mikeymo's place

This week is kind of a nexus for television-land in America, as it signifies the end of three well-loved television series.  A send-off to three guys named Jack.

I started watching Lost during the first season, but soon stopped.  The show was compelling, to be sure, but there were many times I missed it, and it's one of those shows that is impossible to follow if you miss something.  I figured I could only spare the time to invest myself in one television series, Battlestar Galactica was it, and Lost, well, lost.   I would still watch it from time to time, but never really bought into the whole mythology of it.  I did watch the finale, though, and found it quite compelling and understandable, even for a casual viewer.  I thought the resolution was a cop-out, though.  Far too much was left hanging, and the viewer was never really satisfied as far as the nature of the Man in Black, the island, the Source or (really) anything else.   I do like the idea that Heaven is independent of time, and that when we arrive, everyone we've loved will be there, regardless of when they died.  

Jack Shepherd is about as different from Jack Bauer as possible.  Bauer is the dude you don't mess with, the guy who could make Chuck Norris cower.  The final twenty-four hours of 24 were a compelling, thrilling ride, with enough turns and twists that even the most seasoned viewer was left wondering what was going to happen.  Although it was predicable that President Taylor was eventually going to take the high road, there was a level of uncertainty right up to the end.  And, of course, the producers of 24 are betting on at least one film, so their endpoint is different than Lost.  While we have seen the end of Renee, Dana and Charles, there will be more of Chloe, Cole and Jack.  Jack Bauer is a modern-day Odysseus, destined to never rest while there are monsters to fight.

If Jack Bauer fights monsters in the streets, Jack McCoy fights them in the courtroom.  And, like Jack Bauer, I doubt we've seen the last of Jack McCoy.  After all, there are still two current (and one upcoming) iteration of Law & Order in America.  (and the UK and France, and Russia, and...) And creator Dick Wolf is not going gentle into that good night.  He's still shopping the series around for a possible home.  So the finale wasn't really a finale per-se.  Still, it was one of the better episodes of the last couple of seasons.  And like a typical episode of Law & Order, all meat, with very little filler.

So the American television landscape changes once again, and we lose our three Jacks, at least for a while.  Maybe there should be a Jack on Caprica. 

A Pentecost Sunday service recap from Gospel Light Community Church.   Excellent day today, really.   Let's start with the set:

Opening Song:

O Praise Him (All This for a King) (Crowder)(Bb)

Main Set:

Again I Say Rejoice (Houghton/Lindsey)(E)
For Who You Are (Morgan)(B)
Revelation Song (Riddle)(D)
The More I Seek You/Here I Am to Worship (Neese/Hughes)(D)

Offering:

All About You (Houghton)(E)


With Daniel back in the full-time lineup, we're going to really start to have some fun.  He is an excellent keyboard player, but can play just about anything, so there's going to be a lot of flexibility.   We did "For Who You Are" with him playing acoustic and me electric, which is the way the song is supposed to be, and which sounded awesome.  "Revelation Song" was piano/acoustic and everything else piano/electric.

I also made a switch in my pedal board.  I traded a couple of older pedals and my Toneworks AX10G for a Line6 Floor POD.   There was a real improvement in tone, which should get better as I get used to it.

Check out other recaps at The Worship Community.

Recently I received an invitation to enroll in the Integrity Worship Institute, an campus for worship training and education.   In exchange, I have agreed to blog about my experiences.  So, starting in June, I will be launching a new series here on mikemo's place, and I hope you tag along.

Here's a video explaining a little about it.   I'm looking forward to seeing what they have to offer...

With the upcoming movie Courageous well into production, I'd thought I'd give the producers a little checklist to see how well they are doing on the Official Christian Movie Scale.


Your movie supports biblical family values.  (+2)

Your movie illustrates biblical family values with an metaphor so obvious, the most hardened heathen will get it, like gluing together salt and pepper shakers to illustrate the marriage bond. (+5)

Your main character is named "Joshua", "Caleb," "Esther" or some other Old Testament name. (+2)

Your main character's Old Testament name is a metaphor for the struggle he/she faces in the movie. (+3)

Your main character's name is Mephibosheph.  (+10)

Your main character is played by Kirk Cameron   (+15)

Your cinematography looks like a high school film-making project.  (-4)

Your cinematography looks like a college film-making project.  (-2)

You actually used film.  (+5)

You have Third Day, MercyMe or the Casting Crowns in the film.  (+6)

You have your local worship team performing Third Day, MercyMe and Casting Crown covers. (+1)

You have an edgier Christian Band like Newworldson or David Crowder* Band in the movie (+7)

You have a band so edgy, no one is sure if they are Christian or not, like Switchfoot. (push)

Some scenes in your movie are filmed in or around Albany, Georgia.  (+3)

Every scene in your movie is filmed in or around Albany, Georgia.  (+5)

You have a scene filmed in Rome or Jerusalem. (+6)

You have a scene filmed in Petra.  (+10)

You have sermon illustrations, promotional videos, and flyers available on your film's website. (+6)

For $395.00  (-10)

You have a famous evangelical pastor in your film.   (+5)

It's Rick Warren.  (+10)

It's Benny Hinn  (-20)

It's Joel Osteen (push, but God will prosper your movie anyway)


Score:

Below 20:  Forget it, you sell out.

