Doing What I Love, and Loving What I Do

BHS Basketball
Originally uploaded by CameronMagee

Well, today was definitely a work day during this break of mine.   I hit the floor at 8am, ran hard all day, and just hit the... not the floor... five minutes ago.

Outdoor Cap, a company from here in Bentonville, approached me a few weeks ago about doing a little video post-production for them.  They had shot some inner-office interviews of staff members, and wanted the material editing together for their annual meeting.  The trick would be keeping the media portable, and multi-device friendly.

No problem.   I got the handycam footage from them, and smiled at the thought of editing it in Final Cut Pro.   FCP is my edit suite of choice, but it's spicy price tag places it at double the cost of the camera used to shoot this footage.   I smiled.

The snag is that the final produced video files were over 3GB's in size.  A size that would be unacceptable for the portability they demanded.  Enter YouTube.  I use YouTube as a tool, not as entertainment.  I compressed the files, pumped them out to the web, and BOOM.   3GB of files turn into a 3KB email, containing links to the online videos.  I smiled.

I spent the noon hour up at their office, touring the place and making sure the team was happy with my results. They wouldn't let me out the door without about 10 free hats, too. Most likely the best part of the entire production. Free hats.

Then I headed up to the church to do a little Media Intern labor. Chetley has taken the official reigns of that title, but I volunteered some time, anyway.  It's Christmas Tree collapsing season, so they had some work cut out. It was fun to get to work with my old friends, Dave, Chad and Chetley. I'll volunteer my time anytime for the un-repayable kindness they have treated me with.

After that, Chetley and I grabbed some Burger King, and paired off to shoot the Bentonville High School basketball game tonight, just for a little fun.  We both love shooting, and the best kind of shooting is when the pressure is off.  This was about as low-pressure as it gets, with the produced images only contracting to Flickr and Facebook friendly's.

I did what I love, and I loved what I did.  The only icing on the cake was that Aubrey and her mom came to the basketball game, so I got to spend time with them while Chetley had his turns behind the Canon real estate.

FBC Dodgeball

fbcDodgeball.com
Originally uploaded by CameronMagee

A group of guys gets together here in Bentonville once a week to play Dodgeball. They usually meet on Monday or Tuesday night, which are always Arkadelphia nights for me. But, this last week before I have to go back, they played, and I got to go.

My friend Gary Withrow puts it all together, and does a fantastic job at it, too. I got to know Gary through our church's Studio 412 youth ministry last summer.  Gary is a wonderful guy, with a servants heart for the LORD. Before he was my worst nightmare on the Dodegball court, he was a photog friend, who always had the gear I needed, and always magically didn't need it when I did.  All the times that I've been, he's managed to get 30-40 boys together, which is absolutely incredible. He manages to get a weekly game together, and maintain that high attendance on a week-to-week basis. He also manages the group website, updating it constantly with game meet-up times.

Now, I'm not too hot at Dodgeball. I'm actually one of the oldest boys there, besides the grown men. I can hold my own pretty well, and I try not to do anything foolish, but I'd definitely rank myself towards the bottom of the batting order.

Gary calls it FBC Dodgeball, but it is not run by a church staff member, he does it. Tonight, we started playing at 6pm. At 7pm, we all meet at half court for a healthy 20min devotion from Gary. He does a fantastic job at putting out relevant, interesting material for us boys, I don't know how he keeps coming up with this stuff. After that, it's another 40mins of dodging airborne orbs, and we're done.

It's really a healthy weekly physical activity that's simple, fun for 14 and 34 year-olds, and spiritual. I love the fellowship with the guys, and the challenge the talk places on my heart every time. If you reside in the four-seven-nine, check out the group's website at fbcDodgeball.com.

Game Night!

Game Night!
Originally uploaded by CameronMagee

I'd say the majority of today was just a stall to get to tonight. Aubrey and I had compiled a list of games we love to play (a rather lengthly list, I must mention) and had decided to push through the entire list in one night. Usually, a date for us would include one, maybe two of these games, usually taking about 45mins each, but that wouldn't cut it tonight. We went into FF (actually pronounced "eff-eff") mode.

