2010 Christmas Card Candidate

Despite Your Assumptions, That Wolf Does Not Have Two Lasers

From my wife's blog:

Some cute things E has said...

When two men on a motorcycle rode by our car, he said: "Those are two mans and two basketballs (referring to their black helmets)."

Talking about The Big Bad Wolf in comparison to Buzz Lightyear: "The Big Bad Wolf (does) not have two lasers, No."

and after reading a few bible stories he said: "I want the whale to eat the big giant (Jonah and David and Goliath)."

He's insisting these days that there is a bear in his room, and he will not go in there by himself. He's also sneaking into our room at night lately. Last night, Seth woke me up and pointed to the little boy snoring in our bed. Cute. Real cute.

I love that my son is not only comparing space rangers with wolves, he's solving various conflicts in the Bible with old-fashioned crossover scenarios. A future at Marvel.

And what I actually said last night was, "honey, I can't sleep with this diesel engine snoring in our bed."

How To Kill Yourself And Everyone Around You

 1.) Be Unimpressed By Everything

This is the stupidest thing in the world. I’ve been a part of so many conversations where the act of showing fascination with something is apparently an abomination of God’s love.
A group of self-conscious creative individuals eat lunch together and take turns talking about things they saw/read/heard/ate recently so the rest of the table can respond with a chorus of indifference.
I think this happens because we want to be in control, and being surprised by something cool, no matter how cool it is, sacrifices the fragile integrity of our control. So we just pretend we either
have already heard of/read/seen/eaten everything, or
won’t care about anything that will ever come into existence in the world.
This is the stupidest way to destroy your soul. Just give a s***. 

 2.) Work Hard Enough For People To Notice You

 People probably aren't going to care. And yeah, that sucks.
When it comes to the iceberg that is the hard work and labor that you’re going to put into a creative project, most of the world is only going to see the tip. And man does that suck. Because you’re going to do a crapload of work. And if you do really great work, you’re probably not going to see your family for a few months.
And that’s fine, if your family supports you. And if the work itself makes you happy. But if you’re working for the love and the admiration of the people, you're going to go to the hospital a lot.

3.) Expect Other People To Share Your Passion

 Your passion is your responsibility. Fortunately, more often than not, you’ll find a lot of people get excited by your cause, but if they don’t, you cannot hold it against them.
Sometimes you’re right about an idea and you’re the only one that knows it. 
Sometimes you’re wrong about an idea and you’re the only one that doesn’t know it.
Either way, it's not gonna be anyone else's responsibility. So do your best to not hold it against them.

4.) Collaborate With Other People Who Also Act This Way

 It’s just gonna be an endless cycle of destruction. So much extra work, so many power struggles, so many things not impressing anybody.
 
Your work should be for you and for God. And it should excite you. The WORK itself should excite you. Not the result. Not the response. The work. Otherwise you’re going to kill yourself. Don’t kill yourself.

Fear-Based Management

At work this week, Jeff (who seems to possess the spiritual gift of instigating photoshoots) decided to do some lighting tests with our new 5D. Here are the results, a collection of portraits with all of us looking like we want to murder your family, which Jeff named The T&E Villains:

Adventure Now on DVD

We threw this promo together after realizing that nobody at camps knows the DVD's even exist, therefore 1.5 people have actually purchased them.

If you want to buy one, I'm sure you can call 1-877-CAMP123.
Or perhaps more details will soon be available at AdventureNow.org

But I dunno. I just make these things.