Random Ramblings

Well, I went to the Reserve yesterday morning with Rick. I guess I’m a sucker for punishment, I couldn’t leave it at getting taken to school on Claremont, oh no, I had to go out on the really nice course and get taken to school. I had a blast, though, so it’s all good. Here’s the hole-by-hole recap.

Hole 1 – Par 5
Fairly straight hole. I pulled my shot to the right and landed on the side of a hill in the rough. No big deal. I chunk two shots from the rough before finally getting more distance… And landing it in the tall grass. Ball is lost, I finally just drop and hit to the green, took a couple of puts, and was finished. I think after penalty strokes it was 10 strokes.

Hole 2 – Par 4
Off the tee I had a prime position for getting on the green in two. Then I pulled out my hybrid iron, which was a bad idea. See, as it’s still new, I haven’t got any consistency when hitting it. The shot went low and, while I thought it cleared the creek, I found my shot in the creek. Pulled it out, dropped it for one stroke, chipped up onto the green, but the green goes downhill. A lot. Rolled all the way to the far side and into the rough. Chipped up, took two putts. Finished at 7.

Hole 3 – Par 3
The hole is picturesque, although I admit it made me nervous because of the huge water hazard just asking to take my ball from me. Thankfully, I cleared it and landed on the rough backside of the green. The gentleman from Golf Galaxy who joined us on this hole wound up taking a swim instead. This hole would be the golf highlight of my day because I chipped on and two putted, which gave me a bogey, but that also tied Rick, so I felt accomplished.

Hole 4 – Par 4
This started out with the most comical shot of the game, and I was the one who let it loose. I had a beautiful 200 yard drive… It was 100 yards out, 100 yards back. See, my first attempt at the tee shot went low into some thick rough. “Oh great, I’m going to have to drop again.” to my shock and amazement, though, it hit something (God only knows what) and ricocheted back into the air and on a backwards trajectory, landing 10 feet in front of the tee box. After a good laugh, I rehit. This time I landed in the wildlife preserve and had to drop. Oh well. When I finally made it to the green, I hit a putt that everyone was sure I’d put too much on, but it hit the back and dropped. I just looked up and said “I’ve been working on that distance all week.” (Which I had)

Hole 5 – Par 3
I don’t want to talk about it…

Hole 6 – Par 5
My tee shot was totally off, I wound up coming up on the right side on a hill. Tried a 5 iron to get back on the fairway, wound up getting into another wildlife area and having to drop. I dropped on top of a hill and smacked a good one over the wildlife area onto what I expected to be the green area. Didn’t realize that the other side was that water hazard wildlife area from the 4th hole.Had to drop again and hit across the water this time. Landed in blackberry bushes. Had to drop again.
Finally got on the green and got my putts in. You’ll note at this point, I’ve stopped even telling my scores. This is for good reason. They were terrible.

Hole 7 – Par 4
Sank my best putt of the day on this hole. It was after 4 strokes, if I remember correctly. So I didn’t do terribly bad.

Hole 8 – Par 5
536 yards from the tee. A Par 5’s par 5 if there ever was one. Seems easy enough, straight up the middle a couple of shots to the green, right? Wrong. My tee shot lands just short of the fairway in the rough for about 100 yards. I pulled out the hybrid (yes, I’m aware that was stupid. again.), smacked it for a couple hundred yards off into the rough on the right. 5 ironed out, got onto the fairway, 5 ironed again, thought I landed in the water but mercifully came up short in the rough. It’s an easy 90 yard shot to the pin from here. No way I can screw this up, right? WRONG. First shot goes off to the right, lands barely into the water. Rick is able to retrieve my ball, I tried again. This time, I wound up hitting it all the way over the water. This is still a mystery as, again, the water is sharp right from where I’m aiming. Frustrated, I drop again and clobbered it with my pitching wedge. cleared the water, even cleared the green, wound up in a tuft of long grass again. Beautiful. Found the ball with Rick’s help, unleashed my rage on the ball to get it out of the tall grass. My rage equated to about five feet. two more chips get me onto the green, I take three putts before becoming fed up and calling it a 12.

Hole 9 – Par 4
Tee shot goes a little off, but I was able to bring it back to the fairway with my second shot. third shot lands me in another tuft of grass (I lost more balls in those than the water), but I finally found it and landed backside of the green about 60 feet away. My first put almost made it, but missed and went long. Eventually, I made it in. Enough said.

Par 36 – Final 66

Everyone else got to play all 18. While I didn’t get to play all 18, I certainly got to score for 18. =)

Tags: Humor, Personal by Andrew Laine
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Today, I play golf with Rick at the Reserve. I spent time both at the range and at the putting green trying to hone some things. We’ll see how I do this time.

Tags: Personal by Andrew Laine
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“That sounds about as pleasant as getting a root canal while naked on a vinyl chair.”

Tags: Andrewisms, Humor, Uncategorized by Andrew Laine
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“When my job’s going smoothly and I’m not having any trouble, I love it. Then there are times when it feels like someone tipped over the statue of David that Michaelangelo sculpted and broke it and I’m trying to reassemble the pieces with toothpaste. And I still love my job. It’s the challenge, I guess.”

~Me to Kyle

Tags: Andrewisms, Humor by Andrew Laine
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Well, it seems when it comes to music reviews, I only rant about Falling up, Kutless, or TFK. Well… Keeping with tradition, I picked up the new Falling Up Exit>Lights remix CD this week. To quote a certain pop culture icon, “Flippin’ sweet.”

