Vernian Process
Can you say excellent Steampunk music?
Download the album “Behold the Machine” on their website: www.vernianprocess.com.
The Death of Me…
Pay attention to the stalkers in this one. Great song, great message… Pretty applicable in my life right now.
Some insightful words…
“The double edge razor shines forth as an enduring rebuke to an age customarily enticed by the vapid promises of mass technology, Where technology is vague of purpose, the double edge razor is specific. Where technology is often blunt and crude; the double edge razor is elegant. Where the best of technology is for the few, the double edge razor speaks to the average man. Where technology is soulless, the double edge razor renders a man both confident and soulful. This marvelous shaving tool is modern man’s talisman against every wild offense the world throws at him. The double edge razor is a man’s companion and constant promissory of all the best he can hope for in this life. With his razor in hand, any man is transformed into a virtual prince of tides; he is always happiest when enveloped in a watery mix of soap, cream and steel.”
Charles Roberts
I’m not much for “clubs”… but
…I am a member of the Order of the Black Shamrock.
“The aims and goals of this order are to promote and uphold the virtues of the Noble Warrior, the undying worth of the ideals of chivalry, and to espouse the value and worthiness of these ideals to those who would take interest in them. Members of the Order are entrusted with the noble charge of passing this legacy to the next generations, our youth, our sons and our daughters. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s old is new again…
I recently got a double edged razor – a Merkur 38C to be specific… and had my first “real” shave ever last night… I’m sold on wet/method shaving… Can’t believe I’ve never tried it in 25+ years of shaving. No more beards in my future… too nice having a smooth shave!
Photo history at it’s best!
Kodachrome is dying this year… this is from when it was introduced… Amazing stuff…
As promised, The Church of the Wandering Stream
The Church of the Wandering Stream
(From Fishing Music II, by David A. Thompson, Woody Overtones Music, ASCAP)
Where do you go if you’ve lost all direction?
…and where do you go when you’re feeling alone?
I know a place that can bring you redemption.
It’s almost like heaven, but it feels like home.
It isn’t far if you know where you’re looking,
just head down the road and head out of town.
Fishing Music II
I’ve enjoyed the first fishing Music CD for years – since it came out in 2003, actually… and have been PATIENTLY waiting for the next one. Six Years… (OK, it’s about time, guys.) ANYWAY, it’s here, and on iTunes, to boot! Great job on another album, and thankfully, the sophomore CD doesn’t stink! LOL… Actually, it’s pretty good. Really good. OK, Great.
The second Fishing Music is a departure from the first – it feels more like you’re sitting around a campfire with some really talented folks who share the love of fishing the fly with you, and take turns singing – it’s a laid back, easy sound, and reminds me of another favorite album of mine – Rancho Relaxo from Troll for Trout.
As always, I have an immediate favorite song – The Church of the Wandering Stream. The lyrics for that will be posted here shortly. It embodies things I’ve tried poorly to express in my own writing about what fishing is and does for me… I posted that piece here as well, I call it “Ramblings of a Steelheader.”
This album is a terrific little personal departure for me – in my headphones, I am whisked away from this dry, brown, salmonid-free wasteland that I now live in, and am transported back to places I have lived and have found the most relaxing, fulfilling and closest to finding my God in his creation. One specific time comes to mind - my oldest son’s first “real” fly trip… There is a song that fits that here, as well. “Old Bamboo” is a poignant remembrance of a father through his son’s connection with his Dad’s bamboo rod… There’s always time to take one more cast…
Read the rest of this entry »
Another issue is up!
It’s time for another issue of the best online fly fishing magazine on the web!
Click the image, or go to http://www.thisisfly.com
I was thinking of seeing this… not so much now…
I felt bad that my kids were home last night (their own choices) while a huge number of their youth group friends went to see Transformers… Then I saw a post from our old youth minister from Oregon saying it was “TERRIBLE.” Brian tries to influence his youth group’s media intake, so I trust him… and did a little digging on my own. Here is a little review from a site I use as a first level barometer for these things.
Make your own choices…
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
from pluggedinonline.
When last we saw Megatron—the evil head honcho of a race of machines dubbed the Decepticons—he was rusting away at the bottom of the ocean, tethered by high-tech chains, surrounded by guardian submarines and counting the days until his obsolescence.
