As of last night, Delirious? played their final show as a band. I have been a fan for years now, and I doubt that no other band inspired me as much as they have. Although I wish them the best in their future endeavors, I hate to see it come to an end (especially since I’ve never seen them in person).

The closest I’ve come to a live Delirious show was the “Live at Willow Creek” DVD, which was fantastic. Even though I have most of their studio records, my favorite recordings from Delirious? have always been the live records. It may be because the first Delirious album that I bought happened to be the ACCESS:D live double CD. There is something about that record that drew me in, and made me fall in love with their music.

I happened upon Delirious? during a time where my musical boundaries were broadening, and I was searching for something other than what I was hearing on radio. I could identify with the honesty and transparency that I heard in their music. It has always seemed to me that they just wrote songs – they weren’t trying to fit a particular mold or write “Christian” songs specifically, but they wrote out of their hearts and out of their experiences. In doing that, I believe they opened doors for the songwriters who followed them.

Their songs have been comfort and encouragement to me over the years. They’ve left a great legacy in their music, and hope that we all can continue to bear the torch that they have faithfully carried, and become history makers ourselves.

As I bid a fond farewell to Delirious, I will leave with lead singer Martin Smith’s own words, from an email sent out this morning:

This is not the end but a fantastic beginning. A new season, a new day. Delirious? finishes here but the people movement of historymakers goes on forever.

I’m calling you to stand up, to be people of courage who will run this race till the end. To be men and women of God.

Historymakers, let’s be this voice and sing a song of adoration, of victory, of praise, a song of LOVE. Love will always find a way to break through.

(Due to the response to this song from my friends on twitter, I am posting this, and making this song available for download)

If you read my about page, you would know that I am a songwriter, and started a band called Silencing the Stones in 2004.  Although we went on a hiatus late last year (life just got in the way of the music), we managed to write dozens of songs and record demos of several.  We released a self-produced EP in 2005. It’s not horrible, but the production level shows a lack of experience on our part. This song originally appeared in it’s first form on that EP. (If you promise not to make too much fun of it, I’ll send you a link to download the songs from this EP. You’ll have to email me: john@dubdynomite.com).

I wrote this song in 2003, after a friend of mine (a youth pastor at the time) gave his personal testimony about his battle with addiction and coming to know Christ at a youth service on a Saturday night. The following Sunday morning, after leading worship, I sat down during the message and wrote out the lyrics to the song (this was before the band was started). After putting the band together, this became our signature song. (I’ll post a longer story about this song and the adventure it took us on later).

By 2008, our sound as a band had evolved tremendously (due to some membership changes and rearranging), and we wanted to record something that better reflected the new sound. We rearranged “One More Second Chance” and added a bridge. We enlisted Barry Blair (formerly of Audio Adrenaline) to help us produce a recording.  We let Barry pick the song, out of our entire catalog, and this was the song he chose.  The song you can play below is a result of our sessions with Barry. (Our original plan was to record a full album; alas, as of yet that has not occurred).

ONE MORE SECOND CHANCE
Words and Music by John Williams

LYING HELPLESS ON THE FLOOR OF
THE PRISON THAT I MADE
NOTHING ELSE FOR ME TO DO HERE
AND NO ONE ELSE TO BLAME
THE SUN WAS SLOWLY FADING
ON A LIFE I’D HARDLY LIVED
LOOKING LIKE THIS WAS THE END

IT TOOK A MIRACLE TO SAVE ME
WHEN I TURNED TO YOU
TO GIVE ME ONE MORE SECOND CHANCE
YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE WITH POWER
TO MAKE EVERYTHING NEW
AND GIVE ME ONE MORE SECOND CHANCE

TOOK FINALLY HITTING BOTTOM
TO SEE WHAT I’D BECOME
WHEN I FOUND WHAT I WAS CHASING
THERE WAS NOWHERE ELSE TO RUN
LORD IT WAS YOUR MERCY
THAT FINALLY LET ME SEE
EVERYTHING THAT I COULD BE

SO FAR AWAY FROM YOU (SLIPPING AWAY)
SO FAR AWAY FROM YOU (SLIPPING AWAY)
BUT YOU BROUGHT ME BACK TO YOU
WHEN I COULDN’T REACH

Download this track for free by clicking the down arrow on the player above.

I’m sure you’ve noticed the process of the retail world.  On January 2, stores start rolling out the Valentine’s day swag. By February 15, they’ve moved on to Easter, then Mothers Day (and possibly Father’s Day). Before Summer is over, the Halloween products roll in. Then, as early as November 1, it’s suddenly Christmas time.

You shouldn’t have to wonder why.  With each and every one of these holidays comes an enormous amount of spending.

