I'll hop on the Deschanel train this time.
Happy New Years!

"People always seem to think if they dress like a revolutionary they don't actually have to behave like one."

- Banksy in Banksy: Wall and Piece p.47

Top notch animation.

"Policemen and security guards wear hats with a peak that comes down low over their eyes for psychological reasons. Apparently eyebrows are very expressive and by covering them up you appear a lot more authoritative. The upside is this means it's harder for cops to see anything more than six foot off the ground and maks painting rooftops and bridges a lot easier."

- Banksy in Banksy: Wall and Piece p.42

The capabilities of the human body never cease to astound me.

"There are no exceptions to the rule that everyone thinks they're an exception to the rules."

- Banksy in Banksy: Wall and Piece p.32

A few days late for Christmas, but deal with it.

"I got home at last and crawled into bed next to my girlfriend. I told her I'd had an epiphany that night and she told me to stop taking that drug 'cos it's bad for your heart."

- Banksy in Banksy: Wall and Piece p.13

Ryan Gosling, is there anything you can't do?

"The people who truly deface our neighbourhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff. The expect to be able to shout their message in your face from every available surface but you're never allowed to answer back."

 - Banksy in Banksy: Wall and Piece p.8

My sister got me Banksy's book Banksy:Wall and Piece for Christmas and while it is primarily a picture book, he has some great quotes in it. I'll be posting my favourite excerpts here, but you'll have to get the book yourself to see all the incredible art in it!

Here's some simply beautiful music for St. Stephen's Day.

I hate doing stippling, but love looking at it!

Summer anyone?

If you haven't picked up on it from all the Searching for God Knows What, A Thousand Miles in a Million Years and Blue Like Jazz quotes, I'm a big Donald Miller fan. Just yesterday, I picked up Through Painted Deserts. I also picked up a copy of St. Augustine's Confessions mainly because John Piper once said:

"I don't think we ought to be reading new books all the time. I think we should read old books. And then the question is whether time and history has proven them. There are some books that have been around forever, and they are, generation after generation, witnessed to as being very shaping to people's lives. So I think we should constantly be exposing ourselves to those classics and not always reading the latest thing."

I dig Miller's style and value his insights, but I need to gain a deeper appreciation for the works of our Christian forefathers that shaped our current faith and have stood the test of time!

That was all a rabbit trail, back to Don Miller. I also follow his blog and, today, he wrote a few observations of a TED talk by a woman named Brene Brown titled The Power of Vulnerability. Here are a few things that I took from Miller than he took from Brown:

1. We are here to connect. It’s hardwired into our biology. It’s the driving force in the human personality.
2. People who have a strong sense of love and belonging BELIEVE THEY ARE WORTHY OF LOVE AND BELONGING.
3. Connected people believe that what makes them vulnerable makes them beautiful. Connected people are willing to say “I love you” first and to take relational risks. They are willing to get hurt. This is fundamental to a connected person.
4. We numb vulnerability because it scares us. We overeat, drink and escape the risks involved in actually connecting with other human beings. Connected people don’t numb vulnerability.

I like to think that I'm a connected person and I embrace my vulnerability.
Read his whole blog here and watch the video here.

"we should tell people about Jesus, not try to build some kind of temporary moral civilization here on earth. If you want that, move to Salt Lake City."

- Donald Miller in Searching for God Knows What p.188

Adorkable.

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

 - Kurt Vonnegut

"A god who says everybody can do as they please would be a bad god, a bad father, giving license for anarchy. Love creates rules, and forgives when they are broken."

- Donald Miller in Searching for God Knows What p.181

I need spring rugby to come fast!

"These days you get guys who say they are God, and the only people who believe them are the ones who are brainwashed by them in the first place. And even then the guys who say they are God always want to sleep with everybody's wife and live on an island and drink a lot of punch and drive expensive cars and do crazy stuff that pretty much proves they aren't God."

- Donald Miller in Searching for God Knows What p.141

So if you know me at all, you've probably picked up that I'm a fan of the rustic vibe. I would LOVE my house to be similar to the below photos some day!

Thanks Ashley for finding these!

"I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caeser, Charlemange, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force! Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions o men would die for Him."

- Napoleon

Ouch.

"Greene indicated the possibility that multiple dimensions may be laid out against each other as slices of a loaf of bread or tissues in a great brain. And while distantly scientific (strings are too small to actually see and prove scientifically and have been seen only through mathematical formulas), the theory had me pondering about the greatness or I should say the otherness, of God. I began to wonder how odd it would be if we existed in the mind of God, as Brian Greene, perhaps unknowingly, suggests. I am not saying I believe this is true, but something as radical as this, as foreign to our minds, certainly may be. And out of this other place, this existence, Christ stepped to inhabit ours."

- Donald Miller in Searching for God Knows What p.122

I like graffiti a lot. And even more when it comes to life!

"One day, Kelley McRae and her husband Matt decided to pack up all their earthly belongings and hit the open road traveling and singing up and down the east coast."

