YouTube Math

I was watching a YouTube video today and something caught my eye. How can a video have 4,497 ratings with only 307 views? And on that point, why do I care? I don't really.

Bad Guys Beware!

I was feeding our puppy outside and noticed this on the glass door:





Thank God it's "electronic" as opposed to the other alarm systems out there :)


-- Post From My iPhone

3 Quick, Random Thoughts

1. Robots: Have you ever noticed that when you tell someone to act like a robot, they instantly straighten their backs and align their shoulders. It's sad that a defining attribute which sets us apart from machines is posture.

2. "Look Mom! I'm on TV": A very common occurrence in the field of live broadcast journalism is the appearance of one to several annoying people who like to stand behind a reporter while making faces or loud noises during a live news story. Though their annoying antics get a laugh out of most people, I find it more funny when they are finished with their 15 seconds of fame. Watch any video with these people and notice as they walk off, they make a face that says, "Oh man, that wasn't as funny as I thought it was going to be. I'll just keep a small smirk on my face as I walk off and try to find someone I know so we can leave."

3. The Open Door Jog: This is fun to do; When you walk into a building, look behind you and see if there is someone for whom you can keep the door held open. If there is, that's great. If there's not, just go in. However, if you see someone off in the distance, just wait with the door open while looking at them. They'll see you and do this really funny jog to the door. They'll never run fast because that would be over doing it. They'll never do a brisk walk because that wouldn't be fast enough. They'll always jog. Try it. It's really funny.

The Seal of Facilities

I was going through an old hard drive and I found this:

The first team ever I worked on at the church was facilities. I just wanted to get my foot in the door on staff, but I got a lot more than I bargained for. Facilities has a culture of it's own. It's a team of guys who pretty much live on campus. Facility guys are up at 6 in the morning, working their butts off to get the campus ready for the day's events. Sometimes that means moving thousands of chairs in the worship center to make room for 115 tables. Then, after that event is over, they put ever single chair back where it was (perfectly). You'd never guess that the weekend set up in Tents 2 and 3, and the worship center changes at least 8 times a week.

Every water and coffee station on campus is brewed and served by the facility guys. It's a 120 acre campus and the responsibility of one guy (usually the last one to touch his nose) to empty and re-bag every trash can, every day. That's a lot of trash cans. If someone throws up, guess who gets called? If something catches fire, guess who's first to respond (and usually first to be blamed). It's not uncommon for these guys to spend hours setting up a huge "turn" (as it's called), just to get a call to put it all back because the event was canceled.

Lost-and-found, trash, coffee, water, pastoral food delivery, vomit clean up, traffic cone delivery, traffic cone pick up, air conditioning, tent washing, chair stacking, room set up, equipment moving, flat tires, banner hanging, baptism set up, etc. Facility guys work in the back ground all day every day. I'm proud to have been on their team.

So, one day I made the Seal of Facilities. It has a lot of meaning behind it.

1. There are 23 stars to represent the 23 brave men on facilities at the time.

2. The eagle is holding a radio and trash grabber; the two main tools of a facility guy.

3. Above the eagle is a rec (rectangular table), the most common of tables on campus.

4. In front of the eagle is an american flag printed on a cambro (what they serve coffee in).

5. The number 212 is printed on the cambro. 212 is the main facilities room.

6. The scroll above the eagle's head reads, "Vamos a la playa" which translates to, "Lets go to the beach!" A secrete code used by facilities.

7. There are 9 tail feathers to represent the 9 young guys on the team at the time.

8. The word "Unity" is proudly positioned above its meaning on facilities, "Four man crew for a one man job." This is a reference to the fact that you never send one man to do an embarrassing job like clean up vomit in front of a group of kids. Instead, you all go. "Four man crew for a one man job."

9. The background of the seal is a close up of a facility worker's shirt.

10. The calves on the eagle have been exaggerated to represent the boss Bob, whose calves are larger than a T-Rex.

Good times. Good times.

DMV on YouTube and Twitter? Why?

I had to pay my car registration online today. I went to www.dmv.ca.gov and saw this little gem:

The DMV is on YouTube and Twitter? Why?

I checked out their YouTube page and it looks like they have some cheesy, but useful content. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to see videos of people freaking out while in line or something. But alas, no such comedy.

