Just a short picture post.

This is going to be a short post, because I don't have much to say right now. I was just going through some pics and found some ones I want to post that I haven't seen in a while.

I know I'm gonna get some crazy comments about this one. This was at the mountain biking class trip to the Wombe in Arkansas a few months ago.


















This is Matt and I doing some cleanup. We were messing with a lot of sawdust, so those masks helped a lot.
















I miss my little Suzy. You know, Suzy Subaru? That's my car. Nick, the Buick is yours. I think he likes the Buick better anyway.

Google

I don't know how much of all this stuff is brand new, but Google certainly has made some cool stuff recently. Check out the links below: Oh! I just forgot, I can't make links in here, because I'm on the work computer... No Firefox on this computer...

- Google Notebook - http://www.google.com/notebook
Clip and collect information as you browse the web.

- Google Trends - http://www.google.com/trends
See what the world is searching for. Just check it out.

- Google Mars - http://www.google.com/mars
Just like Google Maps, but of Mars. Pretty cool.

- Google Spreadsheets - http://www.spreadsheets.google.com
Create, store, and share spreadsheets on the web.

- Google Reader - http://www.google.com/reader/things/intro
Read RSS feeds and subscribe to podcasts (like mine).

- Google Labs - http://labs.google.com
Contains list and links to all of Google's cool new stuff.


All of those things just give more reason to believe that Google is planning on making their own OS. I read an article somewhere a few months ago, maybe a year ago, saying that Google was wanting to make their own operating system. It would different than the way we have it now. It would be web based. They want to build a computer that is more like a tablet you just carry around the house and do all your work through a wireless connection. I haven't checked, or heard any details as of yet, but I'll keep looking. In the mean time, check out those links. They are pretty cool products!

It's now time to play, what's that sound!

Hey everyone. I did this post a while ago, but I have more songs and podcasts now. This is pretty much just a series of screen captures from my iTunes.

These are all my playlists (I try to break my mood down into as many different categories as possible!):



















These are the songs from my top rated playlist:















These are the podcasts that I currently subscribe to:









And now, some facts straight off the iPod...
- 2,083 songs
- 149 videos
- 11,946 photos (99% are my own)
- 22.9 GB left of free space

Biking and hiking and kyaking, oh my!

My brother, as some of you may know him, has sent me a link to Eco Primal Quest. Upon recieving the link, I quickly checked it out. It's awesome! You all have to go the the site and watch the video on the main page. It's not very short, so expect to sit at you computer for a little bit. No, but really, it's cool.

It's an adventure race. Adventure races can last anywhere from 4 hours to days. This is the big daddy of all adventure races.

Here are some of the details. You make a team with 3 other people. First one through the course by going through all the checkpoints wins. That's it. No tricks. Seriously though, it's a lot more involved than that. The course is about 417 miles in length. Lowest elevation: 3,933. Highest elevation: 10,539. The events, in no particular order are:
- Ropes (rock climbing)
- Desert Trekking
- Mountain Trekking
- Mountain Biking
- Horseback Riding
- Paddling (kayaking)
- Whitewater Swim (up to class 3 rapids)
- Canyoneering
- Orienteering

Sound like fun yet?

Team Spyder was in the lead for a long time, but not anymore. They went out too fast and they seemed to have bonked, at least their leader anyway. Here is an excerpt from "Primal Quest News" from the website. You can also click here to read the rest of the article.

"I caught up with the captain of Team Spyder Danelle Ballengee yesterday evening... When prompted about how much sleep her team got, she said that in total, they probably had about 3 hours since the race began, but not all of it good sleep. The night before, they spent the night by the side of the river, where they were eaten alive by the mosquitoes."

This year, the race is in Utah. It's really hot in Utah right now I guess. Also, to navigate, they only have a map and a compass.

Well, I wanted to give more info on it, but I have to go to work. I hope everyone has an awesome night! Take care!

What I'm working on right now...

I've been learning a little bit of Adobe Illustrator. Mostly the pen tool. I had no idea how to use it before, but I took a few tutorials and now I think I got a good handle on it! I want to show off some of the stuff I traced with the pen tool, and only the pen tool. So keep in mind, it was hard because I'm just a beginner!

Original picture














Traced picture




















Original picture



















Traced picture


















I really like the traced hot air balloon the best. I think it looks kind of abstract.

This Saturday, Me, Jenni, Matt, and Natalie are going to this outdoor christian concert in Dallas. It's free, you just have to have a ticket though. It should be a blast! Check out the website for more info: http://www.klty.com/celebratefreedom/index.htm Sorry, I can't do hyperlinks because I'm doing this on Safari on a Mac. I'd install Mozilla, but this is my work computer. The bands they are having are:
-Aaron Shust
-Joel Engle
-Kennedy
-Todd Agnew
-Phil Wickham
-Building 429
-Anthony Evans
-The Afters
-Matthew West
-Kutless
-Jump5
-Jeremy Camp
-Chris Tomlin
-MercyMe
-Joanna Martino
-Mark Schultz
-Michael W. Smith
-Big Daddy Weave

I'll be sure to get pictures. Also, it's the largest free christian concert anywhere. Chick-fil-a helps sponsor it so I'm expecting some polynesian sauce!

Well, I'm gonna go. I have work to do. I also have church tonight, so I may post after work... maybe I'll post during lunch! Who knows! No one knows!

I got some new stuff for you!

First off... when I make my third million (dollars), I'm going to buy this plane. I don't know how much it costs though, but it would be so cool to pretend I'm a fighter pilot without the risk of actually getting shot down!







I would also probably fly that plane to this old blimp hanger. It's been converted into an indoor tropical island. You can basejump, camp in a tent on the sand by the beach... the water is 85 degrees and the air is 95. It looks cool!














































Here are some cool pics, that will only make sense if you use Google Maps for more than an hour at a time.

This is what really happens when you leave the heart of a city, everything turns into low res, even people!













This is what people see from a tall building.












This is what people see from the ground when someone is planning a route somewhere.













Well, I certainly hope you enjoyed those pictures, I would love to take credit for those pics, but alas... I cannot.

Well, I can't think of much else right now. I have to go to bed too. Work starts early! Well, not really, but you know what I mean.

New Video!

Hey all. I just wanted to show you something I made today at work. I gave a little more life to a still picture than what they usually have. I made one bird, then duplicated it a lot, changed sizes and set some other random parameters, animated the ground, then animated the sky, but slower and animated the birds the opposite way and it looks pretty good! Well, that's what I think anyway... Tell me what you think!

Very, very, easy day.

Today was a super day. Well, more of a super relaxing day! I got up around 1. Which is good because I went to bed around 5. Am. Yeah, yeah, I know... But there was a good movie, well, I kept thinking it would get good, on TV. It had a decent lineup in the opening credits so I thought I'd watch a little. Then I just couldn't turn it off. But it's their fault because they turned an hour long movie into like a 9 hour movie because they played commercials every 3 minutes! Here's the main cast: Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Keanu Reeves, Greg Kinnear, Hilary Swank, J.K. Simmons, and some other people I don't really know. But just by the names, I thought "It can't be that bad." Well, I'm here to tell you that it can be. It's interesting, but not my favorite. It's called "The Gift."

Ok, I got up around 1. To shake off the laziness, I went and worked out. That was around 5pm. It was nice being in my pj's all day then working out. I worked out hard, then got a shower, went to Jenni's, ate some pot roast and mashed taters, watched some TV, help clean up the house, took Jenni's car to the shop (drop off) and then came straight back home (dorm).

I'm going to bed like right after I finish this post.

Oh, a new thing coming up. The end of July, there is a BMW event thing. It's to raise money for breast cancer research. The idea is this: You drive a BMW all day, and BMW will donate $1 for every mile you drive. Here are the stipulations: You have to be 21. That's it! Sign me up! I'm going to do it, it's gonna be so much fun. In the past, they have had the whole fleet available, except the M series, but that's ok. But this year, I think they just have the 3 series ($30,000-215hp) and 7 series ($71,000-360hp) available. Tough choice... I'd probably go with the 3. More sporty. Either way, here is a pic from the website. Also, here are some pics of the 3 series and the 7 series. Which one should I drive? Comment.

SL-500. That's right.

