A Passionate Apathy

Possibly my last post

2008-01-05T15:51:00.000-08:00

on this blog.

I took some time to check out Wordpress at the prompting of Vince (albeit several months ago). I was a little frustrated with the limitations of blogspot, but the biggest thing to me is that now people can post comments without having a google account.

So all of you that have just been dying to post ultra insightful and intelligent comments, or just wanted to say hello, head on over and do so now!

http://apassionateapathy.wordpress.com

Pedal...

2008-01-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

No, not the bicycle kind. The guitar kind....

I am the kind of person that loves building or improving things. I can almost never leave my cars alone, and prepping our race car is always fun. I have also built a high efficiency bass cabinet to go with my puny David Eden head as well as a sub to augment it.

So needless to say as I continue into the electric guitar realm I had to build my own pedal. I guess the word build may be a little stong here. Assemble is probably a better choice. I bought a kit from generalguitargadgets.com and started assembly yesterday.

The kit I got was the Marshall blues breaker. I chose it because I wanted a simple circuit to start with and I can always use another overdrive tone. It is a reproduction of the original pedal plus the added benefit of true bypass switching. The kit comes with everything you need except tools. The schematics and layout are on the web. I actually soldered everything up, put it together and it worked on the first try! I was not expecting that.

One of these days I'll pull it back apart and paint the enclosure, but before that I am already planning a few little modifications for it. The cool thing about researching and assembling the pedal yourself is that in the process you learn a little bit about what is really going on in that circuit. So if you hear something you don't like you can work at fixing that instead of just heading for a new pedal.

I'm sure this won't be my last pedal, it was a blast! My goal is to work on more and more difficult pedals and ultimately build my own small tube amp. So if anyone is up for having a pedal built, let me know. I'll work for chinese sweat shop wages....

Jan 1, 2008 - 6:30 am......

2008-01-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

With anticipation I pull up to my Dad's house. It was cold this AM. I had made sure and put on my long underwear, beanie, sweatshirt, etc. He was already waiting so we hopped in his Jeep and headed out. What would the day hold? Would we find what we were looking for? This journey may be a prediction of our general successes for the rest of the year.

We were pretty sure we know where we were going, but we had not been there in almost a year. So as we turned off the freeway and made a couple of turns we began scanning the horizon for our destination.

The sun was till low in the sky so we had to squint to see as we drove along. My Dad spotted it first, "Turn in there!"

Following his direction I ended up in a parking lot with very few cars..... We had beat the crowd. A big plus for us. We got out of the jeep into the crisp cold of the morning. The back hatch was lifted and we pulled out our gear. Everything got locked up and we headed for the main gate.

We signed in, got our hands stamped and proceeded through the turnstyle.

Here is were the real journey began. Hundreds if not thousands of cars in front of us waiting to be the donor of some needed and necessary part..... Yes we were at the Junkyard....

If you are a gearhead, keep reading. If you are not....

We came to find a big part for his jeep. Now skip to the end....... :-)

The goal for the day was to find a rear axle for his Jeep. Not just any old axle, and actually not even a jeep axle, but a ford 8.8 out of a 95 or newer ford explorer. And today was not any old day at the junkyard either. Today was 1/2 off day!

Rear axles in most Jeep cherokees are usually a dana 35 or a chrystler 8.25. Neither of these axle are very strong and even if upgraded have flaws that cannot be worked around. When building a 4x4 capable vehicle with bigger tires you need axle strength, both in the axles themselves as well as the ring and pinion and the housing. The ford 8.8 out of a newer explorer provides much bigger axles (31 spline) a bigger ring gear and a much more stout housing.

Along with these advantages it has the same bolt pattern for the wheels, it is the right width for the cherokee and comes with disk brakes instead of drums.

We did not go up unprepared. We had sent a scout ahead of time to see if we had a chance to find one of these elusive beasts..... (actually we just knew a guy that had gone up a couple of days before and asked him to look for us). We thought our chances were good. He had seen at least 2 of the newer explorers with the rear ends in tact.

