If Fonts We're People...

My friend Lauryn sent this video to me. This one is definitely dedicated to all of those design/typography geeks out there! I must say, my stomach turned a bit when I realized Comic Sans was the hero, but Wingdings more than made up for it. ;)

Verbatim Teaser

Well, I am finally ready to let loose a bit of a teaser. Some of you know that I'm in the middle of writing a script for a film that I would like to see produced and submitted to festivals. It's been an interesting process so far and we are definitely still in the infant stages of this. All of this is subject to change (including the title), but if you're interested you can head over to verbatimmovie.com to check out the Verbatim teaser page. Currently there is only some sparse graphics and a song at that page, but a synopsis and accompanying materials will arrive in time. I want to document the process of this film from its early stages, hence this teaser site.

For those of you interested, the song was put together in GarageBand in conjunction with a MIDI keyboard that I use to compose with here at home. Let me know what you think. :)

Snickers Wrappers

I was in the line at Wal*Mart and noticed this crazy little packaging change on a Snickers bar. Awhile ago I blogged on how Starbucks was using their original logo this year on select drinks to help celebrate their anniversary. It would appear that Snickers is doing the same from the look of it (from what I have heard it sounds like it is their 75th anniversary). Apparently radical marketing like this works- I bought a bar just to show my wife when I got home... I didn't even want the candy bar. ;)

"Say, have you ever heard of intestinal parasites?"

I was asked to be an extra in a fun little film that Food for the Hungry is producing. The film is being designed to teach the importance of raising monies for medicine and supplies which are distributed through our Gifts-in-Kind ministry. Our video guy sent this still to me from the 'deworming medication' segment. ;)

R.I.P. Create Magazine

Well... it appears that a very promising graphic design entity, Create Magazine, just bit the dust. I received an email today saying that Jupitermedia Corporate Inc purchased the magazine and is merging it with their magazine, 'Dynamic Graphics'.

I remember when Create Magazine first came out. It was so full of promise, it had a great design sense to it, and it was locationally relevant by publishing region-specific issues that contained news specifically going on in my neck of the woods. We'll see how this all pans out, but if this new homepage is any indication then I'm not going to hold my breath (man that design is nasty... granted my blog has seen better days, but if you own a domain like graphics.com you'd think there'd be something more to show then ads, ugly banners, and unnecessary columns).

Que sirrah, sirrah...

MobileMe Rocks!

So... I've switched over to MobileMe for email. I was somewhat weary of the transition of .mac to MobileMe by Apple earlier this month, but my fears have been abated. The interface is stellar- very minimalistic and extremely easy to navigate. Finally- I have a web-based front to access my email, address book, calendar, photo gallery, and 20gb of file space for me to store and access files at will from anywhere that has an internet connection. What's more, all of this pulls from information that is synced directly from my computer at home (sorry guys and gals: MAC only). That's mighty groovy in my book.


Sure there are a few shortcomings, the primary of these being that mail has no external IMAP support, and you are forced to use the @me.com (or @mac.com if you were a previous .mac subscriber) domain for your email. However, these aren't deal breakers for me anymore. Awhile ago I wouldn't have touched my .mac account for email. Frankly, the interface stunk and didn't have a lot of interoperability. Now though, its worth the switch. I have routed all my email accounts to forward to this account. You can still reach me via my email at Vigilant Studios or Pulse of Thought, but you'll be getting responses from my @me.com account instead.

To me this doesn't break branding protocol (though many would argue differently that they MUST have their domain name in the resolution of their email address). Obviously large corporations or organizations with 10+ people will still want to use their native domain name, but for those of us running independent businesses where we are are the only employee, the '@me.com' email resolution works quite well. Unless you are a very old corporation who got in early on the domain registering bandwagon, you aren't going to be able to get a domain that is 2-letters long. It's just not going to happen. If memory serves me correctly, all 2-letter permutations of domain names were taken by the early 90's. Also the '@me.com' is generic, non-associative, and easy to remember. For me this is a huge plus- the '@vigilantstudios.com' was getting a bit rough to use as an address... While it makes sense and pushes people towards my web address, its not easy to tell someone on the fly or over the phone. Generally it results me having to spell it out multiple times, and even then there's bound to be room for error. With '@me.com' there's virtually no room for error.

