Ok, so a few weeks ago I posted the pics of the photo shoot Sara and I did for Huntington University's new promo package. Recently, Lisa asked for the complete backstory that I alluded to...and, well, here it is. The story how Sara and I met and how we came to do the type of photo shoot we did...

Sara and I met our Fresman year in college before I even went to Huntington. I was a freshman Pre-med major at IU at the time but had a few friends growing up that decided to go to Huntington.

One Friday I went to Huntington to visit my High School friends. Being a guitar player with long, surfer-style hair, it didn't take long to find myself singing in the lounge looking for a guitar to play as a group formed.

20 minutes later entered the woman I now love and know deeply. Sara came in from soccer practice drenched in water and mud (maybe even more mud than water). She knew both of my high school friends but she didn't know me. It didn't take too long for her (I think she ran to get changed and grab her guitar) to appear once again un-mudded and un-wet with a guitar in hand as she pushed it towards me.

The rest is history.

We played and sang most of the night. Some worship songs. Lots of secular songs. And, before I knew it, I was driving to Huntingotn every weekend to find out more about this Sara girl who I had met. She intrigued me. She kept me company at 3 AM while I was "studying" for Chemistry via AIM. She emailed me between classes...and I was falling arse over tea kettle for this lady I knew little of.

That next semester I moved to Huntingotn and enrolled in Youth Ministry classes...

The rest is history.

We've been to West Africa together. We lived in Thailand together of for 6 months. And now we live together....forever...

Sorry if this was too sappy for some of you. I don't really post like this; hence the reason I didn't post it in the first place! There you go Lisa, this is our love story/backstory to those pics. They know us as the lounge singers but, just for the record, I have never had a mustache!

Bad: Assaulting your mom

Really bad: Stabbing your mom with a fork

Really-really bad: While you're at it, beating another woman with a frozen chicken!

Meet Frederick McKaney, 40, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, who was arraigned in Jackson county courtroom with two felony assaults, one of which is "assault with chicken":

"He stabbed his mother in the back of the neck when she refused to give him money, and then, an hour later, he attacked a neighbor woman with a chicken," Jackson County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mark Blumer told the Ann Arbor news.

A short time later, he encountered two other women talking on the sidewalk on Woodbridge Street. The woman said he said something nasty to them and hit one of them over the head with 10 pounds of frozen chicken."

This was taken from one of my new RSS feeds, Neatorama. One of those crazy news type blogs. This one caught my attention. Seriously! A frozen chicken? That had to hurt...

So some time ago (about 5 yrs or so), when I began blogging, there was a new stat tracking software that was new and holy that I sported. Now that I'm back into blogging after a year or two break I've gone back to my roots and had myself a mint.

I've tried Google Analytics and don't really like that it only updates once every 24 hours and it isn't very customizable. I have also tried my hosting provider's stats engine and I don't like it's lack of user interface and it's a complete pain to check stats and referrals.

Sorry for the small fonts in the image above. I run a screen resolution of 1680x1050...thus making the details hard to see. You can see a live demo at Designologue.com. Resize your browser window...notice this glory as it unfolds. Watch it update stats in real time. No additional plug-ins have been installed. This is the straight up default install...but still powerful.

Mint is a sweet stat tracking program. The API is documented and is available to third-party programmers, which in turn means that some pretty sweet pepper, kind of like plug-ins, has been produced...including the Twitter interface shown in the right panel above.

I like numbers, and even moreso, I like knowing what you like to read and/or are interested in. The only kicker is that you have to have a hosted site with access to a SQL database to run this software...but it works great with Joomla!...thus, I'm happy. And the install only took 10 minutes. Anyone else with me? What stat tracking program/software do you use?

My Friday afternoon lawn care got rained out... No, actually, I got stormed out. So, as I came inside with a few hours to spare, I decided I would force some creativity in Adobe Illustrator. "We talkin' 'bout practice"... And I don't do enough of it in Illustrator. In fact, I've steered clear of vector graphics and stuck to the world of Photoshop...that I know and love.

With fidgeting and spare time this is what I came up with...

 Doesn't he just make you happy?

I enjoy seeing good artwork. I love seeing great creativity in action. That's why I like Creative Chaos over at RagamuffinSoul.com. And as much as I'd like to produce something as creative as many of the participants over there, I generally don't. Truth be told, I often cheat at creativity...and in so doing I find that I am just one of the many on the road to producing decent work. Everyone has to start somewhere...

So, I just thought I would share with you all my top spots for creative exploration and learning. After all, being a hopeless creative is no fun! Check 'em out. I frequent each of these often.

I love PSD Tuts...and, if you are serious about learning some great design tips and techniques, go for the subscription. Having the Photoshop files to follow along and work with is key.

Lynda.com is the one-stop-shop for online training for many of the programs used in design, video editing, photo retouching/manipulation, animation and 3D modeling. If you really want to learn the in's and out's of a particular program. Go here... Truth be told, we pay our interns at times to sit at a computer and learn the programs that we often use at Olive Branch.

Andrew Kramer is an After Effects and mograph professional...who rocks! We've used many of his products, ideas and a tutorials when producing animations and videos for our Sunday morning services. The tutorials are free and are a must have in your RSS feed if you are interested in After Effects. The products and simple and great quality...they easily provide you the means necessary to spice up that AE or 3D Studio Max project. Check it out at VideoCopilot.net.

