jasonackerman.com

Returned this evening from the Woodsong Festival. Let me tell you, I come back more refreshed from these few days in the woods than I ever could on a week long vacation anywhere else. There’s just something about the island life, and I think it’s taken me a few times there to get it. The San Juan Islands lifestyle is just different. I’ve never been to the Bahamas, but I’m guessing life in the San Juans is even different from that– climate differences aside.

I’m not sure anyone who hasn’t been there really understands the caliber of musicians that play this festival. Many are struggling to climb their way out of obscurity, but from a pure talent and artistry perspective– these guys are the best in the world, I guarantee it. One guy has written so many songs, that he even has songs in his catalog that have been picked up for movies, and others that have been recorded by superstars like Johnny Cash. And I got to sit in on a free 1 hour songwriting seminar he led. From the singer-songwriter straggling in from Colorado by way of Austin, TX, to the most experienced guys there (Bill Mallonee, Johnsmith, Pierce Pettis), the quality was top-notch. Amazing. Leaves me breathless every time. I’ll be adding a section to this site of links to many of these folks, because most of them you really need to hear– it’s a salve to the wound the Christian music “industry” has inflicted on us.

The camping was a bit of a hassle with the 3 kids, but overall we made it out unscathed. Dirty, tired, and such, but none the worse for the wear. Made some new friends, caught up with some old friends, and shared the biggest backyard barbeque ever with them all.

I can’t possibly capture the whole trip in a single late-night post– so I won’t try. But I will leave you with these two bits of news:

1. I will likely be discontinuing my livejournal– I won’t delete it, or anything, I’ll just be backing off on the regular updates, and restricting my posting to the blog. I’ll post the RSS feed for anyone who wants to follow my updates from the LJ friends page structure, but anyone who wants to comment or otherwise interact, should head to the blog for that. I’ll continue reading the friends page as well… just not as religiously. The reasoning behind this is pretty simple– it’s easier for me, and accomplishes my purpose in the blog more precisely.

2. At our house, Wednesday, Katy Bowser, and her husband Kenny Hutson, will be gracing the “stage” at the Monster Cafe (aka, our living room). We’re super thrilled to be hosting our friend from Nashville, and her husband’s guitar skills are simply out of this world, and will be a treat to experience up close. There is still space available, so if you want to come, email me, preferably by Monday evening, and we’ll see what we can do.

We head out tomorrow for our annual pilgrimage to Orcas Island for the Woodsong Festival. I would say we leave tomorrow morning, but the way this day has gone it’s looking less and less likely that we’ll be leaving that early. There are a ton of things to do and no less than 5 different stops we’ve been planning to make. Not exactly the way we had planned it… Maybe we’ll just get up uber-early. Ha. Right.

Had a new friend hanging out with us today. I really had a great time showing him around our beautiful city. I think I enjoy showing people around Portland more than I enjoy hanging out there myself. Went a little overboard on the coffee today. All in all, I consumed one big cup of regular coffee and a combined 7 shots of espresso. (Not in one drink!) I’m feeling a tad overdone on the caffeine for one day.

It’s amazing how easy it was to hang out with someone new… we share a close friend in common, which is how we connected. My girls really enjoyed him being here, we all just got along well. If he and Ken and I all lived in the same town… whoowee, that wouldn’t be good. I mean, it would be loads of fun, but probably no good for our families. And, after all of this, we find out that he lives 5 miles from Tiffany! How crazy that these two people, totally unrelated and brought into our lives in completely different ways, turn out to practically be neighbors in Tennessee.

The computer is staying home for this trip, so we’ll be back online Sunday-ish. Enjoy the week, and if you have it, the hot weather. We’ll be chillin’ on an island where the temperature stays a cool 74 in the sun. Yeah. It’s going to be great.