So, tonight... I got a call from my director (not like an AA director, but tv director) this morning asking me to run camera tonight at the big church. I was like, "sure." Because you never know when you'll need a favor, so I do favors for other people. It was fun.. I just ran centerline, so you can't be ultra creative, but it was still good. I never ran camera in the big service before.

Afterwards, Jenni and Maggie and I went to where Maggie works to have a snack and hang out for a minute, and pick up Jenni's car (it was parked there). Then they let me drive their car just up and down the street. It's a Mercedes Benz SL-500. How cool is that! I got some pics, and some video. Keep in mind, the pictures will be a little fuzzy because it was getting dark and it's hard to hold the camera steady. And the video quality is a little poor because it's a digital camera.

I'm not sure of the year of the car, I forgot to ask. By the looks of it, a 2003 or 2004 most likely. I went to the Mercedes website, they only have an SL 550. I guess they stopped making the 500. Here is the link.

Anyway, some specs are:
- 5.0 liter V8
- 302 hp @ 5600rpm
- 0-60 in 6.67 sec.
- 339 lb-ft torque @ 2700rpm
- 4045 lbs.
- Hard top convertible.
- Base price of $86,710.

Ok, here are the pics.

SL - 500 Video

Mike's Work - Tour #1.

This is the first short video tour of where I work. Keep in mind, I did this in like 10 minutes, really. It would have been faster, but I was exporting something else at the same time and it slowed the computer way down. Anyway, it gives you some idea as to where I work and what it's like. Oh, I shot this on my Minolta X50 digital camera as well, that's why its so bad quality wise. Enjoy!

More photos of my room!

Here are some more pics of my room. Josh and I both did laundry and the dryers didn't exactly do their job. His stuff was more wet than mine, but they certainly weren't warm and dry and soft... They were all damp and warm, like someones underarm after a workout session... ew! Anyway, we had to improvise. These pictures are a result of our improvisation.

Picture of my "desktop studio"

Here is a straight on pic of my desk. I'm in the process of cleaning things up, so I will post some more pics once I update, but this is the look of it for now. I hope you like it!

















I labeled everything so you know exactly what everything is. If you have any questions about my setup or you want to request a certain angle for a picture, please just comment. Oh, and that calendar hasn't been "updated" (torn) in a while, so the date is obviously wrong.

This is NOT an indication as to what I do all day... Ok, maybe some days...

Don't you just love the sound of an old cathode ray tube warming up?

All done ICBM! How awesome is that!? Alright, alright, it wasn't that bad. It's just a little boring. Then the director makes jokes over the intercom and it gets hard to hold the camera steady. That makes time go by faster!

Well, I'm really wore out though. I'm enjoying just sitting back and relaxing right now. I'm watching another episode of Lost online. It's good to get back into the show, but it will probably be short lived, because I'm not completely done work or anything. Although work life will certainly be a lot slower now that all of our big stuff is done. Just regular small shoots, nothing big at all.

That's all for now. I'm gonna heat up some lunch.

I got let out early!

The service tonight got out a little early, around 9:40. That's a big plus! I mean, I like running camera and all, and I like church, but there's something really tiresome about mixing the both. It may be more fun, or even seem to go by faster if I directed or something, but from my standpoint, the standpoint of a handheld camera, it gets boring pretty fast. Mostly because of the awkward positions your body has to make. My neck is usually the first thing to start hurting... anyway, what am I talking about! Let's move on...

On a lighter note, my room looked especially cozy tonight, so I took a picture of it. I hope you like it! It doesn't show much though.
















I just found out something really cool! You can watch Lost, Desperate Housewives, Alias... and I think another show (but Lost is the best of those) for free on abc.com. You have to check it out! I guess it's only cool if you've missed an episode, like I have (many episodes), and it's free! I'm actually watching an episode right now.

Well, that's about it, I better get going. I'll try and keep these updates coming, but I don't even know if anyone is reading these... That doesn't really bother me though. So, whatever! Peace out!

Tomo tamagachi Mr Roboto...

Sike, I know it's Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto, but I always thought it was something else and I just found out what it was. I get confused with certain songs sometimes... Oh well!

Ok, let me share with you what I've been doing today and yesterday, oh, and what I'll be doing tomorrow. I'm working the ICBM conference at the Mabee Center. No, that does not mean InterContinental Ballistic Missile. It stands for International Charasmatic Bible Ministries. If you want to learn to be a better pastor or leader in general... I'm pretty sure that's what it's all about.

