No Fun

What does it take to get a snow day at UK? Does anyone know if there are certain requirements that must be met before class is cancelled? Let me tell you, it's no fun walking to class in the snow- the ground is covered with about an inch of snow, the sidewalks are covered with about an inch of pure slush, and it's still coming down like crazy. And although it's only 10 o clock, there is a large gathering of sledders at a nice hill on campus- does no one have class? And even if they were going to skip class, why would they go out so early... sleep in, people!
Ok, rant over. It's not really that bad out there in all honesty. It feels warmer today than its felt all week and the snow is actually a nice change from the dry, biting cold.
And, if anyone is interested I just posted my top five JMB songs on the JMB blog. Go check it out.

Sleeping-in is the way to go

Since my 9-10:50 am Psychology lab was cancelled today, I don't have class until 11! The sleep was quite nice. And in other news, I went to the audiologist in Louisville last night with my dad and we tried out our new custom molds for our in-ear monitors. They fit perfectly and I really can't wait to try them out in the JMB setting. They sounded great plugged up to my iPod but I haven't gotten a chance to hear any live music in them yet. Hopefully within the next month or so, JMB will be practicing out at Cedarmore and leaving all of the equipment set up (for the live DVD) which will make it much easier to get a good monitor mix set. Anyway, I'm off to class now. Have a great day and remember, whether you think you can or you can't, you're right.

Finally...

It took me many hours, but I finally finished my bass pod editing. I'll spare you the boring details (because no one really wants to read those anyway) and I'll just say that it was some very tedious work. However, I did enjoyed it because I rarely get the chance to play bass if it isn't Sunday or a JMB concert. I went through and set all of the levels so they match up, edited about half of the settings for my Rickenbacker, and went through and renamed everything so that I understand it better. I'll be ready to try out some different sounds at the next JMB concert or maybe in church on Sunday- depending on which songs we are playing. I'm about to leave shortly to pick up Mary Beth in E-Town and before that I need to get some food... so I'm going to cut this a little short, post a new video, and head out. I'll see you all later.

Bass Pod

I sat down for about an hour tonight and did something that I've been meaning to do for quite some time- I made a nice chart of all of the factory bass pod settings. I went through all 48 presets in my bass pod and made a chart with columns for the modeled amp, cab, mic, and effects. This will be a great help in my quest for the right tone for each song. I'll be able to look at all of my choices for sounds right in front of me whenever I'm changing settings instead of going through hours of endless scrolling. Tomorrow I am going to wake up early and hook my bass pod up through my computer recording program and regulate the volumes on all of my presets (or at least the useful ones). I've been having a problem in switching sounds during our shows since the volume differences are so noticeable- at times I have almost dropped completely out of the mix from one song to the next. It's been quite frustrating. I'll let you know how it all goes tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm also going to pick up Mary Beth who's been spending the last few days at home doing some cleaning and shopping with her sister. Yessir, tomorrow is going to be a good day- bass pod and Mary Beth... could I ask for anything more?

Going Home

I just finished my last final a couple hours ago and now I'm finishing up some last minute packing before I head back to the big city of Frankfort. Well, actully, I'm going to go get a mold made of my ears, and then probably do some Christmas shopping, and then go back to Frankfort. I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing, and peaceful break. I was planning on working at my old job, you know, Kroger, but I've decided that a month of no-work will be nice and give me a chance to catch up on some reading and spending time with family and friends. It should be a nice day for loading and unloading all of my stuff due to the unseasonably warm weather we've been having these past couple days. The mornings have been a little chilly, but once the sun comes out it's nice and warm.
Oh, the JMB DVD planning is still in full force and if anyone has any suggestions, we'd love to hear them. You can head over to our message board or you can post comments on this blog. Josh just started a new thread yesterday about band member interviews. If you guys have any questions and you've been dying for us to shed a little light on the truth and set the record straight, tell us! We really want this DVD to, first off, bring glory to our Creator and, secondly, be an enjoyable experience for all parties involved. We always (well, usually) have fun whenever we play and we really want the fans to have just as much fun whenever they come to the show or watch it on their own tv. Let us know what you think.

Frustrations and the DVD

I'm a little frustrated right now at blogger because of this format change. They are in the process of switching all of the blogs to a new format that will make publishing posts and editing your blog much easier. However, I suppose they're still getting all of the bugs worked out and I am currently unable to make the switch. I went through all of the steps and set up this new account through google but whenever I go to my dashboard (list of my blogs) my blog doesn't show up. They said once I made the switch, I would be unable to log in the way I usually do and would have to go through the new google account everytime. But, as you can see, I am still very capable of logging in and I can still post through the old format. I hope they get this fixed soon- I was getting excited about the easiness of new blogger beta.
JMB had a meeting last night at Johnny Carinos (thanks for dinner, Cedarmore) to talk about our plans to produce our first live dvd. It will be filmed at Cedarmore on March 31 (as of this moment) and I expect all of you to come. It's going to be a lot of work trying to put everything together and solidifying a set list (which we've never really done before) but I'm really excited about this project. We're hoping that all of our churches will make a good showing (Master's, Buck Run... are you writing this on your calendar? BRING YOUTH GROUPS!) and we're also hoping that the different churches we've played at in this area will come to the show. I'll keep you all posted as more develops.

Worship

This morning I met with Marc (youth minister) and Alex (pastor) of Master's Church- where you can find me Wednesday nights- and talked about some different possibilities for the future about the music ministry there and the Wednesday night youth services. I was planning on driving back to Frankfort after that to get my tire replaced (I ran over a nail the other day and I'm on my spare at the moment) but I ended up just going down the road to the nearest S&S. They kept my tire and said it may be fixable but they aren't sure until they can see how deep the nail goes. (I'll have to check back on Monday.) So, not having to travel to Frankfort really opened up my schedule today and has allowed me to spend more time in prayer, especially in the area of my own personal worship.
God has really been convicting me these past few days of focusing so much on the music and forgetting why I play and sing in the first place. He's showing me that my singing and playing isn't worship at all if it's only an end in itself. If His glory isn't the ultimate goal of my music than it's all in vain. It's become so easy for me to get up on the stage and concentrate so much on sounding good, playing the right chords, and singing the right words (in the right order) and completely forget about the God to whom I'm singing. I can't even count the times that we've finished a concert or a worship service and I've messed up some notes or words and that is the only thing I remember about the night. I was so out of tune with the Holy Spirit working that I completely missed everything important that happened. I'm sure that all worship leaders have gone through this problem and I'm sure this isn't the last time this will ever happen- it will be constant battle that I fight for the rest of my life to forget about everything and focus on God. I pray for your support as I repent.