andrew dodson

I’m thinking about doing something crazy.

Canceling my cable and internet service at home.

Yes, I told you it was crazy.  Maybe it’s not so crazy to cancel cable.  But, how could a web designer cancel his internet service at home?  How could someone, like me, that loves the internet get rid of it at home?

Two reasons:  idolatry and money.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve started toying with this idea.  Far too often, the television and internet get in the way of doing so many other things in my life.  Most often, they get in the way of my time with God.  Too many days and evenings have been wasted away by watching show after show, or a ball game, or spending far too much time on Facebook, Twitter, or reading all of my favorite blogs.  All the while, I’ve “not had time” to read the Bible that day.  Cable and internet have become idols in my life.

In a lesser sense, too much cable and internet has not allowed me to do other important things:  exercise, read books, practice drums, get things done around my apartment, get outside on a nice day, or spend time with family and friends.

On top of all of this, canceling cable and internet would save money.  Specifically, around $75 per month.  Who doesn’t want an extra $75 per month?

It’s not like I’d never get to use the internet again.  There are two or three free wi-fi hot spots within walking distance of my apartment.  There’s Panera and other places that offer free wi-fi.  If I really needed to use the internet, I’d have plenty of options.  I can also do simple things from my phone.  The bottom line is, I think I’ll be alright.

What will I do in place of cable?  I’ll watch local stations if I need to, or pop in a DVD.  I don’t watch any shows regularly, so I don’t anticipate missing cable.  Until UK basketball season begins, at least.

This week, I’ll begin the experiment.  I won’t use cable or internet at my apartment unless I absolutely need them.  If I can go two or three weeks without them, I plan on canceling both services.  I’m looking forward to the challenge!

Okay, so this is a day late, but I just came across this video tonight.  The Boston Red Sox hosted a Disability Awareness Day  and asked this young man to sing the National Anthem.  A little bit into it, he starts laughing.  Then, the crowd steps up and helps him get through the rest of the song.  It just goes to show – no matter how bad you have it, you can always laugh at yourself, and, there’s still a little bit of good in the world.  Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, America! Somehow, I’m missing out on the party. Both my girlfriend and brother are in Washington, D.C. today. Jason is with his girlfriend, and Julie is with people from her church. Had I thought about it sooner, I should’ve made plans to be there too. Instead, I’ll do some random blogging.

• I absolutely love my new Flip UltraHD.  For the price, I don’t think you can find anything better in the world of video cameras.  It’s small (fits in your pocket), takes 720p HD video, records digitally (no tapes), does great in low light and is super easy to use.  My only complaints are:  the zoom isn’t the greatest, and you can only use battery power (no AC adapter).  Julie took it with her to Ireland and got some great videos.  Here’s one of my favorites, of a great street band in Dublin (note: video embedded in HD.  If it is loading slow, press pause after pressing play and let the rest of the video load before playing.):

• It’s almost the All-Star break and currently, the Reds are only three games back in the central division.  They haven’t been playing very well over the last few weeks, but fortunately, neither has the rest of the division.  It hasn’t been too out-of-the-norm for the Reds to stay in contention until around August and then fade as the season comes to a close.  Here’s to hoping they can get hot after the All-Star break and actually contend this year.
• eMusic just rolled out a huge addition to their catalog.  If you’re not a subscriber, it might be time to look into it.  They just added a bunch of big name artists, and they’re still cheaper than iTunes.

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Two nights ago, I completed my reading of The Shack.  I’d hesitated to read the book, mostly from hearing what folks like Mark Driscoll and Tim Challies had to say.  After some conversations with people about the book, including Julie, I was encouraged to read the book and form my own opinion.

First, the good.  It’s a good story.  It’s fiction and I think it’s important that we keep the book in that perspective.  Mack deals with tragedy in his life and as a result, he struggles with his faith.  There are a lot of people in the world that have the same story as Mack.  That’s one reason why I think this book is so appealing.  It’s relevant to a lot of people’s lives.

