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Tuesday, 03 November 2009

One of my Kids tried to Kill me tonight

No that title is not metaphorical in anyway... one of my four children tried to kill me and Maddy this evening.

Of course it did not work since I am typing this, but it obviously the fact that an attempt on the life of myself and my wife brings about a number of concerns.

Now you wonder what happened. Well, the evening was going well. Dinner was being served. I gathered a few of the kids and got them to sit down at the table as Maddy started to serve the food. I went back to our room to get Lejb, but I met him halfway in the hallway. You see, this morning he learned how to climb out of the play pen in our room. They sat down and ate. Then we threw a surprise birthday party for my grandmother - it is her 80th this sunday and thought that a video message complete with singing and cake would be fun. Then it was time to get ready for bath and bed. Total time was probably about half an hour.

Maja went to use the toilet in our room and then came out, with a concerned look on her face.

"Daddy, I need you to come with me and see something." She said with such seriousness, so I followed.

She took me to Maddy and I's room where she began to show me that the sink was plugged up and water had begun to over flow. Then I looked closer. It hadn't BEGUN - it was continuing. The water was flowing over the sink, onto the vanity, onto the floor (via the laundry basket). Now the laundry would soak most of this up right? Sure - but it had reached it's saturation level. The floor was absolutely soaked.

While sucking up gallons of water from the carpet the past hour or so, I couldn't help but think "One of my children tried to drown me."

I have to hide the knives.

Sunday, 13 September 2009

Thursday, 10 September 2009

Monday, 07 September 2009

Freshness Dates and Fallout Shelters.

If there was a reason to spend an undisclosed amount of time in a fallout shelter you have to ask yourself - would you eat the food?

Think about it. To build a fallout shelter with enough food, one would have to be stocking it for quite sometime... perhaps years. So if you found yourself down there and needed to eat, say a can of Campbell's Old Fashioned Vegetable Soup, you could be thing that is several years old.

"But it is in a tin can... it could last for centuries and you could still eat it." That is what you might think. But if you look very carefully at these tin can there is a "freshness date" - a date in which the freshness of the food inside could possibly disappear.

Why am I blogging about this? Maddy has been ill the past few days because of the medication she has been on for having her wisdom teeth removed. So last night she asked me to make her some soup. The only can of soup that we had was a can of Campbell's Old Fashioned Vegetable Soup. It looked old... there was a layer of dust on it, and for having been in a pantry - it was a lot of dust. I also noticed the freshness date, Feb. 2002, had well passed... but Maddy wanted soup.

I opened the can and cooked it. I could tell that there was something not right with the meal from the moment I added the can of water. There were large chunks of... I'm not exactly sure but I think it was solidified beef stock... floating around. Sure enough Maddy couldn't eat it and continued to be sick (maybe it was because of the soup).

So, when stocking your fallout shelter, you might want to avoid Campbell's Soup - or beer with freshness dates.

Sunday, 06 September 2009

So my blogging skills have been lacking for a long time now.

I finished my MFA and graduated August 14. I had family come and visit for a few days beforehand which was nice. We also went down to 6 Flags in Texas the day before graduation. The day of graduation we spent the day on Lake Lewisville. The day after we went river rafting. So lots of fun in a few days.

Here is a picture of me in my graduation regalia... pretty fancy huh?

So now that I have graduated it is time to move on to the next phase of life. I have been planning to go into teaching for a while now - and I have two teaching jobs. I'm teaching Intro to Film at UNT on Mondays and Wednesdays - and Video Production at Southeastern Oklahoma State on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For those who are interested, Southeastern is about a 1.5 hour drive northeast from Denton. I'm having a lot of fun teaching up there.

It is pretty amazing to look at how God has been leading me this entire time. I was looking though my xanga the other day and noticed some of the major points in my recent history that has lead me and the family to Denton... here are a few entries:

Reading of The Rapid Development
Youth Conference (5 months later)
Slow Times
The Day I found the Grad Program

Things continue from that point - and it is all pretty cool.

I am also stepping down as the music ministry leader at St. Mark's. Its just time for me to move on. I'm looking forward to get involved with other ministries.

I'm getting sick of politics - but I don't want to remove myself from the mix of things. I really think that there are some terrible things happening in out country and some people are just refusing to see it all. Honest, non-partisan discussion is needed. People just jump on a side and defend whatever they are told. I just wish that all the name calling would stop. It is ridiculous.

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

What's up?