That's my take, and I'm sticking to it!

The Great Voice Message Debate - #2

Which was better- The Original Star Wars Trilogy or The Lord of the Rings Trilogy?
Click on the play button to here the message and responses.

Helping Your Marriage... 'beat the odds'?

I receive e-mails from focus on the family which are geared specifically to the recently married crowd. I love these emails- there is lots of practical advice and some really good resources. Generally the content featured in these emails is very helpful and Christ-centered. However, I did notice one book review description that bugged me quite a bit in today's email. It was a book geared toward Christians who have been married before. I am not contesting that there exists a Biblical basis for remarriage in extreme (notice the wording... extreme... as in: unfaithfulness with a refusal to come under church leadership!) situations. However, I am contesting the wording of this book, it went as follows:

"Whether it's you or your spouse who has been married before, the principles and guidance in Happily Remarried can help you beat the odds and make your re-marriage a success."

Beat the odds? I'm sorry, but the sentiment of this wording really irks me as a Christian. I once received this advice prior to my own marriage. One, well-meaning man, used these words: "Stephen, if you do the research now and try to lead your life according to scripture, it will help you beat the odds of a failed marriage."

Whoa- back that up. I would vehemently say 'no!' to that my friends. All the research and preparation in the world will not save your marriage from failing. If that's your strategy, get ready to fail and fall hard. Nothing in and of your own power will save your marriage.

Let me tell you what will 'save' your marriage- an utter dependence upon God. A reliance upon Him that refuses to let go of His promises even in the darkest of times. We shouldn't have to 'beat the odds' with our marriages as Christians. There are no 'odds' for a marriage truly rooted in Christ alone! What there should be, is a confident expectation that God will give you the strength to endure and persevere through any trial that you may encounter together. Yes, we are married to fellow sinners, that much is true. However, that does not give us the liberty to abort our marriages as if they were some plan that 'just didn't happen to work out'. It is unsettling how many people (and many who are supposed Christians!) are willing to throw away their marriage at the faintest sign of trouble. What a marring of a beautiful ordinance that Christ has given us! Imagine if Christ simply chose to abort His love to the church? Let the gravity of this sink in: He chose to dedicate Himself to a tainted bride (the story of Hosea and Gomer comes to mind- check it out). If anyone had an excuse to 'let go', wasn't it Christ? Thank God we have a dedicated Savior- one who does not flee us or reject us despite our unfaithfulness to Him!

"The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands." - Deut 7:7-9

So what's the exhortation? Buckle down my friends! Face sin head on with Christ by your side. Don't shy away from His grace or look for the easy way out. May we guard the sanctity of marriage as Christians who refuse to be like the world. With Christ you don't have to beat the odds, He has already overcome them.

A Footnote: I do not write this post in an attempt to discourage anyone who has had the unfortunate experience of an unfaithful spouse who has refused to be reconciled or come under the authority of the local church. Indeed- my heart goes out to you. This is not a hammer over the head of those who faithfully seek reconciliation through Christ while their partner does not. This post is for those who consciously and willingly thrust aside a hope for reconciliation in their marriage.

Pandora for iPhone... Wow.

I recently purchased the LG Voyager phone- it's awesome, I love it. I went through the whole cell phone company debate and nearly switched to T-Mobile, but in the end my wife and I stuck with Verizon. Their network is great, customer service has never been a problem, and the phones are better (in my opinion) than what any other service provider offers. The only downside is that Verizon doesn't use SIM Cards. Basically- this means you can't just up and grab a new phone, swap your card into it, and have it work.