 - Matt Addington in The Duck Duck Collective's blog post about Kelley 

 While on the topic, check Kelley McRae out here.

My friend Prisca is currently over in SE Asia working/taking photos at an orphanage for a month. She was online for a few minutes the other day and I snagged the opportunity to chat with her. I asked her how things were going and her simple response was:

 "the kids give the tightest hugs and never let go!"

"I know this makes God sound like a terrible narcissist, but my friend John MacMurray said to me recently that the most selfless thing God could do, that is, the most selfless thing a perfect Being who is perfectly loving could do, would be to create other beings to enjoy Himself."

- Donald Miller in Searching for God Knows What p.108

Just plain grogeous.

"This I declare about the LORD:
 He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
 he is my God, and I trust him."

- Psalm 91:2

60% of The Fortress wishes you a Merry Christmas!

Relationships are messy and they hurt.
This said, they're completely worth it.

"I'm going to spend the next week or so assuming people want to talk to me. This is the main reason I don't reach out, because I assume I'm a bother. Or a drain. But there's little evidence of this. If my friends are a gift to me, why can't I be a gift to them? How would the world change if each time we walked through a door we felt as though we'd stepped off the lowered hand of God, given from Him, to the home we are about to enter."

- Don Miller in What Would Change if You Believed People Actually Wanted to Talk to You?

"Teach us to realize the brevity of life,
so that we may grow in wisdom."

- Psalm 90:12

"I know this makes God sound like a terrible narcissist, but my friend John MacMurray said to me recently that the most selfless thing God could do, that is, the most selfless thing a perfect Being who is perfectly loving could do, would be to create other beings to enjoy Himself."

- Donald Miller in Searching for God Knows What p.108

Never before have I felt so inadequate in absolutely everything.

"God has no problems and cannot be confused; therefore, I know that the Spirit in me is my freedom. There is no bondage in God, consequently I am not afraid. There is no confusion in the Divine Mind and I now realize that my mind is one with the Divine. I endeavor to see the answer to every problem instead of the problem. Instead of looking at confusion I now observe peace at the center of every situation.

Ever thought of fear or limitation is removed from my consciousness. I maintain a good-natured flexibility with myself, playing the game of life with deep sincerity but with spontaneity. I enter into my inheritance quietly but with great enthusiasm. I refute every sense of duality and see God in everything. Right now I completely accept Life in Its fullness."

- p.43 of an unknown book

"War is awful. I don't know whether it is right or wrong, what we did to Japan, but I know it was awful. I realize it ended the war, and I know it saved lives in the long run, and I know about Hitler, and I know Japan wanted half the world, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't mourn war anyway, that doesn't mean we shouldn't feel grief at the terrible ways conflicts are negotiated in a world absent God."

- Donald Miller in Searching for God Knows What p.79

Such a great song and video to boot!

"My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever."

- Psalm 73:26 (NLT)

Now I want to learn how to ski.

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

 - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I want this dog.
Or just a german shepard in general.

Music Monday!
Gotta love these two!
Skip to 1m48s for the song to actually start.

High Speed Cameras are just more fun.

Happy first day of December and 24 days until I turn 23!

So I just found out that Bret McKenzie (from Flight of the Concords fame) was/is the Music Supervisor for the new Muppets movie and he wrote and/or produced all of the music for the film. Now I want to see it that much more!

I kind of want to go to space one day ...

Let's go to Panama!

Even though I really don't like heights, this video mesmerizes me.
I was on edge the entire time!

"First, wrap yourself into the fabric by spinning around with your arms out. Then, once you’ve completely entangled yourself, do a flying pirouette into the air, arch your back and fling yourself onto the bed. If you’ve done it right, the net will hold your weight for a moment and you can swing in the air, like a ******* monkey. Repeat. For an hour.
 Also, it goes without saying, you should dismantle all of the lamps in the room, spread crackers on the floor, spill some milk on the bed and then promptly fall asleep."

Christine Gilbert in The Proper Use of a Mosquito Net

(according to her son Cole)

Challenge: make me one of these.

Remember how, in The Matrix, they froze Neo in mid air and then the camera actually panned around him, no CGI? Well they did that by building what was essentially a semi circle of cameras around him and then taking a frame from each camera. It was all video of the same subject, just different angles.

Well now RipCurl is doing the same thing with 30 GoPro cameras and surfing. Insane.
Check out a photo of the array after the video

Check out that array! 

Photo found here.

"When we confess our sins before a brother-Christian, we are mortifying the pride of the flesh and delivering it up to shame and death through Christ."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.289

And that is the last of my quotes from The Cost of Discpleship. The book made me think hard about a lot of things and I'm really glad I read it, but it wasn't easy! As I said in an earlier post, if you're not up for a huge read, I'd still recommend at least reading the chapters on "Costly Grace" and "The Visible Community."

Let me know what you think!

I want this to be my life.

