Guilty Pleasure
Everyone knows that summer T.V. viewing is pretty dreadful. Tivo has made it somewhat bearable for Christie & I though. We always have a few episodes of “Good Eats” with Alton Brown on the Now Playing list. That is truly an entertaining and informative cooking show. Christie is convinced that I like him because I am as big a nerd as he is. She might be right. He made some Star Wars reference yesterday and I realized that she is for sure right. We also usually have some kind of science/construction show on the list to watch. I would really like if they could make a few new episodes of MegaStructures though.
All of that is just the time fillers when one of the truly great shows of summer is on. What are the great shows of summer? Simple; “Blow Out” and “Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D List.” Now I was already a fan of Blow Out from last season. For some reason I get totally involved in all the drama that Jonathan and his band of merry hair care professionals get into. This season was all about getting his new product line off the ground and keep all the other balls in the air. The product launch was very successful and he ended the season by proposing to his girlfriend Sesie. When the Blow Out season ended I was pretty sure that summer T.V. was going to return to a wasteland until the fall premieres of the shows I truly love (Alias, West Wing, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Arrested Development) and some that I am looking forward to (Commander in Chief). Then along comes Kathy Griffin with her charming and very engaging reality series. For those who do not know who Kathy Griffin is don’t feel too bad. That is sort of the premise of her whole show. She is a lower tier celebrity that gets invited to the lesser parties and events, and she has a lot of fun being herself. She is madly in love with her husband and her family is a major part of the show. If you have not had a chance to watch it is pretty fun… but be warned that her language is not always the greatest and the subjects of her comedy routines are not always wholly appropriate, but overall it is a pretty good show. So here’s to summer T.V. and I hope all your eats are Good Eats.
Macs Rock My World
Oh how the world of the Mac continues to change the way I view computers. I am just now digging into all of the features available to me on the new Mac computers. Granted most of what I am doing now is the Adobe CS2 applications which are also available on the PC, but I can tell you that I have never had InDesign crash and recover on my PC and today in the midst of some pretty heavy duty work the Mac gave out on me, but when I restarted the program all my work was there waiting for me. That alone is worth the price of admission. I am still using Photoshop as I always have in the past, but I know that the new version can do so much more than I even know since prior to the Mac I was still using v.7. Lots of fun. I also trying some new blogging tools. It is called ecto. It is an app that lets you create blog entries using HTML or Rich Text formats, including pictures and a whole lot of other tools. So far so good.
Tonight my little family went to go for a walk which ended up just being a drive. We loaded up in the family car and headed to the Long Beach Marina to go for a walk in and among the dock. When we got there we realized that there is no place to park for free. The cheapest deal we could find was $1.00 but it was way at the end area where we wanted to walk, but we did not have any cash on us and did not know if we would find an ATM, so we just swung around and turned the adventure into a drive before dinner. We went home through Seal Beach and Sunset. It was a nice way to unwind from the day and spend some time with my wifely and baby. When we got home we had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner and now we are indulging in our guilty pleasure for the summer… “So You Think You Can Dance.” Sally just went to the bathroom (2) for the second time in as many hours. I handled this one and now she is sitting by me on the sofa making cute noises and smiling at me. Melt my heart!! Last night I wanted to put her to bed with as little help from mommy as possible. I figure at some point I have to learn how to do it by myself in case Mommy is ever not home to help. Sally did a pretty good job. I was able to get her to sleep by 12:30. Not too shabby. Next I will conquer the bath. Still a little scary for me though. For now I am the official photographer of bath time.
Tomorrow is a new day. I am looking forward to hearing all about the Baker adventures. From what I have heard so far the story includes bee stings and a two mile hike to safety. I am looking forward to all the details.
Major Update
As regular readers of my blog may have observed, the updates to my blog have been rather light lately. Over the coming days I am going to be blogging more, so with that said… let’s get rolling!
The past few weeks have been full of all sorts of really cool things. Last week was U.G.S.F.A.W. at church. For the uninitiated U.G.S.F.A.W. stands for Ultimate Gnarly Super Fantastic Awesome Week. One might think of it as a type of VBS (Vacation Bible School) but don’t let Kurt hear you say that. By the end of this week Kurt and Billy are usually pretty fried as the program uses videos for teaching time, and the final production of the videos took place a day or two ahead of when they were being shown. That meant several late nights for Billy, Kurt, John and whoever else might have been hanging around at the wrong moment. My main contribution to U.G.S.F.A.W. this year was lighting support for the main sessions. It was a time for me to get my feet wet on the lighting control system in Cornerstone in a live service environment. I was able to learn a lot and to train some others on what I learned. Side note on that… it was the first time that Billy, John, and I ran a program in Cornerstone since Easter when all the new equipment went in, and it was fun to see just what the room is capable of when put through it’s paces. Thursday was even the "Waiting for Guffman" day since Kurt was meeting with a publishing company who was evalutaing the program and his curriculum. John as always played a presidential role in greeting visitors to my office as it functioned as the defacto headquarters for the editing efforts. In fact U.G.S.F.A.W. 2005 was powered by Apple Computers Final Cut Studio (designed by Apple in California).
The church web design is now officially underway. Our current launch date is December 31, 2005. We have contracted with Plain Joe Studios in Corona, CA to handle the design and site maintainence. They are going to do some incredible work for us and produce a site that I know will be incredible. I signed a PreDesign contract with them about a year ago and then when our staff got involved in writing our updated mission statement and launching our venues we decided to put the website on hold until we were ready to really rock with it. In the meantime I assumed the role of Director of Communications which put me solely responsible for the site design and development, so it is probably for the best that we waited. Look for some good stuff to be coming out of the church website in the coming months.
Let’s see… oh yeah… Christie & I got a new car. As "employees" of GM we got a smoking deal on a brand spanking new Chevy Tahoe. We looked at them one day, I test drove one the next, and then the following day was able to make the deal and get great financing as well. On Friday the 29th my little family went to the dealership and picked up our new family car. Sally really likes the back seat and I love the space I have. Christie even likes driving the new car around town sometimes. Sure it uses a little more gas than the Highlander, but it six lug nuts on the wheels (Billy tells me this is a good thing since it has a ‘heavy’ axel).
I am teaching another class at Hope International University this fall. For the last two years I have taaught a class on worship technology in the music department. It is a really fun class to teach because we have a hands-on element to the class where I take kids into practical environments and let the students learn about the things they should know before they launch into their careers in ministry. In addition to that course this semester I have been asked to teach Social Psychology. I am really excited about this opportunity! Sort of a novel thing that I get to teach a class in an area where I have a degree.
I haven’t talked much about Sally in this update, but future ones will include more about her…
New Look & Feel
Regular visitors to BlairBlog may notice a whole new look and feel to the ‘ole blog. I was kind of tired of the way the site looked before. I really liked the green color, but was never really in love with the banner bar or the fact that to get to my blog you had to click through a page. I found a site with some cool CSS to change the look of the page from my good friend John Bayhi (who incidentally has restarted his blogging efforts) and that inspired me to create a new banner bar. Hope you like it.
Now I also feel like I need to answer my critics who have charged me with only offering a “monthly” blog entry. I have been busy and sleep deprived for the better part of the past 2 months and have let my blog slide a little, but I will endeavor to make more regular entries. Also, I plan on getting a large batch of new pictures up in the next few days.
’nuff said… enjoy the all new Reflection.
