Just Start Small

We had an awesome service this past weekend at CFC and I cant help but share some of the pieces. Below is the intro video we used to start off the sermon. More to follow soon!

Let The Mods Begin

And so it begins,

While this is not the first time I had modified my car, and certainly will not be the last, it was the first power train related modification that actually made a difference. Most of the mods I have made up until this point have been small modifications to things like the interior lighting, or adding HID headlights, or a DRL system.

But today, I got a chance to road test the new typhoon series ram cold air induction kit from K&N Engineering. And let me tell you, this thing is a beast. The 2AZFE engine that comes stock in my '08 tC isn't to bad by itself, but with this addition it sounds like nothing else. At idle RPMs this intake far exceeds that air requirements of the engine and as a result hardly sounds any different from the stock intake. But looks can be deceiving and first impressions are not everything. Under load, starting at around 3000 RPM this baby lights up like fireworks on the fourth of July. K&N specs this kit with the older '05 tC engine and calls for a 8 horsepower increase. I would say that, after driving this car for almost 2 years now and 35,000 miles, 8 horsepower would be a conservative estimate. The whole car feels different, much more responsive, and sounds down right awesome during acceleration. Below are a few pictures of what I started with and how it ended up. I wish I had a good before and after audio clip to play for you all.

The old setup:


The new rig:

New Baby!

I am pleased to announce the arrival of the newest addition to my family! Benjamin Mark Yorde joined the world at 5:15am on the morning of August 11th 2009. He weighed 8 pounds and 8 ounces, and measured 22 inches long. Both Rachel and Benjamin are doing great. He is more than a day old now, and already sleeping and eating on a routine schedule like a champ. Here are a few pictures;

Obama Fail

Upside Down

I picked this up from Pace Hartfield via Dean Cooper this morning. Awesome would be an understatement. Go here to watch it in HD.

A Whole New Level

Did You Know?

I thought this was interesting....

Recording For Nerds

Here are a few pictures from various recording sessions over the last few weeks that I thought you guys might like. They are a little to nerdy to fly on my photography website, but I know they can be appreciated here!

The Don't Song

I just thought that I should pass along a great video that Pastor Kent used in his message this past sunday. Its by a group by the name of "Hairsupply". The video speaks for itself.

Another Lighting Fail

This is not in anyway connected to the strand fail listed below other than the fact that this bulb was in a strand fixture when it blew. I thought that the way in which this particular bulb blew was a little bit odd. Draw your own conclusions please.

First Worship Album

I am doing my best to get back into the habit of regular blog posts, but it has been an up hill battle these last few weeks.

Recently our executive worship director Kay Williams authorized Wes and Paul to begin recording CFC's first official full length worship album. I don't have a whole lot to do with the project although it has been an awesome process to observe. Wes and Paul make a great team and have been surprisingly efficient given the challenges of adding a recording project to their already forty hour plus work week and the availability of volunteer musicians. I have been taking part in the recording sessions for a technical opinion here and there, but mostly to shoot pictures and video for the sake of records and the possible "Making Of" special features DVD, but that's another story.... If you would like to keep up on the latest on this particular project, the most frequent updates will be on my photography website. It is of course also possible that during their "spare time" Wes and Paul will blog about the process themselves, but that is doubtful. I hope to continue my support of the project by keeping everyone up to date on the latest progress and events. And if I am lucky there will be a draft copy of a few tracks to post in just a few weeks!

700 MHz Q&A Session

For those of you that are not followers of Jason Cole's blog, I am passing along a wonderful opportunity. Jason, Dave Stagl, And Mike Sessler are hosting a tokbox session Thursday night to discuss the upcoming challenges that face the audio industry. Details Here. Dont miss it!

Strand Fail

A while ago, I filed a work order with our maintenance department to have a few of our house light bulbs replaced. A large section of lights in the balcony section had appeared to have burned out leaving a whole seating section in the dark. You can imagine my surprise when the maintenance employee walks into my office to inform me that all of the bulbs in those particular fixtures are fine. So Wes and I took a walk back to the dimmer room only to find that the entire dimmer module powering that section had destroyed itself. You can tell by the damage to that pack below, that and unbelievable amount of current had arced from the hot connection on the pack. (rated for 40 amps continuous)



After further inspection of all three dimmer racks, we have found that not just some, but ALL the packs in our installation (144 Dual 2.4kW dimmers) have the exact same manufacturing/installation defect that lead to this problem. The problem is this: every packs' hot and neutral connections are loose, causing a poor connection to the fixed connection in the rear of the dimmer rack. This should have been corrected upon installation, however our installation contractor, PARLIGHTS, whose name is now and forever will be synonymous with FAIL, didn't care when they simply unboxed each module and slammed them carelessly into the rack.

