In a Twist

Today I was a part of some online trainings. I was a part of one that showed me a couple of unknown tricks about Photoshop CS2 and a whole bunch of stuff I already knew. The other class that I was a part of was given by a lady from Tacoma - woohoo I love Tacoma - Go Rainiers! (http://www.tacomarainiers.com/) She talked about the reasons that she thinks her business blew up. Blew up: immense amount of growth in a short amount of time.

It was funny when she talked about how she was so underpaid when she did weddings for $1800. Since she felt underpaid, they decided to market themselves for what is known as the high-end bride. I think now they charge about $20,000 for a wedding. I thought to myself, "Hey self, if you did one wedding like that, your living expenses would be covered for almost a full year. Right now our family of five lives on just over $30,000/year so I guess I would do at least 5 weddings/weekends per year for a couple of years. Yeah it would be a lot of work - a lot of work, but I think the payoff would be worth it. I mean $100,000 is a big jump from 30"

But, I don't think that there are any brides like that in my small town, so I'll just stay on the DL - not the disabled list, the Down Low. DL because I have a business growth plan that includes starting low to gain business and reputation, then increasing the price as the word gets out about Sixth Day Photo. So if you are looking for a great Photographer at a less expensive price, now is the time - my fees will only go up from here. Anyway, at the end of her talk, my doorbell rang and it was my studio copy of the Ritter Storybook. It is pretty dog-gone awesome.

I love this 'T' shirt >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Yesterday even though I got a shot of the birds, I was busy all day putting together a Wedding/Photographer contract. It took about 7 hours to get what I have. It's pretty long, (9 pages) but if anything weird happens with a bride/family I think I covered just about everything. I looked online at other photographer's wedding contracts and borrowed a lot of that stuff. There was nothing terribly original, but I wanted to add at the end just so I would be completely covered - "The Bride and Groom agree that whatever the photographer says about any situation that may arise is considered the ultimate in correctness."

Oh the birds!

Well it's been a while and I've been pretty busy doing what seems to amount to nothing. No worries though. This is a lame post about a photo that I did from inside my house . The birds seemed to be watching the mini-blinds, because when I would separate them to get my camera lens through, they would fly off. I did it about 3 times until I was able to sneak up on them.
Well, each year at least once a year, we have thousands of these blackbirds that fly into my neighborhood. They don't leave for about 2 or three weeks. This photo is a light version of what happens. There are so many that if you are outside and can make them jump, all of their little wings create this roar in the wind as a giant black sheet of birds reaches up to the sky.

P.B.F

You may or may not be wondering, but some of my favorite foods include tacos, pizza, hamburgers, potatoes, mac-n-cheese, and oranges. I would imagine that there is a considerable amount of power in each of those fantastic foods. If you asked just about anyone - under the age of 13 - about their favorite menu items, their list will probably look very similar to mine. There are a few deviations for me, but mostly if you ask me what I would like to eat it will be one of those things. Now I didn't list peanut butter because I was saving it until now and most definitely it would be on my list. Last night I looked in my fridge for a scoop of ice cream or something like that -really healthy - to snack on just before I hit the hay. I didn't find any ice cream or anything that would have suited my taste buds at that moment. I did notice however that we had a bit of white chocolate in the fridge. So I started the process and made a giant helping of PBF, also known as peanut butter fudge. I ate a few bites before it hardened over night, just before I went to bed. Now I don't know if you know, but a mixture of chocolate, peanut butter, and sweetened condensed milk is not real low in it's sugar content. Any dieter should know to stay away from that stuff, but I can't. I pray for God to give me strength to resist the temptation to have just one more, but I know that He is the one that created that amazing bouquet of flavors. I'm sure that He doesn't just want it to go to waste - so I grab just one more piece.


This is a photo of the PBF right after I cut it into smaller pieces. I saw the beautiful arrangement and I just had to photograph it before I tore it down and put most of it in a bag for later consumption. BTW, MEL-in-CO suggested using a darker form of chocolaty goodness in this creation so the dark spots are a couple of cups of choco chips that I added during creation.

The Rooster

If I were a wrestler, I would be The Rooster. I would have a bright red hair piece shaped like a roosters noggin. The best part is that I already have theme music "Rooster" It says, "Yeah they've come to snuff the rooster- ah yeah -- Yeah here comes the rooster - Yeah - you know he ain't gunna die -- no no no you know he ain't gunna die" I think it is a fun theme, but for 100 points, do you know who the artist is that has produced "Rooster"?

I was listening to the sounds of the Rooster when I looked over at my bass and it seemed like an interesting picture. Also, I have a new camera lens that I wanted to test out, but I wanted to see at what ISO I could shoot at and still get a decent picture. Once I passed the camera shake speeds, I got this photo with an ISO of 1600 which is very high. I think it turned out alright. Oh, my bass is being backed by Lucas Kimblus' 6 string that he uses for slide guitar events.

I've been trying to pursue being a photographer to be able to make money, but I was wrong. All I have to do is be in charge of the city baseball league for one year where I live.
I'll tell you why with a little math:
One kid to be on a team cost $75 There are about 12 kids per team and in the league that my guys are in there are 9 teams. So that multiplication leads us to a grand total of $8100 just from the kids in the league with mine.

Each of the teams has a sponsor - how much do they pay? - I don't know, but I'm sure it is more than nothing. Now The fields are kept up by the teams so that doesn't cost anything. The concession stands are run by the parents of the kids. The parents are unpaid and the "league" gets all of the income minus the concessions. Well, I guess the league does provide uniforms and hats for the kids and by uniforms, I mean a t-shirt with a number. The league pays for the umpires that don't always show up. I think that they get $20 per game. The coaches bring the game balls, and last year, there was no catcher's gear for our team so we had to go and buy our own. We have our own helmets and bats because the league wouldn't be able to provide anything like that. To me it seems like someone in the city league administration is making a ton of money off of the parents that happened to be cursed by living in my city.

