North Carolina taxpayer money hard at work

Well unless you avoid all media and can't stand anything to do with sports, you've probably heard by now about the stunning defeat by my alma mater, Appalachian State University, over No. 5 ranked Michigan on Sept. 1st. App beat Michigan, 34-32, in an unprecedented move to become the first Division I FCS (I-AA) team to defeat an Associated Press-ranked Division I FBS (I-A) team ever! This eventually knocked Michigan out of the AP Top 25 Poll (which ASU is not eligible for) and deflated Michigan fans all over the country into becoming the target of many jokes and much ridicule. Especially considering that Michigan University paid Appalachian State a sum of $400,000 to travel up to Ann Arbor for the season opener. Ouch. (To get a recap of the game and read some hilarious comparisons between the schools - such as stadium size - check this article here.)
But now it appears the fans and media aren't the only ones poking fun at Michigan... check out this Senate Joint Resolution from the General Assembly of North Carolina. I'm not sure how many tax dollars this resolution took, but victory sure does feel good to brag about!

Fuzzy Baby Pandas Look Like Pink Rubber Toys

Anybody who knows me well is aware that I've been a huge massive fan of Giant Pandas longer than my mom can remember when or why. As a fourth-grader I went around counting all of the panda items I had collected, and they numbered over 100. I'm not even going to waste my time attempting to recount that figure these days!

My friend Damon always manages to find the coolest panda photos recently posted on the web to then send to me. Well this is the coolest set I've seen in a long time! They are development photos from the first three months of a Giant Panda cub's life! They're simply adorable, and to see what I mean about "pink rubber toys" I urge you to check them out here! :-)

Jason from Franklin, TN is auditioning for the TONTINE Reality Show

My friend Jason Madden, who was the youth pastor at New River Fellowship in Franklin, TN for a while when I lived there, recently sent me a link to his video on YouTube and explained that he's been chosen to audition for a new reality TV show called "TONTINE." TONTINE is described as "the biggest prize in Reality TV history"... $10 MILLION DOLLARS. To hear Jason's humorous story, I encourage you to watch the video above and if you have a YouTube account (or wouldn't mind quickly signing up for one), vote for him by adding this video to your favorites (click the red heart next to SAVE), "Add to your Playlists", and/or leave a comment.

The person with the highest views/rating/favorites/and comments will win $10,000 and be on the show. Then that person and 14 more contestants will spend 100 days in the TONTINE Challenge which spans all 7 continents! Jason is contestant #100303.

Read more about TONTINE here: http://www.jointhetontine.com/

Learning 2.0... Librarian-Style!

Being a bit of a web-geek myself, I often find it difficult to convince friends and family to embrace new online technologies as quickly as I discover them. For many of them, it seems that I have to set up a one-on-one training session with them to show them how it works before I can convince them to switch over to using the new online tool or web gizmo.

Yet today I read an article on Wired.com about a VERY COOL website that was set up by the Charlotte Mecklenburg County public library to teach their staff these new technologies and reward them for doing "23 Things" over a period of 9 weeks. The topics range from setting up a blog, to tagging and using newsreaders, to podcasting. They rewarded staff with a free MP3 player and the chance to win a laptop. Apparently it was quite a hit with library staff and even more so with other libraries - the Learning 2.0 blog boasts a list of at least 100 other libraries and groups around the world who have adopted this system for their own use!

So if you don't know what the terms RSS and Wiki stand for, or you just want to hone your already tech-savvy skills, give the 23 Things Challenge a go. You just might learn something new!

Math Book Helps Girls Embrace Their Inner Mathematician

Anybody in their late twenties or older will remember the much daydreamed-about "Winnie Cooper" from the hit TV Series, "The Wonder Years." Personally I was more obsessed with Fred Savage who played the handsome young Kevin Arnold (he was only a year older than I was when the series premiered), but yet each week I would lay on my stomach in front of the TV, giddy to see what would happen between the two adolescent "on again, off again" lovebirds.

Well apparently that on-set tutoring that the young actors received during their teenage years of filming the show really paid off for Danica McKellar who played Winnie. She later graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in mathematics among other achievements, and has now written a magazine-style math book for teenage girls entitled, "Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail."

I don't much like the idea of the horoscopes inside, but otherwise I know this will be a book that my Math-major husband will someday want to buy for our kids (at least our daughters)! Hopefully he'll wait past kindergarten before making them start reading it...

