Hurricane Katrina

We've all seen the news reports, video footage, and photography. So I will spare you that. Hurrican Katrina has devastated the gulf coast. I cannot begin to know what those people are feeling at this point in time. I cannot imagine the feeling of knowing that one of the most powerful hurricanes in our nation's history is heading for my front door. It's hard for me to think about what those people are dealing with. The flood waters completely devastating their homes and possessions. This is definitely a bad one. Possibly the worst that I've seen. It was definitely the biggest hurricane I've ever seen. I mean, that thing covered the entire Gulf. The physical damage is bad... but not near as bad as the emotional damage. Citizens of the most powerful nation in the world have become refugees. When we think of refugees, we normally think of Haiti or Cuba... people from poor countries... definitely not the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. It's a terrible tragedy. One that has even effected us in Northwest Arkansas. Citizens from New Orleans have even traveled all the way up here to seek shelter. If I were one of them; I probably wouldn't go back. I mean, there's really nothing to go back to. But I don't know for sure... I'm not in their shoes... I don't feel what they are feeling. This one has effected even our church... with Casey and Stacy's family living in Baton Rouge, LA (just 45 minutes away from New Orleans); they still don't have power. Also many members of our church have family that live near New Orleans and the Gulf coast. I've already read some reports and people are already turning this into a "political thing". Come on people... a hurricane has destroyed parts of three states! It's nobody's fault... there's no need to point fingers. We did the best we could... now we have to deal with it. So quit trying to stir up "stuff"; and put your work gloves on and help out. All we can do is pray that lives will be saved, workers will be protected, and that somehow God will get the glory out of this situation.

A good thing gone bad.

As some of (or all of you) may know, we had started up our own company called XNA Media. We had planned on specializing in graphic design and vinyl banners. Mainly providing services to churches and church plants. We were able to provide vinyl banners because we had a great connection with a billboard-size banner printer; that was using us as their experimental company to test whether they should step into smaller banner printing as well. Unfortunately, they've decided that it wasn't working out. Our "small" banners were slowing down their production. So, they won't be printing anything for us that is less than 50 square-feet. Which doesn't really fit the market we were trying to reach. We were able to help a couple new church plants with their vinyl banner needs; but we just can't do it anymore. I don't harness any hard feelings toward the printing company at all... I completely understand their point of view. So, that side of the business is pretty much done... unless there is a need for a banner of great girth... which we will be happy to have printed for you at $5.00 per sq.ft. That's pretty cheap... check around. We will still continue to provide graphic and web design services. But, there are a lot of designers out there; and a lot of competition. And, as of yet, we haven't had any clients in that area. Our "bread and butter" is gone. It's a sad day. What does all this mean for me? Well, I'll probably need to find a job. Or at least some extra freelance stuff to bring in some cash. Sabrina wants me to get a job... so, I'll probably get one. She seems to think that I'm "supposed" to work at Saatchi-X. We'll see about that. I haven't heard from the guy that attended our church... and I didn't see him this past Sunday. I have a meeting on Wednesday with a lady in our church that designs clothing; she has a project that she wants me to work on. That will be something different. I also might check in with another guy in our church that has inquired if I was looking for some work. Indeed, I will.

S-Video cables are an expensive demon...

Another Sunday come and gone. Before service started, a whole line of problems were running around. First, MattRat dropped the trusses off Casey's truck and bent the crap out of one of the legs. I think he might have done some minor damage to the truck as well. I didn't think that this was too big of a deal... but when I looked at the truss a little later, I saw that the leg had somehow been cut. Secondly, one of the 100' S-Video cables. This was bad, because we didn't have any extras. Luckily, I pulled out one of the "bad" cables and it was just displaying in B/W... and that generally means that it just a bad pin. I checked all the pins... none were bent. So, I pulled back the sheath, and one of the solderings on one of the pins had broke. That's a quick and easy fix. MattRat did the soldering, and we were good to go. Sooooooooo...... with all the S-Video cable breakage. That affords us the opportunity to buy these new S-Vid-to-Cat5 converters. You can download the specs here. Also, we're trying out Basecamp. Trying to get organized... a little project management never hurt anyone. I like it so far. We'll see how it works out though.