The yard is organized by section so all our look would be confined to a smaller area than the whole yard. On our initial scan we found at least 5 or so potential cars. We checked for completeness and then picked the one with the lowest mileage.

With tools in hand we began the extraction process. In no time at all we had everything loose and it was ready to pull out. We made sure that we had all the little accessory bolts, brake lines, calipers etc and then hauled it out to the road about 30 feet away. This junkyard has a big forklift that drives around and pickes stuff up for you. So he came by and picked up the axle to take up to the front for us.

Once it was paid for, we put it in the back of the jeep and headed for home. Now there is still quite a bit of fab work to do to get it ready for the jeep, but it well definitely provide a good building block for his jeep build up.

I know we may be the black sheep, but for this part of the Lumsden clan, it was a great start to the new year.

And for those of you who read this whole commentary and are sitting there thinking, "I can't beleive I just read this whole thing about going to a stupid junkyard." well.... hahahaha :-)

Personality Test - ENTJ

2007-12-22T08:35:00.000-08:00

I went and took this test after seeing vince and alex's sites. I am a fan of taking these kinds of tests. While they usually do not tell you anything new, they will give you some insight on areas that you are weak, or could cause potential problems. Also, just fun to look at....

ENTJs are strategic, organized and possess natural leadership qualities. They are master coordinators that can effectively give direction to groups. They are able to understand complicated organizational situations and quick to develop intelligent solutions. ENTJs are outspoken and will not hesitate to speak of their plans for improvement. They are decisive and value knowledge, efficiency and competence.

Other Famous ENTJ's -

Beatrix Kiddo (The Bride) - Kill Bill Vol.1 - maybe this is why I liked this movie and could never explain why?

Franklin D. Roosevelt - American President

Harrison Ford - actor (Indiana Jones)

4 generations at home for christmas

2007-12-17T16:13:00.000-08:00

This chrismas I have 4 generations at my house... of Shoes. While not the most important post, it will give you a little look into the systematic, oddball, slightly obsessive person that Traci has to put up with...

Its become an annual ritual for me to get a traditional pair of black vans shoes each year for my birthday or christmas. When I find a good thing, I stick with it.

This year I have 4 pairs at my house, each with a purpose. I may have had more but my wife decided that my last pair needed to die with dignity and she did the honors..... No need to worry though, I know they originated from the evils of skateboarding, but I converted them before their demise.... so they are in shoe heaven.

#1 - The oldest pair - well broken in, have seen everything from desert sands to snow. Been doused in water, oil, peed on by someone's dog while I was at the dog park (yes the shoe was on my foot), and who knows what else. These are in retirement mode now. they are relegated to mowing the lawn, slipping on to run out and get the mail, or to be the sacrifice if I am going to be doing something godawful greasy, muddy, or dirty.

#2 - 2nd to oldest pair - these are probably the most comfortable. The rubber and material has been sufficiently worn so that it is soft and formed to my foot. These shoes see the most use. Any time I can get away with wearing this pair I will. They are a little faded, with a few spots, but can still slip by most people's 'ugly shoe' radar.

#3 - Next to newest pair - This pair has been my standard good shoe for the last year. They are just starting to show some wear and at the same time just starting to get comfortable like the above pair. These are my go to church, go out to eat, wear with my good clothes shoes. But soon they will move 'up' a category as my newest pair have arrived.

#4 - The newest pair - have not been worn yet. Good for weddings and funerals. Well maybe thats an exaggeration. They will appear with the good clothes and when I know there will not be dirt around.

Still here? Scared? Just pray for Traci!

The pedalboard

2007-11-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

I just thought I would share my most recent little project. Now that I am becoming an 'official' electric guitar player I have a few pedals that I run in front of my amp. At this point I only have 3, but it is still cumbersome to transport them in my backpack without getting all scratched up.

I decided it was time to make a pedalboard. For those of you who are not familiar with guitar pedalboards, they are just mechanisms to keep guitar pedals secure and organized.

