Home Videos Don’t Have to be Boring

Growing up, my mom was pretty good about making home movies. She even at times would do some edits and overdub music, and the hard way, before non-linear computer editing. We enjoyed watching them. Living on the mission field, I guess it was the thing to do when family would come to visit, so they could catch up on the last 4 years of our life.

Home videos are typically known for being boring and long. But they don’t have to be. Here’s a little keepsake video edit I did of our recent camping trip we took with some friends. A little creativity, music, and shot selection and editing can capture memories in a fun way forever:

We are all Ron Artest

We are all Ron Artest…I mean Metta World Peace.

It’s no secret that I’m a basketball fan (NBA and DLeague). It’s also no secret, now that the lockout is over and games are underway, that Ron Artest has officially changed his name to Metta World Peace.  It was funny hearing the commentators on the first game struggle to get his new name down and to call him that instead of Ron Artest. Of course, he trended on twitter that day and of course, I searched for his name. He was the brunt of many a joke, some very cruel. It’s easy to get on the bandwagon and make fun, far too easy. I even tweeted that the whole thing is weird. But then I wanted to know more about this dramatic change to see what’s in this name.

Let’s let Ronnie, I mean Metta, tell you himself:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/30/ron-artest-metta-world-peace-pti_n_887577.html

Of course “Metta” is a buddist term (though he is not buddist) that means friendship, love, kindness, and togetherness– traits he wishes to be known for, and world peace (though a sort of pipe dream) speaks for itself. So is this name change going to reflect a change in Ron’s (ahem Metta’s) behavior and on/off court antics? Is it going to tame the man who has rightfully acquired a reputation of being a brawler and thug? Well, since the change he has not punched any fans. That’s gotta count for something. And it sure beats Ochocino!

In all seriousness, though it IS weird, I applaud his desire to have a real turnaround, and think it is sincere. It sounds like he’s really trying to do some good now. He knows it’s not going to bring about world peace or anything. I hope he finds true peace in heart.

Let’s cut him a break. And give him the benefit of any doubt. And though I can’t speak for everyone, I’d like to think that we are all Ron Artest.

We’re just people trying to become better versions of ourselves.

Agree or not?

Fall Festival Highlights

Here’s the 2011 highlights reel of our Fall Festival. I thought this one turned out pretty good. The music is uptempo. The pace is fast. The edits are quick. I started the edit with some quick little timelapse (using a tripod of course and a Aputure timer remote, which for some reason has some major battery issues). Then most of the other footage was shot using my DIY PVC shouler rig (see my DIY category on the blog) and my new lens which has image stabilization. This is the one thing that I was most excited about on this edit. A prime lens is great for static shots  and depth of field stuff, focus pulls, etc., but add movement and you’re in trouble. This made a big difference I think. I thought it should be colorful, so I didn’t colorize the whole thing; I just did a pop levels adjustment on each clip. So here you go:

Teach Kids the Old Testament Books

Click play or this link to see/ hear the song!

UPDATE: see this post- http://wp.me/pfrZ6-hC. The New Testament song is finished now, and you can purchase both together for a discounted price.

My boys helped me with this song that was made to help kids learn the names of the Old Testament Bible Books. I learned this song when I was in fourth grade, and I’ve never forgotten it or the books. My oldest is now in fourth, but his 7 and 4 year old brothers also know the books because of this song. It really works!  My fourth grade teacher who taught us the song even saw the video and was pleased.  Another student who was in fourth grade enjoyed seeing it and is now teaching her kids the books using the song.  I know there are lots of songs out there teaching this, but this is my version and I know it does the trick!  I’ll be coming out with the New Testament version soon.

A Day in the Country

Here’s a little visual assignment I did for Lights Film School. It features some beautiful scenery from SW Missouri that I took while visiting family up that way. I also took a bunch of stock footage at this beautiful little creek. I’ll try to post a montage of that soon.

For now, here’s “A Day in the Country”

Two more Andy O Songs

Fun little tune about Canada:

“The Ball Game” (with a funny story in the middle):

Andrew Osenga- “Swing Wide the Glimmering Gates”

Here’s another Andrew Osenga song- one of my favorites, actually from his solo stuff, but it’s all so good. Check out the original version on “Letters to the Editor”- http://andrewosenga.com/music/.

On this video I wanted to try a more challenging text obscure effect on the title. I’ll write another post soon on how to do that. For now, enjoy:

Motive Matters T-shirt designs (Color Code)

FishXpressions’ has now designed some T-shirts. Actually it was my wife that did the heavy lifting on the T-shirt designs. I just helped a little and gave some feedback. After we had the T-shirts, we needed to put the on the website. So together we worked on designing the T-shirt preview graphics and the rest of the page. You can see how they came out below. Also, if you have no idea what Motive Matters is or the Color Code, check out this post. I recommend that you do, take the free test, and get a fun T-shirt while you’re at it!

The Search is Over

Just this week this ad come in the mail…can you say pricey????

Since I heard that HP had a fire sale, offering Touchpads for $99 I got busy figuring out how to acquire one. I’m usually a little bit behind the times with some technology. Not having a smart phone or an ipad or even a kindle, I jumped at this opportunity. But not so fast…it was not easy. By the time I entered the search all major retailers were OUT of stock. These were flying off the shelves. Certain websites said limited stock, but as I got more into the buying process, there would be an error or it would read “out of stock”. This was frustrating. Enter slickdeals forum. This site gave me live updates of where these were being sold, as well as an HP site where I could be notified of more stock. That site was crashing. I’d enter my info, and it would not process.

One of the places that I heard was selling was PCCONNECTION. I went there and tried to navigate but it was bogged down. I would try to add to cart, and nothing would happen. I refreshed. Nothing. I left and came back, added to cart…waited…BINGO! The option to checkout or keep shopping. It’s in the cart! CHECK OUT.

