u2 + the passion of the Christ
Sep 1st
i was reading through some of the blogs that i check daily and i came across this video. it came from the new collide maganzine blog. the video mixes the u2 song “until the end of the world” with clips from “the passion of christ.”
i personally don’t know a lot of u2′s music, but this song fascinated me, especially when combined with the video. i’m always looking for new, creative, christian media because i have such a passion for media and ministry. i don’t believe that i’ve caught the full meaning to the song yet. i know it has to do with the relationship between jesus and judas. i’ve been searching the internet over, looking at what people think the song is about. everyone has a different opinion.
what are your thoughts?
the 210 records website launch!
Aug 31st
210 records has officially hit the web and in grand fashion if i say so myself. it is my latest web creation for a good friend and record producer, daniel heath. daniel just finished up from barton college back in may and he is fixing to pack up and move west to nashville, tn to start his new career. 210 records is the name of his record label. the name dates back to the number of a dorm room that he lived in during college (210). it was also the first place he started recording. daniel has a passion for making music and he is one of the funniest guys i know. he’s very talented at what he does and it was a honor to help him put his company out there on the web. check out daniel’s new site and dropped him a line if you ever need to lay something down on a track.
duct tape and a manila folder
Apr 7th
so for the past few months the passenger side door in my jeep has had this insistent rattle. every time i got to going down the highway, something in the door would rattle and it was driving me crazy. today i decided i would take care of the problem once and for all. i removed the door panel and started looking around for something that could rattle. i found what i thought was the culprit. a small piece of metal that was bracketed into the door. i shook it and it made that all to familiar rattling noise. i showed it to my dad and being the engineer that he is, he suggested using a manila folder and some duct tape. sure enough we constructed a nice little rig to get this metal piece stationary so that it wouldn’t rattle. i hope the problem has been fixed. i guess i will find out soon enough when i get to cruising down the road again.
other than that, there’s not too much going on. i’m hanging out at home this weekend with my family. magan is headed down tomorrow, easter sunday, after hanging out with her family. we’re headed to ecu on monday to go visit the school with magan’s younger sister anna. magan’s gonna hang around until tuesday and then it will be back to the grind come wednesday….
for my sake
Nov 9th
well yet again, i have done what i always vow not to do, and that is to get behind on my blog. i have successfully gone almost four weeks without an update. at this point i would usually condense what i have to say into about three paragraphs, but i’ll try something different this time. i’m actually going to go back and write about each weekend. i know many may never read it, but for my sake, i will have a blog that i can read one day while sitting on my front porch in a rocking chair, with my Macintosh 2050 ultra portable laptop and remember the days when i was just a lad.
october 16th – october 22nd
this week was great because it was a short work week. being a freelance designer has its perks and one of them is taking vacation whenever i want to. magan had fall break starting on wednesday afternoon which meant i was calling it a week and heading to kannapolis on thursday. on thursday we got to see magan’s brother lucas play football. he is already a hoss in 8th grade and i’m sure he’s going to be force to be reckoned with when he gets to high school. they won the game soundly, and wrapped up their season, finishing in 2nd place. during this trip to kannapolis, i had my first experience in retail. that’s right, retail at american eagle. magan worked at american eagle in high school and occasionally works there during the holidays, especially for floor sets. well we decided it would be cool to work a floor set together. the only thing was that floor sets occurred from 9:00pm to 6:00am, not the normal operating hours for this kid. i found out that retail is a lot tougher than i thought. they didn’t let me fold a lot of stuff, but i could build a wall and hang some clothes in no time flat. it is an understatement to say that we were tired after working two nights, but i have since recovered from the sleep deprivation and may even participate in an overnight floor set again someday. it is definitely worth the employee discount that i got. i also will never fold a pair of jeans the same way again. anyways, when we weren’t working or sleeping, magan and i were hanging out around the house or in town. we went shopping and i got me some cool new clothes. we also had a little date night in charlotte that was a lot of fun. all in all, it was a tiring weekend, but i had a lot of fun and made a lot of memories.