"The community of saints is not an 'ideal' community consisting of perfect and sinless men and women, where there is no need of further repentance. No, it is a community which proves that it is worthy of the gospel of forgiveness by constantly and sincerely proclaiming God's forgiveness (which has nothing to do with self-forgiveness). It is a community of men and women who have genuinely encountered the precious grace of God, and who walk worthily of the gospel by not casting that grace recklessly away."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.287

Stopmotion watercolour skateboarding. What else do you need on a Monday?

"The Christian should receive praise from authority. If instead of praise he incurs punishment and persecution, what fault is that of his? After all, he was not looking for praise when he did that which brought him punishment, nor did he do good for fear of punishment. If he meets with suffering instead of praise, his conscience is clear in the sight of God and he has nothing to dear. After all, he has not brought shame or discredit on the Church. He obeys the power, not for material profit, but "for conscience' sake" ... That is why the government cannot hurt the Christian's conscience even if it makes a mistake. The Christian is still free and has nothing to fear, and he can still pay the State its due by suffering innocently. He knows that when all is said and done, the sovereign power belongs to God and not to the State, which is only his minister."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.263

The US needs to make ads like this!

"This isn’t a story about how girls are evil or how love is bad, this is a story about how I learned something and I’m not saying this thing is true or not, I’m just saying it’s what I learned. I told you something. It was just for you and you told everybody. So I learned cut out the middle man, make it all for everybody, always. Everybody can’t turn around and tell everybody, everybody already knows, I told them. But this means there isn’t a place in my life for you or someone like you. Is it sad? Sure. But it’s a sadness I chose. I wish I could say this was a story about how I got on the bus a boy and got off a man more cynical, hardened, and mature and shit. But that’s not true. The truth is I got on the bus a boy. And I never got off the bus. I still haven’t"

- Donald Glover in That Power*

*Just a heads up, the song does contain explicit content, but it also talks about some interesting things which is why I posted it. I just wanted to warn you.

"the world exercises dominion by force and Christ and Christians conquer by service."

 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.261

First animated short that I've enjoyed in a long time.

"to renounce rebellion and revolution is the most appropriate way of expressing our conviction that the Christian hope is not set on this world, but on Christ and his kingdom."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.260

"If the world despises one of the brethren, the Christian will love and serve him. If the world does him violence, the Christian will succour and comfort him. If the world dishonours and insults him, the Christian will sacrifice his own honour to cover the brother's shame. Where the world seeks gain, the Christian will renounce it. Where the world exploits, he will dispossess himself, and where the world oppresses, he will stoop down and raise up the oppressed. If the world refuses justice, the Christian will pursue mercy, and if the world takes refuge in lies, he will open his mouth for the dumb, and bear testimony to the truth."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.258

Oh New Zealand, this is why I love you.

"Wherever Christians live together, conversing and dealing with one another, there is the Church, there they are in Christ."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.257

My last wedding highlight video of the year!
I still love weddings, but I'm ready for a break!

"(I)f we grant the baptized brother the right to the gifts of salvation, but refuse him the gifts necessary to earthly life or knowingly leave him in material need and distress, we are holding up the gifts of salvation to ridicule and behaving as liars."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.256

EXCELLENT use of transitions in this one
Oh yeah, and it's in Italy which is another place I'm dying to go!

"Those who are still afraid of men have no fear of God, and those who have fear of God have ceased to be afraid of men."

 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.218

Interesting, the different views on prayer.

These two forms of inequality (financial and social) exist in modern America. They are related but different. Over the past few months, attention has shifted almost exclusively to (financial) Inequality.

That’s because the protesters and media people who cover them tend to live in or near the big cities, where the top 1 percent is so evident. That’s because the liberal arts majors like to express their disdain for the shallow business and finance majors who make all the money. That’s because it is easier to talk about the inequality of stock options than it is to talk about inequalities of family structure, child rearing patterns and educational attainment. That’s because many people are wedded to the notion that our problems are caused by an oppressive privileged class that perpetually keeps its boot stomped on the neck of the common man.

But the fact is that (social) Inequality is much more important. The zooming wealth of the top 1 percent is a problem, but it’s not nearly as big a problem as the tens of millions of Americans who have dropped out of high school or college. It’s not nearly as big a problem as the 40 percent of children who are born out of wedlock. It’s not nearly as big a problem as the nation’s stagnant human capital, its stagnant social mobility and the disorganized social fabric for the bottom 50 percent.

- David Brooks in The Wrong Equality 

for the NY Times Opinion Pages

Allons! The road is before us!

It is safe - I have tried it - my own feet have tried it well - be not detain'd!

Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen'd!

Let the tools remain in the workshop! Let the money remain unearn'd!

Let the school stand! Mind not the cry of the teacher!

Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! Let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.

Comerado, I give you my hand!

I give you my love more precious than money,

I give you myself before preaching or law;

Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me?

Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?"

- Walk Whitman's Song of the Open Road

This is how I want to charge my phone!

"People say you have to travel to see the world. Sometimes I think that if you just stay in one place and keep your eyes open, you're going to see just about all tha tyou can handle."

