Blog.

It’s been awhile since my last update, and I apologize, I’ve been pretty busy.

I took a 5 year break (thanks to Texas A&M College of Engineering) from anything remotely musical other than the A Capella quartet I traveled with and I recently realized how much I have missed having a musical outlet. If you know me (as most of you should, if you’re reading my blog) you know I’m passionate about music. From an early age, I have always had some kind of outlet for my music. I took piano lessons from age 5 till my teacher moved around age 12. It was around that time that I started drums/percussion in school, which continued through my junior year at ACU. (Including 1 year of being a music major) I picked up Guitar in 8th grade and while I have never regularly played guitar in a band, I would sometimes lead a small group praise night, or have jam sessions with a couple friends. From the time I was little, to the time I transfered to Texas A&M, there was always a reason to practice and strive to make myself better musically, whether it was a piano recital, a concert, or a percussion ensemble gig.  I didn’t realize at the time how much I had missed my music during my time at A&M until recently.

Heather and I have been attending a local church that we have decided to call home. Typical to my nature, I can’t call a church home and just sit in a ‘pew’ every Sunday. Therefore, I volunteered to help out with the worship band for Pipeline, the 18-30′s ministry of the church. They graciously invited me in and I started practicing / playing with this group as they started up this fall. In addition to Pipeline, I answered a note in the church bulletin asking for technical volunteers. I have considerable experience with audio/video/lighting and I thought I might be of some help. Over the next week, I had several conversations with the technical director (Glenn), who asked me to sit in on one of the main worship band’s rehearsals to see how they ran the technical side of the “show.” Through Glenn, I met the worship director, (Kay, who happens to be the main pastor’s wife) and through some rich conversation she finds out that I sing, and that I’m a percussionist. They were needing someone to play Auxiliary Percussion, and Kay asked me to come back the next week and “audition.” So I did. Funny how God works. I ended up auditioning every instrument I play except guitar, which was the one instrument I would have felt the most comfortable on. Long story short, the next week I was on stage singing! (Mostly harmony, some lead)

I have been singing/playing with them weekly since then, and I guess I am now one of “the band.” I went from no musical outlet to two bands and teaching guitar lessons. (1 student from Pipeline) The biggest challenge has been learning a ton of new music, which I’m still doing, and catching up on my instrumental skills. I have been asked to fill in for our pianist on Oct. 21, which is pretty nerve racking, but I’m excited about the challenge. I have a pretty large set of shoes to fill that day, as Cyndi is pretty talented.

In all of this, I have recently been thinking about past struggles with pride, and I pray constantly that I can be completely transparent and truly lead people to worship Christ. In this, I thank God for the musical talent He gave me, and I feel the responsibility to develop it and use it for His glory. If I am ever doing this for any reason other than that, I pray God removes me from the position he has put me in.

In other news, we (Me, Heather, and a couple friends) traveled 10-20 miles West of where we live to visit a couple winery’s a few weeks ago. The weather was beautiful (low 70′s), the wine was decent (it’s Virginia, our expectations weren’t very high), and the company was grand. We didn’t take many pictures, but we had a great time. The second winery (not pictured) was hosting a festival. It turns out that the owners were from Louisiana, which explained the Mardi Gras beads and the Zydeco band, complete with accordion.

Last weekend we adventured up to Baltimore to the inner harbor to visit the aquarium. We ate at a little Italian place for lunch, watched a steel band (Caribbean style) play for a little while, but spent most of our time gazing at sharks, turtles, frogs, dolphins, and a couple of Kookaburra’s (which are one of the loudest, most obnoxious birds that I’ve ever encountered) in the Australian exhibit. The lighting wasn’t the best for pictures, but we managed to get a few. We had a great time, but our favorite aquarium is still the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. If you like fish and sea-life but can’t afford to take a trip to Belize or Austrailia to see it live, the Shedd is the next best thing.

Gallery here.

Last weekend, Heather and I joined the Pipeline group from our church (18-30 ministry) and headed down to Virginia beach. Overall we had a great time, but the traffic down there and back was a nightmare. I put about 530 miles on my truck the whole weekend, and was on the road for approximately 15hrs total. Not fun!

We hung out, grilled, swam, played games on the beach, etc. The most interesting story that came out of the weekend happened around 5:30am sat morning. I woke up to a strange sound outside my tent, so I grabbed my flashlight and looked around. About 10-15ft from the tent is a red fox chewing on my right shoe! He was obviously used to raiding campsites, as I had to get out of the tent, make a decent amount of noise, and run at him to scare him off. He still stayed in the area, but I put my shoes in a tree and went back to sleep. Thankfully, he was doing most of his chewing on the rubber sole and toe of my shoe, so there’s hardly any damage.

Lots of fun, but I’ll think twice about driving down south during waking hours again…

Pics here.

Last weekend, Lisa Wischkaemper, Heather and I went downtown to attempt a little night photography of a few of the monuments. We weren’t very efficient with our time and spent all our time at the WWII memorial, which is very well done. When we arrived, we met this little fellow (almost 90 years old) that was handing out information on how to register veterans for the memorial and spoke with him for awhile. We heard a few stories of his time in the war, saw a picture of the ship he was deployed on, and discovered he was an inventor. Being the curious guy I am, I asked what he had invented and he replied: “Ever heard of the DC Brushless Motor?” I don’t know the complete history behind the development of the Brushless DC motor, but I did find the patent he was referring to, which was granted in 1965. He also said he had two patents in the works; One was a method to safely dispose of radioactive waste, the other was a method to efficiently desalinate salt water. He told me with a smile that it wouldn’t be long before we were irrigating deserts.

This is Mr. Wesley O. Niccolls, WWII vet, inventor, US Patent 3210631:

Rest of Gallery here.

This is the Fabled SR-71 Blackbird, a plane that set an absolute speed record of 2,242 mph. (Mach 3.2+) This particular plane was the last operational SR-71 and sits in the new National Air & Space Museum that is close to my house. It was retired in 1990 and was flown from Palmdale California to Sterling Virginia (basically DC) in 68 minutes and 17 seconds, with an average speed of 2,124 mph.