I'm supposed to be preparing to leave for the Big Wow tomorrow... but I'm not. I'm stupid. Instead I'm being entertained by these incredible Greatest Freak Out Ever videos on Youtube. I'll ruin it for you and let you know they're fake... part of me is happy for the world that they are fake. But it's so insane... especially the first one. If you're into remixes, check out this remix!
In additional new, I witnessed a car accident today. I was cruising down a suburban road, just getting past the road construction, when the truck in front of my smashes into a parked car. It's not like he was swerving at all, he just drifted right into the side of the car as if it were invisible. The car was smashed pretty good, and the trucks front right tire completely came off; surprising I thought. The dude pulls right into a driveway after the accident, with his three wheels. The guy was kind of old, but not really old. Somewhat strange seeming. I don't know if he was drunk, losing his mind, or just distracted... maybe all of the above.
Anyway, I helped them roll the heavy detached tire and axle off the road and then helped clean the hard plastic fragments off the road. Once I told the police what happened I left. I wish that story was more exciting. Oh yeah, the guy was my dad. Ok, not really.
I was going to throw in a "shooting" joke to add excitement, but that seems horribly inappropriate due to the shooting tragedy from last night. Amazingly it was world news. And sadly one of my friends knows one of those who died in the shooting. It's such a sad situation.
Well this is mostly a boring post on my end, but we'll leave it at that, for I must go.
I'm writing a blog today, despite all the work I have to do and my fast-approaching deadline, because I know you care. Ok, that's a lie. I have no idea if you care... and if I'm going to make a guess about things based on analytical means, I would say there's a better chance that you don't care. I'm not being a downer, but come on, let's be real.
I have a video due early this coming week. I am not at the point of entering "freak out" mode where I pound my head with the questions "WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG?!?!?" But if I don't pick up my pace, I will be in some trouble.
I was talking to my friend Kelly about the niceties and difficulties of having almost no set work schedule. It's very nice to do stuff on your own time and to help people who need a ride or help in the middle of the day, when everyone else is at their 9-5 job. But when you don't have a set work schedule, I think there is a much higher tendency to put in more hours than the typical person (especially if you care about your work like I do). I wish I had the structure and willpower to designate specific times during the week to do work. As it is, I wait until the last possible minute to get my work done.
So now I feel like a video editing recluse in my house. I need more visitors. For that, maybe I need more friends. I think I'm a pretty good friend. At the very least, people should want to be my friend for the superficial reasons of: I will cook them fine cuisine, I have an enormous DVD collection that we can choose from, and I just bought a blender at an estate sale today, soooo... SMOOTHIES!
Maybe I don't have friend because everyone has read my blog and realized I'm boring. This is boring. I should start writing more interesting blogs. I used to be good at this. Something inside me is dying; I can only hope it's my intestinal parasite, but fear it is my fun, spontaneous side. Let's try start a newish year resolution of entertaining/thought provoking blogs.
Have you seen these new Charmin commercials with the bears who obviously have some sticky butts. The whole thing is about the major issue of toilet paper sticking to the bottoms of bears and possibly humans.
If you haven't seen them, take a peek.
Is there some big epidemic of butts full of shredded toilet paper that I don't know about? Are there lots of people saying, "If only SOMEBODY would make a toilet tissue that wouldn't cling to my anus, THEN maybe my mother would stop running after me with an industrial cleaning brush aimed at my butt!" Well buddy, maybe you should keep your dangling butt chads to yourself, instead of exposing your badunkadunk and rubbing it against the community football.
Remember these commercials. I believe that in the next 10-15 years we will see a drastic rise in young people freely exposing themselves in public, followed by a sudden gleam of light flashing from their extremely clean rear.
God made us to be ashamed of our naked butts! These unholy clingons aid our shame, thus I must assume they are God's will. Don't take the Mark of the Beast, mass produced by Charmin. But if you are too weak to resist the temptation of an effectively wiped backside; if you've already been deceived by the flex-weave... I guess I'll see you in hell.
