Back from the beach, working remotes, and losing my voice...

After a great five days, I have returned from Orange Beach, Alabama. Breakaway Beach Camp was great and I had an amazing time spending time worshiping and in God's word, and developing friendships. Got to play tennis for the first time in years. Body surfed in the ocean for the first time in years. Went to Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana for the first time in years. A lot of firsts in a long time.

The theme of the week was "Imperfect People Undergoing Perfection" and we talked about the origin of our imperfection, the process of undergoing perfection, and the freedom God gives among other things. Small group times after the messages developed the ideas more thoroughly.

Recreation was fun too. Dodgeball and pool relays followed by free time on the beach or in the condo.

The condos were nice. Ours was probably the most underdone but even with the lack of flash, it still was a very nice condo with a view of the Gulf of Mexico.

The water was cold but didn't take too long to get used too. Stayed out of it on Tuesday due to an amazing amount of jellyfish in the water. But spent a lot of time in the waves on Wednesday getting carried then thrown under the water hitting the sand hard followed by attempts to find oxygen as soon as possible. Good times :).

The weather cooperated with the trip perfectly with temperatures in the upper 70s and mostly sunny. A nice breeze accompanied the good temperatures.

I didn't burn in the sun beyond a little pink under the eyes on Wednesday.

We visited Pensacola, Florida on Wednesday night for seafood and pictures. I, of course, had chicken. I'm not a seafood eater...

You can view 114 pictures from the beach at http://picasaweb.google.com/kevincburns/BreakawayBeachCamp

In conclusion, I had a great time and can't wait to go back next year (hopefully :) )

On Wednesday I began to lose my voice. I didn't yell much at all but my voice started to wane. It got to where I could only speak deeply and it cracked a bit but it's almost completely returned now so that's good...

After sleeping til about 10 this morning (making it 11 hours of sleep last night :D), I started getting caught up on e-mail. After weeding through the spam (a lot of it), I occasionally read a message or two throughout the day (personal e-mails were read first thing of course). I worked at a Hot 96.5 remote for four hours this afternoon. Hot 96.5 is one of the stations owned by Archway which owns Spirit. I basically manned the table outside of a wireless store and listened to four hours of rap. Not really my style of music. I like Grits every once in awhile but Grits is positive Christian rap. I tried not to listen to the words of the rap music on Hot 96.5 since every CD they gave away had a parental advisory sticker. Anyways, it was interesting. I'm running the board tomorrow for my dad's remote. Pretty simple. I just take my laptop and surf the internet and such for about three hours and push a few buttons every now and then. Important, yes, but pretty simple and it's a little extra money on the side.

Speaking of money, my job search (pending a drug test) is completed. I will become a member of the Wal-Mart employee family as a cashier after I pass my drug test on Monday. Cashiering is a little outside of my comfort zone but maybe it will develop people skills I need for future jobs...and the pay is good too. Better than I expected at least and more than working at a fast food place (which I absolutely refuse to do, I want something that has some career advancement potential. Cashier looks better on a resume plus I can work my way up in Wal-Mart to the sales floor).

Speaking of people skills (liking the thought train? remote to working to people skills), I think mine have been refined after years of being an introvert. I am by no means an extrovert but I feel more free to be myself here at FBC Benton. I think in St. Louis I developed a mold for myself in the first few months and I confined myself to that mold even when that's not who I really am. Here I take more risks. I crack more jokes. I act more like who I really am. I still don't speak up unless I'm confident in my answer, I don't think out loud, and I try to subdue my lack of dancing skills (:D) but I do branch out and I think I'm a better person for it.

And I think it starts with how comfortable I am with the people at FBC Benton. The youth group is so welcoming and make it easy for me to be me. I feel accepted and I feel like I belong. Thanks to everyone at FBC Benton for that.

All that to say, I am quite possibly in the best time of my life thus far. I have a great youth group, I'm developing great friendships, I'm about to have a consistent, well-paying job, and school is going well. It kind of has me fearing what's coming next but I have no need to fear. Because God will be with me through the best and the worst of my days. He never lets go...

I believe this blog post is long enough. I'm tired, have some laundry to do, have to empty the dishwasher, and get more sleep. Have a great weekend.

-Kevin C. Burns

Running the board, LOST, leaving for the beach tomorrow!

