Thanks, and Good Night

Very nice.

Apparently, I look like a freaked out hippy scientist to 75% of the people who read my blog.

Thanks to all 3 of you.

*sigh*

So much for Jerry Garcia.  I'm off to cut my hair. 

(ok, ok, I'm just kidding)

It doesn't bother me.

At least not much.

LOL!

Florence Evening Sky

You Have to Crawl Before You Can Walk

I thought I'd post a video of the first time Max crawled. It's a bit late - based on the date of the file, I think it must have been taken in February, when Max was 11 months. Does that sound right?



Anyway, I've been wanting to do this for a while. I've been working on my editing skills - the thing that's interesting about this video is it's taken in 2 different shots with a single camera, one shot immediately after the other.

Update: Krista said that last paragraph didn't make a lot of sense.  I guess the video is so seemless it looks like a single shot (she thought it was the same video she uploaded to her blog a while back). Anyway, what I did was take the overhead shot of him crawling toward the Doritos, then with the same camera, I moved him back to his starting point, and took the baby's eye shot of him crawling toward the Doritos.  I then edited the two shots together, so it looks like a single scene of him crawling toward the Doritos, but with angles from two different cameras at the same time. 

Ok, this may be basic stuff, but I thought it was cool...

Yay for Friday...

London

I was able to go to London a few weeks ago for work, and I promised to talk about it; even though I wasn't able to make it around to see much it was a pretty amazing trip.

I travelled there to speak, and that was a great experience in itself, but I have to share one of the other highlights.

I got to spend Wednesday evening in an English pub, watching Man U (that's Manchester United) trouncing Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League final. It was an amazing game. In case you're not familiar, a football (soccer) game consists of two 45-minute halves and both teams spend the entire time running up and down the field. When there's a tie, as there was this game (both teams scored once), there are two more 15-minute halves. When the game is still tied, it goes into penalty kicks. I couldn't find a good, succinct highlight reel from the game so I made one. (Watch through the finale - the penalty kicks are more exciting than you might think.) Enjoy! (Update - note how the cannons are synched up toward the end!)



Here's a pic from inside the pub where I watched the game.



Here are a couple bobbies across the street making sure the crowd doesn't get too rowdy.



And here's one of the outside of the pub - I can't remember the name.



Here are a few more pics. The first couple are at the Hurlingham Club, where I spoke, which is the first place polo was ever played. It's a beautiful area.





The Tube (Mind the Gap!)

And on the way home, I was able to snag a smoked salmon bagel (on a bed of Philadelphia cream cheese, with dill, black pepper, and lemon) in Heathrow airport. Mmmmm... (Ok, I'm not sure why I put this picture in here.)



And you know, I can't fathom what it's like for servicemen to come home after being overseas. I hadn't been gone long, and it was a good trip, but when the customs officer stamped my passport and said, "Welcome home," I nearly teared up...

It's good to be home.

Do I Look Like That?

Today I was told that I looked like the scientist guy from Independence Day. Of course, I had to look it up on IMDB and find out they were talking about Brent Spiner - Star Trek's Data.




What in the world? It's not the glasses...it's not the facial hair...what could have possessed someone to compare me to Brent Spiner? Is it because my tan is similar to the golden sheen of Data's skin?



So I thought I'd set up my first (and probably last) poll. Do you think I look like the android from Star Trek? You can vote at the right...




Ah, the beauty of the internet...

Mercy

Question for the day: Why is it *so* hard not to get really angry when I'm going through Athens, Alabama, trying to get to work, and I get stuck in the left hand lane behind someone content to do 40 mph in a 45 mph zone?

Post-Lent Post

It's been a while since Easter. This post has been a loooong time coming (it was a long time coming when I started writing it 6 weeks ago), and I think it has been part of the reason for my spotty posting the last few months.

Krista and I decided that we'd give some stuff up for Lent this year. Krista talks about it here...I won't spend a lot of time on the background, but I attempted to give up all sweets and sugars. And fast food. To me sweets meant sugar-laden sodas, and any type of candy or bakery.

