Dependent on the Rock

I am reminded of my utter dependence upon Christ today. A short passage of scripture that I encountered today during my devotional:

^"17 Unless the LORD had given me help,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.

¹⁸ When I said, "My foot is slipping,"
your love, O LORD, supported me.

¹⁹ When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought joy to my soul. "

-Psalm 94:17-19

May we give thanks to a God who hears us when we cry out to Him! I am so thankful for a God who has compassion on me when my foot is slipping and my body gives way. Thank you God for stressful times and trying situations; in these trials do I find strength in you. I am utterly dependent on Your grace and strength holy Father- teach me to rest completely in Your arms alone.

My friends- if you do not know this security and comfort, run to the cross! Throw off everything- every relationship, every comfort, every novelty, every expectation, every cultural norm and run to Christ's saving arms.

Ammunition of a Creative Blogger

The tools available to the creative professional who blogs keep getting more and more amazing- I'm psyched to be back and blogging again; what a perfect time to jump back in! I recently stumbled across www.vimeo.com a 'you-tube-esque' site (albeit a MUCH prettier, sleeked out one) that lets you broadcast your videos in HD. Yep, that's right- HD! Okay... so granted its not the physical, full-fledged HD package, but its pretty darn close and streams high-rez video extremely well.

The reason for my excitment about this? Just last week I was able to purchase a Canon HV-20 DV camcorder. God miraculously provided us the unexpected means to purchase this camera for which He gets all the glory! Celeste and I thought this to be a wise purchase as we approach our wedding and wanted to start documenting our new life together. Yes, documenting life is grand, but I'd be lying if I denied the fact that I'm really pumped to be able to use this camera for more artistic things as well. My love of cinema and short films was spawned back at Mesa Community College when I took a course with a very talented instructor whom inspired me to create several short films. Unfortunately life, work and school in general squashed any free time that I had available to continue making these films.

However- now with the HV-20 in my possession, I see a bright future for cinematography (heck- if a return to blogging is in order, then why not film making as well). For those of you haven't seen what the Canon HV-20 can do, you've gotta check it out. This is a consumer camera that records in full 16:9 HD and also has the ability to film in 24p (the frame rate that most movies are rendered in). Essentially, this is a 'big-boy' camera wrapped in a consumer package. Don't let the size fool you- this thing packs a punch. While I haven't had a chance to shoot any footage to write home about yet, here is some sample footage that I dug up on Vimeo for you to check out. The best way to do this is to visit the actual site and view it rather then watching it within this blogging structure.

I'll be sure to post some test footage when I have it shot, rendered and ready to go. Invaluable resources that I've stumbled upon so far regarding the HV-20 have some from www.hv20.com- check it out.

A Christmas Story - Trailer

Nothing puts me in the Christmas mood like this movie... what a classic...

God Sustains...

God is amazing my friends! I am constantly refreshed and reminded of his awesomeness during my own personal times of stress. Moving both my fiance and myself to new, separate residences whilst planning a wedding and working full-time has definitely added a bit more stress recently (though it is hardly something to complain about in the grand scheme of things!). Its amazing how he places individuals in my life who direct me down the proper path. This week, that encouragement took the form of several people in my life: my fiance reminding me that God is in control, stumbling across an encouraging letter that was written by a friend, spending time with my brother and just enjoying his company and casual conversation. These were all simple things that people did to point me towards the excellent example of Christ.

Friends, I am so very thankful and indebted to my Lord for consistently and willfully bearing my load of sin. He holds me close in the toughest of times and blesses me beyond what I deserve. Thank you God for being far greater, grander, and magnificent than any problem or tribulation on this planet. You are so very good!

Sleep- I Defy Thee...

Perhaps its the newness of this blog, perhaps its the fact that I just chugged a Rock Star Guava energy drink (quite good actually!), or maybe its just the fact that I have a ton of stuff to do between now and the weekend, BUT I am definitely choosing not to sleep tonight. The itty-bitty camera on my phone provides the wonderful imagery that accompanies such a post (ahem, ahem).

Anyway... I just wanted to say that I am totally jazzed about the promo materials I've been working on for the upcoming wedding. Celeste has been so great about letting me run with this and develop a unique style for our wedding. We completed the final edits on the invitation tonight and I have been wrapping up all of the rough draft, prelim work for our hosting website as well this week. I'll be sure to post the finalized versions of both the website and the print invitations as soon as they are completed here. We're taking a bold jump as far as RSVPing goes- we've totally ditched the traditional mail-in response in favor for online registration via the website (I'm using aa logiforms platform for the RSVP- really quite a neat web-app for those who loathe coding their response pages by hand). I also set up a phone message line for RSVPing just in case some of our invitees don't have access to a computer.

Into the Blogosphere: Part II

Well friends, here I am, back in the blogosphere. The original incarnation of this started almost six years ago when I began freelance design business called Vigilant Studios. I did alright keeping up with it at first, but as the years progressed I began to become more and more lax in my blogging duties. Long story short- life crept in and pushed my creative writing juices out the back door. Recent events especially (read here as graduating from college, starting a new job, planning a wedding) have also contributed to the eventual death of the Vigilant Studios blog.

At first, I was okay with this. It gave me more time to focus on some very important things. However, as time has gone on I find that I crave this outlet. My attempts at keeping a physical, hand-written journal have failed miserably, so I once again turn to the web-enabled version we call a 'blog'.

What's different this time around? Well, for one thing- look at it! I finally got the hint that having a business site and a blog all rolled into one was not a good idea (of course the business site has pretty much become stagnant, but thats another tale for another day). So, I ported over posts that I deemed relevant to the subject matter of this blog for future viewing.

I also decided to do all my bloggin on the Blogger platform. For years I despised using mainstream blogging platforms. Blogger and LiveJournal always struck an unsettling chord in my creative body. However, I've come to realize the error of my elitist ways. By circumventing a mainstream blogging platform I was missing out on a huge community with which to interact. In addition to this, Blogger is now fairly robust in what it offers to the design and creative professional (no doubt due mainly to the highly-profiled acquisition by Google). There is quite a bit of customization and ability of change built into the platform (albeit the pesky little leading bar that is always looming at the top of the page) and I'm quite happy with the overall interface. Blogger also has some wonderful photo, video, and widget uploading abilities that I'm really going to enjoy taking advantage of.

All this to say- I'm back (you can imagine a vintage, terminator-like swarzchenegger voice if you so desire here). I vow to to keep most of my posts following this one less business-like, but I felt an introduction was appropriate. I apologize in advance for the ramblings that may ensue regarding wedding plans and the like... as it just so happens, it's where God has me in life at the moment.

Weasel Memories

I couldn't help but laugh today as I stumbled across a video I completed for one of my film classes in college (which I created roughly 3 years ago). "Weasel & Associates" was a mock commercial that parodies low-budget, local law firms and their attempts to gain the consumer's 'trust'. Without further adieu- the video...

One might wonder what slick hair, smooth talking, and shady client reviews would have to do with that... Interestingly enough, all of these 'characters' will be part of my upcoming wedding in some form or another. Do I know how to pick'em or what?