Avatar v. Pocahontas

So after everyone told me how good Avatar was Keao and I finally caved in and saw it. Don't get me wrong, I did want to see it and we probably would have seen it anyway regardless of whether it was recommended or not. It's just that everyone was recommending it so much I got a little wary (similar to how everyone raved about the first Pirates of the Caribbean).

After seeing it in 3-D (or at least I think it was 3-D, hard to tell with double vision) I can honestly say I thought the story was okay, but the graphics were amazing. I mean, the world of Pandora that they created was visually stunning. The story though I thought was a little cliche and a little new-agey.

With that said, I stumbled on a paper written by Matt Bateman that sums up my thoughts about the story of Avatar (and I'm sure most of you have already seen this little gem as it did make its way around the internet).

Matt's now famous paper

So there you have it. Avatar is a futuristic copy of Pocahontas (and I'm sure a ton of other stories as well). This paper made me laugh out loud, but today I stumbled upon something even more funny than this paper. Somebody had taken the audio of the Avatar trailer and superimposed scenes from Pocahontas over it. Guess what? It matches up perfectly. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself!

Video Newsletters

So I've decided I'd like to commit to making video newsletters every month this year. Partly to inform people what's happening with Ignite, but also to just fool around with a camera and to see if I can do it. I read somewhere that if you consistently change your website (or keep it somewhat fresh I suppose) then people will tend to look at it on a more regular basis. I don't know about you, but since I haven't received many comments lately, I would have to conclude that either my content isn't fresh enough for anyone to comment on anything or simply, no one looks at this blog anymore. Not that it matters though, I write mainly for me and for posterity's sake.

This month I employed Matt as a camera man and we shot this video in one take right after boot camp (well after I rested and got my heart rate back to normal). I then took about 3 hours to edit it down to 1:40. I can't believe it took that long! Hopefully in the future I can get the editing time down a bit so I don't spend so much time on it.

Anyway, without further ado, here's my very first video newsletter:

What Could Have Been...

A few years ago Kess Wilson got married. Now it's not that big of a deal that he got married, I mean people get married all the time right? Well, Kess is a member of our church and naturally he got married at our church campus. Now, I'm not that close with Kess so I wasn't really invited to his wedding (nor was I expecting one) but Kess' brother is none other than Dean. If you don't know Dean Wilson, he is a Castle High School graduate and one of the most successful professional golfers from Hawaii.

So where am I going with all of this? Well my wife, Keao, is the wedding coordinator at our church and she told me about the wedding. She also mentioned that Dean would be Kess' best man. On Kess' wedding day, I was on the Big Island and so my only request to Keao was to get me an autograph from Dean. Did it happen? Alas, no. She said Dean was a rather imposing figure and she was too intimidated to ask him for an autograph. The most she told him was, "my husband's a big fan!"

Well at least he knows I'm a fan (although I'm sure he doesn't know who I am). So no autograph, no golf ball, nothing.

Fast forward to this year. The Golf Channel did a nice segment on Dean Wilson's home. I wasn't invited to that party either, but Kess is sporting a nice Hope Chapel shirt. Anyway, take a look: