starting out hectic

Well, no baby yet. But that still doesn’t mean my Monday has calmed down much. :-) We did a bunch of minivan shopping this weekend, and have found one that seems like it might be a good fit; in our price range, in decent shape, etc. I need to get my mechanic to look at it, and the first availability they have is tomorrow, so I guess I’ll be patient until then. Actually, my mechanic wasn’t available until Wednesday, but a mechanic that a friend recommends highly is available tomorrow, so I’ll go with that one. Maybe by then the bank will have gotten back to me on the loan approval.

If Becky goes into labor tonight or something, it’ll throw a bit of a wrench in the car purchase works, but it’ll be a welcome wrench. The van can wait. :-)

so nice to be busy again...

Things had been a little bit slow at work for the past couple of weeks; I was winding up one project and in a holding pattern waiting for some critical decisions to be made so I could start the next project. Work is amazingly long and excruciating when you’re bored.

But the decision got made yesterday, and I am off and running on the new project. Yesterday flew by. So much to do! Today is moving at a brisk pace as well. Somehow I don’t think I’ll get very bored at work in the next several months. It’s a nice feeling.

Welcome to Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key!

House of Cakeboy had about run its course, so after reflection the new blog title, as you can obviously see above, is “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key”. This wonderfully picturesque phrase is the title of a song from the album Mermaid Avenue, with lyrics by Woodie Guthrie and music by Billy Bragg & Wilco.

I don’t know that I have much more to say about it at the moment; I created the new blog header and I’m fairly happy with it. Otherwise the layout hasn’t changed much; I might switch it up when I get time to make it a little more customized.

So that’s it for now, and it’s late - I’m heading to bed.

I still feel the same... a follow-up.

In a previous post, I wrestled with the ideas of being 10 years removed from my teens, but still feeling many of the same feelings that I did back in those years. It’s been interesting to see the reaction from my siblings. It caused Ryan to reflect on his life, which is good… wait, not that he needs to do more reflecting… it was just interesting to hear his thoughts. :-) I think Rebecca’s comment was just that my post scared her. I take that to mean that she was hoping that things would get better as you get older…

Now that I’ve had a while to chew on it, let me give my siblings (and anybody else who is still reading this) some more thoughts that might encourage you a bit.

Things have changed. I would be very stupid not to recognize that a lot of changes in my life have brought stability and peace over the past dozen years. Relationship worries have been removed by my marriage and the wonderful relational stability it brings. Monetary worries have largely been alleviated by a good job, which meets my needs and then some. Not that financial worries are never there, but they aren’t the how-the-heck-am-I-going-to-pay-for-this-month’s-rent type of worries. What-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life worries have been largely alleviated as I find peace and confidence in God’s plan for me here in Iowa, with my family, my job, and my church. So take heart, brothers, sister, the process can be agonizing (and still is for me, at times), but there will be a day, sooner than you think, where you will stop and look back on things much like I just have.

At the end of that previous post I wrote in conclusion:

It means something that the desires of a dozen years ago are still wandering around in me today. There’s something to be learned from the knowledge that home, wife, and child haven’t fully satisfied them. I know some of the answers, but for today I think I’d rather just sit back and ponder the questions.

Let me talk about some of the answers. Well, at least the one big answer. The answer is that the longings built into each of us cannot be totally fulfilled in this life. Many of them can, and growing closer to God daily will help bring that about. But some cannot, will not ever be fulfilled in this life. But that is the constant reminder for us to look forward to that hope that we have of all eternity with Christ.

As Andrew Peterson reminded us with his last album, we tend to think at times of heaven as this far away country where we will go someday, but that’s not the way it is; rather, God and heaven is home, and we are now in the far country.

time for a facelift

Well, I at least switched up graphics and a bit of the color scheme. It’ll do for now.

I’m thinking of renaming the House of Cakeboy blog…. it seems to have about run its course. I’m thinking through new names right now, and will take suggestions if anyone has them.

Here’s a few proposed names I’m mulling over. Many of them are from song titles… well, actually, all but one are from song titles, and the other one is probably a song title, I just haven’t heard the song. :-) If you have any opinions or other ideas, let me know. Not that I’ll really pay attention, but I might.

