I had the interesting opportunity within the last week to speak for both a secular crowd and then a Christian crowd within the span of less than a few days.
I went up and spoke and did some improv for good friend Professor Mike Rottink at Ellsworth Community College. Then just a few days later drove over to Chicago for a couple days at Chicago Christian School.
It was a wierd feeling to go up in front of the college crowd and try to remember that I didn't have to end up talking about God, Christ, Salvation, or any of the other numerous theological talking points that I normally end up on. I did talk about it though, a little here and there. I was supposed to be speaking about how I earned a living from the humanites (I don't), So I had to mention the ministry, and youth directing here and there.
I had youth Sunday night, and immediately after it was over at 8:30pm, I had to jump in the car and drive to Chicago to be there for our Monday morning worship. My youth group small group leading partner, Jon, made a comment just before I left (and not about me or my trip in any way) that a life on the road, in hotels, can be very lonely.
It was a fun thought as I began my five hour trip in the car. I'm doing it again today as I head up to Orange City to work with some students and do improv tomorrow with 88improv.
The more I travel, the more I hate it.
When I was a kid, there was nothing more fascinating to me than staying in a hotel. First of all, you got cable TV. That was a luxury we were never afforded growing up on a pig farm. So anytime HBO, Cinemax, or the Weather Channel were available, it was always a rockin' good time.
Then there was the fact that there was A CANDY AND POP MACHINE JUST DOWN THE HALL! Are you kidding me? Pop and candy at my disposal 24/7 and all I need is a fistful of quarters?
Now hotels are just depressing. In Chicago, they put us up in a really fancy DoubleTree. Warm cookies when you checked in. Somewhere around 74 pillows on a large and fluffy bed. Big, flat screen TV. Internet wasn't free though. Normally this wouldn't have been a problem as most Christian schools keep us busy from dawn till dusk. But we were done at 1 every day.
So I took a nap.
I watched part of The Gridiron Gang with the Rock.
I played solitaire.
I missed Andrea and Carson.
Complain, complain, complain.
I think I'm finally coming to a close on my Henry Rollins kick. I'm four books in to his works and they're still well written and fun. But it's starting to get a little repetitive. Lots of road stories and pent up rage. Not good to read in long stretches.
Here's something I have been working on though:
You can find my whole series at youtube.com/user/jkaintaylor. I used a website that let's you pick scenes, characters, and voices and then you just write the script. It sounds a little mechanical, but it's oh so fun!
Jason
Friday, February 27, 2009
Monday, February 09, 2009
A subtle shift. . .
I've had to make a decision to change a few things about the blog.
I also blog over at happythedog.com which is the ministry I speak for on a regular basis. I try to update it after every speaking event as well, and more often than not, it's the exact same blog as what you read here, with only minor, occasional changes.
Well, it seems that now these two blogs are starting to serve different purposes. The happy blog is primarily for speaking and ministry engagements, and not necessarily for all the trivial, sporadically bizarre, ideas and activities that I often post about on here.
So to keep things nice and separate, the happy blog will have more event details, while the wordofmouth blog will have more details about me as a speaker outside of the events.
I know there are a handful of you who are now thinking, "What? I have to check two blogs now? Ridiculous."
I agree, but I know that blogging as if I were only writing for one site was limiting me greatly as to what I could say on either as they both tend to have different audiences.
So that being out of the way, if you want more event details, just go to happythedog.com and look for the blog posts by Jason (as Troy and Dawn post as well).
On with the blog:
Just got back from Ripon, CA Christian School last week and had a great time. I had to give ten talks in five days, so that was really challenging. We had to do a middle school service at 8:30, then a high school service at 10:55. Then we also had to do a Wednesday night high school rally on top of it, while visiting classes, eating meals, and playing soccer in gym with the students.
It was definitely a challenge to come up with that many back to back talks as I couldn't always use the same ones from middle school for high school, but I felt like they all went really well by the end of the week.
While in CA, we went to see Gran Turino Monday night. Really fun movie. Andrea and I went to see The Wrestler two nights before. Even more fun movie.
I finished reading the Shadow series by Orson Scott Card as well as a book called Posers, Fakers, and Wannabes by Brennan Manning which was the first Christian book (besides the Bible) that I've read in YEARS and actually enjoyed.
I'd highly recommend it. It basically boils down to the different personas we have to put on depending on who we're around at the time. Kind of similar to the different blogs we have to write . . .
Missed Carson and Andrea horribly while gone. Being gone for a week at a time now is almost unbearable as Carson is picking up so many words and tricks daily now.
