It's been a while since I've let my tech-geek side come out here on the old blog, so I figured it was about time I let him stretch his legs.  This past December I made the leap into smart phone territory.  I had been using Verizon's mobile web app extensively on my last two phones and was primarily looking for a richer internet experience.  My (not so) new (anymore) HTC Droid Eris has definitely provided me with that, and quite a bit more.  I've been very impressed with the way this phone has increased my productivity and efficiency when I'm not at my desk.  Being able to buzz through a bunch of emails during downtime at a symphony rehearsal has given me more time to do other things when I get home.  I'm all about it.

One of the reasons I decided to go with an Android phone instead of an iPhone or the like was because of the open source aspect.  I like most of what Google's been doing in the past few years, and there OS seemed like a natural fit for me.  It has been.   Another thing that has been awesome is the Android App Store.  Admittedly, the store is not as well stocked as Apple's, but there are still a lot of valuable and fun things to download, and most of them are free!  I know I have readers who are also on the Android bandwagon, so today I thought I'd throw up a quick rundown of my 5 favorite free apps.  Here we go!

(one quick disclaimer that these screen shots aren't mine... they were compiled from around the internet)

5. Advanced Task Killer Free

This is an indispensable tool.  Actually, if you're using Android, you probably don't need me to tell you about this one.  Everything you do on Android opens an app.  Almost none of those apps close when you leave the program, so your phone can get bogged down pretty quickly (sad news for speed and battery life).  This app lets you kill all that stuff running in the background.  Simple and necessary.

4. The Weather Channel

The Eris comes with a great little weather widget right on the home screen, but it links up to AccuWeather online for more info.  Nothing wrong with that, but I've always appreciated The Weather Channel... use it on TV, online, on my desktop, so why not on my phone?  TWC's android app is simple and straightforward and gives you the info that you need.

3. Ethereal Dialpad

This one goes in the "just plain fun" category.  A very simple little synthesizer.  Just select a scale and a "scene" of sorts and you're good to go.  Drag your finger across the screen to see and hear the synth come to life.  Great way to kill time, and the sounds it produces are very pleasing and relaxing.  Some of the visualizations are a little lame, but a couple of them are absolutely mesmerizing, plus it's free!

2. Lightning Bug

I just discovered this one a couple of days ago.  It's a surprisingly full-featured sleep machine and alarm clock that I've used every night since.  You select one of five scenes and then blend in different sounds (I've been using "Beach At Night" with rain, lightning, and waves crashing).  Set a sleep timer and it fades it's volume down at the end of the time period.  It also has an alarm clock that lets you access all the major features of the built in alarm, but much more intuitively.  I used to have an alarm clock that did this and have missed it recently.  Not anymore!

1. Bible

YouVersion.com is pretty much awesome.  Their online resources are top-notch, and the newest version of their Android app brings most of that functionality in.  Now you can log in with your account and follow all of the reading plans, versions, etc. that are available online.  The only thing still missing is an option to download Bibles for offline use (something that's been available on the iPhone app for some time now).  Any way you look at it, YouVersion is revolutionizing the way people read and study the Bible, and I'm glad they're sinking time into their Android development.  It pays off for people like me!

So there you have it!  A little bit of what's been taking up my time lately :-P  Nerdy tech post: complete.

This post is part of the Sunday Setlists project at The Worship Community.  Check out more sets here!

CenterPoint Church 2/21/10

Opening Set
    -Everyday - B - Joel Houston
    -Creation Sings - A - Eric Frisch
    -Center - E - Charlie Hall

Closing Song
    -Came To My Rescue - Bb - Joel Davies, Marty Sampson, Dylan Thomas

Another great service at CenterPoint yesterday!  This was the second week of our series on the prodigal son story.  This week was actually centered on the two parables that Jesus tells before the actual prodigal story in Luke 15:1-10.  Since both of these parables involve leaving behind many to find one that is lost, we decided to have a little fun at the beginning of the message.  When Dave got up to preach, he "noticed" the absence of one of our members, then asked the congregation to hold tight for a minute and walked out the back door.  As he did, this video started to run:

Unfortunately, I had to reduce the quality to get it to fit in Weebly's upload limit, but I think you get the idea!  People cracked up.  It was a great piece and an excellent way to illustrate the point of the message.

Musically, we had another excellent week.  Timon lead worship, which freed me up to play keys (and a little bit of electric guitar).  The band was really grooving this week, and the vocalists worked together well.  Our set ended up being several songs that are well liked in our church, but haven't been played in a while.  We had a great response, which is always a blessing to the team as well as God!  We used a loop for the first time on "Came To My Rescue" thanks to this site.  It really helped fill out our usual arrangement and made it so that I didn't have to play the pad through the chorus.  Good stuff!

Looking forward to what we have coming up for the rest of this series!

Ash Wednesday is this week, which means that the Lenten season is almost upon us.  Lent has traditionally been a season of prayer and fasting, and the folks over at blood:water mission have come up with an excellent idea for this time of year in their 40 Days Of Water campaign.

