It was now another Sunday, so time to visit yet another church. This time I took a trip up with my roommate Jason to New Life Church. It was quite a distance from the place I was staying, and was even further away than Focus on the Family. We pulled into the parking lot... a huge parking lot, and got out of the car. I could have sworn I was at an airport and not at a church, the place looked huge. We talked into the lobby and could hear the sermon going on out over these large speakers. But the people in the lobby weren't paying attention, they were either eating or shopping in a souvenior shop or just talking with their friends. I immediately was reminded of the time Jesus walked into the temple and saw the people selling and gambling there. I though, perhaps if Jesus were here, he too would want to put a stop to the madness. But I clinched my teeth and continued towards the room where I assumed the service was going on. And sure enough, it was. There had to be over a thousand people in that room, with the speakers face being projected onto three large screens at the front of the room. From the rafters hung flags from countries all around the world. But try as I might, I didn't see a Canadian flag at all... which was rather discouraging and I pointed this out to Jason who laughed. Unfortunately for us, we must have come on a bad day as the speaker invited another speaker to come to the front. This man had written a book about "Why America's the Greatest Country in the World" or something along those lines, and I had to sit and listen to him ramble on and on without a point. Near the end of us speech, he finally mentioned Christianity and then said he could be found in the lobby after the service to sign copies of his book. I was rather disturbed by all of this, as it seemed to go against all my own personal beliefs of what is Church is there for... but I was assured by other regular attenders that this was an isolated incident and does not occur all the time.

But I had definitely seen a lot. Three different churches, three wildly different experiences. I couldn't wait to find a Catholic church that I would be able to feel at home at. Regardless, that afternoon Jason and I went to a Safeway (and I found out my Canadian membership is valid even in the States!) and loaded up on some more food. We purchased a pizza which we brought back to the house so we could have supper. What a mess we made. Jason went into the pantry and pulled out a tray, put the pizza on it and stuck it in the oven. We then went and sat at the kitchen table while we discussed our church experience with the family we were staying with. About 5 minutes later we smelled something awful, but didn't quite know what it was. Then we heard some popping and crackling so the woman of the house ran to the oven and pulled it open. The source of the smell and noise was clear... Jason had accidently taken a decorative pan which was made of pewter and had several American coins embedded in it and had placed that in the over. The tray was completey malformed and completey ruined.

The next day was another typical day at work. I inputed more auditions into the database and got to work on "The Odyssey Scoop" article I was to write for Clubhouse magazine. At lunch, Nathan and I got word that a frequent visitor to the Town Hall was going to be at Whit's End that day so we went down to the Welcome Center to see if we could meet up with her. It was like looking for a needle in a hay stack, but Nathan approached a girl he thought might be her, and sure enough... it was! So we showed her and her friend around Focus on the Family and gave them a quick private tour. That was one of the great things about the experience... meeting with fans and just talking about our favorite radio show!

On Tuesday I met Mark Drury and Jonathan Crowe for the first time. Jon is a fellow Canadian from Ontario, so right off the bat we had something in common. Mark took us out to the parking lot to show of his new car, which Chris and Kathy promptly stole and took for a joy ride. We waited around the parking lot for them to return... and they didn't. It wasn't until a couple of hours later that they came back to work, having enjoyed the thrill of driving a brand new vehicle for longer than Mark had even owned it. Thankfully for Mark, Chris was able to pick up on a standard pretty quick!

Then on Wednesday, I finished up my Odyssey Scoop and after fixing it on suggestions from Marshal, promptly shipped it off to the people in charge. Unfortunately for me, I should have looked it over a few more times... it's written rather poorly and I really should have spent more time polishing it up. I also had lunch in Jonathan Crowe's studio were we listened to some good old Canadian music... it was great, and afterward Jonathan even gave me a copy of the CD!

Thursday was my first play back experience. A playback is the first time the team hears the finished product of an episode... with foley, voice tracks, and music all in place. As a team, you listen to the episode, take down notes and then discuss the episode and see what could be improved. I got the opportunity to listen to two episode that day: "The Benefit of the Doubt" and "For the Fun of It". After hearing the former, the team decided that some of the musical cues (especially the beginning!) were too long and that they would need to be shortened. Also, there's a moment where Colby is about to say a bad word to Rodney and a very strange music cue was played. No one in the room thought it sounded any good, so we decided that it should be changed to something else. A few other small things here and there were suggested, and then sent off to Bob Luttrell so he could make the fixes in his studio. The latter was actually great fun, and I don't believe there were many comments afterward. We all enjoyed it and I was surprised to learn the girl who played Talia had been cast that day! The original girl bowed out shortly before recording was to begin, so they contacted a new actress and she agreed to fill in... and did a very good job at that. Nathan and Jonathan then took me on yet another tour of the basement, this time to the Master Audio Library which contains the masters for every single Adventures in Odyssey episode, not to mention every other program Focus on the Family is a part of. Immediately I went in search of "Whit's Flop"... it was great to be able to stand there and hold the first ever episode for Odyssey USA! We than headed over to the Operations Building where after clowning around a bit, Jonathan showed me one of several master duplicator machines which quickly and efficiently duplicate tapes for distribution.

Friday was a fairly uneventful day. Clubhouse Magazine had been holding a year long contest for readers, where you collected key words from puzzles which would be used at the end to get some great prize. Unfortunately, the prizes had not yet been decided on so Nathan and I met to discuss what prizes should be given out. I suggested getting to hear a brand new episode before anyone else, or at least clips from the upcoming season. There was a comprise and fans ended up receiving the intro for the episode "For Trying Out Loud" as part of their prize. Nathan wanted a printable certificate signed by John Avery Whittaker, and I suggested an exclusive flash game that could later be added to the Imagination Station section at The Official Site. I wanted to keep it simple, so I brainstormed and came up with the idea of using the train set at Whit's End in some way. So heavily influenced by an old game I used to play called "Pipe Dreams" (no relation to the episode!), I drew up a game where you would lay down train tracks while at the same time a train would be barreling down the tracks. I submitted my proposal and it was accepted by the staff. Unfortunately, the game wasn't completed in time for it to be a special prize for the fans who won the contest, but it was eventually added to the Imagination Station. Feel free to stop by and try it out for yourself!

That night on our way home, Nathan stopped by the grocery store with me so I could pick up some more food for the weekend. While I was there, I saw a flat of Arrowhead water... 24 bottles for $6.00. Now, I'm not a big fan of water and don't drink it very often, but the price was too good to be true (as they sold similar water in vending machines for $1.00 each!), so I bought the flat and jokingly told Nathan that I probably wouldn't even have one bottle of it. God sure works in mysterious ways. That weekend I became very, very ill... my throat hurt, my back hurt, and I had a bad headache. I couldn't even bring myself out of bed to go to church the next morning (not to mention I would have had a forty five minute walk ahead of me which I wouldn't have been able to do), and so I just sat in bed and called home to my family and friends. I had brought some pills with me and took them with some of the water I had purchased... in fact, I drank 20 of the 24 bottles of water that weekend. I can't stand the taste of tap water, and I only had a limited amount of orange juice... so had I not bought that water on a whim, I don't know what I would have done!