This is what I went off of as I spoke in assembly at Minnehaha today. I ad-libbed quite a bit, so it's not a verbatim copy of what was actually said, but this is at least the road map that I followed while I was talking.
[Clip #1, HP Trailer]
I've had since August or something to write this speech, so I started about 8:00 or 9:00 last night. Not because I don't care, but there's something about that last minute pressure that can really produce some great stuff.
My senior year at MA the publicity interns started making monthly comedic videos, partly to talk about what was going on in the school, mostly just to make people laugh. As the year went on, I became a recurring role, and it was a lot of fun. None of thought we'd keep making films beyond graduation, though.
That spring of my senior year, Mr Seeley played the lead in a local theatre production of the Music Man (over the same weekend we did the show here), and one of the times we went to see him I met one of his fellow actors, someone who would become one of my best friends; an actor / comedian named Matthew Feeney, who does a lot of work with independent film in Minnesota. He basically brought me in to the MN film world, and as a result I've been blessed with the chance to work behind the scenes on a bunch of local productions, including as an extras casting assistant on Prairie Home. Most of the time I work behind the scenes, every now and then I'll branch out and step in front of a camera.
But to the topic at hand. I started writing Harry Putter back in 2004, probably July or August right after graduation, after one too many comments about how much I looked like the Harry from the movies. The story's about the "real" boy, Harry Putter, upon whom JK based the books. But of course she and Warner Brother's took a lot of creative liberties, changing all the details around, so Harry wants to set the story straight.
That's the premise behind Harry Putter. It's a loving "mockumentary".
So I wrote the first draft in 2004, and then it just sort of sat. I didn't pick it up again until last January, then I just said, let's do this. Matthew agreed to produce it, he helped me get a crew together, and we shot it last summer. I really didn't know if it would turn out at all, but seeing the almost-finished product, I'm pretty happy with what we have. Personally I actually think it's funny, which is good. When we watch the two clips today, though, I'll ask you to keep in mind that we haven't finished mixing the audio or adding the soundtrack yet, so just be aware it is not totally 100% finished.
So let's go back to June 25, 2006, the first day of shooting for Harry Putter. I'm sure you all know movies aren't normally shot in sequential order, I think Putter is almost a perfect epitome of that: the very first day of shooting we shot the very last scene in the movie, and we even shot the second part of the scene first because our actor who played Draco Milfoil couldn't make it to set until later in the afternoon. We'll watch that in a minute, I just want to give some context about it first.
Harry's just gotten out of detention, and Professor Bumblesnore has sent him on a quest to get the golden snitch back from Draco and his goons. Now, if you're observant, you may notice that Draco's cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, are actually not boys, but girls named Crabby and Doily. We had 60 people come in to audition for the part of Hermione, compared to maybe a dozen for Harry. Normally not a problem, except unfortunately a lot of them were really good actors, so we ended up rewriting parts of the script and adding in more female roles so we could use some of them on camera as something other than just extras. Hence, Crabbe and Goyle became girls. With breadsticks as wands (and if you look closely you can see Harry's wand is actually a marshmallow roaster)
That's where we'll pick it up.
[Clip #2, Quidditch Field]
Some of you may have recognized that sound we used when Draco screams. There's this rather infamous scream that's been used in countless movies since the early 1950s, including every Star Wars and every Indiana Jones, called the Wilhelm scream. Actually, there's a video on YouTube that's compiled a bunch of those scenes, it's hilarious, you should watch it. The wilhelm scream is one of those sounds that, once you start listening for it, you hear it everywhere. One of my roommates was playing a video game the other day and we heard the scream in there even. We knew we had to use it in HP, so, well, there it was.
Back to Putter. This is my first "real" film, my first time directing, so on the first day of shooting I really didn't know what the heck I was doing. Honestly I didn't even remember half my actors' names that day. I remember a couple times when the DP (director of photography, he's the guy who runs the camera) would say rolling I'd wonder to myself, "why aren't the actors acting? Oh right, I need to say action".
But I eventually figured out what I was doing. Both the cast and crew were super, and I think we all really bonded over the shoot.
So we've got this film, well, almost finished. What do you do with that? We'll have a premiere, then get it put up on the website and YouTube, submit it to film festivals, and then, this summer, if all comes together, shoot number 2, "Harry Putter and the Chamber Pot of Secrets". But why? What's the point?
Partly for fun. Being on set with such an awesome group of people was a lot of fun.
Partly to give people a chance. Most of our actors were new to the camera, and it was such a rewarding feeling to be able to offer them their first role. I look at it like this: someone gave me my first chance, this is sort of my way to give that back to society.
And for me a large part of it is ministry. Okay, Harry Putter's probably not the most religious theme you can think of, but it is a stepping stone toward other projects that will be. I really feel like God put all these people, all these chances in my life for a reason, to help me grow for what I think I'm being called to as part of my ministry. When I asked Mrs Johnson if I could give this presentation, I had high hopes that I'd come up with something profound to say. That was my best attempt, I tried.
I have one last clip to show you, this one we filmed here at Minnehaha. We actually had several MA people work on the film: a few current students, a couple alumni, and one teacher, who you'll get to see in this clip playing Professor Snape. Thanks for listening everyone. Roll it.
[Clip #3, Potions Class]
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Day 28
It's the big day. I give my Harry Putter presentation in front of the Minnehaha student body today. And I didn't proofread my speech yet. Fortunately giving speeches really doesn't scare me. Singing in Boys Choir in my younger years, and then doing Debate in high school, have both served to mostly remove any apprehension about speaking in front of people. Truthfully, I only got nervous once today before the big moment, and that was as I left the computer lab to go down to the chapel. For a few seconds during my walk, I felt a wash of worry, realizing, oh my, I actually need to do this! But then it passed, and from then everything just seemed to come naturally. It felt "right" when I walked onto stage and to the microphone. I won't take the credit all for myself; I know God was watching over me.
I'm not afraid of giving speeches. After having sung in the Metropolitan Boys Choir for a couple years and then doing debate in high school, I generally don't get nervous in front of a crowd. In fact, I love being a featured speaker, being given a chance to "perform", as it were. It's my chance to feel like I can make a difference, like people will listen to what I'm saying and take it to heart, like I might actually be able to affect someone's life for the better by what I say. Maybe such a feeling is really in the realm of being conceited, but I prefer to think upon it as a foundation, the existence of which will be of help to me in any public ministry I am called to do, be it from a pulpit or in the pitching of a movie script with a moral message.
The sound system played a collection of my current favorite songs while the student body streamed into the auditorium (a collection which, I feel I should mention, included two songs by Away With The Stone). After a few announcements, Nancy Johnson, the principal, introduced me. She had approached me yesterday when I was down in the officeland to ask for a brief synopsis of the film and my filmmaking experience, unless, of course, I just happened to have it written down somewhere that she could read. "Well," I replied, "it just so happens I do have it all written down on my website". Apparently she read everything on my autobiography page, and warned me that she'd found a few juicy morsels to feed the assembly as an introductory foretaste for my presentation. I use the metaphorical food language because, of course, she chose some information from my discussion about food: how I always order the same meals whenever I go to either Noodles or Taco Bell (this was said after a slightly embarrassing plug in which she encouraged people to learn more about me by reading my website). Her idea was to use food as a means of making a concrete connection between the students and me, a Minnehaha alumnus of aught-4; point being, there are similarities they can relate to, especially given that Noodles is more or less the official Minnehaha restaurant of choice among students. This introduction was even more amusing for me thanks to Jenna, next to whom I was sitting at the time. Jenna is the last remaining techie who was a student at the same time I was, so we've known each other for a long time and are very good friends. She has also been to the aforementioned restaurants with me some countless number of times, enough that she kept nodding and verbally agreeing, "yep, yep, it's true" as Nancy mentioned my favorite foods to order. At least I know that portion of my autobiography is an honest portrayal of real life.