Thanksgiving, however, is not the type of holiday that elicits a large amount of shopping.  There aren’t traditional Thanksgiving decorations, there is no gift giving, just a lot of shopping for food, which in the grand scheme of things, does not carry a high profit margin.

So why is Thanksgiving mostly ignored, especially by retail establishments? There just isn’t enough money to be made around Thanksgiving to invest in promoting or supporting it. Also, Christmas (and the other surrounding celebrations) can make or break the year for a retailer.  The sooner they get you, the consumer, thinking about Christmas, the more likely you are to begin spending money on it.

The only thing those retailers are thankful for every year, is your cash.

So, if you’re already listening to the Christmas music 24/7 on the radio (an obvious ploy for Christmas advertising dollars), already buying decorations, and putting up your tree, you may be helping to support the continuing holiday commercilization mentality. And in the process, you might be disrespecting Thanksgiving, a holiday that retailers apparently would rather you forget about (except for the fact that Black Friday is the next day).

I lived a mostly sheltered life. I was raised in a Christian family, and for the most part, was in regular attendance at some church somewhere. All I ever new of church music was hymns, and the occasional ‘special singing’. The idea of a worship leader was entirely foriegn to me.

There was no Christian radio where I lived, a small (extremely small) town in central Texas. I could not have named one CCM artist (Amy Grant? Michael W. Smith? Who?) The extent of my exposure to recorded Christian music was the Gaithers, and the Hinsons.

After I relocated to Alabama in 1994, I made a decision to rededicate myself to faith in Christ. As part of that, I began exclusively listening to Christian radio (which is a lot easier to do in Alabama, since there seems to be a Christian format radio station in every city). It was on one of my many drives to Florence, Alabama (where I attended the University of North Alabama) that I first heard the “Enemy’s Camp/Can You Believe/Look What the Lord Had Done” medley (Track 2 from “Revival at Brownsville”).

At the time, I had no clue of what had transpired at Brownsville Assembly of God, or any idea of who this guy Lindell Cooley was. I had never heard anything like what I heard in that song, and I was immediately attracted. At my first opportunity, I found my way to the nearest Christian store and bought a copy of “Revival at Brownsville”.

For the longest time, that CD was on endless repeat in my 1984 Buick LeSabre (via a portable cd player with tape deck adapter). I memorized every song. My singing, which at the time was overwhelmingly country (due to my teenage affinity for Country music) began to take on just a little of the bluesy soulfulness of Lindell.

A short time later, I would get to watch videos from the revival services and finally see Lindell in action. It was through Lindell, I began to learn what a worship leader was, and I was inspired by the passion and enthusiasm he displayed. I had rarely seen a person that seemed to be so moved by what he was singing, like he believed every word. I even once made the trek to Pensacola (around 1997) to be a part of one of the services.

I decided that I wanted to be a worship leader, but not just any worship leader, I wanted to be just like Lindell Cooley. I had played guitar most of my life, but I took on learning the keyboards (just like Lindell), and when I finally got my opportunity to lead worship, I sang the songs he sang, and used his arrangements. I was breaking new ground where I was, as the churches I attended were steeped heavily in the traditional worship model, but if Lindell could do it, I was going to do it too.

In some ways, it worked for me, but if I could go back knowing what I know now, I would probably do a lot of things differently. I’ve matured, my musical styles have broadened, I play guitar almost exclusively again, but it’s not because Chris Tomlin does it, it’s what fits me.

I still owe a lot to Lindell Cooley. I doubt I would have ever become a worship leader, had I never encountered his music – had I never had him as an inspiration. So, thanks Lindell. I hope someday I can thank you personally.

I ran into an internet problem some time ago.  My network kept losing contact with my ISP’s (who shall remain nameless) DNS servers.  For the nerdically-challenged, DNS servers are important because they translate the web addresses we use from the text address into the actual numeric internet protocol (IP) address for the server that is hosting that domain.  No DNS server, you get a lot of “cannot contact web server” errors in your browser.

I was fed up with the continuous issues I was having with my ISP’s DNS servers, I set out to find some other servers I could use that may be more reliable. In my research, OpenDNS came highly recommended, and as a bonus they have other features that are very valuable.

And you can use OpenDNS for free. Yes, free. They also have for-pay services that appeal more to businesses or power users, but the free service gives me everything that I need.