october 23rd – october 29th
this week i was back to my normal schedule. i had finished up my latest round of freelance work and i was looking for some work. my buddy mike over at amazing video creations called me up and said he had some stuff that i could work on. he was working on a video for a local church and was needing some help filming. i jumped on the opportunity. i always love learning new things, especially technology stuff. mike is very good at what he does and was gracious enough to show me how he approaches video work. a learned a lot of useful facts that hopefully i will be able to put into practice in the future. this weekend was black saturday. i had no clue what black saturday was until i met magan. it is by far the biggest game in the asu football season. this is the game where they play their rivals, furman. the festivities were not quite as numerous as they were for asu homecoming, but it was still a big deal. we kicked off the day by tailgating with campus crusade before heading into the stadium. i must add that the temperature was probably 30 degrees cooler than my previous game and the wind was blowing about 20mph. therefore, i was wrapped in as many as three layers with my ski jacket and beanie to top things off. by the end of the game we even got some of those little heat warmer things to put in our gloves, very nice. anyways, the game was great. asu didn’t come out firing, but after they got warmed up, they were pretty much on a roll. the only thing that was more interesting than the game was the people we dealt with. magan and i were lucky to get some front row seats, but we were next to aisle. that meant that people came and stood at the end of the aisle and they didn’t seem to have an awareness to personal space. before long, we had people standing all over us and things got a little tense. we were both just glad to get out of the stadium without any bumps or bruises. we spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out. magan had a teacher workday, so i hung around until monday so i could spend some more time with my best bud.
october 30th – november 5th
this week was a week of change. i still didn’t have much work coming in and even had my first job interview. i met with a guy who was interested in starting up his own web design and hosting company. he was needing some web designers to get him started by doing some freelance work. i still haven’t contacted him. i’m waiting to see how things work out. i finally got my application to the BGEA for a creative director position. i heard back later, and i was not considered for for further review. its okay though, that just means that it wasn’t God’s will for me. magan spent half of the week in nashville, tn at the national middle school teachers conference. it was a God thing that she got to go and she had a blast. you can read more about it in her blog. as for the weekend, i headed down to caswell for the 2nd fall retreat. i drove down because dave had come down with strep throat and of course didn’t feel like driving. it was good to get back to the place where i have made so many memories over the past few years. i was back at the helm controlling all the media stuff in the booth and even got to do a little acting with the drama team. the wayne kerr band was awesome and chad hambrick did a great job bringing the word. it was great to see friends and spend some time with my big brother dave. i’m looking forward to going down to caswell one more time this fall and spending more time with friends.
november 6th – today
as for this week, its going great. i’ve had some more jobs come in and i’m not quite as bored. God just keeps providing as He works out what He has in store for me. i did apply for another job this week. magan told me about a ministry that was building a new facility near charlotte, nc so i went online to see what i could find out about it. i found that it was the inspiration network that is building the new facility. i checked out their website and they had some job openings. one of which is a web content manager position for their steelroots.com website. it is a student-based website that connects students with God through alternative “extreme” sports such as surfing, snowboarding, and skating. the job sounded right down my alley, so i sent in my resume. now i just have to wait and pray and see if this is where God wants me. this weekend magan will be headed here to fuquay to hang out. i haven’t seen her in two weeks, so it will be good just to hang out and have some fun here in fuquay with my family.
now that i have officially written my longest blog post ever, i will get out of here. its been fun. hopefully what i’ve written will help jog my memory when i’m old and gray about the days of my youth. later…
north carolina state fair
Oct 16th
pickles, hushpuppies, ribbon fries, and chocolate-covered cheesecake were the menu items of my choice this year at the north carolina state fair. i’ve been going to the state fair since i was a little kid, but this was the first time that i had ever been on opening night. at the same time, it was magan’s first time EVER going to the state fair. we had a blast. me, magan, momma, and the girls walked every square inch of the fairgrounds looking at everything from giant pumpkins to baby pigs. many people love to go to the fair and ride all the crazy rides, but this kid does not like to ride anything that is constructed for a temporary amount of time. therefore, i’m left to eat and look at all the exhibits. i believe the fair has food that you cannot find anywhere else on this planet. the newest craze was fried coke. how in the world do you fry coke? who knows what the craze next year will be. after we filled our stomachs with greasy food, we headed to the concert of the night, chris tomlin. $10 for one of the best concerts i have ever been to. it was less of a show and more of a worship service. he played a lot of his older songs, but a few new ones and they were all awesome. i left dorton arena with not much of a voice left. i would love to get to see him in concert again sometime, hopefully at the passion conference in january.
magan and i meet dave and steph after we got done at the fair to hang out for a bit then magan and i headed home to get some rest before we had to head to chowan the next day for homecoming. it was a great time. we got to hang out with some good ol’ chowan friends and we tried to cheer the hawks (aka braves) to victory, but they came up short. after we got home from the game we spent what time was left of the weekend getting some much needed rest.
on thursday i’ll be headed out to k-town to visit magan and her family. magan will be on fall break. we’re gonna get to see both of her brothers play football and see her sister cheer for senior night. we’re also gonna be working at american eagle, but that’s a whole different story that i may write a whole nother post on. anyways, it should be a lot of fun. i’m still searching for a job. i know God is going to open the right door at the right time. until then, i’m still freelancing. i’ll keep you posted.
matt