To tangent slightly, I was surprised earlier this morning in talking to Nancy to find out [in addition to her telling me she'd found some "interesting" details she planned to share during her introduction] that she hadn't realized the extent that my faith plays an important role in my life. In all truthfulness, this was a not-so-pleasant shocker to me, because in a very real sense it means I have not been living out loud in the way I have desired, despite thinking that I've been "doing well". That conversation has been on my mind a lot, and I'm sure it will continue to be.
Introduction concluded, the big moment finally arrived. To applause, I stepped onto stage, the lights faded, and the recently completely trailer for Harry Putter played on the screen. Oh my goodness, it sounded so awesome with the subs right next to me on stage. The clip finished and I approached the podium, ready to do my thing.
My speech sat there, waiting patiently for me to read it. And I think, if I may say so myself, that I did well as presenter. I did not merely read from my script, I ad-libbed a lot, a decision which allowed me to maintain a great amount of eye contact with the invisible crowd (because the lights were down, remember) rather than worry about each specific word. God kept me fluent, and I didn't really stumble; of course, I think it may have helped that I was talking about me and my own project, so I know the material pretty well. In any case, though, not reading from a piece of paper keeps the presentation more lively and exciting for the audience–this I know from listening to too many boring speeches being read in monotone.
I'm amazed at how well everything went. As far as I can tell, people paid attention, and they laughed at the "right" times during the two clips from the movie that I showed, so that's a good sign. (The movie looked great on the big screen, too; and I'm really glad I did that little bit of last minute sound and color correction last night).
Apparently I talked quietly; one of my former teachers saw me later in the day and said she'd never known that I was so soft-spoken. I didn't either, but it was another conscious decision I'd made going into the speech, of how I would speak. Honestly, I was trying to imitate one of my role models who has a very calm, soothing, reassuring voice when he speaks. My thought process could also be summarized like this: "Adam's cool, I want to be cool, I'll adopt this mannerism of his in the hopes of gaining some coolness".
And apparently, to some degree, it worked. This was written tomorrow by one of the teachers:
"First of all, thank you for a terrific convocation yesterday. It is rare that someone as softspoken as you could have the rapt attention of 500 post-break high school students. I loved the fact that you never had to raise your voice to command their attention. And then, of course, the content was fascinating and your film clips delightful. (I have to admit that I doubled over during the infamous Dinardo wink!) Congratulations on the near completion of your film and good luck as you bring it forward."
I heard similar reactions from more than a few others throughout the day, in addition to comments about how "amazing" the film looked and also how proud they are of what I'm doing with my life. I even got a "good job" from the one person I was really concerned wouldn't think the film was funny at all, but he was one of the first, immediately after chapel, to approach me with the compliment; that was a day-making highlight for me.
I'm so thankful I had this opportunity to talk not only about my film, but also a little about how I see God working through that, even in something as secular as a Harry Potter parody. Thank you God. And of course I'm also very thankful that there were no surprises from the tech side of things: everything worked, which was a huge relief.
After chapel I was approached by two girls who'd seen Nathan Shrake, my Harry, in "High School: The Musical", and wanted to know how on earth I'd got him for my film. They definitely had star crushes, which was amusing. I offered, and who knows, they may end up working on HP2 this summer. Later in the day another girl bumped into me in the library and complimented me on a job well done, and mentioned she'd actually been in the musical with Nate, which was a cool connection to make. I've seen her act at MA before, and I hope she'll come in to audition for HP2.
Patrick and I took some time away from campus for McDonald's lunch to catch up on life, work, and everything. Seems we both have a lot going on, which is interesting if only to note that apparently life doesn't get any less hectic once I'm out of school. After lunch we took a detour to a CompUSA. This was most definitely a surprise to me, since I thought they'd all closed by now, and I still had a gift card to use up. Unfortunately, even with their sale going on, everything was still vastly overpriced, which was terribly disappointing. I eventually found a couple DVDs I thought I needed, just to use up the gift card. $5 out of pocket for three DVDs isn't terrible.
We got back to campus and I got another surprise: a malfunctioning iBook from a teacher... and I couldn't fix it. The machine wouldn't boot; it would just turn off in the middle of starting up. I did all the normal troubleshooting tricks, zapping the PRAM, fscking in single user mode, target disk booting, but it never booted reliably, and worse I couldn't even get the files off because it wouldn't stay turned on in target mode. Tomorrow Duane figured out it must be a heat thing (which, in my defense, had been my guess).
Time to go home, and right as I got home, it started raining. Perfect timing really, because I was just putting the key in the door as the raindrops started speckling the sidewalk. I closed off my day with dinner and some Joan of Arcadia (surprise, surprise). One of the episodes I watched, though, had a real life tie in for me, because about two minutes in God shows up as a street musician playing Joan Osborne's "One of Us" (the show theme song) on His guitar. So I thought to myself, I wonder if I can play that? As it turns out, I can; the chords I found are the same as Living Water (which one of my current favorite songs, and also one of the easiest I've learned to play), just with a capo on fret 2. Way cool.
I'm not afraid of giving speeches. After having sung in the Metropolitan Boys Choir for a couple years and then doing debate in high school, I generally don't get nervous in front of a crowd. In fact, I love being a featured speaker, being given a chance to "perform", as it were. It's my chance to feel like I can make a difference, like people will listen to what I'm saying and take it to heart, like I might actually be able to affect someone's life for the better by what I say. Maybe such a feeling is really in the realm of being conceited, but I prefer to think upon it as a foundation, the existence of which will be of help to me in any public ministry I am called to do, be it from a pulpit or in the pitching of a movie script with a moral message.
The sound system played a collection of my current favorite songs while the student body streamed into the auditorium (a collection which, I feel I should mention, included two songs by Away With The Stone). After a few announcements, Nancy Johnson, the principal, introduced me. She had approached me yesterday when I was down in the officeland to ask for a brief synopsis of the film and my filmmaking experience, unless, of course, I just happened to have it written down somewhere that she could read. "Well," I replied, "it just so happens I do have it all written down on my website". Apparently she read everything on my autobiography page, and warned me that she'd found a few juicy morsels to feed the assembly as an introductory foretaste for my presentation. I use the metaphorical food language because, of course, she chose some information from my discussion about food: how I always order the same meals whenever I go to either Noodles or Taco Bell (this was said after a slightly embarrassing plug in which she encouraged people to learn more about me by reading my website). Her idea was to use food as a means of making a concrete connection between the students and me, a Minnehaha alumnus of aught-4; point being, there are similarities they can relate to, especially given that Noodles is more or less the official Minnehaha restaurant of choice among students. This introduction was even more amusing for me thanks to Jenna, next to whom I was sitting at the time. Jenna is the last remaining techie who was a student at the same time I was, so we've known each other for a long time and are very good friends. She has also been to the aforementioned restaurants with me some countless number of times, enough that she kept nodding and verbally agreeing, "yep, yep, it's true" as Nancy mentioned my favorite foods to order. At least I know that portion of my autobiography is an honest portrayal of real life.
To tangent slightly, I was surprised earlier this morning in talking to Nancy to find out [in addition to her telling me she'd found some "interesting" details she planned to share during her introduction] that she hadn't realized the extent that my faith plays an important role in my life. In all truthfulness, this was a not-so-pleasant shocker to me, because in a very real sense it means I have not been living out loud in the way I have desired, despite thinking that I've been "doing well". That conversation has been on my mind a lot, and I'm sure it will continue to be.
Introduction concluded, the big moment finally arrived. To applause, I stepped onto stage, the lights faded, and the recently completely trailer for Harry Putter played on the screen. Oh my goodness, it sounded so awesome with the subs right next to me on stage. The clip finished and I approached the podium, ready to do my thing.