Traci and I were out on a saturday morning hitting the yard sales and I found an older suitcase that I thought would be a cool platform to build from. I brought it home and realized that for my whopping 3 pedals, it was just too big right now.

I was talking to my mom and dad about the project and they said they had an old suitcase I could use. Turns out it was my great grandma Marie's. I would guess it is from the 50's. This was a much smaller suitcase and would work great for my project.

I set up the suitcase, now guitar pedal board, so that the lid is the bottom. I built a platform to raise the pedals up above the edge of the lid and covered it in carpet. I use velcro on the bottom of my pedals to hold them in place on the carpet.

In the other half of the suitcase I knew I was going to have a little extra room so I built a hinged door with a gate latch that I can open and close. This provides a great place to store cords, music, etc. I then attached foam to the door so that when the two pieces are together, the foam gently holds the pedal down on the carpet.

On the outside I had to cut and remove the pins that hinged the two pieces together. I then added two more latches to that side that are similar to the originals. With judicious use of the wire wheel along with brown and black spray paint I was able to get a pretty good vintage/rusty look to match the other hardware on the case. (In this picture it is actually upside down, feet sticking up.)

So now I have a good pedal board that will allow for a little bit of expansion (maybe 3 or so more pedals with the right wiring) and is different than anyone elses.....

Halloween

2007-11-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

I'm just pusing this info along. I think it's great. It's been tossed around in different forms at the blogs of my buddies.

I love turning traditional ideas on their head.... when it makes sense.

The second most important christian holiday

www.nikao.ws
www.johnwoolsey.net
www.betterthanblank.org

Another toy recall from China

2007-10-26T07:51:00.001-07:00

Las Vegas

2007-10-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Las Vegas. We is Traci and I, my mom and dad, as well as my brother, his wife and their baby. The reason we went was to go see Mystere. If you have not seen a cirque du soleil show before, you should try to see at least one.

The show was good. We also took advantage of some good and cheap breakfast buffets, a little slot machine here, a little roulette there, and had an overall good time.

The one thing that amazes me about the shows like Mystere is the live music. Since the guys on stage are doing acrobatics and such there is always a chance for a mistake. Well of course this happened while we were there, and the band did not flinch. Paying attention to what was happening on the stage they continued on with another buildup to the big stunt for a second time. Now I know they have done this for years as a group.... its still very cool.

I think worship would benefit if we were able to build teams like this. I am sure this is happining on a lot of teams already. First of all have enough practice so you are comfortable with the material. Have a plan ahead of time of sequence, what gets played when, where, buildups, quiet part etc. Third plan for moving away from the plan.... If the leader feels that something outside the plan should take place we should allow for that, practice that, have an idea ahead of time how something like that might look. This would allow a lot of freedom in the worship service and help to avoid the dreaded train wreck.

While presentation isn't everything, we don't want to be distracting to people when they are trying to worship with huge blunders.

Pray - Do - Adjust

2007-10-07T19:15:00.000-07:00

We all struggle at some point, or many points, with the direction God has for us. Many times the immediate direction is not super clear. So I am here to give you the definitive answer on how to handle those situations...... Just kidding. This is just some more of my rambling thoughts that I hope would help me, you, and others really think about what they believe and why? I am no theologian so don't pick me apart here, I'm just throwing up some ideas.

In general I have always been a advocate for praying, taking some sort of action, and adjusting as His will becomes clear. I know this is not the only way, as a matter of fact my friend Eric Beeman has shared a great example with me of when praying and waiting is what God prescribed. I guess there is more than one way to skin a cat.

In Exodus when Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt, God had hardened the Pharaoh's heart and he was headed out with an army towards them. It says that the Israelites saw them, that's when they cried out to God and complained to Moses.

Apparently Moses began to petition God at this point. When in doubt stop and pray right? Well God didn't think so. He said "Why are you crying out to me? Tell these people to get moving!"

I guess in this case it was a very practical command from God. You see the enemy over your shoulder, pray while you run... In the very next verse God lets Moses know his plan, but for those moments in between, what must Moses have been thinking?