20-50:  You might just get a decent review on "Plugged-In"

50-65: Pastors will be preaching the virtues of your movie all over the place.

65-74: Another nice job by Sherwood.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

We had a wonderful day of worship and celebration of our mothers today at Gospel Light Community Church.  We also shared in worship at Lighthouse Fellowship Church.  

Opening Song:

Oh Lord, You're Beautiful (Green)(D)

Main Set:

Blessed Be Your Name (Redman)(C)
Finding Who We Are (Shamberger)(G)
Draw Me Close (Carpenter)(A)
Revelation Song (Riddle)(D)

Offering:

Freedom (Bushard)(B)

Daniel has graduated college and has rejoined Gospel Light full-time as our youth leader  - which means he's also back as a worship musician.  It was great having him back on the keys.  He has a great talent for arrangements, and an anointing for worship.

I had a little accident Saturday at church work day.  (OK, the head of our sound team smashed my right thumb with a shovel while we were building a fence, but I'm not holding a grudge!) It's a little swollen and bruised.  I played acoustic at the 9:30 service at Lighthouse, and it was killing me.  So I played electric at Gospel Light, which was fine.

Everything sounded awesome today.  Aquim was really on his game, and Daniel's playing allowed me to be a little more creative than usual.  We had a great time, and everything came out great.  The congregations both really responded well, especially at Lighthouse.  Every Sunday should be like this.

We had time today for people to share testimonies about the mothers in their lives, and we also had our Mother's Day tradition of children presenting red carnations to their mothers.

So, how was your Mother's Day service?   Check out others at The Worship Community.

I was tempted to entitle this post "It is finished."  

Because it is.   No more tweaking.  No more adjusting.  No more anything.

The album is off to the duplicator.  The mastering is done, the final art rendered, the UPC registered.  In a couple of weeks we'll have actual CD's, a listing on iTunes and Amazon, real, actual sales.  I hope.

There's still stuff to do.  But most of it is in the can, and we can sit back and take a breath.

Thanks to everyone for your support and comments.  Have you "liked" us on Facebook, yet?  

Since my post on the Ubuntu Karmic upgrade has been the most popular of the last six months, and since I've already been asked, I'll go over my experience updating to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid) this week.

The "LTS" designator means that this release will have long-term support.  LTS releases tend to be more enterprise-friendly, and will have more hardware compatibility, as well as support for three years, instead of the usual 18 months.

• Upgrade

Ubuntu pushed Lucid out through Synaptic Package Manager.  For those unfamiliar with Synaptic, think of it like a combination Windows Update Manager and Apple App Store.  Almost any software available as an executable under Ubuntu is there, as well as regular updates.

To recap my hardware, I'm using a Dell B130 notebook.  It's pretty barebones - 1.6 GHz processor and 1gb of memory.  I dual-boot with Windows XP Home.

The download looked like it was going to take a couple of hours (even over my cable broadband).  I actually left it running and made a three-hour round trip to Rhode Island after answering some of the setup questions.  When I got home, it was still churning away doing the install.  I was happy to see that, actually - no crashes.  I would never leave a Windows install that way.

I had the option of loading a new Grub configuration (I used mine) and downloading the b43-fwcutter during the install. (Nice!)   (This is a proprietary driver to run a Broadcom wireless card - which I have.)  It also automatically updated the Ubuntu Studio packages.  Very slick.

Upon restart, I noticed that the boot process was much quicker.  The install also removed several old kernels from the Grub menu.  When I logged in, the wireless card connected to my network much quicker than it used to.

There were a couple of minor issues.   At first there were no window borders - no way to minimize or close without right-clicking on the system tray.  A quick check of the Ubuntu Forums found a quick fix: reinstalling metacity and rebooting.  

• Ubuntu Studio packages

Jack was also giving me issues.  I was getting error messages that Jack could not start, and I also could not start (the upgraded to 2.8.6) Ardour.   I found I had to manually include my login to the "audio" group using "usermod."   Very easy.  Unfortunately, it only lasted a couple of starts, and now Jack crashes with regularity.  I'm still looking into that.

I notices several package changes in the Ubuntu Studio menus.  Creox seems to have been replaced by a package called Rackarrack.  (guitar effects)  I didn't like Creox too much, anyway.   I have a new package called SooperLooper, plus a couple of others I haven't identified yet.

