Sorry for the delay of posts (for those of you who check back daily, I’m lookin at you DrJones).  Getting ready to go on  vacation has been . . . fun.

 

Over the past couple of years (and very much so on the past 9 months) the number of volunteers in the A-V department has risen to a place where everything is staffed every service with a bit of overlap (at least as far as KEY positions go).  Sure, we still need camera operators for the evening services, but we have the people with the training in place to make the service happen every time we have church.  The only problem arises is when those volunteers are needed during a work day (when they are, you know, working lol).

 

Back in late August, early September, when deciding what week to take my first week of vacation this year, I didn’t have very many choices.  It was amazing to look at, but by the middle September  . . . the year was like booked. 

 

From the last week of October, to the second week of December there is something happening every week that I need to be here for. 

 

So the week before Trunk-or-Treat was about the only time I could take a vacation. 

 

I look at the calendar and I see that there is a Communicators for Christ (like a Christian debate and speech group) that is having a clinic / competition thing here at the church.  At the time, the only info that they gave us was that they needed the buildings.  They were going to bring all their own stuff (such as a wireless network to compute scores from laptops in each room).  They were going to be self-sufficient.  Perfect time to take a vacation, they don’t need any A-V stuff so I don’t need to be there.

 

Well apparently that has changed.  I guess three months ago they mentioned to pastor that they might need a wireless mic ‘or something’ during some of the days.  Well that’s not a problem, it’s easy to show someone how to turn on and set the volume for one mic.

 

Wednesday morning, seven days before the event is to begin, pastor gets an e-mail detailing the technical needs for each day.  And it’s pretty extensive.  The ‘or something’ has turned into ‘DVD and Power Point’ needs with a couple of projectors (possibly in two buildings), several wireless mics (including ear pieces, the ones that go over your ear toward your mouth), and no less then two events that members of the public (as well as local teachers) have been invited to attend that happen IN THE EVENING until 9pm.    

 

These are the kinds of details that would have been nice to have in Pastors hands LIKE THREE MONTHS AGO !

 

And this wouldn’t be such a problem if the event didn’t start on a Wednesday and go through a Saturday.  All the volunteers that can do this kind of thing are working during the times when they need all this (except the last day, Saturday). 

 

My and Pastors normal response would have been ‘Sorry, this is three months late so you get nothing except the use of the rooms ESPECIALLY since you get the use the church FOR FREE !’ . . . but the kids and youth that are attending the clinic / competition are paying like $200 a piece to learn from some of the best speakers in the country (who are apparently being flown in for the 4 day event). 

 

That’s a LOT of money that parents are spending so their kids can get some professional training in public speaking and debate.  And in this economic crunch it’s evena bigger sacrifice. 

 

So I offered to come back from vacation early to help out (because the kids and the parents deserve the best we can do for their $200).  Pastor is going to give me any hours I spend at the church back to me to use as paid vacation later in the year (even if I spend the entire day playing video games here at the church and only spend three hours actually running sound for them, he’ll give me a days worth of vacation back) . . . and I was coming back to Tennessee on Thursday afternoon anyways. 

 

And, to be honest, I can play Fable II almost as well here at the church as I can at home (no surround sound here, but that’s ok).  So it’s not a total loss.

 

I just wish people would understand that when they plan an event . . . the should inform people of their needs more then 7 days out. 

 

There, I feel better now that I have ranted to the two or three people who actually read this blog!

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Ok, so the top secret projecktzzzz that I’ve been working on are now done and finished.  I’ll post the 9 and a half minute long (and somewhat boreing if you have never been in the Last Defense Youth Group) video later today.  It’s a very serious retrospective of Last Defense.

Anywho, now for the link dump ! . . .

Ya know, if I pay $40 (or $60) for a video game, the last thing I want is an ad poping up.  Well Google is moving into the in-game advertising market now . . . HERE.  For now, it’s just little flash based ‘casual’ games . . . but Fable III isn’t safe !  Yes I know that video game budgets are going up and several major studios say that they cant make any money back unless they sell millions of copies . . . but I dont care. 

This is why I hate the ‘I forgott my password’ stuff . . . especially if you’re well know . . . people can figure out this stuff !  Read how Sara Palin’s Yahoo e-mail was hacked HERE. 

Remember the solar powered calculators you had in school as a kid ?  And sometimes you had to hold them up to the light to get them to work ?  What if you Wi-Fi network was like that ?  If you had to hold you PDA up to the light to get a good network signal ?  Read about wireless networking based on blinking LED’s HERE. 

There’s some (kind of) interesting Halo news HERE, but seeing as it will be Fall of 2009 when it comes out . . . I dont much care about it yet.

You can download a few of the music tracks from Fable II (and a couple from Fable I) for FREE at sumthing digital (yes, it is spelles sumthing) HERE.  I used part of one of the tracks for Barry’s Top Secret Projectzzzzz.  Shhhh, dont tell anyone from Lionhead or Microsoft !

Pete Cullen (of the famous petecullen.net) is writing once again !  And it only took me 4 days to notice . . . which just happens to be the number of days it took me to do the video.  See his blog HERE.  That’s how I stay informed on all thinks tech in the UK / world. 

Insomniac Games has a new Poscast (that I haven’t listened to yet) up about the music of Resistance 2 !  See the page HERE and get to downloadin’ !

Camron (who does the visualworship.com site) is celebrating one year in existance !  Some of the stuff he does with video projectors is just . . . mind blowing.  Check out his blog HERE. 

