WestBoro Baptist

so I've been away from blogging for awhile.
no particular reason, I've just been tired lately.
work is pretty swamp right now, plus some other
tensions I've been dealing with at church.

but the big news on facebook tonight is that
westboro baptist is coming to weag to protest
on the 26th. theres a whole diatribe against WEAG
on thier website. to me this means that we're doing
something right. that satan wants to openly attack us.
some people are like we're not coming to weag that sunday.
but that seems like we're letting them win.

I am so happy the reaction that the youth gave to this.
they greeted the news with dissapointment.but that we needed
to show them the love of christ. someone even setup a
facebook event called be nice to westboro day.
to me this is a sure sign of Good teaching and leadership.
that out of such hatred they are still trying to show the love
of Christ and not returning tit for tat.

anywho have to crash. l8tr
o and invisible children is coming to weag that sunday too.
coincidence? prob not.

Moving time ...plus new music

Well I've been housesitting / catsittting for the Gravino's

for the past 6 months, thier retired schoolteachers who went to

Africa to teach....they come back next saturday.

and I had been worried about where I was going after that.

but God worked that out, turns out Matt Stanton who works

Maintenance at WEAG was looking for a roommate, he's longterm

housesitting a house in southside (off midlothian) for another missionary.

My Dad came and helped me move a bunch of stuff this weekend.

he found me a nice armoire, for free, but he has to do some work on it. and someone else at WEAG was giving away a older bedroom suite. we went out and got a good bargin on a box springs, I'll get a mattress in a few paychecks hopefully. I've got the room almost all arranged. still need a computer desk, dad said he had some cool old legs that he could make me a table with, but when I saw them they were a little low but I'm thinking about it.

there's still a million little things I need from curtains and shower curtains to

light bulbs. but its coming together.

My Jeep has been having problems...I've had it just long enough

to make my first payment on it...FML

(I'll have another blog on this later hopefully)

I went to Goodwill today to look for a bookshelf, no bookcase

but found lots of CDs... I couldn't resist they were $ 3.25 each

then there the first cd, I I got because a fellow blogger stephanie

has been on a listening kick lately and I

cant rem what they sound like.

Wannabe SPICE Girls,

Faith Hill - Cry

robyn (have heard alot about her, big in europe)

God Bless the GoGo's

Avalon - in a different light

Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever

and last but not least:

Jewel - Spirit

not really sure why I got it, I already own it,

but I like it Sooo much.

I also have a computer at work with a small to moderate

metal and hair metal on that I need to pull off.

so let me know if you want any of this music and I can upload

it....

thanks for listening

XoXo ...no wait that's Gossip Girl,

which I'm now only a season behind on...haha

trying to catch up by sept.

life...hope...

well my mom had her semi emergency hip surgery

today, it went well they were done by 10:30 in the morning.

she'll be at Anderson Orthopedic Clinic till the end of the week.

then she'll go to my Grandmothers where an in home physical

therapist will come work with her, she can't have it at home

b/c my dad will be leaving for a missions trip to South America soon,

and someone has to be at home to assist.

tonight was different, I was having issues with the computer

for songscreen in south hall...dual spanned monitors...in windows 98

need I say more. Youth went better, the band was a different group

so they weren't as tight as they should have been but it was ok.

Nikki talked to the high schoolers and middle schoolers combined.

there were some good points...but can rem them right now, we'll

chalk that up to me being tired. :-)

then I went to El Chaps, Addie Collins had called

me to ask me if I was going and I was like of course.

so I got there and walked in and there was like NO

ONE there, well there were 2 tables of people, but NO

WEAGers....what happened? did I miss a memo?

I mean I know the brazil team wasn't there but still...

so Addie showed up and we decided to get coffee.

we went down to The Gutenberg Cafe by 17th st farmers

market...they make White Mocha's to die for. Addie

just got her license! Yey! and we got lost downtown..typical for me.

good times.