I did notice that Ardour upgraded to 2.8.6, which is the typical Ubuntu "one-release-back."   Audacity is now the bleeding-edge 1.3.12 (Beta) release.  Audacity is now showing no less than 320 additional plugins, all grouped in batches of 15.  It  looks like it's pulling the plugins from Ardour.  Very nice.

There is also at least one additional video production package.   I haven't really had time to put all that through the paces.

• Usability 

I've been working almost exclusively in Ubuntu for the last few months.  My biggest hangup keeping me in Windows was Outlook.  But, Evolution now has Google Calendar sync.  I've also made the move to letting Gmail manage my multiple email accounts, now that it has nested folders.

The only things keeping XP on my laptop are these:  Powerpoint 2007, which works so much better than OpenOffice Presenter; PhotoStory3 and MovieMaker, which are the fastest, easiest ways to make quick-and-dirty slideshow videos; and the fact that my Coby mp3 player refuses to be recognized by Ubuntu.  From what I've read, it's something in the firmware of the player.  I was also unsuccessful in using a projector under Karmic.  I'll have to try Lucid.

As far as the user experience goes - it can't be beat.  Ubuntu is faster and cleaner than Windows, easier to use, and more stable.  I browse with Google Chrome, which is much faster than FireFox or IE.  Setting up network printers is a snap.  Ubuntu easily uses files on my Windows partition.  Using Wine, I can run many Windows programs.

There are many other distros of linux.  My friend Toni highly recommends Sabayon, and I will admit, it is slick.  But with all the audio and video production work I do, Ubuntu Studio is priceless.  (Get it...  no price....  I crack myself up.)

Pete Wilson must be hanging out at my house.  Why else would he ask this question in chapter 1:  "Do you remember the day you discovered your life wasn't going to turn out quite the way you thought?"

Every day, Pete.  Every day.

God often shows up in unexpected ways.  Pete Wilson, senior pastor at Cross Point Church in Nashville, tries to help us get a handle on that, to try and help us discover what our "Plan B" is when Plan A doesn't quite work out.

Pete addresses the age-old question" "Why does God let bad things happen to His people?"   Here, he takes us through a journey of understanding the misconception that many Christians have that God will provide unswervingly for all of our wants and desires.  Such misconceptions often lead to a crisis of faith, wondering if God cares or even exists.

Plan B points out that at times, we are exactly where God wants us to be, even if we seem to be in a place where there is no way out.

This book is extremely well-written, and throughout, Pete demonstrates his pastor's heart.  I totally connected with the story in the first chapter on several levels.  More so than any other book I've reviewed, Plan B makes me want to sit down with the author over a long cup of coffee and talk things out.  Pete takes the struggles of biblical figures - David, Joseph, even Jesus - and personalizes them to show that, yeah, these stories are for us.  They provide a roadmap for us to navigate to our own "plan B" - a path that surely leads to God, through our faith and His grace.

This book is full of practical advice as well as spiritual advice.  After all, spouting scripture is one thing; actually helping people is the root of a pastor's work.  There is an included study guide as well.  In my view, not only is this book a great personal read, but I highly recommend it as a resource for small group studies or perhaps a sermon series.   The book has it's own website with a host of resources.

In short, get this book, read this book, and get onto your own Plan B.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I recieved a copy of this book for free from Thomas Nelson Publishers' BookSneeze program in hopes I would mention it on my blog.  Nevertheless, the opinons stated are my own.  I was not required to write a positive review. (16CFR Part 225)

Another month passes, and a glorious day in coastal Connecticut.  It was supposed to be hot, rainy and humid, but it was just hot.  High eighties, sunny and a great day for worship.

Our setlist looked like this:

Opening:

How Great is Our God (Tomlin/Reeves/Cash)

Main Set:

You Are Good/Friend of God (Houghton)(E)
Mighty to Save (Morgan)(A)
Rescue (Anderson)(D)

Offering:

David Danced (Gandy)(Dm)

We were scheduled to have a drummer, but last minute things somethimes happen, and so we wound up without one.  I did "Rescue" acoustic...  never did it that way before but I really liked it.  Had a nice, intimate vibe to it.  All-in-all it turned out really well, even with some last-minute, on-the-fly arrangement changes.

How was your service?   Check out some others at The Worship Community.  

William Shatner often gets all the press for is moving and dramatic rendition of "Rocket Man."   But Spock has got some chops too, as it turns out.  And they're right up a geek's alley.

Leonard Nimoy released a couple of albums on Dot Records in the mid-sixties, and the second one, Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy, contains this little jewel.  The video is from an appearance on a television show called Malibu U.  And the ears the girls are wearing are supposed to be "elf" ears, not "Vulcan" ears.   Notice Nimoy's haircut - can you imagine he walked around like that for three years?

Live long and prosper!