Christian Techno – it’s about time
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Ok, I may not look like it buy my favorite kind of music is Electronica. More specifically, I like House and Techno. Now through the years there have been a few guys (and a gal) out there who have been able to pull it together and make a good album who come from a Christian emphasis in their work. And its been great to hear them but they are so hard to find (rarely found in the local Christian bookstore in the States) and its hard to find a place to preview the albums if you can find them.
Well, when we found that we were moving to the continent of Techno bliss (Europe has some great techno artists), I was wishing to find some good Christian Techno. Well, I think I have found some from a record label called Deeplife Records. Now, its a small label but they have many artists signed of several different styles and I want to encourage them by promoting this site. One of my favorite sites to hang out and listen to music is Beatport.com and they do have their stuff there. I recommend hitting Beatport.com and doing a label search for Deeplife Records and preview at will. That’s actually what I’m doing right now. Enjoy!
Also, you can listen to the podcast using the miniplayer displayed above
PS – if you really want to give me a Christmas gift – a Beatport.com gift certificate wouldn’t be too bad 
PSS – If you want to listen to my ATTEMPT at an Electronica creation – use this player (its my song called “Princess Bride (Bubba Mix)”
Keeping it clear
I was walking the other day when I looked over and saw the sun coming over the hill (I was up a bit early). It was really weird as you had to look hard to realize it was the sun through the fog and trees. It just wasn’t that clear.
Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of all the work, its hard to keep everything clear. Sometimes as a lover of technology and working with technology, we want to do things that use the latest technology – not for what will be accomplished but so that we can work with the latest stuff. But one of my co-workers helps keep me in check. He once said,
We develop technology to reach people, not develop technology for technology’s sake.
So as a reminder to myself (and you can just listen in) – we are about using technology to reach people. We need to be asking the question of what people need and using new (or old) software or gadgets to meet those needs. We don’t need to be looking at the latest Web 2.0 social network software and say that would be cool to work with – now what’s our excuse to work with it. We need to focus on the people. This is clear.
A little St Nicholas Day anyone
Last night, we celebrated St Nicholas Day here in Germany for our very first time and I have to say – Wow. Now I am not much for crowds so that is why the Christmas season became a little easier for me with the advent of the Internet. I could then do my shopping online. Well, last night all the children and their parents met down at the Bahnhof (also known as the train station) to start the Saint Nicholas parade. Other than being cool and rainy – this part was pretty neat. Each child got a hat (just like the Santa Claus hats in the States) with a little bell on the end (probably so that we didn’t loose any). Also, each child then got a little sack. After singing some songs about Saint Nicholas (some were even in English), we started heading down the street towards Hauptstrasse (Main Street). It was nice that the police were stopping traffic as hundreds of kids came charging down the street. The organizers were dressed in St. Nicholas costumes (pretty much the same as a Santa suit in the US) – even the women. They had bull horns and were lined up trying to hold back this massive group of kids. As we came to each little store in our small town, the store owner would be in their doorway handing out gifts for each child. I watched in amazement as this store owner came to the door and took in the amount of red capped young’ens charging towards her. At first I thought she was just going to throw her basket of goodies in the air and shut-n-lock her door. But she didn’t and then I lost sight of her once the mob got there. All you could see were red and white caps bouncing and hands out stretched for whatever goodie was being distributed. Then to my amazement, out of the crowd pops my son who had jumped in the middle to make sure she didn’t run out of the goodies (later to be known as a styrofoam airplane). After about six shops, Alex finally said he was done. It was just too much pushing and shoving. He figured that this was suppose to be more like Christmas where it was about “peace on Earth” and “good will towards man” and he wasn’t experiencing that. He said he didn’t want to lose the Christmas spirit.
In the end, I was shocked and impressed. I was shocked that he wasn’t trying to get more free goodies and I was impressed that he sees the distinction so well between the true meaning of Christmas and all that chaos that people can make Christmas be about.
Image courtesy of St. Nicholas Center
Forgiving Faith
Can you imagine having such a faith that forgives someone AS they are doing something to you? Check out this 92 year old lady who talked about forgiveness to the man who was mugging her. Gotta love this lady!
Our new rock star
Can you believe that Alex is 7 yrs old now? Wow, he’s growing up so fast. For his birthday, he got a lot of cool gifts but he really likes his guitar. The thing was that it was totally out of tune and we didn’t have any picks for him to use. So, the day after his party, I had to find a music shop and almost all in German, I was able to purchase some picks and a guitar tuner (ended up spending more on those than we did for the guitar). We downloaded some beginner guitar lessons and he’s loving it. After the New Year, we hope to find him a guitar teacher. Please pray we can find one.
For his birthday party, we had a bunch of his friends over for a sleep over. We had pizza, played games, had smores in the backyard and then watched a movie before just hanging out in their sleeping bags making jokes only little boys do. It was a good time. Check out the Photos of the event in the Photo Album.
We three kings……
Have you ever wondered how many wise men (also known as kings) there really were that came to see Jesus after his birth. According to the shrine for the “three” kings in Köln (also known as Cologne), Germany, there were only three kings and they have their remains to prove it. They really do believe that the bones are contained within the three segment sarcophagus in the Dom (the big cathedral). Well, all this to say – I’ve been published. The makers of the online travel guide Schmap.com selected one of my photos that I published on my Flickr.com site to be apart of their write up about the Shrine of the Three Kings. I feel really privileged.
But it makes me wonder as we go into this holiday season as to all the different traditions and stuff that we do. Is it just tradition that we do them or is there some significance as to how we relate to the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ that we do these things? Remembering the gifts that the wise men brought is significant to remembering who Jesus is but to dispute over how many there were – well, that’s just tradition but not of eternal significance. This Christmas is going to be different for me as it will the first Christmas without my parents or my sister. With that, my wife and I are trying to evaluate what traditions we want to have during our holiday season. As for my parents and my sister, they are just going on a Christmas cruise.