- Paul Auster in Smoke

The editing and use of sound in this blows my mind!

"Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going."

- Paul Theroux

This band just pumps me up!
I'm not the biggest fan of their music, but seeing them live was one of my top five concert experiences so far!
Also, this video is pretty tight.

"The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see."

- G.K. Chesterton

I forgot to post on Friday, so I'll give you two videos today! I hope we can still be friends.

I want to go to Iceland pretty much more than any other place in the world! Absolutely stunning scenery!

"What charm can anyone find in an excursion when he is always sure of reaching his destination, of having horses ready waiting for him, a soft bed, an excellent supper, and all the eases and comfort he can enjoy in his own home! One of the great misfortunes of modern life is the want of any sudden surprise, and the absence of all adventures. Everything is so well arranged."

- Theophile Gautier in Wanderings in Spain

Good for you Joey!

"Adventurous men enjoy shipwrecks, mutinies, earthquakes, conflagrations, and all kinds of unpleasant experiences ... They say to themselves, for example, 'So this is what an earthquake is like,' and it gives them pleasure to have their knowledge of the world increased by this new item."

- Bertrand Russell

I've never really been into fruitbooting, but hanging out with Kurt Rose is making me mock it a little less.

"Dare yourself to do simple things you normally wouldn't consider - whether this means exploring a random canyon, taking up an invitation to dine with a stranger, or just stopping all activity to experience a moment more fully"

 - Rolf Potts in Vagabonding p.141

I still dream of learning how to break dance. Maybe once day I'll actually do it. We'll see.

Here is something I found to be true: you don’t start processing death until you turn thirty. I live in visions, for instance, and they are cast out some fifty years, and just now, just last year I realized my visions were cast too far, they were out beyond my life span. It frightened me to think of it, that I passed up an early marriage or children to write these silly books, that I bought the lie that the academic life had to be separate from relational experience, as though God only wanted us to learn cognitive ideas, as if the heart of a man were only created to resonate with movies. No, life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath:

I’ll tell you how the sun rose

A ribbon at a time . . .

It’s a living book, this life; it folds out in a million settings, cast with a billion beautiful characters, and it is almost over for you. It doesn’t matter how old you are; it is coming to a close quickly, and soon the credits will roll and all your friends will fold out of your funeral and drive back to their homes in cold and still and silence. And they will make a fire and pour some wine and think about how you once were . . . and feel a kind of sickness at the idea you never again will be.

So soon you will be in that part of the book where you are holding the bulk of the pages in your left hand, and only a thin wisp of the story in your right. You will know by the page count, not by the narrative, that the Author is wrapping things up. You begin to mourn its ending, and want to pace yourself slowly toward its closure, knowing the last lines will speak of something beautiful, of the end of something long and earned, and you hope the thing closes out like last breaths, like whispers about how much and who the characters have come to love, and how authentic the sentiments feel when they have earned a hundred pages of qualification.

And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn’t it?

It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.

I want to repeat one word for you:

Leave.

Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn’t it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don’t worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed.

- an excerpt from Donald Miller's book, Through Painted Deserts

found on Donald Miller's Blog

This made me go just wow.

"it's hard to sympathize with a First World traveler who squeezes another month out of a Third World country by sleeping in the forest and hitching rides. (Better to spend that month back home sacking groceries and saving up for a trip that benefits local bus drivers and hotel maids.)"

- Rolf Potts in Vagabonding p.121

Well this is embarassing, but kind of fun at the same time.
My friend Davey is getting good at making videos!

I finally finished reading The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. All in all, it took me 3 months to read, not because I'm a slow reader, but it's just a really heavy book. Bonhoeffer is straight up way smarter than me!

If you're up for a challenge (or smarter than me in general), I HIGHLY recommend reading this book. If you're not up for such a challenge, I'd recommend you find a way to read his chapters titled "Costly Grace" and "The Visible Community." There's enough meat in those two chapters alone to get your mind churning!

"People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home."

- Dagobert Runes

Even after shooting them all summer, I still like weddings.

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving."

- Lao-Tzu in The Way of Life

The bass player was one of my closest friends in highschool. Look at him becoming a rock star!

Kingsfoil, check them out!

Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?
Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?

Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,
speaking the truth from sincere hearts.
Those who refuse to gossip
or harm their neighbors
or speak evil of their friends.
Those who despise flagrant sinners,
and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,
and keep their promises even when it hurts.
Those who lend money without charging interest,
and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.

Such people will stand firm forever.

- Psalm 15

"Cities are full of those who have been caught in monthly payments for avocado green furniture sets."

- Laurel Lee in Godspeed

another joel.witwer original!

