Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Apple Mac
What laptop does Steve Ballmer use for his presentations? Right…, originally uploaded by Paint.It.Black.
Gotta love this one. Thanks to Travis for sending it to me ….
Fred
Update from Willow Arts Chicago #2
Hey Everybody,
So we’ve just completed Day 2 of Arise, the Willow Creek Arts Conference. Overall, it’s been a blast. As I mentioned yesterday, Chris has been keeping a good stream of blog posts and pictures from the event, so rather than rehashing all the details, just check out his blog.
Today was a bit different, as we had breakout sessions all day … so our team was separated.
My first session was called “Putting Music Technology to Work In Your Church”, taught by Steve Young. I walked away extremely disappointed in this session, mostly because it was like Pre-K basic. The first hour was spent talking about the most basic of basic stuff … different types of keyboards, guitar modules, and electronic drums. I’d hoped to jump into some serious stuff about virtual synths, loops, click tracks, Ableton Live, etc … we barely scratched that stuff in the last 10 minutes of the class. It was a bummer.
The other 3 classes that I took were called “Conversations” - these were very small-group breakouts that you could choose as an alternative to the bigger classes. Each “conversations” was led by someone and there would be 5-8 people at the table, just all having a “conversation” about the topic.
“Developing Your Worship Leading” by Joe Horness (previously WC’s Worship Director for 25 years). This was a great class and we tackled some issues head-on that we’re confronting right now at SSCC.
“Building Health Relationships with your Musicians, Singers, and Tech Team” was also a great experience. We talked about ways to keep unity across your music, vocal, band, and tech team - how to empower volunteers, earn and build respect, etc. Some great insights, and well worth the time.
“The Church as Music Publisher and Record Producer” - this was taught my a long-time friend, Susan Fontaine Godwin of ChurchCA.com, and was very enjoyable. As an artist, I’m constantly trying to learn what other churches are doing to empower their songwriters, artists, and other forms or art, while protecting them (and the church) from future copyright, ownership, and liability issues.
Towards the end of Session 3 I got a direct message via Twitter from Lee McDerment, the Worship Leader at NewSpring in Anderson, SC (with Perry Noble and Tony Morgan) … “yo dawg, you in the building, I’m in the coffee shop until 3:15″. Lee and I have spoken on the phone (re: recording in church, etc) and via email several times, but it was my first chance to just hang out w/ the guy. Kudos .. he’s super cool, super humble, and 100% genuine. Glad to make that relationship … and after hearing his rock-out album, I had no clue he studied classical piano like I did!
After the final session, I headed back to the hotel where the Vendor’s Expo is happening - I made a b-line straight for the Sensaphonics booth where they had one of their audiologists on hand doing full in-ear impressions. I got full impressions made of both ears, and in 4-5 weeks I’ll some groovey silicone custom-fit sleeves for my Shure E5 IEMs. I’d had substantial surgery done in my left ear years ago, and the audiologist noticed right away, which was funny - she was like “what happened in there!”.
Chris, Travis, and Bo were in the Expo when I arrived so Chris (always with cam in hand) captured some video of that moment which I’ll post soon. In the meantime, here’s a pic he shot yesterday while we were at lunch …
Would you say we’ve drunk the Steve Jobs Kool-Aid?
More later!
Fred
What laptop does Steve Ballmer use for his presentations? Right…, originally uploaded by Paint.It.Black.
O Happy Day - She’s Here
After nearly 8+ years of not upgrading in my studio … she’s here.
Monday Night Ramblings
Hey Everyone -
It’s Monday evening … bookkeeping night for my biz. Joy and I have this routine for Mondays … I get home from church, we do dinner pretty early, and she takes off to do the week’s grocery shopping (or at least, most of it) while I get the kitchen cleaned and get the kids to bed. Then, I start on my books and before you know it, it’s time to crash.
It’s been a long, busy day so I just kinda felt like “blogging” .. just go clear my head before I start into this bookkeeping session.
1. Tonight, I helped JM with his homework. 1st Graders never had homework in my day. JM has it every night. He has a folder full of work to makeup from missing school for our vacation. But, it was the first time we’d ever sat down and done “real homework” together. It was a special moment for me.
2. Tonight is probably the last Monday night that I have to do my QuickBooks on my laptop … ’cause I ordered a brand spankin’ new Mac Pro today … (yes, Dave … we paid cash!). For an internet/computer guru, it’s horrific how old my studio computer is. I think it’s nearly 8 years old. I’m upgrading from my old Power Mac G4 Dual 1Ghz MDD to a new Mac Pro 4-core with 2 Dual-Core 2.66 Intel Xeons, 3GB of Ram … finally, I hope to not have “you are running out of CPU horsepower - please disable some plugins” messages when multi-tracking in ProTools. Robert - I ordered it from Gary @ MacMall.Com … and he thanked me for sending you to him, and apologizes that your new Mac still hasn’t shipped, and that I’ll get mine in 3 days.
3. “Restore My Heart” is on IndieHeaven.Com’s FanFaves charts. Please show your support and vote for it daily. I opted to not announce it when I added it last week, and it’s climbed into the 60’s all by itself. Praise God.
4. Joy doesn’t feel good … she’s all stopped up, didn’t sleep well, and sounds rough. Pray for her.
5. We are doing “For the Love of Money” by O’Jays for the walk-in song the next two Sundays during our “Money Matters” message. I think I’ll ditch the verses about women selling their bodies and “laying down, laying down” for money. True, but maybe not church lyrics … but the rest of the lyrics are pretty good - even for church.
6. I’ve got a bunch of Worship Leader stuff I want to blog about, but can’t seem to find the time. But on the radar is a new “Worship Leader Pitfalls” post … “what every worship leader does NOT want to hear” … and a video walk through of PlanningCenterOnline.
7. It’s been a few weeks since I last visited our church’s construction site - a 74,000 ft2 facility that is going to be unlike ANYTHING in this region. God has really entrusted a lot to us at SSCC - and it intimidates me a bit, and I know I have to be faithful and PRAY like never before.
8. Joy and I host our first small/home group meeting next Sunday night … we’re excited about the couples who are joining us, and will be kicking off with Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.
9. speaking of Dave Ramsey …. I’ve been meaning to blog this separately .. .and maybe I still will .. but I just can’t stand it any longer … after many years of living in debt, and after kicking off Jan 1, 2006 with a passionate, aggressive strategy to “work the plan” according to Dave Ramsey, $55,000 in corporate and personal debt later …
10. with the exception of our home mortgage ….. WE’RE DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man, that felt good!
Time to get to work.
Fred
iPhone versus ZunePhone?
This is TOO GOOD not to pass along … thanks to my friend, Terry Passmore, for putting this one on my radar screen.
Fred