I saw a book at Barnes & Noble:  "The Greatest Hits of Donald Miller"  Isn't it a little too soon for that? It featured:  Blue Like Jazz, Searching for God Knows What, and Through Painted Desserts.  Only "To Own a Dragon" was left out.   He's written four books.  Ever. 

And I heard an ad on the radio for Larry the Cable Guy:Worst Movie Ever.  At the end, the voice says "Rated PG-13.  May not be suitable for audiences under the age of 13."  Thank you for clarifying. 

So I know nobody uses this thing anymore, but I thought I'd just say "hey" to everybody, life is good, my relationship status has changed both on my profile and on in real life.  Amber is an angel.

hey friends.  thanks for tuning into my 100th blog.  i hope the new year is finding you in good health, hope your resolutions are still fulfilled, and i hope you stocked up on egg nog cause it'll be another 10 months before it is back in stores, unless you are lucky enough to find it in stores on easter.

things are good, i am happy.

i am slowly building a solid base of recording gear thanks to my boss, my previous employer, and some friend contacts (thanks adam and paul!)

i've found a solid base of friends in appleton. people from church are amazing.  quality over quantity, there are only 75 people, 6 of which are my age.  my downstairs neighbor is a blessing.  isaiah is one of those guys you can instantly put your trust in.  the group of guys i play basketball with are good enough that i have to get better but not so good that i'm useless.  i'm still in touch of course with all of my green bay people, quite a few have visited in recent weeks.  i miss summer, but i'm making due with the cold.

i'm training for a half marathon.  i'll be running with a batch of my closest friends from back in the camp counseling days.  we'll share in the misery i suppose.

i read through a couple of books over christmas break.  both biographies, one on CSLewis and the other on Einstein.  i've found that CS Lewis is deserving of more admiration not only for his work but for the way he lived his life.  Conversely, Einstein deserves all the admiration he gets for his work, but his personal life is not something to be modeled after.  I was near the point of eliminating him from my heroes section, but instead I'll clarify that I admire his brilliance, his work ethic (he was tireless), and his unwillingness to be bound by convention.  As a man, however, he was unfaithful in marriage, became cold to his wife, and wavering in his commitment as a father.  And he helped build the first atomic bomb. And he was in love with his cousin, Elsa. 

i was touched by the eventual love story of CS Lewis or "jack".  in an unusual fashion, he married a woman more because she was his closest friend and his intellectual equal and because he wanted to provide for her in a difficult circumstance (i.e. minus the giddy romantic feelings) and wound up finding how deeply he cared for her when she was faced with cancer that was guaranteed to take her life in the short term.  after prayer, miraculously, her life was spared and the 2 of them enjoyed 2 years of complete companionship.  eventually, his wife's cancer returned and she became very ill.  during the spell, she would go through periods of intense pain as the cancer pushed its way through her body, and during the worst of it, jack would kneel beside her and pray that the pain would be put on his own body (strange resemblance to a copeland lyric, i do say).  immediately, her entire body would experience a deep peace while jack would take on her pains, even in the specific parts of her body where she was stricken.  its a remarkable testament to his connection to his wife, his connection to God, and the kind of sacrificial love that Christ showed on the cross as he took our affliction.  what a beautiful picture.

speaking of beautiful pictures, i invested in a bit of art.  my friend sherri is graduating with an art teaching degree and decided to clear some of her original work.  i took a look through her collection (after she had already done a big succesful showing at her apartment) and picked out 2 pieces.  she said immediately "you can only leave with one of those."  i ask why?  apparently i picked her 2 favorite originals, one for its colors, the other for its texture, and she could only part with one.  i'm not really good at analyzing art, but its good to know that my natural tendencies aren't so bad after all.  anyways, the new piece will be on display shortly at the apartment.  i love the idea of showcasing the beautiful creations of my friends, so if anybody else wants to sell something beautiful, i'd be happy to support!

i went to the record store today.  i found a cd by christie front drive (mid 90's midwestern emo band) in the used section.  couldn't even believe it really.  i've never even seen this album in real life.  so i bought it (and its fantastic!).  as i was checking out, a guy came out of the backroom just after switching the store music.  the cd he had just put on was mewithoutyou's "catch for us the foxes."  if there's anything i can strike up a conversation over, its that.  its kind of like when you're in a foreign country and you're obviously foreign, you can spot someone of your home country pretty much right away.  we talked for awhile, had been to alot of the same shows.  i asked if he's in a band or is looking for one.  he plays doom metal with one other friend. i guess i'm not interested.  my hair is too short.  my clothes are not very black.  and i don't have enough norwegian in my blood.