I have not and will not check out their Twitter for this reason: it makes me laugh to think about what a DMV Twitter would be like. "Just told a guy to fill out a M914b form and wait in the next line... he wasn't happy." "My job sucks" "The line finally died down. Happiness has been dead for a long time."

I know if I check their Twitter, as I did with their YouTube, I'll be disappointed. Oh well, they're trying to be hip and with it!

I am famous!!!

When I was younger, I wanted to be an actor. I went to hundreds of auditions over the period of one year! Almost everyday after school, my mom would pick me up and we'd drive to LA for an audition. I bombed all but 3! I recently found two of them! Here they are:

Six Flags Commercial in Baltimore:

We spent all day at the Six Flags in CA to make a commercial for a

Six Flags in Baltimore. It was a lot of fun because we got in front of

all the lines and were able to ride all the rides as much as we

wanted. Just a few little perks for being a star ;)

This only played in Baltimore for a few months. Luckily, one

of my mom's friends lived in Maryland and was able to catch it

with her VCR. I think I only made like $300 that day and

it was well worth it!

The Amanda Show:

This one was a lot of fun. I was casted as "Cute Guy #4". I'm the nerdy

looking kid to the right of Amanda with the striped shirt. The quality

is horrible, but you get the idea. The Amanda Show is on iTunes with

only 5 episodes! Mine is one of them! I'm in Episode 11. It's only $2.

You should buy it and support your local me!

Passions

no video available

One of the first acting experiences I have ever had was on

the popular soap opera, Passions. I was casted in one of

the main character's flash back scenes. I was there all day

and finally had my chance to be in front of the camera.

My instructions were simple; when the school bell rings,

I'm to walk across the hall with my back to the camera

and make a left at the end of the set.

When we finally saw my episode on TV, it was great!

The guy went into flash back mode and by the time the

scene fully faded in, all you could see was my left shoe

go around the corner! IT WAS AMAZING! Hahaha!

Anyway, I gave up acting after those three jobs. The limelight was just too much and being famous had too many responsibilities. I just wanted to be a regular kid again ;) Hahaha!

I look like famous people

I always thought this was in my head for the longest time. Whenever I'm somewhere in public, people stare at me like I'm someone they've seen before. When I brought it up to my wife and a few friends, they began noticing it too! We all agreed that it's not because I look like someone famous, it's because I have a very plain face and a lot of people think that they've seen me somewhere before.

Now, I've never been mistaken for anyone famous, but I have been told I look like a couple famous people from a bunch of non-famous people. Here are the two that I get compared to the most (btw, I don't agree with these at all and you may not either).

The guy from the Fray:

I got this a lot back when the "Over My Head" music video became popular. I guess we have the same ears and chin or something. Maybe when I was younger with shorter hair, but again, I don't really agree with this one.

The next one I've been getting a lot recently. It's the guy from the movie "Fanboys". Supposedly I look and dress like the character, Linus (the guy on the far left). Again, I don't agree, but my wife, sister, co-worker, close friends, and 3 random people have told me this. I guess his character acts a lot like me or something.

I like to think I look more like Brad Pitt than those other two. I pulled this out of my archives. It's about 2 years old, but still valid:

Hidden Vegetables

Before I walked the plank and got married, I was able to eat whatever I wanted! I lived with a few buddies of mine and we had pizza pretty much everyday. In the morning, we had pizza leftovers. For lunch, we'd eat what was left from breakfast. For dinner, we'd order a pizza. (I have no idea how I got by without a heart attack).

So, I met this babe and we got married. Going into the marriage, I knew she was a health nut (not insane, but very very healthy). Suddenly I stopped frequenting Wienerschnitzel and I'm pretty sure the people at Taco Bell thought I was dead. Nope, I was very much alive and eating organic foods.

This may sound like I don't like eating healthy. Quite the opposite! Hollie, my health conscious wife, cooks these amazing meals almost every day! I feel great and have way more energy (still no athletic skills though).

I didn't eat out because I hated healthy food. I ate out because I didn't want to cook and it was easy. I took 10 minutes to run out and grab a burger and only 3 minutes to heat up a hot pocket. I actually really like broccoli and carrots. McDonalds just doesn't have them on the menu.

Hollie knows I like vegetables. I've made that very clear to her. In fact, I enjoy eating a bowl filled with broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower.

