These are my mobile thoughts for 2007-08-31

• Lightwave render successful. Look out, Phase II of motion graphics. (anyone got a Maya license lying around? Cinema 4D?) #
• watched The Prestige tonight. darker than expected #
• Meg’s at the doctor with Gardner right now. Praying G won’t have to undergo any invasive procedures. we laid hands on him and prayed him. #
• Gardner is back from the doctor, no sign of the bolt. Praise God. He heals #
• G and I are up at the office, downloading one of my Lightwave renders to my thumbdrive. #

G’s better

Meg got back from the doctor today with some awesome news. Gardner’s better. They went to have more x-rays to figure out where the bolt was.

And it’s nowhere to be found.

Read that again, nowhere to be found.

Now allow me to expound on this. On Sunday night, my son swallowed a metal bolt. I saw the original x-rays. It was right there in his stomach. We’d agreed with the doctors to wait for it to pass through his system. The plan was to check the “output” for a few days to verify it passed through.

We’ve been praying for healing. Last night, Jake and my brother came over to lay hands on Gardner and pray as a group. I specifically prayed for a miracle, that his healing would be unexplainable and point to God and nothing else. We got just that.

The bolt is gone. I’m sure the doctors are convinced that it passed through Gardner’s system and we just missed it. Let’s think this through. Do any of you know my wife? She’s the most thorough person I know, especially when it comes to the health of our little boy. We went through every diaper. (and he’s not doing #2 on the potty himself yet). We never saw it, and we were looking hard. I can only explain it one way, from Gardner’s own words, “Jesus made me better.”

Praise God, and he gets the glory. Thank you for healing my child, and providing no doubt you are in control. Thanks everybody for your prayers, they were surely heard.

friday and waiting

It’s Friday morning. Rainey (my 13 month old) and I are hanging out in the kitchen. She just ate a wonderful breakfast of bananas, yogurt, and cheerios. Only about 20% hit the floor this time. We’re improving.

And we’re waiting.

Meg took Gardner to the doctor this morning. The screw from Sunday night’s screw-swallowing hasn’t materialized yet, and the doctor asked to see him before the weekend so we could decide what to do. We’d hoped it would pass through his system, and I hold hope that it still may. Today will reveal the next course of action. Other possibilities are to go through the mouth to get it out or surgery, if it’s lodged deeper.

Last night, we called Jake and Jason (my bro) to come lay hands on Gardner and pray over him. I believe in God’s sovereignty, I trust him, and I believe in righteous people asking for healing in Jesus’ name. Maybe that’s why Meg and I are so calm now. I would appreciate your continued prayers that Gardner would be past this incident quickly and with little discomfort. Thanks.

14a Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him…
James 5:14

These are my mobile thoughts for 2007-08-30

• Twitter seems quiet today. Everybody must be out working hard! #
• my little daughter took her first steps today at lunch and I got to see it! #
• G hasn’t passed the screw (bolt) yet. We’re going to have to take him to the doctor tomorrow. I’d appreciate prayers. #

Daft hands.

Thanks, Shua, for this. It takes a few minutes to get going but I stuck it out and was rewarded.

Final Cut timeline problem

I took an After Effects training class a few years ago. Last week, the gentleman that trained me, Damon Ledet of Sterling Ledet down in Tucker, GA contacted me. If you’re looking to learn, I’d recommend one of his classes. It was well worth my time.

After talking with him, I inquired if I could ask some questions occasionally, and provide his blog as a resource for learn. Here is question #1 (or, “how do I fix some annoying things that Final Cut does because I don’t know the nuances of said program?”). You should know that anything I’ll ask (and repost the answers here) are problems that I’ve been unable to resolve on my own via reading the manuals, trolling forums, or exploring via other means. I consider these to be “master class” level answers.

Suppose I have a long clip on the Final Cut timeline. If I drag a second clip from the to the track above the first clip, Final Cut splits the first clip and inserts the second clip in the gap (though on the second track). The only way I’ve found to bypass this is to lock every track before dragging the clip to the timeline. This is a time wasting royal pain. Any help?

Here is what is happening to you see attached pictures. Look at the arrow when you bring it in. You are doing an insert edit when you want an overwrite.

Notice that thin line a little more then 1/2 up to track right where the mouse pointer is in the picture in order to do an overwrite you nee to be below it.

Hope that helps, Let me know
-Damon

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Thanks for the help, Damon. Hey everybody, go visit his blog for more.

These are my mobile thoughts for 2007-08-29

• We had an awesome home group meeting tonight. Andy Stanley, you rock me. #
• just had a Mac-truck-just-hit-me night of sleep. where did the last 8 hours go, exactly? well,there was the one dream about flipping the car #
• relayed the "story of the screw" to yet another friend. #
• "Don’t let the urgent overtake the important." (paraphrased from Andy Stanley at last night’s homegroup). #
• lightwave beginning to buckle… I think I’m winning #
• booyah!!! 1230 residual surfaces deleted. 1 (that I created) remaining. at least 10 forum sites trolled to find the answer. #
• is it weird Twitter is on speed dial? #
• just raced against the rain to get the trash taken off. i won. rain lost #

Retro 80s TV titles

Love these retro 80s titles.

cat photos

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You know I’m a sucker for cute cat photos, right? I don’t know why, they’re just funny. Here are some more for your entertainment.

