Vertically Rising

Hey, don’t mind me, I’m just a stranger, hehe. Sorry for never writing
and everything. I’ve been a part of this egroup, well…ever since it
was really still under egroups (and not yahoo, hah). Wow, coming up is
almost May 20th! Almost a year since I met you guys and was richly
blessed at OneDay (I keep saying that term, “richly blessed” but it’s
been mostly for other people…but now that I think about OneDay, God
really did richly bless us all there, didn’t He? Awesome =) ). So
anyways, I wanted to drop by and give ya guys a message, let ya guys
know that I’m not dead or anything, and it’s very neat to still read
messages from all of you and to see that you’re coming back from all
your respective colleges and meeting again back at home. =) I pray
that you guys continue to go strong with the ministry of Sweet Aroma
at the Starbucks on Sunday nights and I really wish that I could be
there one day or that something like that could start up here in the
Bay Area, CA.

Anyways, just thinking back about a year ago, and thinking how there’s
no real big Passion event this year, I challenge ya guys to think back
about OneDay. Think about what God did with ya, what commiments you
made together with the Lord, what lessons He taught ya, or things that
He showed you there, and meditate upon this last year with how good
He’s been.

This last year has been a struggle for myself, even though a lot of
times I don’t talk about it with even my close friends. It’s been a
challenging year, and not all the times when I’ve gotten into binds or
was down in the dumps did I look to God. I’ve been faced with lots of
opposition and everything, but I can still say that the Lord is good.
I’ve still been doing a lot with worship at pretty much every place
I’m involved in, which is a total blessing. I thank God for the open
doors of ministry that He’s providing for me, and hopefully next
summer they’ll be more, I would love to do a few jr high/high school
camps or something, but I’m sure that’s all up to the Lord.

For a lesson that God has taught me….I think God’s really been
trying to reach me and tell me that I need to fall more in love with
Him. That I wouldn’t seek so much of an earthly love, because that’s
always temporary, but that I would be sustained and content with His
love, and His love alone. It’s a hard road and a hard lesson to learn,
and I’m still trying to get along with it (still after He’s been
telling me this since January, arrrgghhh, hah), but I’m sure I’ll get
through it someday…Anyways, I think I’m just rambling now and I just
feel like talking, haha, so I’ll let ya guys all go. Love ya guys a
bunch, and glad that you guys are all heading home soon. Hope to see
you this summer! =)
ChrLOVEist,
Randy

current mood: thoughtful
current music: Shane Evertt – Lord Most High

Hrm, ok, here goes my nice weekend update. Wow, college people are back! Justin and Clifford got back on Friday Night, Mel came back on Saturday night. I hung out with Cliff on Saturday, and went to go see The Mummy Returns with Lisa, and Ryan. It was an entertaining movie, but had to pay 10$ at the parking lot, but that’s ok, since Lisa got us in for free at AMC 1000 Van Ness, hehehe.
I’m looking to use my LuteHole soundcover. If anyone has a gig for me to do with monitors, lemme know, hehehe. Also picked up a volume pedal today, an Ernie Ball. It’s pretty cool, it’ll be used with my whole worship ministry stuff, which is getting pretty big…Went to Guitar Center wanting to get that volume pedal and also try out that Avalon U5, but it was towards closing and not too many workers, so they told me to come during the week in the morning and try it out. so I may go do that tommorrow or something, hehehe. I really want one. Oh yeah, Darrel from my church might be able to get me a 30% discount wholesale price on it. Ahhhh, the love and the hook ups, amen!
That was about it for the weekend, other than hanging out with the YG kids too, and leading worship friday and doing worship today…lotta worship, and that’s what I love, Peace.