I had interesting text conversation with one

of the kids tonight. even though I'm not a youth

leader I find myself in the position of being and

example and being asked these questions I'm not

sure I'm totally equipped to handle.

basically they feel like everyone hates them,

I assured them this was not the case, but that sometimes thier

actions are inirrupting and sometimes peoples reactions can come off this way.

this is what I told them, let me know if you think this is right:

"we're supposed to love and accept everyone how they are and hopefully they change to become more Christlike, it's a journey we're all at different places on."

"and no ones perfect, but if we can talk it out and forgive each other, everybody wold be better off."

they're answer: I should accept who I am and then...that's

where I'm lost. how does that affect others?

me: "Yes you should accept yourself, but then do bible study and such

to change yourself to become more christlike."

"its not your responsibility to affect others.

that's between then and God, as we grow hopefully we will all grow

towards becoming more Christlike, thats what the Christian walk is

about... Not always easy"

when I say "its not your responsibility to affect others", in reading it now

that may be wrong, but take it in context of a youth to a leader.

and I may need to clarify,

thats all for now, I need some sleep.

back from choir tour...

well back to blogging after my hiatus for choir tour.
it was good but exhausting. but more on that later.

John's sermon from Sunday has really been convicting me.
see since tour and going to see all of these churches
on tour I've been guilty of tech lust / envy cause most
of the churches we went to had amazing AV systems.
so I've been looking at and pricing new wireless systems,
digital sound consoles, truss, crank towers, etc.

John's illustration about the man from i believe it was
ethopia 'giving' him the suffering church really made me
think about these dreams, while not being bad. it just really
makes you think, we have so much to be thankful for and yet
we want more, these people worship God with only basic
needs being met. kinda puts things in perspective about

whats really important at the end of the day.

currently watching: The Book of Eli
such a good a movie, the first time I saw it, the ending twist
pretty much blew my mind

thats all for now...need sleep.

iPhone 4 and CHOIR TOUR!

Well Im currently waiting in line for the iPhone 4, I got here at 6, late I know.. Such a slaker. I'm like the 170th person in line.

Yesterday was my last day at work (taking off for choir tour)
I still have to go by and do paperwork.

After I get done here, I need food. Then picking up the choir tour rental 15' box truck... I've nvr driven a box truck before so that will be interesting. Then picking up rentals around town, then driving to Delaware to pickup rentals. Ugh dreading the 6 hr round trip.
That's all 4 now, then tomm.
We do a mock setup.


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Seek Choir Tour 2010 - Post 1

well I havent been blogging lately not because I haven't felt like it just because I've been soo tired,
I get up go to work then go to church to work on choir tour stuff till late.
it finally feels like it's coming together, so many little details still unsettled.
I've had help from weston, josh, and a handful of others.

the scale of this production (choir tour) is so much bigger that the
last choir tour, which was in 06 and was the only choir tour i've been on.

I'm taking over 2,700 ft of extention cord, 1,700 ft of xlr (mic cable)
80' of truss (think like in the youth prod: matter) 4 crank towers to get
truss in the air, 12 LED pars, a bunch of other lights, I could go on and on
but here's a few pics:

Sweet & Wild

So I just got around to ordering Jewel's new cd:

Sweet and Wild off of her website (pre-sale)

I got the signed copy, but not the deluxe package

b/c that came with the songbook and I cant read music soo...

If you didn't know I'm a Jewel fan from way back.

can't wait to hear it. and actually just read it was

pre-released on pandora! so I'll have to reset my password

ugh and tune in to my already created Jewel station.

but the official cd release date is June 8!

also check out the vid from the single that was released.

Stay Here Forever

it's on the Valentines Day movie soundtrack

and features footage from the movie

Wash with Joe

as I'm writing this I'm ready to crash...

this came across my twitter feel earlier

this evening: Wash with joe

http://www.nylonmag.com/?section=article&parid=467

and yes, I do follow Nylon mag on twitter, whats ur point.

it's caffinated soap! is it bad that I think this looks really

cool? I wonder if you smell like coffee all day though?

