Category: personal

this afternoon i received the sony dcr-hc40 i had ordered earlier this week. it’s definately cool. this is the first part of the previously discussed video eqipment has arrived. i now have to wait until at least tomorrow before receiving the pinnacle studio 9 software, but it could be until monday. i can’t start seriously playing with this stuff until then. i’ll keep you updated on how this stuff works. i figure my learning this stuff is as good of example of an “everyman” learning it because i’m not that video literate.

the latest ministry trial-run that i am involved in is digital video. even though i’m new to this our ministry has done a few videos for various things. advertisement videos, summary videos, video illustrations, that sort of thing. i’ve always had an intern who had a good camera and at least a little skill at editing videos. now i’m in the position of not having an intern with that skill or equipment. the beauty of this is that i can learn how to do it on my own and thereby make it look the way that i wanted it to look in the first place.

of course, in order to do this i’ve had to do some research and get some new equipment. here’s what i’ve learned and ordered because of it.

1) the research went through indicated a computer with at least 512 mb of memory, as fast of processor as possible, a large hard rive with at least 7200 rpm but faster if possible, firewire connection, and a butt kicking video card. what i ordered is this – 3.4 p4 processor, 128 mb ddr ati 9800 pro graphics, 1 gig of memory, 120 gig primary hard drive, 80 gig secondary “video” hard drive, dvd / cd-rw drive, etc, etc. – it’s hasn’t been used it for video purposes yet but from my research it should work decently. it’s a dell.

2) a good minidv camcorder. i bought a sony dcr-hc40. the reviews on it were quite good. i got it for $558 from www.digitalmegastore.com it should get here friday. i can’t wait.

3) good editing software. adobe premierere pro and pinnacle liquid edition are supposed to be the best. they also cost $500 which i don’t have in the youth budget so i had to go for the second bestpossibilitiess. the review say that the best of the cheaper software programs is supposed to be pinnacle studio 9. all that i read said that studio 9 is able to do an incredible amount of stuff – almost as much as the “big boys” – and it is only $99 – actually i got it for $59 after a rebate at amazon. it should be in tomorrow or friday so i can play around with it.

hi! i’m robert and if you’re reading this then you are either really bored or you came to my website www.disciple-now.com and thought you would check out how things are going. this blog is about me trying new things within work with and to teenagers. i’m going to try and record the various attempts that we try at parkview baptist church in baton rouge to lead an effective youth ministry.

of course this means there will be tons of mistakes and throughout the process we (all the youth workers at parkview) will continually depend upon GOD to take our feeble efforts and do something good through them. thankfully HE always does.

i have a new vehicle – sort of. my dad goes to car auctions all the time and when the prot�g� blew up – a horrific experience that has shaken me to the core – he told me he could get me a vehicle for wholesale if i was just willing to wait a little while. i firmly believe that patience is a virtue. as everyone knows virtue begins with “v” which also starts “vehicle” so i figured i would practice patience for my auto, so i told dad to “go ahead.”

after, a short wait my dad has pulled through – not that there was ever any doubt about it. tuesday my dad found “fred”. “fred” is a 1998 ford explorer. i like fords so it’s a good thing that “fred” is one – of course, i pretty much like anything that runs and is cheap so it really wouldn’t matter what “fred” is. i haven’t picked “fred” up yet – he’s still in mobile – but i’ll be doing so soon. i have to because i have a distinct fear of my dad having the car around too much. i’m afraid that he is going outside and sitting in “fred”. this would lead to two very terrible things: 1) “fred” will begin to smell like an old fart – and you can simply never get rid of that smell, you can try to hide it but it’s always still there lingering in the background ready to pounce on you when you are least aware, 2) i’m afraid that “fred” will begin to think that he is being driven by an old geezer – now in the case of my dad this old geezer has a lead foot and drives like a teenager (you would have to see my dad’s blog at http://www.saraland.net/blog/ to understand this) but he’s still an old geezer and i don’t want “fred” thinking he is being driven by a geezer – even a lead footed one.

anyways, here’s a picture of fred and finally i just want to publicly say “thanks” to my dad – if he hadn’t of gone to the auctions all the time i wouldn’t have been able to buy “fred” and some old geezer would own him instead – that would have made both me and “fred” very sad.