I'm sure you have all heard the metaphor that you cannot steer a ship that is sitting still, just as we should be moving for God to steer us. I still think in most cases this is a good idea. Have a plan and a goal and adjust it along the way.

In some cases, including mine, its easy to get started toward a goal and only see that goal. When, in fact we should be watching for what God has in store for us along the way. It may be something that takes us on a slight detour, or something that changes our goal completely. I think we need to be open to that especially when we know we are goal oriented people.

What about road blocks? Speed bumps along the way? Should they detour us? Should we charge through them? How small of an obstacle in our path will knock us off course? On the other hand how big of a wall does God have to put up to get our attention and stop us?

I don't think there is a set answer here. Depends on the person. Depends on how well you know his word. Depends on how deep your relationship is with Him and how well you know His voice. So maybe the closer your walk is, the smaller the obstacles need to be to turn you to the path the the Father wants for you? And maybe the closer your walk the bigger your speed bumps can be because He knows you will stay the course?

Maybe my prayer for maturity should be, "God allow my speed bumps to be bigger and my walls smaller." I guess he'll know what I mean...... :-)

Emily

2007-10-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

Traci is the lucky one this week. She gets to babysit Emily for a few days....

We were blessed to have Emily as our foster daughter from 6 days old to about 2 months. She then went to live with her aunt who is a christian and lives fairly close by. We keep in contact with her and babysit when we can. She is now about 8 months old.

This little girl holds the record for making me loose the most amount of sleep in a two month period ever....... but it was worth it.

worship

2007-10-02T22:53:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this by saying that these ideas are not wholly mine. They were initiated by conversations with leaders at my church http://www.impactchurch.tv/. These are not official views held by impact church, but my little twist on some conversations I had there. So if you have any problems with anything I am saying here don't blame them! :-)

As a church, if we really want to worship God how should we do it? There are 'canned' versions of what and how to do things that people and churches have successfully done before. These are great and there will always be a place for them.

But.... Think for a moment about a prayer. There are many great prayers that have been, and are recited that we would consider 'canned'. Standard for all to use. These fit great in some situations, but not all. A prayer from your heart... personal, relevant, and filled with the relational conversation you may have with the Lord, in many cases is where He touches you, your church and your community. It may not be as eloquent, polished or profound as the 'great' ones, but they are your conversation, worship, and relationship with Him.

What if we extend that idea to other areas of ministry?

Can we write songs filled with passion from our heart that are very relevant to our congregation? They may not be the next Hillsong United, but could God be putting a song in your heart for your particular church?

Can we use visual arts to worship and hold high our maker? Paintings, photographs, and video of His creations. The beauty and majesty of our Lord can be found in many things.

Can we use excellence in execution of the service to show honor to God using the management and creative skills he has given?

How about opening our lives to others so they can see the struggles we go through and how God works in our lives?

I have not even come close to mentioning all the ways we worship our Lord, but one thing is certain. We are heading toward a common goal. Just as players on a football team all do different tasks yet are headed toward the end zone at the other end. Now lets take that one step further. On any football team you could have the greatest players ever at each position, but without a game plan, or set of plays, they would not be very successful. As a church we should be looking to have a 'game plan'. With all of our great 'players' we could be much more successful if we not only had a common goal, but a unified way to get there. And if we take it one step further than that, all the churches in the temecula valley could have a profound impact if they came up with a common 'game plan' to reach the goal of worshipping our Lord and reaching the lost.

Anyway... just a little something to get the mind thinking.

The iconic first post

2007-09-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

I will refrain from typing "testing"...... Oh crap I did it already. I would think a first post should be the absolute most important thing one would have to say when starting a blog, but in light of the oxymoronic title I have chosen, I will violate the first post law.

These are our dogs. Tilly on the left and Roxy on the right. Overall they are pretty good. They have their moments though.

They are pure bred labs a little over 2 years old now. We had them leash trained when they were young so that we could have manageable large indoor dogs.

I will spare you all the funny stories I have about them now, look for them in future posts.