A good day.

Relax. That was the word of the day. Sabrina and I were able to sleep in together for this first time in over a month... and it was good. We didn't have anything pressing to do today. Just chill. I was originally supposed to get up and go to Fayetteville this morning for the final townsquare prayer walk that our church has been doing. But, Casey gave me the day off. Maybe he felt bad for making me drive most of the day on Friday. Either way... I took it. Sabrina planned out our meals for the rest of the week, then went to the grocery store. I played some video games. When she returned, we watched television, did a little bit of laundry, and ate some dinner. I went to the movie store and got a movie... we had a free rental. We watched "Flight of the Phoenix". Not a great movie. We were trying to figure out what other movies "Elliot" played in. Well, we have church tomorrow. I gotta get SOME sleep.

Exit... Stage left.

Back to the less-controversial blog entries. So, I have found the magical splendor of Backpack. I'm running my beta-testing of it now to see if we should maybe implement it for our staff at Keypoint. I like the idea of having all the files of the project right there... but I'm not so sure that it's worth a monthly fee. Does anyone else use this? What are your thoughts and experiences with it? Off to Conway. Tomorrow, well today, I'm off to Conway, AR to pick up some mailers we had printed. So we can take them on Monday to the distribution center in Fayetteville. Why didn't we just have them shipped, you ask? Well, because there is 32,000 of them. I have to say, I'm not real happy about being chosen to do this task. I have plenty of things to do... such as videos and stuff. Besides, it tends to upset me when I'm only given 1 days notice that I'll be wasting away the better part of a day. I don't like being expected to just drop my plans to come to the rescue! But... I'm coming under the authority of my pastor; and sometimes we have to do things that we don't like to do, simply to take the load off our pastor's back. Tears of the Sun. I was able to watch "Tears of the Sun" today. That's a nice part of being at home all day... I occasionally get to watch TV. Anyway, I had never seen it. And I remembered that when it first came out, I wanted to see; but never got around to it. I eventually forgot that I wanted to see it; which probably happens to a lot of movies that I want to see. At any rate, it was a pretty good movie. Bruce Willis plays a Special-Ops commander who leads his team into the jungle of Nigeria to rescue a doctor played by Monica Belluci who will only go with them if they agree to rescue 70 refugees too. Oh yeah... I'm envious of Josh; because he was able to go see a Cirque de Solei production. They are quite interesting... but very cool! I highly recommend that you check it out if you have the opportunity!

Dear Mr. Robertson...

I checked on Fox News after Pat Robertson made his "comments". Now then, let me first say that Mr. Robertson has since apologized for his comments. I was amazed at how many people (primarily women) that posted on Fox News' site that promoted Mr. Robertson's comments. All I have to say is...

Philippians 2 Imitating Christ's Humility 1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Problem solved.

I took care of the problem with my comments page. Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

God vs. Science? - Part 2

I'm not very good at putting my feeling into words; so that thing about letting the teachers teach whatever they want came across a little wrong. I was trying to convey that no matter what the teachers are teaching at school; I'm going to teach my children (when they come) what I believe to be the truth. Of course, we each have to make decisions on our own and form our own opinion of what we determine "truth" to be. This, I think, is the fundamental arguement that keeps this whole evolution vs. creationism this going. The scientists say that "Intelligent Design" is just a Creationism in disguise. And, Creationism is nothing more than religion. It is faith-based. It's my opinion that everything is "faith-based". It takes just as much faith to believe that we came from monkeys as it does to believe that there is a power bigger than ourselves that created us. I've always said that all it takes to become a "scientific fact" is have somebody else agree with your theory. I'm not saying that all science is like this. I believe that God gifted us with the intelligence to make scientific breakthroughs in medicine and so on. But, I think that some forms of science simply exist to prove the human race is "the higher power"... that we are God. Also, I don't understand why Christians feel that we must argue with evolutionsist over this matter. Do we think that if we can somehow "win" this arguement that we have furthered the cause of Heaven? Maybe if I argue with someone until I'm blue in the face, they'll see that God loves them unconditionally? No. Not quite.

