The tie means something. It's got blue flowers all over it. Does it match with the rest? No. (Unless you get all artsy/philosophical). The point? Things don't have to match. Who said they have to? Things that happen in life don't have to match what you think your life is going to be like. Things aren't going to match. But hey, smile about it.
Folks. Unfortunately, today's post is going to be kinda skimpy. I'll tell you why in a second.
First of all, the tour guide is sick today. I know I told you last week you'd get a tour of my apartment, which you most definitely will, BUT...not today. There's a few reasons for this, most notably the fact that the apartment is still not set up the way we envision it, at least to a point of leading a guided tour of 100 people through. So, keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks, you'll get your tour, don't you worry.
Second, I've been working on something BIG that is being released and started tomorrow, Thursday. I'll tell you this much: I am going to be performing an action everyday for 100 days straight and you will be able to follow the progress each and every day of the hundred. I'm am beyond excited for this project and I'll explain why after it has begun.
I've got two video releases for you though.
So here they are:
First, I had the privilege of going down to Long Beach to experience and document an incredible ministry that seeks to love the homeless as Christ would. These are people who haven't been missionaries over seas, these are people who don't preach to 10,000 people at a time, these are just normal people in Long Beach who want to share the love of God to others. This project was for Hume Lake Christian Camps to share with the high schoolers every week. While I was counselor during Week 6, it was incredible seeing this short film, not because I made it, but because of the influence it had on the campers, seeing the idea that you don't have to be an "All-Star Christian" to love people like Christ did dawn on countless teenagers was incredible. I was beyond blessed to be able to work on this project.
Next is the most recent Mawwiage Films teaser. I personally really like this one, I had a lot of fun with it. People have been asking about the music, so I'll just let it loose right here, right now! "Cyanide Sisters" by Com Truise.
Side note, Mr. Michael Warnecke and I are JAMMING to P.O.D.'s "The Fundamental Elements of Southtown." Such a great record. 1999. Old school. Take a trip back to grade school.
That's the post, folks. Sorry it's a little lacking, next week will (hopefully) make up for it.
Have an excellent day, have an excellent night, and have an excellent tomorrow.
Really? Are you serious? Yeah, I'm world series. Folks, neighbors, family, and friends, it is the 2011-2012 school year. I have moved. You may look at the picture above and fail to recognize the area. You don't see the infamous wall, you don't see the blue door or the big windows. Instead, you see what you see above. I now live the beautiful complex we call Tropicana. Times have changed and I must admit, I miss the Backside a whole lot. So many memories, it will be my first love, the beginnings of my joyous college career. But we grow up, I talked to Peter Pan about it. So here we are, Tropicana, it's already been great.
If you are a returner and you've been around a while, you remember the "tours." For the new visitors, every first week (or so) I do a tour of my living quarters:
Don't worry the tour of the new place is on it's way. Due to complications, the apartment is still "in shambles," it's just not ready for a public walk through quite yet.
Next week.
So, school's started. It actually hasn't started, it's just continued from last year. Summer feels like a 3 day weekend and here we are, back at the grind. That's just how it is. Here's my schedule this semester:
(click to enlarge)
I'm pretty excited for these classes. Seems like it will be pretty balanced. Let's hope.
I honestly don't have a whole lot to talk about today. It'll be good to rekindle old friendships, speak to people as if that 3-day-weekend-of-a-summer didn't happen. It'll be good to meet new people, try new things, learn some stuff, you know. It'll be good to speak to people about their summers, hear stories, tell stories, laugh. It'll be good to invest in people.
It'll be good.
I have one video for you. This is a good one, shows you life's short, love life, LIVE IT UP. I would absolutely try this. I live for the thrills. (Thanks Mr. Isaac Svensson for the referral).
And that's 1st blog post of the school year. Unreal. 3rd year. 4th year of the blog. What is this world coming too? I'll tell you what, it's flying.
Tell the next person you have conversation with a compliment.
UPDATE: I want to announce that we successfully bought food, cooked food, and ate food, and are still alive. Here's a picture of our first family dinner complete with a delectable spaghetti topped with a prime marinara and a light Parmesan, accompanied by a loaf of garlic bread. Delicious.
Friends, oh friends. It's been a long time. The summer has in the past, has currently, and most likely will continue to eat up most time that is provided us in a day. This blog has been given the back seat, which I initially felt kind of bad about, but based on previous years, this blog has made a home of the back seat over the summer 3 years in a row.
This summer has been off the chain. It started, now it's ending. I'm going to try to barrel through the majority of the summer for y'all. It'll get interesting, can't promise much detail, we'll see how the words spill.
(Speaking of words spilling, I started up a new Tumblr blog, dedicated to photography and other media. I'll speak more on it later, but here's the link: http://morganlott.tumblr.com)
We'll start with my twin brothers 8th grade culmination. Unbelievable. These little dudes have survived middle school and are going to high school. They just graduated Kindergarden, like...yesterday. They're growing too. In a year, they'll each be 6 feet. They were just 3 feet, like...well, it's been a while. It was a celebration though and watching my bros graduate from my alma matter was, like...incredible.
