Conversation with Fathers of the Faith

Great DVD series that Dave Buehring has put together.

http://www.fathersofthefaith.com

Shutters & Triggers Podcast

Here is a nice Flash player interface that plays our episodes of the podcast as it comes out.

Go to www.shutterstriggers.com if it doesn't work... but it should!
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It's official...

Well, I am officailly unemployed from MCC now (as of November 30).

I have mixed emotions about the whole thing since I really enjoyed working there for the past 7 years. I know I made a positive difference in what teachers' used for educational technology. It was great to be able to take on challenges of adding new tools that could be used in the classrooms and train teachers on their use.

Life's changes are pretty rough sometimes, and while I'll always miss my family at MCC, I realize that other aspects of that place were not for me. Moving on is the best solution right now...

So, I am back in the production community to some extent, and getting in more and more as each day goes by. I'm realizing some of my dreams are to tell the stories of my heart and find others to inspire into finding their purpose in life. The medium of film and video is the best way I have found to do this, and of course it is the one I am most familiar with.

Changes are happening and I'll have to devote a full followup blog entry to what cool things are going on in the many projects I'm working on right now.

Goodbye MCC.... I'll miss you...

Nothing to do... :-)

Well, here I am with nothing to do but read, watch DVDs and write. Ain't it great to be healing!

A sample Haiku for those following my healing progress:

Belly torn to shreds
Stitches makes me whole again
I grab the remote

Well, now you know what I'm talkin' 'bout. Nina has been great at pampering me, but I must start soon to get around and do things... like find a new job!

More later...

Note from Monday I posted on Facebook...

This was a note I posted on Facebook this past Monday...

Friends and family,

Some have asked about my minor hernia surgery tomorrow 11/20/07. I found out from a call to the hospital a couple hours ago that my operation is due to start at 7:30am tomorrow, so we are going to Park-Ridge at 6 o’clock in the morning!

They say I will be in surgery for only 1.5 hours and then recovery is about an hour. I can’t believe that I will be home by noon, but it looks that way. It really seems like quite a routine operation these days, but I welcome your prayers and thoughts as I am in surgery, so please share this tonight with others if you want. If you want to, a phone call or email when I am home for 2 weeks recovering would be nice as well if you’re not too busy. Please pray for Nina too, since I will become an even bigger burden on her, I’m sure, as I heal. :-)

I actually figured out a way to have my PC monitor accessible with cables and using a wireless keyboard and mouse I might be online from time to time. Mostly, though, I’ll be resting and reading and watching DVDs. I hope I don’t go stir crazy as I am told by some of you who’ve had this surgery in the past that it is very important to lay still and heal properly.

Thanks for your concerns and I hope to see you on the other side of all this….

Blessings,
-Paul

Clean clean clean...

So except for writing this blog entry, I've been cleaning my home in preparation for Thanksgiving Day and for the fact that I'll be laid up for about 2 weeks because of surgery.

It's strange to have to be careful in lifting heavy objects (due to the hernia I have and will be operated for) so as not to damage anything further. However, the house is a mess, and I need to prepare of good living space for my recovery.

I'm reminded of a dear friend who went through SO much more than I will be with her son's kidney operation over this past summer. She was skilled at endearing herself to others and endorsing the help of others to the extent of making David's operation successful. She held spaghetti dinners for fundraising, an event with performing bands, little donation cups around MCC where we both worked, and even won second place at a local Touch-a-thon for a car helping out kidney disease. This past year has been one of great struggle and great success for her and her son and sister (her sister donated the kidney to her son).

So, remembering all they went through should make this 2 week inconvenience a breeze, right? Well, in some senses it will be, but I am still concerned about going under the knife. What also doesn't help is that I am still looking for a new full-time job, and my arrangement with my previous employer runs out in the middle of my recovery time.

I thought I would be re-employed by now... :-( I suppose I ought to just pray that all goes well with the surgery, and take things one step at a time...

3D animation is all over the place!

So, I've been working freelance on this cool racing car type animation. It's actually a company called Forced Dynamics through a long time friend of mine who is designing their marketing campaign. He is bring their product to a new level and suggesting they put it in amusement parks and casinos. I also suggested putting it in existing speedways (like Spencer Speedway near here)... he is considering it.

What is different that Chris is suggesting is that the ride be linked to many others of its same kind in a multi-player system all in the same paddock or room. I also suggested that they could run the system multi-player mode with other parks having a player in Disneyland and a player in Darien Lake and other players at Busch Gardens and other Six Flags outlets all playing each other live at once.

These machines are not cheap, but the animation we made should help conceptualize the idea of the multi-player option from within the same room idea.

Here is a link to the animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07fcdMxREzc