December 3, 2007 — 11:36 AM
When I was contemplating taking my current position on staff at San Francisco Theological Seminary, one of the extras that I found very appealing were the opportunities to sing with the seminary choir and play the flute and piano in chapel.
This weekend was full of those opportunities.
Every year the seminary puts on two nights of "Lessons & Carols" for the community of SFTS as well as for all of San Anselmo and beyond. This is a service of reading the Advent Scriptures and singing the Advent and Christmas hymns and carols. The choir sings many special arrangements of carols throughout the service.
I was happy to once again sing as part of the choir for these special nights. I had been a part of the choir all four years while I was a student here and looked forward to participating in the services again. And, besides fighting off a cold so that I could actually sing, I enjoyed making beautiful music with this group.
The evenings were made even more special for me because I was invited by the conductor to play the piano along with the organ and the small orchestra on the final carol. It is a carol that I had sung many times as a student and truly loved. I wasn't sure about performing on the piano in front of the crowds of people that would come for the services. I suffer from performance anxiety when it comes to playing the piano - even though I've played the piano since I was 5 years old.
But when it came time to play the carol on the first evening I dove right in and was pleased with how I was able to do. It really helped being a part of a group of musicians providing the accompaniment. Having others covering parts relieved the pressure on me of having to get all of the notes to come out right. On the second night I was actually able to enjoy the experience. What a gift.
There's no better way to begin the Advent season. This is definitely a perk that makes my job worth having.
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December 11, 2007 — 11:11 PM
Dear fellow travelers in Southern Marin and San Francisco:
I'm sorry if I blinded you with my high beam headlights on my drive home from work tonight. It was not my intention to do so, but I really had no other choice.
You see, the other day I happened to notice that one of my low beam headlights was out. I wasn't too concerned because one still worked and I have an appointment for my car next Monday. I thought I could make it work until that appointment.
But this afternoon, after stopping for a Diet Coke on my way home from work, both low beam headlights failed to come on. I suppose it was only a matter of time since my beautiful little MINI is turning four years old next month. What is the expected life span of headlights anyway?
Once I realized that not one but both of my headlights were not working I had a hard choice to make: 1) drive in the dark with only my parking lights on (not a smart choice), or 2) blind everyone (and in the process anger a fair number of drivers) by using the only lights that work - my high beams. Oh, and thank you to all of you who so kindly flashed me to let me know that my high beams were on. Again, sorry for not turning them down.
I think you'll agree that my only choice was to use the high beams.
I promise to go by the dealer before driving in the dark again to see if I can't get some replacement bulbs so I don't have to do that again. Thanks for understanding (and not shooting me in an incident of road rage).
Yours,
Leslie
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December 16, 2007 — 5:20 PM
Today I preached at Mission Bay Community Church. This was the third time I've had the opportunity to preach in this community. This is a great group of people who are always welcoming to whomever is preaching.
When Bruce the pastor sent out the preaching schedule for the season of Advent, I was happy to see that I had been included in the line up. Due to my crazy schedule over the last several months I haven't had an opportunity to preach and I was feeling like it was time.
The overall theme for the series is "Peace" and each week looks at that theme through the lens of one of the traditional themes for this season: peace, hope, love, and joy. My Sunday (today) happened to focus on love. That's a topic I preach on a lot so I found it funny to have it come up on my Sunday.
As we began planning the series I looked over the lectionary passage from the gospel of Matthew and thought speaking on the topic of love might not be as easy as I had originally thought.
But then I had an idea hit me. And that idea grew out of what is probably my all-time favorite episode of the Simpsons. It's called "Missionary: Impossible". I didn't know what episode it was when I first thought of it though. I only remembered pieces of the episode that I found hilarious. But I knew I wanted to show a clip of the show during my sermon to help foster discussion.
So off to the internets I went. I asked them to help me with this search. Slowly I found my way to the information I needed - thank you Wikipedia. I found the episode and thought "Great! Now I'll go rent that DVD and I'll be all set."
But it was not as easy as that. How silly of me to think it would be. Even though this episode is part of the 11th season, which aired in 2000, it is not available on DVD yet. The 10th season just came out last month! I appreciate all the extra stuff that the creators put on these DVDs, but really. That seems like an awfully long lag time.
So back to the internets I went hoping to find the episode available to download. I went to YouTube. I went to iTunes. I went to Fox. I went everywhere that I thought it made sense to go to buy a copy of that episode. But no luck. Finally I found it available as a flash file - thanks Google.
After many back-and-forths with Bruce the pastor and Nick the intern. This morning at 10:55 am we were finally able to figure out how to use flash video with the media set up that the church has. Ugh! What a pain. C'mon old media world. Hurry up and catch up with new media world.
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December 17, 2007 — 9:42 PM
The day finally arrived for the appointment I scheduled for my MINI. Throughout the fall I've been trying to find a time when I could take my sweet little ride in to get some much needed TLC. The MINI dealership has been offering a deal on an outside and inside detail job which includes a wax job that will get the tree sap and bug gunk off. This is the part I want the most since I have to park my car outside.
As I reported earlier, my MINI must have felt it coming because first one and then the other low beam headlight gave up on working. Then this morning when I was going to take the poor thing in I noticed a flat tire as well!
Come to find out, it was time to change all of the tires. Four years was all they had in them given the amount of driving I do (plus several long road trips).
By the time the crew got done taking care of all of these unexpected problems, they didn't have time to do the detailing. Guess I'm going back next week to get the TLC my car deserves. Hopefully nothing else will happen in the meantime.
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December 21, 2007 — 3:02 PM
I've been receiving weekly updates from SF Station for a couple of years now. I enjoy the highlights they send of what's happening in my fair city for the coming week. So when I received an email from them announcing the possibility of receiving a daily email from Thrillist Nation highlighting one interesting web site or place in San Francisco, I decided to give it a try.
The Thrillist Nation spotlight earlier this week shown on CallMeCasanova.com. This is a site designed for men who are bad at remembering to get their significant others gifts on important days. All one needs to do is type in the dates that need to be honored, select what type of gift(s) the SO desires and the elves behind the web site will make it all happen.
I'm torn over how to feel about this. While I love to receive gifts, the most important thing is that someone else remembered me. Does it count if it's a web site that's doing the remembering? Sure, the other person had to originally put the information into the web site, but that's where the remembering was allowed to end.
Hmmm. I'm going to have to think about this one some more
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