Before, I’d like to preface this by telling all of you who have aspirations of managing a Christian bookstore a word of wisdom for the ages. If you’re a manager, and are going to a managers meeting that you know there will be vendor reps at, buy NOTHING for two months prior because odds are, if you buy it, they will also give you a free copy just for being a manager. This CD proved to be my lesson learned, as it came out on Tuesday the 12th (first day of manager’s meeting) and I came into my store that morning on the way to meetings and bought it. Wednesday, lo and behold, our EMI rep says “So everyone’s aware, you will be getting a copy of Falling Up’s new “Exit Lights” CD in your gift bags”, at which I unleashed a ferral cry of “NOOOOOOOOOOO!” that I’m sure could be heard from Division all the way out to Tanasbourne on the extreme West side. Okay, so I didn’t really scream, but I looked at Les and said “Tell me you’re kidding… I BOUGHT THAT YESTERDAY!!! You can’t do this to me, man!!!”

Now that that’s out of the way, I know what you’re thinking. “Falling up has a remix album? I thought Tobymac only did those.” or “They only have two albums, have they really got enough to remix?” I’ll answer these in order.

First of all, no, Tobymac’s not the only one to do remix albums. Sure, he’s most noticed (because he does them as often as he releases regular CDs), but there have been many other remix albums. For instance, Zoegirl had remixes, Jump 5 had remixes, Avalon had remixes, even Newsboys had remixes. However, one thing you’ll notice is, frankly, half of those remix albums were terrible (and the ones had had some decent songs, aside from the one on each album that actually sound good on the album, the rest was just the same old song with a techno beat).

Secondly, you’d think so. Sure, Tobymac does a remix album for every new CD puts out (I bet he’d be a prolific artist if he spent half as much time on new stuff as he did remixing his older stuff :-D), but Toby’s always been a bit of an oddball in that respect. Most bands have to have a huge established mix of songs to really do any remixing with (and as I said before, they’re usually terrible even with a established name… Whose idea was the Newsboys remix album? I don’t think I was ever able to get past the third track…).

However, when Falling Up does a remix album, they do it right. You’re not just getting a retooling of a couple songs by adding a techno element to it. No, indeed, the entire album feels more ambient techno than their first two albums, and the feeling works. It’s not just a couple tracks sound good on the CD, you have to hear the whole CD to capture the experience of Exit>Lights. It feels like a musical journey. The remixes are new, completely different, most of them don’t even sound REMOTELY like the originals. A few of the highlights…

-Searchlights (Indoor Soccer) ~ The beat almost sounds hip hop, laden with beats and a little guitar to begin, the guitars really come in later in the song, sounds probably the most rock on the album, and it’s my personal favorite track at this point.

-Moonlit (Neon Predator) ~ This is just an awesome track. They bring in Solomon Olds of Family Force 5 (a totally unique band in and of themselves) and brings a certain dance beat element to it, almost sounds like something you’d expect do be dropping at a club. And Solomon even drops bombs with a little rhyme… It’s great.

-Exhibition (Eposison) ~ Featuring Rachel Lampa as guest vocals (For those who thought Rachel Lampa dropped off the face of the planet somewhere… Good news! She’s still alive! =). The juxtaposition of Lampa’s vocals against Ribordy’s gives it a unique feel that you really don’t get anywhere else on the album.

-Fearless (250 and dark stars) ~ T Rawk from TFK on a song with Falling up? Heck yes!

-Broken Heart (Ghosts of Seaside) ~ I like the song, and it’s got an Oregon reference in it. What more do you people want? =)

Ultimately, the CD sounds like a soundtrack Falling Up did for a movie, the symphonic elements are really brought out in the two interludes, “Circlewinds” and “Third Lake”. I garauntee you, this one will be playing in my car for a good long time. Go out and buy it. Now. I order you, make it so. =)

Oh, and if you’re planning on picking it up at Christian Supply, don’t hurry TOO quickly… We sold out. (Getting more soon, I’m sure Mimi’s on top of things. =)

Tags: Music by Andrew Laine
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“Phil’s my hero!”
~Me, yelling at Phil Wickham on stage during the Phil/Shawn McDonald concert

“Wow… Awkward…”
~Phil, from the stage, upon hearing my yelling

Tags: Andrewisms, Humor by Andrew Laine
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“I feel like a cow with really sore udders, because you’re milking me for all I’m worth!”

~Joel, in response to my asking if I get milage for all of the driving I’m doing

Tags: Andrewisms, Humor by Andrew Laine
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“I opened up my closet and there was this huge lion standing inside, and I was like, “Dude, what are you doing in my closet?” and he said “I’m Aslan, king of Narnia,”, and I said “I don’t care, get the heck out of my closet!” and he vanished.”

~Me to Rebekah and Tiffany, in regards to my Narnia ring

Tags: Andrewisms, Humor by Andrew Laine
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Get ready, people, I’m working on a new item called “Andrew’s Random Radio Theatre”. It’s kind of what would happen if you took adventures in odyssey, crossed them with Fractured Fairy Tales, and took the two hyped up on caffine. Yes, it will be strange. The first one I’m working on is called “The Ugly Ninja Duckling”, in honor of Shawn’s new rubber ducky. After that, however, it’ll be everything from Westerns to Detectives (a la Lone Ranger or The Shadow). All this with the randomness that makes Andrew’s Random Ramblings unique. I hope you enjoy them. For now, all I’m saying is expect an appearance by Henry David Thoreau in this first one. =)

Tags: Humor, Podcasts by Andrew Laine
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