"Travel can be a kind of monasticism on the move: On the road, we often live more simply, with no more possessions than we can carry, and surrendering ourselves to chance. This is what Camus meant when he said that 'what gives value to travel is fear' - disruption, in other words (or emancipation), from circumstance, and all the habits behind which we hide"

- Pico Iyer in Why We Travel

a joel.witwer original

Over the past year, I've developed a pretty steady camera hand meaning that I can achieve smooth motion shots that look decent. Even as good as I've gotten, nothing I do can match the quality of motion that you can get with a glide/steady cam mount. This said, yesterday, I found a filter in Final Cut Pro called "smooth cam" which, mixed with my steady-ish hand, can make it look like I am using highly expensive and specialized gear!

In the video above, the clip on the left is my raw footage and the clip on the right is the footage filtered with "smooth cam." The difference isn't HUGE, but it's all the little things that go together to take my video making skills to the next level!

"America is famous for its unhappy rich people."

- Rolf Potts in Vagabonding p.31

The people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones that do.

"neither self nor wealth can be measured in terms of what you consume or own."

 - Rolf Potts in Vagabonding p.31

It turns out that there's some pretty cool stuff going on outside.

"You know that their greed and violence have tried to silence your worships and frustrate your witnesses in church, schools, and hospitals. You have discovered that it is not the buildings that make a true church but the true foundations on which your lives are built."

– Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams

"Great and marvelous are your works,
O Lord God, the Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
O King of the nations.
Who will not fear you, Lord,
and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship before you,
for you righteous deeds have been revealed."

- Revelation 15:3 & 4 (NLT)

I already found my goal for next summer.

I love this woman.

"When a pony does a good deed, he gets a horn and becomes a unicorn and he poops out cotton candy until he forgets he's magical and then his horn falls off and black unicorns, they become zebras."

- Brittany on Glee

This is why I want a chipmunk.

Vietnam anyone?

And here's your Monday fix.
Not as glamorous as the last video, but I dig none the less.

**EDIT 10/5** Autoplay was annoying me, so I'm changing it to just the link:

http://videoec.nw.ctscdn.com/UploadedFiles/65692f04-58bb-43a6-b2ca-4037aef90d94.mp4

I'm heading off to Maine in a few hours here, so I'm giving you a few videos to tide you over as I'll miss my posts tomorrow and Monday.
For Friday, enjoy this absolutely gorgeous tennis video!

I'm in the middle of a video editing craze! I made this one two days ago, another one yesterday. The newest one is a lyric video for a local band, so I'll post that as soon as the officially drop the track!

Even with my fear of heights, I REALLY want to do this!

"I've stopped dreaming because every time I do, God just shows me how much better of an imagination He has!"

- spriestapphotography

Words cannot express the joy that this video brings me.

No goals, no souls,
No aspirations beyond the walls.
My generations deepest thoughts,
Inscribed on these here bathroom stalls.

One of my favourite weddings this year.

“A lot of men want a woman to mother them. They get with a woman and all they do is regress to the point where you might think he might not be capable to take care of himself at all. I don’t want another mother. I want a woman. I want to rise to the occasion. I want to learn and bask in your glow. I want to protect you and do whatever I can to give you strength. There is no twist to this. I am not about to blow my brains out. You have not cut me up like others have. It’s just this. I want to love you with everything in me. I need your help because I don’t know anything about it. I am suspicious and ready to leave and hit the cold road for the frozen dawn. I am just going to trust you with everything in me. I see now that it’s the only reason to be here. After kissing you, I cannot remember what it was like to kiss any other woman. At this point I am not sure if I ever have.”

- Henry Rollins

I hope to one day be as good as DuckDuck. I in love with everything they make!

After a busy busy but amazing weekend (read lots of wedding videos coming soon), we're back in business!

At first this movie looked incredible and I was super pumped to see it. Then I thought a little more about what worldview it was presenting and I looked a little more into "The Machine Gun Preacher." Now I'm not so sure. I just can't support the use of guns and violence, even in response to violence (see my post from Bonhoeffer a few days back).

Check out the actual story for yourself at Sam's website and let me know what you think.

"it is (the devil's) cleverest trick to deny his power and to pretend that he does not exist."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.204

"Oh, and if you don't believein God, how can you believe in love? When we're all just matter that will one day scatter, when peaceful the world lays us down."

- Noah and the Whale in Peaceful the World Lays Me Down

Anyone want to check this out with me?

" Anyone who does not love remains in death."

- 1 John 3:14b

I need to try this!

"What good was it when the scribes herded the people in to the schools, when the devotees of the sternly condemned sinners without lifting a finger to help them? What use were all these orthodox preachers and expounders of the Word when they were not filled by boundless pity and compassion for God's maltreated and injured people?"

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.202

A plain beautiful style of skating that's been all but lost.

"Unlike the founders of the great religions, (Jesus) had no desire to withdraw (his followers) from the vulgar crowd and initiate them into an esoteric system of religions and ethics. He had come, he had worked and suffered for the sake of all his people."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p. 201

I can't even express how excited I am for the rugby world cup! It all starts tomorrow!

"Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience, not interpreting it or applying it, but doing and obeying it ... he does not mean that it is to be discussed as an ideal, he really means us to get on with it."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.197

Great TED talk.

