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if you’re a blog long enough you start getting email requests from marketing companies to talk about books or music on your site. it’s an effort to get stuff out there to we oh-so-influential blog-readers.

usually i ignore these emails, but today i decided i’d give the Desert Music Group a fair shot and listen to the mp3 they sent me to review.

the song is called To Know Your Heart by an artist named Brent Anderson.

have a listen:

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on the lyrical end, the song has a very psalmy feel. in an era when it’s much more popular to focus on the “i’m depressed and don’t know what’s going on in the world” psalms, it’s nice to hear a song that’s more in the tradition of the “i love God and i’m going to extol His greatness” psalms. that said, the lyrics are very familiar in the sense that they are a bit predictable. on the good side, a congregation might pick this song up fast, on the other side…we’ve heard this before. but that’s not, in and of itself, a bad thing.

musically the song is basic, which is often times to be desired for corporate worship songs of a certain genre. there is, however, an interesting unnatural chord about a third of the way into the song that made my ears prick up.

i like the piano hook at the beginning, as well as how the verses are a back-and-forth between two chords, but then build into a more developed progression during the chorus.

on the production end, the song has what i like to call a very ‘maranatha music’ feel. the strings are a bit too unrealistic for me. but, then again, i personally think that if you’re not going to give me convincing fake strings, just switch to a synth pad or something. the very cheap, almost plastic sounding strings on this song make me think of somebody jamming on a korg keyboard with lots of bright green and yellow buttons on the top. just my opinion.

the vocals are a bit too disjointed for me. by that i mean, the lead vocal and the choir vocals are a bit too out-of-sync. i understand the idea, but it just becomes distracting due, in part, to the production value.

otherwise, the track is generally lush and has a few good ideas throughout.

so, if i was to grade this song, i think i’d give it a qualified B-. the song itself may not be in the genre i prefer, but it is pretty good at what it does (if that makes sense).

you’ve listened…what do you think?

having your own domain makes it very easy to track how people got to your site. it’s usually fun, but if i’m honest sometimes i feel bad because i think people occasionally get here under false pretenses.

for example, in the past month, people have made it to this blog by typing (among other things) the following words in search engines:

1. photo scavenger hunt list
2. a $60,000 car
3. stop motion jesus
4. df2d2d2b1301ba0de30b64c24eab2a9a

these searches may bring people in to Jesus Is Extravagant, but they certainly don’t learn too much about their query, and i decided to try to remedy that at some level.

so, this series will be a sort of nuts and bolts set of information about topics or people that bring visitors into this site that i don’t currently have a lot of information about.

our first Who Are Those Guys? entry is for pastor tim chaddick. every week i get people landing on JIE looking for info on him, yet there really isn’t any on here.

so here we go:

WHO

tim chaddick is the pastor of reality los angeles. that church was a plant that came out of reality in santa barbara. he was also a member of a christian band named Smithfield who released an EP and was featured on the worship generation compilation Revive Us. chaddick also had an original song recorded on the worship generation compilation Heaven Sings It.

tim teaches at various calvary chapel camps and conferences throughout the year, most recently at the calvary chapel senior pastor’s conference, where he taught a workshop session on the emergent church.

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WHERE

you can find pastor tim online at these places:

his Bible studies and some others
his podcast
his facebook
his myspace

so there you go. all you people who are getting here by searching for tim chaddick, i hope you are a bit closer to what you want.

i’ll leave you with a study tim gave at a worship conference a number of years ago.

it’s called The Power Of Praise In The Midst Of Trials.

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blessings

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enjoy

[youtube]http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=KhYe0Jtx84A[/youtube]

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i like banners.

strike that.

i like banners.

i like some banners.

i’m thinking of radically changing our church’s website (again).

here’s the current header banner:

i like it because it’s simple and clean.

now, what i need from you guys is some other good webpage banners. i like looking at other design ideas so i can keep pace with what’s hot out there.

so…link me some banners!

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well not really, but i thought this was a good idea, just like i thought this was a good idea.

so, here are my top 5 referrers for the last month.