My speech sat there, waiting patiently for me to read it. And I think, if I may say so myself, that I did well as presenter. I did not merely read from my script, I ad-libbed a lot, a decision which allowed me to maintain a great amount of eye contact with the invisible crowd (because the lights were down, remember) rather than worry about each specific word. God kept me fluent, and I didn't really stumble; of course, I think it may have helped that I was talking about me and my own project, so I know the material pretty well. In any case, though, not reading from a piece of paper keeps the presentation more lively and exciting for the audience–this I know from listening to too many boring speeches being read in monotone.
I'm amazed at how well everything went. As far as I can tell, people paid attention, and they laughed at the "right" times during the two clips from the movie that I showed, so that's a good sign. (The movie looked great on the big screen, too; and I'm really glad I did that little bit of last minute sound and color correction last night).
Apparently I talked quietly; one of my former teachers saw me later in the day and said she'd never known that I was so soft-spoken. I didn't either, but it was another conscious decision I'd made going into the speech, of how I would speak. Honestly, I was trying to imitate one of my role models who has a very calm, soothing, reassuring voice when he speaks. My thought process could also be summarized like this: "Adam's cool, I want to be cool, I'll adopt this mannerism of his in the hopes of gaining some coolness".
And apparently, to some degree, it worked. This was written tomorrow by one of the teachers:
"First of all, thank you for a terrific convocation yesterday. It is rare that someone as softspoken as you could have the rapt attention of 500 post-break high school students. I loved the fact that you never had to raise your voice to command their attention. And then, of course, the content was fascinating and your film clips delightful. (I have to admit that I doubled over during the infamous Dinardo wink!) Congratulations on the near completion of your film and good luck as you bring it forward."
I heard similar reactions from more than a few others throughout the day, in addition to comments about how "amazing" the film looked and also how proud they are of what I'm doing with my life. I even got a "good job" from the one person I was really concerned wouldn't think the film was funny at all, but he was one of the first, immediately after chapel, to approach me with the compliment; that was a day-making highlight for me.
I'm so thankful I had this opportunity to talk not only about my film, but also a little about how I see God working through that, even in something as secular as a Harry Potter parody. Thank you God. And of course I'm also very thankful that there were no surprises from the tech side of things: everything worked, which was a huge relief.
After chapel I was approached by two girls who'd seen Nathan Shrake, my Harry, in "High School: The Musical", and wanted to know how on earth I'd got him for my film. They definitely had star crushes, which was amusing. I offered, and who knows, they may end up working on HP2 this summer. Later in the day another girl bumped into me in the library and complimented me on a job well done, and mentioned she'd actually been in the musical with Nate, which was a cool connection to make. I've seen her act at MA before, and I hope she'll come in to audition for HP2.
Patrick and I took some time away from campus for McDonald's lunch to catch up on life, work, and everything. Seems we both have a lot going on, which is interesting if only to note that apparently life doesn't get any less hectic once I'm out of school. After lunch we took a detour to a CompUSA. This was most definitely a surprise to me, since I thought they'd all closed by now, and I still had a gift card to use up. Unfortunately, even with their sale going on, everything was still vastly overpriced, which was terribly disappointing. I eventually found a couple DVDs I thought I needed, just to use up the gift card. $5 out of pocket for three DVDs isn't terrible.
We got back to campus and I got another surprise: a malfunctioning iBook from a teacher... and I couldn't fix it. The machine wouldn't boot; it would just turn off in the middle of starting up. I did all the normal troubleshooting tricks, zapping the PRAM, fscking in single user mode, target disk booting, but it never booted reliably, and worse I couldn't even get the files off because it wouldn't stay turned on in target mode. Tomorrow Duane figured out it must be a heat thing (which, in my defense, had been my guess).
Time to go home, and right as I got home, it started raining. Perfect timing really, because I was just putting the key in the door as the raindrops started speckling the sidewalk. I closed off my day with dinner and some Joan of Arcadia (surprise, surprise). One of the episodes I watched, though, had a real life tie in for me, because about two minutes in God shows up as a street musician playing Joan Osborne's "One of Us" (the show theme song) on His guitar. So I thought to myself, I wonder if I can play that? As it turns out, I can; the chords I found are the same as Living Water (which one of my current favorite songs, and also one of the easiest I've learned to play), just with a capo on fret 2. Way cool.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Day 27
This morning I slept in until I woke up naturally (except for that phone call at the unearthly hour of 8:30, but I managed to fall back asleep for another hour after that). Glorious. When I finally dragged my well-rested body out of bed, I found my way to the kitchen and conjured up a tasty oatmeal breakfast, which I may or may not have eaten while watching part of another episode of Joan of Arcadia. By that, of course, I mean that I did indeed watch TV, but only while I ate, and then it was off to work I go-ed.
My day was spent playing with pictures. Not entirely "playing" per se, rather engaging with Photoshop in an attempt to produce some nice graphics for the new MA site, a task I feel I succeeded in, with no small thanks due to Peter, our new web consultant, who sent me a PSD with all the necessary components to break out into smaller, individual graphics. The superb graphics were well received by both Merry and Rich when we met this evening, and, even though we did some tweaking to them, I can rest easy knowing we ended with a pretty good result. Even with regard to the new website as a whole, I'm feeling much better about where we are. We're nowhere near done, but we're a lot closer than we were not too long ago, and I feel like we're finally on the right path toward completion of something we can be proud of.
Harry Putter once more ruled my evening. When I got home from work I spent some length of time redoing some of the the color correction on the two scenes I'm showing in assembly at MA tomorrow, as well as a little sound tweaking (and one instance of soundtrack addition). I want to have the best quality to show, and I just wasn't happy with what I'd burned last night.
Then there was the whole speech thing. Yes, I've had since August or so to write this speech. It's not like tomorrow was any big surprise (ironic, no?). Somehow I just haven't had the time to devote to actually writing anything for it yet. My big fear was that I'd leave it until the morning of and then do a terrible job, but I couldn't let that become reality. Now it's crunch time. I started typing somewhere between about 9:00 and 10:00, and I just went. I'm basically talking about me, my favorite topic, so it went very quickly. I scribble typed a few things I wanted to say into a semblance of an outline, and then just wrote. The end result, which from the future I can say I don't proofread until tomorrow morning, I thought was decent, maybe even pretty good. Now my big fear is just whether the students will like it. Not much I can do about that. I think the film clips are funny, I think my speech is relatively sound, and I think there's a message to be taken from it, if only about why I think I'm in the film business. I'll post a copy of the speech tomorrow.
My day was spent playing with pictures. Not entirely "playing" per se, rather engaging with Photoshop in an attempt to produce some nice graphics for the new MA site, a task I feel I succeeded in, with no small thanks due to Peter, our new web consultant, who sent me a PSD with all the necessary components to break out into smaller, individual graphics. The superb graphics were well received by both Merry and Rich when we met this evening, and, even though we did some tweaking to them, I can rest easy knowing we ended with a pretty good result. Even with regard to the new website as a whole, I'm feeling much better about where we are. We're nowhere near done, but we're a lot closer than we were not too long ago, and I feel like we're finally on the right path toward completion of something we can be proud of.
Harry Putter once more ruled my evening. When I got home from work I spent some length of time redoing some of the the color correction on the two scenes I'm showing in assembly at MA tomorrow, as well as a little sound tweaking (and one instance of soundtrack addition). I want to have the best quality to show, and I just wasn't happy with what I'd burned last night.
