Archives For January 2005

Guess what I just learned from a “competitors” website (Erik Fisher’s Blog)!!!

PEPSI (you know, the GREATEST softdrink company in the world), is starting up the iTunes promotion again! That means under the caps of their drinks (Mt. Dew included), they will be having iTunes codes which gives us free songs with iTunes!

What does that mean to you?

Probably nothing! BUT – to me that means a free song for EVERY cap code you send to me! :)

The promotion starts on January 31st and will be one of the big advertisements during the Super Bowl!

I will make another web-plea to get your cap-codes before you just throw them away!

JEEP-A-RAMA

1.24.2005 — 11 Comments

Today was an interesting day. I left the apartment this morning at a quarter-past eight and headed for a meeting in Marion. I met with a bunch of other pastors at College Church’s youth building and ate lunch at Fazoli’s.

Oh how I love that place.

I was back in Warsaw by 2:30 – after quite the fun trip back! Who would’ve thought that with the temperature above freezing today the snow that had been pushed off the roads would melt enough to blow right back onto those roads! It was an interesting ride, for sure.

After work I came home for about 30-minutes before heading to the Helfrich’s for Bible Study. We were meeting early tonight to go out and grab some Taco Bell with Craig and Matt Hunter. Well, Matt Hunter drives a Jeep, and that’s where the “real” story begins tonight.

Two nights ago – on Saturday, I got my first 4-wheel driving experience in the back seat of Matt VanKirk’s truck. Not just “4-wheeling” down the highway or anything trivial like that, but 4-wheeling through a field across from Matt Hunter’s home.

Two words: great fun.

Honestly, driving in snow and drifts of snow is an incredible experience that I will remember for a long time – going over hills and into ditches and coming out on the other side without a hurt vehicle is an awesome thing to watch on television – let alone, sit inside of!

So tonight, we’re on the road to Taco Bell, me in the back of the Jeep, Matt Hunter driving and Craig riding shotgun.

I decided that my timing was perfect as we pulled to the stopsign – LEFT meant Taco Bell, RIGHT meant heading to the 4-wheel trails.

I said, “Hey, we should take the ‘short-cut’ and show Craig what this thing can do in the trails!”

Matt took the bait and we were off.

We pulled into the empty lot where the trail begins and Craig asked what would happen if we “drove over there”. Matt responded with a left-turn directly towards Craig’s inquisition…

What happened next can only be described by two photos:


Needless to say, the Jeep was doing fine until the ice broke.

Yes, the ice broke and we were stuck. We made a couple good attempts at getting unstuck, but we eventually had to call for back-up!

We exited the Jeep on the right side – the only site we could get out of – due to the amount of water waiting to swallow us on the left side.

We realized we were cold, and upset about the sweet Jeep being stuck in the mud, so I did what any pyro would do – I gathered as many dry weeds as I could and started a signal-fire!

I had to make sure our rescuers would find us when they arrived! :)

My “signal fire” produced enough enjoyment for me to pass the time and eventually Jason Knepp showed up to pull the Jeep with his own Jeep. Matt VanKirk showed up with his truck in time to realize that Jason’s Jeep wouldn’t do the trick. Matt ended up hooking up to Jason’s Jeep and together they were able to pull Matt’s Jeep out of the mud.

It was a night to remember.

Thankfully everyone is safe and talking about how they will take on the trail “next time”.

I still think my Neon could’ve made it!

cd coverThe new Hillsong + Delirious cd, “UNIFIED PRAISE” is absolutely amazing! A printed paragraph on the back of the CD sums up the reason for this disc – “During the Hillsong Conference, Delirious combined with the Hillsong team to record this project. It was an incredible night, with over 20,000 worshipers packing the Sydney SuperDome, praising God with one voice.”

With eleven tracks, a booklet with the lyrics included, and a well-designed look, this CD has quickly become the most-played in my office.

The album does have a DVD that compliments it very well – it’s actually the live concert on DVD and is available as well. I bought the DVD when I got the album and paid too much for them both at the local Christian bookstore. I saw them a day later at Wal-Mart for $13 for the CD and $15 for the DVD!

The DVD offers the entire concert plus two “bonus” tracks: “More Than Life” and “My Glorious” – neither of which are included on the CD. There is also a behind-the-scenes documentary on the recording of the album and a multi-angle presentation of a few tracks where you can see different camera angles used to mix the DVD.

I’ve also read online that there is a “DVD Easter Egg” included as well by clicking the “red button” on the elevator. I have yet to try it.

Young Adult Party

1.23.2005 — 2 Comments

Jess and I were invited to the “Young Adult Party” held at the Helfrich residence this evening. 16 of us gathered for food, fellowship, and an amazing boy vs girl game of “GESTURES”.

Hilarious.

The boys DID win (of course!)

After most of the crowd left, 5 of us stayed up until after midnight playing some game that I had no business playing – it was a game about movies – called “REEL CLUES”. Impossible stuff, but my team did win – because it had “Dana Mac” and Jess on it.

Another game we played as an entire group was “ImagineIF” – pretty interesting and again, humorous to the hilt.

“Humorous to the hilt”???

It’s too late to write stuff like that.

Snow is awesome. EVERYWHERE and blowing to and fro!

“To and fro”???

‘nite.

As I type it is snowing like it hasn’t snowed yet this year! It’s amazing!

I can’t wait to wake up in the morning and shovel FEET of snow off the front walk!

It has been quite the day! This morning I took a trip to Milford for our monthly NETWORK meeting. We met at the Wawasee Community Bible Church, home of the Salt Company youth group:



Pretty awesome youth facility!

After work tonight, Craig picked me up for the Warsaw/Concord game here in Warsaw. It was quite the game, though Warsaw ended up losing. The gym was packed and it was good to have a chance to use my manual camera again. I deposited another roll of film at Wal-Mart tonight – can’t wait to pick them up and see how they all turned out! I made sure to get them on CDROM, too so it will make for easy uploading. For now, settle with a couple of photos taken with the digital: