It was a challenge trying to figure out how to use my Fuel. I thought about spending a day out at the shooting range with my buddies. Or camping with my family. I was surprised at how hard it was to choose how to spend a day off with $250 of someone else’s money. Then I saw that one of my favorite bands was coming to town—The Newsboys were going to be at Bayside in Roseville, and they were doing a VIP thingy before the show. Turns out now 3 of my favorite bands/artists came to town.
The tickets were inexpensive enough to allow for a pre-show Cheesecake Factory pit stop and a couple of CDs at the show. I know who buys CD’s anymore… but my wife wanted them for the car. I just added a bunch of Albums to my Apple Music and Spotify accounts.
We also were able to grab tickets to a VIP question and answer session with the Newsboys. It was pretty amazing. It was great to hear insights on their music their history, and the occasional silly questions like a Kid asking if they wanted to grab Denny’s after the show.
The show opened up with a great artist named Ryan Stevenson. He’s from a small town in Oregon. He’s written songs for some huge Christian artists including Toby Mac. One of my favorite parts of his set was the dude playing drums for him (David, the drummer from Hawk Nelson) had the smallest drum kit I think I’ve ever seen. It was a Snare Drum with a Hi-Hat, and the bass drum was a cajón dude was sitting on while playing with a kick drum pedal backward with his heel. It sounded AWESOME.
Next up was Hawk Nelson. They’ve been around for 10 years or so. Their sound has changed a little bit, as they use to be more Punk-sounding. They’re now a bit more pop sounding. I’m totally into them and haven’t stopped listening to them pretty much since the show. They have amazing energy and it’s totally magnetic. I couldn’t help but get sucked in.
When it was time for the Newsboys to come on stage the crowd was pumped. It was such an incredible experience for me as a Christian to worship with a large group of people from all different flavors of Christianity with these amazing artists. The performances were great, but the best part for me was they were an artistic expression of worship to our God. I’ve been helping out with Lights and Media at my church at home and was just blown away by the Visuals during the Newsboys set. As a designer/developer (and nerd!) it totally got my wheels spinning about how to step up the Visual worship that I help out with. They had a crazy Drum spinning rig that lifted up and spun around in the air. It was RAD.
It was an amazing evening that kicked off a week of vacation for me. The following week included a trip to Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm with my Wife and Kids, A WordPress Meetup where SVG was the topic of the presentation, My parents gave my family a Van that we can all fit in, I went Shooting with two of my best friends, and the week ended with a screening of the film “Do You Believe?” at our church where one of the actors came to visit and hang out with the congregation. It was by far one of the best weeks of my life. I’m so glad that I was given such an amazing opportunity to kick off my week off. In my book, it was the perfect way for me to be fueled back up for agency life.
Lastly and certainly not least, After the show at Bayside, I received an email from the folks at WordCamp Sacramento with an invitation to come and speak. They had accepted the Talk that I had submitted about Local Development with Vagrant and VVV. Definitely the cherry on top of the amazing night and week to come. I can’t express how blessed I feel to be a part of the Tytanium team and to have such amazing opportunities to share my gifts with the folks at WCSAC.