COFFEE TALK

Get a wakeup call, without surrendering to your local Starbucks.

If you can't seem to sleep before 2 am, then you probably know the challenges of showering-while-tired: You sit in the haze of hot water for 40 minutes, not doing anything, until - of course - you're late for work. And unless you want to brush your teeth with Red Bull (ew), there isn't much hope of shaking yourself awake before then.

Unless you want to try the new soap called Wash With Joe. Formulated with glycerin, coffee beans, and mint, the scrub is all-natural and smells like cappucino. And if science labs about coffee are to be trusted, this stuff can also help your skin block UV rays and clear your bloodsteam.

Will it work as well as an espresso shot, a bottle of sunscreen, and a day of yoga? Not quite, but we do love its awakening properties - a few whiffs of this stuff, combined with a healthy breakfast, and you might be able to skip your Starbucks run altogether.
--FARAN KRENTCIL

$24, Available at WashWithJoe.com



This story was published on May 26, 2010.

Memorial Day :-)

today was a pretty good day

I got up cleaned for a bit but even with the

air on the house was soo hot.

So I abandoned that and went to Ginter Botanical

Gardens with my Mom

they had some cool glass installations in the garden

this time.

I didn't take many pictures b/c we ended up there around noon.

then I went home and cooked brownies for scoob's

memorial day cookout. sadly they weren't homemade

I went with a chocolate chunk box mix, it wasn't until

I finished mixing it up that I rem I should have come up

with a gluten free alternative..sorry I'll try to rem nxt time.

but everyone seemed to like them.

It was a bring your own item to grill, so

brought one of my frozen steaks which was

moderate, not great.

even though I feel most at home with the youth

sometimes in these situations I feel like i don't fit

or don't belong, but maybe it has to do with the size

of the group or how well I know everyone there..idk

but later I felt completely at home with the everyone just

hanging out. these are the times of our lives and the internal

conflicts that make them soo..

the twilight and citronella candles were great

and I tried to take some pictures but wish I had had

my camera with a fast lens...

parting shots... since you cant tell

in order its: Stephanie, Heather, and Lorraine

goodnight all

PS special thanks to steph for inspiring me to blog more (:

Glee Season one update

just got it So I wanted to share :-)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/xnng2g0diz2/Glee_ The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers.zip

I was about a week behind in watchin

the Glee gaga episode :-) but it was Sooo

good. the costume design team was off the hook.

the Sat of Memorial Day

So I got up Sat and had to get ready and

go to church for Fred Spivey's funeral. I don't deal well with death

I just dont really process it.. at least like people

expect you to... im just beginning to realize this.

I was running video sound so i just switched into

work mode. but he will be missed.

then I went home and took a nap

after that I got up and stopped by tropical smoothie

for a mocha madness smoothie i dont really like mocha

flavor but its Coffee :-)) in a smoothie so I can overlook that...

then it was back to WEAG to do something I had been

putting off...clean the Green Room (its the room off stage left

between the sanc and the back hall)

it has all the cabinets with our sound gear but after small

production season it was a mess (small production season

includes children's production, youth production, and dance production)

as you can see its a mess...So I spent the next few hrs cleaning it up

this may sound like a pain but it really is fun and I enjoy it...wrapping

cables and putting them in thier place. so a few hrs later it was as it

should be..

this makes me happy :-))

Anonymous

WEAG Seek Youth Choirs Production this year was called Anonymous

(in case you couldnt tell from the pic...haha)

The Youth Choir was directed this year by a team

of people this year...Scoob, Brian King, Bob Laughlin,

Kara Smith and Sarah Walson. it was more like the Youth Choir

Music selction wise of Old days. vs the more band driven

selections we've had the previous 2 years, each has it's pluses

and minuses when translated to a youth choir.

