minute session
turned into a 2-hour session -- mostly centering around one 16-bar break that
full-on featured the sax.
In the end, let's just say, "Thank goodness for ProTools"
-- because if Brad can actually use ANY of the 25 or so takes I did (and that is
open to debate -- only time will tell if any of it shows up on the final mix),
but if he can actually USE any of that, it will be thanks to his ProTools
prowess (which is considerable, by the way).
Anyway, it was so much fun! And I especially learned a LOT about
how much more I need to practice the horn...
It's been 3 days of snow -- at least 4 inches out here, maybe
more like 5 after last night -- and I'm beginning to tire of it's, well, of it's
not stopping. There's some kind of system over the Great Lakes that just keeps
dumping snow on us, I mean, you can look at the stupid radar and literally SEE
it just streaming down off of Lake Michigan.
On Thursday (when the snow first really hit), I'd forgotten to
get the mail, so didn't go out until after dark. Already there were about 3-4
inches, so I grabbed the shovel and, in the dark, with gusts up to 30mph,
shoveled the stupid driveway. THANKFULLY, it was the easiest 4 inches of snow
you've ever seen in your life to shovel -- light and dry, just like fluff -- and
I was done within about 90 minutes.
And by waiting until after dark, when the heaviest snow had
stopped, we ended up with the cleanest driveway in the entire neighborhood! (I
was proud of that! Still am, actually)...
Now, though, I think I'm paying the price of gallivanting out in
the bitter cold (wind chills were down to around ZERO, I think) -- I'm starting
to get this knotty feeling in the back of my throat; feeling a bit light-headed;
can't quite shake the chill of
this basement -- it's the same, I mean EXACT same feeling I had just before
Christmas when I got so sick I laid in bed for a week...
SO, I'm off to take some Vitamin C and get a shower -- try to
warm up and then put on about 20 layers of clothes before my sister and her
family come over for my birthday dinner tonight.
"Hmmmm -- birthday dinner.... "
. . .
Oh, by the way, just for reference -- and to test my
"system" -- I wanted to post a VIDEO I did of the Louisville
Japanese Christian Fellowship's celebrations over Christmas. Again,
this is late, and it's almost exactly the same as the slideshow I posted a few
days ago (see above) -- but I'm trying to learn how to embed flash videos
WITHOUT resorting to 3rd-party hosting (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo, etc).
Anyway, it was done BEFORE the slideshow above,
and I somehow don't really like it as much for some reason -- but I had a lot more control about timing
and transitions, etc., so it seems to run a bit smoother. PLUS, when viewed
full-screen it really *is* full-screen (as opposed to the slideshow which just
shows "big" but not really full-screen on my monitor).
Here it is:
LJCF Christmas 2009
11 January 2010
Birthdays can be fun -- and mine SURELY was!
But it did get me thinking...
CHINA has the highest percentage of the world's over-80 population at about
17% (USA has only about 11.5% of the world's octogenarians) -- but I mean, that
bodes pretty well for me, right? Hong Kong is China!!!
SO, what I mean is, I've basically lived about half of my life,
statistically-speaking, with some good probability that (statistically-speaking)
I will fully live out the second half, too.
(After which I expect to be cryogenically preserved until such
time that they can give me an Avatar as substitute for my decrepit
butt)...
12 January 2010
fritter status <11:10pm>: "Chuck Bartowski gets to have amazing adventures AND he
gets the girl of his dreams... So, it *is* possible, right?!?!?!?!?!?"
18 January 2010
Had a GREAT lunch today with Skidz -- we met at Macaroni Grill (I'd never
been there, but I suppose it's a chain?) -- dude, the chicken parmigiana just rocked
my world -- big time.
Other than that, I'm feeling frustrated and angry today, for lots of specific
reasons, none of which actually merit such a punch-erific sensation.
Something about visa's and zero net worth that tends to put me in a
pummeling mood...
23 January 2010
fritter status <7:27pm>: "When you find yourself scheming in order
to escape problems with people, BEWARE; worse trouble is coming!!" --
Warren Wiersbe...
26 January 2010
Snow again today in Louisville -- yet again, the so-called "weather
people" had no idea it was coming until about an hour or two
beforehand.
Have I ever given you my anti-weather-forecaster tirade?!?
Remind me to do that sometime -- soon....
In the MEANTIME, I'm having a BLAST with the new Logos 4 software I got the
other day.
Now, I've been a HUGE fan and user of Logos 3 for several years. First found
out about it when Pastor Orlando Garcia got the Spanish version in Japan. I've
just picked up a few commentaries and Bibles over the years (when I could afford
it), and had built up a really nice little electronic library.
But then in November the new Logos 4 came out, and they were offering KILLER
deals on their base packages -- the prices end this month, so despite having no
money, I felt I couldn't just sit and pass up these deals. They have a
"payment plan" so I put it on a credit card (*moan*) and they'll
charge a little bit each month for a year -- but I actually get to use it now!
Really a great deal, a great company, and a great system.
Logos/Libronix is one of the most powerful
tools I've ever used. It puts 1000's of resources and reference materials at
your fingertips, with lightning-fast search speeds -- and it's all integrated in
a fairly intuitive way that really makes me marvel.
The only downside is that, having used the new
Logos 4 for several days now, I can see they've been a little TOO ambitious with
this latest version. They have a big vision for where they want this software to
go, but it seems like they kind of bit off more than they can chew. Whereas
Logos 3 was blistering fast, Logos 4 is laggy and sluggish, and the entire
experience has lost the "snap, crackle, pop" that it had before.
But NEVERMIND! It's so amazing to do a search
on "Jehoaikim" and get 20 full-length articles within 3 seconds. I'm
reading Job these days, and yesterday did a search on "Elihu" -- got
like 7 results within about 2 seconds -- COOL.
NOTE: it's just a tool, right? It doesn't make
me smarter, per se, and it definitely doesn't help me actually UNDERSTAND
anything better -- but when I want to dig deep into the mechanics of the text,
or research historical info, it's the first place I turn.
And no matter where I am -- USA, HK, Japan -- I
can take the entire thing with me on a small drive. Literally THOUSANDS of
books, boiled down to a few gigs of raw data. PERFECT.
So, yeah -- I totally recommend Logos 4 to
ANYONE who is interested -- just Googlahoo them and you can watch a lot of demo
videos that explain the power...
. . .
Now, for the REST of the day I have some
studying to do, some writing to do, some eatin' to do, some phone callin' to
do... If I'm crazy, I might even try to work in some nappin'...
Life is GOOOOOOOOOD....
. . .
fritter status <4:18pm>: "'Consider the lilies of the field'--they
grow where they are put. Many of us refuse to grow where we are put,
consequently we take root nowhere" -- Oswald Chambers
27 January 2010
fritter status <5:58pm>: 'Take no thought for your life.' <Matt
6:25> "Common sense shouts loud and says—‘That is absurd, I *must*
consider how I am going to live, I must consider what I am going to eat and
drink.’ Jesus says you must not. Beware of allowing the thought that this
statement is made by One Who does not understand our particular circumstances..."
-- Oswald Chambers
