As some of you might recall, a few weeks back I posted a blog about working as Assistant Director (I also did a little developmental work on the script) on a "hush-hush" project with Studio 125 in north Alabama. Well, the first teaser is out and I must say that I'm really very happy with how it's coming along! Check it out, rate it, comment on it and share it with your friends!
Rhett and Link are my all-time favorite Internetainment Comedians. What's more, they've just released one of my all-time favorites of their songs, The Sunburn Song, on their utterly awesome Youtube channel. Scope it below, but not before you:
I ran across these the other day (thanks Lunas @ RPGBomb!) and just had to post them here... While I am neither enamored nor enraged at the prospect of 4th Edition, I do have to tip my hat to the Marketing Department over at WOTC - these are not only Uber-Awesome, they're also tres funnay!
I'm looking forward to seeing more of them and I was especially pleased to see that they were created by Adam Phillips over at Bitey Castle (http://biteycastle.com/) who, in case you didn't know, also crafted the stunning Brakenwood series! If you like kick-boodum animation, you have GOT to check it out!
A few weeks ago, some of the Wandering Men, myself, my dog, and my four-year old son went out to an area in northeastern Alabama called the Walls of Jericho. It's an area that has been hailed as the "Grand Canyon of the South" and I have to say that it is pretty darn impressive. However, this blog is not about the Walls, the woods, or what went on there; it is about what I learned that day. Even though the trip happened several days ago, the lessons are still very fresh with me.
As I said, my four-year old (lets call him Petow) went along with us on the hike. Now, anyone that's been hiking knows that it's not the easiest thing in the world to do and also that it's usually not the sort of environment in which one finds children. However, Petow is a tough lil' kid (always has been) and he's NOT a complainer or a whiner, he loves being outdoors, and even at four he's a very determined young man. And let me tell you - HE DID AWESOME. Not only did he go hiking with us, but he also joined us as we journeyed into a cave we found, and never once did he complain - that's just the kind of awesome kid that he is.
That's Petow, on the left...
Petow, sliding down into the cave.
First caving trip at 4! w00t!
Although he did not complain, he did not have an easy time of it. The trails in north Alabama, being part of the Appalachian foothills, are usually riddled with stones of all sizes - a flat and gentle spot in the trail is a rarity (and one to be thankful for, I might add). As such, Petow's short legs had a tough time getting up and over and around all those rocks - for most of the trail he walked beside me, holding my hand. Occasionally, he rode on someone's shoulders, or held another's hand, of course, but usually, he was at my side and I helped him navigate the rock-strewn path.
Petow on the trail...
Yes, I am headed somewhere with this.
My lesson began shortly after lunch. We'd assumed (wrongly) that the feature for which we'd come to see (the aforementioned "Walls") was closer to our river-side lunch spot. After we'd walked for just a bit, I realized that Petow was NOT going to make it - he was getting very tired and very sleepy. So, I told the other fellows to move on ahead, take lots of pics, and Petow and I began to head back up towards the car. I knew what I had to do - I was going to have to carry my four year old son all the way back up the trail. Now, Petow is NOT a small boy; he's actually almost as big as his 8-yr. old brother, in fact, and I was looking at nearly 1,000 feet of elevation gain in less than 2 miles.
This was not going to be fun.
Oddly, however, I never questioned it; I simply put Petow into my pack, (feet first, with his torso sticking out the top) made a little pillow for him with a jacket, put him on my back and started trudging up the trail... My boy quickly fell asleep. I tried talking to him for awhile to try and keep him awake (as I knew what was coming if he fell asleep) but it was to no avail. Soon, he was sacked out - hard.
I've done a fair amount of hiking and I've earned my trail name of "Pack Mule" time and time again, but let me tell you, I've never hiked a tougher trail than I did that day. When you hike with a pack, the pack shifts a little - right to left - with each step you take. This is one of the reasons why your back aches so much when you've been hiking for a long time with a loaded pack - your back muscles make tiny, minute adjustments for the load that you're carrying without you ever knowing what is going on.
However, with my sleeping son in the pack behind me, with each step the pack would do its normal shift, but then Petow would shift a bit more to that side, his torso lolling out like a top-heavy puppet on a stick. This then forced me to compensate even more to the opposite side, in order to keep him from falling out of the top of the pack and onto the trail below. To make matters worse, there were trees and rocks on the trail that I did not even consider on the way down that now I had to tread very tentatively around, as they were now exactly at Petow's head level!