I can't tell you how hard it was to walk into Rite Aid (near 7-Points in Florence) a couple weeks in and see the shelves of 75% off Valentine's candy on the right, and the brand new Easter candy on the left (I look forward to Robin Eggs and Cadbury Eggs every Easter). But I made it through that day.

The interesting thing is, I think that the Lenten fast is supposed to give you the need to lean on God, but I did the smart thing and filled the hole left by the sweets and sugar and fast food with other food. Bad food. I ate a lot of chips.

I found it interesting, recently reading C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity; he says that:

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good... Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down.

And the wind is very strong indeed. It was only with an attempt to try to do this did I figure out how far away from God I truly was.

It was hard. And by the end, I had given up.

It changed some things. Not because I was transformed by anything that happened, but I saw how far away I was. In some ways it was disappointing. In some ways it was a wake up call. We're all in a process of transforming, I guess. My prayer is that I keep moving forward, maybe taking baby steps at times, but keeping toward the goal.

ToyBox Episode III: Eternity

The final video of the trilogy. I thought it ended well.




I think it makes me want to make more videos of Spidey dancing...

ToyBox Video: Episode II (Love)

As promised, Chris! Episode II. And just like any sequel, it's not quite as good as the first. Ha!

CrossPoint VBS ToyBox Video: Episode I (Peace)

Since it premiered today at CrossPoint's VBS, I thought I'd share the first video I made for this year's Vacation Bible School.

ToyBox Episode I: Peace




A little background. Gena Killen asked me to do a few videos for this year's Vacation Bible School. The themes for the 3 days would be Peace, Love, and Eternal Life. She asked me to make them silly, and relate to the themes in a roundabout way. Almost by showing what these things weren't rather than describing what they were - in case you're wondering why the video doesn't really explain peace very well. Also, the general theme for the week was the 70's. Thus the period music and a few other items thrown in. Of course, I left the credits off the VBS version. That would've just been tacky.

"A Charcoal Smoky Flavor"

Saw Sure Shot Sid's Gunpowder Seasoning at Big Star. It looks like ground up charcoal, packaged, and sold as seasoning.

"How much longer..?"

Max is bored, too, so he's reading Entertainment Weekly.

"You can't handle the truth."

I'm bored.

We just passed a church sign I wish I'd gotten a picture of. It said (if I read it right), "Don't profess truth; live truth." I lke that. It's a lot easier to tell people to live like Jesus than to actually do it.

All good things must come to an end

Heading through Blackwater River State Forest on SR 4 on the way home...

Whose side are you on?

There's an important decision to make this year, which should make things particularly interesting, especially as we get closer to the day of reckoning. Who are you throwing your support behind? The has-been or the new blood? You'll probably be able to tell who I'm supporting, even if I don't name them specifically.

Really, it comes down to 2 choices - I mean, there's more than two to choose from (technically), but when you come down to it, there's just the top two players. And I think it'll be pretty easy for me - one's the obvious pick. The has-been doesn't seem like he's going to add anything new; he's been around a loooong time, and it shows. I wonder how much he's actually got left. But the new blood - I think he's going to be revitalizing everything.

Who will you be voting for on that fateful day? I don’t know how much you’ve thought about this, but please take a minute to consider your options. You never know the far reaching consequences it could have. And if you don’t plan on making your voice heard, reconsider. So, come that day of June 20, will you go to the theater and see Mike Myers in The Love Guru, or Steve Carell and Get Smart? (Wait, you didn’t think I was talking about something else did you?)

Poor Johnny

Just sitting here in this condo at the beach. Just got Max to sleep and Krista and Julianna are down at the pool (if you can make it out, that's the view from our balcony right now - the pool down below and Destin in the background). I'm listening to the singer at the poolside restaurant and he's butchering all these songs. He sang Sloop John B (Beach Boys), Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot), and Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash) and they all sound exactly alike. Pretty impressive if you think about it.