i finished "velvet elvis" by rob bell.  he's great.  he has another book called "sex god" that i read the first 50 pages of tonight as well.  its not as scary as it sounds, but it IS about that.   i'd post quotes from velvet elvis, but seriously, every paragraph was like "wow, i've never thought of it like that."  or "wow, i need to work on that."  i saw alot of myself not only spiritually, but in an emotional and psychological way throughout.  everybody's got junk to deal with, and this certainly brought alot to the surface for illumination.  it felt like cancer was getting radiation and just sucking up.  stuff about my brother, stuff about identity, stuff about girls.  he's general enough that whatever he writes means something different but true to everyone.  sort of like good lyrics. 

insurance companies are useless.  you pay a ton of money just to have insurance, and then when something bad happens, you just have to pay more money on the deductible.  and you spend like $1000 dollars a year to get back $700 worth of stuff.  that's kind of dumb.

if i'm ever a parent, i wonder if i'll have my kids watch the star wars trilogy straight through chronologically?  or if i'll have them watch it the old fashioned way, 4-6, then 1-3.  the first has the benefit of actually holding the kid in suspense if they can make it through the terrible writing of the first three movies.  the other way of course gets them hooked, but then sets them up for the letdown that is the prequel. the third option of course is to just raise them to appreciate the finer things in life, like the lord of the rings trilogy.   bingo.

i made some new friends.  daniel and his wife kristina (spelling?) are solid people.  they lead worship at the church.  we played a bunch of songs tonight and then talked for awhile.  it was a swell time.

i left my ipod at matt's place in milwaukee a few weeks ago.  sure it stinks not having every song i've ever loved a few thumb motions aways, but i am reminded again that i am actually surviving quite well without it.  i came across this blog on circa survive's website. 

"i lost my ipod in hollywood. its just a thing. tiny plastic device. i shook it off. it was slightly sad because i knew there were many a song or record on there that i gathered over the last year or so that would be difficult if not near impossible to find again. my heart tried to sink when i awoke the morning after losing it but alas… my soul said NO! its just a thing. some machine. i immediately thought of cavemen sitting in their caves grunting in harmony or native tribes singing around their bon fires or monks chanting etc….. they never really recorded their songs…. they just knew them by heart and passed them down generation by generation…. everytime is like the first time. so without mourning i just accepted the loss. less than 5 days later i woke up on the bus in portland and my phone had switched itself to a black screen of death. it would not power on or off… it wouldnt do anything at all besides say…"flash mode." i learned this to be its final face. goodbye phone. i took it to my phone provider headquarters in the lovely city of portland. i had to get a new one and i was hoping the wizards that worked there could spare me some magic and give me my 500 plus numbers and countless tour pictures, memos and other such things of importance that were inside yet another small plastic device i had grown dependent on. "it'll be about 45 minutes sir before i can tell you exactly whats wrong with it but i wouldn't hold your breath on the contents. looks like a replacement for sure."  i was starting to feel upset so i just asked him to point me to the nearest art supply and or book store. as i walked towards powells books (one of the best book stores in the world im convinced) with no ipod in my ears and no phone in my hand i started singing. i had a wonderful day using my feet for transportation and my mind as entertainment. i lost all of my numbers in the long run. but i gained priceless insight. we depend on little and big plastic/metal devices too much for our own good. cherish the songs you can sing without an ipod. try to remember those 10 digit or more numbers by heart. if you can't then write the real important ones down and hang them on your wall. carry them in your pockets if youre not home often. better than that… try to be with those important people more often than not. take pictures of beauty with your mind and not just your cameras. i have a feeling one day when the electric and oil companies all eventually go into "flash mode" that we'll be left with nothing but our memories. don't be someone who didn't bother to actually commit anything to memory assuming your hard drives will always have your back."

colin

p.s. how many songs or phone numbers do you know by heart????????????

numbers: not so many.  songs by heart?  plenty.  if you were stuck on a desert island, you'd be glad to have me along.  i'd be like your human ipod, only i'd be out of key and would only be able to reproduce one thing at a time like the melody, or the words, or maybe a synthesizer line. i could teach you the other parts though, so then you could do a complementary piece like mock the drumbeat or bassline or record scratching.   i would drive you nuts, and you'd kill me with a dull coconut shell.  but my songs would be forever stuck in your head until you died. so, joke's on you.

