andrew dodson

Today, I spent a second Saturday in a row in Lexington.  The purpose today was to take back the couch I originally bought last weekend, since it didn’t fit up the elevator or stairs at the new apartment.  While reading my receipt, I read the dreaded words “no refunds.”  I figured I had a pretty good case and they might take it back - especially since it was still in it’s wrapping & padding.  No dice.

I still need a chest for my bedroom, so I was hoping they’d have one of equal value to the couch.  There were a few options that were good, but they were either out of stock for six weeks, or had issues such as drawers not opening easily (is it bad when the salesman suggests using a bar of soap to make their product work?).  I settled on a recliner.  Since I couldn’t fit the full size couch and had to get a love seat instead, I figured I could use the extra seating for when I have company.  In one way, I’m glad to have the extra seating and a nice recliner, but in another sense, I’m bummed that I had to end up getting something I didn’t technically need - all because the store wouldn’t give me a refund.  Oh well… and so it goes…

Thanks to some borrowed internet from a couple of floors below my apartment, I thought I’d celebrate with some random blogging (thanks Jeremy!):

Giants Win Super Bowl

No, this isn’t a news flash.  I’m a couple of days late on congratulating the Giants on their Super Bowl win.  I did want the Patriots to win.  After all, how many times will we get an opportunity to see a team go undefeated in the NFL?  It’s only happened once, so it’s not an easy feat.  But, Eli played great, the Giants defense played great, and they made plays when they needed to make them.  It is cool to see a Manning win the Super Bowl in back-to-back seasons.  I venture to say they may be playing each other in next year’s Super Bowl.  Finally, I thought it was a pretty punk move for Bill Belichick to walk off the field before the game was over.

New Apartment

I’ve settled into the new apartment, at long last.  My new love seat arrived today, so I finally have a place for people to sit!  I’m still debating on getting another chair, but for now, it’ll have to wait.  Next on the list is a dresser.  I’ve got my eye on one at Another Man’s Treasure.  I just hope it’s still there when I go back in a couple of weeks.  My old roommate certainly rubbed off on me.  His sense of style is pretty good for a bachelor.  I’ve found myself thinking like him while picking out stuff for the apartment.  No more hodge-podge of stuff that doesn’t match.  I want this place to look good!  Once I get settled in a bit more, I’ll take some pictures and post them.

 Current Reading

I’ve yet to start a book for February.  With the move, life’s been a little hectic.  I’ve kept up with my daily Scripture reading (barely), but that’s all I’ve had time to read each day.  Next on the list will be one of the following:  When I Don’t Desire God by John Piper, Faith in Future Grace by John Piper (re-read), or The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges.

The moving process is underway.  I finally signed the lease on my new apartment yesterday, and was given the keys.  I took a load of stuff down there last night, then headed back home to finish packing.  My roommate is allowing me the use of his equipment van, which is a big help.  I’ve loaded all of my furniture into it, and I’ll load up my mattresses this afternoon.  I’ll probably still have a load for my CRV (clothes, electronic stuff, etc.), but then I’ll be ready to move.  Tonight, I’ll stay at the new apartment for the first time.

Blogging might be difficult next week.  I won’t have internet at the new apartment until the 13th.  I’ve lined up a few draft posts that I’ll post one-at-a-time starting on Monday.  That should buy me a little more time until I can have internet at the apartment.

In a few weeks, I’m going to the Resurgence Conference in Seattle.  The conference is titled Text & Context, and I’ll be hearing the likes of Mark Driscoll, John Piper, CJ Mahaney and a few others.  I’m pretty excited about the trip, and I’m pretty anxious for it to get here!  Joining me on the trip will be Rick, Jeremy, Shane, Tim Chase & John Martin.  It will be tough for that group to stay out of trouble, I’m sure.

I always enjoy traveling, and especially going to new places.  Rick, Jeremy and Shane all experienced Seattle previously, so they’re veterans.  Getting to see Mars Hill Church will be interesting, as will all the sights around Seattle.  I’ve heard the seafood is tremendous, so I’m sure we’ll eat well.  I will, of course, have my camera, so be looking forward to pictures.

Most of our trip’s logistics are already in place - plane tickets, car rental, hotel, and conference registration.  All that’s left is for the time to get here and for us to all show up to get on the plane.  It should be a great time!

In 2005, I posted about how to ward off sickness, as suggested by my college band director, Pete LaRue.  In four years of being around him in college, the only time I knew him to be sick wasn’t really a sickness - he had kidney stones one semester.  I generally adhere to these five easy steps to follow, and I’ve stayed in relatively good health over the last several years.  I only wanted to revisit this post because I’m currently trying to prevent some chest congestion from getting any worse.  After downing lots of orange juice in the last twenty-four hours, taking some Advil for a headache, and some Mucinex for my chest, I’m feeling pretty good.

> Not Getting Sick (2005)

Well, it’s not quite official in terms of paper and ink, but I’m moving.  I took a final look at an apartment tonight, and I’m sold.  Or, rented?  Anyhow… I will be calling the property manager tomorrow to set up a time to sign the lease and get a key.  I informed Brad O. tonight.

As of February 1st, I’ll be living down on the St. Clair Mall in downtown Frankfort.  I’ve had my eye on the building for a couple of years now.  Before I buy a house, I wanted the chance to live downtown in these particular apartments for a while.  I’ll be living two floors above Jeremy & Julia in #404.

