Editing the Passion ~

In each of the churches that I have been involved in as an adult I've tried to be a helper in the technology area. I've done sound, I've edited recordings, have made tapes and DVDs of messages. And of edited video for services.

A few years ago when Windows was finally catching up to the Mac movie editing abilities the pastor of the church we were going to at the time asked me if I could make a video to play in the background while he and his daughter sang a duet. It was for a Sunday leading up to Easter or for Easter, I can't remember. But he wanted clips from the movie the Passion of the Christ synchronized with a song about the blood of Jesus flowing down the cross.

The movie had been a big success and had come out on DVD and people were watching it at home and crying about the amount of torture that was depicted in the movie. The brutal nature of what was done to Jesus brought to life on the screen. When I saw the movie it was extremely moving because as a Christian I could envision what had happened but to see it depicted with blood and flecks of flesh and agony and everything that that movie showed was hard. And extremely moving.

The song was about 3 1/2 minutes long. It was very touching and had a male and female voice and was a good fit for both my pastor and his daughter's voices. What he wanted was to have the different views of Jesus on the cross interspersed with the chorus of the song about the blood running down the cross. He wanted video of blood running down the cross during the chorus. But he wasn't very specific in his guidance about which scenes to use.

Because he wasn't very specific I had to spend hours watching the movie the Passion of the Christ. I had to watch over and over and try to get the right scene and try to make it fit with the words without having to distort the speed of the video too much. And this is all in Windows movie maker, which while capable as a program was not the best experience when using.

All in all I spent over 10 hours watching and editing the movie the Passion of the Christ to boil it down to a 3 1/2 minute background video for their duet. It was horrifying and satisfying all at the same time. Now when I see in the story about the movie the Passion of the Christ I quickly move along because I really don't want to read it. I have learned enough about Jesus and have a good relationship with him and I understand the pain and agony as much as I can. But after sitting there for several evenings while my kids played downstairs and went to bed I really just don't want to see that again.

I'm only an amateur but of all the videos that I've edited that was the most challenging in my life.

Through the Bible podcast ~

When I was younger entertainment options were not as varied as they are today. You had AM/FM radio, you had the 3 to 5 channels on TV and maybe more if you are near a big city. You had tape of some kind, 8-track or cassette. And AM radio was still big.

But AM radio was dying. It was more and more commercials. It was staticy and not as clear as FM. Reception was not always very good, especially between cities.

But as a Christian AM radio was the place to go because that's where the Bible teaching shows were. We had preachers and teachers going through things and talking about the Bible. You heard sermons and teaching on a theme. One of my favorites that I would listen to on AM radio was J Vernon McGee.

J Vernon McGee founded the Through the Bible ministry. Basically he would go chapter by chapter and verse by verse and talk about the Bible on a radio program. And it was all sequential. And he would stop and tell stories and interpret an explain and help apply what the Bible said no matter which part of the Bible he was in at that time. It was great when he was in the New Testament. It was still awesome but not quite the same when he was in the prophets. The Old Testament was fun because he would give insights that I had never heard. But despite his dry southern voice and humor that often sounded hokey I learned a lot from J Vernon McGee.

I remember when I ordered his commentary books via mail. The five book set of Through the Bible commentary was where they had transcribed his teachings and put them in books. My mother-in-law was so excited that she had to borrow one of him and kept it for years because she loved reading the Bible and she loved J Vernon McGee. He was one of those great big personalities from Christian radio.

Recently I was missing hearing his voice and that kind of teaching, verse by verse through the Bible. So I went to my podcast out and searched for Through the Bible and came up with multiple podcasts playing J Vernon McGee himself and the radio shows that he had put out but commercial free. So I subscribed. It's awesome! Now I get to listen to Bible teaching that I got many years ago and can refresh and renew and gain new insights from. Read along with them and read that chapter about Paul as he's going through it. I can pick which one I want to listen to and listen to that chapter or focus on specific things. And I can then reminisce about what I was doing when I first listen to those things. In my car, on my Walkman, or whatever.

I love modern technology!

You can find the through the Bible podcast with J Vernon McGee at https://ttb.org

Book - Dream Big ~

Bob Goff's book Dream Big was a good book! It's basically a roadmap on how to corral and then chase after the dreams of your heart.

He starts out by saying that it's good to have dreams and that you should think big and go after them. Then he gives some inspirational stories on how to narrow down and then get specific about what it is it will take to achieve your dream and then some stories on how sometimes you don't and how to recover from that. It was a really good book and I enjoyed the stories a lot.

Dream Big also has a workbook that you can buy. I did not get the workbook but I'm sure that it has worksheets to fill out that he referred to and the that will help you focus your energies and actually achieve things rather than just walk around dreaming about all the things that you could've been done.

I enjoy Bob Goff's writing. I enjoyed his stories and the tone of them. Always upbeat, always pointing back to God.

I recommend Dream Big as a good book if you're looking for a way to get a little bit more focused than you are right now.

You can find it at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081MYW3VT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_SMER3D1B1YEN9JMB8GYX

And you can find the Bob Goff website at https://bobgoff.com

Wall screens ~

When I watch science fiction movies I always marvel at the technology that people imagine. One of the things that I see in some movies that I really hope and look forward to using is the wall screen.

Basically the entire wall becomes a screen of some kind. Usually not touchscreen but could be. Usually controlled by voice or just ambient you know controlled by some system. But when I see a wall that can be a window on the world or show you peaceful forest scenes or water scenes or I give you a view of what's through the wall without anyone being able to see you I am just amazed and hopeful.

