C3 2010

Last year was the first time I attended an entire C3 conference.  I had been to one or two sessions about 4 years ago, before I knew what relevant church was all about.  After last year, I am very much looking forward to going this year. 

I have never been in one location with so many expert orators.  Nevermind that they are amazing innovators in the modern church world.  They can just flat out speak.  Everyone I heard last year, in their own unique way, was able to get their point across with such vivid clarity.  It's no wonder they are leading some of the largest churches in America.  

Steven Furtick, Christine Cain, Jenzen Franklin and Craig Groeschel were there in 2009.  Some will be returning, some will be new.  No matter what, its going to be good and I am looking forward to it.     


Date Your Mate Promo

Most recent work in After Effects.



Open was shot with Sony PD-170, edited in Premiere Pro by Kevin Glenn.  Everything else was put together in After Effects.

I wish I got to work in AE more than I do.  It's kind of like riding a bike, you don't forget everything, but somethings take a while to come back.  Actually its more like riding a jet-propelled motorcycle.  I can get it from Point A to Point B at 2mph, but AE can do SO MUCH more. 

This Sunday

811 people though the doors this weekend at Brazos Fellowship is amazing.

I mean really amazing.  That is more than 100 people over this weekend last year.  Something else amazing...we break attendance records all the time.  I mean ALL THE TIME.  If you look back at any given weekend from 2009 and compare it to the same weekend in 2008, it is almost ALWAYS HIGHER.  Probably because it happens all the time, we are kind of missing how huge that is.  There are a lot of churches that can't say that.  Not just churches, but most for-profit business would beg, borrow and steal for that kind of growth.

Now, before this gets misconstrued...Attendance is our way of measuring people being reached by Jesus.  This is not to say, "Look how awesome we are".  But rather to say, "Look how awesome God is; that he can use a rag-tag bunch of people to spread His Word".  Pretty awesome!

  

It's not magic, it really works.

At the heart of our Senior Pastor is evangelism.  He, from the beginning, has constantly pushed everyone to invite anyone they know to come check out the church.  The first thing you think of when you hear the word, 'Evangelism' is probably some eccentric TV personality, screaming, dancing or casting out 'demons' on a Cable Church Channel.  Ya, so do I.  But 'Evangelism' has gotten a bad wrap recently. To 'evangelize is to be engaged in the good work of proclaiming that which is good.   So, spreading the Good News is evangelism...that's it.  No purple hair needed, No prayer shawl to buy.  Just passing on the Good News of Jesus.

So, like I said, we at the core, feel called to reach out and share the message of Jesus to as many people as we can.  Evangelize=Outreach.  In 2009, Brazos Fellowship was given an amazing opportunity to start a local television broadcast of our Sunday service. We felt God was opening too many doors to pass up, so, now we have been on TV for about 9 months.  With that we have seen growth like crazy.  However after looking back at the data we have compiled over the last 6 months, we are still seeing more new visitors coming because a friend invited them.  The TV opportunity has been great and I see us doing this for a long time.  But, it is not magic, its what people in the New Testament Church called, "Euangelizo", or "a proclaiming of that which is Good"

 

Rollin'...

...wit tha dual screens so my baby girl can get her Elmo on.

Okay, I'll stop.  But, I AM going to catalog the installation of the dual DVD headrests for our 2007 Toyota 4Runner. 

01-23-10  9:45p.m.  Ordered the package from www.onfair.com. Kind of shady, no name players but got pretty good reviews and for under $225 I bet they will play the Wiggles just fine.  When we first looked at them, they were about $300.  They were on sale, plus a $10 off coupon code, plus free shipping.  Total to the door = $215.95   I can handle that since most portable, foldable, single screen players at $100+ from Wal-Mart. 

01-26-10  10:30a.m.  Received a text from my wife letting me know that the package from OnFair was delivered.  Wow, that was fast!

01-26-10  6:45p.m.  After my daughter went to bed, I opened the box to begin a 'short term' install.  I was leaving for a few days, so I wanted to get one in to see how it worked while I was gone.

