Flathead Lake

Hello Dear Reader
      Here is another picture that I took on a beautiful sunny day on the lake.  I love how the mountains rise up from the lake.  Also there's Wildhorse Island on the right.  Enjoy the photo.

Farmville

Hello Dear Reader

       Well here is one of my most recent shots.  I took it going home after church.  I love how are farm lands roll along into the beautiful mountains.  This and the last few picture is really making want a nice DSLR.  But it still blows my mind with the quality of picture that can come from a phone.  Enjoy.

A Quick Note

I am an extremely good-looking person, and left my Blogger account logged on in a public place the other day.

Slappin Da Bass

Hello Dear Reader

      Well this shot is a little older.  I took it looking down the neck of my bass.  It was a fun shot to set up.  I had been really trying to get a cool shot while allowing my synthesizer to stay in focus.  It didn't end up working out the way that I had planned but I think that the end result is pretty sweet.  I hope you enjoy it.

             Genuinely
             Your Man Behind The Lens

Life on the Lake

Hello Dear Reader

      I had the pleasure of spending my time on beautiful Flathead Lake today.  I took this picture with a little help from my girlfriend.  I was just wanting like a cool macro shot with driftwood being the main focus.  She found a flower and told me that I needed to use that instead.  Well imagine that she was right as always.  That's Wild Horse Island in the background. You gotta love the Flathead Valley.  It's so photogenic.

           Gratefully
           Your Man Behind The Lens
       

Ideas Anyone???

Hello Dear Reader

      I humbly come to you seeking anyone enjoys photography or also just has any opinions on what I can do to make my pictures better.  I would really appreciate some feedback, tricks-of-the-trade, ideas, or insights on what I can do to enhance my photos and your viewing experience.  I thank you in advance for any input you may have.  All suggestions small, large, or irrelevant are welcomed and encouraged.

               Humbly
               Your man behind the lens

This is a BLAST!!!

 

Hello Dear Reader

       Taking pictures has grown to be more fun then I could have imagined.  I wandered out of my apartments, down a trail, and into this old open air warehouse/storehouse or something of that nature.  It had all of these older buildings and I took this one on top of what looked like a loading platform.  It was kind of fun to set up the shot and really see the differences that could be made with different settings and placement of the objects.  I can see this becoming a long and fruitful relationship.

                 Gratefully
                 Your man behind the lens

A New Era

 Hello Dear Reader  
 
       After a period of dissatisfaction with my blog I believe I've found a new medium to express myself.  I've always loved photography but have never like wielding a bulky camera.  With phones having some pretty good cameras on them  I figured now would be a great time to try my hand at it.  So I hope you enjoy.  I guess naming my blog "America the Beautiful" may have been foreshadowing of things to come.

I like this shot because it helps remind me why I like Kalispell.  Small enough that the grain silo is one of the biggest buildings in town, but big enough for some variety.

Tune Talk

So our new blog is up. Andy has yet to make a post but I got my first review done.  It's a lot harder than I thought but I know it'll get much easier with time http://grossmcpeak.blogspot.com/.

Since I've been gone

Well I know it's been a while since I've updated this page and I'm sorry if there is really any of you out there who actually enjoy reading my random banter about whatever may seem important to me at the time. Well I've found that it's hard to be consistent without a focused topic or really a heck of a lot of time to do this.  So another friend and I have decided to create another blog doing something that can be consistent and with a direct topic.  Music, the very topic that I tried not to make this blog about but has seemed to consume it.  So if any of you are interested we'll just be doing album reviews/ just talking about music and instruments who know's where it will really lead we have a few ideas and think this could be cool.  I don't intend to completely abandon this blog but I know that the other one will be more of a priority because it will take a little more research.I'll post a link once we get all the details figured out.  

03/07/2011 A day in the life

     So Zach told me that I don't actually have to blog every day so in taking his advice I ended up taking a few more days off than intended but I'm back. I don't know if I'm really as boring as I think I am but I really can't think about anything so as some just told me to do on facebook my Blog today will be about nothing, or what some may call a day in the life of Andrew M Gross.

