Recently in movies Category

It's amazing - I just checked my web stats, and it appears that I'm getting several visitors to this blog every day at the moment. That's most excellent!!

Also, at this very moment, I'm uploading the "apple" movie to youtube, so you can stop by and take a look at the piece of creative genius that is "APPLE" by clicking here. The only problem is that the 5 minute miracle is nearly 100mb. Sorry about that, but quality is important to me!!

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to being back at the office and seeing what other works of video wizardry we can produce now that the bar has been significantly raised.

But for now, more pressing issues are afoot - more on that one some other time.

Cheery Bye!!

It's been nearly 5 days since my last post, which from what I recall was all about my trip to the ENT guy.

Well, on that front, the big change has been that I woke on Sunday morning with what I thought was really bad chest pain that lasted most of the day, and then most of monday, and tuesday, and then this morning I realised that I may just have really bad indigestion/heartburn (but for 5 days continuously? Wierd?). Anyway, one thought is that our 7 yr old knackered, cheap bed mattress is to blame. It was one of those "buy a bed and we'll give you a cheap knackered mattress for free" ones that has ALWAYS been really uncomfortable - it's like trying to sleep on a fidgety camel. So, I guess we just keep an eye on that one, and we'll see how it develops.

Two BIG things have been the focus of this week so far, one being the National YFC Film team guy (Luke) staying with us and helping out at NSYFC to produce a promo DVD of all the cool stuff we do. The other saw me spending most of yesterday at YFC's national headquarters in Halesowen meeting with the guy who co-ordinates all local YFC centres around the UK, and then a fairly intense interview with Roy Crowne (the top bod in British YFC), but with me interviewing him rather than vice-versa. I basically needed to ask him loads of questions about leadership for part of my MLS (Missional Leadership Scheme) training. More on that one here.

The media side of things has gone really well so far. We've pretty much shot all the footage we need, so we have 2 days left to edit the whole lot together (oh great). And it's actually been a lot of fun having Luke stay with us. We've spent most evenings so far either watching movies (real ones, and ones that we've made) or learning new "magical powers". (n.b. they're not really powers, or even magical - that was use of dramatic license).

It seemed that Luke was actually quite keen to learn some basic magic concepts, and that he actually wanted to learn TO do them, not just HOW to do them, which is always a good start. However, having learned a few secrets I then found him sitting in the middle of the office earlier today sorting cards into order in plain view of "lay" people and trying out tricks that he hadn't even tried in front of a mirror yet - so pretty much giving away the magic with no concern for all the fairies that were dying as a direct result.

And that's about it really. Sorry it was so short.

Ps. Never watch "Balls of Fury" - it is positively shockingly bad - it is too spoofy for it's own spoofyness!! Just don't do it!! Really!!
Beetroot!!

This is gonna be a real smorgasboard of ramblings as I have a few very brief points to make.

Firstly, the coil spring on the car cost less than £100 which is as good as I could have hoped for.

Secondly, I have an ENT (ear, nose throat) specialist appointment in the morning in the hope of finally working out why my throat has been annoying me for nearly 4 months now, but I'm quite apprehensive about it really - will keep you posted.

Thirdly, I think the guy who borrowed my guitar amp is finally gonna pay me for it which pretty much covers the cost of the issue in my first point.

Fourthly, my cold is slowly getting better (I just have a really annoying cough left now), so that's good.

Fifthly, the NSYFC website is finally more-or-less up-to-date, which is possibly the first time in 2 years. Take a look and look at the new £2 per week scheme we've set up (with funky images). Hey, if you wanna support the work I do, you could even sign up!!

Sixthly, Our friend Rob is coming to see us tomorrow for the weekend, which is gonna be really nice, as we haven't seen him for ages. We're gonna have 15 picnics with him just to make a point.

Seventhly (I'm sure that's not even a word), I just finished watching the first season of "Heroes" and it ROCKS!! (although the ending was pretty much as expected - the guy who paints the future helped with that one!!)

And finally, we're going to meet up with our friends Rich and Coz on Sunday at a farm place that we go to sometimes. (we are godparents to their son Oscar, and their other two kids, Toby & Steph are really ace too).

And that's it... Like I said, a smorgasboard of information.

Cheery bye!!

And it's done. My first day as a pen-pusher!! Well, not exactly. I'm actually really excited about the new role at NSYFC. The only strange bit is that my first day was pretty much the same as any other Monday morning - apart from the streamers & balloons that greeted me when I arrived (thanks Connie). Spent most of the day sorting through emails, fixing the server and editing the Aurora promo video (which looks amazing)!!