I am currently at the Spirit 93.3 (spirit933.com) studios. I'll be running a remote for my dad. I press a few buttons and boom, you hear his voice on the radio live from a martial arts place in Benton, over 15 miles away. Technology is cool :)

LOST was amazing on Wednesday night. From what I've read, people that were on the brink of passing on LOST and giving up had their interest reaffirmed. I think that the ratings slide is done. I hope so at least. More on LOST at The LOST Observations, a feature of www.kevincburns.com

I'm leaving for the beach late tonight (1AM). Totally excited. No guarantees on blog updates during beach camp but I may get one in and post a link to a Picasa Web Album for you to see some of my pictures.

The How Great Is Our God tour, featuring Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and Louie Giglio, the speaker, was incredible. A great night of worship and a great message on God's greatness.

NCAA tournament update: I'm not doing so well now since 7 of the top 8 seeds are in the Elite 8. Back-to-back nights of heartbreaking one point losses from Tennessee and Vanderbilt after big leads (20 and 13 respectively) left me concerned for North Carolina. But, as in the UT and Vandy games, the underdog pulled ahead early (USC got up to 13 I think) but the higher seed pulled out the win. But in North Carolina's case, they pulled out a 10 point win with a great 12 minutes of Tar Heel basketball. And UNC's game tomorrow vs. Georgetown comes during some free time at the beach so that's good :). Go Tar Heels!

I suppose that's all. Check back for beach updates/pictures :)

-Kevin C. Burns

Fire, Bible Study, LOST tomorrow, Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman on Thursday

I am now the owner of one MOTOKRZR Fire, exclusively available at Verizon. After a rebate because of Verizon's new phone every two years program, it cost $50, which I'll have to pay back when I get some income. I'm loving the mini USB port on the side which allows me to hook it up to my computer and put music on it (not much space, I'll get a micro SD card when I get...income). But also there's a program that can access the phone hard drive and allows me to put ringtones and wallpapers on my phone for free! So instead of paying $1.99 per ring tone, or even the message-attachment method for 25 cents each, I can hook up my phone and put the ring tones I want and have edited to size on there for free. I also put the Texas flag as my wallpaper :). I need some LOST tones and wallpapers now...

That's been my excitement for the past 24 hours. Getting the phone how I want it with my contacts and ringtones. It's pretty sweet. There's a guide for you KRZR owners to get mp3 ring tones on your KRZR, it's at http://aznuwee.googlepages.com/ and it's all free as long as you have the right cable (a mini USB to USB, I have about 5 because cameras and MP3 players use it. Don't buy a Verizon or Motorola cable! You can get one just as good for cheaper). The process may work for the RAZR too. But most RAZRs can share on Bluetooth while Verizon locks down the Bluetooth to get more money out of you for ring tones.

Even with Verizon's questionable Bluetooth locking, they're still my favorite carrier. Good rates, good service, good phones, much better than our experience with Cingular...

Yesterday we continued our study of the book of James. We finished chapter 3 which was about pure wisdom from heaven and impure wisdom from Satan. Good read, check it out: James 3:13-18

An amazing looking episode of LOST is on tomorrow at 9. Can't wait!

Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and Louie Giglio will be at the Church at Rock Creek on Thursday night. Looking forward to that. Not looking forward to missing a lot of the Tennessee-Ohio State game but since I have a HD tuner and can pause it, I'll set it to "watch" the game around 9 and let it record it without recording it so I can watch it when I get home even if it's still recording :). All that to say, go Vols! (Rocky Top is currently my ringtone :D)

I leave for the beach on Sunday! Yay! Still working on it, but live updates will likely be available via the Upper Room website. Gotta get the blog and website set up but when it's done, I'll post the link on here.

Have a great week,
-Kevin C. Burns

Reunion Tower, Sweet 16 of the NCAAs set, Back Home, Less than a Week until Beach Camp!

To complete our trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, we finally did one of the things I've wanted to do for years: We went up into the Reunion Tower. After a 60 second ride to the observation deck, we stayed up there for about 30 minutes. We got there right as the sun was setting so we saw the sunset Texas-style then saw the Dallas buildings at night. It was cool. Pictures below of Dallas. Completed on the Dallas list: tour Texas Stadium, go up in the Reunion Tower. Next: tour the American Airlines Center, home of the Mavericks. And coming soon to the list: tour the new Cowboys stadium...

