So… the Catalyst Leadership Conference? Lackluster this year. Disappointing… last year was so good, and quite life-changing in a number of ways for me… and it’s not like I haven’t learned a few things this year… but… just not that well done, to be honest.

BUT… time with friends has been amazing. Salina led worship this morning with the band. That girl does my heart good, and it was so great to see her being able to sing with them. Summer and Christyn… I just don’t see them enough. But we catch up fast. I’ve been helping out at the Relevant Magazine booth… selling subscriptions and getting to know Kyle and Jesse.

I’m still on vacation. You’re still not. But I like you all anyway.

You know when people put the vinyl lettering over the top of their front windshield? It usually says something like “CIVIC” or “TOYOTA” as if i was completely unable to determine the make and manufacturer until they put it in big, white vinyl letters across their windshield.

This morning on the way to work I saw one that said, “SHUTUP AND CATFISH.”

Sometimes… South Carolina just makes me laugh on the inside for hours on end.

People, it’s called Daylight Saving Time. You’re not getting a multitude or plurality of saving. Just one saving. And it grants me an extra hour of sleep tonight… I think I will now go and partake of said gift.

Well, the October wedding has come and gone for Lee and Rachelle Gilmore. You can catch up on the great honeymoon photography on Lee’s Lantern Waste Company site under “everyday.” I especially enjoy the Halifax pics.

Updated shows for you. (Oooh… playing twice a month. Maybe I can actually remember the words to my own stupid songs at that rate.)

Fri 11/12 at The Black Cow w/ Lee McDerment
Sat 11/20 at Carpenter’s Cellar opening for Tara Leigh Cobble
Fri 12/03 at Carpenter’s Cellar opening for Brad Davis
Fri 12/10 at Carpenter’s Cellar w/ Blaine & Leah Howard

Fun trip to Atlanta this weekend. It was great to see the typical Atl crew and spend some time catching up and talking. (And having Billy freestyle rap a little while I played.) I also met some new folks… wonderful people. Amy Lawlor, who’s headed to Slovakia for two years to work with students (we’ll see about getting her a site up soon so she can relay all the interesting goings on there) and Abbie Smith, a writer who’s doing some great material for students. You can check out her story at keepingyourfaith.com. Good stuff that meets a definite need in the college/student community and should be in the hands of leaders.

Went to look at the studio space early this morning. It’s in good shape, has massive amounts of free parking all around (condusive to social gatherings), and even manages to have a nice 30′x100′ yard in the back… downtown. And the building is a great investment. (What am I now, a grown-up?) Lots of work to be done in the upstairs to make it what I see in my head… tearing out a center wall, pulling up the (hunter green) carpet, gutting the drop-tile and repainting the ceiling, re-doing the floors in some sort of wood-ish fashion, repainting the walls and exposing some of the brick… and little stuff like installing a bathroom, shower, and kitchen. All the sudden 20 years of construction experience is my friend. But wow… amazing. And amazing that doesn’t feel so out of reach anymore.

Right now, I could just rent the upstairs, and be content with living downtown. But I want to lean more towards a five year lease/purchase option where some of my monthly would go towards eventual purchase of the whole building. I want to do this right. Much to think/pray about. And it’s strange… this whole process has got me thinking about how much I trust God to be good. What I mean by that is that I firmly believe I trust God to be who He says He is in most situations. The only places I seem to have gray area about are my big dreams… the ones that you feel like you have no control over or no way to “make” happen.

For me, as I left college and came back to SC and ended up in the community and job i’m in now, my big dreams all sort of filtered into three main areas… 1. I want to be a good artist (and not just on a small scale.) 2. I want to be married and have a godly family. 3. I want to live in a downtown loft and have my studio/client area in the same structure.

These are the things that consume much of my thinking and dreaming and talking. And i’m starting to realize that these are the things where my actions don’t match my rhetoric sometimes because i’m not thoroughly convinced that God would choose to provide the things that I really want. So ridiculous. As if He will provide for me in the “small” things… but not the dreams that are closest to my heart. Where is the truth in that? Those thoughts aren’t a reflection of His character as revealed by scripture. God does not delight in holding out on me. He doesn’t get joy from placing dreams in me and not seeing (making) them become reality. He is not sadistic… He is good.

And I want to trust Him.

For any of you faithful YCD@W readers who live in and around Atlanta, i’m playing in Buckhead tomorrow night. It’s a house concert to help raise support for a missionary who’s headed to Slovakia next year to work with students. Shoot me an email if you want directions.

Also, despite my hatred for Wal-Mart… they have three-packs of Polaroid 600 film for $21. That’s the cheapest place i’ve found it yet. You know… just in case any of you awesome people happened to be struggling over what to get me for Christmas. And yes, we can go ahead and start talking about it because Books-A-Million is already playing non-stop Christmas music.

