It’s been almost 18 years since the Lord called you home.

It hasn’t been easy and sometimes it feels like there are still as many questions as there were back then, but I know you’re in a much better place, although I guess a little earlier than I would have liked.

I still remember telling you, “Mom, I’m so proud of you,” after you walked across the stage when you graduated from UT and you started crying.  Happy tears, of course.  Unfortunately, you weren’t able to be there for my graduation but you said those same words for me when I got home and we both started crying.

Thank you for all the things you did.  Providing a good Christian home, taking me to Saturday morning bowling, marching band practice (and band in general), and being an encouragement are just some of them.

You’re missed here on earth but I know there’s rejoicing in Heaven.  Happy Mother’s Day.

I get asked this question a lot, whether it’s a special effect during a musical, a multi-track audio recording or a video that I’ve put together, or even something that happens during a concert.  So…  I thought I’d do a series on this topic to show some of the behind-the-scenes magic that goes into them.

If you went to the Quench praise night back in May, you probably saw this on one of the front walls:

Curious to see how was this done?  Read on to find out!

In order to project something using a light, you first need to create what’s called a “gobo”.  Gobo is short for “goes before optics” and is something that’s inserted between the light source and the focusing lenses (hence, “before optics”).  It can be a piece of steel that’s been cut, a piece of glass with the design (with one or more colors) lithographed onto it, or in the case of computer projectors, several small LCD panels or a DLP engine.  Using a projector wouldn’t have been quite as cool, though.  :)

The original Quench logo looked like this:

Creating a full-color glass gobo like this would have cost over $500.  For a big touring production, that’s next to nothing.  For our small-scale production, though, that type of expense wouldn’t be possible.  Instead, I worked with a company to have them cut a steel gobo.  This is significantly less expensive ($69) although the complexity of the image has to be reduced.  We went back and forth a couple of times before coming up with the finished product.  Here’s what it looks like:

How large is it?  It’s really not that big - 26.9mm, or just over an inch in diameter.  For comparison, I’ve placed a quarter next to it:

Because it’s a piece of steel that’s been cut, it’s essentially a stencil and requires small pieces to hold it in place (notice the inside of the Q isn’t free-floating but instead is attached to the outside).

In the next installment, we’ll see how the gobo is placed into the lighting fixture as well as taking a look at the fixture itself and some of its features.

Led music worship at Lighthouse yesterday using the iPad that I won from D&B.  I had been wanting to do that for a while and finally got a chance to do so.  Fail #1: leaving my capo at home; transposing +4 on the fly is not fun.  Fail #2: I didn’t get a chance to do a proper sound check and wasn’t able to hear anything from the monitor that was right in front of me; ended up trying to listen to the bounceback from the mains.  I’m sure everyone still had a good time of music worship and God was still glorified in spite of it.

Had our counselors meeting which went pretty well.  Fail #3: left my big carabiner of keys in Lighthouse after the meeting.  Didn’t realize it wasn’t attached to my backpack until I got home.  Ironically, someone recently commented about the large size along with the number of keys on it, and I replied that it makes it harder to lose.  sigh.  Hopefully someone will be at the church office tomorrow morning.

As you probably know, Austin Chinese Church’s Lighthouse summer retreat (DNA: Designed With a Purpose) was this past weekend.  For me, the retreat was really special for a couple of reasons:

My next door neighbor’s two daughters accepted Christ!!!  :)  :)  As you might expect, there were many tears and much rejoicing!

I stopped to get gas for the Tahoe and was hungry so I went into the store to get something to eat.  I tried these Philly Steak stuffed breadstix a while back and they weren’t bad for $1 each.

So I got two of them.  And looked in the bottom right-hand corner and was really excited!

Until I realized that it wasn’t leeterri.  :-/

My iPad 2 came in last Friday!  I haven’t done anything productive with it.  I’ve been playing Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja.  Actually, it’s mostly Angry Birds.  Soooo freakin’ addicting.

Must.  Stop.  Playing…

I’ve been meaning to blog for a while but haven’t gotten around to it.  I’ve misplaced my 3G modem (I ordered a 4G one last week since I was eligible for an upgrade) so I haven’t been logging on during the evenings (see my FB status about the FedEx package).  But I think what happened tonight is pretty important so I’m now at McD’s using their free wi-fi.  Don’t worry, I bought an ice cream cone.  :)

Tonight I went to Luby’s for dinner -  they had a $4 Lu Ann platter in honor of the 4th.  As I was passing the salad portion of the line, the lady in front of me realized that she had forgotten to get silverware.  She walked behind me and apologized for reaching behind me.  I told her it wasn’t a problem.  She introduced herself as Brianne and we shook hands.  I was wearing a UT hat and shirt so she asked if I went “there”.  I told her that I did and she asked me what I studied.  ”Computer science.”  ”That’s part of the science department, right?”  ”The College of Natural Sciences, yes.”  ”They have a good science department.  And journalism.”  ”Yeah, they do.”