#1 – my wife. kelly’s blog is amazing. i love reading it. i pressure her to post more just so i can read her writing. it’s snappy, funny, creative and way more impressive than my own. plus, she’s my wife, and i love hearing anything she has to say.

#2 – the guy who thought of this idea. well, i don’t know if that is an accurate statement, but to list referring links in sets of 5 per month was brody harper’s idea. i forget how i stumbled onto his blog, but i really enjoy it. he’s got this medium down to a science, yet isn’t boring like most scientists are…which was a marked plus (and by ‘marked’ i mean ‘mark-ed’). whenever i did start perusing his site, (back in the brodyharper.wordpress.com days) i noticed he also doesn’t spend 3/4 of his posts convincing me of how really awesome he is, so that’s another plus. also, i took note of the fact that he’s one of the only bloggers i read that consistently builds up his marriage/wife, and that’s really legit, so a’subscribing i went and have never looked back.

#3 – my mom – my mom is a wonderful lady. since we’re talking blogs, i’ll tell you that hers is about as varied as it gets. from updates on LDN and her multiple sclerosis, to pictures of my niece, to satire on small town life, to disney promos, my mom’s blog has it all. she’s a veteran parent, christian, wife and servant, so she has a lot of expertise to share. plus she’s just fun. all that comes through on her blog. one of these days we’ll get her on her own domain…or at least on wordpress…

#4 – my sister – i’m glad my sister is blogging. i like hearing the funny dairy updates and the candid pictures of my niece. i also just like hearing about the things she’s been thinking about. all those things happen on my sister’s blog. plus you get to see crazy madness, like this. i mean, seriously…i wouldn’t be happy if my fishing pole drug that up…on a tiny row boat…on the ocean. but my sister is way more brave than i am, and her blog tells her tales of bravery. and i love it.

finally,

#5 – the guy who works at an unpronounceable company – ok, so if you’ve known me for more than 10 minutes or have read more than 5 posts you’ve figured out that luke mundy and i are long time friends. he lives in the big city (yeah, the 5th largest in california…gnarly), and i live in a cow town, yet somehow our love survives. he was there when i was dying (not really) from asthma, brought on by walking around with a 55 pound flight case in colorado. i was there at his wedding…talking about his snot…see? bosom buddies. seriously though, i love luke and am always interested in his posts.

there you have it. my top 5 referrers for the last month.

now, if you’re reading this blog it means you’re a ‘blog’ kind of person. if you’re a blog kind of person that means you like surfing the internet. if you like surfing the internet, then this post is for you. the idea is that you now go visit the people i linked to and maybe you’ll find a new site to frequent.

so go check them out. 5 little clicks (with a few bonus links thrown in there) that bring you a little closer to people who are connected to me at varying levels.

enjoy.

[ click to enlarge ]

ba ha. i finally have e-sword on my mac.

if you don’t know what e-sword is, go check it out. it is probably the most amazing software in the last 10 years…and it’s free.

that’s right. free.

after copious amounts of research, including contacting the creator of e-sword and semi-begging him to develop a mac version, i finally decided to try out Parallels.

but, as i was pushing my XP disc into my beautiful macbook, a sense of horror came over me. i stopped what i was doing and decided i would try CrossOver out first. no XP needed. no defilement. no CPU assimilation. no lingering nausea connected with the feeling that i’ve gone back to the dark side, even for a ‘good’ reason.

plus, once i decide to buy (i’m still in the free trial period), CrossOver is like $20 cheaper than Parallels.

ba ha again.

anyone else using Parallels, Boot Camp or CrossOver?

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cheers to this company for helping to wake me up today.

cheers to wearing a dual-layer of my favorite shirts.

cheers to this guy for coming last minute to help me with worship last night.

cheers to this shirt for being awesome:

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pastor greg laurie of harvest christian fellowship has an actual blog, where he actually posts and actually takes comments.

so…go visit. i’ve already updated my blogroll.

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i loved this.

this is the defendius door chain, for those that are in no hurry to lock or unlock their door.

in case of fire, do NOT use defendius door chain.

for lots of geeky fun, use as necessary.