6/27/2010

We are watching Rocketman. I love this movie. "How many times have I told you not to wander around in a martian dust storm?"

We went kayaking today.

We managed to fit them in there.

It took awhile.

The trip was a little nerve-wracking.

But we made it!

Without losing one.

Or getting a ticket.

And I gotta say...




It was WELL worth the wait!

I have decided after the little trip that it would be well worth it to track down a tandem kayak for me and Joanna. It would be an awesome way for us to spend time together and she is all about physical exercise. For whatever reason.

So we are going camping. Again. On Lake Tahoe. That should be sweet. I am only concerned about food. I do not know if we are going to have to bring our own or will have options there.

I have had a lot of burgers lately. I think I am getting obsessed with them. We had In-N-Out and Smashburger. Both of which are amazing! Both of which are only on the west coast. I have a new plan for cooking burgers. I will make the patties, heat up the stove as hot as it will go, and seer all the burgers on both sides. Then throw them on the grill and slow cook them. Voila!

Our July tour has been cancelled due to it being a terrible tour and some of the guys needing to get home to deal with some pressing family issues. We will resume in August, only playing festivals. You may have deduced that I will have a month of free-time on my hands. I'm very excited about this. I have a little project on my hands.

I started with this:

And so far, I've gotten this far:

It is amazing what you can do with a metal-cutting blade and a little time. I cut off the old exhaust and...well, that is it. I don't actually plan on putting any money into it, so I figure I will just remove things and make it better. So far, so good. I have some suspension spring spacers in there to lift it a couple inches and give it some ground clearance. I guarantee I will have it airborne within the first week of having it on the dirt track. Which I still have to make.

I will keep you posted!

PS: I grew a beard!

6/19/2010

High school camp is over. Middle school arrived today. Time to start all over again! We started learning some more up-tempo songs for this crowd! It will be a good time overall.

We have been talking over what to do after this tour. We are going to have the opportunity to play some theme parks after the camp. Then there are a lot of festivals in the summer. That is looking more favorable for the remainder of summer, unless we get a good tour or two. I am in favor of staying on the road as much as possible, but a band is a democracy. So essentially, I am praying God gives us some big tours. I learned music to see the world. There are lots of other professions where you can sit at home and get old. But there is a lot of music and a lot of opportunities out there! You never know where I may end with this talent and the favor of God.

We are going to have a few days off between the camp and when our tour starts so it looks like we will be doing some camping in the Redwoods or closer to where our tour starts in the Rockies. I am really excited about that.

It is always an adventure!

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6/17/2010

I am not good at poker. I am not good at card games in general.
I would go so far as to say I am not good at games of any sort. I got invited to play poker with some of the pastors and church staff here. Sweet. Shoot me in the face. Video chat with Joanna instead? Yes, please! I had been looking forward to that all day.

Worship has been going great at the camp. We have had a chance to really bond with a lot of the kids and that has helped free everyone up in worship.

The brakes on the van started grinding today so we ordered brake pads. Luckily, I was able to check them thoroughly and the rotors are still smooth. It is also still overheating which has me feeling a bit anxious. I am going to flush the radiator this weekend and see if I can get any gunk out. If I cannot get it out, then we are going to have to get a new radiator shipped to the camp. Replacing it without my own tools will be fun!

Tomorrow is paintball day. And yes, I fully intend to take full advantage of my rockstar status to get a gun and be out there with the kids!

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6/14/2010

Worship at the camp has been awesome! The kids are amazing. I just got done throwing water balloons at them for 2 hours while they were playing football. I just sat on a porch with a Dr. Pepper Soda, 12 oz Can (Pack of 24) next to me and chilled. It was sweet.

Now I am getting some downtime in the chapel (which has wireless!) and getting ready for our next worship set tonight. I met a bunch of kids (there are about 500 here) and hung out with a cabin full of cool guys during their discussion time.

The weather is perfect, which is not unusual for California. High-70's, 10% humidity, and a constant cool breeze. Not too shabby! I am looking forward to swimming, a ropes course, and possibly a zip-line 150 feet in the air over the Redwood Forest! We shall see if I can get them to let me do it for free.

6/11/2010

There are few people in this world who drive nonstop from Florida to California. I mean, it is 40+ hours. I do not know how people did it before we had smartphones and DVD players in vans! Then again, I guess they just did a lot of drugs. Not an option, so luckily there are smartphones I got the Motorola Droid and I am very happy with it. The graphics, layout and performance are amazing. It is not an iPhone, but it also NOT AT&T.

Much to the dismay of my bandmates, they were without data and internet service for several hours today. I lost 3G coverage for 5 minutes in Louisiana, but was quickly back to surfing the web, downloading apps, using my IM service, and listening to online radio stations. As much as I get teased for not having an iPhone, I would rather have a comparable phone that has service 99.8% of the time as opposed to hopefully 65%. Plus, I have gotten all the same apps for my phone. I will post if I cannot find an app that the iPhone has (or at least something comparable).

Right now we are driving through Texas. It is one giant state. We had some awesome barbeque for dinner. We will be in Texas for around 800 miles! That is crazy to me. I will probably be driving for a few hours tonight. Luckily, I loaded my entire iTunes library on my phone before i left!

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6/10/2010

Break is over. Time to get back on the road! I had an amazing 2 weeks with my family and Joanna and her family. I am so thankful for all of them!

We are leaving for California tomorrow. We are doing praise and worship for a youth camp in Northern California for 2 weeks, doing some writing in L.A., then catching a 3 week tour back to Florida. This is going to a be a crazy ride!

We had some issues with the van, but those are fixed now. New fan clutch, door handle, A/C switch (yeah, the A/C went out for our trip to Gulf Shores), and casing for the air filter. All GOOD things!

We led worship at Celebration Church in Jacksonville tonight. It was awesome and really anointed. It made me look forward to leading worship in California even more. It is such an amazing thing to be with a band that knows how to rock out in clubs and bars, but in an instant, turn around and lead 1,000 young people into deep worship. Talent, gifting, blessing...whatever it is, I am glad to be a part of it.

So now comes the part I want to get over with as quickly as possible: packing. I really try to not spend tons of time on this. I want to throw all my important belongings in my big plastic bin and be done with it. But when you leave home for a month and a half, you really need to put a little thought into packing! I plan on doing a lot of recording while I am on the road and really getting a lot of TV and film music on my hard drive. I have 50 or so songs, so I want to get about 100 more and have a good collection. Then at the end of summer, I am going to start pitching them again for sync licensing and get the royalties going!

The barrage of blog posts will start going this week. Hopefully I will have some funny stories and good times to keep this thing interesting!