DanLog the ramblings of Daniel Pettit

So I watched Obama’s acceptance speech tonight. from the rumors floating around about the Greek Temple setting to one about a huge dry-ice delivery I expecting him to rise out of the floor in a cloud of smoke with a giant spotlight trained on him as the coming of the new messiah. None of that happened. Also the fears that having the speech in an outdoor stadium would harken images of a Nazi rally also proved false, at least for me.

He promised early in the address that he would deliver details. Well not really. The only details he ever really goes into lately now that he doesn’t really talk about Iraq with passion anymore ( I guess cause it looks like we are winning and if he had his wishes the boys would be home by now with Iraq truly mired in civil war) is about raising taxes. Tonight however he talked about cutting taxes for 95% of all Americans, that was a whopper to me and was yelling BIG FAT LIAR PANTS ON FIRE at the TV. He actually said 95% of “working families” so that means he’s gunning for you seasoned citizens. He also said McCain is not going to give “not one penny of tax relief to more than 100 million Americans”, (Note the change in terms from “working families to Americans) surprisingly he is quite generous in that 100 million number. The actual number is closer to 200 million, but nobody seems to mention that those 200 million already don’t pay any taxes.

Anyway he continued on forging a middle ground of not taking a strong stand either way on a multitude of issues. Again back to his empty hope and change platform. There was some red meat for Dems in attendance but for the most part it was mostly “can’t we all just get along”, change, hope, trust me I’m smarter than those guys tripe. Oh and the most infuriating part is this paragraph BS which is actually a bipartisan favorite.

“Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I’ve laid out how I’ll pay for every dime: by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don’t help America grow.

But I will also go through the federal budget line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less, because we cannot meet 21st-century challenges with a 20Th-century bureaucracy.”

If we’ve learned anything the last 16 years the Blues and the Reds never cut anything. The situation always manages to be different once they reach Washington.

It was a solid speech delivered solidly and unlike some of Clinton’s State of Union addresses I had no serious urges to lodge heavy items toward the TV. I can see the appeal of Obama to the regular American that gets their news from CBS and never questions that info nor spends the time to actually read and think about details and consequences.

I just pray that most of America will demand some steak from Mr Sizzle before casting a vote for Senator Obama.

Oh and a last note, is it just me or does it seem that people are pronouncing his name differently now? I keep hearing Barako Bama actually all strung together now but with a very strong BARAKO.

Went to the Robinwood service this morning. This is a church Lauren went to during and after her stay at The Sanctuary HB. Interestingly Robinwood just moved a week ago to their own facility from a nearby elementary school. The Sanctuary sublet this same building for a spell but not recently. That is how Lauren found Robinwood. She was checking out the church that had morning service at this building and there was some conflict/issue with her dancing, she thought she had permission but then someone higher up the food chain said nyet. So being upset and still wanting to worship she drove off only to see some sign on a street corner that led her to Robinwood. Who received her with open arms. Dancing? No problem, the children here run laps around the room during worship. Needless to say they took to her right away.

This is the most charismatic church I’ve been in which I guess isn’t saying much. Nothing really out of the norm for a modern christian church, no barking in the spirit or rolling on the floor. Just the children running their laps and one woman dancing pretty much in one place. The worship wasn’t bad, just not really my flavor. So I’d say as far as a musical ranking they’d be 5th out of 7 churches. They breakdown as follows: 1. Poiema Chapel [with Rose and Oden] I don’t think any service this side of heaven will change this rank, 2. Rock Harbor, 3. 24-7, 4. Calvary Beach Side, 5. Robinwood, 6. HB Vineyard?, 7. The Sanctuary HB (could be higher but all I remember is one service that was so loud it was distorted and painful).

Pastor Hous was rather entertaining and an engaging teacher. Must have had 10 people or so come over and greet me including Pastor Hous and Pastor Luther. Really only spoke with the man behind me he was alone as his wife was sleeping in. Robinwood is a secondary church for them. They go to a mega church in Los Alamitos, Cottonwood Church. Anyway I shared my abbreviated story and he had a similar one in where his wife up and left him with no warning as far as he knew at the time. She actually up and left all her family and friends. He told me that he thought there should be a specific term for the divorcee. He said in a crime you have a criminal and a victim. He felt he wasn’t “divorced but a “victim” of divorce. For him divorce was just not in the vocabulary being from a small town in Michigan. He never even met someone that was divorced until he was 18 or so.

Anyway he said he had been coming here since December, he had found them via their web site. His first visit he was apprehensive at wearing the name badge, thinking this is how they single out new comers. Those fears were eliminated when he saw that even the Pastor wore one. He just doesn’t feel really connected at Cottonwood and after a couple weeks at Robinwood knew more people than at Cottonwood. He thought Robinwood is a very unique, free and friendly church. He kept reminding me of a couple meetings they have there at Robinwood, but I told him I’m just not at a place where I’m called to get involved in a group. I wanted to kind of feel out the rest of the congregation but by the time he was done chatting with me most had vamoosed. I think I’ll give then another try in a couple weeks.