However, not to let parlights take the fall for all of this, STRAND, (whose name will also be synonymous with FAIL) is just as much at fault. Strand has several epic design flaws at work here. I won't go into too much detail here or I will most likely be here until next week and drive my blood pressure to unsafe levels. But in short, it would appear that everything with strand's name on it was designed by someone with only half a brain cell to devote to designing these units. The rack processors cannot even process a basic DMX or Outlook/SWC signal at times.

In summary, if you have strand gear, get rid of it ASAP. If you do not own any strand gear but own ETC instead, pat yourselves on the back and rejoice. And never, ever, under any circumstances, buy anything from parlights or strand as it will rapidly become the bane of your existence as it has become mine.

This is new....

So, what would would you do if (hypothetically speaking) you came into the office one day, and walked into your worship center only to find your entire lighting system online at full power? Then, imagine my surprise when I walk up to the control booth only to find that everything is offline exactly the way it was left last night. Leading you to the discovery that the processors in strand dimmer racks just decided to turn lights on by themselves.

Would you:

a) Yell, "I HATE STRAND"?
b) Yell, "STRAND SUCKS"?
c) Yell, "Yay Surprises"?
d) Yell some of the above while adding some choice words? (Therefore financing new lighting racks with your donation the the cuss pig)
e) Somehow yell all of the above at the same time?
f) Skip All of the above and simply drop your Visa/Mastercard in the cuss pig just for thinking the thoughts that just crossed your mind.

For security reasons and job security I cannot disclose which option I used....

Web Development

Well, the new website is finally online and working like a dream! Registration is now open, so feel free to register and start commenting! The side pages are slowly being built one at a time, but the blog section is finished. The picture gallery is still a work in progress, so for the time being most of my pictures will be embedded with the posts. I hope to have the gallery looking and working the way I want by the end of the week. You may subscribe to the blog either by RSS or Email. You will most likely see a drop in post frequency here (as if that was possible) as most of my attention will be transferred to the new site.

Here is the link to the blog.
Here is the link to the gallery.

New Webpage

Hello everyone,

I know its been a long time, but I promised in my new years resolution to post more often. I haven't had the time to post them all yet, but I have a few posts in the works on everything from new camera equipment, to our Christmas Eve service @ CFC.

Anyway, my main reason for this post is to announce the launch of my photography blog . The site is not complete yet, but is mostly operational. I hope to be finished soon.

Politicians

It does make me feel better knowing that the United States is not the only country with retarded politicians.

New Cell Phone Number

Hello everyone, just a quick note that I have changed my cell phone number. My old number will remain active indefinitely, but I will stop carrying it with me soon. If you do not have my new number let me know and I will find a way to get it to you.

This is happening right now.....

I don't even know what to say. Just when I thought it could not get any worse, Ken Wilson had to share this with me. This is happening right now.....

iPhone update

My iPhone vs. Blackberry debate has come to an end. The verdict being, I am sticking with my blackberry. I played with an iPhone for a while and while it has its nice features, I feel that it lacks the raw business power of the blackberry. Granted, the iPhone does have the wealth of support from itunes and the untold numbers of apps available there, I would rather own the device that cuts down on the flare, and goes with functionality. Don't get me wrong, the blackberry is not without its flaws, I simply was able to get over the flaws of the blackberry much faster than those of the iPhone. For those of you who are big Apple fan-boys that are going to whine and cry of my critique, here is the answer to your question before you ask. My biggest complaint is this; have you ever tried to type on the iPhone in any window other than safari? IT SUCKS! the touch detection was horrible for me. I don't have huge hands, but the iPhone was constantly registering keystrokes for letters that I did not intend to type. Not a huge problem unless the predictive text engine sucks as much as the iPhones does. And heaven forbid you type something you didn't want to and it finds its way into the custom dictionary. Then you have a whole new problem to deal with. Granted I did not own the iPhone I was testing so I did not want to tear it apart and change all 3 of the settings it will let you change. The point being, that for a first time user, the advanced settings and functions were hidden in typical Apple fashion to keep them away from the normal users way. While this streamlines everything and gives the user interface a nice look, it doesn't help someone like me that actually cares about the nuts and bolts. To be fair, I might like the iPhone more if I spent a little more time with it, but I already own a blackberry, and the cost to switch far outweighed any gain on my part. So to cure my previous ailment discussed in the last iPhone post, I am purchasing a new iPod touch to replace my aging iPod to run my apps and do everything that iPhone can do minus the phone and camera.