i’ve been off work all day today and my family has been home also – good friday and everything. this is great. of course, it is also confusing. i’ve felt like it was saturday all day long. it has really messed up my mind because i keep thinking that i have to get stuff ready for easter sunday. of course, i don’t have to get stuff ready for easter sunday because it is only friday.

a holiday would be so much more enjoyable is it didn’t involve me thinking that work was happening the next day.

i’m glad that i don’t do drugs (i mean beside caffeine and a serious love for naprosyn as a pain reliever). this was confirmed today by the hangover that i am now experiencing form the epoxy fumes that have been in the youth ministry office all day today. this week we have had the two back doors within the youth ministry office closed off. this means that dry wall has been placed over the hole where the doors were and it is all being mudded and painted now. before the painters could paint the wall they had to put texture on it. the texture comes in a can and it releases tons of noxious fumes. within a minute the whole suite was engulfed in these fumes. in stead of being smart and finding something to do outside the room i decided to stick it out. of course, this meant that i was pretty much “huffing” the fumes for the hour i was in there. everytime i took a breathe i was basically sniffing modeling glue and anyone who has ever watched the movie “airplane” knows that’s not a good thing to do.

i finally decided i had had too much of the whole thing and walked outside. i suddenly realized that i was definitely too dizzy to be walking anyway. it probably looked really good having the youth minister walk out of his study looking like a drunk. i couldn’t have walked a straight line if i had been stopped by police. anyway, now my head is killing me and i’m having a wonderful conversation with a large pink elephant named “fred.”

with this said don’t do drugs! they’re bad for you. and stay away from texture can fumes. they’re bad for you to.

i think i need some aleve (naprosyn) now.

it’s taken three years but i finally have a louisiana tag on my car. i went to the license breau today and finally had everything they wanted. it feels good to be legal. the missouri tags on my car expired february 2001. i’m finally a law abiding citizen. i’ll write more later, for now we’re going out to celebrate my legal status.

i have a head cold right now. i’ve been taking care of noah all day (here “taking care of” translates to feeding him and letting him watch way too much television) and that’s not fun when all i really want to do is be dosed up with alka seltzer cold medicine or maybe nyquil and sleeping in bed. i hate colds!

all i’ve done today is try to sleep and fail and then try to stay awake and fail. it really stinks. i could have used this day to read allot and catch up on the studying i need to do for our disciplenow in march (19-21) http:parkviewyouth.org/holy.html. it would have been a great day of focusing on researching so that i could write the disciplenow material. the main problem is that every time i start to read all the ink on the page melts and forms weird shapes that look absolutely nothing like letters or words. i feel like i’m trying to read chinese. this would actually be okay, because i could simply enjoy the images but every time i start to focus on them they change and then before i know it i’ve passed out again. then i wake up freezing and wondering why i’m so cold, only to realize that i’m covered by two blankets and sweating profusely. i hate being sick.

this year i decided to make resolutions that i can actually keep. you see each year i make a list of goals that i want to accomplish during the year. they vary from the serious to the not so serious. i want to memorize a certain number of verses, i want to learn to play the penny whistle, etc. usually i finish about 80% of these goals. this year i have decided that i would pick different goals from normal and i would make sure and accomplish them. one of the goals is that i want to stop playing racquetball twice a week. the only problem with this resolution is that presently i don’t play racquetball at all. therefore, it is impossible for me to quite playing it twice a week since i don’t actually play at all right now. i figure by making this goal i have a pretty good chance of succeeding and if i fail, then i will at least get in better shape while not accomplishing my goal.

so, today i went to play racquetball for the first time this week, figuring that i could then play thursday also and be able to quite the next week. this would accomplish one of my resolutions for the year very quickly and be a good start for the year. the only problem is that after playing today i am presently very sore and i’m not sure that i will be able to play thursday (this means i wouldn’t be able to reach my goal of quitting next week and that is very upsetting). my legs are sore from running all over the court, my right arm is sore from swinging the racquet continually, and my left arm hurts for some unknown reason ( i believe it is from sympathetic pain just from being drug all over the court by the rest of my body). this stinks. who would have ever thought that i would have to kill myself just to get to the point that i could then quite my work-outs. yet i’m dedicated to accomplishing my goals. i will play twice this week so that i can then quite and be an example of how to reach your goals.

i hope you all can learn form my example and the pain it is costing me to accomplish my goals.