In October. Christmas is two months away.

I have what feels like 1000 big ideas in my head right now… but none of them are getting resolved in the next few days. The answers are still dependent on meetings and deadlines (and credit lines…) and such. I hate waiting. I am infinitely bad at it. Sigh.

Was that cryptic or what? I can’t even think straight.

Three words for you… halla, halla, halla. Go download the iTunes free single of the week, Mr. John Legend telling us all about how he Used to Love You. So dang catchy and well-done. Can’t wait for his album.

I posted ten new desktop wallpapers on the New Spring site today. Most of them are glow-y and pretty, because I like glow-y and pretty right now. Sometimes it frightens me to think that whatever I happen to be “into” at any given time ends up being what New Spring is “into” because i’m generally responsible for the look and feel of what’s going on at our church.

I don’t like thinking about having responsibility.

Booyah. Happy Tuesday. I’m going to look at a 2500 sq. ft. studio space this week. You have no idea how happy the prospect of that makes me. That’s all I got. Go read what Tom Peters has to say today. It’s typically thought-provoking, full of wisdom, and always entertainingly subversive (in a big idea kind of way.)

Many pictures and Polaroids were taken in the West End District of Greenville yesterday. I will post them eventually, though you will have to wait… there is much to do at work today. Speaking of which, since I am working on web stuff today (New Spring’s redesign is coming soon), you should read this clever and all-too-true article called If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers…

I’m off today. Sort of. Off to Greenville to have a lunch meeting with a print company who’s trying to woo New Spring. Blah, blah, blah. This is the part of my job I don’t particularly care for. BUT… it does put me near downtown Greenville on my day off, which means picture-taking and a stop by the Army Navy Surplus Store.

I renewed my driver’s license. It expires again in 2014. Someone remind me of that before it does.

And I have a new pretty desktop wallpaper for you. The pic is from Ben Thomas’ honeymoon in Hawaii… the digital manipulation is obviously from me. And just because I care… you get four sizes to choose from. 800×600 or 1024×768 or 1280×1024 or 1600×1200. May your work space now be soothing. And may the Lord bless you and keep you and cause His face to shine upon You and be gracious unto you.

Aaah-men.

I want to go to New York City and take pictures in Central park while the leaves are changing. I also want to go to Old Quebec City and take pictures this winter. And while we’re on the subject of wanting… I want a vehicle and I want a G5 desktop to do freelance work on from the house.

I want lots of things that i’m not getting. I’m ok with that.

Well, The Machinist comes out on Friday. Not here, of course. It would be too easy to have movies that I actually want to see come to the town I live in. Then again, since the demise of my Trooper, getting to the movies has been a sparse activity. A shame really… i’ve always enjoyed going to the movies by myself, getting inordinate amounts of popcorn and beverage (not Coca-Cola Classic… because our two theaters HATE ME) and diving into a movie.

Anyone up for a drive to Greenville… land of Coke-serving, indie-film-showing theaters?

New shows for your fall autumn fix. Plan accordingly.

Fri 10/29 in Buckhead (details forthcoming)
Fri 11/12 at The Black Cow Coffeeshop
Sat 11/20 at Carpenter’s Cellar w/ Tara Leigh Cobble
Fri 12/10 at Carpenter’s Cellar w/ Blaine & Leah Howard

Best mall hair EVER. The envy of all her Aquanet-loving friends…

Are you a user of Apple products? Are you a lover of Netflix? Then you will love me for telling you about Netflix Freak.

Because I am one… I dig it so.

Back at work. Enjoyably so. Yeah… i’m a weird one.

It’s good to be home. Mcd and I rolled into town last night, after enjoying the festivities of Mr. and Mrs. Cam Warren’s wedding. We played music… women swooned… nuptials occurred. Happily ever after. Etcetera. (By the way… the wedding was in a little lower state SC town called Effingham. In my head I kept saying, “Tina… eat the Effingham.” So very bad.)

My flight from Orlando to Columbia was fun. It was my first experience on a flight so tiny that you get to walk out onto the tarmac (Very rock star. Or very cheap. You decide.) and then walk on the plane. It was just like the end of Point Break, only Angelo didn’t get shot and the airplane wing actually had more personality and acting ability than Johnny Utah. Yep, It was just like that. Also, I highly recommend the experience of flying north at sunrise. The plane’s shadow was off to my left for the majority of the flight, dancing around the clouds, and it had this circular rainbow all around it. Flying in the morning is just beautiful. The clouds just below us were of the large, skyscrapper variety… casting shadows on the clouds below them. It’s amazing to think that God has been doing His little “I make better art than you do” thing in the sky forever… and it’s only been in the last hundred years that we’ve been up there.

In awe.