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What could you possibly imagine lie beneath the black boxes? Find out Sunday at The Rock Church.

"Swing away, Merrill." (Signs)

These are not exactly new signs, but I noticed them today and really wondered what they meant.

I find it odd that we can't fully operate a phone while driving, but we can put up all sorts of signs along the road. Billboards, speed limits, speedzones, no passing, deer ahead, crosswalk ahead, school zone, merge, lane ends, railroad crossing, slow traffic stay right, chain area ahead, curves, steeps slope, duck crossing, wildlife preserve, spawning creek, natural habitat, milepost, scenic viewpoint ahead, no u-turn, left turn only from 4-6pm, carpool, carpool ends, bus route, truck route, bike route, cascade loop, adopt-a-highway, food ahead, gas ahead, tourist attraction ahead.

And now "Traffic Safety Corridor" gets put into that list (among many others I've missed). I'm all for safety and cautionary signs, but can we draw the line somewhere? Is a tourist going to see the TSC sign and instantly feel more safe driving the road? Will a parent? I doubt it.

I'm waiting for the "This road was once used by Bill Gates when he got a speeding infraction for 130mph in a 55mph zone" sign to go up in Redmond. Or "Shaun Alexander flat tire spot."

(rolling eyes)

"Hey everybody! Come see how good I look!" (Anchorman)

Check this out: http://habichradio.vox.com/. It's the result of many hours and late nights and too many runs to Lowe's Home Improvement. I'm sure there are some before pictures, but the after ones are simply stunning.

Tip 'o cap to all our great volunteers at The Rock for raising the atmosphere of the Children's Wing again, after many years of creating, dreaming and envisioning. Look at the leaps made in just the past five years!

And the carefully look at the bathrooms. Yes, those are in a church. Not The Metropolitan or El Gaucho or Salish (Washington State fancy places). In a church in the town of Monroe, the foothills of the Cascades.

To the critics (there always are some): They're called restrooms for a reason. We want people to feel at ease, not feel like they're at an outhouse. And it doesn't cost millions of dollars- a small change for big gain (I heard something like that from someone). And (how many English professors are cringing in my use of "and" thus far?) in the words of Ikea: you don't have to be rich, just smart.

"It's Not Over." (Daughtry)

Easter services have come and gone. It was a huge success. Some highlights:

1) Awesome stage redesign
2) Awesome videos
3) Awesome music- the band ripped it with so much energy and joy!
4) Band nailed "It's Not Over" from Daughtry
5) Pastor Jeff's message about it's not over, there's two days before the BIG miracle. Don't give up, you might be in the two days!

And that completes my week blog (except for Saturday which I spent nearly all day setting up lighting).

Happy Easter everyone!

"I've got a bad feeling about this." (Star Wars)

Setting up new lights for Easter Sunday. Going smoothly, throwing a new profile here, not reading a disk (floppy) there, you know, all-around crunch-time madness. I tried uploading a new fixture (cough) LED (cough) to the board and it didn't work out as planned. It actually kinda crashed the board. The board froze on a "Can't-find-what-you-have-on-your-floppy" error, so I restarted the board. Up comes the error, which I find out from Zero88's web forum is the equivalent of the BSOD. Awesome. Just in time for Sunday. I have two options to fix the board. One involves a hefty shipping tag and a couple weeks. The other option involves tools and questionable stares from everyone.

Panic ensues.

Try the first recommended fix, doesn't work, call tech support (England), can't call overseas, email tech support (England's awake), get auto-response- OOF 'till 3/24, locate local vendors who may have a rental option, closed, call other places, closed but get a guy who's staying late, no board, get another alternative local, get call from local vendor providing options, check board, it's okay. Whiskey Tango.

So almost everything is up and running. I did a load test and nothing blew up, so I got that going for me. I would like to know who approved the tech guy's vacation on the week before Easter?

"You're adopted!" (Accepted)

Late night (check timestamp) going over some Easter items. Let's just say everyone will experience something new this Easter. I <3 Creativity. I'm making that shirt.

"This is beyond my skill to heal." (Fellowship of the Ring)

So I began installation of a new hard drive, hoping to revive the machine to be usable. No dice. Two machines down. The time & effort spent trying to fix old machines aren't worth it, so Dell.com/outlet got a sale this morning.

This weekend I did two of my favorite things in one day: Church and racing. And then I slept for 12 hours. It was great.

Last night during the "Great HD Debacle '08" I had some "down-time" as I was waiting for the OS to install (those not understanding the abbreviations, please humor me). I checked some blogs, like Tony Morgan's and Kem Meyer's and Church Marketing Sucks. The funny part was my keyboard was currently in use in the rebuilding process, so I had to navigate the 'net with just my mouse. Six degrees of separation right there.

What I was stumbling upon with the new String Theory of Internet Travel was pretty profound, and I'm currently mulling over in my head some thoughts that are somewhat dangerous. It has to do with a recent study that was published, and I tried to drill down to the root cause of the results, and what I came up with I didn't like. So hopefully I'll be able to find a different explanation.

Or maybe it was because it was really late.

"I'm wearing a HUGE happy-hat!" (Denis Leary)

Inspired by Kem Meyer's list:

1) Listening to heavy rain on steel roofs and umbrellas (-ellas -ellas)
2) Driving over Stevens Pass in early autumn
3) Walking in the snow when it's silent
4) Having a clean kitchen and living room, able to sit down and watch TV
5) Finishing. Projects, race car, a book, this post.
6) Building Lego kits (I have a lot on my Amazon.com wishlist)
7) Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Nut-free, obviously.
8) Watching a good movie
9) Tearing it all down and starting over
10) Songs I can sing along to
11) Finding jeans that fit that are cheap

"I want you to build me a car, Harry." (Days of Thunder)

Four drivers of the :ahem: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series :ahem: are over the $1 million mark in race earnings. I remember when finishing the season over $1 million was an accomplishment. It's nice to see the prize money increasing throughout the years.

"You didn't stop to think if you should." (Jurassic Park)

Peeling back the curtain:

I don't recall explaining why my blog is called "Light 'Em Up" so I figured I'd let everyone in on the secret (ohhhh... the secret. Where's Oprah?). It's not too profound, and somewhat, umm, nerdy.

Reason A) In season two of Lost, there's an episode where Jack is "negotiating" with Tom Friendly (Captain Ahab) and claims his party is bigger than Tom's, calling the bluff. Then Tom yells "Light 'em up!" and within seconds Jack is surrounded by 20 or so flaming torches. Whoops. There are always more on your side when you call out. You may not see them, but they're there.

Reason B) Matthew 5:14-15: You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. So there's that, too.

Randomness: Michael Eisner, the man who pushed Disney to different levels, is 66 today. Not kidding.

"Look kids- Big Ben. Parliment." (European Vacation)

Here's a lovely resource for people who don't know or understand the process of a traffic roundabout.

Synopsis: The outside (farthest right) lane is for entering and exiting.

On another note, Mitosis 2008 is coming up quickly (4/11 & 4/12). Friday's speaker is Frank Damazio, who is the Senior Pastor of Portland's City Bible Church and a leader in multi-campus churches here in the NW. Also speaking is Tony Morgan, from NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. Tony has been a widely-regarded leader in creating new methods of reaching people since his days at Granger Community Church. Pastor Jeff also will be speaking, telling the story of how TRC grew from it's roots into what it is today. And leading two sessions is Ken Holsinger, who helped guide and develop TRC's current creativity process. His years in the church production industry have helped many churches step forward with creativity and technology.

Each speaker will help unlock special talents inside of everyone to use within the Church body to multiply the church. Register today.