Anyway, I ran camera last night from about 7 till 10 for Richard & Lindsey Roberts, and a few other people. Then I ran camera from 9 to 12. Since my next shoot was at 7, I thought I'd come back to my room, relax. Maybe see what was new on www.engadget.com, or play jenga alone, again... I digress. But I decided to put on Nickelodeon and lay down. So I fell asleep to Jimmy Neutron, if any of you know what that is. It's a funny show. Well I slept on and off, mostly on though, from about 1 till 4:30. A pretty good sized nap! Especially for me! I just kept waking up because I kept thinking I was late to run camera!

So tonight, I run camera for Creflo Dollar. Tomorrow morning is Jesse Duplantis. Last nights service was live on TV too. They said that Daystar picked it up. I'm not kidding, but I also heard that there was about a 100,000 person audience. I never ran camera for that many people before! Whoa! Wish me luck tonight! Oh, it's also streaming online, but I couldn't give you the url, I don't know where it is, probably Daystar. Oh well.

Well, I have to be there in an hour, call time is always about an hour before the shoot. See, we shoot at 7... I'm sure you got it. Ok, I'm leaving. See ya!

Another pic from the Newsboys concert.

Here is a pic from the Newsboys concert. There should be more coming later this week too. I'm just getting them from the KXOJ website under the Freedom Live "scrapbook" page. If you look carefully enough, and view the image at full resolution 3,000 something by something... you can see me. I'm right in front of the stage and you can see my left side. I have a headset (intercom) on. Also you can see my friend Matt running camera. Also, you can see Jenni & her mom in the front row. I'll put two pics on here, one with some markings for direction and one unedited. Enjoy!

Speaking of Christian concerts...

I just remembered about Creation. Has anyone heard of that? I went to it when I was like 13. It was awesome! Practically every Christian music artist and band will be there. Check it out: www.creationfest.com They have two of them. A northwest one in Washington state and a northeast one in Pennsylvania. It's too close in time schedule to hit up the PA one, but maybe the WA?... Who knows!




























Also, I'm getting a new cell phone. Here is a pic. I'll be glad to get rid of the piece of crap I have now... The main factors that I love about it are:
1. It has bluetooth.
2. It has a speakerphone (but with bluetooth, that's no big deal)
3. It's free.
And it has a camera, but I don't really care because I have a 5MP camera that is probably close in size to the phone.

Like the new look?

I decided to try something a little different. Hopefully this new look will work out. I don't see why not. Anyway... I'm working on making a new title bar thing at the top of the page with a picture of myself and some other cool stuff. Well, if you have any ideas, please share them now, because I am going to try and get this done as soon as possible. I'll also try to give a recap of meeting the Newsboys and stuff, because I just found out that the "meet & greet" was only for "Breakfast Club" members. That's the Newsboys fanclub that's $40 a year. Woops! I'll tell you more later.

Also, I'm working ICBM this week and I have some freelance (paid) work as well. Ok, I'll check you later!

Check it out!

My wish did come true! I got pictures with the Newsboys, no group shot, but everyone individually! Well, except Duncan because he was really late due to a forced landing in Arkansas. He had to drive the rest of the way. I also got them to sign my CD! All 5 of them signed!

I almost didn't get pictures or signatures either! I went really early to the show and I went to where Third Day was the day before. In a private room with a TV, shower, chairs... and a guard sitting outside the door. I asked the guard if I could leave my CD (with a note and sharpie attached) in the room and they can sign it at their leisure then I'll pick it up after the show. He said no, but they are at the "meet & greet" at the Mezzanine. We'll, Matt and I went to the back way to the meet & greet and somehow got first in line kind of. The Newsboys and Superchick were just starting to go around the circle and shake hands, sign autographs and take pictures. So I got my pictures, I got some signatures, then I bolted. But I only had 3 signatures, I needed two more. I went back to their room later, they were eating... waited for the guard to leave (he walked away for a minute), then knocked on the door, opened it up, and asked them if I could leave the CD on the table. They said sure and they would make sure Duncan would sign it when he arrived. I said thank you and left. Awesome! So, long story short, I picked the CD up after the show and it was so cool! Also, I did find a guitart pick that said Newsboys, but I gave it to this little girl. She was so excited. Well, I gotta go, I hope you enjoy the pics!