Then there was the whole speech thing. Yes, I've had since August or so to write this speech. It's not like tomorrow was any big surprise (ironic, no?). Somehow I just haven't had the time to devote to actually writing anything for it yet. My big fear was that I'd leave it until the morning of and then do a terrible job, but I couldn't let that become reality. Now it's crunch time. I started typing somewhere between about 9:00 and 10:00, and I just went. I'm basically talking about me, my favorite topic, so it went very quickly. I scribble typed a few things I wanted to say into a semblance of an outline, and then just wrote. The end result, which from the future I can say I don't proofread until tomorrow morning, I thought was decent, maybe even pretty good. Now my big fear is just whether the students will like it. Not much I can do about that. I think the film clips are funny, I think my speech is relatively sound, and I think there's a message to be taken from it, if only about why I think I'm in the film business. I'll post a copy of the speech tomorrow.
Day 26
I've been saying it for a few days now, but Spring is really here, and the way I know today is by taking notice that I went outside without employing the use of my faithful polar fleece outer layer. After a quick bowl of cereal I was on my way out the door sans fleece to go to Church. Not Emmaus today, not even a "normal" church, per se. Today, the first Sunday of break, I went again to visit the River Church at Mall of America. And today it was even more different than normal, because the service was held in one of the AMC movie theatres (normally they are in the Great Lakes Ballroom just inside "The Park at MOA" from the west). That was certainly a different experience. The seating was arguably the most comfortable of any church service I've ever been to. I like visiting that congregation, though, just for the novelty factor, and because, at least for the two times I've heard him preach, the pastor delivers a good message. Still, I'm not entirely convinced that the church in a movie theatre idea works for me. I felt very disconnected, very distant, even from the people in the row behind and in front of me. There's something about sinking into that comfortable stadium seating that also makes the sense of community sink away.
On my way out of the Mall I stopped in the Barnes and Noble and was astonished to see quite the contingent of Jesus books waiting to greet happy customers as they walked along the main entrance isle (if I were being really picky tonight, I'd have revised that sentence to remove the ambiguity of whether the books or customers were the ones walking... but I'll just let you think about it and choose the interpretation that works best for you). Books about Jesus, a whole table of Bibles, it must be getting close to Easter, but hey, I'm not complaining if B&N wants to use that as an excuse to promote the central figure in my faith.
Mom, Dad, and Grandpa met me at Taco Bell for lunch, or rather I met them, and yes, I got my usual #7 chicken quesadilla with hard shell taco and large Baja Blast Mountain Dew drink. We wouldn't want to stray from normalcy, now, would we?
Harry Putter more or less dominated the rest of my day. I had some free time to myself in the afternoon right after lunch, but about 3:00 until midnight, Harry ruled. This started with a trip to the composer's house in the hopes of picking up the soundtrack, which I would then bring to the editor's house and we'd put it in. The composer hadn't answered his phone all morning, so it was a bit of a risk to just show up, but fortunately he was there when I got to the house. Unfortunately, he'd not yet burned the music onto discs, so on my way I went without music.
Tony [the editor] and I spent three hours perfecting the Putter trailer. Not too many surprises there, other than I'm just really glad we're done with it. Arby's for dinner was delicious, as always, and then we set off to the composer's house (we called and talked to him first this time). Here's the surprise: we actually got discs from him! So we went back to Tony's and put them in the computer. Here's the next surprise: there was nothing on them! Arg! After all that waiting, and now nothing. Crumb. We called back to have them re-burned, and set off in the car again. Before that, though, while waiting to hear back about the re-burning, Tony sent me a short little film idea he'd written a while back, based on a real life experience of his in a coffee shop. I really liked the story. The basic idea is there's an attractive young woman sitting by a fireplace in the coffee shop, but the protagonist is intimated and never approaches her. It's only a two or three minute thing, tops, but reading it I felt like I was recounting some of my own experiences, and I started to picture, if I were shooting this, how would I do it? What would it look or sound like? In short, I felt an immediate connection with this script, even though it wasn't in script format at all. "Cool," I thought. "Maybe Tony'll let me help when he shoots this". Then he asked how I'd direct it, so I told him the ideas I'd had, and then he asked if I would be willing to direct it. Of course!
Our hope is to shoot in late May.
We drove back to pick up the second set of CDs, and this time we checked them on my computer first before driving away. Yes, they both have music on them. Great. We left, Tony copied the files onto my laptop while I drove, and then kept the original discs with him. It was time to call it a night. We didn't get as far as I'd hoped (in that I'd hoped to have all the music laid in today), but at least we finally finished that trailer, which means now I should have everything I need to get ready for my short Harry Putter presentation at Minnehaha on Tuesday. More on that tomorrow.
On my way out of the Mall I stopped in the Barnes and Noble and was astonished to see quite the contingent of Jesus books waiting to greet happy customers as they walked along the main entrance isle (if I were being really picky tonight, I'd have revised that sentence to remove the ambiguity of whether the books or customers were the ones walking... but I'll just let you think about it and choose the interpretation that works best for you). Books about Jesus, a whole table of Bibles, it must be getting close to Easter, but hey, I'm not complaining if B&N wants to use that as an excuse to promote the central figure in my faith.
Mom, Dad, and Grandpa met me at Taco Bell for lunch, or rather I met them, and yes, I got my usual #7 chicken quesadilla with hard shell taco and large Baja Blast Mountain Dew drink. We wouldn't want to stray from normalcy, now, would we?
Harry Putter more or less dominated the rest of my day. I had some free time to myself in the afternoon right after lunch, but about 3:00 until midnight, Harry ruled. This started with a trip to the composer's house in the hopes of picking up the soundtrack, which I would then bring to the editor's house and we'd put it in. The composer hadn't answered his phone all morning, so it was a bit of a risk to just show up, but fortunately he was there when I got to the house. Unfortunately, he'd not yet burned the music onto discs, so on my way I went without music.
Tony [the editor] and I spent three hours perfecting the Putter trailer. Not too many surprises there, other than I'm just really glad we're done with it. Arby's for dinner was delicious, as always, and then we set off to the composer's house (we called and talked to him first this time). Here's the surprise: we actually got discs from him! So we went back to Tony's and put them in the computer. Here's the next surprise: there was nothing on them! Arg! After all that waiting, and now nothing. Crumb. We called back to have them re-burned, and set off in the car again. Before that, though, while waiting to hear back about the re-burning, Tony sent me a short little film idea he'd written a while back, based on a real life experience of his in a coffee shop. I really liked the story. The basic idea is there's an attractive young woman sitting by a fireplace in the coffee shop, but the protagonist is intimated and never approaches her. It's only a two or three minute thing, tops, but reading it I felt like I was recounting some of my own experiences, and I started to picture, if I were shooting this, how would I do it? What would it look or sound like? In short, I felt an immediate connection with this script, even though it wasn't in script format at all. "Cool," I thought. "Maybe Tony'll let me help when he shoots this". Then he asked how I'd direct it, so I told him the ideas I'd had, and then he asked if I would be willing to direct it. Of course!
Our hope is to shoot in late May.
We drove back to pick up the second set of CDs, and this time we checked them on my computer first before driving away. Yes, they both have music on them. Great. We left, Tony copied the files onto my laptop while I drove, and then kept the original discs with him. It was time to call it a night. We didn't get as far as I'd hoped (in that I'd hoped to have all the music laid in today), but at least we finally finished that trailer, which means now I should have everything I need to get ready for my short Harry Putter presentation at Minnehaha on Tuesday. More on that tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Day 25
God and I got a jump start on surprises today: I woke up at 8:30 and actually felt rested. Wow! I can't express how much I love not having to get up at 7:15 for an 8:00 class. Even better, I made a productive use of the morning, sorting papers, taking care of house stuff, setting my Scooba loose on the basement floor, that kind of thing.
