Sitch--eation

I am a loss for words. I do not know what to write. I'm being honest. This week has been frustrating to say the least, this is why I do not know what to write. This blog is not a place to complain, this blog is not a place to blame, this blog is a place for controversy-free reading. I have learned this the hard way. Yes, controversy makes it more interesting, but would you want to deal with that? I really don't think you would. But, hey, I could be wrong. There has just been a few instances in the last couple days that have sent me off my rocker (which is an interesting statement because those of you who know me know that when I get sent off my rocker, I just laugh about it. I'm not exactly sure why, I just don't react the same way most people do). I'm going to go into details whatsoever, sorry if you wanted the greasy details.



For some reason, I have been randomly stumbling onto numerous ukulele videos. I have an rss feed that shows new, interesting videos from all the major video sites (youtube, myspace, break, dailymotion, etc) and ukulele videos have been an interesting addition. Because I have little to write, I am going to embed (tech word: watch out) three ukulele videos that I have found appealing. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the sounds of the uke.





And as of this morning:






I really do not have much more to say. I know, it's lame. I really am sorry about it. There just isn't much more interesting things to say. I guess I could do some mentions, yes? Skillet, the Christian band, puts on a KILLER show, they were incredible. I can't even begin to explain the ferocity of their special effects. Lets just say this: strobe, smoke, risers, solos. Also, seeing Mr. Kelii Miyata, Mr. Stephen Orth, and Ms. Emilie Mateu this past weekend was a lot of fun to say the least. Is was good seeing some "not-new" faces. That little "not-new" spiel sounds idiotic. It was a good time though.


Make your day wonderful and remember to turn the lights off when you leave the room.

Waiting

I write this short segment at 8:54 am. I am simply waiting for the shower. This morning is the first time the suite style bathrooms have heeded problem, the suite mates have a taken control of the fort and Joel and I have to scramble. Hmm. It's not their fault, it's not our fault, the situation cannot be controlled. I do wish they would maybe speed it up a bit though...

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday is the Torrey Conference. If you were to ask me what that means, I honestly would not be able to tell you. This is what I can tell; as a Biola student, you have to get 8 conference credits over the course of the three days. This i............hold up, it's shower time.

alright, stream of conscious...I'll be back in a few hours.

The first session of the Torrey conference is complete. As I was saying, I have seven credits left to attain out of nine possible. Each session is worth one credit, and after each session a reflection is project is offered for one credit. On the last day, Friday, Francis Chan will bring the heat and his session is worth two credits. I need 8, I have 1, the fun begins.

Today, I am wearing black and white. The idea put on it's running shoes and jogged into my head last night. What does the black and white mean? I am hoping that the ideas presented in the seminars these three days are black and white, that is, I can decide what I believe based on the ideas presented and not be stuck in the middle, walking the line, straddling the fence, between and rock and a hard place. Two blatantly obvious sides to choose from, I hope I choose one. What these sides are, I have yet to find out; remember- only one session has happened thus far.

I have an announcement. How many instrumentals fans do I have in the vast expanse of the interweb? This means no lyrical aspects of the music (sometimes there is a little bit, yes?). Well I have good news: I have been jamming to two bands recently that own the instrumental world up, be warned though, they are kind of experimental and interesting, so call it an acquired taste. Nevertheless, check them out! I'm sure they'll appreciate it. The first is "Bersarin Quartett," introduced to me by Mr. Julian Ho. They make homework music listening far from distracting. Brilliant background music. Brilliant mood music. The second is "The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble," very experimental jazz which is always a plus; it's not free jazz though, don't worry, there is a definite form. I don't expect you to take my word for either of these two bands. If you, I'll be honored.

I have a challenge. Check both of these bands out and comment, telling me if you liked them or not with a reason why. I like hearing opinions of people, it's nice to get somebody else's side of the story sometimes, you know what I'm saying? Challenge.


