Amazing video!

Here is the other video I was talking about.

Charlie + finger = hilarity!!

One of my sisters showed me this video that they found on our friend Ellie's blog and I had to share it. I have lost count how many times I have watched it today, it has got to be the funniest video I have seen on youtube in a long time. The way the older boy's facial expression changes puts me in stitches every time!

By the fire

I am always on the look out for a great book to read or movie to watch! This week I read a WONDERFUL book called God's Smugglers by Brother Andrew and watched a good movie called Saving Sarah Cain.


The book God's smugglers is about a Dutch missionary who becomes legendary in the Evangelical Christan world for his ability to smuggle thousands of Bibles into Communist countries in the 1960's and later. I really loved this book because of how much faith,trust and love this man had for God!

The movie Saving Sarah Cain is a sweet film! It's about a woman who is forced to take in her sister's 5 kids after her death. The children are Amish and have lived very different lives than their aunt! She takes them to live in the city with her, enrolls them in public school and their journey as a family starts! This is a great family film that will leave you in tears!

I also wanted to add two songs that this past week have meant a lot to me! One is "My Savior" By Krystal Meyers. My favorite part is :

"My Savior
I'm laying it at your feet
Your love, it consumes me
My Savior
You've given me all I need
Your grace and your mercy"

And the another song called Set the world On Fire By Britt Nicole.
I love this song SO much !! My favorite part is :

"I, I am small but You, You are big enough
I, I am weak but You, You are strong enough to
Take my dreams Come and give them wings Lord with
You There’s nothing I can not do Nothing I cannot do"

Hope every one has an awesome day!!

A film I want to watch in 2008

I am not sure if anyone who reads this even knows who Ben Stein is, if you have never heard of him, he has been a writer, a commentator, an actor, a lawyer, a White House speech writer...lot of different things in his lifetime. He has been working on a documentary called "Expelled" due to hit theaters in February. The documentary focuses on the the great political intimidation taking place in academia against any mention that a) Darwin was wrong and b) the existence of a Creator is a plausible explanation for the complex universe in which we live. Here is a very short teaser:

Of course I think most Christians already know there is "political intimidation taking place in academia" so it is not a new subject, but the film looks like it could be very interesting. There is a much longer trailer on the film's website If you have time, check it out.

Sarah and I singing Christmas songs

Christmas is only 17 days away so I figure the best way to end a week of posting videos is to post a Christmas video, one involving Sarah and myself no less....

Sorry this is slightly bad quality, it is 18 years old :p

Sorry if I bored anyone by just posting videos this week, tomorrow Sarah and I are heading to NY to visit some friends so this past week there was a lot to get done and I just did not have much time to blog. My sister Anna may post something while we are gone, if not, the next update will probably be next Friday or Saturday with pictures from our trip. :)

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Anyone who has been following the progress of the second Chronicles of Narnia film, "Prince Caspian" probably already knows that the first trailer came out a few days ago. I was going to post a different video today but I figure since I have been posting videos this week I might as well post the trailer in case you have not seen it yet. :)

Personally for me, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was rather disappointing, it seemed they tried to be like Lord of the Rings and it just came off badly. They have great source material it just needed to be implemented better in my opinion. Hopefully Prince Caspian can try not to copy other fantasy films but create it's own look....

Another video....

A video of wacky people dancing on treadmills: :D

If I ever have access to that many treadmills this is something I would love to try, that must have been so much fun getting everything choreographed.

Video: Lighthouse Everything skit

In contrast to yesterday's videos, this one is of a more serious tone. Make sure you have your speakers on and since it is a skit, pay attention or the end might not make as much sense.

Videos!

This week Sarah and I are going to be posting some videos that we think are worth sharing. If you are on dial up like I know some people are, your local library probably has high speed you can use. If you have no library with high speed, then you are stuck with having to wait for them to load if that is the case I am sorry, I know what it is like....

Today we have two videos from Igudesman & Joo, two terrific classical musicians who mix humor with music. They have a website here

If you like them, they have several other videos on youtube :)

Amazing Grace = Amazingly Great!

Back in March, I walked into the theater to see Amazing Grace and I was not really sure what to expect, I had not even watched the trailer! All I knew was it was about William Wilberforce a guy who was instrumental in ending slavery in the British Empire, I only knew this because Sarah who was really pumped about the film told me. :p Not having any or low expectations can sometime make a movie better than it really is on a first viewing but in the case of Amazing Grace this is not the case.

The Story is based on British Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce who during the late 18th century and early 19th century, began his political career as an popular MP. Being the ambitious person he is, he takes on the issue of the slave trade which in turn leads him to become highly unpopular in the House of Lords. :p In time, after much work, he is eventually responsible for a bill being passed through Parliament, which abolishes the slave trade in the British Empire.


Ioan Gruffudd is totally believable in portraying the complexity and heroism of Wilberforce. His fervent body language, as he makes point after impassioned point, makes feel you are right there, living Wilberforce's life.


When his bill is finally passed, and his years of struggle and sacrifice are met with victory I wanted to clap right along with the people applauding him on screen! Just the shear magnitude of emotion that is seen on the screen by not only Ioan Gruffard, but also the entire cast was tremendous. He really did an extraordinary job, which should be in consideration for a Leading Actor Oscar though I doubt it will even get a thought. The reason I think that and I reason I think Amazing Grace was not as publicly praised is, William Wilberforce was a Christian.....