so when my dad was here helping to paint, i picked out a few particular cds that i thought he'd like.  stuff like page france, the weakerthans, iron & wine.  he was actually really into it.  when your parents like your music, its not because they're trying to be hip.  its because you're getting old.  hmmm.

i won't miss the smell of the animax plant.  it basically smelled like a subtle mixture of rancid bacon that had been eaten by seagulls and then crapped out.  and when the wind was just right (which was most days), i could smell it quite distinctly at my place in green bay.  yech.  now instead i smell on occasion the paper factories from kaukauna, which is no less a pleasing smell, but at least small farm animals weren't killed to bring it to me.

i miss my close friends.  as much as i love getting an hour back in my day by not driving 30 miles there and back, i'm hard pressed to spend that extra hour until i meet some good people.  take the good with the bad i guess.

i'm listening to live worship from mars hill, a church run by rob bell somewhere in america.  not sure, i've heard michigan, i've heard washington state.  pretty sure its the latter because the opening song is in 5/4 with jeff buckley style vocals.  it sounds good, don't get me wrong.  but can you imagine wisconsin people trying to sing falsetto and clap along to 5/4? me neither.  no, not the 2 and the 4, its the 2 and the 5! and you need to go an octave higher!

Hey friends, I am pretty much all moved in.  A few odds and ends still remain in the organization process, but I feel like life is getting back to order.  My dad came down to help move in and then tweak all kinds of stuff around the house.  The bathtub faucet was really weird so he helped get a shower head attached.  We painted for HOURS, replaced lightswitch covers, spackled some holes, put up blinds, and got some other little stuff done.  My dad helped finish in 2 days what would have taken me at least a month.  Kudos.

I only got to watch the 2nd half of the office last night.  Fanpop.com.  Beautiful man.

This will be my first weekend in A-town.  Should be fun just exploring.  I want to check out Highland Park, do some shopping (aluminum foil, coffee table, food, pots and pans) and i'll probably spend Sunday up in Green Bay watching/playing football with friends.  I most definitely need to sit down and just drink coffee and read a book.  And I most definitely need to get some exercise.  Its been like a week and I just feel blech. 

I was a Crip one time at Bible camp.  Its a long story, maybe I'll tell it sometime soon.

they're in my pictures section of me frolfing with erik last weekend. 

moved my first batch of stuff to a-town today.

and the office season 4 is slowly improving.  here's proof.

Ryan Howard: What I really want, honestly, Michael, is for you to know it so you can communicate it to the people here, to your clients, to whomever.
Michael Scott: Oh okay...
Ryan Howard: What?
Michael Scott: It's whoever, not whomever.
Ryan Howard: No, it's whomever.
Michael Scott: No, whomever is never actually right.
Jim Halpert: Well, sometimes it's right.
Creed: Michael is right. It's a made-up word used to trick students.
Andy: No. Actually, whomever is the formal version of the word.
Oscar: Obviously it's a real word, but I don't know when to use it correctly.
Michael Scott: Not a native speaker.
Kevin Malone: I know what's right, but I'm not gonna say because you're all jerks who didn't come see my band last night.
Ryan Howard: Do you really know which one is correct?
Kevin Malone: I don't know.
Pam: It's 'whom' when it's the object of the sentence and 'who' when it's the subject.
Phyllis: That sounds right.
Michael Scott: Well, it sounds right, but is it?
Stanley: How did Ryan use it, as an object?
Ryan Howard: As an object.
Kelly: Ryan used me as an object.
Stanley: Is he right about that?
Pam: How did he use it again?
Toby Flenderson: It was Ryan wanted Michael, the subject, to, uh, explain the computer system, the object, to whomever, meaning us, the indirect object, which is the correct usage of the word.
Michael Scott: No one asked you anything ever, so whomever's name is Toby, why don't you take a letter opener and stick it into your skull?

where i can find either a cardigan sweater or a sweet afro, let me know.  i need them for halloween costume. 

wow, damien rice makes some beautiful sad music.  why do i like sad music so much? 

new address:
820 1/2 E. North St.
Appleton, WI 54911

visit or send letters. i feel obsolete and a little bit nostalgic. 

did you know kids these days think email is old fashioned, much less hand written letters?  they will never know the beauty of a real carefully worded hand-written letter that someone took 3 hours to perfectly compose, complete with little doodles and flowers and paper airplane creases.    and the effort the postman went through to deliver that letter for $.29?