This post is double-posted, at jasonackerman.com and LiveJournal. I do this by hand because the automated plugin is broke, and I’m too lazy to work on it.

every year on our anniversary, i marvel at how different our life is than the year before. things change fast. what is crazy, is that this is all the anniversary tends to be for me, is a marker of time. i mean, yeah, it’s neat to remember and celebrate something that happened years ago, but we’re different people than when we got married. our marriage is not something that happened in 1998 and we just remember it fondly, our marriage is constantly changing, evolving relationship. we relate differently now. we talk to each other differently. we see each other differently. we know each other differently. marking the day is just a day– and i think we celebrate our anniversaries and birthdays accordingly. we don’t do all that much, but what we do fits our personalities and lifestyle.

now that being said, i think in 3 years our tenth anniversary will deserve something grand and heroic. so i’ll save the money by doing the next two just like this one– mellow, not spendy, not extravagant, just comfy, then in three years we’ll do something crazy.

next week is woodsong. always sneaks up on us… this year will be challenging. i don’t want to camp with sammy. i just don’t. it’s going to be irritating and bothersome and difficult. the awake times will be awesome, but i dread the nights. i’ll be praying for sammy to sleep well. that’s asking a ton, but man, it won’t be very relaxing without it.

this is the part of the show where i sign off and get some actual work done.

This post is double-posted, at jasonackerman.com and LiveJournal. I do this by hand because the automated plugin is broke, and I’m too lazy to work on it.

Compass Stuff
Long night ahead at Compass, including but not limited to finishing on-screen media, reassembling sound system, leading worship, and quite possibly doing something else entirely.

Other Work Stuff
This week we begin the several week process of setting up an office in the house, and taking on some serious projects. I’ve agreed to take on a contract basis the customer service of one huge customer at the fence company. This will take any extra time effort I have (after a major realignment of my schedule) as well as some part-time effort from my wife and brother. It’s a big deal, and it will be a ton of work, but the financial rewards are rather promising. It’s the getting it set up that is going to be time consuming.

Gordon Shumway Stuff
I’m feeling the need to write some more material. I have several little pieces of songs bubbling in my head, I’m just so terrible at tying them up into finished pieces. I really ought to stay up late one night, me and my guitar, and just force some stuff out… just to see what happens. I can always rewrite the parts that suck. Getting out and gigging though is like a giant steak dinner for my performance-hungry soul.

Just Stuff
I feel like I spend too much time trying to measure up. Am I as good of a dad as this guy? Am I as good of a husband as this other guy? I wish I could write a song like that guy. Why am I trying to become a pastor when there’s all these others that are already so good at it… better than I could ever hope to be? It’s hard for me to believe that when God looks at me, I’m not standing next to a giant cosmic yellow measuring tape, stretching out onto my toes trying to reach the next little dashmark that tells Him I’m good enough, that I’m better than I was yesterday, and that maybe tomorrow I’ll sprout up another couple inches and prove that all the work being done on me is worth the effort.

Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean it’s easy to disbelieve.

Tomorrow is our anniversary.

7 years. I don’t have a 7-year itch, though, unless you count that spot on my head where I got a mosquito bite the other night. That’s kinda itchy. We’re not going out for some big fancy dinner, and we’re really not doing anything that terribly special, since we just got back from SF, and we’re going to be heading to the San Juan islands in a couple weeks… but we still oughta do something nice for the occasion. Any suggestions?

This post is double-posted, at jasonackerman.com and LiveJournal. I do this by hand because the automated plugin is broke, and I’m too lazy to work on it.

You know you’re in trouble when your gig is at the ice cream shop, and yesterday’s 80F weather has morphed into classic Pacific Northwest fare: overcast, rain giving way to showers, then back to rain. The crowd was thin (odd for an ice cream shop, hehe), and the interaction was even thinner.

I could just keep playing the same song 12 times over and nobody would notice.

Ultimately, the few who seemed to enjoy it left tips, meager though they were. It was at least nice to have that expression of appreciation for the hard work. It is hard work to play such a small gig– way more challenging than something larger.

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WordPress is a work in progress. Basically, the format is fine. I’m just experimenting with some plugins. All the image handling plugins are stupid… I have yet to find one that’s any easier or more manageable than just throwing photos into my own hosting directory, and reference them image by image.

I’m wondering if I’ll set up a second blog for Compass stuff… probably not. But I could, it’s easy enough to do. It’s hard to keep working on this thing and updating it without knowing if anyone is ever reading it…

i’m trying out a photo managing plugin. so far, it’s got potential but i’m missing some important details i think…