Airports used to seem a lot more fun than they do now, as well. I had to sprint from gate G4 to A13 Friday night at about 10pm because the tram was shutdown for the night. I was a sweaty mess for my seatmate on the hour trip home to Des Moines, and I can only imagine what he must have thought as the 225 pound man sitting next to him had to towel off the entire flight home because he was sweating so much. Malaria? Typhoid? Sars? Haha! I'll never tell!
I was hoping my seasons of Extras would come in before I left but it didn't. Which is just peachy cause Andrea and I are now watching them together. Much different than the British Office, but still a lot of fun.
I also found a good site to keep up to date on current Flight of the Conchords (my favorite television right now) since I don't have HBO.
What else? I suppose if you want two more blogs on all the happenings from Ripon, feel free to check out the happy site linked on the side of the page. I'll try hard in the future to give this site a much different feel with a little more insight than usual.
On a fun note, a guy at Northwestern College in Orange City is doing a play I wrote a while back on April 18th. I'm pretty excited about the opportunity as I feel my playwriting skills have greatly waned since college and I'd like to sharpen them up again. If this one goes well, I have a couple more in my brain I'd like to get down on paper.
We have a cast reading coming up this month that I'll get to sit in on, so I'm really looking forward to that. As well as a couple improv dates - one with good friend Mike Rottink in Iowa Falls, and one with good friends at Omaha's 88improv in LeMars, Iowa.
Phew. I'm done blogging for the day.
jason
I also blog over at happythedog.com which is the ministry I speak for on a regular basis. I try to update it after every speaking event as well, and more often than not, it's the exact same blog as what you read here, with only minor, occasional changes.
Well, it seems that now these two blogs are starting to serve different purposes. The happy blog is primarily for speaking and ministry engagements, and not necessarily for all the trivial, sporadically bizarre, ideas and activities that I often post about on here.
So to keep things nice and separate, the happy blog will have more event details, while the wordofmouth blog will have more details about me as a speaker outside of the events.
I know there are a handful of you who are now thinking, "What? I have to check two blogs now? Ridiculous."
I agree, but I know that blogging as if I were only writing for one site was limiting me greatly as to what I could say on either as they both tend to have different audiences.
So that being out of the way, if you want more event details, just go to happythedog.com and look for the blog posts by Jason (as Troy and Dawn post as well).
On with the blog:
Just got back from Ripon, CA Christian School last week and had a great time. I had to give ten talks in five days, so that was really challenging. We had to do a middle school service at 8:30, then a high school service at 10:55. Then we also had to do a Wednesday night high school rally on top of it, while visiting classes, eating meals, and playing soccer in gym with the students.
It was definitely a challenge to come up with that many back to back talks as I couldn't always use the same ones from middle school for high school, but I felt like they all went really well by the end of the week.
While in CA, we went to see Gran Turino Monday night. Really fun movie. Andrea and I went to see The Wrestler two nights before. Even more fun movie.
I finished reading the Shadow series by Orson Scott Card as well as a book called Posers, Fakers, and Wannabes by Brennan Manning which was the first Christian book (besides the Bible) that I've read in YEARS and actually enjoyed.
I'd highly recommend it. It basically boils down to the different personas we have to put on depending on who we're around at the time. Kind of similar to the different blogs we have to write . . .
Missed Carson and Andrea horribly while gone. Being gone for a week at a time now is almost unbearable as Carson is picking up so many words and tricks daily now.
Airports used to seem a lot more fun than they do now, as well. I had to sprint from gate G4 to A13 Friday night at about 10pm because the tram was shutdown for the night. I was a sweaty mess for my seatmate on the hour trip home to Des Moines, and I can only imagine what he must have thought as the 225 pound man sitting next to him had to towel off the entire flight home because he was sweating so much. Malaria? Typhoid? Sars? Haha! I'll never tell!
I was hoping my seasons of Extras would come in before I left but it didn't. Which is just peachy cause Andrea and I are now watching them together. Much different than the British Office, but still a lot of fun.
I also found a good site to keep up to date on current Flight of the Conchords (my favorite television right now) since I don't have HBO.
What else? I suppose if you want two more blogs on all the happenings from Ripon, feel free to check out the happy site linked on the side of the page. I'll try hard in the future to give this site a much different feel with a little more insight than usual.
On a fun note, a guy at Northwestern College in Orange City is doing a play I wrote a while back on April 18th. I'm pretty excited about the opportunity as I feel my playwriting skills have greatly waned since college and I'd like to sharpen them up again. If this one goes well, I have a couple more in my brain I'd like to get down on paper.
We have a cast reading coming up this month that I'll get to sit in on, so I'm really looking forward to that. As well as a couple improv dates - one with good friend Mike Rottink in Iowa Falls, and one with good friends at Omaha's 88improv in LeMars, Iowa.
Phew. I'm done blogging for the day.
jason
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