In case I've never mentioned before, I own two robotic floor cleaners: a Roomba to vacuum the carpet upstairs, and a Scooba that I've been using to scrub the basement floor. The scrubbing needs to be done as a prerequisite to sealing the tiles (which needs to happen because the carpet was removed a while back after a very heavy rainstorm and water damage). Scooba is pretty high maintenance, though, and I'm not entirely happy with it for just that reason. Changing the water every 45 minutes, that I can handle. But dealing with all it's stupid complaining is tiresome. By this I mean it has come to frequently complain about its front wheel being stuck, even though when I take it out and try to clean it, there's nothing to clean, and it works fine. Then of course, you can't tell the robot to resume, no, you need to power off and restart the cleaning cycle, which means then it will complain that there's not enough water in the tank (since some of it was already used before the wheel malfunction). After a few rounds of this, then the battery will die, and the poor thing never actually finishes a complete cleaning cycle (and thus hasn't run it's self-cleaning in a while).
On a completely new but still moisture related note, when I went outside this mornig to go shopping I discovered it's really quite foggy. As in, I can't even see a full block ahead while I'm driving. Fortunately I saw well enough to make it to the bank to deposit the reimbursement check I finally received from Madrigal Dinner, and then to Sam's Club to of course spend a significant portion of that money. I'm trying not to feel too badly about that, though, because most of the expenses were for things like a huge massive block of toilet paper, and a giant container of honey, neither of which will need replacing for probably the rest of my life. Okay, fine, by next year, but still, not a weekly expense, thank goodness.
I also made some healthier decisions (I think) about what I bought in terms of food. The aforementioned massive vessel of honey aside, I made a point to pick out some fresh items from the bakery rather than the preservative laced plastic wrapped tasties that were, ironically, only slightly less expensive. This is not to say I made the healthiest choices ever, but still, better than normal, which is a good start for me.
After unloading all my wonderful groceries into the house I spent the afternoon and early evening over at MA, first to meet with Rich, my fellow webmaster, and then afterward to continue working on what we'd talked about. For any web geeks out there, if you ever need to dynamically position, say, a magically appearing/disappearing flyout menu, and you don't know at the start exactly where on the page it will need to be displayed (because you're displaying it relative to other elements that may be in varying locations), this site might be helpful for you: http://www.quirksmode.org/js/findpos.html.
Sometime today, while driving, I heard something on KTIS that I need to share: another Hebrews verse, this one is 13:15: "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name." I'll have to wait until the end of the month, but I will need to go back and piece all of these Hebrews references together to see what I can make out of them.
My evening was far less adventuresome or exciting than my day. I cooked dinner (and by "cook" I mean "microwaved a container of fettucini alfredo with chicken from Sams"), did some floor scrubbing (and by "did" I mean "pressed a button and let the robot do the work"), rearranged some of my kitchen cabinets (now the dishes are above the dishwasher, and the food is right next to the microwave), entered my ideal schedule for next semester into the St Olaf Student Information System, and watched an episode or two from the first season DVDs of Joan of Arcadia. I love that show. The characters are so real... and the lead is cute. But star-crushes aside, I fell in love with the series because it's exactly the kind of filmmaking (or TV-making) that I want to do some day. A story with a moral, with a message, that's fun to watch, yet real to life. Some day, God willing, maybe my name can show up in the ending credits of something so great.
In case I've never mentioned before, I own two robotic floor cleaners: a Roomba to vacuum the carpet upstairs, and a Scooba that I've been using to scrub the basement floor. The scrubbing needs to be done as a prerequisite to sealing the tiles (which needs to happen because the carpet was removed a while back after a very heavy rainstorm and water damage). Scooba is pretty high maintenance, though, and I'm not entirely happy with it for just that reason. Changing the water every 45 minutes, that I can handle. But dealing with all it's stupid complaining is tiresome. By this I mean it has come to frequently complain about its front wheel being stuck, even though when I take it out and try to clean it, there's nothing to clean, and it works fine. Then of course, you can't tell the robot to resume, no, you need to power off and restart the cleaning cycle, which means then it will complain that there's not enough water in the tank (since some of it was already used before the wheel malfunction). After a few rounds of this, then the battery will die, and the poor thing never actually finishes a complete cleaning cycle (and thus hasn't run it's self-cleaning in a while).
On a completely new but still moisture related note, when I went outside this mornig to go shopping I discovered it's really quite foggy. As in, I can't even see a full block ahead while I'm driving. Fortunately I saw well enough to make it to the bank to deposit the reimbursement check I finally received from Madrigal Dinner, and then to Sam's Club to of course spend a significant portion of that money. I'm trying not to feel too badly about that, though, because most of the expenses were for things like a huge massive block of toilet paper, and a giant container of honey, neither of which will need replacing for probably the rest of my life. Okay, fine, by next year, but still, not a weekly expense, thank goodness.
I also made some healthier decisions (I think) about what I bought in terms of food. The aforementioned massive vessel of honey aside, I made a point to pick out some fresh items from the bakery rather than the preservative laced plastic wrapped tasties that were, ironically, only slightly less expensive. This is not to say I made the healthiest choices ever, but still, better than normal, which is a good start for me.
After unloading all my wonderful groceries into the house I spent the afternoon and early evening over at MA, first to meet with Rich, my fellow webmaster, and then afterward to continue working on what we'd talked about. For any web geeks out there, if you ever need to dynamically position, say, a magically appearing/disappearing flyout menu, and you don't know at the start exactly where on the page it will need to be displayed (because you're displaying it relative to other elements that may be in varying locations), this site might be helpful for you: http://www.quirksmode.org/js/findpos.html.
Sometime today, while driving, I heard something on KTIS that I need to share: another Hebrews verse, this one is 13:15: "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name." I'll have to wait until the end of the month, but I will need to go back and piece all of these Hebrews references together to see what I can make out of them.
My evening was far less adventuresome or exciting than my day. I cooked dinner (and by "cook" I mean "microwaved a container of fettucini alfredo with chicken from Sams"), did some floor scrubbing (and by "did" I mean "pressed a button and let the robot do the work"), rearranged some of my kitchen cabinets (now the dishes are above the dishwasher, and the food is right next to the microwave), entered my ideal schedule for next semester into the St Olaf Student Information System, and watched an episode or two from the first season DVDs of Joan of Arcadia. I love that show. The characters are so real... and the lead is cute. But star-crushes aside, I fell in love with the series because it's exactly the kind of filmmaking (or TV-making) that I want to do some day. A story with a moral, with a message, that's fun to watch, yet real to life. Some day, God willing, maybe my name can show up in the ending credits of something so great.
Day 24
Spring Break. It's almost here. One last day of Individual Fitness and I'm home free. I go early, work out, have class, work out a few minutes more, and leave early. Class is over for the week, but unfortunately homework still abounds in the form of much reading, a take home midterm, and planning for two papers that I'll be writing in the second part of the semester.
But that could wait. In order for me to even think about focusing on homework, I needed to pack so I'd be ready to leave campus tonight. This was productive in and of itself, too, as I ended up with an extra box full of stuff that I can bring home and leave home, which is a good feeling, even if it's an extra trip to and from the car.
Early afternoon I finally decided to be hungry, so lunchward I went to seek food, and, happy-surprisingly, I found a group of friends to sit with. When I go to meals alone, I always hope to find people to sit with, but it doesn't always happen. In fact, it rarely happens, which makes a day like today even more special because not only did I find one person to sit with, I found three. The food was good, too, but I more enjoyed the company.
The afternoon wasn't too exciting; I sent back some comments to my editor about the Putter trailer, and then finally got some ideas sent to the publicist for the next press release. There was some homework time in there, too, just to try to get ahead for after break.
