this then this

This is the first in what will hopefully be a reoccurring site gag feature.

First, watch THIS then read THIS.

the sky fallz! let me show you it!

Blu-ray won.  Get over it.

You can preach the “advantages” HD DVD had over Blu all you want.  What mattered in the end and what has always mattered most was content.  Blu-ray had more.  Not even Paramount’s almighty Transformers HD DVD exclusivity could overcome the sheer content the BDA-allied studios offered.

Ever since the format war ended HD DVD’s demise Blu-ray trounced HD DVD there seems to have been an impressive pile of negative press heaped on Blu-ray.  Most of it is “ZOMG! DOWNLOADS FTW!” nonsense, but I’ll agree CE manufacturers have been dragging their feet on getting final-spec hardware on the shelves at mass-adoption prices.

I found THIS ARTICLE at PC Mag.  Great read.  Loved this part:

Despite the ridiculously large sales of blank writable discs and the continued popularity of watching movies on the home-theater DVD player, this group insists that all this is as archaic as vinyl records.

The curious logic here eludes me. Yes, downloaded music has bitten into the CD music business but has nowhere near killed it. And although it appears that downloading movies may eventually have an impact, add to this mix the concept of downloading HD movies at perhaps 30 gigabytes a pop: It’s insane. For one thing, the downloads take forever, even via the best connections. And simply put, ISPs will not tolerate it, period. I do not blame them.

Music downloading is extremely prevalent in our culture.  iTunes is certainly a juggernaut.  It’s a shame you can’t go to Walmart or Best Buy and buy physical media anymore.

Oh wait.

If music downloads still have not killed off physical discs after all these years, after Napster, after Audio Galaxy, after AllofMp3, after iTunes….I’d say the market for discs has at least a few more billion dollars in it.  And let’s not even talk about quality disparity.

Preach it.

my name’s anakin and I’m a person!

George Lucas needs to be punched in the face.

Late Wednesday night, I joined a posse to see the midnight premier of the new Indiana Jones movie.  And I’ll admit, I went in expecting a travesty.  I wasn’t disappointed.  Spoilers below, folks.

When I saw that George Lucas was the “writer” in the opening credits, I knew it was all over.  He’s been wanting to put aliens in the Indy films since day one.  Looks like he got his wish.  But you know what?  Even though the story was pretty ludicrous, it wasn’t even that bad compared to…well…everything else.

Let’s start with the dialogue.  There’s one scene where Indy and Mutt (Shia Lebouf) (and yes, you read that right, Mutt) are talking in a diner.  Mutt is describing what brought him to seek out Indy.  It turns out his mother was captured by some KGB Mulder and KGB Scully.  But it’s ok though, because “yeah, she busted out and called me from Peru and told me I should find a Dr. Jones.”

O’RLY?

Well that’s pretty impressive there Mutt’s mom.  Your mom’s a mutt!  hehe.  If she’s safe…then WHY did you have to find Indy?

Then…these two ginormous guys with fedoras on their heads are eavesdropping on them and approach our two heroes.  Because…ya know…fat guys in fedoras aren’t conspicuous at all.  Sneaky Sneaky.  Mutt tries to go all “Beat It” on them but the blues brothers are packing.  And thankfully Indy has been written so well that he quickly points out “Kid, it looks like you brought a knife………………..to a GUN fight!.”

O NO3Z!!

It’s all said with straight faced sincerity.  You just have to hear it for yourself.  This movie’s dialogue makes Episode I look redeemable.

Getting away from the horrendous cheese-fest, let’s talk about the effects.  I swear to you that George Lucas was looking through his big-A attic one day and found the old green screen from the speed bike chase in Return of the Jedi. A neuron must have actually fired A light bulb must have went off in his head.  It was like 80% of this “film” was shot in front of this thing.  Every background is so fake it’s hilarious.  There’s a scene where Indy and Mary Anne are in quicksand and it’s so obvious they’re not really standing in anything.  Rather the quicksand is being layered on top of them while they are STILL in front of a green screen pretending to be the rain forest.

