I’m not a cat fan but I am married to one. So this video is for her.

Ansel Adams once said the following:

"The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it."

The above video from wistia (a service I don’t use) is a wonderful example of what is really important – the equipment or the knowledge of the one using the equipment.

The mp3 player that I use to listen to my podcasts (a Samsung Galaxy Player) has a video camera on it. After coming home from Emy J’s for lunch I thought I would test it while walking the basset hounds. The above video is the result. Now all I need is to find an Android app to edit clips together.

Well that isn’t completely true. I also need to eat lunch which is the egg rolls Pam made for supper last night. Mhmm. Homemade egg rolls.

Adam showed this to Pam and me last night. Quite funny.

i saw this on neatorama and had to share it. i do love british humor.

pamela posted this video to her facebook page and i thought i would share it. i love how ken burns describes story telling. i especially like how he admits the manipulation involved in telling a story. it reminded me of something that i learned about from photography from brad wenner, a former youth ministry student of mine. during some conversation, i think it was on this blog, he pointed out that photography (as with all art) was never reality. i believe he actually said that photography lies in order to tell the truth because it looks like reality but is in fact the artists manipulation of reality to convey his/her message.

i think this is also when he recommended that i read susan sontag’s collection of essays “on photography” (which i really loved).

anyhow ken burns says some things very similar. you should watch it.

every so often i post about the podcasts that are presently “floating my boat.” i rarely listen to the radio but i do listen to a ton of talk radio podcasts while i drive, walk my dogs in the afternoon, ride my bike, and run. right now i am loving three “new to me” history podcasts. they have been great for my training for the whistestop marathon in october.

here they are:

• dan carlin’s hardcore history – carlin doesn’t go the conventional route with discussing history. he makes some amazing correlations to modern examples that really help to understand the history he is discussing. he spends 13 hours detailing the death throes of the roman republic and it is enthralling. 
• the history of wwii podcast by ray harris jr. – when i finished the wonderful podcast “a history of rome” i realized that i had really grown to like its series based approach to history. so i went looking for another and found ray harris’s podcast. i have just started listening to it and i am really enjoying it.
• conversations in history and theology by maxie burch – burch serves as an associate pastor at north phoenix baptist church and an adjunct professor at fuller theological seminary. he uses the site to distribute his courses and lectures. i just finished his 10 hours of lecture on the history of CHRISTianity in america and i thoroughly enjoyed it. i really liked the way he keeps focused on the dissenting nature of americans and how it is evident in both our history and present time. i think i will start on his course on early CHRISTian history next.

these three podcasts are really making the time i run very enjoyable.

pam, noah, and i watched pixar’s brave this afternoon and as usual with pixar movies it was really good. if i had a daughter it would be a must watch. really pixar consistently does a great job.

i would write more about the movie but i have taken a benadryl to counteract what i think might be poison ivy. i say think because i have never had a reaction to poison ivy or poisn oak before. i know that i have had contact with it before. in fact, they are several times that i have volunteered to clear the stuff from an area because i had never had any reaction to it. i’m not sure that i am having a reaction to it but i have developed a rash all over my shins and calves in the past two days. it itches a fare amount and i am now drowsy from the benadryl.