I'm not sure how I first stumbled across Abduzeedo.com, but I enjoy it. The author of the blog is a Brazillian graphic/web designer that has got it going on. I've learned a TON by his free tutorials. Every week he posts his picks for sites of the week and showcases different artists. These alone are enough to check it out. Inspiration abounds at this site.

If you are a cheapskate like I am (my wife makes me be) and are into filming and video work, check out IndyMogul.com. They take shoestring budgets and give you innovative ideas on how to produce normally complex scenes, angles and equipment...all on the cheap. Gotta love that!

Finally, if you love (erm....like or enjoy would also do) Photoshop, then you gotta check out the National Association of Photoshop Professionals... or NAPP for short. I've been a member for nearly two years and I have yet to find one place that truly provides a community of digital creativity like this does. I've been to their conferences, bought their books and spent hours on the forum learning from others. There is a yearly membership fee, but if you like equipment like I do, it will pay for itself. With nearly 17,000 members (I think) you get access to great discounts at many of the places we purchase our gear. For example, a special store with special pricing at Apple.com, free shipping from B&H Photo/Video, software discounts, Office Depot discounts, discounted hotel prices, etc... The membership price is $99/year.... But I just saved $150 on an iMac...so, they owe me! Seriously though, if you are looking for a great place to stretch your legs in Photoshop, check it out. Oh, and you also get a year subscription to Photoshop User magazine...which is the only magazine that I actually look forward to reading front-to-back when it comes. Also, if you are looking for a more well-rounded approach to the Adobe series of products, check out NAPP founder/president Scott Kelby's online training site, www.kelbytraining.com. The provide different online classes ranging in topic from Adobe InCopy to Adobe Illustrator to off-camera lighting setup to Adobe Acrobat. Good stuff, and in my opinion, well worth the money...

I realize that much of this may not have anything to do with you creative pursuits. But, for some of us, it will. These are just a few of the sites I frequent daily in hopes to continually grow in my lacking creativity. There are some great artists out there and many of them offer a ton to learn from.

So, are there any sites I've missed? What would you suggest?

If you've been following this site at all recently, you've surely read about the Family Theater construction we currently find ourselves in the middle of. Well, today was another one of "those days" where I found myself inhaling fiberglass insulation in a tiny crook of old rafters while chasing wires, holding a flashlight, and attempting to not shock myself/fall through the drywall ceiling/or die.

Well, I didn't die. But, some 5 hours later, I'm still coughing up insulation...and my armpits still itch to high heavens... Dang cut-off t-shirts...

Our internet has been crapping out....again. So, though this post was ready last week, it didn't get published until now. Gotta love living in the middle of nowhere!

Here are a few photos of "my boys" from Huntington. I miss these guys. We had some great times at college...and those relationships are one of the things I miss the most about my time there...

Varun

Andy

Josh

Sara (me wifey) and Lilly (me puppy)

So this is the Lazy Photographer, saying Get Out There And Shoot!

Coming off of a short regional conference for our denomination we are now home...and tired. Sara and I had the opportunity to share our hearts about Thailand. It really was a good time...and challenging keynote speakers provided thoughts that will need to be chewed over for the next couple of weeks. But, I've also sat through really boring conferences/portions of conferences that have needed some help in order to save a bad time coming on... So, here are a few tips that I have...feel free to share your tips also...

• Connect with people - interpersonal connection provides conversation that can help/pull us through those rough spots in conferences.
• Find Wifi - Nowadays, with phones and laptops getting less obtrusive, wifi can save a bad time at a conference.
• Take notes/doodle - Taking notes can help you find "nuggets" in speeches not interesting...and, when in doubt, doodle it up! Work on that new logo, brand or website design. Or, even more challenging, interpret that boring speech with your doodles. Creatively salvage the words through your doodles...
• Coffee/Snack it up! - mmmm.....coffee.... And just like that some of us are distracted enough to pull through...
• Suck it up! - c'mon...it's only a conference. Quit being ADHD and suck it up. Listen up! Get what you can out of the attention you've given...meaning PAY ATTENTION!

This conference wasn't one of "those conferences"...but I've been there. Even meetings can find us in these boring situations. But, hey, use discretion... Wifi in a board meeting can get you in trouble... Talking to people during a business meeting can be rather distracting... DUH!

So, what are your tips? Got any to share? Lord knows we'll find ourselves in these situations soon enough... We're an ADHD culture after all....

I don't know what it is about Mondays. I can't seem to get/keep my head on straight. Today was another one of those days. Nothing too over-the-top happened today. We started VBS. I drove a van to go pick up kids in the community who's parents couldn't bring them. I fretted about upgrading $15K worth of AV equipment in our sanctuary. I came home and relaxed...

But, somewhere in there came stress...the Monday stress... It started with VBS...and has yet to come to an end.

What is it about Monday's?

I love photography. I love looking at great photos. I love helping my sister learn photography. I love to capture a moment with my DSLR. But recently, as with a lot of things in my life, I've not taken advantage of that love. I can't remember the last time I picked up the camera and just went out shooting and, well, I miss that.

So, here it is. I want it back. Every week I'm going to post an image that I've taken that week... If I stay faithful to the cause, it will force me out (which I love) to shoot new photos (which I love) and then come home and mess with them in Lightroom and Photoshop (which I love). Can you feel the love?

But, since I'm starting this now, and just confessed that I haven't shot in forever, I will leave you with some photos I've taken over the last few years.

Hi, I'm Brook...the lazy photographer...