Atlanta Braves are BACK!

Dear Lord,

We thank you for your mercies. Please bestow your favor on the following gentlemen of the Atlanta Braves over the next 161 games, specifically those against other teams in the National League East.

May they stretch well in warmups, as to help avoid injury.

May they swing well, as to drive in many runs - specifically more runs than their opponents.

May they throw many strikes, as to get many opposing batters out, and to save fatigue.

May they catch many balls, as to prevent the opposition from scoring and/or driving in runs.

May they assume a quick, comfortable lead, as to prevent stress as a team, and to save my fingernails from being bitten down to the nub.

We pray these in Your holy name,

Amen.

	Active Roster
	Pitchers	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
	46 Manny Acosta	R/R	6-4	170	05/01/81
	30 Jeff Bennett	R/R	6-3	200	06/10/80
	56 Blaine Boyer	R/R	6-3	215	07/11/81
	47 Tom Glavine	L/L	6-0	205	03/25/66
	32 Mike Hampton	R/L	5-10	195	09/09/72
	15 Tim Hudson	R/R	6-1	170	07/14/75
	49 Jair Jurrjens	R/R	6-1	200	01/29/86
	58 Peter Moylan	R/R	6-2	200	12/02/78
	13 Will Ohman	L/L	6-2	210	08/13/77
	48 Chris Resop	R/R	6-3	215	11/04/82
	34 Royce Ring	L/L	6-0	220	12/21/80
	39 Rafael Soriano	R/R	6-1	220	12/19/79
	Catchers	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
	16 Brian McCann	L/R	6-3	230	02/20/84
	27 Corky Miller	R/R	6-1	245	03/18/76
	5 Brayan Pena	S/R	5-11	210	01/07/82
	Infielders	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
	19 Yunel Escobar	R/R	6-2	200	11/02/82
	8 Ruben Gotay	S/R	5-11	190	12/25/82
	2 Kelly Johnson	L/R	6-1	205	02/22/82
	10 Chipper Jones	S/R	6-4	210	04/24/72
	14 Martin Prado	R/R	6-1	190	10/27/83
	24 Mark Teixeira	S/R	6-3	220	04/11/80
	Outfielders	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
	18 Gregor Blanco	L/L	5-11	170	12/12/83
	23 Matt Diaz	R/R	6-1	215	03/03/78
	7 Jeff Francoeur	R/R	6-4	220	01/08/84
	11 Mark Kotsay	L/L	6-0	205	12/02/75

Who’s YOUR favorite Brave?

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Stat-O-Matic 11,000

WOW!!! BIG CONGRATULATIONS to “Super Sleuth” Scott Long for discovering the answer to the question posed on the last Sat-O-Matic post:

“What do all these people have in common?“

Check his answer in the comments section HERE.

And, as a special bonus, Scott is the honorary “Stat-O-Matic #11,000“

The Stat-O-Matic is, of course, the lovely little counter down on the left side of this blog’s homepage.

Love it, feed it, take care of it. It is your friend.

Will YOU be #12,000?

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LiveWires on MTV

Here’s something cool - John Diles, Co-Founder of LiveWires In-Ear Monitors, found my blog about LiveWires on American Idol and posted a comment.

Click HERE (comment # 8 ) to see what they’re doing with a new MTV show; “Rock the Cradle“. The show features offspring of Pop and Rock stars (Joe Walsh’s daughter, Kenny Loggins son, Olivia Newton John’s daughter, etc.)

Very cool.

And go HERE if you still haven’t ordered your pair…

I used mine today. Love ‘em!

FRIENDLY TIP #1: When you first try them on, they’ll be quite snug, to point that you think they don’t fit. They’ll be tough to get in and out the first couple weeks.

This eventually goes away as a small (and not gross) amount of ear wax coats the in-ear monitor, and it slides effortlessly in and out of your ear.

A couple folks have mentioned putting a teeny tiny amount of hand cream or vaseline on the monitor the first few times they wore them to aid in the insertion and removal. I didn’t find it necessary, but you may find that info useful.

FRIENDLY TIP #2: Learn HOW they go in and out of your ear. They actually CORKSCREW INTO and OUT OF your ear canal. You don’t just push them in like an ear plug or a universal in-ear monitor (eg: Shure E5).

FRIENDLY TIP #3: Wear them around the house a bunch before showing up at your first gig with them. BREAK THEM IN - learn how to take them in and out!! Learn how to corkscrew them into your ears for a good, solid seal.

If you don’t, you’ll look like a dork, with your constant fiddling with them…

Trust me on tip #3, from personal experience - not only did I look dumb, but it affected my playing and mix, because I hadn’t learned how to use my monitors properly. I soon learned how to get a great seal (by using the corkscrew technique), and had to change my mix entirely.

Fortunately, my molds were quickly broken in, slip effortlessly in and out, and sound amazing.

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Let Loose on the Town

BEWARE: Do not let parents of babies and/or preschoolers out for a night on their own, minus children.