God vs. Science?

It's 2:30AM and I was getting ready to go to bed; when I happened to flip on Larry King Live. They were "discussing" God vs. Science. More specifically, they were discussing Intelligent Design, and whether or not it should be taught in schools. Subjects like this will most definitely keep me awake. I suppose that I will first say that I am, in no way, an expert on this subject. Nor would I even consider myself educated on the matter. But, I certainly have my opinions... as crude as they may be. I think that politics should take a hike. Stay out of it. I think that the conservatives and liberals should find something useful to do. It seems to me that all we've done for the last several years, involving this issue, is argue agendas. There's been nothing solved; and I don't think it will ever get any different. I truthfully don't believe that Jesus would've sat around and argued with the government or whomever. He would've said His piece, moved on and loved them anyway. I think that Christians are wrong for sitting around and arguing with these people. I think that we could so easily use that time to show God's love, rather than making complete fools of ourselves and our God. Should evolution and intelligent design be taught in schools? I think that the teachers should be able to teach whatever they feel like teaching. Because... more than likely, the children are going to be "taught", for lack of a better term, by their parents. What I'm saying is, that we get our "base" for religion and what we believe from our parents. Sadly, today's parents are sending some confusing messsages to their children. Well... I digress for now. I just heard some crazy news that Pat Robertson said that we (the United States) should assassinate the President of Venezeula. C'mon!!! What kind of God does that portray? What is wrong with people.

Good show.

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Originally uploaded by Drummerchick.

I like to give credit when it's due. This is a great picture! Good job!

I feel special.

Today's service was pretty good. No problems, which makes a good service. After service, something very special happened. I was getting read to start tearing-down, when Casey called me over to meet someone. The person that he introduced me to, whose name is Shawn, just happened to be the Creative Director for Saatchi & Saatchi X in Springdale. If you don't know what that is... let me just say that it's part of the Publicis Group (the 4th largest marketing firm in the world). So, I was a bit taken back that this guy was at our church. Then, to hear him tell me that he really like MY work was an unbelievable feeling. He told me 3 or 4 times that he liked my stuff. You can get a brief rundown of Saatchi & Saatchi X here. I'm not sure if today was his first time at Keypoint or not; but he did bring his family... so that's cool. He asked me if I was looking for work; and told me that he'd like me to come down to their ultra-cool offices and meet some people. I mean, you can't possibly understand what this would mean! These are the big playas! They do ads for Toyota, Coca-Cola, and many others. An opportunity like this is awesome. It's times like this that are confusing. No matter how great of an opportunity this might be... my first priority is the church. Honestly, I'd like just go and sit in their offices and learn stuff. Soak it all in. Anyway, that was just some real exciting news for me, and I thought I would share it. We'll see what comes of it. More than anything, I'm glad they came to Keypoint and I hope that I can get to know Shawn better and learn from him.

Poll: Is it my blog or is it Joel's computer?

Joel seems to think that my blog is messed up. He says that the header is aligned left, and that some of the border doesn't line up correctly. He is viewing it in Internet Explorer. Now then, every computer I've ever viewed my blog on shows it correctly, without flaw. I've viewed it in Internet Explorer (Windows and Mac), Firefox, and Safari. If you would... please comment and tell me: 1) If my blog has any alignment issues. 2) What browser and operating system you are using. 3) Whether or not you think it's Joel's problem, not my blog. **Update** It has been discovered that the problem Joel was talking about was in the comments section of my blog. I already knew that problem existed; but haven't been able to locate the source of this problem in order to fix it.