On the topic of music, you may remember in this post, I describe my drumming situation a little bit. The past couple weeks I have enjoyed jamming with Mr. Michael Warnecke from Hawaii and, most recently, Mr. Chase Wagner from Washington. When I say over the past couple of days, I actually mean just 3 times. That said, I miss playing drums in an organized fashion so incredibly much. Every singspo, every worship set, I get antsy, uncomfortable, I want to play so bad. Now, what are my intentions? Interesting question, thanks for asking. Worship is a touchy subject and worship through music is arguably the most recognized form of worship. When I am in a crowd of people, singing songs to our God, I often find myself struggling because I'm listening to the music rather than contemplating the words that I'm singing. It's something musicians do I think. So for me, playing drums during a worship set, in a way, takes the distraction away. I'm not necessarily more focused on the words, but I'm focused on playing music which is it's own form of worship. Playing in the band is also an important part in leading others in worshiping through music. I feel what I've written is extremely confusing and it's hard because all I am doing is writing text and it's a one way conversation and if you wanted to ask a question because what I said was confusing, you are unable and I am unable to effectively communicate my point. It's tough. I hope I made my point though. If not, ask me about it.



hmm...well that changed pace. Have a nice day today?

Paranormal

It is raining. I dislike the rain. Yes, the rain is wonderful if you are wearing sweats, sitting with a warm cup of hot cocoa, listening to the crackle of the wood in the fireplace. No, the rain is not wonderful when you have stuff to do, people to see, places to walk, places to drive. Rain causes delays--in everything. Don't get me wrong, the rain replenishes this earth, which is necessary.

I'm finished with that.

This morning was interesting. I was thinking about what I would wear and I instantly thought to be a British businessman. This made me sad because, according to this post, I had already pulled this one off. So I pulled something else off, just a normal businessman who has some sense of strange style, matching his tie and sunglasses, but wearing gray colors to symbolize the color of the sky. So I thought...

I am sorry if this blog takes forever and a day to load. The last post is the problem and I will try to make sure it doesn't happen again. If it does, I apologize. If it doesn't, I apologize I don't have enough content.

Speaking of content, I have an interesting piece of business to decipher.


With the recent unpredictable success of Paranormal Activity, mainly attributed to its marketing and Internet following, the success reminds any cinema follower of 2008’s Cloverfield. Sitting amongst excited moviegoers waiting for Transformers to begin, I, like everybody else, paid particular attention to a previously unseen home-video clip. The theater quieted down as the preview pressed on. The clip depicted a first-person account of a New York City party, fiercely interrupted by an intense explosion, breaking the “home-video” up, inducing a multitude of confusion. The preview ended with two textual phrases: “From Producer J.J. Abrams” and “In Theaters 1-18-08;” no movie title, no other information, only the madness of a vague trailer and two simple statements. This quickly got people talking. The trailer confused the masses, nobody knew what to think of it, and, naturally, turned to the Internet. At an incredible pace, the Internet movie database followed the film referred to as “Untitled JJ Abrams Project” to number one on its ranking system. The marketing for the film that would soon become known as Cloverfield was risky, but absolutely brilliant. The people fueled this film from the beginning; the filmmakers simply introduced an incredibly vague movie trailer to the outspoken public without a title.

Not only was the marketing outstanding, but the people behind the film kept their mouths shut the entire time. Hollywood has a tendency to leak information such as titles and plot lines, but Cloverfield’s people did not give a hint. According to imdb.com, there were six different names, all fake or promotional, that were given to Cloverfield before official release. The public was kept guessing, and it paid off, seeing $46 million in the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.
Cloverfield took a chance at a new marketing scheme that easily proved worthwhile.

In the light of Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity, originally intended for less than 150 screens, has been “demanded” over 1,000,000 times and will be released in theaters worldwide as soon as possible. “Paranormal Activity, like Cloverfield, unconventionally advertised and will undoubtedly see remarkable results.


The spiel on Cloverfield was an assignment for class so don't be alarmed. If you are asking why you should be alarmed, then you clearly are not alarmed, therefore you should not be concerned.

I have two more topics to talk about.

NUMBER ONE: this blog has changed a lot and I think I know why. I originally made it to simply remember the events of my senior year. When people started reading it, which blew me away, it turned into a little more than simple account of the day. At first, and you can track this, I used people's names, referred to many instances that people who knew me pretty good would understand and maybe even remember because they would have been there. Now I'm in college. The vast majority of you, the readers, know me from when I was in high school, in Simi Valley. If you went to Royal High School, even if you did not know specifically who I was talking about, you could gain a certain perspective because you spent 7+ hours at the same place I did. Times have changed. Now I'm at Biola, and you, the reader, can be right where you were last year or perhaps, like me, you have moved on to bigger and better things. Because of this, if I were to mention specific people, 90% of you, the readers, would have no context of what I was talking about. Do you understand the dilemma? I hope you do, because I feel like I'm explaining something that is indistinguishable. Point is, I will see what you, the readers, enjoy reading about and I might do a little experimenting...

