June 29, 2008
Since I haven’t been posting much lately, you might guess that I must have something I really want to share. In this case that’s certainly true. As I think I have mentioned here before, I order a ton of stuff from Amazon, so their suggestion algorithm pretty frequently comes up with decent suggestions of other things I might be interested in. A couple of months ago it suggested a CD by Jason Upton. I had never heard of him before, but it looked like a Christian CD, so I went a read some of the reviews. This review was enough to get me to add the CD to my wishlist:
“Remember the first time you heard Keith Green? You knew you were listening to a minister who used music to get his message across, not an entertainer. That’s the same feeling you’ll get when listening to this CD. This was my introduction to Jason Upton, and I have to say, I was blown away. Almost every song on this CD will stop you in your tracks to listen. I have over 500 CDs, and I can safely say this one is my choice when I need something to help me find God in my day-to-day busy-ness. This is not mainstream radio music, as most of the tracks are well over 5 minutes long, but this is ministry.”
Fast forward a couple of months and it turns out that my mom got me Jason Upton’s “Faith” CD from my wishlist for father’s day. A few days later I pulled it up to listen to at work and pretty much stopped dead in my tracks. Unbelievable. God is at work though the music of Jason Upton. Full stop. It is by far the most amazing worship CD I have ever heard. I don’t know if it just meets me exactly where I am right now or what. I listed to the CD all day long, and all the next day, too. Then I went home and looked on Amazon for anything else by Jason Upton. They had two more CDs: “Great River Road” and “Beautiful People”. Joy’s mom had given me an Amazon gift certificate for father’s day, so I immediately ordered both of the other CDs. They came a couple of days later and I took them to work the very next day to listen to them. They were a couple of years newer than “Faith”, so the musical style was a bit different, but they still had the same amazing power of ministry to me. So that night I went home and scrounged the internet for anything else he might have done, maybe out of print CDs or something else. It turns out he also had eight more CDs that he had released independently (the three CDs I bought on Amazon were all on actual record labels, which is why Amazon had them). I found a place online that had all eight, so I ordered them on the spot. I’m still waiting for those to come in the mail, but in the interim I’ve been listening to the three CDs I have almost constantly.
It isn’t really so much music to sing along to (well some of the songs are, but certainly not all of them). In many ways it’s music to just listen to and let the truth speak over you. It’s music that makes me want to stop whatever I’m doing and just sit and listen. And while the musical style is not the same as Keith Green, Jason’s intensity and passion in his ministry is certainly similar. I just find the music and message extremely powerful and anointed. It makes me long to love and worship God with my whole heart. I’ve never heard music that speaks to me like this before in my life. I believe God is speaking directly to my heart through some of these songs. It’s almost like it was written just for me. So while I can’t claim that this is the perfect music for everyone, I can certainly say that is has touched my heart, and is continuing to do so. After the jump I’ve included some (partial) lyrics from a few of Jason’s songs.
(more…)
June 22, 2008
I’ve just released CoppermineSC version 0.4.6! You can download the new version or visit my CoppermineSC page for complete details about the plugin. You can also view a sample of what CoppermineSC can do. Feel free to post comments and feature requests to this entry.
This version of CoppermineSC should work with Wordpress 2.5.1 and Coppermine 1.4.18, which are the latest versions of WordPress and Coppermine as of the time of this release.
New Features in Version 0.4.6:
This release contains no new functionality. It only fixes a compatibility problem with WordPress 2.5 and newer. If you run into a problem with this release I will work with you to resolve it as my time permits.
June 1, 2008
Click “more” to see a list of all of the interesting web sites I found this month. I keep track of my favorite sites using del.icio.us, a free web site where you can access your favorite links from any computer and share them with friends. You can also see all of my favorite links (not just the ones from this month).
(more…)
May 8, 2008
Quite a few months ago (I’m behind on my blog posting) Joy and I saw the Dan Tyminski Band here in town. Dan Tyminski is best known to most people as the singing voice of George Clooney in the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, where he sings “Man of Constant Sorrow”. He’s also been a member of Union Station with Alison Krauss for many years.
We had front row tickets in the very center, and it was amazing to watch such talented musicians from so close. They played a lot of songs off their forthcoming album (which should be released in June), as well as many of the songs from Dan’s previous solo album, “Carry Me Across the Mountain”. Near the end of the concert they finally played “Think About You Every Day”, which is my very favorite song from Carry Me, and it was terrific, especially since I was beginning to think they weren’t going to play it. It was a great concert and I really enjoyed it (and Joy was very kind to humor me since bluegrass is not her favorite style of music).
May 7, 2008
You know what’s crazy? I’ve now had over half a million spam comments left on my blog. Kind of insane, if you ask me.
May 3, 2008
One of the blogs I read posts a “Timewaster of the Day” flash game almost every day. Most of them don’t seem very interesting, but occasionally they post about one that seems like it would be kind of fun. Recently they posted about a game called “Mass Attack” and I just had to try it out.
You try to balance weights on a scale (I know, it sounds fun, doesn’t it?) and the closer you get to balancing, the better your score. The game starts with weights on one side and you have to add weights to the other side to try to make the scale balance. You make a weight by holding down your mouse button and the weight grows larger until you let go of the button. Playing the game is really simple once you’ve done the first level or two, but getting the correct balance gets pretty tricky in the later levels. On the day I played it, I made the hall of fame with the 30th best score for that day.
Mass Attack
May 1, 2008
Click “more” to see a list of all of the interesting web sites I found this month. I keep track of my favorite sites using del.icio.us, a free web site where you can access your favorite links from any computer and share them with friends. You can also see all of my favorite links (not just the ones from this month).
(more…)
April 1, 2008
Click “more” to see a list of all of the interesting web sites I found this month. I keep track of my favorite sites using del.icio.us, a free web site where you can access your favorite links from any computer and share them with friends. You can also see all of my favorite links (not just the ones from this month).
(more…)
March 31, 2008
Similar to my music shuffle post from a few days ago, this is basically the same thing except instead of using the songs to answer questions, you create the soundtrack for the movie of your life. The same rules/instructions apply:
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each movie scene.
3. Use the song title as the soundtrack for the scene (even if it doesn’t make sense). And no cheating!
Opening Credits
Spiritual (Johnny Cash)
Waking Up
Fear (Sarah McLachlan)
Falling In Love
Josephine (Wallflowers)
Fight Scene
Since I Don’t Have You (The Skyliners)
Breaking Up
You’re Not There (Pierce Pettis)
Getting Back Together
Daybreak Blues (Three Pickers)
Secret Love
Everybody Wake Up (Dave Matthews Band)
Life’s Okay
Something (Harrod And Funck)
Mental Breakdown
Not My Friend (Norah Jones)
Driving
Shall I Tell You What I Think Of You (The King And I)
Flashbacks
Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Evita)
Happy Dance
This Ain’t Tennessee (Garth Brooks)
Regretting
I Give You To His Heart (Alison Krauss)
Long Night Alone
Dancing Queen (Abba)
Final Battle
World Leader Pretend (REM)
Death Scene
The Other Side Of Me (Michael W. Smith)
Ending Credits
Just The Way You Are (Billy Joel)
(at Amazon)