Rommel's Random Ramblings

I just finished what I think is the most interesting video I've worked on in a while. I'm trying to convert it to a format that's small enough for web use, but I'm having a little bit of trouble with that for some reason. Anyway, it's supposed to be an illustration to go with the pastor's message for Easter Sunday. So yesterday, a couple of us brought a camcorder to Irvine Valley College and interviewed some people on campus. The main question we had to ask (for the sermon) was "Who do you say Jesus is?" We then recorded their responses and their beliefs. The great thing about this is that after they shared their beliefs, we were able to share what we believed, who we know Jesus to be. We had great conversations with the people we encountered, even after the camera stopped recording. We also left them with some tracts and other stuff to read. There were six people and six different views. The experience was very convicting to me because it made it more clear how many souls out there are lost. It was also encouraging because one of them was a Christian who was not afraid to speak about Jesus. There's at least one light at that school. I wish I can get the video online, but I can't get it to a small enough size. Anyway, please pray for them.

The past few days have been kind of hectic, but here's a day by day play by play:

Thursday: I went with some members of the Philippine mission trip for an appointment to pick up the medical supplies that Kaiser Permanente had donated to us for the trip. We were expecting just a few boxes or so of just bandages, gloves, etc. However, there were eighteen pallets of stuff ranging from said bandages to crutches to syringes to x-ray film to many others. We were free to take from those supplies whatever we needed. There were some problems with the paperwork so we had to wait until next week to pick them up.

Anyway, I was driving home from small group bible study that night when I noticed what looked like an extra large windshield washer nozzle on my hood. It was actually a snail crawling across the surface of my car. It's amazing how long a snail can hold on while being battered by cold winds travelling at freeway speeds. The longest this snail persevered was for about 20 miles, after which it suddenly detached and just went splat across my windshield.

Friday: Club J -- It was fun. My friend Mike did a great job organizing it. I helped man the snack bar for a little bit. "Everything for a dollar each!" There were a lot of people from the college group at Saddleback Church. I had to leave at 10:30 though, much too early for a club. I had to wake up by 5:00 am the next day.

Saturday: So I had to wake up really early. It's because a few of us went up to Visalia, and I was driving. We attended a memorial service for one of the missionaries that helped start the Philippine trip every year. I did not know much about him except that he had spoken at our church once before and that he loved serving with the Filipinos. I did learn a lot of things from the eulogies that were said that day. It's awesome to be remembered by family and friends as a godly man with such a great heart for missions. Makes me think on whether someday I would be remembered that way. He had mentioned that they didn't really want any flowers or cards or anything like that. He had requested that if anyone wanted to do something to help, they should help support the Philippine mission trip instead.

I was so tired on the way home that I was told that my driving was starting to become erratic. I don't think I fell asleep, but I was probably starting to space out. Those endless white lines on a straight road are very hypnotic. I ended up letting King drive the rest of the way before we all got into an accident.

Sunday: After church, I was helping sort out the medicine that we'll be bring with us to the Philippines. Did you know that Sinutab is a controlled substance in the Philippines and maybe in other countries as well? It's probably because of the pseudoephedrine that's present in Sinutab, Sudafed, and many other cold medication. They probably don't want it ending up as a key ingredient in a meth lab somewhere.

Funny quote heard today: "Imelda Marcos? Isn't that a shoe brand?"
Okay... maybe you had to be there.

I poked the inside of my cheek with my toothbrush today, injuring it quite painfully. It really hurts when I try to eat. Sound familiar? ^_^

I finally was able to get one more item on the list of multimedia equipment I should have gotten a long time ago: a digital still camera. People weren't kidding when they say that a lot of the money you get from doing video work ends up going into purchasing more equipment. Anyway, I ended up getting a Canon Powershot A60. I know that it's only 2 Megapixels, but for what I intend to use it for, I feel that it's sufficient. The maximum resolution is 1600 by 1200 pixels. Supposedly, that's borderline okay if I print out a full page picture, but I won't be doing that much. I'll be taking pictures for web use or for video. DVD resolution is only 720 by 480 pixels, so the camera's way more than capable. From what I could tell, the A60 is actually a lot better than other 2 Megapixel cameras and could rival some 3 Megapixel cameras out there (except for the A70). Well, we have a family friend who is one of the higher-ups at Canon, so I could have purchased one through her at a discount, but their internal company sales aren't until around June. So anyway, I bought one yesterday, and I already started putting it to good use today at church. It's for a super secret project that won't be revealed until four or five months from now... ^_^

I wonder if a camera is allowed at Club J this Friday. Most secular clubs usually frown upon bringing a camera in (not that I've ever tried.) Anyway, this should be fun. Too bad the name Threshing Floor didn't quite fly.

