Born on the Fourth of July

No, this post isn't about the Tom Cruise movie, nor is it about our American freedoms.

This post is about a man. A man, born July 4th, 1927, the youngest of many children, the son of a simple farmer. He grew up in Gueydan, LA, working in his father's sharecropper fields, and didn't get past the sixth grade.

He married the love of his life on November 7, 1946, a woman also of simple means. She was from Erath, LA, and they settled in the Vermilion Parish seat of Abbeville, LA.

They had five children, six including a miscarried child. Their children were quite spread out in age; their oldest was married and pregnant before their youngest was born.

This man was the hardest working man I ever met. I've seen pictures of him working in the southern Louisiana oilfields, with men who would just-as-soon rip you limb from limb as shake your hand. This man worked on the crew who cleared the way for I-10 between Lafayette and Baton Rouge (contracting Yellow Fever in the process).

This man was a business owner. He owned Ray's Auto Sales in Abbeville, a used auto parts and towing service. He was also an avid horseman and cattle farmer. Again, always working, always taking care of his business, always looking out for his animals.

This man was my father. Raymon Allen Gaspard, who died June 18, 1988, was a great man, only I didn't let him know that I thought he was. I wasn't the best son a guy could ask for. I was ungrateful, arrogant, cocky, and manipulative, and I'm so deeply sorry that I treated him with less than the absolute respect that was owed to him.

Today would be his 82nd birthday.

Dad, I miss you tremendously. I wish you were here, to see my beautiful wife, to see my wonderful girls, to know that you were a great influence on the man that I am today. Thank you for being such a great provider, example, and friend, although I would have never admitted those things to your face.

I can't wait to see you again, when we walk the streets of gold together. We have plenty of catching up to do. I just hope that I have made you half as proud as I am of you.

Happy birthday.

Happy Father's Day!

I found this little gem when I was searching for some files the other day. I had totally forgotten about it.

I did all of the gut-string acoustic parts on my 6-string bass, plus we added in a solo section, so I could show that I can play more than just root-fifth!

Anyway, hope you enjoy it. I've lost about 20 or so pounds since then (this was 2005), and we now record with audience mics (trust me...there was uproarious applause when I was done). Also, we now use in-ear monitors (I had forgotten how UGLY floor wedges are!).

I hope all you dads out there have a great Father's Day. Be good to your daughters!

Vacation...

I may or may not be posting this week, because I'm on vacation. I woke up to this scene this morning...

We're in the Smoky Mountains this week. Gatlinburg, TN to be exact. Skiing, shopping, spending too much money, overeating. That's pretty much my M.O.

OK, so while I'm gone, I'm gonna do something special for all my readers. You can go to Crossroads Creative's site, and use this coupon code:

VACATION

It's good for 75% off any purchase, small or large.  It will expire when I'm back in the office, March 3rd, 2009.

Have a great week everyone!

Girls' Getaway

Here's a piece Crossroads Creative did to promote our women's ministry's fun trip a few months ago (which had a record attendance). BTW, our women's ministry director is none other than my incredibly talented and adept wife. You can check out her blog here.

Hope you like the piece. It's available for sale here.

The Media Director Has No Clothes

OK, interesting thing about me...

I'm used to working on good gear. When I was at Oral Roberts TV, I had great consoles with awesome monitors. At Crossroads, I've got some great cameras, editing gear, and some pretty decent audio tools (not to be confused with ProTools - ecch. I'm a Logic user).

So, what does a guy who has access to all this great stuff have as his personal gear? When I was at ORU, when people would come over to my house, they were surprised to see how low-end my home stereo was, and invariably, the conversation went somewhat like this...

"Dude, you're the Chief Audio Engineer at Oral Roberts Television.  That's your stereo!?"

"Yes. If I wanted to listen to CDs on $750K worth of gear, I would just drive to the studio."

Which brings me to my point...I just bought my first camcorder. What is it? Here it is...

It's a Crayola camcorder that records to SD card. It's the crappiest/cutest thing I've ever seen. It's for my youngest daughter, and we bought it yesterday with her $30 Wal-Mart gift card.

This thing is LITTLE ya'll. The photos don't do it justice. The camera is half the distance from the iSight camera than we are.

For a sample, visit my wife's blog. By broadcast standards, it's crappy indeed (the camera quality, not the blog), but not too bad considering how much compression goes into a typical Bloggger video. The real deal is this:  I get the pleasure of helping the Katie Mac launch her film career. Once she masters the Crayola, an ARRIFLEX D-21 will be no big deal!