‎"The missionary is one in whom the Holy Ghost has wrought this realization--'Ye are not your own.' To say, 'I am not my own' is to have reached a great point in spiritual nobility. The true nature of the life in the actual whirl is the deliberate giving up of myself for to another in sovereign preference, and that other is Jesus Christ...Be entirely His."

 - Oswald Chambers

"God will not ask us in that day whether we were good Protestants, but whether we have done his will."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.193

WWF, when did you get so good at filmmaking?

"To believe the promise of Jesus that his followers shall possess the earth, and at the same time to face our enemies unarmed and defenceless, preferring to incur injustice rather than to do wrong ourselves is indeed a narrow way."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.190

So yeah, I missed a lot of posts last week. If any of you actually cared, thank you but get over it. I spent Monday in Canada, Thursday in NYC, Friday in Ithaca and Saturday in Penn Yan. It was an incredible week!

Here's what I did on Friday.

What did you do?

UPDATE:

My friend Dylan put this together from the days footage!

"We are drowning in information, but starved for knowledge.”

- John Naisbitt

Sorry for missing a post yesterday, I was in Canada! In order to make it up to you, here are two videos. I hope we can still be friends ...

I agree with 80% of what is said in this video, but love 100% of the visuals.

Most gnarly thing you'll watch all day. probably.

I was raised up believing
I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake, distinct among snowflakes,
Unique in each way you can see.
But, now, after some thinking, I'd say I'd rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery,
Serving something beyond me

- Fleet Foxes in "Helplessness Blues"

Urkle became a playa.

"Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are."

"If when we judged others, our real motive was to destroy evil, we should look for evil where it is certain to be found, and that is in our own hearts. But if we are on the look-out for evil in others, our real motive is obviously to justify ourselves, for we are seeking to escape punishment for our own sins by passing judgement on others"

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.185

" ... I will show you my faith by what I do."

- James 2:18

"Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.175

Everything is more fun when it is in slowmo.

" My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son."

- Hebrews 12:5 & 6

"All that the follower of Jesus has to do is to make sure that his obedience, following and love are entirely spontaneous and unpremeditated. If you do good, you must not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, you must be quite unconscious of it. Other wise you are simply displaying your own virtue, and not that which has its source in Jesus Christ ... The genuine work of love is always a hidden work."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p. 159

This video is worth the watch even if only for the clip at 0.48.

Move


Learn


Eat

but most of all Move.

Sorry CeeLo, I'm with Kocoum on this one.

"But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate.

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice."

- Warren Buffet in Stop Coddling the Super Rich

Ever had one of these days?

Yeah, me neither.

Totally like whatever, you know?
By Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com

In case you hadn't noticed,
it has somehow become uncool
to sound like you know what you're talking about?
Or believe strongly in what you're saying?
Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s
have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences?
Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know?

Declarative sentences - so-called
because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true
as opposed to other things which were, like, not -
have been infected by a totally hip
and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know?
Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this;
this is just like the word on the street, you know?
It's like what I've heard?
I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay?
I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty?

What has happened to our conviction?
Where are the limbs out on which we once walked?
Have they been, like, chopped down
with the rest of the rain forest?
Or do we have, like, nothing to say?
Has society become so, like, totally . . .
I mean absolutely . . . You know?
That we've just gotten to the point where it's just, like . . .
whatever!

And so actually our disarticulation . . . ness
is just a clever sort of . . . thing
to disguise the fact that we've become
the most aggressively inarticulate generation
to come along since . . .
you know, a long, long time ago!

I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you,
I challenge you: To speak with conviction.
To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks
the determination with which you believe it.
Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,
it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.
You have to speak with it, too.

and performed here by Chris Seay

click here for the interactive google map

For those of you that know me personally, you'll know that I've been talking, pretty much, incessantly about this world trip I'm planning. At this moment, I've put the stereotypical American life (birth - elementary school - middle school - high school - college - career - death) on hold and am pursuing this dream 100%. I've 'graduated' from college and a working a job (not a career) to save up for this. The current plan is to work for a year, saving as much money as possible and to leave on this trip late summer/early autumn 2012.

The map above is what I currently plan on doing and I'm looking for more suggestions.

Here's what I have so far:

N. America

Rochester, NY - Hershey, PA - Washington D.C. - Hot Springs, AR (Katie!) - San Antonio, TX (Sarah!) - Nuevo Laredo, Mexico - Mexico City, Mexico - Oaxaca, Mexico (?) - Tapachula, Mexico

Central America

Guatamala City, Guatamala - San Salvador, El Salvador - Managua, Nicaragua - San Jose, Costa Rica - Panama City, Panama (Karla!)