Here's the funny part: Hollie got a book written by Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry's wife) called, Deceptively Delicious. It's a cook book that shows you how to hide vegetables in your meals. So, after we're done eating dinner, Hollie will say something like, "So, did you like the pasta?" And I'll say, "Yeah, it was really good."

She giggles a little and says with really wide eyes, "Did you know there was broccoli and carrots mixed in, but you couldn't taste it?!?!"

Then my response is usually, "No, but I would have much rather had a bowl of broccoli and carrots just by themselves."

She continues to make dinner with hidden foods that I would rather enjoy unhidden.

Amazing Student Made Music Video

This comes from Mission Viejo High School's biweekly tv show, Diablo Heat. It's a parody of Asher Roth's "I Love College". I was an editor for seasons 7, 8, and 9. This is Season 13 and they have way more talent than we ever did!

10 of the Biggest Mistakes in Student Made Videos

When I was in high school, I was the head editor for our school's TV show called, Diablo Heat. Now that I'm all grown up, one of my favorite things to watch is student made videos. YouTube is a great source for these.

There are a few key elements that make or break a video. Here's my top ten list:

1. Stay away from inside jokes: If you're going to make a comedy, make sure the jokes are funny to your audience. It's not important if you laugh. It's important if they laugh.

2. Video is 2/3 Audio: USC did an experiment to see how important audio was to video. Basically they would observe the participant as they watched TV in a hotel room. The experimenters were able to control distortion in the video and audio on that TV from the next room. They found that when they distorted the video, people were annoyed, but continued watching that program. However, when they messed with the audio, people were 2/3 more likely to change the channel or do something else. Thus, video is 2/3 audio. Make sure your audio sounds good.

3. No sound?: Far to often I'm watching a student made video and I notice an entire 15-30 seconds with no sound at all! Be aware that people have a very low attention span. When there's no sound, it gets extremely boring for the viewer. Always have some sound in the background. It can be music or just ambient noise from a park. Just always make sure that you have sound.

4. Double Jumps: Example: You see a man walk up to a door from the outside. He turns the handle and beings to push the door open. The camera cuts to a shot from the inside. You see the door handle turn and the door is pushed open. That's called a double jump because you already saw him turn the handle in the first shot. This happens when the editor isn't paying attention to their cuts. This happens a lot with audio too. You hear someone say something like, "Hey!" Then the camera cuts to a different shot and you hear, "Hey!" again. This can be fixed by some simple fine tuning cuts.

5. Multiple Takes: Rarely will someone get it right the first time. Do multiple takes! It may take a little longer, but usually the 4th take is the best because by then the actor feels more comfortable with the scene.

6. 4 Second Rule: When you say action, have your actors wait for 4 seconds before they being with their line. Same goes for when they're done with their scene. Wait about 4 seconds before you say cut. Make sure they understand that it doesn't mean, wait 4 seconds, then start the scene. It means wait 4 seconds, then start your lines. Don't stand around for 4 seconds, then start acting. This helps when you're editing because you have more to work with.

7. Plan It Out: Most students want to run out with the camera and make an awesome movie. That usually leads to disaster because shots wont match up and you'll spend a lot of time on the field trying to figure out what will look good. Try drawing a basic story board. Nothing fancy, just some stick figures to give you an idea of what the movie is going to look like. Plan on when and where to shoot so you don't waste your actor's time.

8. B-Roll: B-Roll is the footage you see a lot on the news. It's usually just shots of the scenery or the event. It doesn't matter what kind of movie you're making, always get at least 10 minutes of B-Roll. It will come in handy later if you need a "filler" in one of your scenes.

9. Bloopers: Everybody loves bloopers. Most of the time, however, the people making the movie love the bloopers too much. I've seen movies where the blooper reel is longer than the movie itself! Keep the blooper reel very short. Also, make sure they are actually bloopers. Just watching people laugh is not a blooper. Show a few people messing up and maybe someone falling down. That's all you need.

10. Keep It Short!: This is probably one of the most important factors in video making. If you want to keep the attention of your audience, your video must be shorter than 3 minutes. When people click on a YouTube video and see 4 minutes in the timeline, they usually click away. Our brains go through a process that says, "4 minutes? Is this worth my time? Probably not." When it's 3 minutes we go, "3 minutes? Sure, I have some time to waste." Keep it under 3 minutes!

I'll write more later :)

Pray the Rain Away

This is a crazy story that happened to me a few years ago.

