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Adobe Community Summit 2008

One of the highlights of my year is getting to hang out with a group of Adobe community leaders from around the world in San Jose, CA at the Adobe HQ. It's a fun week of hearing strategy from Adobe, training, and catching up with some great people. The group is about 60% developers and 40% designers from more than 16 countries. The best part is getting exposed to what people are doing creatively and a roadmap for the future from Adobe. It's always a lot of fun and a time of creative renewal.

Random stuff & The Green Room

This spring has been a blur so far. I dont' know that I've ever been busier. I think it's a combination of my classwork, expanding the college ministry, and general life insanity. Most people keep up with what I'm doing on twitter, but I'm going to try shorter, more frequent blog postings as well (how many times have I said that now?).

We had some of the best worship at Schweitzer we've ever done on Easter weekend. There was an outstanding drama, a huge tomb built for people to walk through, and great music. Should have posted pictures and some video from the flip cam, but I never got around to it.

After Easter I got to go with a group of 15 students from our college ministry to Port Arthur, TX. During that week the group leveled and refloored a house and reframed the back of a house with a new door and a covered back porch. It was a great week.

Last weekend we were given the check from the college ministry grant we were awarded. We also had our second worship on the Missouri State campus. We're opening the Green Room as a second site ministry in the fall - worship every Sunday night at 9pm directed at college students and young adults. Our goal as a college ministry is to plant an arm of the church that genuinely builds relationships with students on their turf. It's culturally relevant (secular music, movies, tv, etc), media intensive, there are lights that change colors (ooooh), and so far it's been a lot of fun.

Sunday night I set up a camera in the back of the room to capture the action. I like the way this song came out - there are a few glitches, but overall a great experience. We're doing monthly services this spring on campus, hopefully outdoor services over the summer, then every weekend starting August 24. Here's a video from last Sunday:

 

Mardi Gras in Columbia

I had to come to Columbia for the pitch related to our college ministry grant proposal. I think the presentation went pretty well - it was very brief though. I've got to say I think it's a bit ridiculous to drive six hours round trip for a 10 minute presentation followed by five minutes of questions. Thankfully I was able to schedule some other work doing some tech training and a few other meetings. I'm just wrapping up the last of my business in town and headed back to Springfield for Ash Wednesday services (including our first stab at architectural projection).

I was looking for something to do for Mardi Gras but I was in Columbia by myself which doesn't lend itself to going out. That said, I didn't want to spend the night in my hotel room. One of the people I met with yesterday suggested that I go to Village Wine and Cheese for dinner, they had a special Mardi Gras menu. VWC has been a great Columbia establishment for years. They used to mainly focus on selling high-end cheese and wine (think Brown Derby IWC for you Springfieldians). About a year ago they pulled out the cheese case, put in a bar, and began serving dinner. They always used to have outstanding brunch, sandwiches, and other food that would go with being a purveyor of cheese/meats. Now as a dinner establishment they have great choices with a rotating menu.

The entire menu looked great, but I opted to have the crab stuffed trout. The trout was perfectly cooked and lightly brushed with a spicy butter. It was served on a garlic pilaf that had both white and wild rice and sauteed vegetables. The crab stuffing was a perfect compliment to the spice of the dish. The sweetness of the crab and carmelized onions was delicious. Starting with a salad and closing with a cup of coffee made for a wonderful cajun themed meal. 

Long Weekend

It's been a long weekend. I really wish our staff meetings weren't on Monday mornings. I suppose that it's both good and bad - we get the meeting done early in the week, but we have to be here on Mondays. We took a little getaway the first part of the weekend then came back for the normal Sunday morning dance at Schweitzer and then a super bowl party for the college students at our house made for a long day.

This weekend Sarah and I went to Columbia on Friday night to hang out with her family and go to the Mizzou/K-State game. It was a great weekend of basketball and food favorites from our college days. Friday night we ate a late dinner at Flat Branch. Saturday morning we ate breakfast at Ernie's Cafe & Steakhouse. It's a Columbia establishment having been around since the 1930s. Ernie's is a bit of a hole in the wall though and if you come with less than three people you should expect to be seated with others. We had six in our group and ended up at a table that should seat four - cozy. The MU/KState basketball game was outstanding. Mizzou was down most of the game, but pulled it out in the end handing KState their first Big 12 defeat. There was much screaming and jumping. After the game we went to Shakespeare's Pizza and devoured a Masterpiece. While we were there we ran into several other Cowherds.

Overall a great weekend. Not very healthy, but a lot of fun with family and friends. I've got to be sure to hit the gym this week.

Knitting Hobo

Knitting Hobo
Originally uploaded by kerner.

Apparently I'm a knitting hobo. Sarah made me a new scarf (in about two days) and wanted to take a picture this morning. I'm sure this is going to show up on her blog soon too. I just thought it was funny because I'm wearing a sweater she made, a hat because it was only 4° outside (and you have to take knitting pictures in natural light for some crazy reason - even in the freezing cold), and the new scarf. None of it really matches, but it's warm. I really didn't mind not having a coat.