NUMBER TWO: I want to explain the original intention of the "Collared-shirt Wednesday." We all know that Wednesday is the middle of the week. Especially in a five-day school week, Wednesday is not the beginning and not the end, justifying a lull in the middle of the week. So why not spice the least exciting day of the week by dressing up a little bit? Seems to have worked. A decent number of Royal High School students asked me permission to continue on the tradition by dressing up on Wednesdays. However, almost a dejavu, I have been informed that the numbers are dwindling, just like they did when the four of us started the "Collared-shirt Wednesday" August 5th, 2008. I don't know what I think of this. It saddens me, but yet, it was expected. I can say this though: stay strong collared-shirt Wednesday continuees.


And I have a last thing: boy this is a long post.

I was reading "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis the other day for class and I came across this:

"There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of 'Heaven' ridiculous by saying they do not want 'to spend eternity playing harps'. The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share His splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (Gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it. People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs."

Mr. C.S. brings the heat. What's funny about this is that this argument was brought up the other day and I had never thought about it before. I forget what I was going to write about this and I'm kind of bummed. Anyway, C.S. Lewis is the man when it comes to determining real life simplistic examples to clearly demonstrate complex situations. It makes me appreciative.



That was a mouthful. I'd suggest of nice swig of some iced water imported from the mountains. It will quench your thirst for sure.

Set Your Sails

Picture description to come. EDIT: written starting at 8:43.

Today, I wore sailor's garb. I wore a shirt that had the likes of the ocean. I wore a tie that had holes on the tail (brilliant). I wore a hat that had an anchor on it. I wore sunglasses that reflected the ocean waves with a certain brilliance. I wore Nautica shorts (definitely sailing material) and Sperry Top Siders, the classic boat shoe. There is no reason why I wore sailor's garb. In the picture above, I am standing on the wall and speaking to a girl walking on the floor above mine. She asked me if I was taking a picture, to which I replied, with a touch of the glasses, "Yes." You have just experienced that conversation. Earlier, I had planned to write more in this section, but, alas, I have no inspiration. Read on, blog followers: the rest of this blog entry was written much earlier and is much better suited for enjoyment. I encourage you to enjoy it.

//8:47

Carry on.




Boy are you in for a treat. For visual aesthetics, we had a color assignment in which we had to demonstrate different aspects of color and lighting. At the closure, I had 13 unedited shots that met the proper criteria. You are about to see ------------------ of those 13, that I have edited, because post is most necessary for prime viewing. Enjoy.

Color Symbolism

High Energy Forground vs. Low Energy Background
Low BrightnessWarm Hues

High Brightness
High Saturation


I have a few objectives to discuss. First: chewing gum.

I have noticed that chewing gum often makes a person look decently idiotic. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh. We've all seen it: some person in a group, chomping away at the little rubber-like substance in their mouth. We've compared it to a cow, munching on its mulch. Why do people like to be compared to livestock? I want to continue, but I think I will begin to go down a path that nobody wants to read and I don't want to write. Here's a last thought: if you are going to chew gum, recognize you are chewing gum, and don't think it is fun to get people to guess what brand of chewing gum you are in fact chewing. It's not miniature golf.

On the brighter side of the grassy knoll, I have developed a liking for honeydew, you know, that tasteless green melon. Every meal in the caf, I get fruit. The fruit varies every day, from cantaloupe to grapefruit, to honeydew, to oranges, to grapes, etc. However, there is ALWAYS honeydew because, most likely, nobody prefers it. Because of this, there is always a mountain of honeydew next to the sparse pickings of the cantaloupe, so naturally I grab some solid looking honeydew. Honeydew actually does have a flavor believe it or not. It is not strong: honeydew juice would not be good: but, combined with the crunch that sets it apart from canteloupe and other melons, it actually is quite delightful. This surprised me, as it may surprise you. Maybe I'm wrong and its all a falsity. I'm sorry. Right now, I'm enjoying it and you should go out and experience Honeydew for yourself.

On the social networking side of things, I have actually been relatively behind the times in terms of instant messaging. I just recently picked up an iChat account (AIM) and if you want to chat, video or textual, or do whatever else you do on iChat (unbeknown to me), send me your screen name by means of an email (click this link: click). We'll see what happens from there.



That's it. I hope you have a wonderful day today because you might as well enjoy the weather, whether you are inside or out. Breath in that air: inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale: it's second nature. Think about second nature mechanisms a little bit.