Dallas, Texas

Speaking of the Mavericks, they followed up the heartbreaking loss to the Suns with a win against the Celtics and a tough win on the road in Detroit. Go Mavs!

After the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, I'm having an ok year picking. I'm tops in the FBCA pool of 15 or so and second in the FBC Benton pool of 15 or so. And Tennessee and Vanderbilt are in the sweet 16 (as well as North Carolina, but there was no doubt with the Tar Heels, Vandy and UT were questionable). Anyways, go Tar Heels, Vols, and Commodores!

And I may not get to see the UNC regional final game (if they get past USC) because I'll be at the beach! We leave in less than a week now! I'm so excited.

We left the big D around 7:15 this morning and got home around 12:30 (after a KFC food pick-up) in time to catch the Vols beat Virginia. I got about 60 miles of highway driving practice. Not too difficult.

Went to evening service at FBC Benton tonight. They commissioned a lady into serving with the state disaster relief team I believe. Afterwards I went to Backyard Burgers with some guys, had a good time. I'm getting to know some good guys (and girls too) and I love just hanging out wherever. I'm less timid now and I speak up more in smaller groups. I'm still too timid to really speak out in larger groups unless I'm certain I'm right. But I'll continue working on that...

I have two days of school + tomorrow's work to catch up on. So I'll have to fit seven days of work into five days this week. Should be ok though. I'm ready to get back to playing basketball after almost a week off.

Bible study tomorrow night, IMPACT Wednesday night, Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman on Thursday, leaving for the beach Saturday night. Great week ahead!

-Kevin C. Burns

@ Home in Texas

I am in my birth state, near by birth city, here in the great state of Texas. My second cousin, Addison, was born yesterday at 6:36AM. She's beautiful. :)

So we came yesterday, got here around 3:30PM, went to the hospital, saw lots of family, ate dinner, back to the hospital, then back to my grandparents' house. This morning we saw Addison and some of the family again and ate lunch at Cheddar's (good restaurant) and came back home. Then we went to CompUSA because a lot of the stores are closing and one nearby is closing and had some good sales so I got a Nano case for 11 bucks (I had had a hard time finding one below $20 or so). Now we're back home watching the Longhorns. I'm currently 17-7 in the brackets, not my best year but not too bad.

Wednesday night was a great night. IMPACT was good, went to Stephanie's house for her surprise party and she was surprised so that was good, got home watched the best NBA game of the season, the Mavericks and the Suns, but it didn't end well in the second overtime with the Suns winning. But I ended the night on a good note with a good episode of LOST. After typing a blog post for it, I didn't go to bed til 12:45 which is late for me.

I'm loving all the TV channels here. Never had so many and such great signals. I'm a HD nerd, I admit it.

That's all that's going on around here. I'm enjoying my short stay in Texas. Good to be back "home" :).

-Kevin C. Burns

A beautiful day, a good weekend, and March Madness...

Today continued the string of beautiful days here in Arkansas, though it was a little too warm for perfection, it was still a great day to be outside. I took full advantage of it playing basketball, walking the dog, and going on a bike ride. And, one of my favorite parts of warm weather, there's a chance for thunderstorms through Thursday. Nothing severe forecasted at this point but they don't need to be severe to be amazing. Anyways, I enjoyed today. And Bible study is coming up tonight and I enjoy that too so it's a great day.

My friend from Oklahoma Baptist, Kristen, came with her friend, Bethany, for the weekend so they came over yesterday afternoon and we hung out until Winter Jam. Winter Jam started out very frustrating. One of the main reasons Kristen and Bethany came was for the meet and greet time and so we followed our instructions and took our passes to the right side of the stage. The security guard asked someone and pointed us to where the pastors were going. So we got backstage and we ask one of the security guards there and he said to get up against the wall. After a while I asked another guy who seemed to know what he was doing (turned out to be the speaker/pastor Tony Nolan) and he got the tour manager (whom I've met before but I don't remember his name) and he pointed us to the pastors' meeting. So I got to see some of the people up close and hear them speak but no meeting and no greeting=disappointing. What further frustrated me was the person who we asked to save our seats (and she said she would) failed to save our seats (which were great, 15-20 rows back and towards the center on the floor). So we tried to find three seats together on the floor and people actually defended their empty seats like they're supposed to (which made me more frustrated at the girl who was to save our seats). So we tried to stand close to the end of the row on the center aisle but of course, there are some codes (probably) that prohibit standing in the aisle so the security guard asked us to move. We finally found seats in front of the sound board. But because we didn't have our seats I didn't get any good pictures (maybe some of them are decent enough). So I didn't get good pictures because we didn't have our seats and we wouldn't have left our seats if we had known the meet and greet was a lame misnomer for entry to the pastors' meeting so I think I can pin the blame on whoever manages the tour. So there's your chain.