I saw one example of wall screens that was amazing but I did not like. In one of those series on Netflix, I think it was black mirror, they had an episode where in the near future people were always indoors. And they had to generate electricity in order to survive. They were put in a small room to stay in and the walls were all screens. As the guy progressed he was able to get a bigger and bigger room but the walls were still screens and completely controlled by some system.

I try to do something on the wall screen scale myself. On my desk at home I have a 40 inch flatscreen TV that I use as a monitor. I will search YouTube for ambient beach, forest, river, and other scenery videos that are 2 to 8 to 10 hours long. And I will put them on what I'm working at home at my desk as a sort of window. Instead of feeling cooped up I feel like him looking out at the scene. So it feels like I'm at the beach I just don't have sand between my toes and wind blowing in my hair.

I look forward to when all screens become a reality. I know that they have some screens that are flexible LED things that can rollout and cover almost an entire wall. That's getting close! I have a projector in my basement that turns the wall into a really big screen but it's not the same because if you stand up and get between the projector in the wall you see your shadow. So, or getting close. Fun stuff!

Toward the storm ~

There is a story used in coaching circles about how best to handle a storm that you see coming in your life. The story talks about how cattle will run away from the storm and how because they are slow the storm overtakes them and they end up confused and in the storm longer than they would have been if they had just stayed put. Then the story talks about buffalo and how they turn as a herd toward the storm and run through it, which minimizes the impact of the storm on them.

I don't see very many people going toward the storms in their lives any more. I see a lot of people skulking around the edges, commenting on the people in the storm, or foolishly running from it and getting overtaken.

I tend to go toward the storm, not away from it. So I end up having a rough time relating to those around me.

A zoo online talk ~

I did something new the other day. I signed up for a social event with the zoo called wild on the rocks. The director for moving of animals basically held a talk on the her job and her experiences and took questions from people. It was a zoom event because of the stupid virus reactions but it was an interesting time.

The lady talked about how different states and countries have different regulations concerning the movement and transportation of wild animals. She talked about how when transporting three liens from Atlanta to Chicago they had to hire people to ride behind the truck with rifles loaded and ready in case the liens got loose in the state of Tennessee but no other states had that regulation. She talked about other stuff that was interesting. A lot of it was the fascinating because she experienced it and boiled it down to find answers but three years sitting and watching a group of animals in a California Valley does not sound like a lot of fun to me or my wife.

But it was a good experience! I'm hoping to do more of these as the I get older. I look forward to actually going to the zoo and participating in the event socially. It's all part of my changing and adding new things to my life that I've never been able to do before because of my schedule and commitments to family and church. And now that I'm able to do these things I'm enjoying it!

Chief Smoke In The Face ~

My dad loved to talk and tell stories. He could talk for 30 minutes about a small incident that happened at Scouting or at work. And he could listen, to. But he loved to talk.

He would tell us stories about things that had happened in the past. Things that it happened at work but not too many because his work was sensitive and he couldn't talk a whole lot about it. He would talk about events at stores and how things in the parking lot would aggravate men things in the grocery store would not make any sense and comments of people it made him. He was very personable and could talk to anybody and seem to know somebody everywhere he went in town.

He got involved with Scouting when my brother was in Boy Scouts. At some point he became the committee chairperson for the Boy Scout troop that my brother was a part of. And he enjoyed and had friends there that became lifetime friends and lifelong friends. But his love was in helping the scouts go through the program correctly and guiding them through achieving the goals. He loved doing the interviews with the scouts as they came to present their information for each rank. He taught merit badges I believe though I never got to see that.

But he also loved to talk about different things and kinda poked fun at it and tell stories. He talked about the character that he I believe invented that he called chief smoke in the face.

Chief Smoke In The Face was a fictitious Indian chief that had been through lots of different things and had lots of advice to share with people. He would joke around about chief smoke in the face with my kids as they were growing up and with my brothers kids as they were growing up. And as I heard him talk about it it's on Ken and I began to use Chief Smoke In The Face at my Cub Scout pack meetings.

I wouldn't do it every pack meeting, but in some pack meetings I would tell a story about Chief Smoke In The Face and how he had a son that left the tribe to go out on his own. He missed his son a lot and really wanted to find him but everywhere he looked he could not find them. As he went along searching for his son he began to put up signs. His hope was that people would see the signs and would help him by telling him if he saw his son. Chief Smoke In The Face went all over the place putting up the signs. Because he really wanted to find his son.

He loved his son! His son had been born and grew up near the mountains. And when it was time for his son to get his adult name in the tribe he had been playing near the mountain and had been jumping around on the rocks at the base of the mountain. And he slipped and fell and got scraped and bruised but came out of the fall just fine. But Chief Smoke In The Face and the tribe all agreed that his son's name should be called Falling Rock because he looked like a rock when he fell off of that rock that day.

So next time you're driving in the mountains and you see a sign that says "watch for falling rock" be sure and remember Chief Smoke In The Face and maybe send up a puff of smoke letting the tribe know that you found his son if you see him.

Recently my wife and I were driving somewhere in the mountains and the I was thinking back on how my dad created that character, Chief Smoke In The Face. And how I took that character and used them to help the boys in my Cub Scout pack when I was helping them through their program.

I may have to come up with some new stories about my favorite Indian chief. Hopefully they won't get me into any trouble with people that are easily offended.