We're having some technical issues...

For Christmas, I received (though I also partially paid for) a pair of studio monitors from M-Audio. During my third use of them (and I've been very careful not to be too loud or use them incorrectly), one of the monitors began making a loud popping and humming, the sound became distorted, and then it was gone altogether. It still has power, and makes some very uncomfortable noise on occasion, but is otherwise altogether silent. Needless to say, I'm very frustrated and saddened by the faultiness of my most anticipated Christmas gift.

However, the primary reason for this post deals with a recent lighting issue at my home church, Heritage. We use a Leprecon LP-X 24 board to control standard lights and dimmers. We have six smart lights that go entirely unused, though several have been broken by balls kicked too fiercely by students, and the rest are too dim to be of use anyway. Well, I've recently been learning the more complex workings of dimmers and have become more familiar with the use of this board. I've known the basics for awhile now, but my comfort level has increased tremendously over the past several weeks. Leading up to Christmas Eve, I spent a considerable time programming in various scenes for skits, a full band, the teaching and other situations.
The Saturday afternoon following Christmas Eve, we powered up the board for our evening services. I was greeted by a message: #400 File Creation Error. It appears as though this board is having some internal memory issues, because all of the programming done for Christmas Eve had been lost, and the board was completely cleared. It was as though the board had gone through a factory reset. What's more is the dozen or so error messages every time the board tries to autosave. We can re-program lights for a day's services, but if we power down the board and turn it back on, everything is cleared again. We reinstalled all of the library files and other software, but that did not fix the situation. The best theory I've mustered is that the on-board battery is failing, thus inhibiting the board from remembering anything following a power down. It seems we'll have to have it sent in for "repairs"...

Well, it's a new year. It seems like every year speeds by faster than the previous. I can remember what I was doing on New Year's Eve of 2007 like it was a week ago. My final time leading for Heritage's youth group, CrossTrainers, was on 3 January, 2008, and it seems only days ago. Anyway, I made an easy New Year's goal to gain weight. Everybody sets out to lose weight, but I was not going to be sucked into that pit where I would inevitably let myself down. Anyway, I'm letting you know that I did gain about three pounds total. At one point I lost around sixteen pounds, but it was back all too fast.
My goal for this year, however, is much more challenging. I'm now a full-blown vegan. As a fellow who is pretty crazy about meat and cheese, this is going to really impact my way of life. I can't slather butter on my bread, drink half a gallon of chocolate milk in an evening, eat my favorite cheddar garlic bread from the bakery at which I work, eat sweets like cake, brownies and cookies, enjoy the delicious meats in a Chipotlé burrito... I'll be down to veggies, fruits and salad. It'll be really tough, but really cool.


Currently Listening:
I'm actually between services at Heritage, and not listening to anything. Most recently, though, I was enjoying the unusual talent of Gregg Gillis, know as Girl Talk, and his abilities to sample and mix various songs together. Be forewarned: he uses a lot of uncensored, mainstream rap music so the lyrics can get somewhat foul. However, his ability to seamlessly blend dozens of songs into one is awesome.