so I'm kind of addicted...

to this game called Super Text Twist. See, I'm a word game kind of guy. Most of my friends and family refuse to play Boggle with me (unless they get to team up on me...) Marcus Myers turned me onto this game two years ago, on Andrew Peterson's Christmas tour. (Which, by the way, I'll only be playing the first two of, in Houston, and then the Ryman show here in Nashville...)

Anyway, I can't stop playing Super Text Twist (from here on: STT) and it's because I got a Ninja-Butt-Kick High Score and now I have to top it.



The current high score had been 182,000 but got replaced by a gorgeous 510,850. That was level 103, folks.

Now, the secret is that you get muddled after a few rounds (each round takes 2:30 or however you complete each puzzle) and you start forgetting which words you've used in the last round and you lose. So... I try to only play four or five rounds at a time, maximum. That high score took me about three weeks.

Currently, I'm in the #2 spot with 281,400. My goal is a million. So, from now until I hit it, each blog post will end with a STT score in italics.

If you want to play the game, the free download gives you 40 rounds, and you can play online as well. There are a couple of sites that host it, but this is the main one, I believe. Happy Twisting.

STT: 281,400

Do airplanes really have auto-pilot? If so, I think I find that frightening...

Yesterday (Saturday) Alison's pregnancy reached the technical full-term. Your due date is 40 weeks of slow-cooking, but 37 weeks they're considered full-term, meaning if the new baby was born today, she wouldn't be a preemie. Holy cow.

Alison is in full-on "nesting mode" at this point. Cason and Will's tour with Mat Kearney played in town last night and I went to the show. It was a late one, they went on at 11, and I got home at 1. Alison was sitting up in bed writing to-do lists. Very cute.

With being in the studio and trying to keep writing new Caedmon's songs, all the while getting a nursery ready and hanging out with Ella, who is getting up earlier and earlier, I feel like I've pretty much gone on auto-pilot. Getting from one end of the day to the other awake is becoming its own little victory. It's a fun time, for sure, we're just really tired.

I'm excited for the holidays like never before, though. We're staying in Nashville for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and this will be our first time here for either. Not being in a position to travel will be kind of cool. Just about everybody we know in Nashville is from some other place, so it will feel deserted over the holidays to us, I'm guessing. Having been so busy I think I'll enjoy the (relative) quiet.

Well, I've got to get lunch ready for a cute little girl, so I'm out. Hope you guys are having a great weekend...

The United Nations (of airport taxis)

I was in Houston last week and I had to take a taxi to the airport from where I had been working. I had a great conversation with Steve, the driver. I asked him how long he had been driving and he told me "about a month, and tomorrow's my last day." Well, that was a new one.

Turns out Steve had been a railroad conductor for twenty years, but got in a train accident where his partner lost his life. He took a year off and then decided he was too bored, so he thought he'd drive a taxi for a little while and then look for another job.

It's always interesting to see somebody doing something they enjoy, and this guy thoroughly enjoyed driving his cab. It reminded me of temp jobs I've worked, (the best was, of course, driving a forklift in a candy factory) and how you can enjoy tasks that seem mundane when you know you don't have to do it for the rest of your life. That was Steve, behind that wheel. I learned a really interesting thing from him, that he had just learned a few weeks ago.

You know how there are always taxis at airports, but always only a few? It turns out that, depending on the size of the airport, there can be as many as 400 or 500 taxis waiting in a holding area a mile or two away, waiting their turn to pick up a fare. The airports build big parking lots and the taxis line up in rows and then park and wait for their row to be called. At really big airports, like Houston, a driver could wait for up to six hours for their row to be called.

These areas have rec buildings, with bathrooms and showers, TV rooms, ping-pong tables, food service and even a worship center. Steve was telling me that a lot of the drivers actually live there. They grab a comfy chair, get a few hours sleep, drive somebody around, come back, watch a movie and take another nap.

Most of the folks that drove at the airport, he said, were recent immigrants. Not a surprise there, having met some amazing people from all over the world by taking cabs and asking questions. He said that a lot of these guys were really educated, Masters degrees and city planners and economists. For whatever reason, a thick accent, a lack of references or cultural understanding, these highly educated people can't get the jobs they came to America to find. So they drive these cabs and live at the airport.

A lot of them save the money and send it back to their families, and like Steve, the job is a temporary thing. Others just enjoy having cash, a cool watch and a nice jacket. Things they can't get back home.

Like anyplace where people congregate, community develops, and smaller communities develop within. Apparently, people from different countries tend to congregate and become their own little groups there. The Ugandans watch TV here, while the Ethiopians play pool in here....

I don't really have a point to this, I just found it incredibly fascinating. If I were a filmmaker I'd be running out the door with a hat and a camera to make a documentary. (why the hat? I don't know) As it is, I'm a guitar player who writes songs and is trying to learn iMovie, so maybe I'll try to write a tune about it someday. I've tried to Google these places, but can't find anything. If any of you internet Sherlocks can dig anything up, please pass the links along.

Well, that's all for me tonight. I must retire. We're having a great time at the ol' Metropolitan Museum of Modern Paul and I can't wait until I have something decently polished to share with you. I think you'll like it. Take care. Happy Friday.

shedding some wood

So one of Cliff and Danielle's daughters got really sick earlier this week and we had to postpone the "official" studio time that had been scheduled this week. It's been cool, though, Todd, Garett and I have been working over and over the songs we have now, and are doing some more thought-out demos now. My cousin Dean has been playing some bass to help us out and Randall has been in and out covering Cliff's parts. These songs are going to be so fun to play live (and hopefully on the radio...).

All right, lunch break is over, back to work. Sorry for yesterday's joke clip. But come on, I can't make it that easy now, can I? Rest assured, fine AndyLanders, you will be the first to hear anything, it just probably won't be this week (or next...) I've got a bit of video I'll try to iMovie and post in the next few days, though. Thanks for wanting to hear it!!

the clip

So I've been getting tons of emails and comments asking for a clip of something the band is working on for the new record. Well, here you go.

Now, keep in mind, this is a bit rough. It's a song that I wrote for Danielle to sing and I think it's going to be really strong. This is my demo, though, so it's me singing. Enough with the excuses, onto the greatness...

[audio:http://andrewosenga.com/files/web%20clip.mp3]