Proposed Names

  • Push To Talk
  • Trying to Get This Right
  • Over Yonder In The Minor Key
  • Erase and Rewind
  • Running on Faith
  • Didn’t He Ramble
  • You Didn’t Know Me When
  • The Things We Leave Behind
  • Between Green and Grey

(Bonus points to anyone who can name all of the artists who did these songs…)

too much new music?

I didn’t think it would ever be possible, but at the moment, I feel like I have too much new music to handle.

Within the past week, I have accumulated six new CDs:

  • A fabulous mix CD from Susan as part of the RMFO Mix CD Circle.
  • A pretty darn good mix CD from Chris in Houston from the previous RMFO Mix CD Circle. It’s a little bit harder stuff than what I’d usually listen to, but there’s still some quite good stuff there.
  • In The Company of Angels: The World Will Sing, the latest offering from Caedmon’s Call. I got the pre-release for worship leaders as I noted in my previous post. I’ve listened through it 3 or 4 times so far.
  • The Builder & The Architect, from Sandra McCracken
  • Beams of Heaven: Indelible Grace 4
  • Indigo Girls - I picked this up for three bucks at the used bookstore.

My excuse for the last two is that I’m looking for some good hymns to add to our repertoire at church. And the Caedmon’s disk was an unexpected freebie, so that’s not too bad. But I just feel like I don’t have the time to really dig in and give this music the time it deserves. I guess I’ll have to cut down on the CD buying for a while. (Did I say that?)

In The Company of Angels: The World Will Sing

In The Company of Angels: The World Will Sing is the soon-to-be-released latest album from my favorite musical group, Caedmon’s Call. It’s a follow-up to their previous release In The Company of Angels, which was one of the best “worship albums” when the whole worship album craze hit a few years ago. (Has it ever really died down?) While the album doesn’t release until March 7th, Caedmon’s is offering a free copy of the pre-release album to worship pastors who are willing to give them some feedback on how the music might be usable for congregational singing. Happily, I am the worship leader at Noelridge, so I requested and received my free copy last week and have been listening to it quite a bit since then. I’ll go ahead and post my thoughts here.

First, let me review it just as an album. The 11 tracks are dominated by Cliff Young’s vocals (seven tracks), aided by Andy Osenga and Danielle Young on two tracks each. The songs are primarily new material, but there are three or so that are new settings of old hymns. All in all, it’s pretty solid, though I don’t think it quite measures up to the original ITCOA. I’ll have to listen through a few more times before I can give a definitive answer there. It might be a toss-up.

Now, about the congregational singing aspect of these songs. Noelridge is a small church. Our worship team is small, we don’t have a lot of instruments, we’re not a group full of pros. Don’t get me wrong, we have some good people, with real musical talent, but we’re never gonna sound like Caedmon’s or Casting Crowns or Third Day or the David Crowder Band. It just ain’t gonna happen. As a result, for songs to be effective for congregational singing, they need to be fairly simple and repetitive musically, and not too rhythmically complex. Lots of syncopation or ad-lib material will blow us out of the water.

Given those constraints, here’s my evaluation of the usability of the songs on the album for congregational singing.

Great And Mighty - Good stuff, but really too much of a solo-type song for congregational singing. Too syncopated.

Draw Me Nearer - This one I might use here sometime soon. This is a strong tune, a very nice update to the old hymn.

Sing His Love - It’s an OK song, pretty simple lyrically, maybe too simple. Definitely too syncopated and rhythmic for us to be able to manage. I guess I’m not a big fan of this song. I just don’t like it that much.

Rest Upon Us - Here we get Danielle for a song. This is a pretty song, but the verses are far too ad-lib to be workable for congregational singing.

The Story - Here we get our first taste of Andy O. I really like this song. If it doesn’t get some serious radio play time then there’s something wrong with the folks that write the playlists. But this is really a radio song, not a congregational Sunday morning song.

The Fountain - Back to Cliff for this one. A nice song, but again, too syncopated and complicated for us to be able to manage it congregationally.