Well, if you can't tell, I'm pretty upset with the way that my city treats us. Not just city league baseball either -- there is a lot more to say about how much my city hates the people that live in it but I won't go there now.

Time to smile - Jesus is ALIVE!

Luke 24:31-35
- read these verses in your Bible first please -
- then the Ben Blue Jean Para -

Then they realized that this guy had been Jesus all along and that He wasn’t dead after all. They looked back to Jesus but He was gone. He had vanished into thin air. Simon looked back at Cletus and said, “Now a grown man vanishing is very weird, but do you know what I know?” Cletus smiled and answered, “Yes, Yes, Yes! Jesus is alive! I can’t believe we didn’t notice sooner. I mean all the time while He was talking about the prophets, it was like when He taught us at the church. I think my heart really was on fire.” “Yeah, Yeah,” Simon said, “I know we were just in Jerusalem, but we’ve got to go back and tell the others about what has happened to us today. NOW!” They did leave just then. They left the bread and fish on the table and ran/jogged/walked all the way to Jerusalem. When they got there, some of the disciples had gone to bed and were woken up with the hootin’ and hollerin’ by Cletus and Simon, “Jesus is alive! We saw Him today!” As all of the disciples wandered in to hear the story, Cletus and Simon were telling it just as fast as they could.

Hope Needed!

Hey all you readers. I want to ask if you guys will become active in prayer for my family because God is working with us now and we need the strength to be pliable.

#1 - The Babe - is a teacher in a school that movies are made of - movies like Lean on Me, Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds, and Coach Carter. It is a school where the kids don't respect anyone and don't care about any consequences from their actions. The difference between the movies and life at her school is that these much younger 8 year-olds sit at home and watch "Get Rich or Die Trying" with their moms and dads. Most of them say that they have seen Saw 3, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Hannibal Rising. These kids are 8. They should be watching movies like Princess Bride, The Rookie, and Shek. So, what do you think young kids watching the movies that they watch are going to act like at school?
Here is a not so interesting thing that we've found out this year - Most of the kids don't know nursery rhymes like Three Blind Mice or The Old Woman that Lived in a Shoe. They don't know old stories like Jack and the Beanstalk or Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We have kind of narrowed down the root of the problem and are having a hard time with a solution. The root of the problem is that these kids are not being raised by parents - their moms and dads are treating these kids like the friends they had in high school, or friends at the clubs that they go to. These children aren't being raised to be good adults, in fact it seems like most of the parents act inconvenienced when their own children are around. The so-called parents seem to do everything they can to be apart from them. These kids don't teach themselves how to respect and honor others as they end up raising themselves. Their only model to follow is the trash they watch on television and movies with their parents. So here's the problem: The parents don't like having children that depend on them.

The Babe - is so stressed out about the way the students act and her lack of administrative support that she doesn't want to be at that school anymore. She feels trapped and I hurt for her, but she doesn't really want to quit. It is not built into her character and she wants to be a successful teacher like the character Coach Carter. She is successful, but not in a way that matters to "The Man" who only cares about numbers. She is successful in that the kids are actually learning. She is successful in that though all of the teachers agree that she has the worst students -maybe in the whole world - she is making an impact on them. (not her fists, though she might like to imagine sometimes) It can't been seen in physical data, it is the small difference she makes when the kids see that someone in this world really does care about them. She wants to see them succeed as students, though most of the kids in her class won't do it this year.

Prayer for #1: The Babe will feel the peace that God can give about this place that she is in right now. She will be filled with endurance and hope to run the race and finish on the path that God has her on right now. Philippians 3:14

#2 - The Waffle - (that's me in third person) was hurt badly a few years ago. He had lots of physical recovery to overcome and still finds himself in places when it is very hard - near impossible to cope. Photography has been real fun for him and as he begins his way back into the workforce, photography is part of the path he has chosen. Because it is the beginning of the business, jobs come very slowly. He wants to be able to hire The Babe as his assistant allowing her to not feel like she has to teach, but right now, there is not enough work through photography to support The Waffle, let alone his whole family. He realizes that beginning a business will be most likely very hard for the first year, but at anytime the business could blow up because God might be ready.

Prayer for #2: Sixth Day Photo would blow up soon, but when God has it in the right place, in the right time --but most definitely, let God be God. Let The Waffle get in line with what God is doing even if that is not Sixth Day Photo. Also, that The Waffle would be an encouragement to his wife and family. That he would find ways to be a great husband and dad since his income is not enough to help at this point.

#3 - Moving from our home in East Texas. The Waffle and The Babe have talked about it, and have come to no conclusion on what to do. I'm figuring that this has to do with our lives feeling so far from home. I'm talking about spending eternity with God -our King - in His Kingdom. Right now we are on a journey through life to get to His kingdom and we haven't made it home yet. It seems like we may never feel at home. But our main talks have been about the photo business and what we still hope will be a church plant -The Pitstop.
So we are kind of nervous about the unknown prospect of what we are living today. We know that our current home is not right, but we also feel that God has not clearly revealed to us our new promised land.

Prayer for #3: God would be very clear about His plans for us because right now we can only see what is wrong and don't see any solution. We would be open to His direction no matter how bizarre or common. Then in that trust that we would feel satisfied and peaceful in Him