Overall, I feel like this production was one of the better ones

we've had in a few years. the message was great. the dialog was very

real and up to the minute, including ideas from post secret, formspring,facebook, and brought up very real issues while still remaining a safe distance away. the songs towards the end tied in beautifully with the dialog and conclusions.

from a tech standpoint I was kinda disappointed by the set and tech aspects of the show, but Joni said the minimalistic set was to echo the feelings of anonymity brought up by the show and I got that, it made sense. (the set was the risers plus the drop that was 30' x 20' ish the original graphic that went on the backdrop is shown above)but there were no tech glitches during the show which I was very thankful for. this was the first youth show I had run board on, and there were issues as usual with Solo levels in the monitors but we resolved most of these. Barry Voltz did an amazing Job getting the most level possible out of the live choir mics and eq'd the track brilliantly. he got that half of the board and I got the half with the Solo and Lav mics. and thanks to Amy Young calling ques in our ears all night long, I only missed one mic que (1st part of Daniels sentence on the sat.) during the 2 show run.

on a personal level I tend to not think about things to much during a show run, cause I'm working and have to focus to get things done, but when I looked up at the screen during the Post Secret section it choked me up, because it was so close to home, these aren't random kids 1,000's of miles away that feel like that it's kids that I talk to in our youth group that feel like that, and even deeper I've felt like that before.I know that it wasn't the intention of the show but I actually feel more anonymous now than before the show, its not that I wasn't anonymous before I guess I just never really thought about it. but it doesn't really matter, all that matters is that through the show and all the work that went into it by so many people on so many levels impacted people for Christ.

Anonymous Blogs

So I have about 4 blog ideas rolling around in my head,

most of them concerning Anonymous (our youth show)

which is why i havent written them yet, because I've been tied up

doing that, but its over now :-(

so that excuse is out the window.

Grandmothers hospital visit

Well I was up last night catching up on the latest episode of Glee and V ...till 2 and then I was going to getup and go to practice for Anonymous at 10.
But instead I was awakened by a phone call at 3 from my uncle that my grandmother had been admitted to the hospital. I had just gotten off of the phone with her at 11 when he got there, so luckily she wasn't alone when it happened an hour later. All we knew that that point was that she had gone out of control and fallen. Then we drove 2.5 hrs to her house to take care of the dog and get her overnight bag. By then she had been transferred to UVA from the local hospital so we drove an hour back to Charlottesville.
We got there around 6am I guess. The ambulence had just gotten there. It was very hard to see but after awhile they had her stabalized and I went back and saw her. It wasn't until hours (like 1 in the afternoon) and multiple tests later they determined that she had had a stroke on her left side affecting her right side. But thankfully it seems she still has use of all of her limbs.
Thier getting ready to move her to a room and she'll need some rehab but it would seem that she's out of the woods.
This definately is not great timing, the week of youth production. So it'll be a long couple of days.....
Thank you for your thoughts and
Prayers during this time fo my grandmother, who is still grieving my grandfather through all this (he passed less than a month ago)



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Arlington National Cemetery

today was my Grandfathers interment at Arlington national cemetery.

it was then that the I guess finality hit me.

we met in the administration building where we would wait for our time.

there were alot more people there than I expected. I thought it would just

be close family, but there were others from Miller School, and AMA, and other

people I didn't know.

once at the gravesite, not far from the administration building.

The military guard removed the casket, and moved it to the graveside

in block formation. after my uncle and the military chaplain said a few words.

the most memorable of which was from a fortune cookie...you cannot buy love or steal love, only give it away...which he did in great measure.

there was the five gun salute, the sound of which reveberated

on the hallowed grounds where we stood.

as the soldiers began the ceremony of folding the flag it felt almost as though

he was in the flag..its hard to explain I guess I mean on a spirit level.

and the wind whipped up around us as the military taps were played.

as I read this back I realize this does not do the event justice but I had to try at

least for my own memories sake.

the setting, the folding of the flag, and the 5 gun salute. it was

emotionally overwhelming to think of all the soldiers buried there

and thier lives of sacrifice, hardship and bravery defending our freedoms.

let us never take that for granted.