Here’s why…

Yeah, I make an ugly woman.

Thanks for babysitting, Papa and Yaya!

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Jennie’s Birthday !!!!

Yes, just when you were over my birthday, the sexy one in our house has her birthday!

Jennifer Greven turns 29 today!!!

Stop by her blog or Facebook and wish her a happy day.

Jen’s the greatest wife and mother to our kids that I could ever hope or dream to have. She is an incredible woman of God, and she makes life wonderful. Ella, Cooper and I are so blessed to have her in our lives.

And she’s hot. And teaches kick boxing. And could maybe take me in a fight… Maybe.

Here are some of my favorite pics of her, taken at the beach last summer (and 7 months pregnant with Cooper!).

Work it, girl! (Oh man, she’s gonna kill me…)

Happy Birthday to HER!

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Stat-O-Matic 7,000 - 10,000

Whew - either I’ve been slacking, or you people have been burnin’ up this site!

Let me announce the following visitors:

# 7,000:

Lee Akehurst of London, England

# 8,000:

Hakeem Abdul-Samad of Carson, California

# 9,000:

Jonathan Uziel of Jerusalem, Israel

# 10,000:

Michael Gurewitz of Amityville, New York

(OK, super sleuths - what makes these people special?)

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My Birthday

I was born on Wednesday, March 26, 1975

This will be Wednesday March 26, 2008

I will be 33

Jesus was 33

(no pressure!)

I believe this WILL be the most important year of my life so far.

I’m glad you’re sharing it with me!

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Expelled Movie

WOW. We just got to see a screening of the upcoming movie:

EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed

It was actually really good. I didn’t feel it was as “Pro-Intelligent Design” as it was an exploration of how the Darwinism community and mainstream science has adopted Darwinism (NOT even “evolution”) as FACT and not THEORY.

In doing so, the mere mention of Intelligent Design is then ridiculed and not even permitted as a theory or up for debate.

The bottom line of the film is not necessarily “Pro-Intelligent Design”, let alone “Pro-Creationism”, but rather that it reveals the significant lack of freedom of ideas within the scientific and academic communities, drawing many parallels to Nazism and post-WWII Communism, and how that is perilous to our own freedoms.

I appreciated how the film was revealing, and not preachy. The greatest irony was that Darwin himself (whether you agree with him or not) presented theories that were new ideas, against the status quo.

Will YOU please go see it when it opens April 18?

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Sunday Summary: Easter - March 23, 2008

Man, what a cool morning. We were able to experience some cool stuff yesterday, and prove once again that creating a decent, powerful service is a collaborative effort with dozens and dozens of people involved.

And most of them are volunteers that have real jobs

OK - BEFORE WE GO ANY FARTHER, go scrounge up your BEST pair of headphones. The ones with the most bass! Or, at the very least, plug your computer into a some speakers with really big woofers - the kind that bother the neighbors.

You’re about to experience something epic - something 18,000 others experienced at North Point this past Friday and Sunday.

NOW, instead of me regurgitating what we did for the opener, Brad’s already explained it quite well. He created the graphics and I wrote the music. Keep in mind that the center part of the video was on the giant (approx) 30′ x 20′ Hi Def middle screen, with the side screens coming in 2/3ds of the way through.

Then, farther down Brad’s post, be sure to check out the Title Pack video. Matt did an amazing job on the video, and I used some vocal samples of Todd to create the music. Once again, use good headphones…

Ready? OK, click HERE.

The ALIVE! Opener then lead into a chorus of a new Steve & Eddie tune called “God Is Alive”. The problem was that we needed a buffer for the big screen to raise, and the band to walk out. So I programmed an intro with a sample of Steve’s vocal. The band then kicks into the tune. Here’s the INTRO with a teaser of the song.

(Don’t worry - I used Melodyne to pitch correct Steve’s “overcome” before we did it live. He wasn’t out of tune - I had changed the chord progression, so that’s why that note feels weird in this “pre-corrected” version.)

Continuing in our “louder, faster” set, we did:

All Because Of Jesus by FEE (NO - Casting Crowns did NOT write that song!!!)

Salvation’s Chorus by Todd Fields

Lift High by Eddie Kirkland and Steve Fee

After the message, we came back with the back-half of Lift High (from the bridge) and a verse and couple choruses of Happy Day .

Poor, poor audio systems. That’s a lot of boomin’ and shakin’ for one service! Let alone 4 plus rehearsals.

In all, it was a great, celebratory weekend, and it was a pleasure to be a part of it, especially with these guys:

East - Todd Fields, Ashley Appling, Pat Malone, Steve Thomason, John Carrozza, Jennifer Young, Mike Gleason

West - Steve Fee, Eddie Kirkland, Matt Adkins, Heath Baltzglier, Brandon Coker and Chris Arias

But even through all the Shock and Awe, the boys lead with a passion for our risen Savior, focusing our praise and glory to Him. That’s the only important thing at the end of the day…

Easter IS the best day of the Christian faith. Without a risen Savior, everything else is moot.