Perhaps the best section in the entire book, and one part I whole-heartedly agree with, happens when Jesus is talking to Mack.  In the context of Mack seeing “church” as an institution, Jesus says:

“Mack, that’s because you’re only seeing the institution, a man-made system.  That’s not what I came to build.  What I see are people and their lives, a living breathing community of all those who love me, not buildings and programs.”

Later, Jesus adds:

“It’s simple, Mack.  It’s all about relationships and simply sharing life.  What we are doing right now – just doing this – and being open and available to others around us.  My church is all about people and life is all about relationships.  You can’t build it.  It’s my job and I’m actually pretty good at it,” Jesus said with a chuckle.

The church is not a building.  It is the body of Christ lifting up His name and being in relationship with one another.  That part, I can agree with.

The book’s downfall is when people read it as if it were theological truth about the trinity.  It’s dangerous because while the book is fiction, Young (the book’s author) interjects his own views throughout the book.  Many non-Christians and immature Christians are reading this book and thinking its presentation of the trinity and some of the statements made in the book are truth.

To be clear, my complaint with the book is that it could lead people astray.  I would only recommend the book to mature Christians, or those that can keep its fictional perspective in view while reading.

How about the Reds?  We’re almost to the season’s mid-point and they seem to be a decent ballclub.  They likely won’t win the division, but they’re a solid team that should finish third or fourth in the division.  While that may not sound impressive, it’s better than finishing closer to the bottom of the division like in years past.

I really think the Reds are  on the verge of having more consistent winning years.  They’re probably a year or two away from contending for the division title.  As long as all of the current pieces (front office, manager, pitching, young stars) can stay in tact, and if we can add a little more offense to the lineup, you’re looking at a very good team.  At least a playoff caliber team.

But, their first pick in this year’s draft puzzled me.  Going into the draft, they knew they needed left-handed pitching.  With their first pick, they selected a right-handed pitcher – Arizona State’s Mike Leake.  All the while, University of Kentucky lefty James Paxton was on the board.  Both the Reds fan in me and the UK fan in me wanted them to pick Paxton.  Instead, he went later in the draft to the Blue Jays.  The Reds went on to select 23 pitchers in the draft, only two of which are left-handed.

The MLB draft is tricky.  Teams go into knowing full well that the majority of the players they’re going to pick will never see the light of day in the Major Leagues.  Some players still need development, and you never know how well or poorly that process will go.  I don’t want to doubt the Reds decision, since they’ve researched these players like crazy.  But, to me, it seems pitchers are 50/50 whether or not they’ll develop to their full potential.  It would be a shame to see Leake end up a bust and see Paxton go on to be a solid player for the Blue Jays.  I’ll be pulling for both players to end up as solid players.

This weekend, I’ll be away with the Josh Martin Band.  I always enjoy our road trips.  We’ll be going to Salem Baptist Church, where Josh’s good friend Mark Combs is pastor.  We’re leading worship on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, and then giving a concert on Sunday evening.

Once again, we’ll be aided by technology.  With Bert no longer with the band, and Doug not able to attend this weekend, we’ll be using guitar tracks from our studio recordings.  These are played from Ableton Live, synced with a click track.  Obviously, we’d rather have the human versions of our guitar players with us, but the tracks help fill up our sound.  It’s actually given the band a bit of new life – having the technology available enables us to accept more booking requests if one or two of the band members can’t make it.

In other JMB news, I’ve started working on the next version of our website.  I’ve got some good ideas, so I’m looking forward to getting started.  It should be ready sometime in the next month.  Maybe.  Hopefully.

Two things I’ve wanted to blog about lately has been John Calipari becoming UK’s coach and the Dave Matthews Band’s newest album – Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.