       So I woke up in the morning feeling like p-diddy.  The only reason being is that I set my alarm for the same time the he does (6:37).  I was trying to get up a little early so I could have a little more time to read and work on my message for Wednesday night.  So after waking up to the chorus of "It is Well With My Soul"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwHj7l1M9g4 (which by the way the original version has a really cool back story if you haven't heard it you should check it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Is_Well_with_My_Soul)  I realized that I was still really tired and snoozed a couple of times and then woke up realizing that it was way later than I had intended so i watched a hillsong united tour video blog then I hopped in the shower.  I washed my hair with some Sauve for men and washed my Bod with some Old spice Komodo and then hopped out and got dressed.  I then partook in half of a carnation instant breakfast because I ran out of skim milk and they aren't very good with the water milk mixture.  I then read for a little then headed to work while listening to the sound track to "TRON the legacy" (I've been really interested in buying a synth and have been doing some musical research to see if it's worth it) I get to work and find that the parking lot situation isn't as bad as I had expected.  After some beautiful weather people had finally learned how to park again.  I go inside and then starts the pre-work ritual.  Take of my jacket, say hi to whomever is in my area, wait to timestamp, timestamp, get my water bottle and head down to the break room, stop and say hi to josh and brandon, fill my bottle with water and ice walk back and potential stop and have a conversation along the way.  Then starts the fun.  We had our class on the phones for the first part of the day at break I had half of shanita's breakfast burrito and a cinnamon raisin bagel toasted without butter and some plain cream cheese.  Then I spent the next few hours answering questions and bouncing my bouncy ball around then it was back home for lunch where I enjoyed a smoothie and "Young the Giant". Then it was back to work where I spent most of the day untill 3:30 answering questions than took them into the class for a debrief.  At 4:30 I rolled out of work and drove up to the church.  There I played guitar talked new music/worship with Andy and talked to Joey a little about the message on Wednesday.  Then I drove to starbucks said hi to my little sister, erin and the rest of the crew there. I headed home ate a couple girlscout cookies and was on my way to coffee shop night at younglife,  There I got to see a lot of face's that I hadn't seen in a long time.  Made me miss this large part of my life that I haven't been a part of for a while.  Parker, Seth, and I played some fun secular tunes and got the chances to watch a lot of kids show off there chops.  All of them did such a great job.  It was really cool to see how many of them have grown up.  After that we jammed to a little MJ and some Dave then I made my way home.  Once here I netflixed a show about a guy hitch-hiking across america with his little cousin, ate more girlscout cookies than went on my computer and sat for probably 30 minutes looking for inspiration for this blog,  I hope this is sufficient enough to be read by anyone.  Now its time for a little more research on synths and more reading of the bible to finish what turned out to be a semi busy monday.

    I feel like there are so many days that I don't really appreciate every thing that I've been given.  i mean God has put so many things in my life that I just take for granted.  A house, a job, a car(even without heat it's till awesome), great friends, a great family, a giant second family that includes tons of brothers, sisters, and mothers and fathers, great role models and positive influences, great learning experiences even though I'm cursed with having to learn the hard way that I have no idea what's best for me.  So needless to say I am greatly blessed and I act like I'm in pour shape sometimes.  I need to learn to be grateful everyday for what God has given and just give it right back to other and back to him with praise. So for all of you I Hope your day treated you well and hope that you find away to appreciate everything that God has given you.

I thought you may enjoy some Chinglish.  I still never really knew what it ment.

03/03/2011 I believe we've lost control

        So I am a prime example of our loss of control in this society.  I am a proud owner of a cell phone that consumes most of my free time.  Whether it's games, texting, news, twitter, listening to music, fbook, or even blogging I can't get off of the thing.  I was going to write this blog on my phone out of principle but i suck at the slide texting or the voice typing.  I think even out of habit now I'm just on my phone looking for things to do.  Don't get me wrong I think it's incredible that I can download an app that gives me a task manager based on my location.  I however think that I need to get myself in check.  I think me on my phone with my ear buds on shuts me off from the outside world.  I need to open up and see all the things of this life that I'm missing.  Sure now because of my phone I got to see the behind the scenes to the newest Old Spice commercial http://www.youtube.com/oldspice#p/c/99FF19274465FDBA/0/32TZSXG2y7E . But I really think that we are called to reach out to people that are around us which is tough if we're in our own little worlds.   So this is a plea for help to all of you who may read this.  Keep me accountable don't let me become a droid myself.

03/02/2011 I may have a little problem

        Man keeping a consistent blog is going to be a lot harder than I thought.  I had plans of writing a blog that was about my addiction to hillsong or maybe talk about my recent trip to China.  But I feel like there are far to many people that  put useless information on the internet.  Like I said before I want this blog to have purpose.  Lately I've been thinking about The best month of my life.  I spent this month with two of the most legit people this world has yet to know.  We spent the first 2 weeks at Castaway camp in Minnesota I rocked it up while my boys did maintenance and landscaping.  After meeting a ton of really cool people we were back on the road for what was cut out to be a great growing experience.  We did a bible study through James.  Picked tactfully by the one and only Jim Bjork.  He knew exactly what we needed to hear.  All of this came to a peak while we were sitting on the rim of the Grand Canyon watching the sun set.  We were talking about the fact that we had been living one way and saying we should live differently.  To the world or a lot of our other friends it didn't seem like anything was wrong but we knew we had a problem.  See we had a problem of the mouth.  Sarcasm, joking, or just generally harassing each other.  To most guys that just seems like good fun and a way that we can communicate but we knew that God had called us to a different standard.  I think all of us had been convicted when we had read James 3 in particular.  It talked about how not every one is called to be a leader because we are held to a higher standard.  All of us lead youth in some fashion or another.  A little later in the chapter James talks about the tongue.  With every verse It felt like he was just slapping us around.  So that evening we committed to living the way that God called us.  To hold ourselves to a higher standard.  I know that time and time again I still fail at keeping that higher standard as God has called me to.  But I know that every time I fail not only does God forgive me but Zach and Tim will be there for me.  All I have to do is give them a call or just shoot them a text and tell them whats up and they'll pray for me and be there to give me some wisdom.  With all that said I have also been given a great opportunity to talk about having a pure mouth next week so please be in prayer for me as I prepare to share with FUSION.