So I shook up the apple-cart and went to the Saturday evening service for the first time. I was a few minutes earlier than I usually make it on Sunday. Well the turn out is much smaller on Saturday. In fact they hadn’t even opened the doors yet and it was 15 minutes til. After a whole 30 seconds or so they did open the doors and I was behind the mad rush of eight people in front of me. I literally had my choice of any seat, much like the at Sacred. So being a creature of habit I took my “old” Catalyst/Sacred seat. Left end of the second row center section. I ended up having four empty seats to my right. The room ended up oh 70% full??

Pete Shambrook led the worship tonight. Kind of funny as I just burned a CD this morning that had two songs with him as lead vocalist. Which brings me to an old comment of him being like an Aussie Rocker, well turns out he is. A recognized published worship singer that is. He was with Vineyard before joining Rock Harbor. He started off with a song I’ve never heard before, fortunately the second song I did know so I did get a bit warmed up in the spirit.

We had a guest pastor tonight, he had been a volunteer at Rock Harbor six or seven years ago and is currently in Michigan and is much younger than me. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It was thought provoking service and I’m sure a convicting ove for many there. I’m sure I would have felt so if I wasn’t still riding with my training wheels. One minor distraction was the stage creaking as he paced back and forth given my close proximity. It must really make some racket when Pastor Mike has the stage.

The response time started off with several songs I didn’t know. I was starting to think about getting prayer when another song started. I didn’t know this one either but the women in the congregation certainly knew it and did the most amazing harmonizing it was truly ethereal. Then Pete played “Centre of the Universe” which is one of my favorites. Afterwards another song I knew and the band started to pick it up so I knew the service was getting close to ending so I went off for prayer. I haven’t really felt the need or calling lately but given that this is my only direct contact with other Christians it seems to do my “spiritual battery” good. The man did not read any of my mail but he was on target and had a unique approach and had a few powerful statements. Like “a thumb in the eye of Satan”. Afterwards he gave me a big slightly lingering hug and kept a hold of my shoulder a long time with some back patting and rubbing. Now for you folks that don’t get it he wasn’t making a “move” on me.

The last song and a half I knew and was most definitely in the groove after getting prayer. It was nice calm evening at church.

Speaking of out of focus shots, here is here is a fine example of practice doesn’t make perfect. Maybe by the time I wear out the shutter on my Canon 30D I won’t be messing up shots anymore.

Well it only took ten years or so but Bonnie and Dave finally tied the knot. The ceremony and reception were aboard the Carnival Cruise ship Paradise at Long Beach. We all boarded early before the rif-raf and had the ship to ourselves for a an hour or so before the ceremony. They no longer allow non-sailing guests on board with the exception of wedding ceremonies. I didn’t sail with them on the 3 day cruise to Ensenada, so I had to exchange my ID for an access pass. It was a bit unnerving having my ID in some envelope somewhere. I wonder how many wedding guests get so plastered that they leave without picking up their ID or leave the ship in time for that matter?

They had about 40 guests around 18 or so were going to cruise along as well. The ceremony was as short and sweet as they get. In a year or two I’ll get around to posting the video. The video is why I don’t have any ceremony pictures that and I do avoid taking photos during the ceremony when there is a professional photographer there. Earlier when Bonnie saw my camera with the big-ass (technical term) flash bracket she thought I should keep a low profile as she didn’t know how warm a reception I’d get with the ship provided professional photog. As usual it wasn’t a problem. I stayed out of his way and let him get his shots and I’d piggyback. After awhile I was getting my own and then he was following me and waiting til I got my shot first. A couple other guests had some serious cameras as well and it was like a paparazzi fest at times.

I’m glad there was so much coverage and especially that I wasn’t the official photographer cause at some point I accidentally changed the autofocus setting on my camera (didn’t know it had other options) which resulted in a slew of blurry pictures. Like this one.

Okay that one is actually the best out of focus one.

It was so dark that I pretty much had to have faith in my autofocus which turned out to be a bad idea. For some reason the predictive focus just loved the animal print wall coverings and would mainly \focus on that instead of the subjects in the foreground. Regards of how minimal the background was showing, strange indeed. Anyway I still managed well over 100 good shots.

A Sampling of the photos are in my gallery.
All the prewedding party and wedding photos are on Steve & James’s web site LakeMoose.com.

Tonight was the monthly intercessory prayer meeting. I was a little more anxious this time than last. It really was just a twinge compared to what my reaction would have been say a year ago. Todd headed up the worship this time. And they played many more songs than usual. It was a much smaller crowd than last time but more than what had been par for the course a few months ago.