Later in the afternoon I got together with Ash to offer some small help with her footnoting and citations in her Jesus in Scripture and Tradition paper (the one I turned in earlier this week), and then she, her roommate, and I went to have a very calm and relaxed dinner. This was the first time in a long while we could remember not feeling some sense of rush as we ate; it was very freeing knowing there was nothing that needed to be done for a long while. It was also great to have my second meal of the day with Dalay (Ash's roommate; she was one of the friends I found at lunch)
Loading the car went quickly; I brought all my stuff up, and then, because I also gave Ashley a ride home, went to wait for her, and in the process had a completely random conversation with Dalay about why Macs are better than PCs. Well, that was my position, at least :)
The last bit of greatness for the day came when we got to Ashley's house, and she and her mom and I had a chance to talk for a while, something we haven't all done for probably a year. That was a perfect way to end the day, just spending time with good people talking about anything.
But that could wait. In order for me to even think about focusing on homework, I needed to pack so I'd be ready to leave campus tonight. This was productive in and of itself, too, as I ended up with an extra box full of stuff that I can bring home and leave home, which is a good feeling, even if it's an extra trip to and from the car.
Early afternoon I finally decided to be hungry, so lunchward I went to seek food, and, happy-surprisingly, I found a group of friends to sit with. When I go to meals alone, I always hope to find people to sit with, but it doesn't always happen. In fact, it rarely happens, which makes a day like today even more special because not only did I find one person to sit with, I found three. The food was good, too, but I more enjoyed the company.
The afternoon wasn't too exciting; I sent back some comments to my editor about the Putter trailer, and then finally got some ideas sent to the publicist for the next press release. There was some homework time in there, too, just to try to get ahead for after break.
Later in the afternoon I got together with Ash to offer some small help with her footnoting and citations in her Jesus in Scripture and Tradition paper (the one I turned in earlier this week), and then she, her roommate, and I went to have a very calm and relaxed dinner. This was the first time in a long while we could remember not feeling some sense of rush as we ate; it was very freeing knowing there was nothing that needed to be done for a long while. It was also great to have my second meal of the day with Dalay (Ash's roommate; she was one of the friends I found at lunch)
Loading the car went quickly; I brought all my stuff up, and then, because I also gave Ashley a ride home, went to wait for her, and in the process had a completely random conversation with Dalay about why Macs are better than PCs. Well, that was my position, at least :)
The last bit of greatness for the day came when we got to Ashley's house, and she and her mom and I had a chance to talk for a while, something we haven't all done for probably a year. That was a perfect way to end the day, just spending time with good people talking about anything.
Day 23
Spring is here! It's warm, it's sunshiny, and it was the perfect day to go driving with the windows down and moonroof open. Driving where? It's a school day.
After morning classes, and after chapel (the pastoral intern from last year was back today to speak!), I took a ride down to Emmaus to learn about their sound system from Kurt, an Ole grad from two years ago and the current director of Worship at the church. The task at hand: "practice", or in a sense, "prove myself", on the sound board by mixing a vocal and piano, then later a guitar. That sounded harsh; it was more so that I felt a need to prove myself to myself before I could feel ready to jump in as one of the rotating sound technicians for Sunday morning worship. And I suppose showing someone else that I know how to use a sound board didn't hurt at all. My conclusion, I have the sheer knowledge of what the knobs and buttons do, I just need to develop my art of mixing, which will only come with time and practice.
My Photoshop skills are also in need of refinement and practice. Why? Because I talked to my graphic designer for Putter today, and it turns out he won't be able to do it after all. Surprise. This means I'll have to take it on, in the midst of homework, papers, and everything. At least there's break next week, maybe I can get it all done then. Panic.
Tonight, though, the panic can wait. It's a night of celebration for me: I'm done with classes and homework for the week, and tonight is a fancy ice cream social for the students on the Dean's List, which I made for last semester (only the second time in my college career).
There was a special event in Ytterboe tonight put on by CAN (the Christian Activities Network) in place of Thursday Night. I only made it for the last 10 minutes or so, and that time was spent in quiet prayer and meditation. Walking out of Ytterboe turned out to be somewhat opposite of the serenity I'd left: I watched as a car drove up onto the sidewalk toward me (as they are apt to do, it's actually not that unusual on this particular stretch), but what was "surprising" was to discover the people in the car were none other than Ashley and Kyle, just stopping by to pick something up from someone. We talked for a while before I went on my way to deliver chocolate and visit with a couple good friends in Mellby, one of whom has a huge paper to write for tomorrow (I gave her the chocolates to help her stay awake through the night), and the other has a Norwegian midterm. Naturally we ended up talking for a long time about the class and test instead of her actually studying for it. Like I've mentioned before, I love the random long talks with friends.
The most powerful story of today I've deliberately saved for last. Let's go back in time some number of hours, to about 4:00 in the afternoon.
Some number of weeks ago I'd agreed to drive one of my CS friends to the airport today. There's nothing surprising about that (other than coming back: the 35E exit from Cedar always sneaks up on me). But sadly, there was a surprise lurking as I waited in my car outside Ytterboe. Remembering that I'd not yet received a confirmation from another friend about dinner tonight, I decided to make good use of my waiting time and call him to find out for sure if we were on or not. It's generally not a good sign when someone answers the typical "how are you today?" with a not-so-typical "I've had better". As I found out, his fiancé's father had just died this morning after a two month battle with cancer. How does one respond to that? Prayers, as well as my "if you need to talk, I'm here" offer, just didn't seem like enough, not for this.
Suffering is my favorite topic of study in theology. But it's a much different situation when the question of theodicy comes into full swing in your real life, or the life of a friend. One thing I've concluded, though, is that suffering gives the person not suffering an opportunity, not only to pray, but to reach out, to be a small light in that tragic darkness. Grieving and recovery take time. Period. There is no getting around that. Still, in the midst of grief, observers are given a unique chance to step into the ring, stop observing, and do something to lift that person up, even something as simple as a smile or a hug. It may not seem like much, and let's be honest, to some people it won't be much. For some people, though, that smile or hug, that sign of affection, that reminder that someone else cares, can make a difference. I don't live under false pretenses of thinking it will take the pain away; it won't. But it may lessen the pain, ever so slightly, and that makes the smile, or the card, or the hug, or whatever, worth it.
I waiting outside Ytterboe to bring someone to the airport, but I'm sure God put me there for another purpose: so that I could go inside and give my friend a hug.
After morning classes, and after chapel (the pastoral intern from last year was back today to speak!), I took a ride down to Emmaus to learn about their sound system from Kurt, an Ole grad from two years ago and the current director of Worship at the church. The task at hand: "practice", or in a sense, "prove myself", on the sound board by mixing a vocal and piano, then later a guitar. That sounded harsh; it was more so that I felt a need to prove myself to myself before I could feel ready to jump in as one of the rotating sound technicians for Sunday morning worship. And I suppose showing someone else that I know how to use a sound board didn't hurt at all. My conclusion, I have the sheer knowledge of what the knobs and buttons do, I just need to develop my art of mixing, which will only come with time and practice.
My Photoshop skills are also in need of refinement and practice. Why? Because I talked to my graphic designer for Putter today, and it turns out he won't be able to do it after all. Surprise. This means I'll have to take it on, in the midst of homework, papers, and everything. At least there's break next week, maybe I can get it all done then. Panic.
Tonight, though, the panic can wait. It's a night of celebration for me: I'm done with classes and homework for the week, and tonight is a fancy ice cream social for the students on the Dean's List, which I made for last semester (only the second time in my college career).
There was a special event in Ytterboe tonight put on by CAN (the Christian Activities Network) in place of Thursday Night. I only made it for the last 10 minutes or so, and that time was spent in quiet prayer and meditation. Walking out of Ytterboe turned out to be somewhat opposite of the serenity I'd left: I watched as a car drove up onto the sidewalk toward me (as they are apt to do, it's actually not that unusual on this particular stretch), but what was "surprising" was to discover the people in the car were none other than Ashley and Kyle, just stopping by to pick something up from someone. We talked for a while before I went on my way to deliver chocolate and visit with a couple good friends in Mellby, one of whom has a huge paper to write for tomorrow (I gave her the chocolates to help her stay awake through the night), and the other has a Norwegian midterm. Naturally we ended up talking for a long time about the class and test instead of her actually studying for it. Like I've mentioned before, I love the random long talks with friends.