Be Merciful To Me - Danielle this time. This one has potential as a congregational number. It’s simple, fairly repetitive, and it has a good message. I’ll have to give it a shot.

I Surrender All - Cliff again. This is a re-working of the classic hymn. I really like the harmonic progression in the verses, though the melody line may be so close to the original as to be a bit confusing. The chorus is pretty good, though it goes pretty high, which would make it hard for a congregation to sing. This would be on my maybe list…

We Give Thanks - Andy O again. I like this song, I might try to sing along with it if I hear it on the radio. But I don’t think it’s singable for a congregation.

Fellowship - This one I really like. Good lyrics, and I think the song is singable. I will have to give this one a try.

Mercy of my God - I really like the message in this one, I fear that it’s gonna be too tough for my congregation. I might have to try, though, since I like the message so much.

So that’s my roundup of the album. One final note, the CD shipped with just a simple liner giving the song listing. It would’ve been nice to know who wrote the lyrics and music for each song. Not that it affects my opinions on the songs any, but as a fan I’m curious to know whose hand is in all this stuff. I guess I’ll have to wait and buy the official version in March.

it's Monday...

…and I haven’t posted since last Wednesday, which means I’m a real slacker. I fall into this basic pattern of blogging where I show up on Monday, realize I’m a slacker, then because I have nothing more thoughtful to post, post a weekend update. Yawn. But since I’ve already fooled you into reading this far, here was my weekend:

Friday night Becky and I went and saw King Kong at the cheap theater. It was worth seeing on the big screen. It was pretty over-the-top; Peter Jackson would get you squirming, and then when you thought it should be about done, he’d make you squirm for another 10 seconds. The plot/story was OK, but pretty basic. The one part I really liked was the way the shots at the top of the Empire State Building were done; they had me fearing the heights even though I was safe in my seat. Well done that.

Saturday morning I headed over to Mount Vernon to accompany a young man from church who was trying out for a voice scholarship at Cornell College. It was fun to be on a college campus again, and even more fun to be on one that had good music facilities. If I were on campuses too often, I could definitely get bit by the college bug again and think about studying up enough that I could go back and teach. Sounds fun, but I think it’s unlikely.

Played a church league basketball game on Saturday and then headed home. Took Becky and Laura out for dinner and did a little shopping. Oh, and Becky’s mom headed home Saturday morning. It was great to have her visit, she was a big help to Becky, and she and Laura had soooo much fun.

Sunday led worship as usual at both services. We were without practice this week, which left us a little bit rough, but it turned out OK. That was about it for Sunday. Stayed home, just a lazy afternoon.

Now we’re to Monday and another week. It’s not too exciting so far. If it gets exciting, I’ll be sure to post about it.

it's snowing!

And it’s about time. We haven’t had any snow since December 16th… that’s a full two months. But this morning it started about 6 AM, we even had some thunder and lightning! Becky measured 2 inches of snow by 8:30, and there’s more to come. Woohoo! A chance to use the new snowblower, and it’ll look like winter again! I just wasn’t ready for spring yet in February.

Now if Mr. Murphy has anything to say, Becky will go into labor this afternoon and we’ll have to skate our way down to the hospital through all the snow and ice… or maybe the kiddo can just wait another week or so. (Her due date is March 1, which is less than two weeks away…)

Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century

Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century

This is a must-read article by Michael Crichton. His basic premise: we can make statistics say about anything, and so the trend is that the media and other organizations will try to build a big fear of a crisis. In reality, the environmental cycles are fairly normal. His conclusion:

Is this really the end of the world? Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods?

No, we simply live on an active planet. Earthquakes are continuous, a million and a half of them every year, or three every minute. A Richter 5 quake every six hours, a major quake every 3 weeks. A quake as destructive as the one in Pakistan every 8 months. It’s nothing new, it’s right on schedule.

At any moment there are 1,500 electrical storms on the planet. A tornado touches down every six hours. We have ninety hurricanes a year, or one every four days. Again, right on schedule. Violent, disruptive, chaotic activity is a constant feature of our globe.

Is this the end of the world? No: this is the world.

It’s time we knew it.