While it does not dwell on Wilberforce's Christianity for extended periods of time it is there and the film fortunately does not try to skirt around it. If not for the fact that Wilberforce was a Christian, I believe the secular media really would have pushed the film, I mean Wilberforce was a radical in his day, he was for human rights, against slavery, against cruelty towards animals and this is all in the early 1800 late 1700! Two of these things are still subjects people are fighting about today and Wilberforce was one of the people who got the ball moving on them to some extent in England. I know we live in a fallen world, but sometimes it just really gets me when excellent material, be it books, music, or film gets the cold shoulder because it is "Christian" or has Christian themes or characters!

Sorry, I actually just edited out about a paragraph because I was ranting on Christian media in our society. :p That was not the purpose of this post, the purpose is to say if you have not heard about or seen Amazing Grace, go check it out because it was FINALLY released on dvd last Tuesday. (Yes, I know this post is a week late):)

In the Shadow of the Moon

"If I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold."

Last night I fortunate enough to catch a screening of "In the Shadow of the Moon". A tremendous documentary about the United States' Apollo missions and the exploration of the moon.

Lately it seems most of the news that comes out of NASA is negative in terms of the space program. "In the Shadow of the Moon" takes you back to a time in our history when we as a nation, to quote Buzz Aldrin, "Did bold things" Director David Sington, a veteran of the space-faring PBS series "Nova," does a brilliant job conveying to the viewer what it it felt like to be participant in the launches and the excitement around the world from those who watched it.

This is feeling is portrayed through some excellent interviews with the crew members of every Apollo mission that flew to the moon. (minus Neil Armstrong) These men, the only living people to have actually seen our earth from the moon, speak of their experiences with a down-to-earth eloquence and candor, their words adding considerable feeling to the images on the screen. There is one scene where Jim Lovell talks about reading from Genesis while orbiting the Moon, and as he reads the moon pans by, to say the least it is inspiring!

While it does not focus on the subject, there are several scenes with the astronauts where they mention that being in space and looking back at the earth, gave them a feeling of awe and the knowledge that our universe was created, it did not just happen. One of the astronauts, I believe it was David Scott even says something in the context of "While I was on the moon for three days, I ending gaining a lifetime with God"

Besides the interviews, the actual footage in the film is visually stunning. The archival material from original NASA film has been re-mastered and except for the fact that it is 4:3 is simply gorgeous. The result of this staggering footage combined with the insightful commentary from the astronauts result in an intimate epic that vividly communicates the daring, the danger, the pride, and the promise of this extraordinary era in history when the whole world literally looked up at America. "In the Shadow of the Moon" is the best documentary to come out in the long time and is definitely a film to watch. :)

The great unveiling!

Well after some reasoning with my DEAR sister I was able to get her permission to post our magnificent debut film clip :D I guess I could have just posted it without her knowledge since she never posts but I figured it would somehow end up biting me in the end. So here it is:

Sorry it is a bit small, trying to keep it good quality while not taking forever to load. BTW comments welcome!

Well......

I was going to post the film but Sarah thinks it might ruin her image on the web forever :p I will see what I can do to persuade her to change her mind. until then two screen caps

Yes I made it grainy and that color on purpose, anything to make the hallway less bland:)

Filming on a lazy Sunday afternoon

Yesterday, having nothing better to do my sister and I decided we should make a film clip to some music. We had thought about doing it for a long time but it always seemed to be at 10:30 or 11 at night. :p Anyway driving home from church we decided we had most of the afternoon free and we should try filming. Our scene was to be a wild west shootout, but somehow that morphed into people with trench coats and cowboy hats using colt .45s sorta a mix of the west meets the1920's. We also decided that due to the oppressive heat we were going to film indoors which for a wild west shoot is a little out there...

Our barn would have been perfect but using it would have involved an hour or more of clean up and unless it is an absolute necessity cleaning the barn is not something you want to do at all let alone in the heat. ;) So we resorted to filming in a hallway in our house. This caused a ruckus since it was the hallway where all our younger brothers and sisters have their rooms. They of course decided to watch the filming and our youngest brother Matthew even decided he should dress up to match us. Samuel, who is a few years older than Matthew, also decided to pull out a book on wild west outlaws and inform me of all I needed to match a picture in the book... For a while it was a bit crazy as we set up but then as we started and everyone discovered how boring the filming was the younger generations decided to go watch a real movie and leave Sarah and I on our own.

Once we got rolling it was about as slow as molasseses, much of the reason for this was trying to teach Sarah how to use the camera when I had a scene. But there were also a few retakes due to us laughing or smiling at the wrong times. After about an hour and a half Sarah and I both agreed that even being inside we were getting pretty hot since we were in these trench coats and stupidly had them all buttoned up even when we were not filming. I decided we would just make due with what we had and see what it would look like once edited. Later that evening after about 30 minutes of editing, we had our masterpiece! Ok maybe not a masterpiece, after the editing and everything the total time of our clip is like 1 minute 20 seconds and we could have done a better job acting it out especially the part where we shoot guns but overall it came out pretty good.