Needless to say, the heavy weight on my back, the additional compensation, the extreme elevation gain, and the sheer worry soon began to get the better of me. Along with the normal scalding fire in my calves and thighs and the low, rumbling pain in my back, there came a peculiar sensation along the right side of my neck - a pulse-buzz that was mildly disturbing. At first, I did not worry too much about it and continued to press onwards and upwards - until my vision in my right eye began to pulse and blur.
I stopped dead in my tracks and began to pray. Honestly, at that moment, I thought I was about to have a heart attack or a stroke right there on the side of that mountain. As I prayed, God revealed something to me.
What I was doing on the side of that hill was a small example of what God does for us. When we walk through life, he stays with us - sometimes holding our hands and sometimes following along behind, as a watchful father, keeping an eye out for troubles or problems ahead in the path. If we listen to him, then he will help us avoid those pitfalls (much like I did many times with Petow). If we ignore him as we walk, then we often suffer for it, much in the same way that Petow might have suffered a scrape if he'd not heeded my words to slow down or not to climb on a certain rock, for example.
Often God walks right beside us and holds our hand every step of the way. If we are in tune with him, then we can acknowledge this and thank him for it; but often we are too enamored by the scenery as we walk to pay any mind to Him. However, we subconsciously hold on to the security of his hand, all the same.
I never once questioned carrying my son up that hill. I knew that it was going to be a very hard and painful thing to do, yet never once did I think, "Well, I can just leave the kid here and come back for him later..." That would have been ludicrous! What God revealed to me that day was that he feels the same way about us; I love my son so much that I would literally carry him on my back up a mountain - God loves us so much that he would do something infinitely more difficult and painful: send His Son to die for our transgressions against Him.
People jokingly ask, "What Would Jesus Do?"; I think that know, I have an entirely new appreciation for that question - and it's answer...
Thanks, Petow, for teachin' your ol' man a lesson. Thanks, Jesus, for loving that ol' man enough to take pity on him and lay down your life and shed your blood for him (and everyone else - that means you...).
For those of you who've been keeping tabs on me with this blog and the Wandering Men website, you might recall a few veiled hints at some of the stuff that I've been working on over at The Studio. Well, the secret (or at least one of them) is finally out.
Yea, I know you can't read the whole article unless you're a subscriber (which stinks) but you should be able to get the drift. If not, then you need go no further than The Studio's website to piece together the puzzle.
One of the really cool things is that one of my boys was selected to play the role lead for this pilot show and so far, the general consensus is that he's doing really well. I have to say that I'm very, very proud of him, because the shooting schedule has been brutal, and I should know, as I'm Assistant Director on the project. This has been such an uber cool and rewarding project so far, however, and I'm learning a ton of new things every single day, as are we all, I think!
And to answer the questions that I know you're thinking, no, I did not write the script - it was written by Ladd Ehlinger Jr., the fellow directing the shoot. Ladd has several other projects under his belt and you can find out all about him on his website, but I would think that his most notable work to date is Flatland: the Film. I have to say that it has been a very neat experience working with him on this project.
Check out some pics below (used with permission from Studio 125. Let me know what you think of all this in the comments below!
This is us, shooting some of Scene 6. My son, who plays Jonah, is in the center, wearing the red jacket.
Here we are shooting some stuff for a Montage scene where we'll have kids hiking through the woods at the camp.
A wide shot of the location: it's perfect EXCEPT for all of the planes, trains, and automobiles that we have to deal with - LITERALLY!
Google announced today that their Google Earth file format, KML, was accepted OGL Standard by the Open Geospatial Consortium. We all know how useful Google Earth and Google Maps are (and if you don't you might want to wake up and smell the "non-java" - HAH!! - get it?); so I have to wonder what effect this will have on world-wide wandering? Will having standardized, linkable, tag-able, comment-able maps readily available through any GPS or mobile, map-enabled cellphone increase the amount of folks entering into those "wild places" which they might not otherwise venture into? If so, how will this, in turn, affect those same "wild places"?
Will we see an increase of traffic into wild-places where normally only Wandering Men venture? Will this influx of new (and quite possibly uncaring and inexperienced) souls damage those wonderful places which mean so much to so many of us? We've all seen the aftermath caused by vandals and folks with no love of the wilderness; we all know what results. Will this new technology, so easily obtainable, be bad for the "wild-places" of the world. Or will it, instead, foster a new love and appreciation for those places, making us see that there are precious few of them left?
I'm not sure, but you can rest assured, dear readers, on which side of that fence the Wandering Men will stand.
Rhett and Link are my all-time favorite Internetainment Comedians. What's more, they've just released one of my all-time favorites of their songs, 
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