Check out the article about Danica's book here:
http://www.wired.com/culture/education/news/2007/08/winniecooper_QA?currentPage=all

The Future is Here...

I know it's been forever since I've written a post on here... well seemingly, anyway. Back in February, I wrote a nice long response to the announcement that Adobe is taking Photoshop online (similar to Google Documents), but blogspot decided that my cookies weren't compatible with my firewall, and when I hit "Save now" before publishing, it logged me out and erased everything! (Apparently they've since implemented an auto-save feature...) Anyway, I was so frustrated that I avoided blogging for a while longer... but now I'm back!

In the vein of my friend Jeremy's blog, I'll probably just use this space to highlight interesting topics and links I find online, although I might sometimes delve into personal issues too... we'll just see how it goes!

The first thing I wanted to highlight is a new technology I recently discovered, called Microsoft Surface. Now I'm not normally a huge proponent for the M$ brand, but I do have to admit that this is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I can't imagine how many restaurants will soon be using this technology (or how much the ones that do will COST), but all that matters to me is that the technology has been invented. Once it's invented, it can go anywhere and competitor companies will pick up the idea (I'm hinting for Apple and Adobe to do something with it!)

The idea behind Microsoft Surface is that it's a 30-inch display table that lets you interact (using just your fingers) with everything from your digital camera to your cell phone to your credit card. You can look up and design interactive road maps, organize your digital photos, and select menu items at a restaurant.

Check out the short videos at this link to see what you think for yourself. Is this futuristic or what? http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

Snakes on a Couch

Click to Play

Okay, a fun and silly little video that we made as part of the Freshman Orientation "Couch Olympics" this past August. The scenario is that we are given a couch from the youth room at church to do anything we want to it while taping a video. The trick is that we only have about 90 minutes to brainstorm an idea, travel to the shooting location(s), shoot everything (no editing) and return back to the church. We were a little late getting back, but I think it was well worth it. All the shots were strictly one-take and the acting was pretty improvisational. It's really silly, but really funny! :-)

(Note: I did edit this version a little afterwards to clean up some of the choppy transitions and added in the opening title shot. Thanks Mark for the snake footage!)

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v)

Tags: snakes on a couch, youth, couch, united methodist, youth group, funny

ACS & other videos moved to a new home...

Hey, if you are looking for the ACS videos ("In Your Face" & Video Rewind), I've started a new blog, exclusively for Conference Youth Event videos and media! Everything's still on there, but now it won't get tangled up with other videos and entries that I post on here for my own blog. Check it out and be sure to sign up for the feed subscription to get an email when I update that page.

http://nccumyf.blogspot.com

(You can also click on my picture to the right to get to it.)

Facing the Giants

Last night for my birthday, my husband and I went to see a inspirational little film playing at our local movie theatre called "Facing the Giants." Now I wasn't incredibly excited about going to see a football movie on my birthday, but as it turned out, it was surprisingly good! This film was shot by a church in Albany, GA on one high-definition Panasonic Vericam Camera in a matter of six weeks with a two-week break midway through. They rented all of their production equipment and then edited the movie on an Apple PowerMac G-5 computer using Final Cut Pro HD software. I guess I'm just not too apt to expect a whole lot from "Christian" movies because there have been some cheezy ones released in the past which just tarnished the idea of a "good Christian film" in most moviegoers' minds. And while I don't expect this one to win any Oscars, as someone in the video field myself, the more I think about it what went into the making of this picture and the budget they raised, the all-volunteer cast, the realistic script, and the well-done camera angles and lighting... I'm just amazed that a CHURCH (read: volunteers) made this movie! I got a kick out of the 4,345,239 people listed in the credits under "Catering." Also, if you happen to be a fan of Third Day, Casting Crowns, Bebo Norman or contemporary Christian music in general, you'll enjoy the soundtrack. Anyway, if it happens to be playing in a theatre near you, I recommend you go check it out! Even though I'm not a big football fan, I actually enjoyed the games and, with a little help from my sports-fiend husband, understood what was going on! :-)

www.facingthegiants.com

Click above to watch the trailer (Click on "Launch Media Player.")

Pilgrimage Promo Video!

Check it out... it's a promo video I did for the NCCUMC Youth Event called "Pilgrimage." Please leave your comments!
- This version is in QuickTime format and is about 30 MB. -
Visit http://goldentwig.blip.tv for additional viewing formats and sizes coming soon (iPod, full screen, etc.).