But after my frustration kind of subsided, I enjoyed the show. One of my favorite tours. Concert review coming later. And it was good to see Kristen and meet Bethany and hear their stories of OBU and their trouble-making ways. And it was good to see Matt and Jamol and Stephanie at intermission. I rarely get to see friends at concerts so it was a good night.

Church was good yesterday. Pure Energy youth choir sang in the morning service. They were good, they're a talented group. I'll probably join in the fall but I haven't made up my mind yet. Am I really good enough? Do I really want to sing tough songs? Do I really want to sing slow, though nice, songs?

The trip to the beach is less than two weeks away!

March Madness starts Thursday! Tennessee (Go Vols!), Texas Tech, and Arkansas all made it. As well as Belmont (Christian university in Nashville) and Oral Roberts (Christian university in Tulsa, OK) so I'm rooting for them too as they're underdogs. And of course, one of my favorite college basketball teams North Carolina got a #1 seed. I'm looking forward to a UNC-Texas matchup in the Sweet 16. Though I love the state, I only like the college, go Tar Heels!

I suppose that's all I have to say today, comments can be left below...

-Kevin C. Burns

Busy days, LOST, Oh! Prizes!, SAT, and more

I've been quite the busy guy lately. From IMPACT on Wednesday night (got there two hours early for dinner and setup) to LOST to an interview to being a waiter for a night to the SAT, these have been some busy days...

IMPACT was good Wednesday night. We started a three week series on evangelism. So that's cool. I ran LiveWorship and the sound board (kind of, I just turned off and on inputs and kind of adjusted levels). Good times.

LOST was great Wednesday night. Back to regular form, in my opinion. The ratings drop has leveled out and I think ABC is left with the real and true fans. And because KATV doesn't have any more SEC basketball games on Wednesday nights, it was in beautiful HD. It really does make a difference for you doubting me. Not only is it widescreen and thus fits my laptop display well, and not only is the detail greater, but the colors are more realistic (maybe it's my monitor is good and/or the TV is bad but I'll chalk it up to HDTV). Anyways, more on the episode is at The LOST Observations...

Yesterday afternoon I got my prizes from Ignite Your Faith magazine. A 2GB iPod Nano and every studio CD Switchfoot has released including an autographed copy of their latest, Oh! Gravity. Once I cut my library down to 2GB, I loaded the songs on and have enjoyed the Nano since. iTunes isn't my favorite player for listening to music on the computer but the syncing to the iPod is good and podcasts are good. iTunes automatically downloads the latest SportsCenter and PTI podcasts and puts them on the Nano when I connect it. I really like that :)

I had an interview yesterday at a mini golf place. The manager said it was favorable and that i I made it to the next round, he'd call by 5. No call though. Still looking for a job...

I'm taking the SAT tomorrow :-/. I'm not so much worried about the test as I am with how boring it will be to sit for almost 4 hours doing schoolwork with no teaching. Homeschool flexibility is nice. I guess I take it too much for granted.

I served dinner last night to a group of realtors at the church. They donated $500 towards the Peru trip for the youth group. Though I'm not going on the Peru trip, they needed help and I like to serve so I helped out. Serving is my spiritual gift so I might as well use it while I have it.

I'm off to watch LOST again and post to The LOST Observations...

-Kevin C. Burns

Five Score and Seven Years Ago, Heroes, Bible study, Church, etc.