It's tomorrow that will be strange - I'm used to coming home at 1pm and then doing small groups in the evening, but not tomorrow. Tomorrow I work all day and then come home, and that's it. Very odd, but kinda nice!!

Anyway, I figured I'd use this space to mention a couple of movies I've watched in the last few weeks (with all this new found time in my evenings). I'm not gonna say a lot about them. Just rate them out of 10. so here goes...

• Inside Man - 6 - Good idea, but never gets going
• Tenacious D &POD - 3 - Not very funny and far too much bad language
• The Sentinel - 7 - Good story - Mr Sutherland playing another Jack bauer role
• Killing Zoe - 3 - What happened Mr T? Stick to Dog Day Afternoon!!
• Children of Men - 8 - AMAZING use of single shot scenes (watch the extras)
• Nacho Libra - 2 - What was that? Maybe Jack Black should retire now.
• The Grudge - 4 - Good idea, but nothing like as scarey as hoped
• Hoodwinked - 0 - Never got past first 4 mins - AWFUL!!
• Superman Returns - 7 - Pretty cool effects, but orignal always wins!!
• NEXT - 9 - Awesome idea. And a magician!! Very clever!!
• Jackass two - 4 - OUCH!!

And that'll do for now!! Sorry if you found that boring. I just needed to get it off my chest!!

I spent the day in Stafford today. I can't give specific reasons for being there, but let's just say it has something to do with coffee.

Tim (my brother) goes home tomorrow, after being here for less than 48hrs. It's a bit sad really, but I understand that he needs to get back home. We went to see "NEXT" (the movie, not the shop) this evening, and then I taught him how to play poker. The film was actually very good, despite mixed reviews I'd read. I was quite impressed.

And now I'm typing my blog at a silly time in the morning, and knowing that I have still to load the dishwasher before I head up the wooden hill. It's like my nightly ritual.

I also spent a fair amount of time today talking about prayer, and how the whole "God answers prayer by either a 'Yes', 'No' or 'Wait'" is a sircular prayer idea (i.e. it can never be wrong). Very tough issue, but hopefully someone will have some insight into why this may be a bad theological argument.

I may also have offended a friend today about the naming of a project that they're setting up, I hope I didn't, but you never can tell. And I also discovered that the NKJV bible is still quite a popular translation (I have a huge NKJV study bible that I never use 'cos it seems really old fashioned. But there you go.

So nothing really exciting today, but at least there was something for you to pass the time by reading.

See you tomorrow (when hopefully something interesting will happen).

What a day!! Not only was it the last official day of work at St James (the great) church, but my family also got chased by a swarm of bees!!

It's true. After buying Zak a pocket kite last week, he's been going on about it every 5 minutes - and I guess it isn't really fair that you buy your kid a kite and then don't take him to fly it. So this afternoon, we shot off to black bank (a local hill) to fly his kite. it actuallly flew quite well, but as we came to start packing it away, I hear this wierd humming noise behind me, and then I hear Lara shouting at Zak to run to her. As I turn round all I can see is BLACK!! It's bees!! and Maisey is just standing there, about 20 yards behind us, with them all flying over her head!! Lara (the wuss) rather than helping Zak, has aready run out of the way to save herself, and is calling Zak to run to her. Meanwhile I spot Maisey and run INTO THE BEES to rescue her. It was all so quick. So anyway, I make a dive for Maisey and KEEP RUNNING!! And then after running through literally thousands of bees for at least 10 seconds, trying to protect Maisey as best I can, the bees were gone, and as a family we stood there totally freaked out, with kids who thought all that running had been great fun!! I really can't believe that none of us got stung at all - GOD IS GOOD!! (and that's one we'll remember for many years I'm sure)

Anyway, my last official duty as youth worker at the church (a leaders meeting) finished at around 9pm this evening, and now I have some time off, which is VERY COOL. It does feel very odd, but then I suppose I always knew it would. And the bizarre thing is, that the whole BEE thing is my lasting memory of the day - NOT the fact that it (for the time being) was my last day of financed "hand's-on" church based ministry!! All very odd.

Oh yes, I also finished boarding our loft (we need the extra storage).

So what did I learn today...

Read the next bit to find out!!

A friend of mine received a promo pack from the company that printed the flyers I designed for Aurora, and one of them was in his pack!! it's so cool that a huge company like that would want to use a flyer I designed for their national promotional material.

Spent most of today filming the new aurora promo video. seemed to take ages and didn't really get as much done as I'd hoped. I called national YFC and asked them to send up some dvd promo stuff that they've produced. They asked if it was to promote year out oportunities, which it is - it's just that we're possibly going to use the bits we like to add to our own promo.