Yet another redesign.

Okay okay... so I get bored with my blog design. Yes. I've redesigned my blog again. Well, it's not so much a "redesign"... but moreso a changing of colors, backgrounds, and headers. If I had million dollars for everytime I changed my blog around... I'd be a multi-millionaire. Also, here's a wallpaper that I did last night. Let me know what you think... feedback is good.

In memory...

In memory of the fallen soldiers of 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, Lima Company. I feel that we too easily forget what war means. I get so sick of the anti-war people. You know what, throw your agenda aside for one second and remember the soldiers that are risking life and limb for something bigger than themselves.

"...I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, - Abraham Lincoln."

Lima Company has had a rough way to go; yet they remain vigilant. Semper Fi.

The feeling of "blah".

Do you ever get that feeling? The feeling of "blah". Like, you don't feel like doing anything. I have it now. I have plenty of work to do, that I should be doing. But, I just don't feel like doing it. I've been looking around the internet today at different websites... clicking from link to link. Just looking. After awhile, I realized that there is a lot of talented people out there. There's even some very talented Christian people out there. People, whose work, puts mine to shame. I suppose that I should get to work on this weeks videos. It won't take me too long to do them; but still, I need to get them done.

Early morning.

I had to get up with Sabrina this morning and come to work with her; because Casey and I are doing a video shoot down in Fayetteville this morning. With the exception of Sunday mornings, I'm never up this early. You know how some people are "morning people" and some people aren't? Well, I'm definitely not... unless your talking about 1:00AM... I'm good to go then. Anyway, back to my point... some people are grumpy in the morning. I'm kinda right in between. I'm not in a "bad" mood, and I'm not in a "good" mood. I am, however, very quiet. I say very few words in the morning. I generally respond to questions by grunting or nodding my head. It's almost like a I "evolve" throughout the day... going from the primal grunts of the morning, to muttering words around noon, then conversations as the day progresses. Anyway, I like quotes. I can quote very few of them, except from movies. None the less, I do love quotations... in fact, I have an entire Encyclopedia of them. Here's today's quote.

"A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on." - John F. Kennedy

That helpless feeling.

I was just reading James' blog when a feeling of utter helplessness came over me. I want to be there, fighting side-by-side with him. Why? Simply because he's my friend; and I want to do what I can to make sure that he comes home safe. When I read about LCpl. Lyons only being able to see his child via webcam, and I thought about the family that he left behind. Not only did tears come to my eyes, but I became sick to my stomach. Never before have I felt such a feeling of respect and honor for the men and women serving in the military. Wartime brings a new meaning to the word "soldier". On kinda the same note... I'm really liking "Over There" on FX. Although it's still Hollywood, it's done really well. And although I can't know for sure, I think it's probably a pretty good representation of how things are... over there.

Too hot to drive...

Today, I got pulled over for the second time since I've lived in Arkansas. Once again, by the Rogers PD (nazis). No, I wasn't speeding or anything. He pulled me over because the car that I have while Sabrina's at work is a piece of crap. He told me that the brake lights weren't working properly... like they were flickering on and off. He was a nice enough guy... he let me off with a warning. Even though I didn't have the vehicle registration in the car. Now then, allow me to explain my car to you... for those who haven't experienced the "Grand Am". This car sits out in front of my house 95% of the time. Since I do most of my work from home... I very rarely have to leave. But, when I do have to go somewhere... I get the wonderful experience of driving the Grand Am. Here's the situation: The temperature is a steamy 93-degrees outside; and there's not a cloud in the sky. The sun is beating down on you. The power windows on your car are broken... so you can't roll the windows down. The air conditioner is also broken, so the only air circulation you can get is hot air. Combined with the sun, it makes it around 115-degrees in the car. I've decided that I'm not going to drive that car for the rest of the summer. Simply because it's just too hot. I really don't mind driving the car, aside from that. So, I guess if you want me to go somewhere... you're gonna have pick me up.

iTunes

Have you ever set your iTunes to play random from your library? It seems that when I do that it cycles through about 4 different bands. Even though I have around 220 bands to choose from. And sometimes I even hear the same song twice. My iTunes seems to like Lifehouse, Delirious, Thrive, and Plumb. I think it has a mind of its own.