 

 

 

2008 Goals: Learn Guitar

This is probably the least likely of the 2008 goals to actually happen. I've had a guitar for several years, I know about 10 chords, and am completely incapable of switching between them with any semblance of musical ability. I know that the key to solving this problem is practicing. I'm not such a fan of practice though (which is why this goal probably won't be achieved). I'm currently looking for resources online, books, DVDs, software, etc. to make the guitar learning less self-directed.

I took mandolin lessons several years ago and got decent enough that playing in public wasn't a humiliating experience, but like all things if you don't do it you lose it. I can still pick up the mandolin and play, but can't do anything fancy. My hope is that the guitar will be a much more useful instrument to actually play. Not sure why I think that - I have no desire to play in a band, or lead worship, or have sing-a-longs at home, but I still think I'll play the guitar more than I played the mandolin. Am I crazy?

I know a several of the readers of this blog are guitar players. What suggestions would you have? Should I suck it up and actually take lessons or are there any good materials that will help me teach myself?

2008 Goals: Weight Loss & Fitness

Getting in shape is the cliche goal for a lot of people each year. I've never had this as a New Year's goal before, so I'm hoping that I'll actually be able to follow through with it. I don't have a huge amount of weight to lose, but I'd like to be squarely in the healthy range for my height. I'm hoping to lose 25-30 pounds over the next six months or so.  I probably should have joined the Church IT Biggest Loser competition, but I was a slacker. I've got a plan that I think will work and it's fairly simple.

1. No more fast food. I probably end up eating fast food at least twice a week. Usually this is just a matter of convenience, but it's not really necessary. My goal is to either go home (not too likely) or eat at the church for lunch rather than going out. I'll probably still have a lunch out each week, but right now I'm eating out two/three times a week. I'm going to put a stash of Boca products in the freezer so that if I'm in a rush and can't pack lunch I have something quick to eat without a drive-through.

2. Exercise. I did really well biking, running, and swimming while I was training for the triathlon last fall. I need to get back into that habit. I'm going to take a spin class and try to get to the gym at least three other times a week. I'm hoping to add some strength training to the cardio as well.

3. Controlling the snacking. I'm a snacker and nothing is going to change that. What will change is what I eat when I snack. That means minimizing junk food and replacing it with healthier choices - fruit, veggies, popcorn, etc.

2008 Goals: Creative Cooking

Another of my goals for 2008 is to cook more creatively. Officially the grocery shopping and cooking is all my job, but a lot of times Sarah ends up doing things. I haven't felt very culinarily inspired in the frenzy of life this past few months. My goal is that at least once a week I'll cook something creative. My theory is that I'll try to cook more ethnic food. It lends itself to being a bit less mundane. The food blogging would get pretty boring with the couple of dozen things we've been eating on a regular basis.

Part of the lack of food creativity is that I've been very satisfied creatively at work and felt realitively tapped by the time I'd get home of an evening.  I figure if I actually take time to plan a creative meal during my down time I should be able to cook at least one a week. Planning to have one adventurous meal a week may result in more pizza being ordered (a common result when I first started experimenting with food), but my guess is that since I'm a much more proficient cook than I was 10 years ago I should be able to salvage most things.

2008 Goals: More Blogging

It's the start of another year and I figured I'd put together a list of goals for the year. Some of them will hopefully last all year, some of them are shorter term goals. I usually don't make resolutions to start the new year, but this year I felt like the goals were a good idea.

My first goal for the next year is to blog more regularly. Several of the other goals are related to this one in that they'll hopefully result in blog posts. I've decided that keeping to a theme for the blog is too difficult at the moment. That said, most of the previous themes for the blog will still be around they'll pop up as they fit what's going on in my life. I'll be writing about what I'm reading, minsitry ideas, food/restaurants, school, and life in general. My blogging goal is to stop worrying about the theme or focus of the blog and just write more frequently.

Rock Band

We've been playing Rock Band a lot at the church and I decided that I had to have a copy at home. I already had two guitars for Guitar Hero, so it made it pretty affordable to just buy the game. You can sing with an Xbox Live headset, so we're only lacking the drum set.

We played a lot while my family was here for Christmas and we took turns playing all the instruments/singing. Our band is the 100% Natural Family Band Solution. I really struggled with our band quote, we settled on "I've made a huge mistake" but "There's no I in Teamosil" was a close second.

Sarah is thoroughly hooked on the game, which is funny because she's not a video game person. Last night we had to start a second band with our friend's Matt & Meredith - Rock Dachshund. We borrowed the drum set so we could all four play. 

This is probably the most fun video game for a group of people I've ever played. It's got great music, it's fun for people that don't like video games, and it's funny to watch your friends try to sing Sabotage, Enter Sandman, etc.