This pic is from the Third Day concert yesterday.















This is the CD from the Newsboys concert tonight.















Peter Furler and I.















Phil Joel and I.















Jeff Frankenstein and I.















Paul Coleman and I.















Zoegirl and I.

Awesome night!

Hey guys! I just got done taping the Third Day concert at Freedom Live in the ORU Mabee Center. And guess what! I got a picture with them! So cool! I almost didn't because they were making a bee line for their van, but I stopped short and with the help of a security guard, I was in business! Sorry the pic is so crappy, it was foggy where we were. I cleaned it up in photoshop though. Oh, I also found a Third Day guitar pick. Really cool!

I also am posting my pics with Miss America, Jennifer Berry, and Miss Oklahoma, Jennifer Warren. I hope you like em'!




















Tomorrow night is Newsboys, so wish me luck! Oh, I technical directed tonight, but tomorrow I run a handheld camera. Peace out!

Just a quick update for now...

Hey all! Whoa have I been busy!

I just got done working the Miss Oklahoma pageant. For those of you who didn't know, I technical directed and ran a little camera. Well, not literally a physically little/small camera, but just camera for like one night. I TD'd the rest. It was a lot of fun! I really got into pageants! It's cool to see all the stuff that the contestants have to do backstage. Because in front of the camera, you see just normal stuff, but backstage is way cooler. Everyone running around, getting ready, practicing talents... Interesting stuff. I worked 68 hours that week. Generally, 8am to 10pm, give or take lunch time and stuff. I literally only had time for sleep and work. Nothing else got done! I also met Miss Oklahoma 2005 and the current Miss America. I have pictures with both of them, but I'm at work typing this so I won't be able to put them on here because the pictures are in my room.

This week, I am documenting/running camera for an ORU Summer Camp, the Math & Science Academy. I just follow these middle school kids around and shoot a lot of video, then bring the video back and have the editor edit it. I also have been doing a lot for them. I mean, they are kind of short handed in the way of guy counselors, so I have taken that role. I spent all day yesterday with them on field trips, driving the ORU van and videotaping them. Not at the same time though! There were 5 vans in our little caravan of middle school kids. We went to the Oxely Nature Center, Tulsa Air & Space Museum, the new Planetarium, and an observatory in Mounds, OK to launch some rockets and look at planets. I saw Jupitor, great color bands! I saw Saturn, great rings! And I saw Mercury, looked like a whitish dot. I also saw another galaxy and some globular clusters. It was a really clear night and these were really awesome telescopes. The eyepiece on one cost around $500. There is a group that goes up there and has star parties. Sounds like fun! The Nature Center and Air & Space Museum were really cool! I had a blast! They have also been paying my way for lunch and dinner when I go with them to shoot because I help so much! Yesterday, we had lunch at Casa Viva. It used to be called Casa Bonita, but that shut down due to health codes. So they sold it, fixed it up (looks the same, just better) and renamed it! It's great!

I just found out that I'm working the ICBM conference next week. Luckily its only 3 days, because I need a good break with just regular work. After this week and next, things will slow down completely. I also wanted to take some time off but there are going to be 3 people gone next week.

Oh, I'm working the Freedom Live concert too, camera or TD, I don't know. It will be fun though. http://www.kxoj.com/freedomlive/ Bands like Newsboys, Third Day, Zoegirl, and a bunch of other bands are going to be there. I should try and get my picture with them too! That would be so cool!

Since they can't really pay me overtime (ORU just hates to do that, and my boss gets in trouble if she does that), I get paid time off. Since I worked 68 hours last week and I'm only allowed to work 40, I get those remaining 28 hours for paid time off. I'll have to figure something out!

I've been getting up around 6:30 everday because the day just starts up so fast. Luckily I finished some morning stuff fast today, so I have time to type this letter. I better get some comments for this! I didn't know when I would be able to type! Luckily, my roommate, Josh, has to be at work by 7 so he gets me up anyway.

Since I'm pretty much typing an overview, let me go back and give some more details...