Too bad the guy had some time left on his extended warranty.
When did we get so soft?
My son has been posting some deep, dark, and serious lyrics to his facebook. He is a huge fan of the Christian metal group Demon Hunter. They pull no spiritual punches, and drive it home screaming and with driving hard music. Even if you’re not a fan of the musical genre, his posts and some fairly recent seemingly disparate events have helped me see that we have become soft believers. Now, to be clear, his posts are not about “Worship Music.” I seriously doubt that Demon Hunter would fly even for my son as appropriate for worship service. We choose to strictly limit our consumption of secular music in my family for many, many reasons. We listen to decidedly Christian music nearly all of the time, in many genres. I like the Demon Hunter as well, but am also very eclectic in my musical tastes. I’ll usually take the metaphorical musical metal broadsword of the spirit and breastplate of righteousness over the pop versions – which for me are musically akin to the letter opener of the spirit and pocket protector of righteousness. I find worthiness in many genres of Christian music today – but am concerned.
Social Media and Customer Service…
Another cross post from my personal place to my service thoughts…
Integrity
Once you lie to or about me or my family, every supposed truth you have ever uttered becomes suspect… And I justly begin to believe it all to be lies from the start. That’s amplified when you have told me things in confidence that I now no longer believe to be truths. Forgiveness is a given. Trust is easily broken and re-earned with more difficulty each time. This I know.
tweet
gstrand is wondering where grammar in communication has gone, and if 140 characters is the limit to the next generation’s ability to consume informa
My favorite Scooby Doo Episode…
Just becaus I can… and because I loved this episode!! Kid of the ’70’s, I guess…
Part 1
The other two parts are in the rest of the post… Read the rest of this entry »
A poem…
Clickety: Do not go gentle into that good night, by Dylan Thomas, one of my favorite twentieth century poets…
Spacetweet… How cool is that!?!?
I’m following an astronaut on twitter. He tweeted from space… yeah, sure it’s geeky… but freaky cool!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/05/13/twitter.space/index.html
The old Orvis Fly Fishing School tapes…
Found the videotape I used to use to teach the Orvis class on youtube as a playlist!
Some recent Tweets I found really insightful…
“Head of FDIC assures banks they are too big to fail – What about small businesses, are they too small to save?”
“Obama budget cut of $17 billion is less than 1/2 of 1% of the entire $3.55 trillion FY10 budget – is that change we can believe in?”
Flashback!
I was going to write on a topic that is heavy on my mind of late… but this old post should do for now.
Christian Blue Man meets Steampunk…
Welcome to the White Collar Side Show.
I really enjoy this group. They don’t treat issues with kid gloves, but face them head on, and with drumsticks. I love that approach…
Testing a new plugin…
No better video to try to see if I can post youtubes than this one, a fav…
Facebook status…
status
(stāt’əs, stā’təs)
[stey-tuhs, stat-uhs]
–noun
1. the position of an individual in relation to another or others, esp. in regard to social or professional standing.
2. state or condition of affairs: Arbitration has failed to change the status of the disagreement.
3. the standing of a person before the law.
–adjective
4. conferring or believed to confer elevated status: a status car; a status job.
Origin: 1665–75; < L: the condition of standing, stature, status, equiv. to sta- (var. s. of stāre to stand ) + -tus suffix of v. action
I’ve stopped putting my “Status” on Facebook. Again. At least serious ones that actually have anything to do with my actual thoughts about life, the universe, or anything. It’s just not worth it. It seems to me that Facebook has become everyone’s platform for their personal edification, or their cause, political views, and, more disturbingly, for people to place their own comments about and in reaction to HAVING those opinions if they even remotely differ from their own… If that’s not enough, some find such self importance on the site to tell you that your opinion “looks bad” or is wrong, or worse, to question your integrity and motivation. Thus why this little note is here rather than anywhere else… Read the rest of this entry »
Hands down the coolest fly fishing magazine
…is on the web, and not in print. Period.
Bookmark it. Fish.
Catching up, with pictures…
I can’t believe how the time just keeps ticking, ticking… in to the future… How long ago was THAT on the radio? That said, what follows is a small photo journey of what we’ve been up to! Enjoy.
