James is the worship leader at The Summit in Irvine, California. He is passionate about seeing lives changed through a worship response to an all deserving God.
Ever since I discovered EverNote a few months ago, it’s been one of my daily go-to applications that I use constantly. Synchronizing content of any description across multiple platforms is important for me, and EverNote’s simplicity (and at a cost of zero dollars) is just unbeatable. Notes made on my work PC appear almost instantly on my MacBook and on their web interface.
But there has been been an Achilles heel in this chain: no EverNote client for the BlackBerry. As my wife will attest, sometimes to her chagrin and concern, my BlackBerry and I are inseperable. There’s a reason they are nicknamed CrackBerry. I’m addicted. And it’s not even an addiction to being constantly ‘connected’. It’s an addiction to convenience and organization, and a big part of that convenience and organization is the ability to make a quick note, send a quick email, add a calendar event, and tie them all together, on the fly and on one device. The lack of EverNote client, however, was the weak link. If I needed to make a note while on the road, it had to be in the form of an email sent to my EverNote account, and any changes to that note couldn’t be made until I was sat in front of a keyboard.
Until yesterday.
I was having a chat with someone in my office about potentially publishing a couple of the notebooks we have for wider use around the office (using the ‘Make Public’ feature of EverNote), and I was lamenting the lack of BlackBerry client (since ideas and thoughts tend to arrive in my memory for just an instant before going in to hiding again), when she nonchalantly said “Have you tried using the Mobile EverNote site using Opera Mini?”
Apparently there is. I checked it out using BlackBerry’s regular browser, and it’s slow and difficult to navigate. Then I opened up Opera Mini and checked it out. And I’m impressed. My EverNote experience is now complete.
Since Opera Mini is java based, it’s fast. And by making the Mobile EverNote site the homepage and using the ‘Remember Me’ feature on login, Opera Mini effectively becomes the BlackBerry EverNote client I’ve been looking for. Open Opera Mini, and within seconds I have all my EverNote notes accessible.
Admittedly, EverNote isn’t for everyone, but it’s changed the way I work and the way I create and the way I remember the things that I always used to forget. Now, frankly, I have no excuse.
Yesterday we had a not-insignificant earthquake. I think perhaps I’m accustomed to Southern California, since I couldn’t quite figure out whether we were having an earthquake or if I had just stood up too quickly and was light headed.
Have you ever played the game “Chubby Bunnies”? You know, where you put a marshmallow in your mouth, say “chubby bunnies”, then add another marshmallow, say it again, add, say, add, say, until you either choke, become incoherent, or puke? If you have, then you’ll know what a voice sounds like when it’s all marshmallowed up like that.
Now I’ve been a Five For Fighting fan for a a few years; really since their America Town album hit, but there’s always been something about John Ondrasik’s voice that has bugged me. He’s not a great singer anyway, but there’s a tonal characteristic that has always just annoyed me a little bit, and I’ve never been able to put my finger on it. That is, until today.
As I was driving to work today, I was listening to the radio, and they were playing a Dave Matthews Band song (The Space Between) and they followed it immediately with a Five For Fighting song (One Hundred Years), and it suddenly dawned on me.
John Ondrasik sounds like Dave Matthews playing ‘Chubby Bunnies’.
This is an unfortunate realization, since every time I hear Five For Fighting from now on, I’m going to think of Dave Matthews trying to sing with a mouth stuffed full of marshmallows, and that shall taint my listening pleasure for the rest of my days. I know this to be true, because about 5 years ago my wife pointed out to me that Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins couldn’t actually sing, and since then I’ve not been able to really enjoy listening to The Smashing Pumpkins because I just can’t get past the fact that his singing sucks.
I don’t know what’s worse; scratching the itch concerning John Odrasik’s voice and thus dooming my enjoyment of Five For Fighting, or knowing that sooner or later I’ll also figure out why I’m bothered by James Morrison’s voice and I’ll be forced to add another to the ‘unlistenable’ pile.
What’s more worrying is that I just realized that I’ve worn the same pair of short in the July 4th parade for the last 3 years. I need more shorts, apparently.
That’s right, friends. Today I bid ‘fare thee well’ to my twenties and embrace the big three-oh.
It’s funny, really. When I was in my teens, I remember thinking how old 30 must feel. Now that I’m here, I can’t say I feel any different from when I was 20. Well, except that I cant run like I used to and I have knees that have a tendency to dislocate and I generally ache in places I didn’t ache in when I was 20.
The one thing I can say for sure, though, is that I’m wiser at 30, and for that I am thankful. My twenties were good to me, for the most part. They were when I did most of my growing up and when I learned who I really was.
There are universal truths that go along with turning 30 and getting older in general. I must admit to being somewhat philosophical at this season in life, as ‘age’ and the issues it brings has been more prevalent in my life more recently than before. Two months before her 68th birthday, my mum passed away after a courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Shortly after that, my dad suffered a stroke. He’ll be 72 this year. The fragility of life has never been more evident than the last couple of months.
And so while I await the day that I look in the mirror and realize that I have my dad’s hair, I’ll just remain thankful for each day that I get to have.
I leave you today with the timeless words of wisdom of Mary Schmich from the Chicago Tribune that were subsequently made famous by Baz Luhrmann. Peace out…
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
As mentioned in my recent post about losing my knee somewhere between a seat and a step, on Monday of this week my friend Danny bestowed upon me one ticket to see Coldplay at The Forum in Los Angeles. And I was really quite excited about it since I’ve never seen Coldplay (and really wanted to, since Viva La Vida is such an awesome album) and I’ve never been to The Forum (despite it being host to some legendary artists and bands).
Sparing the details of my knee dislocation, the show was absolutely fantastic. Chris Martin is a showman; he knows how to engage the crowd and has a strong stage presence. As musicians, Coldplay are up there with some of the most talented rock musicians around.
The show opened with their 4 or 5 biggest hits to date, but every song they did was full of energy and sounded great. My only disappointment was the heavy use of samples and loops. I’m not a big fan of the “taking Pro Tools on tour” method; I’d much rather hear four musicians get creative with filling their sound out than relying on pre-recorded orchestral movements being played along with them. But then there was also plenty of new sounds and approaches to older hits to go along with that.
Towards the end of the show, Chris Martin announced that he was “bored of playing at this end of the room”. The band then hopped off the stage, in to the crowd, ran to our end of the arena, and played a two-song acoustic set in the middle of the crowd, 30 feet or so from where I was sitting. Will Champion even sang a number. And I can also confirm that Chris Martin’s hair really is that bad.
All in all, an excellent show by an excellent band. Thanks for ticket Danny, and for running for ice when I fell like a fool and yelled like a little girl.
On Monday night my good friend Danny took me to see Coldplay at The Forum in LA (more on that to follow). The evening in general was fantastic - I really enjoyed the show - but not before injury was thrust cruelly and unwittingly upon me.
Remember how I dislocated my knee almost two years ago? On Monday, I was making my way back to my seat between support bands, and as I made my way along my row to my seat, somehow my foot got caught between the step and the seat in front of my, and my knee literally just came apart. The lower half of my leg went left. The upper half of my leg went right. There was bone-on-bone action. I yelled. I almost cried. Danny ran and got ice. I spent the rest of the gig in my seat with an ice pack held firmly against my knee.
July 31st, 2008 by 
James 
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