it's official

Friends.....

heylovie.wordpress.com

It finally happened

mirrormask

A really great film, somewhat self-discovery-coming-of-age in a fantasy world that rivals Baz Luhrmann, Tim Burton, and Michel Gondry. It's Neil Gaiman's Mirror Mask. Mildly similar to The City of Lost Children, but not really. I absolutely love Gaiman's dialogue. Favorite line: (upon seeing the future and being transformed from the fantasy world to the real world Valentine exclaims) "I don't want to be a waiter!"

Next, I'm starting out a new practice. When I'm done with campus I ride the bus back to the downtown station and walk the 200 feet over to Dagny's, order a large white ice tea, find a comfortable chair (which there are by the plenty) and sit down to spend the next hour or so doing whatever. So far I've read and stared out the window, both are enjoyable. I play to do this everyday after going to campus. Next I'm going to try getting one of the humongous brownies. I'll keep you posted. Oh, and Rob, you should totally set up a goodreads.com account. Try to resist it, you can't.

tennis ball

Tina and I often walk around our neighborhood in the evening when it finally cools off. We like to look at the houses; they have much more character in this part of town than the mundane rows of the developmentally challenged sprawl that possesses most of Bakersfield.

We'll call it at that for poetry in this post. What I'm really excited to post is what is becoming somewhat of a spooky occurrence, well, now spooky, yet, I did say becoming, but, it won't take much more to cross the line. Each time Tina and I go out, well, at least four times now if I remember correctly, I find a green tennis ball. I know right? Weird. I've kept three of them. I like to bounce it as I walk. I hope I find more.

Also, I'm in the middle of watching Man on Fire with Denzel Washington. He's in the movie, he's not actually watching it with me. I did that kind of thing earlier, the whole dangling modifier(?) is it? But I erased it. It was in the second sentence, I got rid of it with a semi-colon, which probably isn't right either. Hmm. This blogging is harder than it looks.

best use of soundbytes ever

Yes, this will effect my vote, but which way?

nice discovery

I'm always excited when I stumble upon some quality music. And I really enjoy a good cover. Here's a free download from Amie Street of Wakey!Wakey! doing Gnarles Barkley's Crazy. Quality. Shoot download the whole album. All it takes is a quick free sign up.

let me count the ways...

beautiful, determined, creative, intuitive, passionate, funny, athletic, talented, strong, sexy, intelligent, confident, patient, loyal, forgiving, diligent, precise, competitive, assertive, defender, fighter, sincere, hopeful, reconciler, treasure

flier / flyer ideas

Each time I spell the word flier, I wonder, is it flyer, or flier. Well today I shall wonder no more thanks to Apple's built in Dictionary application. Apparently either spelling is accepted. What's with that. In this age of moral relativism (thanks again Apple) is it impossible to keep our venerated lexicon secure. Why the superfluity? our words becoming effete.

And now to the thesis of this post...

I'm looking for help. I'm making a flyier (I just did that) for an upcoming conference and the idea is to have a background filled with text and then using some savvy designer Photoshop® skillz, I'll use the letters in the text as pixels to create the word "STORY" in bold or colors or something. Here's where you come in. I'm asking you to send me the first lines of some of your favories stories (books, movies, whatever) that would either be recognizable or relatable if you were of the college-age persuasion.

Gimme examples:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
Somewhere in la Mancha
In the beginning

Also, I'm looking for creative lines (entirely made up) that will resonate with less mainstream (debatable) stories.

Examples:

I grew up without a father
My grandparents raised me

Super. I appreciate all your responses.

divisional staff meeting

I wouldn't say that I thrive in meetings. Actually, I can't say there is anyone, who knows me well, that would say that I thrive in meetings.

But here's a great blessing. I find myself sitting in a buffet with too many delicious meals and too few plates. Please see pass the less desirable implications of this metaphor. I'm attempting to dress up the face that there are a bunch of amazing people in this room with me and my only complaint for these meetings is that I don't have enough space to spend the time I want with each person. I think that's a good problem to have, perhaps a blessing.

And yes, the fact that I am blogging during this meeting (sorry Bob and Carrie) says something too.

what's going on here

Just a heads up, I'm planning on making the move over to wordpress pretty soon. This post will hopefully keep me to it.

We're looking at the third day since the return from Bosnia and big surprise, I'm not sure exactly how I'm doing. I don't know how to just relax without feeling completely bored, but I have no energy to do anything of significance. What energy I do have is spent keeping Bosnia from becoming a figment of my imagination. The pictures help, but the bleak heat of Bakersfield provides a convincing counter-spell. Apparently my skipping of a few of the debriefing sessions in Austria are taking their toll.

-I've decided that I need to be a better reader = more reading, better books.

-Today I told Tina I need a hobby, but (1) it can't be expensive, (2) it can't require other people to enjoy it (i.e. Basketball, Paintball, Chess), and (3) it has to be something that can be enjoyed in small blocks of time.

