andrew dodson

“…and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky.”

Yeah, Noah’s ark is gonna float by anytime now.

If anyone is in the market for headphones/earbuds, I highly recommend these:

They’re great for your MP3 player or portable audio device. For musicians, they’ll also serve well for low-budget in-ear monitors. They come with three sets of rubber earpieces to fit snug in any size ear. While they’re not billed as a “noice cancelling” earbud, they go the extra mile of blocking out the outside world once the music starts playing.

While perusing the used CDs at Sam Goody this evening, I came across a $5 copy of Keane’s newest CD. I’d only heard a couple of things about them from Justin of 52seven. I decided to take a chance and check them out.

As I’m typing this, the CD just finished playing. Eleven songs and 45 minutes later, it’s proven to be $5 well spent.

As is the case with most decent human beings, I hold myself to a very high standard of excellence. While some categories of my life fall by the wayside of excellence (cleaning, keeping my vehicle in tip-top shape, eating habits, etc.), there are many areas where “getting by” isn’t good enough – being a Christian, relationships, playing the drums, creating websites, recordings, and most importantly, work. These are the areas of my life that are my passions.

Overall, I have a very good temperment (did I spell that right?). I’m generally in a good mood, and I don’t get upset very easily. A sure-fire way you will see my temper is when I haven’t lived up to my own standard of excellence. Nine times out of ten, when I’m upset, it’s with myself.

Today was a day when I didn’t meet my own standard of excellence – at work. If this was The Apprentice, the Donald would’ve fired me. I botched an order and made life difficult for the customer, my boss and our production department. The silver lining is the “botching” happened before the customer received their order. Thanks to my boss stepping in to help, life will be okay. CLS will make money, and the customer will get their order.

As my dad would say, “Chalk this up as a learning experience.” As Annie would say, “The sun’ll come up tomorrow.”

Ahh…relief. I received my order today excusing me from jury duty. Considering I don’t get paid if I’m not at work, there was no possible way I’d be able to serve jury duty and pay my bills. Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about that now.

We all know I’m a drummer (most of us, anyway). Several years ago, my mother would always say I should play drums for a Christian group. Me? Play drums in a Christian band? Yeah, right! Fast forward several years, and where can I be found? Playing drums for the Crestwood Baptist Church praise band.

Not only do my parents have an affinity for Christian music, they prefer southern gospel. When suggesting that I should play for a Christian group, I could tell they’d prefer it to be a southern gospel group. Me? Play drums for a southern gospel group? Yeah, right!

God had a different plan. This past week, I accepted the job as drummer for the Josh Martin Band. Not quite southern gospel – I’d call it Christian alt-country. Country music with an edge, and a Christian message.

My first gig with the band? Low and behold, a recording for a live worship album. Better git to practicin’!

Finally! My newest photo gallery is from my concert experience last Friday night:

Jeremy Camp & MercyMe Photo Gallery

I need to put up photo galleries for the Building 429 and MercyMe concerts I’ve been to in the past couple of weeks. I should be able to sit down tonight and do this. Check back!

Ok, I admit it. I haven’t felt like working on websites for well over a month now. Call it “burnt out,” call it “too busy,” call it what you want. I’m going to call it “being lazy.” I’ll admit it. Maybe I just needed a break. Whatever the reason, I seem to be over it now.

The only exception has been the Vertex website, which needs to stay as up-to-date as possible at this point. Plus, Rick is good about giving me information to put on the site for updates.

I did a few minor updates to Saxton’s Cornet Band’s website earlier this week (not entirely my fault the site hasn’t been updated since last August…they finally gave me some updated information this past week).

I spent most of tonight working on Capital Church of the Nazarene’s website. The structure of the site is built – I just need to add content now.

Next up is the website for IN3 Entertainment. I’ve created a site design, but it was quick-and-dirty. I can do better. I’ll sit down at some point this weekend and try to come up with a more creative design for IN3.

The good part about working on and finishing websites? The money that follows…

Buying Adobe GoLive CS at retail: over $300

Buying Adobe GoLive CS on eBay: at least $100

Buying Adobe GoLive CS from an inside source: $86

Having connections in the right places? Priceless.