Why I use OpenDNS:

• Their DNS servers are fast and reliable. Since I’ve switched, I’ve not had one DNS issue.
• They offer free internet filtering. You can use their DNS servers without signing up for an account, but creating an account allows you to turn on their filtering solution, which gives you four levels of filtering, no filtering or custom filtering(by site category). Their servers can filter out adware sites, phishing sites, botnets and pornography. This is one of the best ways to protect your personal information, and keep porn off of your network, without installing filtering software on your computer.
• It’s easy to use. Updating your home network router (or your computer, for single computer networks) with their DNS server addresses is all you need to do to use their DNS servers. If you are using their filtering service, you’ll need to install a client program on one of your home computers that keeps your home IP address associated with your settings. They have clients for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
• You can blacklist and/or whitelist domains (up to 25 on the free version) in case your filtering level blocks a site you need to visit (whitelist) or doesn’t block a domain you need to block (blacklist).
• You get reports (for the past two weeks on the free version) of the top domains accessed on your network, and the blocked domains requested, all available through the web dashboard at the OpenDNS website.
• It’s Free!

Even if you are not having issues with your ISP’s DNS servers, you might benefit from the services OpenDNS provides, especially the free filtering. There are several software packages that you can install on your computer that do internet filtering (I recommend this one, if that is what you need), but you have to install that software on every computer that you own, and due to licensing restrictions, that may be prohibitively expensive. And in my experience, filtering software tends to drag down the performance of your computer (especially on older hardware). Using OpenDNS filtering allows you to filter all devices on your network, even laptops or smartphones that others bring into your home, without installing software on all of them.

Any questions? Ask me in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer all of them.

Glee is one of my new favorite shows.  Sure, it’s not covering a lot of new ground when it comes to subject matter (high school, relationships, cliques), it does have a sort of irreverent humor that I enjoy.

Oh, and they sing. A lot. I like singing.

So far, some of the songs that have been covered on Glee have been fairly recent and very popular songs. Likely to have been heard on the radio and/or on music videos (they still play those on TV somewhere, right?) in the last few years.

Now, the variety of music available to us today is staggering, what with iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Pandora, last.fm, et al. (not to mention illegally downloading from peer-to-peer networks). Yet, in the mainstream music media (radio mostly), the playlists for the Top 40/Hot 40 stations are very limited and repetitive. Teens and young adults still listen to radio quite a bit, at least where I am from, and as such, are only exposed to that which radio deems worthy of airtime (which, in my opinion, is mostly shallow, formulaic, meaningless pop music with very little substance).

I’m not entirely sure of the demographics for Glee, but based on some limited internet research, it would seem that at least some teens and young adults are watching. And, in the process of watching, unintentionally, their musical horizons are being broadened, because the a good number of the songs that Glee is covering reach beyond the scope of recent pop music and into great older songs, and musicals.

In the pilot episode alone, they would have heard “Where is Love” from the musical Oliver!, “On My Own” from Les Miserables, and “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by John Denver, just to name a few.

Does watching Glee actually expand one’s musical horizons?  I’m not sure. But it could. At the least, it reminded me of a great old song that I will leave you with:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIe-WslMJX8

(TMI Tuesday is a new posting topic I am adding to my blog where I share very personal information that I normally would not.  The rest of today’s post will explain further.  So on with the post….)

In all of my previous blogging endeavors, on Facebook and on twitter, I’ve never really opened up and shared anything too personal. I’ve always been very general, never revealing too much, and as such, I probably come across as very impersonal.

I’ve commented on a few blog posts, at times have been a part of a discussion, but I am admitting that this is very difficult for me. Why?

I have a really hard time dealing with rejection. I always have. I’m naturally reserved, an introvert. I love people, I love the interaction, but a nagging fear of rejection has kept me from making connections.

I’m a typical case. I was (still am) a nerd in the classical sense. Intelligent, shy, interested in nerdy stuff like math, science, technology and the like. I never had a lot of friends in school. My only non-nerdy interest (which I pursued with nerd-like infatuation) was music.  I learned to play guitar and sing, and about the only time I got any attention in high school was when I brought my guitar and sang the latest country hit songs at lunch break. But my social awkwardness kept me from fitting in with most everyone.

Even now, its difficult. I get really anxious when I have to call someone I don’t know or haven’t spoken to before. I get anxious when I’m asking something from someone, even if they are a close friend (I DO have a few of those now). It’s even hard for me to ask for a day off from work sometimes. All because the pain of rejection has been so real in my life, that I do everything I can to avoid having to face it.

It’s a terrible weakness I have, one I’m trying to work through, and so I ask anyone out there who may be reading this to please be patient with me. I’m not really impersonal, or a snob. I’m just afraid sometimes that if I put too much out there you’ll find something about me that you won’t like, and I’m not sure how I’ll deal with that.

(If you’re a blogger, feel free to write your own TMI Tuesday post and link to it in the comments)

Communication is not an exact science. No one will ever understand what you said exactly the way you meant it.