On Calipari

I will admit to not being a big Calipari fan before his arrival at UK.  There was always something about him that wouldn’t let me fully like the guy.  Was it his reputation?  Probably.  However, in the short time he’s been UK’s coach, I have become a huge fan.  Not because of his mad recruiting skills, but because he is a human being.

In his short time in Lexington, he’s proven himself to be far more accessible than the previous coach.  Calipari bought a house on one of Lexington’s most traveled streets.  He jogs around campus.  He eats at local restaurants (and not just the expensive ones).  He embraces all parts of the University of Kentucky – highlighting student academic achievements on his Twitter account, as well as visiting former UK athletes and students.  He goes to church.  He tells us what books he’s reading.  All in all, he’s a regular guy that just happens to be on an extremely large stage.

Ok.  I guess bringing in one of the best recruiting classes ever doesn’t hurt my respect for the guy.

Opponents of Calipari are still riding on his negative reputation.  They say he bends the rules.  Some would say he’s broken rules and just hasn’t been caught yet.  Maybe so.  But, none of us are perfect.  I just like that he seems to be a personable, down-to-earth dude, which isn’t common for some of these mega-head coaches in college and professional sports.

On Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King

Maybe one of these days, I’ll get around to posting a full, song-by-song review of the album.  For today, I’ll stick with a general review.  I’ve been really happy with this album.  I don’t think it’s their best work, but I’m pleased with the effort.

I’m not one of those fans that hates the Everyday album, but it was different.  Not a typical DMB album, but I’ve come to enjoy it over time.  Stand Up was an album I never fully enjoyed.  Parts of it were good, but it is definitely my least favorite of their albums.  On both of these albums, the band found themselves trying to go in new directions and create new sounds.

Big Whiskey finally gets back to the “classic” Dave Matthews Band sound.  Dave playing odd riffs on the acoustic (“Spaceman”), Carter going nuts on the drums (…entire album), funky horn lines (“Shake Me Like a Monkey”) and what I think is a key element – Tim Reynolds – beefing up the band’s sound.  They’re not trying to sound “different” with this album like they did for the previous two studio efforts.  And that’s what I like most about the album.  They’ve realized what works for them and have returned to that formula.

Now, if we could only get the studio versions of “Idea of You,” “Shotgun,” “Sugar Will,” and whatever else they recorded for these sessions.  That would be nice.

Ahh, hello blog.  I have missed you.

Looks like it’s been over a month since my last post.  I’ve been on a quest to live a slower (more slow?) life.  For the last five years, I’ve operated BADmedia as a freelance business on top of having a full time job.  While I enjoy recording and design work, the ultimate purpose of BADmedia has always been to have a supplement to my full time income.  While the extra money is nice, it is more often outweighed by the extra time and effort needed to do the work.  In turn, I don’t have time to enjoy life – reading books, getting some exercise, relaxing, having fun, playing drums, blogging.

Getting the job with Crossings has confirmed that I am “getting out” of the freelance business.  I say that with quotes because I will continue to do freelance work – but only for a select few clients.  Basically, I’m not going to take on any more freelance work from this point.  The current clients I have don’t require a lot of my time, so I will continue to fulfill my obligation to them.  The daily drive to Louisville consumes more of my time, which only adds to the confirmation that I don’t need to be doing freelance work.

I’ve spent the past few months finishing up a few of the leftover projects from my brief stint of operating BADmedia full time.  It’s been a busy month, but last night was a great night – I was able to come home and not have any responsibilities.  Just because it’s part of my nature, I still did “work,” but it was stuff I wanted to work on.  That’s how I want it to be – I want to only work on things that I care about.  Work on fewer things, but do better work because I truly care about the finished product.  Not working on things just to get a check when the work is done.

So, even though I’ve said this before, I look forward to blogging more frequently.  Life should be slower now.

Posted by mobile phone:
I am currently at Morehead’s graduation to see Julie.s brother graduate. I think I’d like to start a movement to replace Pomp and Circumstance with something more lively at graduations. At least something less repetitive. Congrats Phillip!