One of the only reasons I was tempted to go with T-Mobile is that they do use SIM cards. The only phone (again in my opinion) that rivals what Verizon's line-up has to offer, is the iPhone. However, I decided that the extra money and hassle wasn't worth it. It IS possible to unlock the iPhone and use it on T-Mobile, but only after going through the headache of purchasing a wireless contract with AT&T (this didn't used to be the case... but now it is), breaking that contract, incurring and paying the charges associated with breaking that contract (think the iPhone prices fell? Think again- you're paying for it elsewhere now...), finding someone to unlock the phone, and then FINALLY using it with T-Mobile. To me, that just wasn't worth it.

Apple has also recently launched its iPhone application store. A place where developers can create applications that run on the phone. I knew this would be a cool addition but still couldn't imagine it justifying the cost.

Then I saw an ad on Pandora... they now have an app out for the iPhone that allows you to use it for free. Wow. Anyone who visits here often knows that I am a Pandora endorser to the extreme. The fact that Pandora has been released for the iPhone is amazing. Essentially it means that you'll have full, near-mp3-quality music with you whenever you want it... again for free. Forget satellite radio, forget the iTunes music store, and forget your MP3 player. With this app you can bluetooth streaming internet radio into your car, home speaker system, headphones, or pretty much anywhere else you can take your phone.

Does anyone else realize how groundbreaking this is? This is the most portable audio has ever been! I do love my Voyager, but my goodness... this app makes an iPhone extremely enticing, yet expensive, option.

Lacking that military 'punch'? Do as Iran does- photoshop it!

On Wednesday a photo was published depicting missiles being launched by Iran's revolutionary guard. For those fearing Iran as a weapon-saavy loose cannon, this may have been a disturbing image. However, this story proved to be more comical than frightening in the end...

For you 'photoshoppers' out there, a quick glance will easily reveal a very bad 'cloning' job. For some reason Sepah News, the media arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, decided to fabricate an additional rocket into the photo using a cloned smoke trail and rocket from the real rockets. There a couple things that give this image away as an obvious dupe: 1) The smoke billows at the bottom are identical... that just doesn't happen... 2) the rockets are the same, just altered in size (this isn't a huge deal as this would be hard to discern in the real world), and 3) there has been additional brushed in 'smoke' in the rocket trail that has been obviously added (this is one defect that I have not seen talked about in many sources that are reporting on this). There are also a few clumped areas of offending pixels that are the result of a bad clone sourcing. This obvious manipulation was confirmed a day later when another photo surfaced depicting not 4, but 3 rockets (top photo: photoshopped version, bottom photo: original photo).

The funny part is this: BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo! News, NYTimes.com and many other major news Web sites aired/published this photo without even doubting its validity. This had to have gone through an imaging department at some point. You're telling me that no one caught this prior to publishing? Umm... oops.

This begs the question, "Do you always believe everything you read on the newspaper or watch on the television?" Why in the world would Iran try to (badly) fake an additional missile into their photographs? Well thanks for asking, here's my take- militant countries like Iran know that one of their most powerful weapons (even more so than missiles and gun powder) is the US media. They know that the US as a nation gobbles this stuff up. We consume it, we integrate it, we allow only these news stories (that have been selectively picked to cause commotion) to shape our world view.

What gave me a chuckle was that this is not the first time this has happened. Iran was caught photoshopping another news story claiming to have discovered US weapons in Iran just a few months earlier; again, another blatantly botched 'clone job'.

In addition to the obvious benefit of getting a good laugh out of this, I'm glad that this happened. Maybe now we'll all be a bit more inclined to wake up and smell the pixels.

Thank you God!

As a general rule, I loathe complaining (even my own complaining). It's especially hard for me to read blogs full of complaining... what a major drag to read. So with that in mind I simply wanted to post the things that I'm thankful to God for.

I am so very thankful for my beautiful, compassionate, caring wife, who, above all else is my friend and companion for life. I am refreshed (and sometimes humbled) by her honesty. I know that she loves me without requirement and will continue to do so regardless of the circumstances. In the same way I know that I love her without requirement and will continue to do so no matter what the circumstances. She is quick to forgive and quick to apologize. She is so much fun to laugh and do the simplest of things with. I love that she doesn't have to be doing much just as long as she is doing it with me. She is the most beautiful girl I know and I'm so very proud to call her my wife.