I can’t say that I’m really much more eloquent at my praying but psychologically I’m merely at the level of lack of confidence instead of where I started 5 months ago with terror and nausea.

At the end I went up front for prayer, which might be first time in a month I’ve done so. Not since last Catalyst I think. A nice man Dave I think, prayed for me at length. He wasn’t reading my mail but was right on as far as the bases he covered. He informed me of the recovery meetings on Mondays.

When I returned to my chair and joined in in the worship song in progress. After a couple songs they started to wrap up the meeting, the man next to me put his hand on my shoulder and said that he had a word from God for me “I was Brave”. He said that when he saw me go up front for prayer he just keep hearing God repeat this over and over to him and that he needed to tell me. He said he didn’t know what it meant and hoped that I did. He also said that he had never experienced anything like this before. I hope that my “bravery” had a broader and deeper meaning that just my attendance and actions at Catalyst.

After the meeting was adjourned another man of our group of four was telling my messenger that he had a message for him. That he is going to be a prayer warrior and that he will be getting the gift of prophecy. He went on to give him some guidance and insight as to what was to be coming from such gifts. And to be prepared for attacks from the enemy. I hung around as it was interesting hear about this as this is similar to Lauren’s gifts.

I got a mild dose of the spirit tonight, not the quantity I’d been praying for put more than I’ve been getting lately. The real answered prayer was for that word. It was also kind of cool being there for and being the recipient of that man’s first “audible”.

I haven’t been in much of a mood to submit much to StreetMattress.com for some time, then Wim Rutten a SM comrade in Belgium noticed I’ve been stalled at submission #1233. Well being a fan of numbers Wim was wondering when my #1234 was coming. Well I thought this was a nice selection for the occasion.

So what if I didn’t actually take it. My sister Robbie took this of her girl friends on one of their girls nights. Don’t remember how many cocktails it took to get them to participate. Thanks Rob.

We celebrated Greg’s bday today. It was a smaller gathering that usual due to the Handy family and Greg’s peeps, other than Mike, having other engagements. We Wiied again and as long as you disregard that curve wrecker Renee, I be a pretty good bowler, seems I have pretty good balance as well. Renee and Bruce have only scratched the surface of all the Wii games they have. I guess when someone routinely throws 5 or more strikes in a row you’d shy away from trying new tricks.

It was a Blizzard and Blu-ray day for Greg.

Somehow there was enough Ghetto Cake to go around. After two servings of wonderful Lasagna (thanks Renee & Greg) I did manage to wolf down an over-sized slice of cake as well, not quite a large as Grandma’s though.

See all the pictures here.

While I was driving today it occurred to me that I had no idea when I was to pickup my fair entry. So thankfully I wrote myself a note to check when I got home. I’ve finished dinner and a couple deserts and I head up to my office with my notes for the day. I first look up the a diagnostic phone number then I check out the OC Fair website. Here is what I found:

“Pick up of Entries for Visual Arts Photography, Fine Art, Adult and Young Adults is August 5th from 10 AM to 7 PM. Please bring claim checks. Enter the fairgrounds off Arlington and proceed to the Visual Arts building through the Wine Courtyard. Due to lack of storage capability, any entries left after August 5th will be discarded.”

My initial thought was boy am I glad I remembered, they are talking some pretty harsh terms this year. Thankfully Tomorrow is the day. Before that thought settles in my mind, I begin to doubt that Wednesday is the 5th. A quick flip of the calendar (still on July) and panic starts to rise up. THE 5TH IS TODAY! AND WHAT TIME IS IT? 8:30PM OH NO!! I call the contact number and it rings forever then it plays a message repeating the text above.

I run out the door, thinking okay they wouldn’t be so cruel as to already be tossing them, maybe someone is still there, maybe I can get it early tomorrow, maybe I can dig it out of the trash tomorrow. It’s a whole minute or two to get there with time for a couple in-route prayers. I pull up to where i dropped it off and the wine garden looks dark and locked up. I see the area between the two buildings is open so I start down that way to try a side door. I spy two people walking out of the dark carrying some artwork. Okay I think this is going to work out. I go to the first side door and there is a note saying to go through the wine garden, well I know how unpromising that looked and give the door a try. It is unlocked. I headed over to the table where they had been releasing the artwork and no one is there. In fact I’m the only person in the building.

Okay it is self-serve but now I realise I didn’t see it coming in as I walked right by where it was. There were several photos still hanging here and there. I thought well maybe they put the ribbon winners somewhere else, which I guess would have been nice but would require more work on my part. Anyway all that ran through my mind in the 20 seconds it took me to walk back and double check for my photo which was right were it was supposed to be. I guess I was still pretty flustered when I entered the building that I walked right by my photo without noticing it.

All is calm now. My photo and ribbon safely and securely home.