Oh yeah, and it feels nice when you rub it on your face too.
Today is Monday, meaning yesterday was Sunday, which was the last day of this year's Campus Life winter retreat, Fallout.
It's always a fun trip. Usually I am solely or at least largely, "Video Guy." But it's fun interacting with the kids, hanging out with Brooks, playing boxball, and seeing the kids enjoy my video. The last few years I've gone as more than just a video guy, also being a staff person with a student there. My cousin had been my only Campus Life student attending any of the trips, and because of that she would end up falling into the responsibility of another group, as I was largely preoccupied with videoing.
This year I had two new students and one of my volunteers, Jared, helping. I had a bit of help on the video end this year, which allowed me to participate more in the activities of Fallout, although I still did miss out on a few things. Part of me was glad I had to allow Jared to be more of a representative to the students there. I know he also formed much stronger bonds with the kids from spending more time with them, especially Jonathan, our only male student there. I'm a control freak, and someone who thinks I need to be a part of things for them to get done, but it's just not true, and I'm glad God helped show me the fruit of allowing others to step up in situations. Even now I feel less stressed about the future knowing I can let go of controlling a little easier, and hold on to those around me for help.
The theme this year was Hold On, and it turned out to be a great theme. The speaker was Don Talley, who is handicapped, in that he is one of only a few people in the world with a muscle condition that leaves him very weak (kind of like MS I think). He spoke of the hardship in his life from this disease showing itself in his physical limitations, emotion turmoil, and spiritual restlings. Through it all, he spoke about us holding onto God and God noticing us and making himself available to us. Frank, who organized the trip this year, also wrote out a lesson for the leaders (me included) to teach our designated group of students. This discussion focused on holding on to each other and being held on to. That is what a community based on love should be. It addressed masks we wear to cover who we really are, and not trusting others with who you really are, out of fear. We discussed how we help those wearing masks, and we can make a decision to take off our own masks, but one of the best parts of that, I think, was the time where students paired up with other students they didn't know so well, and they had an open discussion where they weren't hiding. They loved it, and I loved that they loved it. I truly hope they embrace a life without masks in their daily life. That they will learn to be open and real with those they come in contact with. That they will notice people as God notices us, and love them as God first loved us.
I was slightly nervous about speaking to a group of students that aren't my regulars. I'm not nervous about what they think, but maybe about measuring up against some of the other awesome leaders we have who are more experienced. But I do think our conversation went really well, and I hope that I helped bring forth God's Truth in an appropriate way.
So, now some of the less serious stuff of the weekend... Brooks and I had a new driving buddy on the way up and back from Fallout... Katie, who always seems to hang out in the back booth with us, tagged along, which meant I had competition for the front seat. She also spilled her Mt. Dew in floor of the back seat, which she never told Brooks about.
I had video help from a guy named Justin. It was nice to have a bit more freedom, but I still got a lot of my own footage. When you've done this for as long as I have, it seems easier to just do it myself the way I want it, rather than getting stuff that isn't quite what I want.
There was a game we played where all the guys hold on tight to each other, and the girls have to try to pull the guys apart. My forearms felt like they were going to pop after that one. Then later I found tons of bruises all over my body from the girls ripping my limbs from the other guys. I also played boxball again this year and might have broken my finger (broke my nose last year). But I don't think it's really broken, just kind of messed up/swollen. It's my middle finger, so I flick off a lot of people wearing my splint.
I thought I would get done editing the Fallout video at a reasonable hour this year, since I already had the intro done and such, but that wasn't the case. I guess in my aged state I don't stay up late as well as I used to. Around 1AM I started dozing, and everything I went to watch a clip, I'd fall asleep for a few seconds and miss it. Thus editing took a really long time, and I didn't get to go to bed at all. No shower, no new clothes, no sleep until on the way home, I slept about 30 min. or so. I would have slept more if Brooks didn't play Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen... Katie and I broke out into a duet sing-along at the top of our lungs, and I was once again very awake.