I just watched Karate Kid II. very kool movie. I wish I'd got to see it at the cinema when it was first out. I just love the wisdom of Mr Myaggi. May have to add some of his quotes to the sidebar. very kool.

And that was today. still not really sure of my plans for tomorrow. definitely in YFC in the morning, but then who knows??

I'll fill you in more tomorrow.

I'm about to head off to church to lead my last "Pathfinder Plus" session. It's very odd after leading it EVERY WEEK for a year, but seasons do change - that doesn't make it any less wierd though.

I spent the time that I would normally have been posting a comment yesterday working on the blog interface again. still all very confusing, but at least it seems a tad more stable now.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Trentham Gardens for a wander, and I quickly learned that you should never walk down a dusty track in really nice shoes, cos they were literally white by the time we got back. I also cleaned and polished the car (first time in a year) and now iot looks a lot cleaner, but could probably do with another going over. It suddenly makes sense to wash and polish your car more regularly - it was soooo dirty. Hey, and I also learned (by accident) that back-to-black works ace on nice shoes, and that blue car polish doesn't work so well on good jeans!! (oops).

Anyway, that was my day yesterday. Hopefully I'll post again later once we've been to see my brother (he's back and all is well, apparently).

See you later.

So here I am, at one of my youth group's houses @ 11.39pm, having just finished creating a soundtrack for her silent movie for A level media studies project - and now I'm ready for my bed.

And what have I learned today - Well, I learned that transfering a web domain name to another host (sorry if that's too much jargon) is more comlicated than you could ever imagine. I also learned how to create "slices" in adobe photoshop, which again is very technical.

And most recently (i.e. as I'm typing this) I learned that people in some foreign cultures suffer from a (imaginary) disease called "Koro" where men honestly believe that their testicles are shrinking into their bodies and try to stop them by tying weights to them (or sometimes chopsticks) so they won't go in any further. And that is probably the grossest thing I've learned so far. (although I did watch Jackass number 2 last night and that was pretty AWFUL.)

I also had my last express (youth service) planning meeting tonight, which was a bit sad. but I actually left feeling quite positive about the team taking it forward and doing good things in the future. Woohoo.

Right, now I am ready for my bed.

Tata!!

Again, you may notice that I haven't posted for like 3 days. And again, it's not 'cos I haven't been learning new stuff, but rather that I have been busy DOING useful stuff and been really worn out by the evening so tried to go to bed early and never got round to blogging. So here is a brief run-down of the last few days...

On Thursday, my meeting with Peter (the vicar) was cancelled so I'm still no closer to knowing what's happening with this job. All very confusing. I spent most of the afternoon working on a video project with one of my young people for her A-level media coursework. I've never really done audio for silent movies before (that sounds really wierd, but it really isn't), so it was quite a learning experience, and Duncan and Donna Came over in the evening (after a trip to A&E with a burned baby), and we watched HOODWINKED (well, the first 10 minutes - It's RUBBISH!!), and I'd kinda expected it to be okay(ish), but no.

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, then I walked through several tonnes of clay, oh, I believe in yesterday!! We went to Trentham Gardens and did the "barefoot walk" with some friends from Rugby, which basically involved walking through water, mud, pine cones and sand - but primarily it was all about walking barefoot on GRAVEL!! not a great experience, but I did learn that I don't like walking of gravel. And then our friends went home - why they had to go I don't know, they wouldn't say (well, actually it was to have dinner, but anyway). And I honestly cannot remember what I did yesterday evening, At all!! How weird.

So today, we (as a family) did a 5 mile walk with some of the youth ministry volunteers from church. It was nice and sunny & I carried Maisey for most of the way in a huge backpack, which was nice. We had a lovely lunch at a pub called the Sweat'n'ham arms, learned how to play a strange version of Hide and seek with Zak called "40-40" where instead of staying hidden, as soon as you stop counting, everyone runs out and starts doing some wierd dancy type thing around a picnic bench, and then we walked back and had ice-creams.

And this eveing we had a bbq with Tom & Sarah, which was LOVELY!! And I learned that if you're really hot you may even consider peeing on your hat to cool yourself down a bit (it was on a wierd survival type TV show, I didn't actually do that).

Oh yes, I also got a free question from 82ASK (a text encyclopedia thing) and so I asked them "how many ants can fit into a regular 60 watt lightbulb?", and I got an answer (but I think it's totally wrong...

Apparently... "Standard light-bulbs are approximately 3.8cm spheres. Ants are approx 1cm long (what?), so you could fit around 500 ants in a lightbulb."

Does that sound right to you? And where do you find 1cm ants? All seems a bit fishy to me, but I got an answer all the same.

See you next time.