New Year's Eve

I did not get to the gym today. I have been the last 4 days in a row. I generally go 3 or 4 times a week and exercise at home the other days with body weight exercises like push-ups, free squats and back bridges. It works pretty well for me. I always take at least 1 day off a week. I've been on vacation for a while now so I've had time to go. It has been nice going at around 2 in the afternoon since it's pretty slow. Today, however, I didn't feel like going. I'll go tomorrow.
Tomorrow night I am doing an acoustic set for a New Year's Eve party at a church in Puyallup. That should be fun. My bit is 45 minutes starting at 10pm. Then I have to run up to Renton to catch the turn of the year with the wife.

Beans and Eagles

I had coffee with Jeremy Johnson this morning. He killed it yesterday morning at New Life Church. That guy is an incredible communicator. It was nice to spend some time talking with him and getting to know an Eagle.

Lazy Sunday Morning.

I'm having a pretty good morning. I am sitting at home watching football, drinking a non-fat peppermint mocha from the Bux, and just about to get ready for church. Since I'm on vacation right now, I have no responsibilities at church today. We discussed visiting another church today just to see what other churches are doing but when we thought about it further, we decided that we would rather attend our own church. This will be the first service my wife and I have driven together to in about a year.

Good times

So I'm loving this winter weather! I am taking a few vacation days staying around home and couldn't be happier about all the snow. It's always a little nicer when you don't have to drive in it (even when I do have to drive in it, I have a Jeep). The fam and I just finished building a pretty incredible snow fort and then put it to good use with a snowball fight. The cold reminds me of living in Bend which has awesome winter weather. Good times.

Better Days

Better Days from Brent Schindel on Vimeo.

I've never seen so much fog in church.

We just finished up our Christmas production this weekend. We did 1 Friday night and 2 on Saturday. The only bad thing about only doing 3 shows is that by the time you really get things dialed in, you're done. My part was a Goo Goo Dolls song called Better Days. I had a guitar strapped on my back and singing while I walked down the center aisle with spotlights on me the whole time so everyone was calling me "Rock Star". Hopefully that will go away soon. It was more uncomfortable being called "Rock Star" than it was to actually do the part. It was a fun show and the best Christmas production I've ever been to. The hardest part was sitting around back stage waiting until my song.

My Brain On Music.

So I started journaling again a little bit today. It has been quite a while. If you don't know, journaling is like blogging only you use paper and a writing utensil and no one else reads it. It really is great to get some of my personal thoughts out...other than on here.
I've been reading a book called "This is Your Brain on Music." It is an explanation of the science behind music and how your brain responds to, stores, and processes sound. It is pretty fascinating although it reads a bit like a music theory textbook in the first chapter. It reads like a neural biology textbook in the second chapter. We'll see in the next few chapters if it lightens up any. It is really interesting though how our brains process music. All kinds of neurons firing and such. Really the only things I don't like about it are that it reads like a technical manual and the author takes an evolutionary viewpoint in explaining the processes. Whatever; I can be mature enough to read an author I disagree with on a couple things. I'll let you know how the rest turns out. Unless my brain explodes before I finish it.