The most powerful story of today I've deliberately saved for last. Let's go back in time some number of hours, to about 4:00 in the afternoon.
Some number of weeks ago I'd agreed to drive one of my CS friends to the airport today. There's nothing surprising about that (other than coming back: the 35E exit from Cedar always sneaks up on me). But sadly, there was a surprise lurking as I waited in my car outside Ytterboe. Remembering that I'd not yet received a confirmation from another friend about dinner tonight, I decided to make good use of my waiting time and call him to find out for sure if we were on or not. It's generally not a good sign when someone answers the typical "how are you today?" with a not-so-typical "I've had better". As I found out, his fiancé's father had just died this morning after a two month battle with cancer. How does one respond to that? Prayers, as well as my "if you need to talk, I'm here" offer, just didn't seem like enough, not for this.
Suffering is my favorite topic of study in theology. But it's a much different situation when the question of theodicy comes into full swing in your real life, or the life of a friend. One thing I've concluded, though, is that suffering gives the person not suffering an opportunity, not only to pray, but to reach out, to be a small light in that tragic darkness. Grieving and recovery take time. Period. There is no getting around that. Still, in the midst of grief, observers are given a unique chance to step into the ring, stop observing, and do something to lift that person up, even something as simple as a smile or a hug. It may not seem like much, and let's be honest, to some people it won't be much. For some people, though, that smile or hug, that sign of affection, that reminder that someone else cares, can make a difference. I don't live under false pretenses of thinking it will take the pain away; it won't. But it may lessen the pain, ever so slightly, and that makes the smile, or the card, or the hug, or whatever, worth it.
I waiting outside Ytterboe to bring someone to the airport, but I'm sure God put me there for another purpose: so that I could go inside and give my friend a hug.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Day 22
They had chocolate muffins at breakfast today! This is always a sign of a good day to come. Yes, of course I took one for a snack later; why should I not try to prolong the goodness that is chocolate-y muffin deliciousness?
Today's selection of homework-reading brought to my eyes the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a non-canonical collection of stories about Jesus when He was a child. For years I've known the stories existed, but until now I'd never known where to find them, so it was neat to finally read this book, all the while thinking about the question of why it wasn't included in the Bible. It didn't take long before that answer became very apparent: Jesus is a brat! A downright angry, mean, vengeful little child who almost derives a holy pleasure from killing people all over the place. Again, it's no wonder it didn't make it into the canon.
With Thomas done, I finally got to play guitar again after a few days of nothingness in the midst of paper, test, and homework, and surprisingly I was no worse for wear after the time away. The surprises kept coming when I called the Putter composer: first of all, he answered, which was a miracle in and of itself (I always get voicemail), and secondly, he's almost done with the music (this after just starting when he got a disc from me in the mail yesterday). Wow. Now he's working on alternative arrangements so we have choices when we go to put the music into the scenes.
On my way into Buntrock, I passed Nicole on the stairs and we ended up talking for almost half an hour. I love those long, random conversations with good friends; it's so refreshing to just stop, take a time out and talk to people!
Later, while I was waiting by Fireside to go to dinner with Ash, one of my friends who I thought was rather upset at me tapped my shoulder, waved, and said "hi" as she walked by. Happiness, I'm not hated after all.
After dinner I sequestered myself in the library to do my last little bit of reading, but, not vert surprisingly, there's nothing quite like a textbook and a comfortable chair to put you to sleep, so I decided to come back to my room, where at least I could lay down for a nap if I needed. Oh, but wait, surprise! It's raining outside! (As I found out tomorrow, the rain gave my car a much needed shower, bringing it back to a state of beautiful cleanliness).
What a day. I want more surprises like these!
Today's selection of homework-reading brought to my eyes the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a non-canonical collection of stories about Jesus when He was a child. For years I've known the stories existed, but until now I'd never known where to find them, so it was neat to finally read this book, all the while thinking about the question of why it wasn't included in the Bible. It didn't take long before that answer became very apparent: Jesus is a brat! A downright angry, mean, vengeful little child who almost derives a holy pleasure from killing people all over the place. Again, it's no wonder it didn't make it into the canon.
With Thomas done, I finally got to play guitar again after a few days of nothingness in the midst of paper, test, and homework, and surprisingly I was no worse for wear after the time away. The surprises kept coming when I called the Putter composer: first of all, he answered, which was a miracle in and of itself (I always get voicemail), and secondly, he's almost done with the music (this after just starting when he got a disc from me in the mail yesterday). Wow. Now he's working on alternative arrangements so we have choices when we go to put the music into the scenes.
On my way into Buntrock, I passed Nicole on the stairs and we ended up talking for almost half an hour. I love those long, random conversations with good friends; it's so refreshing to just stop, take a time out and talk to people!
Later, while I was waiting by Fireside to go to dinner with Ash, one of my friends who I thought was rather upset at me tapped my shoulder, waved, and said "hi" as she walked by. Happiness, I'm not hated after all.
After dinner I sequestered myself in the library to do my last little bit of reading, but, not vert surprisingly, there's nothing quite like a textbook and a comfortable chair to put you to sleep, so I decided to come back to my room, where at least I could lay down for a nap if I needed. Oh, but wait, surprise! It's raining outside! (As I found out tomorrow, the rain gave my car a much needed shower, bringing it back to a state of beautiful cleanliness).
What a day. I want more surprises like these!
Day 21
Today was not a bad day; in fact, far from it. As is always the pressing question when I wake up on a Tuesday morning, I made it to breakfast, and today, going in, I bumped into a friend who I'd remembered last night is going through some trying times in her family. The point: it's odd, or perfect, coincidence that I just happened to remember to be praying for them last night and thinking to myself, "I should send an email and see how things are", and then I see her the next morning in person.
Classes came and went. We turned in our papers in my first class (I'm happy with how mine turned out; and I can even say I had fun writing it), and then took a midterm test in my second class. Ah yes, the test. This is a test that I really should have studied for, well, a lot. I studied slightly less than a lot. It's in fact quite possible I studied a lot less than a lot. In other words, I didn't study nearly enough, and because I also hadn't done the reading in this particular class for the first several weeks of the semester, the test went... less well than it otherwise might have. But that was out of choice, it was my decision making all the way that produced this outcome, and I don't feel bad about it. I hadn't done the reading those several weeks because I was still playing catchup after Madrigals, and I just never was able to catch up in this course (I did in all my others, and then, scared of the shear mass of reading that had piled up here, I just picked up where we were instead of backtracking). And I didn't study as much this weekend because, well, frankly, there are more important things in life, like friends... and maybe Lost.
The test is over now, and that means I have normal homework for Thursday, but otherwise, Spring Break is here! To top that, I got a phone call from someone this afternoon to whom I'd offered the position of graphics designer for Harry Putter, and he wants to do it! I thought I'd have to do all the graphics myself, but now it's looking like I'll be able to pass that off to someone else, which is absolutely awesome.
Evening brought our group back to the George's home after a week away while John and Karen visited Israel. It was fun to be back and to hear a few stories from their trip, as well as just be together with that group of friends again.
After watching a friend's stand up comedy routine in the Pause (he had a really good crowd there), it was off to get ready for FCA. No huge surprises here, other than a fun time being allowed to mix the audio for them. Pastor Will spoke tonight (he's the pastor at Emmaus, where I normally attend on Sundays), and he was intentionally very funny, as usual.
To follow up with the laughter from Pastor Will's talk, my last act tonight was to come back to the room and watch Top Secret!, which was absolutely hysterical. It's by the same people who did Airplane, so it makes sense that there isn't much in the way of plot, other than to cram as many absurd silly little jokes into 90 minutes as possible. Like I said, hysterical. A good way to end a long day.