My grandfather

We all handle grief in different ways, hopefully this will help me process it...
My grandfather died early this Friday morning. Apparently he had a heart attack earlier in the week and just thought it was a stomachache, he finally went to the hospital thur. And he died of complications, they were planning on moving him to UVA as soon as space became avalible. So I am glad he didn't have to suffer a long hospital stay and that he wasn't in a period of prolonged suffering.
He was generally a very reserved man, decorated soldier, 101st airbone, special forces... In Korea and Vietnam. It was just one of those things you knew was in the backround, he never really talked about it. But he was always watching some war special on the history channel.
After he retired he became the football and basketball coach at Augusta military academy, after AMA closed, he coached at Miller School (another military academy) this is where some of my fondest childhood memories are, exploring all over the mountains, playing with my cousins, building forts, going to the creek and the lake. As he got older he relaxed most of his military ways and became more relatable. And we talked about things. And I did get to see him just last weekend so it was nice to have a good normal last memory of him, not in a hospital.
The one regret I have,
And this might seem a little wierd but that he didn't get to meet the person I'm going to marry, he would make some joking comment but really nod approvingly, no there's not something your missing I don't
know who I'm going to marry yet either :-(
But I will miss him even if I'm not good at showing it.

(p.s) Iv'e been working on this a while so it will appear out of order on my blog timeline. I actually started writing this on April 7...





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#CT2010 -Seek Choir Tour 2010 announced!

I keep having all these idea's for blog's

that I make note of and never actually get to write

them all the way....but anywho.

this past sunday Joni announced to the Seek Youth Choir - woot!

that we're going on Choir tour this year. Soo excited I cant stand it!

I've been wanting this awhile and glad we brought it with this years seniors.

the last time we went on choir tour was in 06, Micah was youth pastor led,

I just went as secondary tech. I've got pages of notes on it already,

So many things to do and make :-) and Scoob and Joni already have us

booked 2 places! I was so excited by the offical news I missed when Joni

told us the dates.....I almost forgot that we still have to get

through Easter, Palm sunday, and Youth Production....

meanwhile spending every spare moment thinking about audio connections,

speed of setup, packing and a million other things pertaining to #CT2010...

in case you didn't get it that's Choir tour 2010.

Gahhh! Sooo EXCITED!!!!

Searching - Kids Production 2010

well the Kids Production at WEAG was this past sunday,

the "new guard" calls it WeKids now, not that happy

with the name but o well. the Production however was awesome!

it was about kids being who they are and repping God in school.

the songs were good, and there are some talented Solo and DNC

kids coming up, the standout was Julianna Dalton! but

everyone was great.

it was my first opportunity to run a show, normally I'm

doing setup, troubleshooting, and strike.

I ran it with barry voltz who has a great ear to help train me,

I did all the mics and barry ran track que. amy young

called mic ques. so had plenty of backup. but it was a great

learning experience for my ears. and no missed mic ques,

I was very happy with the end eq, there was only one

solo that I still didn't get an eq that was really happy with

the kids vocal (hope). it wasnt as stressful as I thought either.

Well, I'll start this out with a thank you to Paige Burkhardt (a good friend of the Dunnavants, if you dont know her) for coming up with the term

sparkyness... a couple of years ago now I guess, I have a domain name of the same name,

but dont know how to build websites yet, speaking of which I have to make sure I paid that.

I plan on putting music, links and some photo's

and other things that come across my brain on here.

I also downloaded an app for my iphone called BlogPressLite

that was free that should allow me to update this so we"ll

see how that works.