When we got to the cashier, she fumbled around a bit to find money in her purse.

We sat down at different tables.  I was working on some A/V/L stuff for the new sanctuary as I ate.  I also started to feel pretty lame that I didn’t do more while waiting in line, like paying for her meal or something.  So I prayed.  God, I know I haven’t shared my faith recently.  If she’s someone you want me to share with, please make it really obvious ‘cuz I’m pretty dense sometimes.

Nothing happened during dinner.  She finished before I did and left.  By this time I felt like I had wasted an opportunity that had pretty much been handed to me.  Sigh.  :(

As I was walking out to the truck I heard her calling me over from her car.  She asked if I do CAD (Computer-Aided Design) stuff - I guess she must have seen some of the drawings that I had and/or some of the equipment lists and diagrams I was working on.  ”No, it’s just some stuff for our church.  We’re going to be building a new sanctuary next year.”

“Really?  I’ve been looking for a church to go to.  Is it Episcopal or something?”

“No, it’s non-denominational.  Even though ‘Chinese’ is in the church name, everyone is welcome, especially in the English service.”

She said that she recently moved to Austin from Dallas and Houston and is trying to find her way around.  We talked about church for a while and I gave her ACC’s address and phone number and drew a rough map to the church (there’s not a whole lot you can draw about the general area where the church is).

I hope she shows up on Sunday morning.  But even if she doesn’t, I felt like God had redeemed the situation that I probably would have wasted.

I’m trying to complete a challenge from Ultimate Ears.  I have some of their earphones and like them a lot.

One of the challenges is to get 20 Facebook friends to “like” them on Facebook.  If you’ve already liked them, thank you - I’m halfway there.  :)  For those that are interested in helping me out, go to http://www.facebook.com/ultimateears and click on the “like” button.

Shameless and unsolicited plug for UE: I own several of their earphones.  I started out with the super.fi 5 pro five years ago and was completely blown away at how they sounded.  The only thing I didn’t like was how big they were.  I upgraded to the UE 10 Pro (custom monitor which they don’t make anymore) a year later and again was amazed at how much better they were.  I use them for my in-ear monitors at church (these are the clear plastic things you see me walking around with) and also while I’m at the gym working out.  I’ve also given some UE earphones as gifts to friends and from what I can tell, they like them a lot too.  And no, I don’t receive any kickbacks from UE to do so although I wouldn’t mind getting some.  :)

Many bands that you listen to already use Ultimate Ears: David Crowder Band, Hillsong United, Taylor Swift, Anberlin, Usher, Ke$ha, Rascal Flatts and Switchfoot to name a few.  I know 3OH!3 is touring with UE monitors now too.  You can check out a (almost complete) list at http://ultimateears.com/en-us/discover/clientele

This past weekend was really good.

Good Friday service at church - lots more people showed up than expected which is a good thing.  We had to set up more chairs to accommodate all the people.  It was good to see lots of people from all age groups there.  Wildfire, Lighthouse and Cornerstone made it their weekly meeting.  Thanks to AACM for canceling large group and encouraging people to go to a church that evening too.  BTW, Calvin did an awesome job with the new cross.  Had some good hangout time at Sonic afterwards.

Saturday - took a friend to the lake in the morning to practice open water swimming for a triathlon.  Saw a girl getting baptized there by the boat ramp.  Awesome.  :)

Sunday - The events of Easter Sunday give meaning to all the other Sundays.  That is, because of the resurrection, we worship a risen Savior.  :)

During English service we got the rare treat of having two electric guitarists.  I like it because you don’t have to worry about bouncing back and forth between lead and rhythm parts.  Lighthouse worship was led by the seniors which was good.  Also, thanks to the other seniors who provided food and everything else.

Had lunch with Calvin at Mighty Fine Burgers.  The Chins (minus Sam, but plus their cousins Elliot and Rebecca) came in so we all ate together.  Snagged a four-bike rack for $10 thanks to the clearance aisle at Walmart.  (now I need to get a bike, lol)  Ate dinner at Asia Cafe with Ricky, Sharon, James, and GP.  That was good as it’s been a while since I’ve hung out with them.

Thanks, God.  I really needed this weekend.  :)

Went to Northstar-at-Tahoe from Saturday to Wednesday.  Skied Sun-Tue.

Apparently I had a stowaway in my luggage - the cold and snow from Northstar!  Admit it, you guys wanted a snow day.  :)