Friday, April 25, 2003

Ah, It's Friday...

First, let me announce that we got our van back last Thursday. I was glad for that, even though the PT Cruiser was pretty nice (as was having a CD stereo system in the car).

The musical drama A Crown Of Thorns went extremely well last Sunday. We had a good turnout, the program had a good pace and transitioned very smoothly between scenes and songs. One of the elements I like about our church and about this musical drama is that the makeup of the people is interracial and international. We have many IR couples in our nondenominational church and many biracial and multiracial children, young people and adults. The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons and Jesus told his disciples to preach the gospel of peace to all nations. We practice that in our everyday lives, although it took the Lord changing us to make that possible for a group of over 300 people of all ages and all nations. God gets all the glory for that because people have a hard time doing that on their own.

It's been a good week so far. Tomorrow will mark the Fifth Annual International Size Acceptance Day (ISA Day). I'm pleased to announce that Austin Mayor Gus Garcia granted my request to have Saturday April 26, 2003 proclaimed "International Size Acceptance Day" for the City of Austin, Texas. ISAA began ISA Day in 1998 as a way to bring attention to size- and self-esteem-related matters and more recently, ISAA's Respect Fitness Health Initiative.

You can view the proclamation here

I also had the pleasure of being interviewed by USA Today and the San Antonio Express-News. I don't know when the USA Today story will be printed/go online but the SA Express-News story will see print tomorrow. If I can find it online, I'll relay a link in my next blog.

That's all for now. See you soon!

Best Wishes,
Allen

Thursday, April 17, 2003

More Updates

Okay, so I rescheduled Entitled 2003 to the fall of this year, for numerous reasons (the war's impact on travel and planning being a huge factor) -- so now all I'm really concentrating on is Easter 2003. And actually, that's quite enough as I'm playing electric bass guitar for my church's Easter Drama/Musical this Sunday. The drama/musical is called A Crown Of Thorns. My wife, Angel, will be performing in the musical as well, as part of the orchestral ensemble. So we've had a lot of rehearsals in the last couple of months.

Click here to listen to one of the songs from "A Crown Of Thorns" called "Praise Ye The Lord"

"Praise Ye The Lord" is in Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. If you need a copy of Windows Media Player (also available for Mac), click here. It was recorded live and is not quite CD-quality but should give you a good idea how the song goes (and yes, I play bass on it)...

If you're in the Austin/Manor, Texas area and would like to come to "A Crown Of Thorns," it's this Sunday at Manor High School Auditorium in Manor, Texas. Admission is free and you can e-mail me for directions if you are interested in attending.

We (my wife and I) hit an interesting snag last week when our van started having radiator problems, so I took the van to the dealership. Of course, there were complications and delays and cost add-ons (I have learned my lesson about dealerships now). Bottom line: we are still waiting on the final repairs and the return of our vehicle (I took it in almost a week ago) BUT there was one silver lining to an otherwise frustrating cloud...we got a loaner of a 2002 black PT Cruiser! (which looks almost identical to the pic below)



We will probably be informed that our van is fixed by the end of today or tomorrow but in the meantime, the `cruiser is fine with us...although it's not well-suited for transporting a bass guitar and amplifier.

Why do people stare at PT Cruisers so much? Sure, they're unique-looking enough but they've been around for a couple of years now! I see plenty of them on the road but it seems like everyone has to stare when we park or are waiting at a traffic light. Do you think no one's ever seen an IR couple and their kids in a PT Cruiser before? In a way, it's funny because no one's said anything rude...they just stare like they've never seen one of these before. Go fig?

Anyway, I'll write again soon. Bye for now!

Best Wishes,
Allen