And I just give you a little Hillsong united action. A F T E R M A T H!!!!!

03/01/2011

       Well after a interesting attempt at my first blogging experience I told myself that I wasn't going to make my blog all about music....  But it turns out that my plans aren't always the best and I still intend to talk about music.  I informed my friend Shanita at work that I started a blog.  She told me that she would start reading it but I needed to make sure I have some great "pearls of wisdom".  I guess I never really took this public forum of a blog seriously but I know that it should be more than just me bragging about how sweet my new mustache is or try and be witty for the sake of being witty.  For a lack of better words I want to have a blog with purpose.

       I was on my way home from a worship practice, at which I didn't feel to worshipful.  I was listening to Klove which isn't a common occurrence.... One because I feel like It's usually on a constant repeat o a few christian artists, Two they don't play Hillsong(United, Live, or Chapel), and Three I have a small distaste for the radio in general because they hardly play anything worth listening to.  However on this snowy evening I happened upon the song "Holy" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhHtgScGUGs by Nicole Nordeman.  This song came out in Highschool and I used to make fun of Chase Anderson for loving the album.  It was definitely different than the kind of music that he usually bumped on his subs.  But tonight in the state that I was in I think I really listened to the words for the first time.  The chorus of the song goes something like this....

"And all You ever wanted…

Only me on my knees
Singing holy, holy
And somehow
All that matters now is
You are holy, holy"

      I don't know how many times I heard this song and never realized the truth in these lyrics.  I guess it's all been brought into a better light going through a purity series at our youthgroup (FUSION).  Last Wednesday we read psalms 51.  Here's a small part thats been speaking to me lately. 

Psalm 51:15-17 (HCSB) ¹⁵ Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise. ¹⁶ You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it;You are not pleased with a burnt offering. ¹⁷ The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit.  God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart

      There are many times that I get lost in the act of service and I lose sight of who I'm really serving.  I get swelled up with pride and I say look at I've done and look what I can do.  I was recently told that my generation is called the "Entitlement Generation"  Saying this is what we deserve for what we've done.  So often we try and do things ourselves because we are proud.  We are very quick to take God out of the picture and place ourselves on a pedestal.  All God is asking is for us to give credit where credit is due.  God is the sole reason that we have anything worth living for.  He died for our sins and the least He asks is that we humble our hearts enough to get on our knees and cry out that he is holy.  I just pray that as a generation we can see what needs to be done before it's too late.

     I hope that's not to heavy for a second blog post.  It was just really on my heart this evening.  I hope that in whatever your doing you can live for the glory of our Father.

    

    

02/28/2011 Blogging made easy?

      Well this is the first blog that I have ever done.  I don't know if this is going to be worth anyone else's time let alone my own.  I guess this is really just going to function as an outlet for me to share what I'm thinking and feeling.  Like all other Blogs before it I'll try and keep it interesting and witty to keep everyone entertained.
    
        I spent my breaks today doing some musical research listening to the song "The One Who Saves"(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw2tOjW8Wh8) off the Hillsong Live album A Beautiful Exchange.  I really do think ever since going to recording school I have been cursed with the inability to listen to music the same way.  I have the inability to just let music into my head with out analyzing it and picking it apart until sometimes I'm left with the shell of a once beautiful song.  I've been really trying to work on listening to music as a whole and not over analyze it like crazy. In other places this "curse" has helped me.  It's great when I need to listen to what the bass player is doing on the 3rd time though the bridge so I can not if I should be riding on 8ths or doing a more syncopated beat. However more important than just the musical aspect is the lyrics.  "His love endures, forever" These words are repeated multiple times and how true they are.  I love that God's love stays the same everyday irregardless of my actions.  Overall this song is great and I can't wait to worship to it tomorrow and on Sunday.

      Well I hope that wasn't as painful for anyone who dared to read all the way through it.  I'll try and keep these coming on a regular basis.