S. America

Bogota, Colombia - Quito, Ecuador - Lima, Peru - Cuzco, Peru (Incan Trail to Manchu Pichu!) - Vina del Mar, Chile - Santiago, Chile - Torres del Paine, Chile - Ushuaia, Argentina (southernmost city in the world!) - Buenos Aires, Argentina

Europe

Dublin, Ireland - London, UK - Paris, France - Milan, Italy - Florence, Italy - Venice, Italy - Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia - Dubrovnik, Croatia - Meteora, Greece

Middle East

Jerusalem, Israel

Africa

Cairo, Egypt (pyramids!) - Nimule, S. Sudan - Jinja, Uganda - Singida, Tanzania - Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Asia

Jodhpur, India - Jaipur, India - Agra, India (Taj Mahal!) - Kathmandu, Nepal (Annapurna Circuit) - Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar - Chiang Mai, Thailand - Bangkok, Thailand

AustralAsia

Gladstone, Australia - Brisbane, Australia - Sydney, Australia - Melbourne, Australia - Invercargill, New Zealand - Dunedin, New Zealand - Christchurch, New Zealand - Wellington, New Zealand - Auckland, New Zealand

N. America

Los Angeles, CA

So what am I missing? What should I definitely see or do before I die? I'm also actively looking for people to come with me whether it be for the whole thing or only a section.

Let me know!

Don't watch this before bed.

I would go to Nando's based soley on their use of Reggie Watts.

Today's post is story time with John.

This clip was taken from Katie and Nate's wedding, which I should have the edit for up tomorrow!

Be on the look out.

My cousin got married so I made this video!

"Anger is always an attack on a brother's life, for it refuses to let him live and aims at his destruction. Jesus will not accept the common distinction between righteous indignation and unjustifiable anger. The disciple must be entirely innocent of anger, because anger is an offence against both God and his neighbour, and shows that we place ourselves on a pinnacle above him and value our own lives higher than his. The angry word is a blow struck at our brother, a stab at his heard: it seeks to hit, to hurt and to destroy. A deliberate insult is even worse, for we are then openly disgracing our brother in the eyes of the world, and causing others to despise him. With our hearts burning with hatred, we seek to annihilate his moral and material existence. We are passing judgement on him, and that is murder. And the murderer will himself be judged."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.127

"When you have made your eye the instrument of impurity, you cannot see God with it"

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.132

More and more, I'm coming to understand that the Christian life is one of continual and complete self-denial. And the more I contemplate and try this, the more I realize how hard it actually is and will be.

Let's start out with complete transparency, I don't understand the current US debt crisis or really finances in general. Personally, I try to spend less than I make and put the rest in savings and, so far, that's worked out for me.

But I came across this quote today:

"If the US Government was a family, they would be making $58,000 a year, they spend $75,000 a year and are $327,000 in credit card debt. They are currently proposing BIG spending cuts to reduce their spending to $72,000 a year. These are the actual proportions of the federal budget and debt, reduced to a level that we can understand."

- Dave Ramsey

If this is true, this doesn't sound like good financial stewardship to me ...

A little longer than the videos I usually post, but I promise that it's completely worth it.

As good as my advice is, this is probably why people don't often ask for it .

My new favourite song and music video

Don Miller has done it again with his post for making a great love story Volume II.

Check it out here.

And, once again, my favourite excerpts:

"Women do like bad guys for a period of time. Usually, this lasts between the ages of 18 to about 24.The reason is simple. Their bodies are looking for somebody who is strong enough to defend their offspring, and they mistake strength for, well, the general characteristics of a jerk."

"A man can have sex with a thousand women and he’ll never feel as masculine as a man who leads a woman through a good love story.
You want a woman who is looking for a man, not a woman who is looking for men."

"do you have a plan? Do you know what kind of father you want to be? Do you know what kind of wife will be required to make your vision come true? If you don’t have a plan, you’re leaving your success up to luck."

"A woman loves a man who can be tender with her, but believe me, while you’re holding her in your arms and she’s being comforted about her hard day, you’d better have a baseball bat behind your back, ready to obliterate anybody who tries to hurt her. Be tender to her, but be absolutely ferocious with anybody who takes advantage of her. If you aren’t a strong man, practice. Take stands, don’t be a pushover, protect the ones you love, and be willing to make a few enemies."


What're your thoughts?

This is your future child.

My man Ben Disinger directed the new (and official) Manchester Orchestra video. Simply incredible.

I love the shots of Rochester in it!

more on it here

My favourite author, Don Miller, keeps a blog that I follow. Today he posted on living a 'great love story' focused on women (he claims that he'll talk to men about the same thing tomorrow) and I just thought it was a great article.

Here is the original blog post: How to Live a Great Love Story

And here are some of my favourite quotes:

“Living a great love story doesn’t look like winning the lottery, it looks like training for a marathon. It’s hard work and you have to do the work long before you ever meet Mr. Right, otherwise you’ll be the girl who shows up for the marathon having eaten a gallon of ice cream every night, listening to Taylor Swift songs and watching love stories about vampires. No good man can run with that girl, not for much longer than a mile.

“it’s a great strategy to be more attractive to a smaller group than cheap and easy to a larger group.”

