ugh
I feel sick. I don’t usually get sick, so ugh. I usually get sick about once or twice a year at most…

help me, vitamins!

By the way-
Mike and I (Janke and Semsen) have decided to go with a new, radical, revolutionary, and unique way of rating our movies. We will rate movies together with a total of two thumbs each–so if both of us love it, then the movie will get a grand total of 4 thumbs up! Pretty cool, huh?

So I give Mr. & Mrs. Smith two thumbs up, and if Mike gives it two thumbs up, then it will get 4 thumbs up! Watch out for Janke and Semsen!! Movie reviewers extraordinaire!

Psalm 119:36-37

36 Turn my heart toward your statutes
and not toward selfish gain.

37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things;
preserve my life according to your word.
——–

I really like this passage. I’m a pretty selfish guy, so it is a true cry of my heart.
Happy Sunday! Get some rest. Be with your family.

Be balanced.

Christy and I saw MR. and MRS. SMITH tonight. Hilarious-especially as a married person…(but still funny, if you’re single). I loved it-even if Angelia Jolie ruined Brad and Jen’s marriage. Darn you Angelia Jolie!! I give the movie two enthusiastic thumbs up!

Ooh- Christy got me some new socks. I’ve been needing these for a long time…

I also watched THE AVIATOR tonight with some of my leadership buddies. Howard Hughes was such a visionary! I had to share that passion (at least, as portrayed in this film) with the guys I’m training in leadership. Vision is so important–HH had tons of it! How inspiring!

Did you guys know that Clay Aiken recorded a song on a Disney album?? Yeah, Disneymania 3…he sings “Proud of Your Boy”. I have never heard the song before, and I haven’t heard the whole thing–only the 30 second preview from iTunes–but it sounds pretty cool. Also-Jessica Simpson and Nick Lache are singing “A Whole New World”, along with a smattering of other Disney songs and pop artists covering movie tunes that you can buy for 99 cents each…but, of course, the only ones I’d be interested in say “ALBUM ONLY”-meaning you have to pay the whole ten bucks instead of getting the single song. ARGH!!!

Weird that I hadn’t heard anything about that, usually Mike finds these things out and lets us all know. Mike, what happened???

Finished off a string quartet project..yay. Working on the 10-piece brass stuff some more…

Thank you for your inteesting comments about music. I guess Mike loves Psalty, the singing songbook…Hey, what if Psalty were updated to 2005?? Would he be Psalty the mighty mp3 player??? Psalty the Cd-rom digital songbook? Psalty the perpetual powerpoint presentation?? Psalty the leidering lyric file?? Hm…songbooks, what are those??

Speaking of Hymnals, it doesn’t seem practical for us (at Midway) to have them anymore. They are out on a table in the church lobby for anyone to take if you want them. We don’t need them now that we have Powerpoint, Media Shout and Keynote. Lyrics are all digital now…Happy singing at home!

Great rehearsal last night, MPC. I felt better about this one than I have in a long time…I don’t know why, it might just be me. Just remember you have two buckets! (going to be an inside thing, sorry). Our music for July 4th and A Summer’s Night is really coming along. I am proud! Just keep our group in prayer, as we continue to grow in unity and purpose, grow musically, or any other way really, our enemy will fight us. Please pray that we will call upon the Lord and surrender to Him minute-by-minute, so that petty selfishness, pride, and other evil will not have a place in our group. It is hard!!! Thank you for a great night!

It’s been a great day. Church, Star Trek, Nap, Beach, Dinner with friends. Great conversations at dinner. I was encouuraged to hear some compliments about the choir today, not only for the special music, but for the choir during worship–and I have to admit, it is probably the most fun time for me as well on a Sunday morning. I love our choir–it is the most challenging and wonderful thing perhaps in my life/job/ministry right now. Not that I don’t like the small vocal groups (no offense), I just love having the choir in worship–I don’t know why…I have been partial to choirs for a long time, probably dating back to when I was in choir when I was very young (ya know, The Promise…). I was like, 11 or something-and I was the youngest one there, but I loved it (at least that’s the way I remember it).

You really don’t know how much power music has in your life. The Lord used music to draw me to Him, to shape me and give me passion, to direct me and guide me in a lifetime of service and worship. Music is powerful, not just for me, but for everyone. Look around you. Where is music? It’s everywhere…it’s in our stores, our malls, our cars and houses. It’s in our iPods and Walkmans (c’mon, who uses a walkman anymore?? it’s 2005, for goodness sake!!). Music is on our computers, on the web, on our disk drives and CD mixes we make. It’s the focal point of one of the biggest shows on TV-American Idol. Where isn’t music?? Who isn’t it affecting?

What is music to you?

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who commented on my blog from a few posts ago. Even my DAD left a comment! Way to go, Dad!! It was encouraging to know there are some readers out there!! Thanks! You guys are my peeps!

I’ve got to get to work on these arrangements for Chris. I’m spending most of the day today working on that–right after I pay the rent…(oops, it’s the 3rd)…

Went to a great concert last night at Castle Park High School in Chula Vista. Frank is the teacher there, and he’s done an amazing job with those kids. It was incredible to see a school with a great music program-not to mention, STRINGS!! And last night’s concert was only the first half…we’re going tonight, also for the other half. But, yeah–this school has a string orchestra, wind ensemble, symphony orchestra, jazz band, and marching band…etc..etc..etc..wow! It is really rare to see strings in a school program. I give huge props to one of my new favorite people-Frank! Not only has Frank done a great job at his school, he has brought a vital missing ingrediant to our worship services on Sunday mornings—his trumpet playing has brought our worship to a new level. The MPO is playing better than ever! Yahoo Frank!!!!!! You’re awesome!!

Oh yeah-Christy now has a wish list on Amazon.com. It contains mostly sit-coms from the 80′s…AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Silly girl…She’s decided if I’m going to compose some more, she’s going to need some good DVD box-sets of the Cosby show or something to get her through it…HAHAHAHAHA
So funny…

Oohh- Came across a cool article comparing the American Idol finalists to worship on Sunday mornings…pretty cool. I’m not one to link to a lot of articles, but hey-this is cool.

EDIT ADD: Didn’t mean to sound so negative in my post…I’m feeling a little overwhelmed today…Help Lord!!! Help!

Check out this article on the new series Dancing with the Stars…it actually looks good…I didn’t hear much about it until today. I guess it premieres tonight…and it has J. Peterman from Seinfeld as one of the dance partners (plus other celebs, Trista of Trista and Ryan, Rachel Hunter, Joey from New Kids on the Block and more!). Go read…

Good practice last night. A little frustrating to be losing so many people to this or that. Yikes! Doesn’t matter though, the show will go on and I’ll keep conducting ’til the cows come home. Thanks to those of you that are continually dedicated!!! Praise the Lord for your faithfulness!!