 

They looked pretty good.  The grey leather matched the 4Runner perfectly.  The headrests and players seemed to be very solid and I didn't see any possible future issues.  The remotes and game controllers didn't look quite as sturdy, but for the price, very adequate.

Installation seemed fairly simple.  Adjust the posts to fit your car, run the wires down the back of the seat and plug it in.  I wish I would have realized that there were multiple diameters of posts.  The middle size fit the 4Runner very good.  If you use an 'up-sized' post, you seem to loose the ability to adjust the headrest.  Not a big deal.

I decided to use a pull string since there was not much room for me to feed the wires down the back of the seat.   This was probably the most difficult part.  Figuring out how to get the coat hanger down the back of the seat and finding it at the bottom was kind of tough, but really only took 10 minutes.
 

Once the string was 'routed' in the correct place, just pull the string and put the headrest posts in the holes.

At the bottom, again, pretty easy.  They use two different types of cables, so I don't think you can mess this up.  Like I said at the beginning, this is a quick, short term install.  Because of that I only installed one and ran it off the cigarette adapter. 

As soon as I put power to it, the red light came on.

 

It took me a little bit to realize that the red light is a 'standby light'.  If you press the 'Power' button it goes off, and the DVD will begin to play shortly.  

So far my little princess loves it.  It is loud enough without having to use headphones or run through the car audio system.  I have looked at some of the games...seem pretty cool.  After a few days we did have a fuse blow in the cigarette adapter.  I replaced it with the other one (since I only have one monitor installed so far)

Future projects to complete the install:

• Install second headrest monitor just like the first.
• Pull power from fuse block with 'fuse taps'
• Connect monitors to each other so you can watch one DVD on both monitors. 
• Experiment with the included games, wireless headphones and FM transmitter for using car audio system.

Overall I have to give this product an 'A'.  The price is amazing.  The quality you get is decent.  The installation is pretty easy.  

to be continued... (once install is final)

Disadvantaged Children

I want to talk about a different type of disadvantaged children.  It doesn't have to be related to poverty or education...what about dance?

After observing my beautiful 20 month old daughter enjoying The Wiggles, I am afraid to say, she is disadvantaged in the area of dance.  It is not her fault, I believe it is a hereditary trait.  Her mother and I are not dancers. In fact you can probably trace this handicap back to our parents.  Despite my parents taking lessons when I was younger, they are still very underprivileged in the dance realm.  

We will not give up on assisting our child.  I am planning on getting her dance 'therapy' once she reaches the appropriate age.

Accidental Disrespect

There is no real benefit to worry.  Outcomes do not change because of more or less worry.  In fact, worry probably has more of a negative effect on issues.  It can cloud the real issue and cause wasted energy on "what-if's"and hypotheticals. 

Humans are probably the only thing on Earth that worries.  Can you imagine birds, pacing back and forth in their nests, fretting on whether or not they will find worms tomorrow, or if their baby birds will do good in bird school, or if they will be able to afford their nest addition.  Silly, right?  Now, you may say it is because the avian brain does not have the capacity for that.  I say, it is because human brains have too much capacity for that.     

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life" -Matthew 6:25-27

While it is often accidental, the outcome is the same.  Worrying is disrespectful to God.  It is trying to control our issues, assuming that we know best.

Whatcha Talkin' About

Why Cmd-C?

Cmd = Command in Apple talk.  Similar to the 'control' key in the Windows world.  Used for shortcut keystrokes, my favorite of which is Cmd-C or 'Copy'.  The 'Copy' function is invaluable.  When used with its partner 'Paste', it can be used for moving text and files around drives.  It also works in Adobe design programs for applying effects, textures, keystrokes and a ton of other options.

The Command Key was originally the Apple Key.  The Apple Key was added in 1980 to be used for keyboard shortcuts.  Around 1984, Steve Jobs felt like having 'Apple-everthing' in software menus was over-branding, so they came up with the cloverleaf-like symbol.