So far I've got reading.

Here's a shot from the camp in Bosnia.



I miss people.

i'm sorry

I figured that last post, although very representative of what I was feeling, was pretty selfish. So, in order to give a little more of information about how the trip is going I thought I would upload some pictures. Considering formatting and organizing photos isn't exactly Blogger.com's forte, I'll keep the text brief to keep my frustration level in check. There are two pictures of groups of people, one is our Intermediate English class that I am "teaching" and the other is a bunch of tired Americans about half way through a tour of downtown Sarajevo. The black and white landscape is looking east from the top of the fortress (see previous post). The twisty building is a TV companies latest construction, I think, and is not very popular among the Bosnians, "It doesn't fit." However, I would like to point out the similarities to my senior project design, maybe I was on to something, or just copying somebody somewhere... Fun side note: Although the road next to the university is a good place to take pictures of the twisty building, security guards at the construction site located between the road and the twisty building get rather irritated by photographers. Something to do with the construction site being the new American Embassy...

Super.

a fortress and a pepsi

Two hours ago I was standing on top of a partially reconstructed fortress overlooking Sarajevo. On the way back home I drank a Pepsi. Today is a good day.

Because there is no chance that I will be able to post anything that in anyway satisfies my desire to communicate what things have been like in Bosnia, I'll leave that until I get back and go through the painful experience of distilling six weeks into a letter that's both informative and readable.

Also, I kind of like not being connected to the rest of the world. This is the first time in over two weeks I have used a computer. And just in case you were wondering the world still exists out here and it's quite wonderful.

For all who have emailed me, sorry, but I won't be responding until I get back. And who knows, maybe I'll even wait a few weeks just to rebel a little.

Oh, I'm almost finished with Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller. Thanks James, I do like it better than Blue Like Jazz. Also, praise Jesus, Sarajevo gets Discovery and Bear Grylls is super with Bosnian subtitles. Also, Scrubs in German is not as funny, or wait, even more funny!?!

a few more picts and poetry

Why do I always have something to blog about when there are four other very important things to do? Rhetorical.

First the poetry. I just finished reading The Trouble With Poetry, (my) book two of Billy Collins reading. This one is a little shorter than the previous read, and I think even more clever. My favorites are: "The Lanyard", "On Not Finding You at Home", "The Introduction", and "The Revenant." I'm going to rank them in order too: 4,2,1,3. There you go.

And now the latest from the Canon...ooh, I just thought of a great blog title for my photography. Check it out here.

This may be my favorite building in Bakersfield. It's a Masonic Temple. I particularly like the back, it's the building without the mask, ugly and weathered. I almost looks like it's crying. I wonder how it feels being in Bakersfield and trying to look so formal and classic out front, yet completely bare of any supporting nature.

new camera

Sweet, a new camera! Special thanks to our amazing friend Sarah, we've just been treated to a Canon PowerShot SD770 IS (Love the color accent mode). ¡Mucho gusto!

Here's a few shots I took Tina (the first two) and I took and then manipulated a little with iPhoto. Watch out when I get Graphics Tablet and GIMP on these picts...

loyalton, meet google

For all my friends out there who wish that they could visit the streets of Loyalton, but find the drive up over Donner Summit a little too daunting or lengthy, I give you Google Street View (and the wonderful Golden West Restaurant Hotel). So far I've found two glitches when traveling down main street (Hwy 49.) This one's for you mom and dad.

tribute to jeremy

Well sort of. I just finished reading two books and I thought I might try to write a review. (Jeremy does this well)

Both books were recommended by Donald Miller at the FPU Lecture that I went to recently. The first is Sailing Alone Around the Room, by Billy Collins. It's "a landmark collection of new and selected poems..." all of which I find are all the more satisfying when read aloud, which I suppose is true of most poetry. It's poetry for the everyday person, keeping a safe distance away from overly complex descriptions and puzzling mouthfulls of analysis. Reading Collins is like singing the melody of a huge symphony piece, it's the simple beauty surrounded by the cacophany of even greater, yet uncontainable beauty.

Some of my favorites:

-My Number -The Rival Poet -Vade Mecum -On Turning Ten -The Blues -Man In Space -Splitting Wood -Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems of the Sung Dynasty, I Pause To Admire the Length and Clarity of Their Titles

On to review number 2.
Man in Black by Johnny Cash

The book focuses mainly on the relationship between Cash's addiction to pills and his walk of faith. Essentially, it's his testimony. Man in Black starts at Cash's childhood telling stories of church and the influence of his older brother's faith and death, follows his love of music and introduction into the music industry, and then spiral into pill addiction, reaching his rock bottom point and recovery / repentance to a more serious relationship with Jesus, performing for the armed forces, then finishing with the story of writing and producing a movie about Jesus in the holy land (The Gospel Road, thanks Netflix). Lyrics of songs Cash and others have written show up throughout the chapters including some by Kris Kristofferson.

