A not so brief update

I've been allowing way too much time between posts lately.  Reason being too much to do at work and I'm very bad at multi tasking, so blogging just fell by the way side.  Now that deadlines have been met at work, I'm determined to keep my blogging more frequent.  For now I will leave you with a brief update on life, sprinkled with a few random thoughts.

1)  It's been such an insane year at work.  We finished up our last tour ever, or at least until the higher ups decide to do it again.  Tour was always a fun time for me, probably because that's how I was initiated into Student Life.  Most people at work began their journy through camp, but not me, it was the John Newton/Voddie/Jason Wallis tour .  (We didn't actually have John Newton at that tour, but we did have a guy dressed up like him.)  I hated to see tour go away, but dropping it only opens the door for us to do (a) Camp better and (b) everything else better.  If the past 5 months were any indication of what work will be like in a post-SLtour world, we'll be making a lot of great videos in very little time with few people, but it'll be fun.  I hope.

2) I'm not a fan of numbered lists being passed off as legitimate blog posts, but here I am... no better than the rest of you suckers.

3)  I really can't stand the band Sugarland.  I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I just can't stand them.  For those who know me well, also know that I can enjoy just about any kind of music.  I don't discriminate.  I will listen to Black Sabbath, Miles Davis, Imogan Heap, Sigur Ros, The Beastie Boys, and Underoath in the same sitting.  I'll listen to just about anything, and all I ask is that it has integrity.  For instance, if it's pop music, just be good pop music, don't try to reinvent the wheel, but also don't try and insult my intelligence (Nickleback).  I'm not going to try and compare everyone to the Beatles, that's not the point.  Everyone should have their place in music.  Also, stop making weird music just to be weird.  I have a friend, Blake, and although he doesn't know it, he only likes weird music.  The weirder the better.  I think somehow it makes him feel better about his musical tastes... kind of like saying to the rest of the world "don't even bother listening to this, you just wouldn't understand."  Oh, we all get it.  Sorry Blake.  Anyways, back to Sugarland.  I hate them.  Some of my Georgia friends might remember Jennifer Nettles.  She's the lead singer of Sugarland, but she also used to be a really awesome singer-songwriter in the Jennifer Nettles Band.  She also didn't have near as strong a southern drawl as she does now.  I swear to God I think I'll die if I hear "Down on the county line" again.  Sugarland epitomizes what I'm talking about with integrity in music, or the lack thereof.

4)  I recently had 2 separate instances where Alabama football fans said "Roll Tide" to me, while I was sporting an Atlanta Braves hat.  Now I'm not sure what was more upsetting, the fact that these guys were just so freaking pumped and excited to say "Roll Tide" to someone, ANYONE... or that they don't even know their teams logo.  The absolute worst thing about living here in Birmingham, at least for myself, is the obsession with college football.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE college football as much as the next red blooded southern male, its just exhausting.  Year round, its the same thing... the recruiting of high schoolers, some dead guy sporting a really bad hat, and hating everyone else.  They all greet each other in the same manor, "Roll Tide", kind of like a marine saying "Simper Fi" to a fellow marine, or to say "I love you brother".  I think they think its endearing, but I just find it annoying.  I'm a UGA fan by the way, which should discredit me to "tide" fans, accompanied by the phrase "Spoken like a true bulldog fan, he just doesn't understand how deep it goes here in Tide Country."  I promise everyone agrees with me.

(Don't be mad at me Zack, you're still my bro)

5) Family life has been awesome!  Reid is about four and a half months old now and completely awesome.  The annoying unpleasant stuff is out of the way, stuff like his neck isn't made of jello anymore, he sleeps like a champ now, he goes longer between feedings, his smiles aren't just for gas now, they're actual smiles.  Be encouraged friends with new babies, it gets a lot better and really quick.  He's now onto new things like, screaming at the top of his lungs just to hear it reverberate in the room, blowing spit bubbles, being awesome, jumping in his Johnny Jump Up (i think that's what it's called.)  He owns me, and I think he knows it.  One of our favorite things to do is to sit together and watch a Braves game on TV.  I'm sure its just the contrast and vivid colors on the television, but Reid can't stop watching the games.   So now I've convinced myself he's a born baseball nut (please, for my sake, don't tell me how stupid this thought is, just let me go on believing it.)   It's also been so fun to watch Tris be a mom.  She's a natural.  Apparently it can be fairly easy for a woman to be a crazy mom, Lord knows there are plenty of them out there, but Tris has done a great job of balancing an insane workload at her job as well as being fully devoted to her family.  So far, so good... no crazy from Tris.  She also makes all of Reid's baby food, and still finds time to fill in at catcher during our softball tournament (no hits, but one of the most important put outs of the night.)  She's something else.  I'm in love with my family.

6)  I've been giving a lot of thought to the purpose of my blog.  I set out to make a professional blog where I would showcase and discuss my photography.  Although I do have posts coming soon showcasing a lot of shooting I've been doing, I think limiting myself in my blog has actually prevented me from pushing myself in photography.  It makes sense to me anyways.   I need to stop worrying about what to blog about and just shoot more.  So let us hope I'll stay motivated and there will be some fun posts coming.  If not, then I'll be forced to do one of those 365 blogs.  You know, the ones where you take a picture everyday of the year and post it.  Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

7) Tris and I have been blessed with the best friends on earth.  The community we have here in Birmingham is something that I don't think happens very often, and we don't take it lightly.

8 ) Finally, I'm going to leave you with some videos we've produced this year.  My work with videos is a part of my professional life I hardly ever talk about.  I just never comes up in conversation.  It is, however, how I make a living.  Plus, I'm rather proud of the work we do.  For those of you who don't know, I'm responsible for all the audio in our videos.  Writing original music happens to be my favorite thing to do in my job.



*many props should be given to Jason Poole, our motion graphics guy.  He makes a lot of things happen in our videos we just can't understand.  He also happens to be what sets us apart from other production companies around here.  Way to go Jason!

This "Live Love" Compassion video may have my favorite song I've written in a while.


LIVE LOVE with COMPASSION from Student Life on Vimeo.





Ok, that's it.  This has officially gone on WAY too long.  Posts with photos coming soon.

Comments

[Christen]

WOW!!!! This post makes me miss you guys so much! I LOVED IT!

Hope we can get together in C-town soon!