andrew dodson

The Cross

Originally uploaded by AndrewD300.

Here’s some pictures from Jeremy & Julia’s wedding.

2004-07-03 010.jpg

Originally uploaded by AndrewD300.

I’m finally getting around to updating my Flickr site. Here’s a photo album dedicated to the best dog ever – Bailey.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be doing a fair amount of traveling – something I always enjoy.  First up is a JMB gig in Illinois.  It’s a campus ministries retreat for Vincinnes University, and we’re leading worship all weekend.  We went last year and had a great time.  We’re very much looking forward to it.

The following weekend, I’ll be off to Minnesota for the Desiring God conference.  I’ve never been to Minnesota, so it’ll be a new experience for me.

Here’s a list of states I’ve visited (excluding states I’ve “passed through”):

1. Kentucky (where I live, of course)
2. Ohio (used to live there, visit often)
3. Tennessee (lots of trips to Tennessee, unfortunately)
4. Indiana (lots of trips to the Hoosier state, unfortunately)
5. New York (senior trip)
6. Pennsylvania (trip to Gettysburg)
7. Illinois (JMB gigs)
8. Virginia (DMB concert in Charlottesville, vacation to Virginia Beach)
9. North Carolina (vacation to Raleigh)
10. South Carolina (vacations to Myrtle Beach)
11. Florida (lots of trips to Florida)
12. Georgia (vacation to Atlanta)
13. Alabama (vacation to Birmingham, maybe another trip or two?)
14. Louisiana (vacation to New Orleans when I was a baby)
15. Oklahoma (college band trip to Tulsa)
16. Missouri (several trips to St. Louis)
17. Okay…not a state…but it counts – Washington, D.C. (SCB performance for GWB’s first inauguration, and a trip to see Jeremy when he was in grad school)

It’s interesting that I’ve never stayed or visited West Virginia – I’ve only passed through.  Also, I’ve been in Michigan for all of a couple of hours.  On a trip to Taiwan a few years ago, I had a layover in the Detroit airport.

I find it disappointing that I haven’t visited half of the United States.  Hmm… gotta work on that…

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I spent this evening updating The Point:media site’s Sermons page.  I was about four weeks behind.  But… have no fear.  You can listen to the past four weeks, as we continue our sermon series from the book of Colossians.  If you have subscribed to The Point Podcast in iTunes, your sermons should be downloaded automatically.

The Point:media > Sermons

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From the “news of the odd” category comes this….

While leaving the Frankfort Post Office on Saturday, I saw a man walking in with a parrot on his shoulder.  An honest-to-God, really colorful, living, breathing parrot.  No “word” on whether or not it could talk…

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CLS is currently under-staffed.  On top of this, we are experiencing one of our busiest times of the year.  We are in need of the following:

• (2) Full time screen printers:  experience is a definite plus!  Expect to be on your feet all day, and when it’s hot outside, it’s hotter in the screen print area.  This doesn’t sound terribly exciting, but honestly – it’s enjoyable!  You can trust this – coming from a lazy softy like myself.
• (1) Part time embroidery person.  If you know Barudan equipment, you can do our work!  Our full time embroidery person is taking time off right now, so we need someone to assist in keeping up with production.  Work environment is laid back in a temperature controlled room.
• (1) Part time (full time potential) jack-of-all-trades.  This person will be trained to order and check in all goods daily.  When not handling goods, this person will assist with screen printing, embroidery, heat press, answering phones, waiting on customers and more, as needed.

If you are interested, please stop by CLS, or email me – art@clssp.com.  We’d like to see your resume, and we’d like you to fill out our application.  Thanks!

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As I go through life and get older, I’ve learned one of the interesting things is learning to deal with news of death.  Especially when it involves someone I have had a personal connection with.  I first dealt with this situation with the death of a friend and former baseball teammate, Chad Lippert.

This morning, I learned of the death of Dr. Stephen Tilford of Georgetown College.  Two semesters of my time at Georgetown was spent learning how to play piano from Dr. Tilford.  I have a good feeling his life is being celebrated in heaven right now.

Here is an email I received for my band director, Dr. Pete LaRue:

September 10

Dearest Band Scholars,

Subsequent to when I sent you the Weekly Reminders earlier today, I attended church and there learned of the passing of Dr. Tilford [for you Fledglings, Dr. Tilford’s office is right across from Band Central – this very fine young man had been in a struggle with cancer for the past few years].

”OC” [aka Off-Campus] Band Friends – I am sending this to you also, as many of you knew Stephen and know his wonderful family.