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These are my mobile thoughts for 2007-08-28

• Please God, don’t let Gardner eat any more metallic objects this evening #
• just watched the www.onesize.nl reel. I’m speechless and in awe. nearly moved to tears by the excellence #
• about to wrestle Lightwave into submission #
• email dash, Inbox at ZERO. Back to meaningful work #
• I just saw Ben Coleman in person. woohoo #

confession / onesize.nl reel

First, the confession. I’d originally vowed to myself not to blog from now until Sunday. Instead, the blog is set for autopilot. Don’t tune me out, however. There’s some good stuff coming, things I’ve had in my draft bin for either several days or several months. I have a lot going on this week, and so I wouldn’t get distracted, I had planned to let the blog run itself, I’d feed Twitter, and would pick up the reigns again on Monday.

Then I saw the new reel from Onesize.nl. I cannot sit on this, it must be shared and NOW. I would be doing you a disservice to not share it immediately. Please enjoy.

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Watch the reel here and let it shape you.

Autopilot, engage.

Flickr set: index card.

Oh. Drool. Look at those index cards.

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These are my mobile thoughts for 2007-08-27

• just got home from church. my wife’s listening to bluegrass. not sure what to do with that. #
• my son decided to swallow a metal screw tonight. we’re spending the night at the ER. would appreciate prayers. #
• spending night at hospital #
• spent my first evening in the ER. now we can go home #
• Back at the house. G is home. we get to observe poo for the next week. #
• Clemson is back in session. and that means 88.1 is on the air. Mmm indie label rap #
• 881 Is playing LCD sound system #
• is it still Sunday (Ken says, from a fog) #

Twitter / gmail import.

Twitter gains some gmail import / invite support.

Miss teen USA

I know I shouldn’t, but I really must share. (thanks Judith)

Screw?

For those of my friends who are kidless, here’s just a gut check to see if you’re ready for parenthood. The story: last night, my son Gardner screamed from his bedroom around 9:15. Normally this means he’s playing around, got frustrated the closet light won’t come on, lost his cup of water, etc. But I went to check on him nevertheless. He seemed more adamant than usual.

I opened the door to find him standing there, tears welling up.

“I ate a screw,” he said.
“what?”
“De screw is dawn,” says my near 3-year-old.
“where is it?”
“it’s in my tummy,” slightly more calmed. Not quite amused.

Sure enough, we looked over the entire room and find the knob to his dresser (there are 8, there were now only 7 screws) on the floor and the bolt that holds it in place missing.

We were convinced this wasn’t some elaborate scheme to stay up late, and after calling our doctor, the on call nurse, and a good friend who’s also Gardner’s nurse, we decided to take him to the ER.

Long story short, after 5-6 hours of sitting in the ER, getting examined by a nurse, x-rays, two doctors, countless very friendly nurses, it was determined (1) my child did, in fact, swallow a 3/16, 1.5″ long bolt and (2) he would pass it normally, or so we expect. The way it’s sitting in his stomach, it will probably just work itself out. If we don’t have it in a week, it’s back up for more x-rays and other options.

My next few days will be filled by the sorting and sifting of poo. But we’ll do anything for our little guy to insure he’s OK. And that includes, well, verification.

Not to over spiritualize, but when I was sitting in the ER with my little boy, I found myself at first scared and then comforted. The first thing Meg and I did when we decided to take him was to pray, for him to be well and for us to be calmed. I’m sure that worked.

My second thought, “this is my little boy.” What I felt seeing him helpless, even in this now comical story, pales in comparison to what God felt when his Son was allowed to be harmed. To be put in the place of the Father seeing his son in peril, I was strongly reminded of Christ’s sacrifice and the pain God must have felt through it all. Again, I’m not trying to draw some deep spiritual conclusion, but these are thoughts that hit me last night… somewhere around 1:00.

Thanks, God, for protecting G and for it not being something more serious. And please let him sleep in this morning as he went to bed at 3 last night.

These are my mobile thoughts for 2007-08-26

• Pulse is rocking right now. And you should see those T-shirts… #
• I just dribbled water all over myself. #
• it’s early Sunday morning… had a great time with God, it’s time to get our church on! #
• chillin’ with the internets… heading back to the NewSprings in a few minutes. Why are things funnier when you add an "s?" #

These are my mobile thoughts for 2007-08-25

• boo, Nikon just refused to repair my Coolpix L11. I’ve only had it 2 months. Boo Nikon. #
• I noticed my T9 on my phone recognizes USA TRA URB UPC, but not USB. I find this strange. #
• Off to cut grass at my in laws house, the my parents house. Good thing my brother brought a tractor the size of my car to help us. #
• just installed a new (or, new to us… given to us by Jason) dishwasher. JW even came and installed it. #

Pulse

Pulse. This weekend. Droves of students in the NewSpring building Saturday night. *** THIS JUST IN: over 270 students accepted Christ tonight. ***

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I really enjoyed working on the opener / package for this one. Ben Coleman built some nice images to work with. For the visual piece, I spent some time in Lightwave to make textures. And after unsuccessfully locating an appropriate audio track, I decided to build it myself in Reason and Soundtrack. You can hear the result:

And view the final piece here (Quicktime, 2.1MB)

Arrr

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Originally uploaded by avclub.

Yesterday, Gardner and I built another paper craft from Readymech.com. Now for that paper parrot…