Relient K's long-awaited CD, Five Score and Seven Years Ago, is out now! Their first full-length CD since mmhmm released in 2004. I'm loving the CD. Still full of quirkiness yet also some good rock, pop, acapella, and a strange collection of many genres in an 11 minute song titled "Deathbed". All together, it's a good album. Go buy it now! 53 minutes of good music for 10 bucks at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, iTunes, and other places. Buy it at Wal-Mart and get two exclusive downloads from the Wal-Mart Online Music store (one video and one acoustic version). Anyways, I like it.

Church on Sunday was good. Though the music is slow and not my particular favorite, the orchestra and choir are amazing at FBC Benton. It's great to listen to. And them message was good. We're going through Jesus' journey to the cross. Good in-depth study.

Speaking of study, Bible study was good last night. Clay taught us a lot including some things I hadn't heard before. So that was cool.

Heroes was great. Good episode worth watching again. Now I have to deal with another hiatus for one of my shows. Heroes returns April 23. At least my favorite, LOST, is still on during the Heroes break. :)

I've been improving my game in basketball. It's fun and it's exercise. Trying to improve my vertical leap so maybe I can dunk someday...

I guess that's all, go buy the Relient K CD and support a good Christian group in the mainstream with their positive values. Like Switchfoot's CDs, it's not explicitly Christian (though "Deathbed" discusses inviting Jesus into the old man's heart and going to heaven towards the end) but the values are positive and many songs could be interpreted as a song towards God. Anyways, it's always good to support good groups and not download their music illegally (or "borrow" it from a friend and burn your own copy *cough*Kristen*cough*).

Farewell for now.
-Kevin C. Burns

Happy Texas Independence Day!

Because I was born in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex in Texas and have lived all around the state and because, of course, Texas is the best, Texas holds a dear place in my heart. So today we take a break from the news and thoughts of Kevin C. Burns and celebrate Texas Independence Day (we'll resume typical blogging at the bottom of this post)...

On this day, March 2, in the year 1836, the great state of Texas declared its independence from Mexico. The Republic of Texas nine years later became the 28th state of the United States. To help you celebrate Texas Independence Day, here are some facts from Wikipedia...

*The Texas State Constitution, adopted in 1876, is the second oldest state constitution
*The Texas flag colors stand for loyalty (blue), bravery (red), and purity (white)
*The Texas legislature has one session every two years. Only the governor can call for a special session.
*Approximately half of the state's population lives in the metropolitan areas of Houston and Dallas-Ft. Worth.
*69.1% of Texans polled support the death penalty
*Texas holds the record for most executions at 381, Virginia is second with 91.
*Texas has 254 counties, the most of any state
*In 2006, Texas had the second-highest Gross State Product at $1.045 trillion, trailing only California.
*Texas is the largest exporter internationally of any state
*In 2005, Texas had an approximate population of 23.5 million people, a 12.7% increase since 2000.
*The Houston skyline is the third tallest skyline in the United States and in the top 10 of the world.
*Texas is the only state to have three cities with a population of one million or more: Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio (and I have lived in the metro area of all of them)
*Texas has 10 Division I-A college football teams, the most of any state.
*Texas is the second largest state in size (behind Alaska) and population (behind California)
*Texas is the best!

That concludes your lesson on Texas. For further reading, visit the Wikipedia page for Texas


We now resume our regular programming...

It rained a little yesterday morning but the rest of the day was nice. Today's high is supposed to be in the mid 60's and sunny. A little chilly tomorrow with a high of 50 and a little chilly on Sunday with a high of 54. But the 60's return Monday...

The Benton Panthers' guys basketball team won their first-round game on Wednesday but fell to #1 Forrest City last night.

Because of the basketball game and a play at the school, attendance was down Wednesday night at IMPACT. The service was good. I was back in the booth running LiveWorship and PowerPoint. I'm learning and it's going well.

Heroes was great. I forgot that I didn't have enough room on my hard drive so the recording cut off at 45 minutes. I was able to finish the episode on NBC.com.

LOST was good. More comedic than action-packed but it was a nice, light-hearted break from the action and mythology. But the action kicks in next week with perhaps some mythology too?

I guess that's all. Welcome to March, the month of March Madness! The Madness begins in less than two weeks. Winter Jam comes to Little Rock on the 11th. Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman come on the 22nd. Beach camp in Alabama begins on the 25th. I take the SAT on the 10th. And somewhere in there, a trip to Texas! Busy month...

Go celebrate Texas Independence Day!
-Kevin C. Burns