If anyone has any of the following, and would like to get rid of it, let me know:

• Couch
• Chair/recliner
• Dresser
• Washer & dryer

In my quest to blog more often this year, I find myself running into a problem. I have more to blog about than I have time to blog. I was hoping to get a couple of posts up this past weekend, and that didn’t happen. As I sit here typing this, I’d love to write those couple of posts, but it’s before work, and I don’t really have time. So, I’ll write quickly about a couple of random things.

Loops Update

The loops at church yesterday went fairly well, with a couple of minor issues. GarageBand only lets you open one song file at a time. This become an issue when transitioning from song-to-song in our worship set. I had to close one song and open the next song and this created the one thing we try to avoid in our worship sets - the “awkward pause” or dead space, until I was able to get the next loop going.

The other issue involved one of the loops dropping out for a split second during the intro of a song. We were able to stay in time with the loop, and I’m not sure many people noticed that it even happened. To alleviate both of these issues in the future, I’m going to try mixing down the loops to 6-8 minute WAV files and just play them from iTunes. I’m thinking this will solve both issues.

Sojourn

Jeremy and I went to Louisville last night and attended a service at Sojourn. They are another Acts 29 church (like TPCC). It’s always interesting to attend another church. Inevitably, it leads to critiquing what you like and don’t like, compared to your church. We went to their latest service (they have four on Sundays). The crowd was overwhelmingly young (nearly all 20s and 30s). It seemed like a very artsy, intellectual crowd. I would hope that, in the future, The Point could have more young people attending, like Sojourn. The praise band was very folksy in style, with acoustic guitar, keyboard, cello and percussion. Their building has an art gallery in the foyer, which is nice. The atmosphere of where they gather for services has an intimate feel - low ceilings, soft lighting. Sort of a modern, industrial feel to it. If you’re looking for a church in the Louisville area, check out Sojourn.

If there’s one thing that drives me up the wall, it’s vehicle maintenance (pun intended).  Lately, it seems my trusty 1997 Honda CRV has been ailing.  A few months ago, my exhaust went bad.  It’s slowly starting to annoy me to the point of wanting to get it fixed.  Last week, my radiator went bad.  This week, it seems I have an oil leak.

As shocking as this might sound, I’m not a gear-head when it comes to cars.  I care nothing about cars and have no desire to learn more about cars.  Sad, but true - and much to the chagrin of my father, who is very knowledgeable about cars.  I just want the thing to get me from point A to point B with as little hassle as possible.  I don’t have to have a fancy car, but just dependable.

The CRV has 105,000 miles.  It’s a Honda, so it should be able to run for a good while longer without any major issues - at least 50,000 miles I’d say.  But, I’m starting to get tired of putting money into it.  The question is whether or not I want to pull the trigger on getting a new(er) vehicle.  Decisions, decisions…

A little random blogging for today…

Current Reading

I’m really enjoying Jerry Bridges’ The Pursuit of Holiness right now.  I should have it finished by this weekend, so expect a full review then.  The interesting part of the book has dealt with our part in pursuing holiness.  We often hear “let go and let God,” but we have to do our part as well.  There’s a fine line between doing our part and legalism, though.  Bridges explains our part very well.

Music I’m Enjoying Right Now

I’m really enjoying a couple of albums right now - Kristian Stanfill’s Hello and another album he’s a part of (along with other artists), North Point Live.   Both can be found on iTunes.  Other songs I’m enjoying right now are “Mighty to Save,” and “From the Inside Out.”  Good stuff.

Loops

Sunday’s TPCC worship set will feature loops on four of the five songs.  I’ve decided to use GarageBand for the loops, since it comes with tons to choose from.  It took me less than an hour to find the loops.  Another testament to the ease of using a Mac.  As a side note to this, I’ve compiled a list of songs that have been done by the TPCC band.  My goal is to make loops for every song.  We may  not always run the loops through the house mix, but if I can have them in my in-ears, we can always go the same tempo.  Next up would be loops for JMB, but our music doesn’t really lend itself to loops.  I might just come up with click tracks we can use for our in-ears during a concert.

Last night at the gym, I had something interesting happen to me. Something I’ve never experienced before, so I thought it was blog worthy.

Since it was my first night back at the gym in several weeks, I decided to take it easy. I walked a few minutes on the treadmill to warm up, then jogged for about fifteen minutes. After a cool down on the treadmill, I moved into a little bit of circuit training. I alternated sets of sit-ups with different machines - incline bench press, butterfly machine, bicep curls, etc. I got my heart rate up pretty good, so after about thirty minutes of working out, I decided that would be enough for my first night back. My roommate was still working out, so I decided to just sit down and wait for him to get finished.

After a few minutes, I stood up to go read the day’s paper at the front desk. All of the sudden, I must’ve had a pretty severe head rush. I felt like I had tunnel vision. Everything started getting dark, and the sound from the gym’s radio slowly started to fade out. I knew I needed to make it to a machine to sit down. I made it to a machine, but I decided laying down would be better. I got up and walked over to the area with all of the sit-up machines. At that point, something as simple as walking took an extreme amount of focus. After laying down for a few minutes, I was fine.  I knew this when the sound from the radio slowly came back to my hearing.

It was pretty interesting. I’ve never passed out before, but I had to have been on the verge of passing out. I know my workout triggered it, but the odd thing was I really didn’t work out all that hard. I didn’t “over do it” or push myself too much. As evidence, I’m not even sore today. I’m supposed to go back tonight, so hopefully I won’t have a repeat occurrence.