Friday, March 02, 2007
Spring Break! Videos! Yay!
Woohoo! Finally, spring break is here. My plans: eat, sleep, work, and watch a lot of movies.
My screenplay pitch went well. After everyone had gone, right as I was leaving, my professor told me he was impressed. He had honestly suspected that I would come in, do my pitch, and everyone would conclude I either needed to pick a different idea or turn my current one into a narrative feature rather than a mockumentary. But the material I came up with on how to work it out has potential of actually working, so I'm free to carry on and start writing. I'm excited.
***
Pure. Brilliance.
***
Last Sunday's service was on Alcohol. That kinda surprised me. Vintage21 doesn't usually get into specific issues like that. But, given the fact that we're going through Proverbs, which mentions alcohol a lot, I guess it was appropriate.
It was an interesting sermon, with a lot of material for discussion. Tyler presented dozens upon dozens of verses which support that idea that drinking is okay. All throughout the Bible, you see evidence that God condones drinking in moderation. It was an opinion that I had already grown to accept as my own, but I did learn a few things, such as:
1) There are two different Hebrew words that refer to wine. One refers to the distilled wine used by merchants (they added water as a means of saving wine and thus making more money), and the other to actual wine. It is possible to get drunk with both.
2) The prohibitionist attitude prevalent in many conservative Christian circles today is a fairly recent development. A great deal of major Christian figures throughout history (eg. Martin Luther, John Calvin) had no problem with alcohol.
Anyways, it was a good talk that served to confirm a few things for me, though I made the switch from prohibitionist to moderationist a while ago. Many probably find this view extremely controversial and disagree. Such is the nature of the issue. Anyways, you can listen to the talk here. It made me think about what I'm going to do when I turn 21. I honestly have no idea. At the moment I simply have no desire to consume alcohol, yet I also don't have any moral issue with it. Can I see myself going through life without drinking? Yes. Can I see myself going through life hanging out with friends every once and a while over a beer? Sure. I could be fine with either of those. But maybe not the beer part... I'm not a big fan of the smell of beer, so I'm hesitant to taste it. Maybe wine. Wine's a good alcoholic beverage. A more civilized one. The kind of thing you have a glass of at special occasions, then leave it and relax. Plus studies show it can be good for your heart, which is an added bonus.
How come wine doesn't get advertised on television? Why aren't there clever little wine commercials during the Super Bowl? Or Don Perignon girls? That's discrimination.
***
A few years ago, two teenagers named Ryan Wieber and Michael "Dorkman" Scott filmed a short lightsaber duel between themselves as part of a choreography contest. The short ended up becoming extremely popular among Star Wars fans, and even managed to land Ryan a brief job at LucasArts working on special effects. That video can be found below:
Now, Wieber and Scott have gone out and filmed a sequel. It's arguably even better than the original. It was filmed on a HD camera, and it looks amazing. The editing, cinematography and FX are all greatly improved. To see the HD version (which I recommend), go here. Otherwise, watch it below.
Those duels are arguably just as good as those found in the movies, if not better. It's amazing what people can do with talent and a camcorder these days. Makes me proud to be a geek.
May the Force be with you!
Quote of Da Moment:
"We're anti-violence. Anyone says different, I'll bust a cap in their ass."
--Fear of a Black Hat
My screenplay pitch went well. After everyone had gone, right as I was leaving, my professor told me he was impressed. He had honestly suspected that I would come in, do my pitch, and everyone would conclude I either needed to pick a different idea or turn my current one into a narrative feature rather than a mockumentary. But the material I came up with on how to work it out has potential of actually working, so I'm free to carry on and start writing. I'm excited.
***
Pure. Brilliance.
***
Last Sunday's service was on Alcohol. That kinda surprised me. Vintage21 doesn't usually get into specific issues like that. But, given the fact that we're going through Proverbs, which mentions alcohol a lot, I guess it was appropriate.
It was an interesting sermon, with a lot of material for discussion. Tyler presented dozens upon dozens of verses which support that idea that drinking is okay. All throughout the Bible, you see evidence that God condones drinking in moderation. It was an opinion that I had already grown to accept as my own, but I did learn a few things, such as:
1) There are two different Hebrew words that refer to wine. One refers to the distilled wine used by merchants (they added water as a means of saving wine and thus making more money), and the other to actual wine. It is possible to get drunk with both.
2) The prohibitionist attitude prevalent in many conservative Christian circles today is a fairly recent development. A great deal of major Christian figures throughout history (eg. Martin Luther, John Calvin) had no problem with alcohol.
Anyways, it was a good talk that served to confirm a few things for me, though I made the switch from prohibitionist to moderationist a while ago. Many probably find this view extremely controversial and disagree. Such is the nature of the issue. Anyways, you can listen to the talk here. It made me think about what I'm going to do when I turn 21. I honestly have no idea. At the moment I simply have no desire to consume alcohol, yet I also don't have any moral issue with it. Can I see myself going through life without drinking? Yes. Can I see myself going through life hanging out with friends every once and a while over a beer? Sure. I could be fine with either of those. But maybe not the beer part... I'm not a big fan of the smell of beer, so I'm hesitant to taste it. Maybe wine. Wine's a good alcoholic beverage. A more civilized one. The kind of thing you have a glass of at special occasions, then leave it and relax. Plus studies show it can be good for your heart, which is an added bonus.
How come wine doesn't get advertised on television? Why aren't there clever little wine commercials during the Super Bowl? Or Don Perignon girls? That's discrimination.
***
A few years ago, two teenagers named Ryan Wieber and Michael "Dorkman" Scott filmed a short lightsaber duel between themselves as part of a choreography contest. The short ended up becoming extremely popular among Star Wars fans, and even managed to land Ryan a brief job at LucasArts working on special effects. That video can be found below:
Now, Wieber and Scott have gone out and filmed a sequel. It's arguably even better than the original. It was filmed on a HD camera, and it looks amazing. The editing, cinematography and FX are all greatly improved. To see the HD version (which I recommend), go here. Otherwise, watch it below.
Those duels are arguably just as good as those found in the movies, if not better. It's amazing what people can do with talent and a camcorder these days. Makes me proud to be a geek.
May the Force be with you!
Quote of Da Moment:
"We're anti-violence. Anyone says different, I'll bust a cap in their ass."
--Fear of a Black Hat
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 3/02/2007 11:28:00 PM 