What got YOU excited about the best day of your faith?

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6,000 Good Idea-ers

For the second year, we here at the ol’ North Point Community Church opted to have our Good Friday service exactly the same as the Easter Sunday service.

This, in my opinion, was a stroke of brilliance by the powers-that-be that decided on it a couple years ago.

It has 3 distinct points.

#1 - It allows Andy to record an Easter message that will then be shown on Sunday morning at our two other campuses (Buckhead Church and Browns Bridge Community Church).

#2 - It offsets the traditionally out-of-control Easter crowds we’ve previously experienced at NP. If you’ve ever sat in the traffic on even a normal Sunday, you can understand the dilemma.

Last night we had one service, with live music in both Auditoriums, with standing-room-only crowds - that’s over 6,000 people with good idea of coming Friday, and avoiding Sunday morning.

#3 - Staff Stress Reducer. While I’m the first to admit I like the reverence, along with the musical and spiritual journey our past Good Friday services have had, the workload was overwhelming. I mean, just plain killer.

And then, Sunday AM was kind of an after thought.

So, instead, we put all our (chocolate Easter) eggs in basket, and did some cool stuff for the “Easter Weekend” service, including 5 1/2 songs, and some epic video. More about all that in tomorrow’s Sunday Summary

What did YOU do for Good Friday?

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Jelly Bean Martyr

Ahh, the curse of being the dad when the Jelly Beans are opened.

Here are the ones Ella left for me:

Do YOU like the licorice ones?

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AHH - Belmont Was So Close!

MASSIVE props to may Alma Matter, Belmont University, for giving legendary Duke a heart attack in the NCAA Basketball tournament.

Check out this story from CBS Sports:

WASHINGTON — Mighty, mighty Duke let teeny, tiny Belmont play with the big boys. And, for stretches, get the better of them.

No. 2-seeded Duke actually trailed in the final 15 seconds before barely avoiding the monumental upset, using every last one of Gerald Henderson’s 21 points to edge No. 15 Belmont 71-70 in the first round of the West Regional on Thursday night.

While Belmont couldn’t quite pull off the stunner, it was surprising enough how close this game was. In a matchup between a school with three NCAA titles — that would be Duke, of course — and another that never has won a game in the tournament, it was Henderson’s driving basket with 11.9 seconds left that erased Belmont’s final lead.

After ACC Defensive Player of the Year DeMarcus Nelson stole the ensuing inbounds pass, he was fouled, but he missed at the line. Belmont got the rebound, and one final chance to make history, with 2.2 seconds left. The Bruins’ leading scorer, Justin Hare, got a good look at the basket from about 35 feet away, but his shot clanged off the iron. He winced, and Duke celebrated as though it had won far more than an opening-round game - something it actually failed to do a year ago.

Duke (28-5) advanced this time to face Arizona or West Virginia on Saturday.

And Belmont (25-9) can go home with heads held high.

Way to go, boys! We’re proud, even if most alumni are starving musicians…

Who are YOU proud of?

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Pitch Correction?

Hey gang - need a recommendation from all you D.A.W folks.

(Mom, DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation, like Pro Tools, Logic, Digital Performer, etc.)

I need to pitch correct some vocals today for a track for the Easter service, and would love some feedback on the two programs that do this well, and which one I should buy.

The candidates are:

Celemony’s MELODYNE

OR….

Antares’ AUTO-TUNE

So what do YOU suggest?

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Brain… Ears… Hurt…

Nothing like a religious holiday to make you work some serious overtime.

Personally, my ears are shot. Along with everything else a week brings, the last 3 days I’ve been composing, editing and mixing the score and tracks for our big, epic opener.

Add to that the revelation that we couldn’t get synch rights in time for the Title Pack song, so I composed, edited and mixed that this morning and early afternoon.

I’ll post those after Easter for your enjoyment! (Don’t want to spoil the surprise!)

Plus, we just finished with East Auditorium rehearsal, and the West gang arrives for their rehearsal in 1 hour.

So I’m going to let my mind rest for the next 55 minutes.

What do YOU think I should do with this hour?

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Livewires on American Idol

Last year the two founders of LiveWires In-Ear Monitors made a special trip to North Point to fit players for in-ear monitors. After the word got out, 70 people came, from all over town. It was really a cool couple of days.

Well, less than a year later, who did American Idol choose to supply in-ears for the contestants?

Yep - LiveWires.

My sister-in-law Leah was ordering a pair last week, when John - one of the founders - told the story. It was cool to watch tonight and see the same product many of the North Point guys and I use being used by the Idol contestants.

And, to me, they sound a ton better than Shure E5’s, to give you a reference.

The coolest part? They’re only $249.00 + S&H.

Take THAT, Westone!

If you order a pair, say “hi” to John and Earl for me!

So what are YOU waiting for?

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