I literally grew up at weddings. My father has been a professional cinematographer for over 20 years, so I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of wedding videos.
This was the best I’ve ever seen. (Sorry dad.)

[HT Rising Moon Wedding Cinematography]

Which is closest in likeness?

This thought came to me as I was reading Andy Darnell’s post over on ChurchCreate.

In the comments I wrote:

It think it’s so cool that iTunes let the Rolling Stones & Pearl Jam share some space with Passion. That’s huge promotion for them! Way to (go) RS & PJ- keep working, and you’ll get there someday!

(I’d like to point out that sometimes the reason we (Christians) don’t get prime spots, et cetera is because we think they only belong to those prominent individuals “worthy” of them. Flip the thinking on this…. uh oh, I feel a post coming on.)

While I was being completely sarcastic in my congratulatory remarks to The Rolling Stones and Pearl Jam, I really think there is some truth here.

With so much media coverage out there about Christians that’s negative, I just find it odd that when something great happens, we- as believers- are surprised.

We shouldn’t be. (So what should we think?)

We should think differently. That the message of Jesus is THE most important message there is. That the “prime spots” should be filled with His message. That 5th Avenue should be coming to the Church asking for real estate.

There needs to be a paradigm shift when it comes to getting Jesus’ message out.

GET RID OF THE CRAPPY READER SIGNS.

STOP ASKING FOR A “DISCOUNT” ON AD SPACE.

TAP INTO THE CREATOR AND BE CREATIVE.

I’m not discounting Passion and what they’re accomplishing. They’re on the leading edge of this shift in thinking.

And, here are just a few other places to check out for more peeps getting it:
ChurchMarketingSucks.com
Jesus Needs New PR
PhileCooke.com

Oh yeah- get rid of the stupid bumper stickers too. They’re just lame and our driving sucks just as bad as the next person’s.

What are you doing to shift the thinking about the Church and media coverage?

How do I know? Because I just dug those suckers out from the cupboard above the fridge last night!

What’s even crazier is that only one of those are NEW. That’s right- I recycled all of the other new ones the moment they showed up on my doorstep. And the ONLY reason I kept that one new book was because of the pretty sweet coupons in it- but that one is gone now too because I realized I could just take the coupons out and save my cupboards the space. (I actually tweeted about how I’m going to use these this year here.)

That’s right- I don’t use phonebooks for anything other than fire starter fuel and coupons. I can get the info on my desktop or on my phone. Easy.

Some may argue that I’ll be up the creek without a paddle if the interenet is down, and won’t be able to get a number then. Ok- I’ll just look it up on my phone. And if my phone is down and the internet is down I guess I’ll just have to wait til it’s fixed. And if it’s down forever- I’ve got bigger things to worry about than finding a phone number or address.

The glaring issue for me is the ginormous waste of resources these booster seats create. I’d be interested to know the actual numbers of their decline and to see if anyone is pulling out all-together.

So yeah.

Do you still use phonebooks?

My fav parts after the jump. (Spoiler alert.)

What’s your favorite part?

Mine? A toss up between the piano drop and the massive umbrella drop.

I haven’t researched this, but I’ve heard that this only took two takes. (That explains the paint on the guys at least.)

Any other Rube Goldberg machine’s that you like? Do share!

The sport of long track speed-skating, played on a 400 meter oval with just two lanes, requires that each athlete switch lanes on each lap of the race- this is done on the back straight of the oval of every lap.

With 8 laps to go in the final heat of the event, Kramer’s coach mistakenly told him the incorrect lane to take, and Kramer took the inner lane rather than the outer lane he was supposed to. The result was disastrous for the young Dutchman, 23, who actually finished the heat more than 5 seconds ahead of the would-be second place finisher from South Korea that captured the gold medal due to the DQ of Kramer.

You’re probably wondering what this has to do with the Church or anything in the area of technology, web, et cetera.

I bring this up because I think it highlights our need for preparedness, especially when it comes to technology.

Are we prepared as much as we possibly can be?

One of the greatest lesson I’ve learned in working with technology, especially technology that is heavily-relied upon to assist in bringing the message of the Gospel, is that the enemy will do everything in his power to exploit any oversight on our part.

We must do everything within our ability to not just avoid mistakes- these will happen and there’s nothing we can do about it- but to make certain that we don’t become too comfortable with the technology that we are utilizing. Technology is great, but it simply will not work without human oversight, and it’s that oversight that must be ready for anything.

What steps do you take to ensure that you’ve done everything you can to make things excellent?

I designed the Western Oregon Adventures logo as well as creating a custom website for Dustin (pictured at left) and his partners.

If you’re looking for a great hunting experience, check out WOA!

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Hook yourself up!
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Let’s do this!

I’ve watched some, I think, good movies over the past week. (No, that’s not where I’ve been. Well, it kinda is. But not entirely.)

First up was Surrogates, which I already talked about. The next was Gamer, a movie I don’t recommend because of the amount if nudity in it, although the storyline was decent. And tonight I watched the “horror comedy” Zombieland starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin. It’s in a similar vain as Shawn of the Dead, but more apocalyptic.

It’s ironic that all three deal with the apparent and possible end of mankind. And you know what- I have a secret: I love it.

I really don’t know what it is. Tonight as I was watching Zombieland with my wife and some of our friends I commented aloud about how cool it would be to be able to just take anything you want because it wouldn’t effect anyone. To be able to just walk onto a car lot and take the one that I liked the most, or stroll down the aisles of Cabela’s stocking up on the coolest weaponry. I don’t know. It just sounds…. fun!

The reality, however, is that this isn’t the world we live in. Oh to be in movies.

What would you do if you could do anything without effecting anyone?
~Nick

Today I Twittered this:

I don’t watch the news because people are paid to report it.

And my friend Collin asked me this:

Just out of curiosity where do you get your news?

I was going to quickly answer him, but, as the three of you that are actually reading this may already know, I’m not like that. Ask me what time it is, and I’ll tell you how to build a clock.

Collin, here is the answer to your question my friend:

OK- so this is going to sound weird outside of context. Twitter.

Here’s the context, with Haiti as an example: At first I was catching the usual tickers (see ads) about what was going on there, but then I stopped. Partly because there was SO much information, and partly because one can only take so much doom & gloom.

I came across a guy that is an American living in Haiti that has been Tweeting about what he’s seeing, plus sending pics, plus shooting video of the events as they happen. He tweeted this recently:

“Dont blieve hype. Things R relatvely stable hre. ive bn in thick of it. But I dont have spnsrs 2 please, do I? #haiti”

I’ve been in this camp for some time now (not watching the news). Check out any of my posts on here when the first “stimulus package” was being pushed through and you’ll see that media=hype. 99% of the time.

That’s the long answer Collin. Essentially: I go with non-traditional news sources. Twitter. Facebook. Blogs. Why? Because they have nothing to really gain by being something other than real.

And yes- I have close friends in the news business, KTVB (NBC) and KTRV (FOX), but I’m not speaking about them “getting paid to report the news”. I’m speaking about huge conglomerates that only care about ad space. And in a market where traditional advertising is DOWN a combined 59% last year- you better believe that those big wigs will do everything they can to protect their cottages (see mansions) in The Hamptons.

What about you? Where do you get your news from?
~NickShoe