So what am I doing these days? Like most graduates, I am looking for work... but not much luck there... YET. I'm just trying to stay busy. I started shooting a new documentary last week. Got a call last week to see if I would be interested in shooting for a documentary about the 48 hour film race. Basically there are a number of teams that get all the information about a film that they need to make and have 48 hours to do it. Should be interesting.

I'm also getting ready for my shoot in Russia. I'll be going to several locations including: Moscow, Ekaterinburg, Ufa-Shigiri, Ivdel, Novosibirsk, and Gorno-Altaysk. I'm really looking forward to it.

This weekend I'm heading down to Houston with the family. My good friend John Chambers is getting married. Thursday all the guys are going out for a little party... I'm looking forward to that as well

Sunday, 14 June 2009

Today is the feast of Corpus Christi.

I remember a few years ago returning from a Steubenville South Conference on this feast. That particular day was the day that St. Theresa's began perpetual adoration.

I miss adoration.

Here in Denton I don't know of any church that has perpetual adoration. There is something about being able to go to a chapel at any time of the day and simply sit in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. I had a scheduled hour from 2am to 3am every Thursday morning. I was the only person in the chapel for that entire hour. I would take my guitar and spend time just singing to my Lord. I would put the guitar down and sit on the floor and simply listen, or talk. I would lay out on the floor just asking Him to do whatever he wanted to me... to heal my afflictions... I would often fall asleep in His presence - a peaceful sleep.

I had to give that hour up when Maja was born. It was too hard to have a 2-3am hour of adoration in the middle of every week. I maintained the youth holy hour, but it was not the same. I really treasure that time of my life... those Thursday mornings on the floor of the Emmaus chapel at St. Theresa's.

Saturday, 30 May 2009

#5

Chelsea - 2009 FA Cup Winners

Well, it was a good game after the first five minutes. I missed Everton's opening goal - within the first 30 seconds of the game. That erases Roberto DiMatteo's goal in the first 40 seconds in the 1997 FA Cup as the fastest goal in FA Cup history.

Chelsea played well. I was happy with how the majority of the team played. I still think that Botswinga is a waste of space, but he did better today.

Tuesday, 19 May 2009

Update

Well, I am almost finished.

I just need to write a proposal for a project for my anthropological film class. (I'm procrastinating... enjoying the moment of having finished my thesis.)

My premiere was last Saturday. Not as many people as I had hoped, but that's ok. I thought that my films were received well. I suppose it is the way I take positive feedback. I like it, but often I am thinking "yeah, but what do you really think?"

Perhaps the most interesting comments I received were from fellow MFA students... many said that the film looked totally different that what I showed in colloquium. I know I made some changes in the structure, but the majority of the film remained the same... but that was a consistent comment.

I enjoyed having my parents and Reeve come up. It was also nice to have my wife with me... we rarely get to go out without the kids!

So what now? I have to finish that proposal... but I'm also preparing for my summer shooting trip. Traveling to Asia to visit some indigenous peoples with a group of native american students and professor. I'm really looking forward to it.

I'm also looking for a job... like nearly 9% of the working age population. Yay... competition.

Friday, 27 March 2009

Whats up?

Just incase you were wondering...

Man, it has been a while since I made a blog entry. Every time I have the urge to write, I realise that I really shouldn't do it because people might end up reading it.

I have been working away on my thesis. I was trying to get it finished and ready to be defended for next week, but I've decided to delay a little. Basically means that I will graduate in August (even though I will be done by the end of May). The film is coming along pretty good. It has turned into something that I wasn't expecting... being more personal instead of historical. As I say in the film, things just didn't happen the way I was expecting them to, and I have to deal with it.

Job hunting sucks. I have been applying to lots of different places but I haven't heard anything. I personally think that I don't look that great on paper... but it is the resume that must impress before many organisations will ask to see your visual work. Oh well... things will work out in the end.

There was a speaker tonight who showed a couple of films about Iraq. I knew that I wasn't going to enjoy the evening because most films that are made about Iraq are anti-war. Not that I am all pro-war, I just think that people allow their personal politics to cloud their judgement when trying to tell the truth. At least try and keep your personal politics out of the film itself. But alas... no such luck. He kept going on about the 1 million dead and 4-6 million refugees. I know it is terrible. War is an awful thing and we are very blessed that we haven't experienced it in this country of decades... I wonder, would he be as passionate about making a film about the millions of unborn babies that are killed each year in this country... or does that conflict with his politics?