So yeah, I was a walking zombie most of the day yesterday. I thought my video was kind of lamer than usual, but once it was ont he big screen I actually thought it was pretty good. I made fun of Dave (one of our staff) again this year. Last Fallout, he didn't participate in Boxball and the staff lost, so throughout the video I kept putting in text about Dave giving 100%, and then made fun of him for not giving 100% by not playing boxball. This year he played, so I did investigation breaks documenting him during boxball, mostly making fun of if he yawned or whatnot. I hope he's not mad at me. He really does a good job, I just do it for laughs from the kids.
So yeah, good trip overall... just one of my students when I asked her if she had a good time said "No. Did you expect anything else from me?" She was kind of sick, and also kind of a hypocondriac. It was stressful, but I do hope she got something out of it. She had tons of opportunities to have fun, and I think she had more than she admits, but most of the time she just chose not to join in. Bummer.
Campus Life is like family though. The testimonies at the end of the week attest to that. Students feel like they don't have to pretend they're something they're not. They can be themselves and be loved. I got caught up on a lot of hugs and loving words that I talked about needing in my previous post... plus we had a dance party the last night, courtesy of Brooks.
Trips like this show what Campus Life is really all about.
I'm really looking forward to Heatwave, and hope to be brining more students and staff.
I am returned. I feel like when you use the word "am" in the stead of "have" it makes one sound much more confident, royal, and British. I desire to be all of these, but unfortunately am none. Then again, maybe using "am" there is plain incorrect grammar.
Grammar is a funny word. I think it should end in an "er" rather than "ar." I also believe it should be a term for a grandmother, who knows how to rock out. The kind of grandmother that will have her teenage grandkids say "Grammer, you really messed up that dude in the mosh pit." Then grammer bakes cookies to cheer up the kid that she tore up at the show. That's grammer! GrammAr is just some gunk you get on the bottom of your shoe. "Ah man, I just stepped in grammar. It'll take me forever to get this off." Grammar is that gunk you can't wash off... well you could, but you don't want to touch it at all. You will only clean it via indirect spray from a faucet. So instead you complain about the grammar on your shoe, while doing nothing about it, hoping that friction-esque erosion will handle the problem in due time.
Life has felt pretty busy lately, which is usually what I say when I come back from not blogging for a bit. I've been getting a few more video jobs and doing a lot with Youth for Christ, plus I am adding to my list of friends I am trying to help in charity (whether financial or relational or both), so I guess I feel like I'm in demand.
Last night was our Youth For Christ - Campus Life banquet. I am always a pretty behind the scenes guy there. But I spent many hours editing some videos together, that I got footage for on Tuesday. I'm posting the five short videos I made for last night.
I feel a lot of times like my video work is more of a hobby than anything... like it's just some cute little thing I do. Maybe it's because my work doesn't end up on TV or because so much of what I do involves youth or churches, and not as often professional, corporate pieces. But I guess I do a good, professional job at what I do. And thankfully I am getting more calls about doing video work lately. I was hoping video stuff would pick up so I can afford to live. I think it'll just keep getting better as time goes on and people get to see my work.
This all is just in wait for the big collaboration of minds in creating a commercial-creating force of elite minds and wits. We all know it's coming. Ben, Steve, Jason, Anthony, Jess, and whatever other stragglers find their way in. We will make your business boom with multi-product inclusion in the same ad, such as "Converse... Got Milk?" And breakthrough two-in-one inventions like Dr. Lube (the first ever engine de-greaser, soft drink), SPF Whip (our sunscreen mayonnaise), and TP Tie (Toilet paper tie, convenience meets fashion). Plus concepts that are fun and can be formatted to endorse any product like "The Video Edit-tor," and the missile launching attack helicopter that guards against speeding ("Speed enforced by aircraft"). And don't forget about our new Prime Time Show "Si-Esse (CSI) Mexico."
We're totally going to blow Nutrigrain out of the water!
Ok, I'm going for now. I am going to relax after my stressful last few days.
