So yeah, yesterday I got back from the Sonshine Festival. It was not the most exciting one I've been too, and me and my friends did too many social things for my taste. (For me, it's all about getting as much music in as possible, while for others, it's about hanging out with friends and some music.) But we caught the important shows.

As usual, Relient K had technical problems. I'm beginning to think their guitars and in-ears are made to not work in Minnesota. And as usual, the crowds during rK were insane. It was at least a thousand kids jammed up there so nobody could breathe.

Somewhat suprisingly, the crowd relaxed a bit to enjoy Switchfoot. The band played a couple new songs (their first single, "Stars," plus "Happy is a Yuppie Word") plus all the faves from The Beautiful Letdown. I'm still disappointed they never play some of their classic material anymore -- it still includes some of my favorites.

I also witnessed an amazing and terribly short performance by the amazing new Mute Math. They only played five tracks but every second was amazing. Their instrumental track, "Reset," is even more amazing live. They recreate the sounds perfectly, with Paul Meany jumping from keyboard to keyboard and then even the guitarist switching to a keyboard a bit too. Meany also had tons of fun playing the keytar (I dunno if that's a technical word, but it's the keyboard that is held like guitar). Half of it was new songs, so I hope they get the full-length out soon!

There were many other performances we caught, but not many were memorable beyond those three. I was hoping to check out Kids in the Way, but for some reason they could not make it. Plus, we got there late on Thursday, so we missed some amazing acts such as Skillet, 4th Avenue Jones, and a couple more. Too bad I had to work.

Now that I have this job, I'm thinking about moving to a place that's closer to work. Most places closer to work are much easier to get to work as well, and that's one main reason I'm thinking of moving.

Today I talked to a friend who is renting out space in a frat house in the University campus area. It'd be a lot closer to work, and about half the people that will be living in the house I already know. And the other half that I don't know is not at all the problem.

Well, the first problem is I want to see the place, but that's not hard to do. The second problem is the living options in there. Half of the people (and probably all the people I know) are going to be doing a missions type thing to the neighborhood. We want to create Christian life in the neighborhood, and these people are going to be spending a considerable amount of time to make sure this happens in the neighborhood.

If I had no other ambitions and aspirations of my own, this would be great. But I'm not sure how this idea fits with my own. Most importantly, it's a problem of free time. If you work for cMusicWeb.com, you've probably noticed I've gotten pretty busy and am not updating the site as much. (Oh wait, there's been less to update anyways.) Of course, I'd save at least an hour per day on commute, but I might have to give that up to a fitness program too.

I'm gonna have to do some thinking and praying about this situation. Can I give up more of my time to doing God's work in Minneapolis? Or should I let others do it and keep working on websites and such? I believe what I am doing is what God wants me to do, but what if I should be doing more?

I agree with Andy's thoughts. We shouldn't be so worried about insulating ourselves from society, we should be interested in helping others. It was nice to have Jars of Clay representin' in Philly, even though they only did two songs.

Recently to get to work I've been taking the Hiawatha Light Rail tran to work. It's a lot of fun.

Recently a couple trains were wrapped in iPod ads. They look great:

As far as I can tell, there's that train and one that's in yellow and green. Only two trains are covered in the ads. And don't worry, they're not permanent or anything. They're just a vinyl wrapping.