Some of my favorite stories include Cash's meeting younger stars Merle Haggard and Charlie Pride. His faith comes across as genuine and his vulnerability is almost limitless. He tells of multiple times driving through the woods in his jeep completely high on pills, getting arrested seven times, having to cancel concerts, and getting kicked out of the Grand Ole Opry.

I was surprised to learn about how much Gospel music was a part of all of his shows and so many of those in the music entertainment industry. As well, in his own words, Cash seems much more Christian and spiritual than the media portrays, I remember nothing in Walk the Line highlighting his faith.

Man in Black was published in 1975, almost 30 years before his death. I'd be interested to read some of the new auto biographies that have come out recently. Overall, I really did enjoy the book, Cash is a decent enough writer, he sometimes jumps back a few years or fills in a time-line of a particular event and I occasionally got lost. My guess is that if someone isn't already interested in Cash's life the stories may not be compelling enough to keep interest. But come on, who isn't interested at least a litte by Johnny Cash?

emusic: hallelujah

Thanks to a post by Brett and some other stars aligning I finally sank my teeth into emusic. If you have netflix you've probably seen a ton of ads on the disposable part of that majestic red envelope, or if you're into Paste you seen it for sure. I've been avoiding it for over six months after finding out that you have to give them your credit card in order to get the "35 free songs" they boast. If you haven't heard of it, it's iTunes for indie music, except all the files are DRM free. It's kinda like the old mail order BMG service that gave away 11 CDs for 1 penny but screwed you with shipping and handling. Well, with the offer up to 50 free songs for a trial run finally convinced me to fork over the digits to my Costco American Express card in hopes of remembering to cancel before the 14 days are up and I start to pay for a monthly subscription.

So last night I spend two hours in total music discovery bliss. It was fantastic. I have huge hopes for an afternoon with a good friend listening to the songs I downloaded and discussing all the things we love. I do realize I'm quite late getting into the indie scene, but here I come anyway, watch out. Check this stuff out.

Top downloads for me so far:

A cover of Rocket Man by My Morning Jacket
The Modern Leper by Frightened Rabbit
Baby's Lost in Tracks by Maybe It's Reno
Re: Stacks by Bon Iver
I Wish That I Was Beautiful For You by Darren Hanlon
The King Of Carrot Flowers Part 1 by Neutral Milk Hotel
Leviathan, Bound by Shearwater
Space Travel Is Boring by Sun Kil Moon (Thanks Bret)
Cedar Trees by Taken By Trees

Happy Finds that I already knew of:

Woven Hand
Ingrid Michaelson
Ampersand EP - Derek Webb and Sandra McCraken

clean house

Yep, the house is all cleaned up. The tiny air conditioner in the window next to me is ready to work like crazy tonight, along side the swamp cooler in the back to keep our hip urban apartment nice and less than just a bit too warm for the dinner that we're having with some possible donors. So far, I have only gone outside once today, and that was in our eight by five light well to water the plants.

One of the pleasantries that this heat induced house arrest affords me is that I have been trying to catch up on all the NPR podcast concerts that Jeremy told me about. Right now I'm two-thirds the way through Nickel Creek. I love it. So much so that the dusting and organizing is actually fun.

The recurring question I keep entertaining upstairs is this: If I never left this house and only once in a while saw somebody, what would my life be about? What I'm trying to get to is who am I really. Take away the InterVarsity gig and it appears that I am a house cleaner / jammer of wood into tight places in attempt to seal off the window where the AC unit inevitably creates it's own self-defeatist energy crisis.

I check out the videos and pictures from my friends facebook pages and realize that not only am I not having as much fun as them, but I actually think that because I'm not capturing and posting my life for the world I must not be as interesting of a person, and my life must be going nowhere. Who am I listening to?

I'm so fickle.

creepy stuff

There are two movie previews that I have seen that creep me out in a way that makes me really want to see them. This is  pretty rare thing for me because I'm not huge on scary movies.  I either find them extremely cheesy, or extremely disturbing, like, "get that out of my head I feel possessed" freaky.

Every once in a while something comes along that is just "plain" freaky.  Freaky good, freaky "play with my fears" good.

Ironically, both movies use the same devise to freak out the audience.

Watch with caution:

The Strangers

Baghead

in the year 2525

Quite thought provoking. How 'bout that 2041. Nice.

short stature linked to...wait I forgot

I saw this story as I was trying to catch up on the latest news. This just seems ripe for one of those funny on accident headlines, but good for them for not adding insult to an already bummer situation.

Also, it's now Day 2 of Divisional Staff Meetings in Fresno. Last night was kicked off with a great celebration of what God's been doing on the campuses in our division. Awesome stories abound, joy is on the rise, hope is in the air, and now it's back to our western analytical planning debriefing evaluating brainstorming goodness. Well we'll see at least...