 

I think 'Copy' gets a bad wrap.  It's the sincerest form of flattery, or something like that.  In a world of great ideas, why does the wheel have to be re-invented over and over again?  So, one of the purposes of this blog is to catalog good ideas that I come across, sprinkled with some of my own original thoughts.

There aren't that many original ideas out there. 

     -Steve Wynn  

Photoshop

Humbled by software...Again!

So as I continue my journey to learn design programs, I found another awesome tool.  Like all of my other discoveries, they are things that properly trained designers have known about forever.  Tonight my 'nugget' is Photoshop Actions.

Here is some of what I have come up with on old pictures.  I am looking forward to using these techniques on new pictures.

 

Let the Credits Roll

It was brought to my attention today that I am a Television Producer.  I am not really into titles.  Probably because I wear a lot of hats at work.  I have joked that I would have to pay more for business cards because they would have to flip out to have all my jobs.  "Jack of all Trades, Master at None"

Since I am the only one who works on the TV show, I think the credits would be pretty funny.

Director -- Corey Ging

Producer -- Corey Ging

Editor -- Corey Ging

Director of Photography -- Corey Ging

Production Designer -- Corey Ging

Sound Designer -- Corey Ging

1st and 2nd Assistant Directors -- Corey Ging

Associate Producer -- Corey Ging

Digital Effects Artist -- Corey Ging

&

Catering -- Corey Ging

This is labeled "FUNNY" so that it is understood that I am not bragging, just laughing.  I think I will start a list of all my titles.  It's over there in the right hand column.

Skeptic

Top Three Things I am skeptical of:

3. Vehicles with more than 6 bumper stickers.  So, I get if you are passionate about something and want to promote it from the rear of your car, truck or SUV.  But there should be a limit to the number allowed.  Can you really care that much about your alma matter, your kids swim team, the place you vacation, your favorite NASCAR number, a witty (slightly offensive) saying, and the political party you voted for 3 years ago.  Pick one or two and be done.

2. 24 Hour News Channels.  You cannot convince me that there is enough NOTEWORTHY news to be reported on 24 hours everyday, 365 days a year...and 366 in a leap year.  I believe that on the occasion of an important, developing story, CNN, FoxNEWS, CSPAN, MSNBC etc. do serve a purpose.  All the other times they should play a looping aquarium or fireplace video.

1. Talk Radio Personalities.  Now, I know you are thinking this has some sort of political slant, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.  Nonetheless, there is not 3 hours of important things to talk about everyday, 365 days a year...366 in leap year.  If it was volunteer work, and you were that passionate about it...I could listen.  But since their paycheck is directly related to how much they talk, they cannot just come on the air one day and say, "Well, I covered pretty much everything yesterday.  See ya tomorrow".   SO, they have to find things to rant and rave about to keep food on their table.  

I guess when you boil down my skepticism, it has to do with passion.  I totally can follow and am myself passionate about a few things.  God, my family. (And try to live like that everyday.) But when 'passion' gets spread so thin that it covers the back of your SUV, or is required 24/7 about minuscule things, just to get paid; I am skeptical.     

Like 90%

Like about 90% of all blog owners, I plan to post more in the first 24 hours than the next 24 months.

Unreal stuff in Haiti... My Aunt's brother was working there during the earthquake.  He was meeting some people at The Hotel Montana when it completely collapsed.  The family has gotten word through various media channels that he was found alive after 55 hours trapped.  There are reports that amputations had to occur in order to free him.

There is a Facebook page (Haiti Earthquake Hotel Montana) dedicated to families who are looking for information on missing loved ones.  If watching it on TV doesn't make it real, go read some of the posts.

UPDATE:  Clint Rabb died from injuries related to the earthquake.  Here is a story about him.  While I did not know him personally, he obviously had a huge passion for the less fortunate.  I was told that while in a hospital in FL, that he was still concerned with others still in Haiti.  That is the kind of compassion to strive for. 

In The Begining

So, lets start this thing. Don't know what this will turn out to be. Mainly stuff in my brain. Hopefully once it is forever captured on a BLOG, it can be released from my memory and I will be able to sleep better. (not that I can't sleep, just can't shut the brain off sometimes).