Let’s not even discuss how every animal is CG….or how Mutt goes all Tarzan with some monkeys…or how Indy rides out a NUCLEAR explosion inside a refrigerator.

Guys, please save your money on this one.  Seriously, the film even tries to get you to buy that the aliens aren’t extraterrestrial, but rather interdimensional….despite the fact that the characters can’t POSSIBLY know that.  And during the last shot as the flying saucer is returning to its home dimension (because apparently aliens still need flying saucers in that dimension) Mutt asks if they’re returning to outer space (despite the fact that we’ve already established they’re from a different dimension, moron).  Another character pensively answers, “No, they’ve returned to the space between spaces.”

Naturally.

It’s my birthday and I’ll blog if I want to.

planning center: you need this

Been talking with a few of my counterparts in churches in various other states about how amazing Planning Center is.  While we at Watermark are fans of Arena for our databases, Planning Center blows every other worship planning system out of the water.

Our Worship Arts team uses it for everything from scheduling volunteers to loading mp3s of the worship songs so the band can listen and learn them.  When you make out your upcoming volunteer service schedule, it will send emails to a given volunteer you’ve scheduled and give them the option of Accepting or Declining with a single click right from their email client.  Volunteers can also log in and black out dates they will not be available.  Planning Center will then not even allow you to attempt schedule them on those dates.  Best of all, it’s all web-based (with stellar support)…so you can log into your account/information from anywhere in the world.

Take it to the bank.

in the maze of her imagination

The heat is on.

It’s been a beautiful few days here in Dallas, but it feels like God’s busted out his trusty heating lamp for the season.  Sahright though.  I’m so glad to be rid of the cold.  My first winter in Texas was mild.   This last winter was just unnacceptable.  I had forgotten what the sun looked like.  Now I can just look up–OW!

lame?  whatever.  that was genius.

Saw Prince Caspian on Friday.  I actually had not seen Lion, Witch, & Wardrobe until the night before.  I bought it on Blu-ray.  I think the reason I waited so long is because people were telling me it was good, but not great.  Whatever, guys…I loved it.  Prince Caspian gets off to a slow start but is really great as well.  Loved the part where Aslan asks Lucy why her siblings’ lack of faith should have stopped her from coming to him.  Convicting.

For Aslan!

Yesterday was one of the most stressful days of the year.  It was our massive Baptism at the Park party.  Instead of having services on our campus, we all gathered at Curtis Park on Lovers to baptize over 100 people.  I was stressed because we always haul a full sound system out there and set up a band.  The event started at 10:30, but city ordinance won’t allow us to make a peep until 10.  30 minute sound check.  Whew.  Normally my boss Ryan handles these and I just help coordinate the volunteers but he was out of town so the whole thing fell on my shoulders.  It went flawlessly, but I barely slept the night before.  I can’t emphasize enough how huge this event is for us.

But I got to hang out with a couple guys from Breakaway at A & M who were kind enough to lend us some equipment for the day.  One of the guys was still in school and was just amazed at the scale of the baptism.  I suspect he was a relatively new believer because he said he’d only ever witnessed one other baptism.  It really fired him up.  I mention that because it was probably the most important aspect of the day for me.  Watermark is so solid that I guess I’ve just grown immune to how amazingly God is working in this body.  It’s like I’m just too used to it.  Seeing his enthusiasm really convicted me.  It was awesome.

How often do we really stand back and let the enormity of what God is doing really soak in?  If Brent (Breakaway guy) hadn’t been there, I would have just let the whole thing go over my head and write it off as business as usual.  100 people rising to walk in fullness of life through their outward expression of faith.  Business as usual.  That would have been a tragedy.

Thank you God for putting people like Brent in my path.  I pray you humble me to make my enthusiasm rival his.