A while back, a friend of mine gave me an iBook (PowerPC 3G-600Mhz, 256MB RAM, 20GB hard drive).  It was in good working condition, running OSX 10.1.

I love technology in all of its forms, so having this as another toy to play with was fun. But I can never leave well enough alone. Since I am a glutton for punishment always up for a challenge, I set out to improve this laptop as much as I could. My goal: to actually make it more useful.

My first order of business was a memory upgrade. The one available memory slot would only accept up to a 512mb so-dimm, so I snagged one from E-bay and installed it.  Next, I attempted an OS upgrade. My research showed that anything above OSX 10.2 was too much for the hardware.  Again, E-bay provided me with a 10.2 install and I upgraded successfully.

What I ended up with at this point, was not really what I was hoping for.  My intention was to have something that would handle light web-surfing and maybe some writing.  Unfortunately, there was not a sufficiently advanced web browser that would run on OSX 10.2. For a moment, I was ready to accept defeat.

There is an unwritten rule that pertains to most all computing devices: If it has a microprocessor, there is a good chance that there is a Linux distribution that will run on it. Some further research pointed me in the direction of the Xubuntu Linux distribution, a derivative of Ubuntu, which had a port for PowerPC processors.  Xubuntu was suggested because the user interface uses less system resources than a standard Ubuntu install.

I was able to download version 9.04 of the Xubuntu distribution for PowerPC processors, which installed flawlessly on my iBook 3G, no configuration file hacking required.  Video display, wireless networking and sound worked with no additional tweaking.  Now I have an up-to-date operating system with the latest version of Firefox, and a ton of productivity applications to boot.  Xubuntu is not terribly resource-hungry either, which makes for a snappier interface than even OSX 10.1 or 10.2 in my experience.

If you’re looking to resurrect some older hardware, but want the modern features of the latest OS, Xubuntu (or many of the other flavors of Linux) may be what you are looking for. Fair warning: if you’ve never attempted a Linux install (or any other OS install for that matter), the effort involved may be more than you bargained for.  On an iBook 3G with similar specifications (or most any other PowerPC based Mac), a novice should be able to follow the prompts and have a successful install. For other hardware, it could get much more complicated, especially getting video, sound and networking operating as it should.  Your mileage may vary, Google is your friend.

Good Luck!

Book Cover

Question: Can one company change the world? That’s an easy answer if you mention the names AIG and/or Bear Stearns.  More difficult question: Can one company change the world and its community positively?  Even more difficult question: Can that company change the world and its community from a Christian worldview, and its main enterprise be the brewing of beer?

“The Search for God and Guinness” will answer that question, and many more you never thought to ask about the centuries-old Irish brewing company, famous for its Guinness Stout.  This book gives a fascinating insight into the Guinness family, from the founder and father, Arthur, down through the branches of descendants, many of which never worked for or were involved in the brewery. This book is more than just a history of the brewing company -  it delves into the role that Christian faith played in the business, and throughout the Guinness family; it investigates the impact that Guinness had on its employees and on its community; and it demonstrates what modern industry can learn from the Guinness way of doing business.

At first glance, one might consider that the author is attempting to laud the “greatness” of beer in general – that this book is a manifesto for the celebration of beer. That could not be further from the truth.  The author actually admits to never being a beer drinker himself.

For me, this was a book full of unexpected revelations.  It was surprising to learn that the conditions surrounding the early years of the Guinness brewing company were actually improved by the availability of a quality beer. The water available to most people in that era was undrinkable, contaminated with human and industrial waste.  The proliferation of distilled spirits like gin and whiskey were causing rampant alcoholism, and with that came the social issues that alcoholism creates. At the time, beer was the better alternative, since it carried no disease (due to the fermentation process), it was not nearly as intoxicating as the gin or whiskey, and actually provided some nutritional value (especially B vitamins).  There are also many interesting stories about one branch of the Guinness family that was heavily involved in the early Evangelical Christian movements, a welcome aside in a book that turns out to be about more than just beer.

Overall, “The Search for God and Guinness” is a very well written book.  The author weaves the story of the brewery, the family, and the historical significance of the times together in great detail, while managing to keep the book from reading like a history text.  Mansfield takes a very objective approach in his writing, stating the facts, and letting those facts lead to their logical conclusions.  His treatment of not only the brewing business, but the evolution of the Guinness family makes this book that much more fascinating.

My rating: 4 out of 5.

(Disclaimer: I read and reviewed this book as part of the book review blogger program from Thomas Nelson Publishers.  More information is available about this program at http://brb.thomasnelson.com)