current mood: happy
current music: Forever – Chris Tomlin

Well Anh beat us all today in Laser Quest or what not. He scored like 600 points and got 2nd place (the 1st place guy worked there). I got 4th place after Davey. I shoulda done better, but weird, even though a guy was right in front of me, I couldn’t shoot him. Supposedly when you fire there’s like a second when you can’t be hit, so if you fire repeatedly and fast, you won’t get hit. *shrug* Anyways, went over to some Cafe Won Sun or something over at McCarthy Ranch after and ate some some good grub and got some tapiocas. Yum, good stuff. =)

current mood: relaxed
current music: Wade Joye Band – King Eternal 9

Brent brought up a good point today in a reply that Musicianfriend sells then (at 539$, eeeep) but with a 45-day return policy. Course I would have to pay the shipping back…but I think I’ll wait until summer to buy one, ahhhh. Then all next year it’ll be doing camps and such and ministry to pay it off? lol. Anyways, it was kind of funny that Brent mentioned Musician’s Friend, cuz I just bought some stuff from them today and it was delivered today. Bought two more keyser capos, a 10$ (nice thou) tamborine, and a LuteHole Soundhole cover. www.kyser.com and www.lutehole.com
LuteHole’s are really cool. They fit into your soundhole and block out most of the feedback that happens when you have monitors facing you and your guitar coming through the monitor. Extremely helpful for myself, because I love the sound of my Taylor’s OnBoard Blender system, where it uses an internal mic, but it’s a big hassel to try and get to work with monitors. Now I can do it easily, ahhhhh. The only problem was that I messed up the order and got a darker colored LuteHole. I wanted the maple, but I forgot to change which one I wanted on the site, and ordered a Cherry Wood, which is about the color of Claro Walnut or Cedar.
Looks like no updates for a few days while I’m up in San Francisco for church this weekend, unless I log on via my parent’s computer. Have fun reading more of this stuff.

current mood: cheerful
current music: Steve Fee and Candi – Wonderful Cross

Skipped a day in this, whoooo. Guess nothing important happened yesterday. Still on the search for one of those Avalon U5 boxes…maybe I’ll try to stop by Guitar Center today and try one out if they have one. Would be very interesting. hehe. Anyways, think that’s about it for this update.

current mood: bored
current music: Passion 2000 (Rutgers Live) – Agnus Dei

Ohhhhhhmygosh, I want one of these Avalon U5 DI Boxes. Shane Barnard uses one and it makes soooooooo much of a difference. I want to try to go to Guitar Center tommorrow and check out how it sounds and everything. The retail cost on it is 595$!!!! Maybe one day when I’m rich I’ll get one, lol. Or all of you reading this can someday get me one for my birthday…it’ll just take like…..40 of you chipping in like 20$ each….like that’ll ever happen, hahah. Oh well I can always dream.
AACF went well today, small meeting since everything’s gearing up for the Finals….oops, I said the F word…lol. But small intimate time.

current mood: envious

I felt like I’m in the mood for some old school worship, so I went into the old archives of AACF and pulled out some goodies. The songs we’re doing tonight are Light the Fire, Glory Honor Power, Psalm 121, Christ In Me, and Holy and Anointed One. Good stuff, hehehe. Hopefully if you read this you can come join us out in San Jose State University’s Student Union on the 3rd floor in the Almaden room for some fellowship and sharing in tonight’s last large group meeting this year. See ya guys then. =)

current mood: pleased
current music: Power of Your Love – SFSU’s AACF

Well finally one of my friends signed up for LiveJournal.com, a cool site if I do say so myself. I can express myself a lot with it (even thou no one might ever read this, lol). But anyways, if ya want, check out his page at http://www.livejournal.com/users/Brentbass/ He’s a guy named Brent from the CGN (Christian Guitar Network) message boards found at www.christianguitarnetwork.com =)
Other than that, I still gotta go pick out some songs for worship tonight, thinking Psalm 121 (I Lift My Eyes Up), and some other oldies tonight…since it is our last large group meeting, doh! Oh well, we’ll enjoy it a lot. Must go now and pick out some worship songs. =)

current mood: musical
current music: artist – Track 06

Wow, 3 people are on my shoutcast server right now. How cool. Distrubuting music to the world. Once again check out my 24/7 (except weekends) Praise & Worship Shoutcast Server at http://64.81.57.221:8000/ Click the listen button and have WinAmp to start it up.

current mood: ecstatic
current music: Shane Barnard – Psalms – 11 – May the Works of My Mouth

Argh, I hate my video card or something. Whenever I play some games (like Quake3) it’ll just randomly crash my computer. Same thing happens in Counterstrike. I was doing really well in Rocket Arena 3 too, even though I haven’t played in about a week or so. =P Had a damage score of about 42, frags were at 23, time was only at 15 minutes. *sigh* stupid video card….

current mood: frustrated