G’s pics

Gardner is developing an eye for photography. View the pictures he took from the birthday party we threw the other night (party was for myself, Meg, and Savannah, our 2-year-old niece).

Gardner is available for weddings, graduations, and other special occasions. By request only. Available from the hours of 7am – 7pm, not to exceed bedtime.

walk slowly

It’s done. V-day nears to a close. Surprisingly, I did pretty well. I even passed on pain killers and opted for Tylenol instead. Thanks for prayer, etc.

(me, prior to surgery)
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And, the Wilson-coffee-to-tea conversion is going well. Gardner is pictured here drinking Earl Grey, made in the French Press with Twining’s loose-leaf. Attaboy.

V-day

I haven’t said much about this on my blog up until now. With everything going on with my grandmother, it didn’t seem appropriate. (by the way, as of this morning, she’s still holding on, but with the prognosis that she’ll pass sometime soon).

Anyway, today is V-day for me. Vasectomy day, that is. Yeah, busy week, busy week. So if you see me hobbling around at church on Sunday, just be nice I had plans to make a T-shirt for the occasion, but with the week’s craziness, I didn’t get that done. But, listed are a few of my potential V-day slogans. Please, leave your own options in the comments. (keep it relatively clean, this is a Christian blog).

A few to get you started:
“I went for a vasectomy, but all I got was this stupid T-shirt”
“V is for vasectomy valium”
picture of positive pregnancy test, with a circle / slash like the don’t smoke sign
“Fertile” (and printed on the inside) “Sterile” (this one I’d wear to the surgery and invert)
“I’m down with E.S.S.” (ie. Elective Sterilization Surgery)
for my Kids, two shirts that say “We’re it!”
“I survived V-day”
…

Grandmother update

Just a brief update. My Grandmother Wilson is still at the hospital, and she’s not expected to make it much longer. We have been blessed by a few extra days with her, and I was able to witness my Grandfather lean over a kiss her and tell her he loves her. I’m glad we’ve had a chance to say goodbye. They’ve taken her off of nutrition and medication, as that’s prolonging the inevitable (as the doctor stated). It could be today. It could be several days. There’s no way to know for sure.

Thanks for the emails and comments. They are appreciated.

*** UPDATE ***
Talk to mom this morning. Now it’s Thursday, and still no change. She did find something, however. My grandmother loves her Bible and studies it many times a day. Mom found the Bible by her bed, marked with this verse:

29 You are my lamp, O LORD;
the LORD turns my darkness into light.
2 Samuel 22:29

screen graphics.

Here’s a motion graphics realm that I’d never thought of… animations for technical screens, you know, the complex computers you see in movies. They never look like a PC (or a Mac, for that matter). It’s always some dense, 3D, flashy graphic screen… often of a map or a character’s brain scan, right?

Anyway, Mark Coleran does this very well. Enjoy the reel.

AE 8 announced.

What’s that sound? Ahh… it’s my free time being slowly drained. The just announced the feature list for After Effects 8. I’ve been learning motion graphics since version 6.1, and with each release (or 0.5 release), things just get much more interesting. And the new features… well I just can’t wait. Oh wow.

prayers appreciated

Tonight our family drove to Abbeville, about an hour from here, to see my grandmother in the hospital. She had a stroke today and isn’t expected to make it more than a few days, if even tonight. At this point, she’s unconscious, but is in no pain. This the first grandparent I’ll have lost.

I would especially appreciate your prayers for my family. Grandmama is a Christian, and one of the Godliest influences in my life. I’m assured of where she will spend eternity. And she’s leaving a legacy behind with her family. No sorrow here, but it’s still a strange feeling to realize that the next time I see her will be in heaven.

greyscale basic

Nice font, for free… greyscale basic. I’d use it.

Hummus

This weekend, we had some friends over and cooked supper. And I spent some time making homemade hummus. Now Perry mentioned at Unleash that I love hummus. And many may not know what it is. Heck, even if you do know and you’re buying your hummus from the store, you’re only half living. So, I made hummus, and documented it with photos to teach you all to expand your horizons. You’d even be proud of Matt, my accountability partner, who’s not a fan of such things (a meat and potatoes man if I ever met one)… he gave it an honest effort.