I was new to the faith and I had recently signed up for the Motel Ministry through Crave. Basically, a group of college aged kids head to a motel in Santa Anna and invite everyone outside for free breakfast, conversation, music, and a message. I had been once before and I loved it. You get to connect and pray with people who are going through hard times. You also get free food.

This particular time, however, was one to remember. I woke up early on Sunday morning and looked out the window. It was pouring! I called one of the leaders of the Motel Ministry and asked her if we were canceling due to the rain. In a very nonchalant way she said, "Don't worry about the rain. We're still meeting up at the church to carpool in half an hour."

I figured that she checked the weather report and it probably said that the rain was going to die down soon. So, I got dressed and headed to the church to meet up with everyone else. The whole way there, it was raining cats and dogs. My windshield wipers never got a break. The rain was bad!

When I got to the church, we all piled in three cars and headed to Santa Anna. On the way there, I asked if we were going to have the message inside or something. Everyone in the car knd of smiled as if they knew something that I didn't. The girl I called earlier was in the front seat. She turned around and said, "Don't worry about the rain. We prayed about it."

I kind of laughed and said something to the effect of, "It doesn't look like it worked."

Again, very nonchalantly, she said, "Just wait. You'll see."

I was new to this whole prayer idea, so I wasn't 100% convinced that they would pray the rain away. Sure enough, I was wrong. The rain continued to pour until we pulled into the parking lot of the Santa Anna motel. As we got out of our cars, the sun came to greet us. Within 20 minutes, while we were setting up, the day was warm and bright.

About 20 residents came out of their rooms and had breakfast with us. We heard a great message and joined together in some moving worship. I had never seen anything like that. In fact, as we were leaving, literally as we were getting on the the freeway, the rain started back up.

God gave us that window to worship Him, because we asked. Prayer works.

Monster

Sometimes when I see things, I see their potential to be something else. For example, a Monster energy drink can...

My Top 5: iPhone apps that I can't live without

I admit that I was one of those people who waited in line for hours on the launch day for the original iPhone. I think it goes without saying that I did the same for the iPhone 3G. However, I did resist jumping out to get the 3GS (mainly because I think the name is stupid and un-Apple-like). With that said, the iPhone has become a major tool that I use every day. Here's a list of the Top 5 apps that I can't live without:

1. Shazam: Shazam is a great app that identifies music just by listening to if for about 10 seconds. This happens to me all the time: I'm in the car with the radio on and I hear a song that really catches my ear (even though I usually only listen to talk radio). I want to know the song and remember to check it out later, so I bust out my iPhone and Shazam gets to work. It listens to the song and after about 10 seconds, it buzzes and I get my results. Not only do I get the name of the song, I get the artist, album, album art, iTunes link, youtube music videos, etc. It's great. It saves everything so I can refer to it later when I get home. I've even got it to pick up a song playing softly at the mall!

2. BofA: This is the official Bank of America app and it's everything you need for mobile banking. Just open the app, log in and you have access to all of your bank accounts. You can transfer funds between those accounts or pay bills. The interface is great and super easy to use.

3. SnapTell: This goes in the same category as Shazam under "information grabber". I'm a big reader and love hanging out at Borders. If I see a book I want more info on, I just take a picture of it with SnapTell and it will immediately recognize the cover and display a ton of information about it. It will show me a summary, author info, reader reviews, pricing from a ton of different book sellers, etc. I can favorite the books I like, but can't buy right that minute. It does the same for movies and CDs. Just take a picture of the cover and bam! You get all the info you could ever want on it.

4. Scrabble: I have to throw a game in here. Scrabble is the official game from Hasbro, made by EA. It's exactly what you think it is, mobile Scrabble. But here's the coolest part! I'm always playing Scrabble on Facebook with a group of friends. The iPhone Scrabble is able to link to your Facebook account and play those games! It's a lot of fun because you can play Scrabble with your friends any time you want.

5. Tweetie: There's a few people I follow on Twitter and I have occasions when I enjoy sharing a funny thought. I think it's obvious that I love simple interfaces, therefore I love Tweetie. There's not much more to say about it. It's just a Twitter app that does what I need it to do. :)



Okay, for those of you who care, those are my top 5 iPhone apps that I can't live without. There are so many apps out there! I know there are probably better ones than what I've listed and a ton I've never even heard of. Let me know what yours are!