Saving Creativity

Well, it’s been almost a month since I returned from Uganda.  From an amazing trip and meeting some even more amazing people.  For those of you not caught up yet here is the cliff notes version of one young man and his story:

-  I met Samuel on one of my last days in Jinja, Uganda

-  He wrecked me as he told us of his story of struggle to eat and live

- His both his parent’s are dead and he doesn’t really know how old he is, he eats whenever he earns enough money to buy some food

- He has never…NEVER…been to school and has only seen a doctor once…

So now that we are all caught up and on the same page, here’s the newest update.  Pastor Sal Sberna, spoke this past weekend at a conference in San Antonio, TX and told a little bit about Samuel’s story.  Well, on the last day of the conference, a young couple came up to Pastor Sal and handed him an envelope.  They said that they wanted the money inside to go directly to Samuel, to better his life.  Well, Pastor Sal opened up the envelope and inside was $500!!!  I was in awe of what God has done for Samuel, $650 has been raised for Samuel and hopefully we can all keep telling his story so that the last $100 can be brought in.  Please tell your friends, neighbors, and loved ones about Samuel and forward them on to this blog or to Call To Africa, and then have them donate and write a comment here so that I can make sure that the money gets put toward Samuel’s cause.  If you are in Houston, TX this weekend (Nov. 22nd, 2009), we are going to be showing a piece of Samuel’s story, and if you gave you should be receiving a link today that will allow you to see that service element ahead of everyone else.  We are working on the rest of Samuel’s story (the full version), and when it is done, it will be premiered here as well, so stay tuned!

Well, it’s been almost a week since I returned from Uganda with a team from theMet.  I have sucessfully gotten back to CST sleeping schedule and I really felt good when I got back.  I have been going to bed early this past week, but besides that I feel good.  And I have yet to miss a Malarone pill so I am hoping at dodging Malaria!  Well I fixed the link in the previous post, but for those of you who missed it and still want to donate:

www.calltoafrica.org

Then click on the “Who We Are” button.  There you will be able to give directly through “Call to Africa”.  A great NGO that theMet partners with on many levels and in a lot of locations across Africa!  Once you pay, make sure to comment here so that I can send you a photo and a note card!

I also want to update you on the editing saga we (Andrew and I) have begun.  All the footage has been collected and is being sorted.  We recorded about 400GB of footage!  That means about 27 full 16GB P2 cards, or about 1,120minutes of footage that need to be viewed, sorted, categorized and filed into their prospective projects.  We have 10 videos to edit along with some specific videos for services and for the web.  Whew, that seems like a lot, but it really is going to be so amazing to have so many finished, professional videos to have for our “Big Give” Series.  I hope the people of theMet really watch, listen, take heart and change parts of their lives to be more generous….

UrbanWorldTraders

Now on to another way you can help out.  These necklacesand bracelets are made from a group of ladies who are formerly Rock Quarry rock smashers in Kampala, Uganda.  When we visited them, they literately where sitting, surrounded by piles of rocks with hammers smashing them into smaller rocks.  It was brutal, and a lot of these women have lost spouses, children and parents to this particular quarry.  No eye or hearing protection and they made about 2000 shillings a day!  Now you can purchase these necklaces that they make.  It pays them a fair wage and they get to create the beads in community and encourage each other spiritually as well!

So here’s the update, sorry it’s been so long between them.  I was sent to Uganda by theMet to tell some stories, acquire great footage, and generally be what I hoped to be…creative.  What happened today will forever change who I am and how I view my life in America.  We went to Pastor Henry’s church in Njeru, Uganda, and while we have been recording some great testimonies to what theMet has perviously done here in Jinja, Uganda, have struggled this trip to find that story that rips your heart out and makes mashed potatoes of it.  Well we found it today.  God wrecked me when I was introduced to this young man…

Meet Samuel, he doesn’t know how old he is, does odds and ends to make maybe 100 schillings a day, and oh yeah….and most of the time the people he does the tasks for don’t pay him, kinda like leaving a tract at a restaurant table instead of a tip.  He eats maybe once a day, and goes to sleep crying at night because all he can think about is how hard it will be tomorrow to survive.  To top it all off: his dad died before he moved to Njeru and his mom died right after he moved there.  So now that we’ve established that he is in a situation that seems impossible…here is where we all come in:

It takes $50 a TERM to send Samuel to school.  For that $50 per term (3 terms a year) they get: uniforms, books, two solid meals a day and an honest to God education so he can make something of himself.  What he needs is our help.  I want to support this boy so that when he turns into a man, he can support his family.  So that his children will see hope and want to make something of themselves.  I want Samuel to be able to go to school for the next 5 years.  This is really where we all come in.  For every person that donates $50 to sending Samuel to school..I am going to send you a note card with specific things to pray for him and…a rock.  The prayer card is to remind you every day what to pray for, and the rock is to remind you that you have it so easy in America and that Samuel is back in Uganda struggling to just survive.  That the hardest thing you have to decide is what you want on your salad or what coke to drink, and that Samuel has to fight every…single…day to just eat.

For those of you who struggle with math, here is the break down: 3 terms a year X 5 years…that’s $750 to change a child’s present and future.  We can’t change his past, but we sure as hell need to change his future.  So I need 15 people to give Samuel a life, give him a chance at a future.  We are cutting a video together and each person who gives money will be given a link to hear Samuel’s story.  Once we launch it at theMet, I will post it for everyone else here.

So here’s my plea to you:  give to something bigger than yourself.  Go without your coffee for a couple of weeks (that would be you… you vente triple machiatto, no whip, soy milk drinkers you..), or maybe go to Supercuts instead of snooty salon (and when people ask you why you got your hair cut there, tell them Samuel’s story), or maybe don’t go out to eat every night and send that money.  God really challenged me to do something about Samuel, so are you human enough to care more than saving your creature comforts?  I know I am….  Over the next few weeks I am going to post a more stories of what God is doing in the lives of the people in Uganda, get ready for inspiration and heart wrenching stories.  God is bigger than America, and I hope through these stories, that God will give all of us a little insight into His heart for others around the world.

If you want to participate post a comment below and I will email you with the details.  I collect the money and once we have an entire year paid for, I will send it over to help Samuel out.

Thanks for taking the time to read and to help a young man out.  Your reward will be visible through a changed life…. Samuels!

For all of you over achievers in the world here are a few links to different organizations that will help you get a better understanding of the HOPE that is being spread around the world, and how you can be a part of something that is bigger than our little…American…worlds…

www.mochaclub.org

www.invisiblechildren.com

www.worldvision.com

Hope you have gotten the MMS update for your iPhone, if not, just update iTunes, plug in ye’ iPhone, update your phone and then restart your iPhone.  Once it restarts you should have a nifty little option under your text messaging icon that will give you the ability to MMS pictures or video to anyone in your contacts!

Saw this on the front page of Digg.com.  Awesome creative use of two forms of art: skateboarding (actually long boarding to be exact) and technology to power the colored tubes.  Even the tubes beat to the music, so there must have been some cool sync.

A blog that I follow (murphy24p) had a great post on the connections with people in our lives.  I loved this line form his post:

I guess it really struck me how far I have moved, in such a short amount of time, to a wholly electronic connection with people.  I mean, it has only been 4 months since I couldn’t check email, scan tweetdeck or check who commented on my wall with my phone.  Before that I actually had to sit down and check it on my desktop at home (Trinity blocked Facebook and Twitter…maybe that was a bigger benefit than a curse!)  Can I confess something:  I really want to start over, I mean get away from everything being on a screen, or via my phone.  How about instead of shooting off an email or iChat session, I should be picking up the phone or meeting someone, as Murphy suggests, over my beloved coffee.

Here is a piece that really inspired me this morning, hope I haven’t posted this yet, but Dan Stevers is a great motionographer and does some amazing work!

Dan Stevers’ 07 Reel from Dan Stevers on Vimeo.

20 days or 116,800 hours till I start my new job.  So many changes coming.  We have had a bunch of good showings on our house, no big bites yet, but this weekend could change that.  Ok, enough said about that.