I participated in this last year, and will be doing it again this year.  I'd like to encourage you to participate as well.  It's a simple idea: drink nothing but water for 40 days & donate the money that you save to blood:water towards their efforts in Uganda.  Most of us never really think about how much we spend on beverages in a day or a week, although it can be quite significant.  Most of us have never had to worry about if we would be able to find clean drinking water, or how far we would have to walk to obtain it.  By drinking nothing but water (something that is readily available to us), we are able to offer those less fortunate an opportunity to have that same opportunity.  Would you consider joining me in this effort beginning on Wednesday?

This post is part of the Sunday Setlists project at The Worship Community.  Check out more sets here!

CenterPoint Church 2/14/10

Opening Set
    -You, You Are God - C-D - Walker Beach
    -Holy Is The Lord - G - Chris Tomlin

Communion Song
    -Your Love Is Extravagant - D - Darrell Evans

Closing Song
    -Your Love Is Deep - D - Jami Smith

This was a fun week!  We celebrated both baptism and communion this Sunday, so I decided to cut a tune from our opening set for time... this was also an acoustic week for us, which is also a good time.  Just two vocals, congas, acoustic guitar, and ukulele.  Good times!  That said, the band had a little trouble locking in in rehearsal yesterday.  Once we got to service time, everything ran smoothly.  I also thought that the team did a great job of navigating the on-the-fly transitions during communion and the flow into the closing song.  Everything felt really good.  This was the first week in a LONG time that we used floor monitors instead of in-ears (always a fun time for the sound folks :-P).  I thought Jim's mix was really crisp and clear... actually all of the technical elements of this service seemed to flow smoothly, as well.  No complaints!

Pastor Dave started a new series yesterday about the prodigal son story.  This series is going to be 6 weeks long, so it will take us right up to Palm Sunday.  We have a lot of really cool creative elements planned, which I've very excited about, but yesterday we kept it pretty simple (especially since we had both sacraments).  The message was basically just a retelling of the story, a set up for the rest of the series.  I'm really excited about what God is going to do with this one!

It was a unique and refreshing time of worship!  Lenten post coming later today...

Wanted to let everybody know that I finished another loop last week for the song "Your Love Never Fails".  This loop follows the Chris Quilala/Jesus Culture arrangement, but has been transposed to G (their recording is in Bb).  This has been posted on the "Media/Store" page, as well.  Enjoy!

Loop: "Your Love Never Fails"
Key: G
Tempo: 114 BPM (4/4 Time)
Form: Follows Jesus Culture recording on Your Love Never Fails

Listen:

Download:

Check out more set lists at The Worship Community!

CenterPoint Church 1/31/10

Opening Set
    -More Than Ever - G - Robbie Reider, Allan Fuller
    -Glorious One - C - Steve Fee
    -From The Inside Out - Bb - Joel Houston

Closing Song
    -Came To My Rescue - Bb - Joel Davies, Marty Sampson, Dylan Thomas

First, apologies for not being around on the blog the last couple of weeks.  There has been a LOT going on and life has just gotten a little too crazy to facilitate writing much.  That said, I've got lots of good stuff coming up in the next couple of weeks, including posts about new and exciting gear, great new music, spirituality in Avatar, Haiti, 40 days of water and more.  Stay tuned!  Now, on to the matter at hand...

We had a great time of worship yesterday to close our four week "Just Walk Across The Room" series.  I know I've stated this in previous posts, as well, but I really have been impressed with this series from Willow Creek.  The prepackaged materials, combined with Pastor Dave's insights and stories, have made for a very dynamic series with practical, real-life content.  Great stuff.  This Sunday focused on "Grander Vision Living", basically the idea that even our greatest moments of human life are eclipsed by what God offers us, and by what we in turn can share with others.  It was a very powerful message and I hope that our folks will really take the suggestions to heart and use them in their lives!

Musically, it was a pretty standard week, but the energy in the room was really great.  We've been working on getting our FOH volume levels a little more standard.  We use a SPL meter, and have had a high range established for some time now, but the last few weeks I (and other leaders) have noticed that we're running awfully quiet, so we're trying to get a basic minimum volume policy in place, as well.  Since we play on a "silent" stage (in-ear monitors, electronic drums, amps in isolation cabinets offstage), it's really important to have a certain amount of sound headed into the house.  It really helps the feel of the set when we get to a certain threshold.

I've noticed a definite increase in the preparedness of our team lately, which has been a really good thing.  Our rehearsal time is very limited (~1 hour, right before the service), so when everybody comes in ready to go, things run much smoother.  I know a lot of it has to do with the fact that people just have more time this time of year, but I'm definitely hoping that it continues!

All in all, yesterday was a great morning.  I'm looking forward to meeting with the Creative Worship Team tonight and putting together our next series, which is going to be based on the Prodigal Son story.