well, the weekend is finished, and it was a good one.  first off, had friday off.  most of the time when i have a day off, its already planned out.  let me say, its pretty great having a day off but not really having it set aside for anything.  you just basically do whatever you feel like doing whenever, which i guess is pretty much what i do anyways most days, except for when i'm at work.  activities included of course sleeping in, lifting weights, thrifting, cd shopping (new hand of borses album!) playing volleyball, and learning how to do pottery.  my instructor tells me i'm actually pretty much a natural, only not in as many words.  i just know i was really really focused and probably wasn't very good at conversation because of it.  the only thing that could have made me cooler in the moment that i threw my first bowl would have been a cigarette loosely gripped in my lips, some sweet 5:00 shadow, and a wookie sidekick. 

saturday morning got a very small group of people together for ultimate.  just not the activity of choice in green bay on a saturday morning i guess.  then got to packing for camping trip to door county.  i underpacked.  forgot my pad for sleeping, and could have used another layer of clothing.  it was cold at night.  the ground was hard.  i slept poorly.  but i'm jumping ahead of myself.  gathered the crew and headed up to the park.  we set up camp, then headed into town for carmeled (or chocolate covered carameled) apples.  oh.  my.  gosh.  made hast for the lighthouse for sunset.  splendid.  i'm sure someone has pictures, maybe i'll post one or two.  headed back to the campsite (very carefully chosen, OF COURSE ;~)  made a fire, and started dinner.  sari did the shopping so we ate vegetables.  not a bad thing, rather cleansing after consuming a 1,000 calorie apple.  is it healthy?  of course it is.  its an apple, isn't it?  fire (made by peter), pumpkin carving (designs by sari and nikki, thank God we didn't get 5!), edgar allen poe read by janna  for the soundtrack.  later decided to check out the stars from the  Eagles tower.  listened to built to spill (big dipper) and modest mouse (the stars are projectors). met Santa Clause at the top. skies perfectly clear, and we were 150 feet closer at the top of the tower to the celestical bodies.  waited for falling stars. back to camp, more campfire, hot apple cider, then off to bed to the sound of the tell-tale heart.  i already talked about the sleep.  maybe it was the loud thumping sound of the heart beating 'neath the tent.  maddening.

saturday morning  - delicious oatmeal, nasty coffee, then packed up.  headed north to sister bay for the big ping pong ball drop.  bought time on the crossword puzzle (wan stingers?) and drank coffee.  observed the growing crowd, enjoyed a solvakia (essentially a gyro, but with marinated grilled pork), looked at kitsch art, then got into position with hammock in hand to catch ping pong balls.  here's how it works...2 helicopters make multiple passes over the town dropping ping pong balls along the way.  certain balls are marked with business names.  take a ball to a business, get a prize, discount, service, etc.  we got alot of attention from the throngs for peter's idea, but didn't catch alot of balls.  still, one had the log of a swank sailing store.  too rich for my blood, but nikki's mom will appreciate the new shoes.    enjoyed perfect weather (for this time of year) the whole weekend, returned in good spirits and health.  i know time changes and people change but friends like those i hung out with this weekend are priceless.  successful trip for the cornerstone crew!

my latest happy dreams involve me being a sound/recording engineer.  the daydream starts with me quitting current job, spending 6 months or so traveling, catching up with friends, and eventually ending up in nashville.  i spend a month or so kicking it with the roosevelts, convince the band to get back together under the condition that i get to record their next cd after i finish sound engineering school.  i enroll in sound engineering school.  i'm one of those older dudes that everyone else is afraid of because he's ACTUALLY WORKED with all this stuff...you know, compressors, de-essers, multitrack software, matchboxes, pitch correctors, parametric equalizers, mix-minus feeds, blah blah blah.  i work on the side setting up and wiring my own studio, which will someday be in the upstairs of a building whose downstairs is a coffeeshop/venue owned by muah, spend the weekends catching up on movies with the roosevelts, hiking in the blue hills or the adirondacks (short roadtrip). i finish school, record the roosevelts comeback album (which is amazing, but only a few really really ridiculously smart people "get" it) and move out to portland to start my bidness.  start recording bands noone's heard of, keep my own schedule, stay up late fixing the sounds.  love every minute of it.  have my calling, my passion, and my career all rolled into one.  make friends with aaron sprinkle, fill his shoes when he gets too old to produce amazing records.    why the heck not?  thank you for listening.