Thankful, again…
For the third year running, we spent our Thanksgiving morning and early afternoon serving a meal to anyone who came to our tent out at North Austin Christian Church – right next door to a number of low-income apartment complexes. It is really a grounding experience, and one that our kids have come to expect us to do. I’m so happy that this is now “normal” for our family Thanksgiving. The picture above is Suzie holding a sweet child that she also took care of last year as a newborn… Her Mommy remembered Suzie from last year, and Suzie talked to her and her extended family at length.
Christmas card picture time…
It’s that time of year… the time when I break out the remote for the camera and take pictures of the whole fam… from the wrong side of the camera. It’s a pain, but a fun family event as well, which makes everything cool. These are some shots with me on the correct side of the camera and the kids on their best side as well. Enjoy!
Creation festival – the tour…
I took the older kids and a guest of Noah’s to the Creation Festival Tour last week. What a great show… I was a fairly avid secular concert goer in HS and college – none of the festivals (Days on the Green, and Mountain Aire, and the like…) can hold a candle to these…
Down under with the boys…
With some extended family in town, the boys and I went down (literally) in to a local cave (“Inner Space Caverns” in Georgetown Texas) with them… I have wanted to visit this cave for, well, almost four years now. I have always enjoyed caves, and I think the boys have the bug now too.
Going down… the rest of the post is some cool pictures!
Daddy’s little girls…
We were at Disney World when the “Father Daughter Banquet” was happening for our Dads and girls at Church, so I took my gorgeous baby girls on a date after we returned. Cheesecake Factory, Beverly Hills Cihuahua, and my babies. It doesn’t get much better. Needless to say, we dressed up! The rest of the post is photos of my sweeties!
A few sprayscape pics…
A few weeks ago we had a fun little time with the younger kids at a local sprayscape… some quick shots to post…
I’ve been remiss…
Some posts are in the works… in the mean time, here are a couple pictures from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Regatta…
Woot! Huge congrats to Hannah!
Hannah has been working really hard to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society – so far she is up over $18,000 this year!!!
Excuse me while I have a Proud Dad Moment…
Check it out at www.ltnteampink.com !
Found this via a friend today.
Wow. Found this via a “friend” who just opened up a VERY cool business – Christian Speculative Fiction Publishing. Go visit Marcher Lord Press. Buy a book.
The image is original artwork by Todd Mueller: http://web.mac.com/toddmueller/
WDW: Turning 17 on a family holiday…
There will likely be a few posts over the next few weeks as I get to it about the trip… First off, I have to give props to Noah. He was the victim of so many Disneyish shenanigans sessions this trip (see the youtube post I made earlier, for example…) , as he turned 17 in the middle of it. How many 17 year old’s even WANT to go on family vacations? He was so fun to hang with, and was a huge help, too. Now that we are officially a family of six since Emmy is older than 5, we had to get two rooms – he and Han shared a room to themselves. (Nobody said 17 didn’t have perks.)
Of course, he was made to wear an “It’s My Birthday!” badge all week, so everyone knew – especially at the restaurants. The first day we were there, he was made to wear the hat that was part of our server’s costume… Read the rest of this entry »
The “creative” WDW picture selections…
Are in my photo albums: Click!
Almost forgot…
There are some great videos of Noah’s birthday at the Whispering Canyon Restaurant in the hotel we stayed at on my youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/gusstrand
Instant gratification…
I may get around to writing about it, but that would likely just bore you… so here are the pictures from a week at Walt Disney World…
A few quick kid shots…
Friday night we did the usual dinner thing and headed over to “the cows” for ice cream and wandering. I took my old 75-300 Tamron lens out to see if it still worked… It’s a 35mm format, so the focal lengths are off for the digiSLR. The focal length thing is actually not a problem, but I’m not at all happy with the lens performance. Regardless, I pulled some OK pictures out of the bunch. It’s hard to mess up pics with such an adorable family… Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »
Owwww! My hands hurt! (Thanks, Noah!)
My eldest goatboy took me down to the rock climbing walls yesterday. My hands hurt and I have no grip today. We had a lot of fun. Thanks, buddy! Oh, and I also found out my son is a pool shark while we were waiting for an open time slot to climb… next time, your allowance is on the line, boy! Read the rest of this entry »
networking