Stephen died at 6:45 AM this morning. I hope you shall well-remember this young man, possessed of extraordinary artistry and exceptional intellect. His wife Natalie, his two sons [Colin – 4 and Rhys – 2], his older brother Bradley and his family, his younger sister, Jane Ellen and her family – and of course his remarkable parents, Danny and Shirley Tilford – shall need our thoughts, prayers and support. It is with greatest sadness that I inform you of the crossing-over of this colleague, fellow-musician and friend.

Sincerely,
Peter LaRue
Tiger Bands

I am fortunate to have a recording of Dr. Tilford performing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with the Central Kentucky Concert Band.  He was a phenominal pianist, and an even better human being…

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John Piper’s online ministry site, Desiring God, has launched their much-anticipated new website. They recently completely a fundraising campaign of hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete the project (I’m dirt cheap compared to their web team!).

From a visual standpoint, there’s not much different about the site. The layout is basically the same, with a few minor changes in the menu, headers, etc. I actually really, really like the design of the site already. So… if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Neat, clean. Looks good.

They’ve also completed work on Piper’s sermon archive of over 25 years. Awesome!

They combined two projects that are near and dear to my heart – web design and audio editing. Two thumbs up to the Desiring God team!

Desiring God

I spent my Labor Day weekend doing several things – moving, working, laundry, and more.  One of my projects for the weekend was assembling a computer desk.  What started out as a pretty simple project turned into a fairly time-consuming process.

Saturday night, I purchased an el cheapo computer desk at Office Depot for $50.  After doing my research on the internet, I actually found this desk to be the most functional for my needs.  It was a “no tools required” desk, though I found that a hammer could assist in the assembly.  I also decided that I could modify the desk by adding a shelf.  Once this shelf was added, it would be near perfect for me.
I started putting the desk together Sunday afternoon.  After getting it mostly assembled, I discovered a piece of the desk was exactly the size I’d need for the to-be-added shelf.  I took the piece of wood to Lowe’s to match it up with what they have in stock.  I was surprised to find something with almost the exact finish.

While walking around the store, I stolled down the paint aisle.  “Hmm…” I thought.  “I could paint the desk too.  Black?  Yeah!”  I bought a small bucket of black paint, and… my first ever paint brush.  I was soon told by my new landlord (Brad O.) that I would probably need to prime the desk before painting it.  I picked up some primer and was ready to roll.

After getting back home, I finished assembling the desk and Brad assisted in cutting the new shelf.  Once assembled, I began the priming process.  At this point, I discovered this was going to be a longer project than expected.  I was able to prime the desk and apply the first coat of paint by late Sunday night.

Monday afternoon, I added the second coat of paint and assumed to be finished with the desk.  All was looking good.  Wrong.  When I installed the new shelf, I scratched the paint considerably.  The “groove” the shelf slid into was a tight fit and took off the paint completely.  This is when I learned I would probably need to add a coating of polyurethane to protect the paint.

I picked up a couple of cans of spray polyurethane this evening.  This weekend, I’ll take the time to add a couple of coats, and the project should finally be complete.  By this time, my speaker stands for my studio speakers should have arrived, and my new computer setup will be complete.

For those of you that may not have seen me in my physical form lately – yes, I’m still alive.  I’ve been in the process of moving, so my internet time has been limited.  CLS is also very, very busy right now (anyone looking for employment out there??).  To put more icing on the cake, I’ve started teaching drum lessons one night per week.

Here’s a breakdown and update on my life as of late:

Moving

A lot of my free time lately has been spent boxing things up and making back-and-forth trips between my apartment and Brad’s (new roommate) house.  I’m 98% done.  I still have a few odds-and-ends at my apartment which I will get this weekend.  I still have to unpack stuff here at Brad’s as well.  I’ve discovered that have I far too much stuff, so I’m planning on getting rid of a lot of junk.  Yay for making life more simple.

CLS

I’ve been working a decent amount of overtime at CLS.  This is one of our busiest times of the year with school starting.  I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse between now and Christmas.  We are short-handed right now, and we lost another employee this week.  Crazy!

The Prayer Project (book?)

I haven’t forgotten about my writing project on prayer, though I haven’t worked on it for a while.  Now that I’m close to settling in at my new digs, I plan on working on it weekly until it’s completed.

Solo Project

I also haven’t forgotten about my “solo” project.  Another advantage of my new abode is being around my drums more often (considering I now live where I keep them).  I’ll begin recording at some point this fall.  Considering it will be a mostly-improvised album, I have no idea where it will go.  I do know that it will have heavy leanings toward an electronic style of music.

Later y’all…

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