Did I get it? I think so. Email. Temporary order #.

OK.

Another email. Regular order #. Estimated shipping- today. I think I got it!

I saw a lot of horror stories of people who were victims of over selling on various sites, but me? No such email has come. I think I’m good.

Monday. I wonder if it’s shipped yet. Let me trace it…status…cancelled??????

Called PCCONNECTION. They were apologetic. Thousands of people were on the site. I wasn’t fast enough! Really???

Still Monday. Well, maybe Best Buy will have a return? No. Radio Shack? Office Depot? Conns??? They laughed at me. I told the PCCONNECTION story. They wanted to cry with me.

Two days later my cancellation email came. It read:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your recent order for the HP TouchPad.

Unfortunately, we experienced overwhelming demand for this item and our stock was depleted prior to fulfilling your order. As a result, your order for this item has been cancelled and no payments will be processed.

As you may know, HP recently announced its decision to discontinue production of the TouchPad. At this time, future availability is unclear but we are working closely with HP to obtain additional inventory if it becomes available.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you and we look forward to serving you in the future.

Sincerely,

PC Connection

What to do? I don’t think I am on HP’s notification list. Now I can’t find that page. FOUND IT. Now it’s changed! Can’t do it anymore. Oh wait link looks like it’s working. I’m going back to Best Buy. Hearing some rumors. Truck comes in Thursday. Call Thursday night to see if. We don’t know if we’ll have them or not.

Thursday. Calling Best Buy. 4 or more in front of me. Catchy little song on hold. Speaker phone. Not so catchy anymore. Dad, turn that off!!! 20 min. Hang up.

Calling again, pressing different menu number. Same song. 4 or more ahead of me. 20 min. Hang up.

Let’s try once more. 15 min. and they pick up! Truck didn’t come, it’ll be tomorrow morning. Manager said not to tell anyone that we would have some, in case we don’t.

Friday…today. I’ll just take my chances. Alarm set. Not needed. I’m up early. I grabbed some reading material. Yes, that’ll do. I drove. One hour before open time.

I mean, this isn’t black friday or anything…7 people already in line! One guy came at 5am. More arriving. 150 in line at McAllen Best Buy, where the truck stops first.

More rumors… someone said, “I heard from an employee that there WILL be 20 tickets awarded.” Is it a limit of 1 per? I sure hope so.

Long line behind me. Two minutes ’til opening time. No word from any employee. No tickets awarded.

Two minutes after opening time. Still outside waiting. They must be scrambling inside. They must have the tablets!

Open doors. Go to Geek Squad checkout. Hey, she just got here. Oh well. She must know an employee, ‘cuz she’s in front of me now. This other guy cut with someone who actually beat me. He’s on crutches. I walk slow not to be rude. Those behind me are staying in order. Employees are emptying boxes and boxes. Breathe easy now. I’m #8.

The price is ringing up. I’ll take the 32gig please. $149. Not $599.

Good things come to those that wait!

The Case of the Missing Halo

I’m by nature an observant person. In fact my name “Gregory” comes from the Greek word gregoreo meaning “to watch” or “be attentive”. Vigilant watchman is my name, so it’s a Bible name after all! As I parked at the hospital today to visit a friend from church, I made an observation that compelled me to take out my little camera phone. I documented my observation and went on to do what I had come to do. When I came back to the car, I noticed something else out of the ordinary. A white piece of paper was flapping in the faint breeze underneath my wiper-blades. I thought it could be a flyer for something. Maybe for some religious event, after all I was in the clergy only parking and the clergyman’s vehicle next to mine also had a paper decoration. No, turns out it was a parking violation.

I got a parking violation for parking in the clergy parking space when I am clergy! Never before has that happened in all of the times I’d visited this hospital. This time it did, so I went back in to get this sorted out. I was dressed in sandals, shorts, and a T-shirt, so I didn’t really look the part, but fortunately I had a laminated badge from another hospital that identified this young punk as a member of the order of the cloth. What security told me is that my vehicle was missing its halo. So a new security guard went a little violation crazy. I didn’t have the correct laminated piece on my dash apparently. The halo comment was funny, but here’s where my initial observation comes back into play. There was no visible halo above the clergy’s cars, but if you look underneath the vehicles, you may see a rounded ring of sorts. As I drove in to park, I noticed in all of the clergy only parking places there was a heavy circular oil stain, noticeably absent in the vast majority of non-clergy parking spaces.  When you want to identify a preacher’s car, don’t look for the halo above it, look underneath it!

I’m not sure what the point of this post is. That may be for you to determine and chime in at the comments section and tell me what it means. Many churches pray, “Lord, you keep our pastor humble and we’ll keep him poor!” For this reason, many take up other “tentmaking” opportunities, to steal a phrase from Paul’s moonlighting gig. Well, while my miles-heavy, paint chipping mini-van added to the stain in the clergy parking space, I was glad not to be stuck with a real violation fee. And I’m glad that God has taken care of us through the years and that we have been able to put our hands to the plow and take care of our bills. I’m glad that we can cheerfully give towards other needs and to the less fortunate.

This topic is a funny one, because smaller churches will typically reflect this type of stain, while you’ve got televangelists extravagance on the other extreme.  I guess one point to be made would be this: whether you add to the oil-stained halo, or your vehicle is leak free, whether you are at a mega-church, or a smaller church with several part-time projects on the side, whether you’ve squandered what you’ve made or have applied Dave Ramsey economics, whether you are in full-time ministry or if you’re a layperson, just be a faithful Christian. In the end, we’re all just Christians, and the world’s security is patrolling, watching our every move. Our only credential is Christ in us. Whatever your situation may be, just don’t lose your halo.