Robert's Blog

September 4, 2011

i could advertise for point

this post is merely to make you guys and girls that don’t live around central wisconsin jealous. we have tons of concerts in our community band shell which sits along the wisconsin river. what do i mean by tons? well how about weekly band programs in the shell in addition to a few special weekends and weeks of concerts? labor day weekend is always jazzfest which is a ton of fun because it is free laidback music.

this is what i listened to for an hour and a half after we finished a wonderful night of tapestry.

September 3, 2011

a great way to begin football season

i have been a packer fan since the 8th grade when i became convinced that james lofton was the greatest receiver in the nfl and therefore the greatest team in the nfl had to be the packers. i have been true to the pack ever since. being raised in alabama i am more of a college football fan (rool tide roll) than an nfl fan BUT i do love the pack. when the boys were each born pam and i bought them packer outfits. we almost became “shareholders” when i was a new youth ministry at the first baptist church of carthage, missouri but the price of a share was a little two steep for a couple just out of seminary. if i had known that one day we would be living in wisconsin i would have eaten more ramen noodles and bought the share.

so thursday was a thrill because it was my very first game at lambeau field. since we moved up to wisconsin i have had other ticket offers but unfortunately those offers have been on significant sunday nights within the life of tapestry. for example, i was offered tickets to a 2008 packers/cowboys game that happened to be on the second night that tapestry existed. needless to say i wasn’t able to go. thankfully this past thursday there was nothing that was more important. thanks to the chair of pam’s department at uwsp we had two tickets to the preseason game between the kansas city chiefs and the almighty packers. it was amazing. i can’t thank gary enough for hooking pam and i up with tickets.

now if someone wanted to hook me up with free or cheap saints/packers tickets for this coming thursday noah’s year would be made.

August 25, 2011

history podcasts

i am presently loving a few history related podcasts. all of them have great information and good production values. a couple are truly great and a ton of fun to listen to.

here they are:

the history of rome – a weekly podcast detailing the major events of the roman empire. there are 148 episodes thus far and it has only reached 321 AD. this podcast is active and my favorite by far. the info on the the roman empire is great and mike duncan is a pleasure to listen to. if you are a part of tapestry you have heard information i gleaned from THoR (the history of roman) more than you know.
12 byzantine rulers – this podcast is finished. it is a wonderful, though brief history of the eastern half of the roman empire. lars brownsorth has expand the information he presented in these lectures into a book that i am looking forward to reading.
norman centuries – lars brownworth (the guy behind the 12 byzantine rulers podcast) also does this podcast about these amazing descendants of norse vikings. supposedly this podcast is active though there hasn’t been a new episode since may.
religions of the ancient mediterranean – phillip harland is an associate professor at york university. this podcast is put together from some of his lectures. good material on the ancient near east. this podcast is active. this is another podcasts that you might have heard information from if you have been with tapestry on a sunday night.

if you see me running there is a pretty good change that i will be listening to one of these podcasts.

August 24, 2011

could someone tell me why …

… emy j’s would have two copies of “the late, great planet earth?” isn’t one copy per city for historical reason enough?

August 24, 2011

i am a lousy dreamer

i am a lousy dreamer.

i don’t mean the above statement in the sense of vision. i am talking about real dreams … the kind you have when you sleep. some people have really cool dreams where they do truly awesome things that they could never do in real life. i think it would be a lot of fun to have such dreams.

instead my dreams have the potential to be terrific and then they end up just being lame. for example, last night i dreamt that i was in an automotive chase with foreign spies. this is obviously a great start for a dream. it would have been a truly exciting dream except that i was driving a full size passenger bus during the chase. it wasn’t some special spy bus with amazing handling and freaky cool spy abilities (like rocket launchers and oil slicks). nope, i was driving a normal grey hound–type bus with air brakes and passengers. to make matters worse the chase was in a road construction zone in a busy city and i was under orders to do no damage. so there were no amazing crashes or cool explosions. instead there was a lot of slow development of speed that was then just as slowly ended by a long period of braking. in addition to this for some reason i was also driving the bus from a second row seat. i have no idea why i was driving from the second row but it was incredibly difficult to see the road from there.

it was all very frustrating.

August 23, 2011

4 chairs

at tapestry we save the back row of seats for our guests.

i know this sounds a little odd but you need to understand the setup of a typical sunday evening with us. we try to set our chairs up in such a manner that conversation is encouraged. this means our chair set-up varies from a semi-circle to completely in the round. while i love our setups i also recognize that they can be a little intimidating for a guest.

our setup can be all the more intimidating for a guest when you consider the natural tendency of people to not sit in the first row (some claim this is because i tend to “spray” people when i preach but i personally seriously doubt this). we typically set up 6-8 chairs total for the front rows (total is for both sides) and there are usually only a few people who sit in them. other rows might fill up but the front row never does. this means that the most obviously open spots are also the most intimidating chairs for someone to sit in. so we work around this by setting up 4 chairs on the back of each side of the room that we save for guests. these are the easiest chairs to get into and out of. you can come in late and leave early if you want to. these chairs are saved for our guests in an attempt to make them feel welcome. who would have thought the back row could do such a thing?

of course, if you attend a church regularly then you probably know that the back row is usually the first to fill up. church people like the back row. we’re a little different. we save these seats as a gift for those who are our guests.

so if you come to tapestry for the first time and see 4 chairs set up in the back please know that you can sit anywhere you like but we have saved everyone’s favorite seats for you.

August 21, 2011

craiglist is fun

i love craigslist. sometimes i love it for the amazing deals you can discover on it and other times it is because of the unusual finds that always seem to show up on it. tonight pam showed me the above photos. they are from a listing for a (and i quote) “very, very nice furry couch.” the pictures don’t lie. this is a very, very nice furry couch. 🙂

August 20, 2011

good movie day

this was a good movie day.

adam and i went to see “rise of the planet of the apes” today and i was pleased to find out that all the good reports concerning it were accurate. i liked the original “planet of the apes” but didn’t care at all for the remake. this was a great way to expand on the story.

then this evening pam and i watched “the lincoln lawyer” based on some recommendations that pam and had received from friends and family. it was surprisingly good. really good.

you should go watch both of them now.