Desktop personality.

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Originally uploaded by Josh R..

It's just a theory... but I think your desktop tells a lot about your personality. I change my wallpaper and icons at least once a week, if not more. I like my desktop to be clean. My wife would appreciate if I was like that with the rest of my life. I like all my folder icons to looks the same. I like my dock on the left side. I only use three widgets... Weather, Calendar, and To Do List. I keep my iTunes down in the bottom right hand corner.

But anyway, from looking at someone's desktop... you can tell if they keep their files organized or not. You can generally tell what they like and what their interests are. You can often tell if they are a female or male... young or old.

I'd like to see your desktops... and don't go "spring cleaning" just do a screen capture and post it on your blog or for those that are member of my Flickr Group; you can post it there.

Farewell to 'Los...

I'm sorry to say that Keypoint Church has suffered its first loss of a staff member. Carlos, who moved here from Baton Rouge, LA; decided to call it quits this week. He moved back to Baton Rouge on Saturday. There wasn't any ill-feelings or anything like that. He just simply felt he needed to head back "home". Of course I have my opinions on this matter; but I will refrain from speaking them on here, at least for now. I liked (still do) Carlos. He's a good person and has a good heart. I wish that he hadn't left yet. But, whatever. To each his own. I think that he just wasn't connecting real well. Which goes to show how important relationships are.

Creativity in heat.

Okay... that title doesn't sound so good. Oh well. It's been in the upper-90s all week down here in Arkansas; but I'm happy to report a cold front is moving in, and we're supposed to get down to mid/upper-80s this weekend. Along with thunderstorms... yippee! We're about to release the new Keypoint website. MattRat and I have been working furiously to get it done. Mostly MattRat, I just do the graphics. Anywho... I knocked out three (yes... THREE) videos yesterday afternoon. Which allows me the opportunity to blog today. Here's a fun story. My dog. She loves to drink water. Normally, when we give her water; she drinks and continues to drink until every drop of water is gone. Today was no different. Around lunch time, I gave her some water. While I continued to make my ham sandwich, I didn't notice that she had finsihed her water. I also didn't notice that she had belched (well, vomited) all the water that she had just drank onto the kitchen floor. As most of you know... water is transparent. Therefore, it's hard to see when it's on the kitchen floor. Keep in mind, that I'm barefoot. I gathered up my ham sandwich and Coke and started walking to the living room to enjoy an epidode of "StarTrek: The Next Generation" while I ate. Three-steps into my trip, I found my foot immersed in the warm, soupy, transparent liquid that had just made its way from my dog's stomach onto my kitchen floor. Mmmmmmmm... can't wait to eat my ham sandwich now! In conclusion, I cleaned it up... ate my lunch, and caught parts of the StarTrek episode.

The life of a designer...

MattRat sent me this a few days ago... and it is so true.

Back from Branson.

We are indeed back from Branson. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. It's pretty spread out; everything isn't in one section like Gatlinburg. (I can't stand Gatlinburg, TN.) We had a pretty decent time while we were there. The weather was outstanding... couldn't have asked for a better day. We got to "Ride The Ducks", that was pretty cool. There's some pretty neat history behind these old military vehicles. We also went to the "Dixie Stampede". Now, I'm not much a "show person"... I generally don't get enjoyment out of these type of things. It's not that I dislike the entertainment... it's just that my attention span is very short. And the seating arrangements are not made for people of my size. However, I'll say that the "Stampede" wasn't that bad. In the boring parts, I could at least eat or sip on some coffee. They raced some pigs and ostriches (No. Not at the same time.)... you can't find entertainment like that everywhere. And, we all got souvenir "boot" cups.