Strange... I looked at my blog stats, and someone found my blog by performing a Google search using the keywords "bladed tonfa". I know that was probably a reference to a Soul Calibur comment I made a while back, but I didn't think my blog would be one of the first things you'd think of when you hear the words "bladed tonfa".

On the way home tonight, I heard a faint siren. I started to slow down and pull over to the right. However, while searching for the flashing lights on my rear view mirror, I realized that the siren was coming from a Stacie Orrico song I was listening to at the time. I restarted the song, and there it was: a faint siren at the beginning of (there's gotta be) More To Life. I didn't notice that before. I felt really stupid as started to speed back up. Other motorists were probably wondering why I slowed down for no apparent reason.

Six Questions:
1. Who is Jesus?
2. Do I believe in heaven?
3. Do I believe in hell?
4. Does Christianity matter?
5. Do I believe that God wants to use my life?
6. Whose agenda will I live by?

I don't know what I did (if anything), but I finally got it to work after just the second time today. All this work just to get a 4GB file into my hard drive.

Argh! Frustration of frustrations!! I've been trying to capture this two hour wedding video into my computer all day so that I can burn it into a DVD. For some inexplicable reason, my computer keeps locking up while it does it. One time the computer did a blue screen crash. It happens at different times, too. Sometimes it locks up twenty minutes into the video, sometimes half an hour to an hour later. The annoying part is that the video still plays normally on the screen, so I don't know that the computer has locked up until I notice that the time counter is no longer changing and the mouse pointer no longer moves. Of course, there is nothing else for me to do but to reset the computer and start the video over from the beginning. This last time, the video got up to an hour and 45 minutes before it locked up. Fifteen more minutes! Why couldn't my computer have lasted fifteen more minutes? Argh! No more! I'm through for the day. I'll try again some other time...

Despite what some people have thought, I did not make that My Sassy Girl birthday video. Ok, so the voice dubbed over Jeon Ji-Hyun's character sounds like a silly voice I would do, including the manly sounding sigh at the end of her crying fit. I personally think she sounds like Elmo. However, from what I've found out, the video apparently was created by someone from Young Nak Presbyterian Church in LA. Good job, whoever you are.

Club J: March 26th www.josiahproductions.com/dance.html Let everyone know.

Fans of My Sassy Girl and possibly Kung Pow may find this video funny. Right-click if you want to save. It's a 5 MB file, though, so it may take a while to download depending on your connection. Happy Birthday to everyone born on March!

Woo hoo, I got my passport today. That was a lot quicker than I thought. I didn't expect to get it until the 19th.

During worship team practice, we were talking about how we may have to shuffle some people around during the next couple of months, especially during the Philippine mission trip on April. Three members of the band are on the team: one of our singers, our pianist, and myself, the bass player. At least the pianist has a backup person. I need to find a trainee on the bass guitar. We also learned that our main guitarist won't be able to play as much anymore since he's going back to school in a couple of weeks. Our pianist is also going to start his residency rotations for med school later on this year. No worries; the Lord has always provided people in the past. It's so cool, though, that the younger people have recently been stepping up and becoming more involved in the music ministry. Our main drummer is a 15 year old girl. We have a guy who plays the saxophone, and he's also a high school freshman. Another high school freshman girl is the backup pianist/keyboard player. They used to be so shy before, but it's been amazing since God has placed in their hearts the desire to use the gifts and talents He's given them. It sometimes makes me feel old the younger and younger our members get, but I love this ministry!

Wow, word spreads quickly. I now have another wedding video due for digital conversion. At least I'm getting compensated for all this stuff.

Lanie, Faye, King, and I were invited for dinner last night at the Chow residence. I guess the Chows are really good friends with the president of that school in Saipan, and he was there as well. So last night ended up being a somewhat informal interview with the four of us. In some form or another, we have been considering going to Saipan. Well, the work involves a minimum two year teaching position. (In my case, it would probably be teaching computer classes.) I think the pay is minimum wage over there, but there's pretty much full support in terms of housing, transportation, etc. including the plane ticket to get there. What I liked best about the conversation was that the president didn't try to flower up the job description. I felt that he was honest with us. Sure it's an island paradise environment, but he stressed that it was going to be a lot of hard work, especially during the first year... working till 11 at night, spending half the weekend preparing lessons... wow. Teaching in a educational institution is different from teaching Sunday School. He didn't tell us horror stories to discourage us, but to emphasize that more than anything, it's going to take a lot of faith. In the end, though, we'll realize that it is all worth it, for the kids and our relationship with God. We received application packets after that. So how do I feel about all of this? I'm not exactly too sure... excited, scared, doubtful, eager, a whole variety of emotions. As it is, I don't think I'm qualified. I'm still surprised that the four of us were highly recommended by Ate Beth Chow and the other members of our church that used to teach or live in Saipan. Like I mentioned before, all of this is pretty overwhelming. There's really nothing much I can do but to pray about the plans that He really wants for my life. So I have the application. If I would like to be considered for starting this September, I turn it in. If not, I hold on to it, and maybe it will be something for the next school year.