So, I follow these kids around all day. They have classes, like Rocket Science, Chemical Reactions, DNA Fingerprinting, Cryptanalysis, Rocket Engineering, Chromatography... stuff like that. There are two groups, blue and gold. I follow the blue group, the other guy follows the gold. We shoot them all day, then come back around 5ish, and log our tapes. That means, for every shot that we took, we have to write it down. We have to write down the beginning (timecode) of the shot and the end of the shot, a short description and a rating of 1 - 4 with 4 being the best. My 33 minutes of footage yesterday took 2 hours to log, and is 6 pages long. This helps the editor, because he doesn't have time to scan the tapes. Monday, I worked from 8a-8p. Tuesday, I worked from 7a-11p. Today? Well, I'll work from 7a-probably 5ish because I have church at 6:30. I help out with Royal Rangers.

After walking around with a video camera in my hands for a whole day, I really found out that I really, really, really want a camcorder. The one that I really want is a Canon XL2. You can google it for info on it, but it is just the best one for me and what I do.

I also think that I want to do more reality style or documentary shooting and projects. I would love to do some documentaries and stuff. I started thinking that when I got an offer to be a camera guy on a new christian reality tv show. I met this guy at the Miss Oklahoma pageant. His daughter is one of the contestants and he has a production company in Pennsylvania. They are going to circumnavigate South America by his 42 foot sailboat. It is a reality show about their missions teams going into various countries. I'm still getting details, mostly, when. I'll keep you posted. That would be cool though!

This has been a great, but extremely busy two weeks! I hope when it slows down, I can post more regularly. We'll see! See you all later!

I don’t even know where to start…

So much stuff…  Let’s see, I’ve been kept pretty busy with work, but it’s the most fun I’ve ever had working before!  So far, I’ve been technical directing all of the shoots that we have done, which were some area high school graduation ceremonies, and this week is Miss Oklahoma (http://www.missoklahomausa.com).  

Besides technical directing, I did some editing as well.  I was the editor for the highlight reel for ORUEF.  That stands for Oral Roberts University Educational Fellowship (www.oru.edu/oruef).  My three co-workers shot all of the events and I picked which shots I wanted and put them to the music that I picked to complete the video.  The video had to be between four and five minutes long.

Nick just called me today, but I was busy so he left a message.  He told me what his room placement was for this upcoming school year.  For those of you who don’t know, Nick is my younger brother who is coming to ORU.  It’s going to be a lot of fun.  He can see my new computer, see what kind of work I do… we can bike together…  

I also have been working out more.  I’ve been running, biking, weight lifting, push ups, crunches… all that dumb stuff.  I guess I just have to eat more healthy stuff.  But it feels good to run again!  

It’s been pretty hot out here in Tulsa though.  Pretty consistent now.  Always around 90.  We keep the room around 60.  Well, that’s what the thermostat says, but my watch (thermometer) says it’s 68.  It won’t go any lower.  But it’s really nice being so cold.

I’m going to take some pictures of where I work so you can see what I’m talking about.  We have two Avid editing systems and four graphic workstations.  All Mac computers with OSX except one of them with OS9.  We have Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, After Effects 6.5 and 7.0, and a host of other programs.

I work from 9-5 everyday, except if I come in early I can leave a little earlier.  I’ll usually come in at 8 because it’s nice to get out at 4.  Also, Josh has to work from 7-3 so this way he gets me up and I can have an hour to get ready for work.  It’s a really good gig.

Today though, were some weird hours.  I went in at 9.  We had to set up for Miss Oklahoma at 9:30.  We brought all of our equipment to the Mabee Center, set up, then realized that one of our cables was bad.  After extensive troubleshooting, we found out what it was and replaced the messed up equipment.  That was about 2:30.  We also had someone run to get us lunch from Sonic.  Ohhhhh, I love Sonic!  And work paid for it!  I think… I didn’t pay!

I have to go back at 6 though.  We have technical rehearsal.  But the rest of this week is going to be extremely busy.  I’ll be spending almost all of my time in the Mabee Center and Cityplex.  I’m shooting the girls interviews with the judges.  It should be fun.  They say it’s the funnest shoot they do all summer (no grammar mistakes there)!

Well, I better get going!  I have to get ready for work!