“Be willing to suffer: What this means for you is that your love story needs to have a lot of lonely crying in it. Believe it or not, there will come a day when a man will fall madly in love with you and you will have the honor of sitting down with him one special night to explain that, while you weren’t perfect, you turned down plenty of guys and cried yourself to sleep hoping somebody would come around and treat you with respect. He will be honored by this, and he will love you and feel humbled.”

If you’re used to one off sex acts where you’re having crazy experiences, you’re husband is never going to be able to match up because, well, he’s got to stick around and to the laundry and argue with you about the electricity bill. That’s not sexy stuff, that’s the stuff of real love stories. It feels boring in the moment, but twenty years in you’ll be crying your eyes out at this man who stuck with you through the thick and thin!”

“become the woman who fits the character in the love story you want to live.”

I have immense respect for this man and I'm excited to see what he writes tomorrow.

Just plain incredible work.

I couldn't wait to share this. Meet my new hero.

Both this animation and the content are astounding!

I don't really understand the draw of fireworks.

"In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

- 2 Timothy 3:12

What's your persecution?If you can't think of anything, do you need to step up your game?

Who wants to try this with me?

I thought this was an ad for nike when I started watching this, but it's so much more. A social commentary. Simply incredible.
Once again from Brendan Lenz.

I just want to make skateboards all the time.

It's not what you're thinking.

a.joel.witwer.original

congratulations Tiffany and Shane!

Today's video comes from my friend Jesse.

Brendan says that my blog is just all of the videos he posts, just a few days later. While not true, I did get this video from him ...

"These men without possessions or power, these strangers on the earth, these sinners, these followers of Jesus, have in their life with him renounced their own dignity, for they are merciful. As if their own needs and their own distress were not enough they take upon themselves the distress and humiliation and sin of others. They have an irresistible love for the down-trodden, the sick, the wretched, the wronged, the outcast and all who are tortured with anxiety. They go out and seek all who are enmeshed in the toils of sin and guilt. No distress is too great, no sin too appalling for their pity. I any man falls into disgrace, the merciful will sacrifice their own honour to shield him, and take his shame upon themselves. They will be found consorting with publicans and sinners, careless of the shame they incur thereby In order that they may be merciful they cast away the priceless treasure of human life, their personal dignity and honour. For the only honour and dignity they know is their Lord's own mercy, to which alone they owe their very lives."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.111

I guess I need a subaru outback now.

homeschooled.

I'm posting super late today, so I'll make it a twofer!

from the vimeo description:

Melvin the Magical Mixed Media Machine (or just Melvin the Machine) can be described as a Rube Goldberg machine with a twist. Besides doing what Rube Goldberg's do best - performing a simple task as inefficiently as possible, often in the form of a chain reaction - Melvin has an identity. Actually, the only purpose of this machine is promoting its own identity.

Melvin takes pictures and makes video's of his audience which he instantly uploads to his website, facebook and twitter account. Besides that he makes his own merchandise. All of this within 4 minutes of craziness which you just have to witness yourself.

"The great lives are lived in the places we most fear. If we fear being rejected, the great story has us standing at the door with flowers in our hands, if we fear losing love, the great stories have us letting that person go rather than clinging to them. If we fear taking a chance on a dream, the great stories have us quitting our jobs."

- Don Miller in Facing Your Fears to Live Your Dreams

Kristyne + Preston. 6.18.2011.
a.joel.witwer.original

This is why I film weddings and am not in them.

Sooo much pre-production, but/hence it works so well!

"Jesus was poor because the truth is there is more to life than money, and money is only a tool. Jesus did not cower to the power of religious authority, because the religious authority was corrupt and misrepresented God. Jesus did not take a wife or even a girlfriend because there is more to life than romance and sex. Jesus did not associate his identity with a specific fashion because clothes themselves cover the truth."

- Don Miller in "All Great Spirituality is Subversive"

"You can only learn what obedience is by obeying. It is no use asking questions; for it is only through obedience that you come to learn the truth."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.78

What do you do on overnight layovers?

"If you believe, take the first step, it leads to Jesus Christ. If you don't believe take the first step all the same, for you are bidden to take it. No one wants to know bout your faith or unbelief, you orders are to perform the act of obedience on the spot. Then you will find yourself in a situation where faith becomes possible and where faith exists in the true sense of the word."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.67

The video itself is a tad mediocre (well made, but didn't hold my attention), but the wedding is drop dead incredible! Pancakes and ice cream, what more can you want?!

P.S.
Notice the tights she changes into after the ceremony.

I love everything about this band.

" Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before."

- 1 Thessalonians 4:11

That's a friend of mine that I met in NZ there on the banjo.

"... one reason many of us have not taken radical steps in our giving, for example, may not be so much because we love our possessions as it is because we fear isolation. If the radical, simple living we see Jesus talking about were more common in the church, it would be easier for us to live simply as well. But we look around, and everyone else has nice cars, nice homes, and lifestyles characterized by luxuries, so we accept that this must be the norm for Christians."

- David Platt in Radical p.205/206