On another note, this may be old news, but it's new to me. The trailer for Fobman 2 is out on the New True Talent website. There's also a similar group based in UCSD called Wong Fu Productions.

Well, time for worship band practice...

My first project involving a DVD burner: converting a twelve year old wedding video from VHS to DVD format before the quality degrades even further.

I bought a DVD burner today. With all the video stuff I do, I'm a little surprised at myself that I didn't buy one sooner. But I think I'm satisfied enough with how much the price of a DVD burner has gone down to have bought one. No more sacrificing video quality in order to fit something in a CD. Plus I get to play around with creating DVD menus and stuff. Now if only DVD media would go down in price even more...

There were a couple of things that I noticed while watching The Passion for the second time last night. I realized that having it subtitled worked very well in having the audience pay more attention to what was being said. Having the dialogue written on the screen seemed clearer. There was not much of "What did he say?" type of questions. Also, the audience response at the end was different this time around. Last week, when the movie ended, everyone was clapping, and people filed out of the movie theater like usual. On the other hand, there was a silence over the entire theater last night. Except for a couple of people, no one got up from their seats until the very end of the credits. These showings were at two different theaters, but from what I understand, the second one was the more common response.

Time for my blog entry of the month...? Hopefully not, but here we go:

Most recent movie purchased: Battle Royale II -- I found a VCD for under $10. As an action movie, it was pretty decent. However, it seemed like there was more of an emphasis on the violence this time around. A lot of the character development was thrown out the window. About half of the characters died without a single line. As for a lot of the rest, the first time they would say a word is during their extended death speech. I was still trying to figure out who they were supposed to be. For this reason, I would have to say that the first Battle Royale was still a whole lot better.

Most recent movie seen in the theater: The Passion of the Christ -- I saw it last Saturday. It was hard to take and very emotionally draining, but I'm glad and thankful that I watched the movie. It is such a great reminder of His love for me. Usually, when I watch a movie, I pretty much decide right then whether I would buy the DVD when/if it comes out. However, with The Passion, I'm still somewhat undecided. I'm leaning towards buying it, but if I do, I know that I can't/shouldn't watch it like all the other movies I've bought. If I do, I'll end up watching it over and over, fast forwarding it, rewinding it, repeating interesting scenes, analyzing how they filmed it, etc. Do that too much, and it'll lose its meaning for me. I am watching the movie again tomorrow night, though. The other youth leaders and I are taking the high school group to see the movie (with permission slips, of course.) We've been going over a study during the past few weeks based on the movie. A lot of the kids are bringing their friends, and after the movie, we're meeting back at church for some worship, Q&A, debriefing, etc.

Currently Reading: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card -- "Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games at the Battle School; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desparate. Ender is the result of decades of genetic experimentation, Earth's attempt to make the military genius that the planet needs in its all-out war with an alien enemy. Is Ender the general Earth needs? The only way to find out is to throw the child into ever harsher training, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when it begins. He will grow up fast."

King mentioned that he was reading this book a few weeks back. Last Thursday, I was at the public library waiting to turn in my passport application. I got there at least half an hour before the passport office opened, and there were already thirty people in line ahead of me. Anyway, while waiting I picked up a copy of the book and started reading. I was so interested in the story that I went to the bookstore afterwards to buy my own copy. So, what did I need a passport for? Well...

Upcoming plans: I'm going on a medical missions trip to the Philippines this April. We're leaving for two weeks on April 18th, and we'll be going to one of the rural provinces to distribute medicine and other supplies, provide other aid, and most importantly, share to love of Jesus Christ to the people there. I can't wait. Afterwards, I'm also staying behind until the 13th of May to spend some time with my brother, his group Devotion, and my cousins and other relatives. I haven't been back to the Philippines since I was eleven.

It's so amazing, though, how God's been laying things out for the past month or two. I expected to just find another tech job and start working again. But nope, I've been doing more multimedia stuff and ever recently. I had to be "official" videographer, photographer, Powerpoint person for this all-day couple's seminar last Saturday. Then I'll be videotaping and possibly doing photo montages for two weddings early next month. This is great. Besides the mission trip to the Philippines, I might end up teaching computer classes or something for a Christian school in Saipan later this year. (FYI: Saipan is a small island in the Pacific Ocean near Guam. By small, I mean so small that the speed limit is only 45 mph. Drive any faster, and you'll hit the water. ^_^) Whether this is a short-term thing or something more permanent, I'm not too sure yet. At any rate, all this is pretty overwhelming, but in a good way.