The next experience was when the last blog post was written. Here it is:
Here's the interesting thing: the events described in the link above seem like EONS ago, but the yet the summer in itself seems like the blink of an eye. Strange times among us. If you read the post above, you know that Mr. and Mrs. Funk were married, Mr. Isaac Svensson and I headed up to Hume Lake, stopped to see and take pictures of a mountain fire, and then very much enjoyed a visit to Hume. Read the post though, it's good; good stories.
Speaking of weddings, Mawwiage Films has been busy busy busy this summer!
And speaking of busy, during our annual week-at-Hume-Lake-with-extended-family, my father and I set up a little "studio" and worked a whole bunch. Sounds like a bum deal, working on work rather than chillin' and hangin' at Hume Lake, but let me tell ya, I would way rather work at an outrageously beautiful place like Hume Lake than in my normal habitat. All in all, productive week.
A couple weeks later, I headed North. I had the distinct honor of being a groomsman in my cousins wedding, Mr. Micah Hiett was set to wed Ms. Leanne Schellenberg. I went up early to be a part of the bachelor party, a legit houseboating trip on the lake. You can just imagine the shenigans that went down, including perhaps a jacked up ACL on yours truly while wakeboarding. All in all, A BLAST! Those Kansas boys really know how to have a good time. I kept telling people: the Kansas boys know how to turn absolutely nothing into an absolute blast, us Cali boys sometimes have a hard time turning absolutely everything into a little more than bored stiff. Good time, to say the least.
You may ask, "you went to a wedding, just to be there?!" Well, not quite, there's a catch. Mawwiage Films also had the distinct honor film the wedding! So we pulled a fast one (with permission of course) and I carried a small camera with me as a groomsman, a behind-the-scenes-groomsman-cam if you will, and got some footage you'd never be able to get otherwise. That said, the video's going to be GREAT, very different from anything MF has done in the past. I'm very much excited.
Then, and this is going to blow your mind, I went up to Hume Lake again (All in all, I was at Hume Lake almost a complete month). This time though, I had another distinct honor to be a counselor with my home church, Simi Valley Community Church. This was QUITE the experience. It was very very interesting, definitely not a camper (although I had a blast being in "camper" mode the whole week), definitely not staff, somewhere in between; the determining factor? Responsibility.
I was treated to a small group, 5 guys in the tiny, but homey, cabin Aspen 2. We enjoyed our cabin talks, our cabin chats. We enjoyed our rec team EL PANCHOS. Here's an aside: Recreation was one of the most interesting parts of the Hume experience and here's why: while on media staff last summer, rec was immensely important, time-consuming, and fun. We spent a whole lot of time on that rec field, documenting the ridiculous and incredible recreational abilities of 1000 high schoolers every week. We got sweaty, we got dirty, we got hit, we got tired, we got an incredible amount of experience by the end of year. I will never be able to verbalize how much the Hume Media workforce influenced my current skill set. All that said, being on the OTHER side of rec was SURREAL. Participating in the games, cheering on EL PANCHOS ("They may take our lives, but they will never take...our panchos!" BEAST of a cheer), watching kajabe can-can from the sidelines, being super spirited on super spirit day, and perhaps the most insane part, running the gauntlet. All in all, recreation was a BLAST. Now for what really matters.
We had a great great week. Mr. Steve Solomon shared his thoughts as we worked through David's life experiences in 1 Samuel. David, the man after God's own heart, made a ridiculous amount of mistakes, but he continually sought the Lord's guidance and was able to pinpoint his downfalls, seeking change, only possibly with God's help. I really enjoyed was Steve had to say, he steered away from the emotional response that we have all become accustomed to at church camp, but instead presented the facts with a multitude of biblical evidence, making sure we truly understand the beliefs we say we follow. I really appreciated that aspect of his teaching.
I could go deep into every single thing that happened at Hume, but I don't think I'm going to. Commitments, dedication, baptisms; lives were changed.
Please watch this little wrap-up by my good friends Mr. Nico Hernandez and Ms. Simón Weber:
The fun's not over! I then headed up with my fam bam to Washington for a family reunion with the entire Neufeld family! After the forever long drive through the country, we arrived in Washington at this ridiculously massive lodge. I felt like a little kid in a humungous house; kinda hard to explain, you've just got to believe me. We had an incredible time, enjoying Leavenworth, horses, water, games, stars, hot tubs, the list goes on and on and on. 43 people who see each other all at the same time once every two years, 43 people who get along remarkably well, 43 people who have a blast together, 43 people who can't wait until the next reunion. We are honestly so so blessed to have such a solid family that cares about integrity, family, and most of all, Jesus Christ. INCREDIBLE.
After Washington, we figured "Well, we're SO CLOSE to Canada, we've got to stop in." Thus, a day trip to Vancouver was a must. A must say, I thoroughly enjoyed Canada, the big city. We walked around a bunch, saw the ocean (which was strange), witnessed the largest public swimming pool I've ever seen, enjoyed our time there. 'Twas a good time.
I snapped a good 2,000 pictures over the course of the trip. Here's a few:
Here's one for the road:
"Time flies like the wind, fruit flies like bananas."