I do have a question for everyone, they asked me what my must have plugins are for FCP.  I named the usual, G-films transitions and Magic Bullet.  But what are the other must have plugins that I haven’t yet discovered?  What do you use in FCP that really help polish that video piece till it’s buffed out goodness?

Ahh, my ADD is kicking in.  You should check out today’s free downloads on iTunes, the Neon Leon song “Push to Freeze” is a decent ambient song with lots of good guitar riffs throughout.  Although not as toasty as Owl City, I am digging these guys right now, especially for a free song.

Ok more to come today, I am hunting down reasons for everyone to upgrade to the iPhone 3GS, even if you own an HD camera, two videos that will blow your socks off and a new review on Final Cut Pro 7!  All those updates before noon EST!

Well if you have been following my twitter feed or even facebook for that matter…it’s official.  The Ackerman household is moving to Houston, Texas to join a wonderful staff at theMet.  I will working in the Worship Arts department as a Video Director/Editor and working along side Andrew (a great guy might I add!).  We are excited and nervous all at the same time.  God has been doing some very cool stuff along the way and we feel confident and at peace with going.  Now comes the long list of things to do, to actually pick up all of our stuff and move it 1500 miles cross country to a town I have been to twice!  I am also trying desperately to sell my house and finish up all of my video work for the side business as well as Trinity!

Today is a woot.com woot!off so make sure you head over there and F5 often to get the woot! goodness that they slepp up every time a product sells out.  Right now it’s a professional slicer, but I just missed a Gutter Cleaner, a microSD card and a Pen scanner…. Oh the joys of woot!

I have been working hard on some very cool stuff here at Trinity.  Namely the fall series.  I wanted to create this…but alas my PS/AI skills are lacking to actually pull it off.  So I went with the default, find a cool look in AE and create it!  So without further ado, here is a sneak peak at what the rough fall bumper will be….

Phillippians Bumper from TrinityWired Productions on Vimeo.

Sorry for the long delay, lots going on these days.  Getting ready for the fall, getting ready to shoot two videos for the summer series, and general mayhem happening around here.  Yesterday was spring cleaning day at the church and Greg, Josh and I cleaned till we were tired!  I have never seen so much junk that we never knew we had.  Lots of stuff getting sorted, recycled or tossed!  We had the pleasure of vetting about 1000 old choir song books from around 1990 and lots of very, very, very old hand bell music.  We filled 2 4′ cube paper recycling containers and had a blast ripping the covers off all of those old chorus books!  We organized our large storage room and labeled all the shelves, put things where they should go and generally had a good time hanging out.  Here is a repost from Human3rror with a killer video, check it out….

Shift: An Animated Essay from Heather Arment on Vimeo.

First off, if you aren’t my friend on FaceBook, why not?!  Go, look me up and friend me already!  Next thing you should do is go check out this website from Philips advertising their new CinemaScope LCD TV.  Innovative or gimmick, you be the judge.

So it’s Friday morning, the screening night from “The 24hr Film Festival” is over.  It went over really well.  Ralph Winter was one of the judges.  That guy has some cool insights on the films.  I might dare to say that last night we screened some of the best films I have seen come out of our 24hr film festival.  They should be going up on the 24hr’s website sometime in the coming week or so.  Please go check them out at the above link.

Life is going good right now.  We are post Easter, I made a mad dash to get my side business projects all billed out and done, and nothing is on my schedule right now except for things to do around the house.

Love is our son.  Since the building has been closed on Fridays I have been working 4-10’s.  While it sucks to get to work at 7am and work hard through 5pm, it has been nice to be home on Friday’s.  I have gotten to spend lots-o-time with the wife and boy.  With that comes so much more son and dad time, and he has really started to smile a lot lately.  I am going to post some video of him smiling and hamming it up to the camera tomorrow.

Happiness…well isn’t that interesting.  I think that happiness comes from the right perspective on life and love.  So without further ado, please go here and watch the Shannon Culpepper video.  Now that is what happiness is all about….

Jon

Oh and for those that love vimeo as much as I do, loving the smooth animation and Lego like effects…

subprime from beeple on Vimeo.