This End Down

There are Christians who have hysterical reactions,
    as if the world would have slipped out of God’s hands.
They act violently as if they were risking everything.

But we believe in history;
the world is not a roll of the dice going toward chaos.
A new world has begun to happen since Christ has risen…

Jesus Christ, we rejoice in your definitive triumph…
    with our bodies still in the breach
    and our souls in tension,
    we cry out our first “Hurrah!”
    till eternity unfolds itself.

Your sorrow now has passed.
Your enemies have failed.
You are a definitive smile for humankind.

What matter the wait now for us?
We accept the struggle and the death;
because you, our love, will not die!

We march behind you,
    on the road to the future.
You are with us
    and you are our immortality!

Take away the sadness from our faces.
We are not in a game of chance…
    You have the last word!

Beyond the crushing of our bones,
    now has begun the eternal “alleluia!”
From the thousand openings of our wounded bodies
    and souls there arises now a triumphal song!

So, teach us to give voice to your new life throughout all the world.
Because you dry the tears from the eyes of the oppressed forever…
    and death will disappear…

–Jesuit Father Luis Espinal was assassinated March 22, 1980, in La Paz, Bolivia, by paramilitary forces. He wrote this meditation shortly before his death.

This is Jason’s Funk mix he recommended me to learn all about the joy that is funk:

(sorry, but this widget was killing people’s browsers. If you want to see it, go to listen.grooveshark.com and search for mstauffer… then go to my playlists.)

I have to figure out whether or not to audition for the Urbana ‘09 worship team. Here’s what I have so far:

Pros:

• Playing bass in front of 22,000 people
• Playing and worshiping with an amazing set of musicians, writing new music, playing all sorts of different styles
• Not being frustrated if someone ends up playing who I think I could play as well as/better than

Cons:

• $300 plane ticket to audition
• Crazy nerves for audition
• Huge time commitment if I make it–the worship team will play 6-10 gigs together between September 08 and December 09
• Personal struggles with whether or not I really consider myself a performance bassist or whether I just serve where needed–how much of my desire to do this is to serve a need, and how much is because I’m prideful about my abilities? Also, how comfortable will I feel playing in front of that many people? Whoo boy.

Any feelings, ideas, contributions?

This won’t mean much for most of you, but I’ve been using GrooveShark Lite a lot recently, and so I made an SSB (Site-Specific Browser) for it using Fluid. Fluid just grabs the web site’s favicon as the program icon, and it’s tiny, so it looks hideous. So, I decided to waste way too much of my time and create an icon. I uploaded two; one with the globe and one without. They’re hosted on Flickr here: GrooveShark Lite SSB Icon rev3 (without globe) and GrooveShark Lite SSB Icon rev4 (with globe).

By the way–this may not work with browsers other than Firefox, as other browsers have trouble viewing transparent PNGs. Who knows.

EDIT: I uploaded a brighter version of the globe that has a better brightness balance compared to other OSX icons. You can find it here: GrooveShark Lite SSB Icon rev4b (with globe, BRIGHTENED)

1. Set your rate and the associated deliverables up front. Get a signature that binds both you and the client to the same ground rules.
2. Never discuss your rate with a client’s staff member. It’s none of their business what you’re paid and it’s usually more than they’re getting per hour (risk, insurance, and cost discussions set aside for now).
3. Show up and do the job on time. Your work is usually subjective and a responsible reputation can help you influence the outcome of a design presentation, an application demo, a product review or a crucial conversation.
4. Don’t treat your invoices with an apologetic tone. You and the client agreed to a rate and a schedule of terms. Submit the invoice and thank them for their prompt payment.
5. Fulfill your obligation. Even if you have to bring in a resource under cover of darkness and eat the cost of the extra help, do the job you agreed to do. This will not only get you prompt payment, but will also boost your reputation.

More here.

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