I am so thankful for my family. Celeste and I spent some time with my extended family last week up in Payson for the 4th of July. It was such a blast and so relaxing! God has done something special with our family... my aunts, uncles, and cousins are all so very close. We tend to have the same sense of humor whilst maintaining our unique, distinct personalities. Growing up I never really appreciated how rare this is... to be able to have this abundant love for your relatives and to count the days off in anticipation of seeing them all again. My parents are amazing- so patient, so kind. They exhibit love in every aspect of their lives and their support for their sons knows no bounds. I'm thankful for the way they've welcomed Celeste to our wacky family and the love that they shower her with a well- she loves them so much too! And my brother... what can I say? He's a classy guy! I will never understand why people peg him as 'the quiet one' at times. He has one of the biggest (and funniest) personalities I know and can be quite outspoken at times. He is a constant friend and is gifted in his discernment and the choices he makes. He is an individual who can admit when he is wrong and defend himself when he is right, something I find incredibly refreshing.

I am thankful for my friends. David, Darryl, Garrett- you make me laugh harder than I thought possible and your creativity inspires me always! Our college and career group is a constant source of encouragement- I am so proud of the young men and woman that God has lead to be in our group. They exhibit His grace and love in their lives in many varying ways. I feel that we have been truly blessed with a non-judgmental group, which again is extremely refreshing to me.

I am thankful for my job. Oh what a joy to be able to be thankful for one's place of work! On more than one occasion I have heard people speak of how they loathe their jobs. This concept has yet to enter my mind. I love what I do, I love the people I work with, and I love what we are doing as an organization. Food for the Hungry has indeed been a blessing in my life. No matter how crazy (and it is crazy right now!) it gets, I am never ungrateful or unsatisfied with my position. How great is it to be able to go to work and pray with your co-workers? How amazing is it to be able to use the Bible as your code and ethics manual?

There are of course many other things that I am thankful for (a roof over my head, food, transportation, health, etc.), but these are the things that come to mind. I hope that you all are doing well and remembering to count your blessings! God has given us so much- may we never forget that in the end we deserve nothing... thus, every good thing in our lives is a blessing and more than we deserve. God is awesome!

Let me clarify...

First off, let me say that the post preceding this one (edit: I took down the old post as I've now been convicted that its posting was a mistake- message me if you really want to read it still!) suffered from two things specifically: 1) I was emotionally charged having come off of a somewhat-heated debate with another individual which clouded my judgment and 2) it was made without revising or rereading before posting which would have made clear the many inconsistencies that obviously existed. To be honest- I pretty much puked out a mess of random thoughts and feelings into a blog posting- my bad.

The Christian liberty points made in that post were not only unbiblical, but also didn't connect to the subject being discussed. In fact, the previous post brought up quite a few sentiments that just plain old didn’t make sense; it was chocked full rabbit-trails into nothingness. Thanks to those of you who had the presence of mind to call me out on it: it’s a reminder for me to let myself cool off and write in an objective environment before gushing a mess of unconnected thoughts onto the page. I definitely needed to heed the advice of James 1:19, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath..." In my case I broke every one of these: I was slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to anger.

I am humbled by your words of encouragement to rethink my position. I fear that I made the childish mistake of being passionate just for the sake of being passionate. In the end I just came off as overzealous and under-supported in my position.

I hope you can forgive my blatant oversight. Allow me to more accurately and concisely convey what I meant to say in the previous post. Here’s what I should have said…

The rising gas prices have caught my attention. However, instead of looking at them as a terrible thing, I’ve come to realize that God’s purposes are always higher than our own. It may be that God has allowed such things to happen so that we pay better attention to our call to be good stewards of what He has given us. I know that the rising prices have caused me personally to evaluate what type of steward I am being with what he has given me.

I have been convicted of my own smug attitudes as well with regards to what I have been made a steward over. How often do I take for granted what I have been given? We are nothing without the grace and support of our loving Father. May we treat everything (including money, gas, this earth, etc.) that we have been made a steward over as a miraculous blessing from God and not take for granted all that he has blessed his undeserving children with!