Here we go. As with all good recipes, I do this one without measuring and mostly from memory. It’s a lot about personal taste… you can add or edit as you see fit.

The basic recipe:
2 cans of garbanzo beans (also called chickpeas), drained
3-4 T. Tahini (sesame paste, like peanut butter made from sesame seeds)
Juice from one lemon (more to taste)
4-8 garlic cloves, peeled
1-2 T. olive oil
1 t. Paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Step 1. Drain and rinse beans.

Step 2. Stir Tahini… it separates.

Step 3. Put beans and Tahini into food processor.

Step 4. Juice one lemon, or use a bottle of juice. I prefer to use already prepared juice, but I didn’t have any, and I had the lemon…

Step 5. Add Paprika (pictured) and salt / pepper / olive oil.

Step 6. Peel and crush garlic. You just remove the dry skinned part with your fingers (or a knife, if needed). Then, use the flat portion of the knife and crush the garlic once to break it up. This helps it blend well and releases the juices.

Step 7. Combine all in food processor until smooth. It takes several minutes. At this point, use a spoon to check for taste. In mine, I added more Tahini, more paprika, and some more salt. In the end, I should have put more garlic, too.

Step 8. Serve with toasted pita. Mmmm.

Now, I’m sure there are 100s of variations and I’m welcome to hear them all. But this should get you started. Please enjoy.

Quicktime codec pack

Want to watch videos in obscure codecs, or just want to push the boundaries of your stock Mac? Here’s a codec pack of all the formats Quicktime doesn’t support out of the box.

Snickers spot

This Snickers spot is especially wonderful. Love the look, love the idea, love the sound design (notice the clinking of feet on pavement, brilliant). Yet another reason to obsessively delve into this new “3D” phase I’m working on. Lightwave, I have a purpose for you.

The Hartford / EyeballNYC

Beautiful set of 6 pieces for The Hartford, as performed by EyeballNYC. Slick, beautiful, nice colors.

paper lust.

I just had a bit of paper lust over the Behance notebook. Very slick. I’m still dedicated to my Hipster PDA system, especially since Lee bought me a copy of Getting Things Done by David Allen, but I’m always looking for new ideas.

Made Thought

Some really nice, clean line and photography at Made Thought. (personal preference, I hate sites that resize my browser, but I’ll excuse it because the design work is so good.

how to kill a concept.

Church Marketing Sucks has a great post on how to kill a concept.

Left hand… BROKEN!!!!

Ken’s 30th

Originally uploaded by megret7.

Forgot to mention, but my throwback, 70s birthday party (1977, y’all) included a brutal game of twister. Winner pride goes to Mike-right-hand-blue-Farkas. I ended up falling, and even though I turned 30, I didn’t break a hip or anything.

Thanks, Meg, for a great party.

photo journey, last 2 weeks

I just uploaded all of the pics that were on my phone from the past several weeks. I make it a point to snap photos constantly… mainly because it’s just fun to see what’s happened the past few days. Here’s a rundown:

By birthday was fun… got a new teapot:

Meg also got me some new office decorations to highlight my new tea obsession:

My father in law really enjoys celebrating St. Patrick’s Day (he’s Scottish and has played the pipes for over 40 years):

Home Group guy’s night this week… went to Little Pig’s BBQ:

(and here’s what we ate)… (note the extra special mayo layer on the slaw):

If you were at Unleash, this is hummus:

(I’ll be making my own next week, and I’ll have a special recipe + “how to” guide here at the AV Club).

The garage reformation project is coming together:

George Lucas interview

A video interview with George Lucas about the future of Star Wars and other geeky things.

the wall

Spent my day in Lightwave… taking it to the next level. Built up some walls…

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sketchbook update

I updated the sketchbook with a few pieces I had floating around.