 Tha is all for now . . . for the CD is done mastering and I must take it to the duplicator !

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Today we moved Veronicas office from the Student Center to the main office building (the brick house up the hill a bit from the main church).  There were only a few things to move (two book shelves, a few boxes of things, and . . . oh yes . . . a hanging file cabinet FULL of files) . . . but it still took all day.

Brian Vetter came in and helped move her phone extension on the phone system (which is a much easier task when you have the right tools) and I ran some new phone and data cables along the trim and around a closet so her desk could be on the other side from where the data port was. 

It sounds like such an easy task, move Veronicas office.  But it took all day.  And we literally didnt move that much stuff.  And we only went like 400 years . . . and up some stairs.  The stairs were the worst. 

Here’s to being finished !  Huray.

Oh, and like 13 days until vacation !

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This sounds like a bad thing at first . . . the fact that Lionhead had to cut some stuff from the Fable II special edition.  But when you look at the stuff they cut (the ‘fate cards’, hobbie figure, and special case for the game) . . . it actually makes no difference to me at all. 

Oh, and it’s cheeper too.  That’s a plus for me !

 Read the Lionhead released statment HERE. 

However, I must admit, I totally saw this on Joystiq HERE.  And I stole thier picture (the one above).

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Well once again I’m doing t

he type of mindlessly boring work that allows me to update my personal web site (I’m scanning pictures into the computer, if you must know).  So I decided to post an update.  The Bad, the Good, and The Link Dump.

 

1.)  Today I ran out of money. 

Due to several factors I think: price of gas, bi-yearly truck insurance being due, eating out a lot more (some is my fault for being lazy, some because we had a week long conference at the church that didn’t allow time for cooking at home), the fact that I did a few side jobs and added them to the budget but haven’t gotten paid for them yet (stupid, yes I know).

 

Maybe that was all that it took to put me almost $200 behind my budget (which had about $50 wiggle room every).  Part of it was that I started out the month behind a bit (I was behind last month too).

 

So this month I’m going to have to be extra careful what I buy.  I’ve already budgeted Fable II into the equation (assuming that I get paid for the side jobs that is, if not then I’ll be reading about it until Christmas time).  But it’s always stressful to know that you’re in the crunch but have little that you can cut. 

 

Course, I DO have high speed internet that I could cut I suppose . . . I just don’t want to.  So that’s my choice.

 

2.) My upper back is killing me.

It feels like some has stapled the muscles between my shoulder blades together.  Like seriously . . . they are that tight and hurt something awful.  No matter how I stretch or band they hurt just the same . . . no worse but no better.  Yah, I know . . . I’m whining . . . but I’m allowed to do that once in a while.

 

In other more happy news . . .

 

3.) October is here ! 

Which means that in T-minus 19 days I’ll be heading to Arkansas to see Matt and Mel for a few days (and allowing me three days to just relax when I get back).  Fable II comes out while I’m on the road . . . so not sure what I’m going to do about that.  I wonder if I can transfer the reservation from the Dickson store to the Little rock store . . .

 

4.)  My office is getting cleaner (slowly)

My office, which is also the network room for the Worship Center and the repair / parts room as well, is slowly getting cleaner.  Last Saturday there was a ‘Haz Mat’ day at the fair grounds (where you could take stuff that was potentially hazardous or harmful to the environment) and people in full hazmat suits came and got it out of the back of your truck and disposed of it for you in a (supposedly) safe way.  I got rid of several old computers (we’re talking mid 90’s here) and monitors, as well as two old projectors and miscellaneous other random stuff from the office.  Sometime before my vacation, I need to do a fall cleaning where I go through and get rid of all the spare parts that I end up collecting in the hopes that one day they will be useful, but that I wont end up using because they are too old (PC100 memory . . . not going to use that ever again). 

 

5.) Bob has been replaced.

The last laptop I was using before my nice new one here, had a shattered screen (one that I broke while trying to fix it).  It works pretty well otherwise, and I just plugged in an external LCD to it and went along.  But the thing was purchased used at one of those trade shows that comes to town every now and again . . . and it wasn’t very good to begin with.  Word processing and surfing the internet was fine, editing videos was not.  Anywho, it is now the new Jukebox / Network monitor in place of Bob.   And doing a nice job of it I might add. 

 

And now, for the link dump . . .

 

- The Hubble Space Telescope wont be getting its repair mission this year.   Just a few days before the shuttle was to head up to do a few repairs to it, it’s main processing computer dies . . . read more HERE.

 

- You thought it was bad when AOL gave away free CD’s to try and get people to join, now Microsoft is giving away ‘cash’ and ‘prizes’ for people who use their search engin (rather then Google or Yahoo).  Read HERE.

 

- Want to back up your DVD collection ?  Better do it quick, before you cant anymore.  I dont do it myself, and I can see why some people dont want you to . . . anywho read more HERE.

 

- In it’s first step toward becoming the Anti-Christ, Game Stop buys a French chain of game stores.  Now they just have to merge with Wal-Mart and Microsoft and their total controll over everything will be complete.  Read HERE. THE GAMES MUST FLOW ! KTHX !

 

- New test for Citizenship in the US ?  I wonder how many High School grads could ?  I cant even answer some of these questions . . . and that’s sad.  Nice that they provide the questions and answers online though !  Read it HERE (it’s a .pds file).  Hey Pete (or anyone from the UK), do you have a citizenship test online that we could look at ?  It would be interesting to try and take it !

 

- that is all

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