we had the three aforementioned bands in at cedarcreek.tv on thursday evening for an amazing concert. all three bands did an incredible job, and it was an awful lot of fun. all the bands and management were kind enough to allow me to do my thing, so here are some pictures from the event. as always, the entire set can be viewed on my flickr.

is jon stewart (and by proxy, the daily show writers) one of the most intelligent men in the country? i think so.

got this beauty tonight from joshua longbrake.

the west wing is by far and away my favorite television show of all time. no other show i’ve seen comes close in terms of writing, acting, directing, and overall quality. i miss it something fierce.

what’s your favorite television show?

(video embedded for you rss-folks)

i’ve got nothing to say lately.

so, enjoy smithers.

• don’t suppose any of you out there would like to buy me this? (click here) for those afraid to click, it’ll take you to an ebay listing of a minolta maxxum prime 50mm, f/1.7 lens that is pretty much essential for the serious photographer.
• i learned a valuable lesson at this mornings “man-meeting,” or “4:15,” or “bible-study”… don’t talk politics. the fifteen minute tangent we went on changed the mood of the rest of the meeting in a bad way. people (myself included) just have too strong of opinions and it’s hard to get past it sometimes.
• had a great time with ben and val last night at red robin. we discussed the new believers life group we’re starting, and whether or not we were all prepared to handle the responsibility of building into the lives of “baby christians.” we’re thankful there is an established curriculum for this kind of group to follow :D.
• more than that, it was fun just to hang out with some friends.
• technology is rad. i’m sitting in my dining room right now, 10:30am on saturday morning and i just remotely connected to the iMac’s at our toledo campus and started setting up the computers for the upcoming services.
• i’m putting more and more serious thought into getting a second — technically third, job. i really really really want to climb out of this bondage of debt, in a very bad way. while i’m loving the fact that my freelance photography gig is starting to attract some more attention, it’s a little sporadic to depend on fully (as a secondary income) right now.
• while i’m enjoying having zero pride and asking my readers to buy me things, if there are any sugar-daddies or sugar-mamma’s out there… i could also use this (click here). again for those of you afraid to click, this will take you to a sony wireless flash.
• i’m beginning to think my motto should be “will work for camera gear.”

hopefully my wife will like this look a little more.

barring me finding a theme that completely rocks my socks, we’re done changing for a while

i admit freely that i am not a “deep” christian. my theory is that until i get the two greatest commandments down (love god, love others), i probably shouldn’t try and tackle things like the physical location of hell, the proper timing of the rapture, so on and so forth. so many christians spend so much time searching for “deeper” teaching while ignoring the chance to show christ’s love. don’t misunderstand me, i’m not saying we shouldn’t study… but we need to keep the balance of remembering to not just study our faith, but live out our faith as well.

i believe christianity, at it’s core, is the greatest love story ever told. are there ugly parts of the story? of course. but there are ugly parts to everything that is beautiful. a rose comes from dirt, sunrises come from darkness, babies from out bloody and nasty looking.

i am a visual person. i see god in the beauty of the world. i see god in the beauty of a moment captured. i see god in the beauty of love shared and shown. i think it’s part of what drew me to photography in the first place. when i get to capture a beautiful moment on film, i feel connected to jesus in a way i can’t fully describe.

i’m going all over the place with this post. these are just some of my thoughts that i’ve been pondering on while listening to the beautiful new song from charlie hall called “scenes.” give the song a listen or five. listen to it while not focusing on anything else, and see where your thoughts take you. this is the best version i can find for you to listen to RIGHT NOW, i highly recommend you check out the single though from wherever you purchase music.

chill and cold and flakes of snow, ice and sleet, frost and cold, each storm cloud and thunder bolt, lifts my mind to you, every work and every power, every second of every hour, fall of dew and sweet rain showers, lifts my mind to you, summer wind, fire and heat, autumn leaves and blooms of spring, ocean waves and mountain streams, lifts my mind to you

i see you in every scene, i bet you are thinking about me, i have such a short memory so you keep reminding me of you

as i lay me down to sleep, as i walk on city streets, as i laugh with friends and feast, it lifts my mind to you, as my children play and run, in the news with wars and guns, in the church where songs are sung, it lifts my mind to you, deep inside the beggar’s eyes, as for sweet love i fight, on the radio at night, it lifts my mind to you.