The J-Mo Zone

That’s the title of a Dave Matthew’s Band song and album by the same name. It could also be used to describe my DVD player - dangit. Jason was over here the other day so I was going to show him something I had on DVD only to find it wasn’t working. When you put a disc in, the player would try to read it then after a minute, display a cryptic error message. I Googled the error message and found the problem - the spindle motor was dead. There was a slim chance that it had frozen in place and by removing the player’s cover, manually turning the disc could free up the mechanism and you could be back in business. I did all that to no avail. It’s really dead. I hate it when my technology malfunctions.

While things are going down the tubes, I noticed my car being a bit sluggish when starting Tuesday. Progressively, it got worse throughout the day but I was always able to start. This morning though, it was REALLY sluggish so I headed straight to Sears for a battery and called the office to let them know I would be in later. Turns out going to Sears was a great idea. Once I got there and turned the car off, it wouldn’t crank. It was indeed the battery and nothing more serious (or expensive) like a starter or alternator problem. Got a new battery and now I’m back in biznass.

Switching gears, I got a new wide-angle lens. I actually got it in an equal trade for another wide-angle lens I had. Me and this guy on one of the photography forums I frequent luck out as he was looking for the lens I had and I was looking for the one he had. They are both equal in value (+/- $10) at about $700. So after checking him out (he did the same on me) and looking legit, we each shipped our lenses off to each other. Everything went smoothly and we were both happy with the trade. Just goes to show there are indeed still some honest folks out there that you can trust.

Looks like my 3-week break from drumming at church is over as I’m back on deck for this Sunday. In the very near future (2 or 3 weeks), things will be stepping up as we’ll be going to TWO services on Sunday mornings. I have to say that’s pretty exciting. The move to two services was prompted by a good problem to have… more and more people coming to make room for. I’m really looking forward to it.

For those of you that don’t know, the church I attend meets in a movie theater. In a nutshell, we’re there because we outgrew the building we were in prior to the move and there are no other locations suitable for us at this time. Here’s the thing… we just rent the theater. We have to bring in and set-up/take down all lights, sound, staging, music gear, projectors, kids areas, coffee bar, etc. every Sunday. There’s a lot involved. From what I’ve heard, we may have a big influx of volunteers that will make the logistics a little less demanding on individuals. That’s a good thing…