Facebooking for Dummies (like me)

OK, so I'm totally into the facebook...

I mean, I've got friends from as far away as Sri Lanka, and I want to keep in touch with all of them, and know what each and every one of them is up to, right down to the minute, to every nitty gritty detail.

So, I have a facebook account. It's totally fun, and it's great to have caught up with guys I haven't seen in as much as 20 years (yes, I'm that old).

Speaking of which (the old-ness part), do you find that when you're suggesting friends to someone, that you get confused with who knows whom (or is it the other way around?)?

My life, in a nutshell has five historical periods. Lets call them Richardian Eons:

Eon 1:  Abbeville High School (1982-1985)

Eon 2:  Jimmy Swaggart Bible College (1987-1988)

Eon 3:  University of SW Louisiana (1988-1994)

Eon 4:  The Tulsa Years (1994-2000)

Eon 5:  Back to Cajun Country (2000-Present)

So, I'm reconnecting with old friends, and when prompted to help those with a lesser number of friends along in their facebook journey, I honestly cannot remember who came from what eon! I find myself staring blankly at the thumbnail pics, wondering how the person pictured knows the friend I'm trying to help out.

I feel like George Costanza:  worlds are colliding.

Does this happen to you? Please say it does.

Saying Goodbye

My good friend, Mark Keefer, is mourning the loss his grandmother.

He posted a note he wrote for her, which he read to her the day before she died. It is one of the most beautiful and heartfelt pieces I've read in a long time.  It's the stuff the little boy in all of us can completely identify with. You can check it out here.

What I've noticed through Mark's postings and status updates on Facebook, is that he has become a very gifted writer, with a great sense of lyric and timing. Of course, the timing should come naturally, because he's a great drummer (they don't just hand out those music degrees at North Texas State!). BTW, he's also an Emmy Award-winning audio engineer. I'm not sure if I have a secret crush on him, or I secretly hate him. Either way, I'll keep it a secret.

Mark, I love you like a brother, and I'm deeply saddened by your loss. Just know that you are in my prayers, and you'll see her again, where there will be no more "goodbye waves."

The Most Awesome Woman Ever

OK, so I played a little trick on my wife for her 30-something-th birthday. I had eight of her bloggy friends write something nice about her, and post videos of her singing or acting. Where they got those oh-so-professionally-made videos is anyone's guess...

You can go visit all of theses awesome ladies and see the vids at the following places...

Permission to Peruse

Moments and Memories

The Sky is Only Dark Between the Stars

Pianomomsicle

Life in the Parsonage

Musings of a Future Pastor's Wife

Blessed With Five

Everyday Miracles

BTW, we could all learn something about effective marketing by looking at the creativity with which each of these ladies goes about their own blog.

Oh yeah, if you want to see someone totally kicking her husband's booty at the blogging, go check her out here...

Happy Birthday Mama Belle! There's no other way to say it...you ROCK!

The Olympics - and a Random Thought

OK, this post has nothing to do with anything, except perhaps how thoughts stay with us for a lifetime.

I was talking to my wife today about the Olympics (our daughters watched the Olympics all day at their grandmother's house), when I told her a deep dark secret of mine.

When I was a kid, I thought the word "gymnastics" was a dirty word, because it sounded like "nasty" to me.

Back From Vacation!

Well, the 11-day Gaspard vacation is over, and it's back to work tomorrow. For the full details of our vacation, go here. It's my wife's blog, and she has all the dirt on the trip (as well as most everything else in our lives).

On another, more relevant-church-media note, our new lighting console should be installed by this weekend. I may post some pics of it in action.

I Just Found Out that I'm a Hero

My wife was checking my 10-year-old's penmanship homework tonight, and she ran across an assignment worksheet about heroes. Here are the two questions, and her answers (in parentheses):

1. What qualities and character traits will a hero have? (brave, encouraging, loyal, trustworthy, honest)

2. Whom do you admire? (The person I most admire is probably my dad. He doesn't really do anything important, but isn't everyone's dad their hero? I really look up to my dad, no really, he's pretty tall. Okay, I'll admit that I'm actually really short. But anyway, the person I admire the most is my one and only...DAD!)

OK, I'm not sure why she thinks that someone who has devoted his entire life to the ministry doesn't do anything important, but I'm proud to know that my little girl (who's getting less little every day) thinks I'm a hero.

Batman, eat your little bat heart out!