Need More Books

We, (the multimedia-impassioned-Christians), need to write more books.

There. I've said it!

Walk into any Christian book store, and I challenge you to find a single useful and relevant book written for our ministry. I poured through the latest LifeWay resources catalog, and couldn't find a single one there either.

Is it that people in our field are too busy? Too occupied with the countless hours required to pursue excellence in their ministry for Jesus?

Well, there's plenty of online resources. We love the internet, and it works for us. Just take a look at the links on my sidebar over there -->

Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't it be nice to have something in print? Readily available for newcomers entering the field? I would love to see this happen. Even if it's just a "most popular" anthology from the Church Marketing Lab. A collaboration would be ok too. I'd even be willing to help with that.

So sharpen your pencils. Open up your Word and OpenOffice documents. Fire up your Quark and inDesign. It's time to get writing!

Starfield Concert

I took Shannon to see Starfield in concert last night. Fantastic rock/emo-ish Canadian Christian band. The concert was a great blend between their hit songs, and well-known worship songs.

The concert was sold out! They actually set today as a second concert, which is also almost sold out. So you better hurry and get your tickets.

I completely forgot my camera, so if you want to take a look, you'll have to search Flickr.

Their setup was pretty simple, and still awesome. Besides the usual lights and stage setup, they were ringed by three huge screens with projectors behind them. They projected full 3-screen-spanning videos that perfectly synched with the music. A combination of motion graphics, and very artistically presented song lyrics. All run off of a Mac laptop controlled by their bass guitarist.

Since the band controlled most of their own presentation, they had just two other guys. One to control a small lightboard, and another for the soundboard and small rack of equipment... It's amazing how affordable quality productions are becoming.

Well, we had a great time at the concert, and thoroughly enjoy their music. So check them out.

Cricket

Yesterday morning, at setup before Sequoia's church service, we encountered a very loud and annoying cricket hiding in the back of the gym where the services are held. We felt that it would have been rather inappropriate to have a cricket chirping during Pastor Rick's sermon, and I planned to remedy the situation.

So, I proceeded to hunt down and enthusiastically chase the insect around the back of the room. After a few moments, I succeeded in my quest of annihilating the creature. Returning triumphantly from squishing the bug, I was heralded by calls of Sir Will, Cricketsbane.

God Edited My Video

I was down to the night-before rush to get the material ready in time. Last-minute changes and ideas left me with having to almost completely re-edit the short animation demo that was needed for a meeting the next morning. There was no way I could finish editing, and get enough sleep to keep me awake and alert throughout the meeting. And so I prayed that God would help me.

Nearly falling asleep, I cut out interesting video samples from various animated series, and slapped them down onto the timeline. Then I grabbed two songs from different soundtracks, and lined them up beginning to end and overlapped them so they just fit the length of the video.

And you know what? God edited my video. I couldn't have done a better job even if I tried. It did not require any tweaks or changes. It was finished. And everything fit perfectly too: the pacing flowed well, the music was seamless, the video was edited to the music, and it even felt like the music was tailored to the context and actions which transpired within each scene.

It was amazing... and very humbling.

Stall Unstall

That was quite the weekend. We were in Ancaster for a business convention, and stayed behind until about midnight to help pack things up. By the time we went out to the car, it was just past midnight. Turned the key, and nothing happened! The family van has stalled! We called a few friends, and a couple of them even drove back to help us out... we tried boosting the battery, and every other trick we could think of.

So we ended up having to stay in a hotel in Hamilton overnight, after driving for another hour to find a free hotel... since all the ones in the area were booked solid with the Canadian Open golf tournament.

Woke up, and took a taxi out to the car. We sat in there praying that God would look after us... turned the key... and it started!

We then proceeded with rushing home while the engine held out, and arrived back in Ottawa around 4ish pm.

Color It

There's quite an interesting selection of color (colour for you Canadians) pickers on the net out there, so I thought I'd list a few of my favorites.

• ColorZilla Firefox extension to allow you to sample colors from the internet.
  
• ColorCombos lists of color combinations.
• ColorJack Studio random colors and blending.
• ColorBlender lets you pick directly matching colors, and even suggests Pantone equivalents.
• ColorScheme helps you pick an assortment color matches, and screen them for visually impaired.
• Color Shades is a huge list of colors, their hex codes, and their proper names.
• "24" is just fun for picking colors

Use these helpful tools to pick color schemes for your print, video, and web material. A good color scheme does wonders to attract viewers, and lead their eyes to your message.

Finally, here's a neat book I use for ideas and to look up global colors.

Taking Care

It's been a pretty crazy week... starting with a very long, and very lavish Chinese wedding last Saturday. Shannon and I enjoyed the 10-course meal they served, and then took off at 7am the next morning to go pick up her baby puppy just past Toronto.

We got the dog, and embarked on the adventure of taking him home. And what an adventure it was! The trip took far too long, with frequent stops at rest stations to let the puppy relieve himself (and even then, he messed his cage).

But when we got back to Ottawa, Shannon became sick! I went over there on Monday to look after her and her puppy.

She went to work yesterday, but the sickness came back in the evening, and continued throughout today, keeping her at home.

I hope she's feeling better tomorrow! Being sick really sucks. At least she has me to take care of her ;)

Finite Flickr

I've finally gotten around to getting an account at Flickr. After all, it's the biggest and most successful photo-sharing community around.

It's fast, it's easy, and it has all sorts of tools... like being able to upload directly from your computer or cellphone... or putting a script on your website to display your Flickr photos.

My only complaint, is that they limit free accounts to only 3 photo albums! My photo organizer on my computer has dozens of albums, so how am I supposed to narrow that down to 3? I've more or less decided on Things I See, Things I Love, and Things I Make.

Luckily, Flickr's pro account is only $25 a year, and upgrades this to allow many more features.