Each month or so I put together the new schedule for our musicians and singers. I find out people’s availability, pick the worship sets and feature music and then send it out for everyone so that they know when they’re playing.
I like keeping groups of musicians together in specific bands to create continuity (for a season) and, because all of our musicians are incredibly talented I want to avoid calling these bands, “Band 1, 2 or 3″ or “Band A, B or C.” There’s no JV here, we’ve got a lot of great players and I don’t want there to be a spirit of competitiveness in our group.
So as a substitute for the generic numbers or letters, I like to give the bands names. Last time around I named them after Lucky Charms Marshmallows and now I’m looking for new names. No one really knows the names of the individual bands and most people would just say the Clovis Hills Band and that’s totally fine; this is pretty much for my amussment and for the amussment of the band members.
It’s great! You can put in your own key words and it will generate something using those or just let it go randomly and be amazed. So far, I’m narrowing it down between “Noise Spine,” “Refried Disco,” “Flushed of the Lumpy,” and “Flabby Mystery and the Loving Worship.”
Oh the internet! I tell you, if this world wide web thing catches on, it’s gonna be huge!
Over the last several months, I have become enthralled with all things Chuck Norris, and judging from this email I got from one of the guys in the band, it might have caught on.
The Chuck Norris “facts” are nothing new, they’ve been going around the internet for a long time. Sayings like, “There’s no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard, only another fist!” and “Chuck Norris’ tears can cure cancer, which is too bad, because Chuck Norris has never cried…ever!” are good for a laugh, but now it’s getting serious.
This is what Dave wrote to me:
“PS – I don’t mean to alarm you but I read this article the other day about Chuck Norris and how he was vacationing in Montana back in August and well, you know what happened when he vacationed in The Virgin Islands, or as they’re now called, “The Islands.” So if that baby your wife is carrying kicks their way out of the womb you will know what happened.”
Could it be? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Do you think a sonogram will show a red beard?
I watched the Olympics, and like you I was blown away by Michael Phelps. However, the entire time, I kept thinking to myself, this guy looks familiar, and now I know why. It’s Screetch from “Saved By the Bell!”
We got a new copy machine here in the office. Apparently it’s a big deal and really complicated, because it required special training for the entire staff. We’ve been having a lot of fun oohing and ahhing over this thing and aside from a few questions asked multiple times, I think we’ve got it.
Not sure why this is taking an hour and a half, if it’s this simple, but I’ll probably be the one asking questions in a week. I probably shouldn’t be blogging while the training is going on, but everyone’s so enthralled, I’m not sure they’ve noticed.
Today in Washington D.C. the congress adjourned for their regularly scheduled 5 week recess. When the Democrats adjourned without voting on high gas prices, the Republicans protested by refusing to leave the house floor.
At the risk of getting all political on you and telling you my take on this whole thing (I think it’s awesome), I’ll just highlight one of the coolest parts of this whole story that may just make you want to sign up for a twitter account (totally free by the way).
After adjourning, all of the lights went dim, the microphones were turned off and so were the TV cameras which capture every minute of the goings on of Congress while they are in session. With the blackout, there was no way for Republicans to get the word out about their protest so Peter Hoekstra, a senior republican member of the House Intelligence Committee used Twitter to update the media and others about what was going on.
That’s right, a protest that is almost entirely word of mouth was lead by Twitter. Awesome. Maybe cooler is that the Congressmen and women who remained invited tourists to come down onto the House floor and sit in Democratic congressmen’s chairs (totally not allowed while congress is in session).
There are a lot of reasons for this protest, again, which I’m not going to get into, you can read the article. I just think it’s pretty awesome that politicians who I normally think are pretty ok with not getting stuff done would actually protest. And to think that one of the primary ways of letting the world know about it happened via twitter. Awesome!
My name is Paul Haugen and I am the Music Director at Clovis Hills Community Church. This is me; no pretense, no show, just who I am, quirks and all. This is the Open Door.