Monday, February 25, 2008

"Bliss" Assignment

Just to give a little background about before getting into something I really enjoy doing, I tend to me more of a loner. Don't get me wrong. I really enjoy being around friends, meeting new people, and investing in lots of relationships (take my word for it, I do). But, God wired me up to be able to enjoy being by myself. I could take a full day, work on creative projects, reflect on my life, take care of business, and do other things all by myself and be fine with it. A lot of people would go nuts if they were alone for a day. I could also be on the other extreme and be around lots of people all day and be fine with it (which normally I am).

That being said, something I also really really enjoy is music. Namely, instrumental music. I love music that makes me think deeply about God, my life, and other deep issues. I actually love to create this music. The awesome thing about creating instrumental/electronic music is that I can make it sound exactly the way I want it to. There are many songs that other artists have made that would suit this same description, but I love being able to control the effect that the song has on me.

So, the event or activity that I really enjoy doing is getting away to create instrumental music that I really enjoy. This is what I did for my assignment. I got away a created a new track. It turned out to be pretty good I think. It sounds a lot like something you would hear in a movie, mainly because of the string and piano melodies. It's not one of my best works, but I really enjoyed the process of it and am glad that I did. I actually started on another track first, but scrapped it and started on this one because I didn't like it (something that I usually do).

Monday, February 18, 2008

Week Long Blogs (1st)

Honestly, I've been a little out of the loop recently on what's going on in class lately. I basically missed the last two classes for because of reasons outside of class. I looked at the assignment a little too late to be able to complete it fully. I spoke with a fellow classmate in the middle of the week who reminded me of the assignment, but I just forgot to add blog posts daily. So, I take responsibility for not being able to complete the assignment. I'm not saying I have been more busy than anyone else in class. I know that we are all college students with a lot of things on our plate. But I just wasn't able to complete the assignment.

Though I wasn't able to post a blog for everyday of the previous week, I can post for how I am feeling today. Overall, I am feeling a little behind in some things. I am feeling a little behind in somethings. Mainly schoolwork (some classes, Capstone) and some other things, namely getting prepared for a summer mission project I will be going to. I've found myself thinking about these things a lot and just wanting to get caught up on everything. But, I've been praying and trusting God to provide wisdom and guidance in this hectic time and am confident that I will complete all things I need to get done in due time.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

What Moves Me?

Honestly, this question is a no-brainer for me.  The answer to this question is two words, one man; Jesus Christ, the God-man, King of the Universe, Savior of mankind.  My life is devoted to knowing Him more and making Him known.  The God who created all things, who knows me by name and the number of hairs on my head (and every other person who has ever existed), who has enough power to destroy the biggest of creations with the absolutely no effort, the God who sent his own Son to die so that I don't have to experience His wrath, He is what moves me.  That is the answer to the question.

Unfortunately, my life doesn't always reflect what is written above.  Many times I get distracted by other meaningless things that don't matter, and I don't show that God is my true source of joy.  But that is the beauty of the message called the gospel (which means good news).  Even when I fail and mess up, I am forgiven only because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross by taking the full wrath of God the Father.  I have a hard time understanding how anyone could want anything else other than God.  I mean, if you are reading this think about it.  Let's say you had the ability to make a new creation, say a toy robot, and you did.  You made it clear to this creation that the only way to be fully satisfied would be to stay plugged into its power source.  You tell it that anytime it gets disconnected that it would not function properly and thus not be satisfied as a toy robot.  Lets say for a while it always stays connected, but after some time it starts disconnecting from its power source and strays away from its home.  After some time, the robot starts complaining that it is not fulfilled and that it is struggling to function properly, but you try and explain that it is because it is not connected to the power source (like you told it to be) and that that is the reason it is not being fulfilled.  Well, this is essentially the same thing between God and his creation, us.  He has created man to be eternally satisfied and happy in Him alone.  But we have decided that God, the eternal, almighty, glorious, powerful, wise, gracious, amazing God is not good enough for our needs.  So we look to other things like money, relationships, popularity, sex, drugs, career, etc. (the list goes on and on) to satisfy us.  Then we wonder why our lives are so empty and miserable.  It amazes me!

I could literally sit here and type a list of words describing how amazing God is for the rest of my life.  Human words cannot explain the glorious excellency of God.  Thankfully, He has given us His word, the Bible, to reveal His character to us and to give us a picture of God the Son, Jesus Christ.  If you're reading this, you may not believe God exists and may think this whole post is crazy talk.  If so, all I can say is your unbelief in God doesn't change the fact that He does exist.  It's like saying you don't believe gravity exists, and then you go to jump off a cliff only to find out that you were terribly wrong.  So I would strongly encourage you if you don't already to invest in knowing the God that created you.  The implications of this are eternal, and honestly, you don't want to leave this earth without a relationship with Him through Jesus.  So yeah, that is what moves me.

2/4 Class Experience

This past week was a really difficult week.  I had so many to things to get done and I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to get them done.  So, coming into the week I wasn't too excited.  So on Monday, I just got off of work and came to class thinking of all the things I had to get done that day.  Honestly, I was thinking about not going to the class and starting on some other stuff.  I came to the class and heard the conversation about the tone of the class and what we can do to improve.  I decided a little bit into the class that I would step out early.  When the video started playing of the stand up comedian and honestly, I just wasn't feeling it.  So at that point, I decided to step out.  So honestly, I guess I am not able to really comment much on the day of class.  I was able to talk with Jenna and she filled me in on what we did in the class.  It does sound like it was a very interesting exercise and I regret missing it.  I hope to be informed more the next time I come to class.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Class Video Comments

Comments

I didn’t enjoy the Robot Chicken videos. First of all, it’s just not my kind of humor. Secondly, the parody of Kill Bill with Jesus I found quite insulting. That in itself is a whole other blog, but for the sake of the assignment, I will just say that all in all I wasn’t pleased watching the vid. I guess I can appreciate the animation and the work put into it.

The PBS art special was very interesting I felt. I thought some examples of art were more interesting than others. For instance, I found the spot about the mechanical art (huge face emotions, water dropping in a bucket to a rhythm) was very interesting. It was new and innovative, and looked like an example of where the direction of art is going right now. However, the spot about the video editing (taking basketball player and boxers out of shots) was pretty cool, but didn’t quite hold my attention as much. All in all I enjoyed the video.

The Cathedral was awesome. That had been my 3rd or 4th time seeing the video. Every time I watch it I get goose bumps toward the end where the intensity builds up. I think it’s an amazing example of animation and storytelling. However, one of my favorite aspects of the video is the music, especially towards the end. It’s funny, because the first time I saw the video I was thinking how amazing the music was and how it perfectly fit with the scene. While I still felt mainly the same this time I saw the video, I noticed some things about it that were not done very well and how I could have made it better. I think it just shows my progression in the area of audio over the past few years.

What If Q/A

Question by Exodus7 (http://exodus7.wordpress.com)

What if everybody were selfless?

I believe if we lived in a world where everybody was selfless, it would look radically different than anything we’ve ever been accustomed too before. To be selfless would be the opposite of being selfish, which is being consumed with only what you desire and stopping at almost nothing to get that. In a selfless world, we would see people being only concerned with the well being of others, and stopping at nothing help out those in need. Eventually, I believe you would see a decrease in world-wide poverty, violence, and other aspects of our current society that we would like to see changed. All in all, I think we as people would be living more closely to the way we were intended to live.