mikeymo's place

Ok, it's only 45 pics.  But you get the point.  Thanks to Joshua White for the idea.

Oh yeah, I'm in my "Black and White" phase.   All photos taken on May 27 with my Android phone.

#50pic Friday May

Here's the worship recap from Gospel Light Community Church for May 22.  

Opening Song:

Holy is the Lord (Giglio/Tomlin)(C)

Main Set:

Lift Him Up (Funk)(Bb)
Blessed Be Your Name (Redman)(C)
Higher/I Believe in You (Fields/Zschech)(C)
Hosanna/Healer (Fraser/Guglielmucci)(E)

Offering:

Cover the Earth (Houghton/Houghton/Cruis-Ratcliff)(E)

How can you not love a song by a guy named Funk? Especially some old-school Hosanna! tune.  "Lift Him Up" is from the wayback file, and was a big hit today.  (I guess the congregation has a long memory)

We did a medley of "Hosanna" and "Healer" which came out awesome.  We started with the bridge of "Hosanna" very slow and simple.  Laura led today and did a great job.   From the "...to eternity" lyric w went right into the opening of "Healer," with it's simple, repeating root note.  A lot of dynamics in "Healer," and then tagged it with the chorus to "Hosanna."   It was really, really nice.

We also had an evening service with one of our church plants, Beacon of Light Church.  Here is the short set from that service:

Happy Day (Hughes/Cantelon)(C)
Chasing After You (Morton)(C)
Better is One Day (Redman)(E)
Moving Forward (Houghton/Sanchez)(E)

Check out other recaps at The Worship Community

"Natty."

[nat-ee]  -adjective  neatly or trimly smart in dress  or appearance. 


Check.

Unity Desktop with expanded dock

The newest release of Ubuntu pushed out recently, and following Ubuntu's alliterative naming conventions, it is called Natty Narwhal.  And natty it certainly is.  11.04 installs by default with the  new Unity desktop.  Cleaner and trimmer, and with it's own dock, Unity is many of the things Gnome is not.  On the other hand, Gnome is far more intuitive to use, and has lower system overhead.  Yessir, this is a classic XP/Vista thing.  But, unlike Windows, the user can easily choose which desktop environment to boot to.   This review will focus on Unity; however I think that Gnome interface is better for workflow, and is probably better suited for most Studio users. In fact, the Ubuntu Studio distro will install with Gnome by default (now charmingly called "Ubuntu Classic.")


The Unity dock is clever, though.  It installs by default to the left side of the desktop.  I've been using Docky for years.  The Unity dock populated itself with the same programs I have on Docky.  When the dock is not being used, it collapses to a 3-D stack, which instantly expands upon mouseover, and hides when there is an open window.   And I like the new grab handles that take the place of window scroll bars.   Resizing windows is a snap as well, just grab the lower right corner and drag.  It's interesting that the configuration tool for Unity is not installed by default, however it is easily gotten from the Software Center or Synaptic, and well worth the download.

Unity Lens

I'm not sure about the new search box for launching programs, called lenses.  Gone are Gnome's drop-down menus, replaced with a search box that organizes programs by type.  I suppose it's a matter of  getting used to it, but I prefer the menus.  What is cool about the lens is that with shortcuts expanded, it offers you packages you don't have under the ones you do, under the heading "Available for download," tailored to   the category you're in.  It's kind of like Amazon's suggestions for your package list.  There are also other lenses available in various PPAs that have other functions.  For example, the "Ask Ubuntu" lens allows you to type a question, the "Google Books" lens allows you to search the Google Books catalog, the YouTube lens allows you to search for videos on the web, etc...  Many of these lenses are still in Alpha or Beta, so play at your own risk, but the concept is very cool.

Major package changes in the distro include (thankfully) replacing Rhythmbox with Banshee as the default media player, and replacing OpenOffice with LibreOffice.  As far as the Ubuntu Studio- specific packages, many of them have been updated to newer versions, which is nice, and a couple have been added, which I have yet to play with.   Studio installs with the generic kernel, as the low-latency kernel is still in development.  (I've been using the Natty low-latency kernel for several weeks under Maverick with no issues.  It's available via PPA)

All in all, Natty represents some substantial changes to the Ubuntu experience, for the better. If you're prioritizing workflow for your media tasks, keep the Gnome desktop for it's intuitiveness and lower overhead.  If you want the eye-candy, try Unity.  (non-Studio distros will install Unity by default)

(BTW, that desktop background in the screen caps does not ship with Ubuntu, I'm sorry to say.  I took that pic myself. )

Marvel Studios continues to do it right, continues to build the pieces of the Avengers franchise, and continues to find awesome ways to have Stan Lee cameo in movie adaptations.  Throw in Sir Anthony Hopkins, and Renee Russo with a British accent, and you have one seriously fun movie.

Fun with a message.  Far from the middle-aged-man-who-won't-grow-up movie genre that has been so popular lately (I'm looking at you, Will Farrel) Thor takes that archetype and reveals it for what it is: somewhat annoying, not very effective, often dangerous.  Thor is a spoiled brat of a warrior, a king's kid who doesn't know how to balance power with wisdom.   After being exiled to Earth by his father, Odin, Thor discovers where  his true power lies - in a leader's love for those he leads.

There is violence galore in this film, of course, but no more than in any other film of the genre, and less than most.  There are some serious fights, a lot of explosions and (of course) thunder and lightning.   The film downplays the Norse mythology of the Thor origin, replacing it with a pseudo-scientific explanation.  However, there is quite a bit of magic, spells, and such.  No nudity or sex, of course (Disney owns Marvel Studios) but Thor himself is objectified quite a bit.  Now there's a switch.

There are a lot of great little references to other Marvel properties, like an offhand mention of a "gamma ray expert" and a great cameo appearance of  Hawkeye/ Clint Barton.  When facing off with the Destroyer, one S.H.I.E.L.D. agent asks Coulson "Is that one of Stark's?" I really can't wait for The Avengers movie next year. ( Captain America: The First Avenger opens in July.  Sweet!)

Yeah, this is a film worth seeing in the theater.  I'd probably skip the 3D version unless you're really into that, as it's a conversion, not filmed in 3D.  And it does get a little too Deus Ex Machina at the end.  But it's still an entertaining, fun action film, and an absolute necessity for Avenger-prep.

There is no setlist.

There was no preaching. No announcements.  No offering.

In fact, there was no service.

So what are we doing here?

There was no Sunday morning service at Gospel Light this week.  Instead, the congregation went out - all of them - and did some service for the community.

One of our women's cell groups did a Crop Walk for hunger alongside the Bridgeport Rescue Mission.  Another cleaned up our street.  Pastor Pedro led a street sweeping detail that cleaned several streets in the neighborhood.  Another men's group cleaned a local park.  Our youth helped an elderly lady clean out her attic.  And our KidzPort ministry provided low-cost clothing, shoes and toys to our neighborhood in a huge  2-day tag sale.

Those were some of the things we did, but there was more.  And all along the way, we talked to people, made friends, told people about GLCC, and let people know we were there. 


We did finally gather at 5pm (exhausted) and shared testimonies and stories about the day.  We did sing some songs, too, but that doesn't matter.  What matters is the feeling we have, the bonds we made in the neighborhood, our new friends.  That's what church is about.

KidzPort Tag Sale

I suppose some churches sang songs. We usually do.  You can read about them at The Worship Community.