Classes came and went. We turned in our papers in my first class (I'm happy with how mine turned out; and I can even say I had fun writing it), and then took a midterm test in my second class. Ah yes, the test. This is a test that I really should have studied for, well, a lot. I studied slightly less than a lot. It's in fact quite possible I studied a lot less than a lot. In other words, I didn't study nearly enough, and because I also hadn't done the reading in this particular class for the first several weeks of the semester, the test went... less well than it otherwise might have. But that was out of choice, it was my decision making all the way that produced this outcome, and I don't feel bad about it. I hadn't done the reading those several weeks because I was still playing catchup after Madrigals, and I just never was able to catch up in this course (I did in all my others, and then, scared of the shear mass of reading that had piled up here, I just picked up where we were instead of backtracking). And I didn't study as much this weekend because, well, frankly, there are more important things in life, like friends... and maybe Lost.
The test is over now, and that means I have normal homework for Thursday, but otherwise, Spring Break is here! To top that, I got a phone call from someone this afternoon to whom I'd offered the position of graphics designer for Harry Putter, and he wants to do it! I thought I'd have to do all the graphics myself, but now it's looking like I'll be able to pass that off to someone else, which is absolutely awesome.
Evening brought our group back to the George's home after a week away while John and Karen visited Israel. It was fun to be back and to hear a few stories from their trip, as well as just be together with that group of friends again.
After watching a friend's stand up comedy routine in the Pause (he had a really good crowd there), it was off to get ready for FCA. No huge surprises here, other than a fun time being allowed to mix the audio for them. Pastor Will spoke tonight (he's the pastor at Emmaus, where I normally attend on Sundays), and he was intentionally very funny, as usual.
To follow up with the laughter from Pastor Will's talk, my last act tonight was to come back to the room and watch Top Secret!, which was absolutely hysterical. It's by the same people who did Airplane, so it makes sense that there isn't much in the way of plot, other than to cram as many absurd silly little jokes into 90 minutes as possible. Like I said, hysterical. A good way to end a long day.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Day 20
Today was the day. After months, if not quite possibly over a year, of the zippers on my briefcase showing signs of wear (by coming detached from the fabric they're supposed to hold closed), one of the slidy things finally came undone. Sure, I could spend a lot of time trying to get it back together, but I was ready to be on my way out the door, I've been considering buying a new bag for a while now, and I just took this as the sign that that time had finally arrived: I needed to go bag shopping (by the way, it's pronounced "baig", with the long "a", none of this "bahg" business here in Minnesota).
Dave and I cancelled our normal Monday talking time since we both had a lot on our plates to do; he's leading the Thursday Night missions trip to Costa Rica next week, so he's in those final days of preparation; me, I just have a lot of homework and studying that I should be doing. Before homework, though, a trip to Best Buy must be made.
Staying awake on that oh-so-familiar stretch of I35 can sometimes be a challenge, especially today, given that I didn't get much sleep last night. Actually, I'm really not sure at all how much (or how little) I got; I was awake some number of hours or minutes with a pain in my neck and head, such that I just couldn't fall asleep. The pain was mostly gone when I got in the car and started driving, and clearly, based on the fact I'm writing this now, I stayed awake on the way to and from Best Buy.
Finding a good briefcase can be an adventure, and of course there are a certain number of key requirements that must be met by the bag. First, it needs to be able to hold my laptop. Most bag manufacturers nowadays make their products friendly to 17" machines, but it's still something to be aware of, that not all bags will necessarily be large enough. And of course, when I have my laptop, there needs to be another pocket that holds the power adapter and any other accessories I need to bring along. This bag also has to double as a school bag, meaning there needs to be a separate pocket to hold folders and papers and notepads, oh my!
I found a bag that met these requirements and so much more (meaning several extra pockets/areas than my minimum needs), and the price, well, it was the same as my previous briefcase: expensive. Drat. But it's the perfect one, I'm very happy with it, and so, well, I just had to swallow that price and hope for the best.
Best Buy has a large collection of DVDs, and I normally take a gander just to see if there are any movies on the shelves that I'd forgotten I need. Today I told myself going in that I would limit myself to one and only one, and I also specified that, if there was going to be a "one", it had to be "Top Secret!", a 1984 movie that I haven't seen in years but just recently found the name in a somewhat non-related Google searching endeavor the other day. I didn't remember plot, or many details from it, just enough to recognize the description and recall it being absolutely hilarious.
Coming up with creative transitions between stories is not my strongest point. Later in the day, as I was leaving the library to go find food in Buntrock, I was randomly approached by an acquaintance passing in the hallway, and he complimented me on how great the slideshows at Selah and FCA have been when I do them, and how glad he is that someone has finally stepped up to the plate with something better looking than PowerPoint. It meant a lot to hear that random compliment. He didn't have to say anything, didn't have to go out of his way to stop and talk to me, but I'm really glad he did. It's another voice telling me I've made good choices in my efforts to keep the motion backgrounds subtle and non-distracting during worship. But furthermore, and more importantly, it's validation; it's reassurance that I'm doing something that's actually appreciated, that's actually noticed. Thanks for that random act of surprising compliment-ness, God.
Dave and I cancelled our normal Monday talking time since we both had a lot on our plates to do; he's leading the Thursday Night missions trip to Costa Rica next week, so he's in those final days of preparation; me, I just have a lot of homework and studying that I should be doing. Before homework, though, a trip to Best Buy must be made.
Staying awake on that oh-so-familiar stretch of I35 can sometimes be a challenge, especially today, given that I didn't get much sleep last night. Actually, I'm really not sure at all how much (or how little) I got; I was awake some number of hours or minutes with a pain in my neck and head, such that I just couldn't fall asleep. The pain was mostly gone when I got in the car and started driving, and clearly, based on the fact I'm writing this now, I stayed awake on the way to and from Best Buy.
Finding a good briefcase can be an adventure, and of course there are a certain number of key requirements that must be met by the bag. First, it needs to be able to hold my laptop. Most bag manufacturers nowadays make their products friendly to 17" machines, but it's still something to be aware of, that not all bags will necessarily be large enough. And of course, when I have my laptop, there needs to be another pocket that holds the power adapter and any other accessories I need to bring along. This bag also has to double as a school bag, meaning there needs to be a separate pocket to hold folders and papers and notepads, oh my!
I found a bag that met these requirements and so much more (meaning several extra pockets/areas than my minimum needs), and the price, well, it was the same as my previous briefcase: expensive. Drat. But it's the perfect one, I'm very happy with it, and so, well, I just had to swallow that price and hope for the best.
Best Buy has a large collection of DVDs, and I normally take a gander just to see if there are any movies on the shelves that I'd forgotten I need. Today I told myself going in that I would limit myself to one and only one, and I also specified that, if there was going to be a "one", it had to be "Top Secret!", a 1984 movie that I haven't seen in years but just recently found the name in a somewhat non-related Google searching endeavor the other day. I didn't remember plot, or many details from it, just enough to recognize the description and recall it being absolutely hilarious.
Coming up with creative transitions between stories is not my strongest point. Later in the day, as I was leaving the library to go find food in Buntrock, I was randomly approached by an acquaintance passing in the hallway, and he complimented me on how great the slideshows at Selah and FCA have been when I do them, and how glad he is that someone has finally stepped up to the plate with something better looking than PowerPoint. It meant a lot to hear that random compliment. He didn't have to say anything, didn't have to go out of his way to stop and talk to me, but I'm really glad he did. It's another voice telling me I've made good choices in my efforts to keep the motion backgrounds subtle and non-distracting during worship. But furthermore, and more importantly, it's validation; it's reassurance that I'm doing something that's actually appreciated, that's actually noticed. Thanks for that random act of surprising compliment-ness, God.
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