It was a fun, innocent kid kind of night. We both had a blast. Games are such a better deal for us. For some reason, we're just not very movie-based. I don't know what most couples do our age, but I assume it's dinner-and-a-movie setups. Not us. She can usually round up some Pumpkin Patch day or I can pull off a "Pineapple and a Kite" afternoon. It makes for much more interactive dates, and brings us closer through our time together.

Here's the co-compiled list for the evening:

1. Pool (that's 8-Ball, not 8ft deep)
2. Ping Pong
3. Rock Band
4. Mania
5. Puzzle Mania
6. Fish Mania
7. King's Corners
8. ERS
9. Sharks and Minnows
10. Zuma
11. Mario Kart N64
12. Hide & Go Seek
13. Badminton
14. Street Football

We made it through every one of them, except Football. It would have been pretty nuts in this 31-degree Bentonville weather.

It was an absolute fantastic blast of a time. Has anyone even heard of half of these games? Probably not. Comment if you need instruction sheets, and we'll type them up for you. Mania can be a bit tricky for the amateur.

One of these days we'll start acting like 18-year-olds instead of 11-year-olds. But in the mean time, I'm having the time of my life with the girl of my dreams.

HSU Schedule 2009

HSU Schedule 2009
Originally uploaded by CameronMagee

I've got just over a week left of break, and school is creeping back into the rear of my mind. It's WAY back there alright, but it's creeping up. With that in mind, I thought I'd post my schedule for the upcoming semester, as well as my grades from the previous.

First of all, I had a great first semester at Henderson. Most of my classes went by smoothly, and it was a very easy and smooth transition from Bentonville High School.

I even got all A's, well, except for one. I took one honors class, Masters of Western Literature, and I got a B in it. But, it was worth it, my teacher for that class was fantastic, and I really got a lot out of it.

This next and second semester steps it up a bit, with three main killers. I'm looking at Biology, Spanish, and Philosophy Honors. There are other courses, of course (definite pun intended), but those are the triple crown of worries.

In case you can't view the above image, here's them listed out:

Biology
Biology Lab
Spanish I
Philosophy Honors
Newspaper Practicum
Oral Comm
News Reporting

I've got a handful of days left in this break, so I'm planning on enjoying them to the fullest. But, looming on the Arkadelphia horizon, rests Henderson State University, and it's many semesters ahead.

Frisco Family

La Hacienda Ranch
Originally uploaded by CameronMagee

We loaded up the family truckster and headed down to Frisco, TX on New Year's Eve. My dad's parents live here, (that's Nana and Grampa to you). And by family truckster, I mean a rented minivan. When traveling over 1,000 miles round trip, my Dad prefers to put those miles on a rented vehicle instead of depleting the resale value of ours.

View Larger Map

Today we ran around nearby Plano, TX and did some early morning shopping. I hit the Apple Store and Fry's Electronics. If you've never been in a Fry's before, there is absolutely nothing like it anywhere. Imagine every electronic out on the internet, on sites like NewEgg.com or BestBuy.com or even Crutchfield.com, and put all those stores into one brick-and-mortor store.

It is awesome to get to hold stuff in your hands, and see it powered up, two things you can't do with a keyboard and mouse.

Caleb and I were riding in the minivan with Dad driving, on our way back to the house. The car in front of us stopped pretty abruptly, so my Dad quickly changed lanes, and then doubled back into our original lane. Now, my Dad's a heck of a driver, but we all make mistakes. Appearantly he did not use his turn signal to inform the driver behind him of this double-quick lane change. Apperantly that bothered the driver behind us. Apparantly that driver was the Police.

Dad shut it down in a nearby parking lot. Let's Review: Rented Car. Two lane changes no signal. 10mph over the speed limit. We got a warning.

Wow. God is good. We should have gotten busted, big time, for as much stuff as we were accidentally doing wrong. Praise the LORD.

Watching the Cotton Bowl right now, it's both my parents' alma mater, Texas Tech, versus Ole' Miss. The game is about 3 miles down the road from my grandparents house, but we couldn't get tickets. Well, we COULD have gotten tickets, but all the good ones were gone immediately. We would have been outside the 20 yard-lines, in the nose bleed's. We also would have paid about $600 to be there. No thanks. I like the comfy, replay friendly, sky-cam coverage, surround sound audio of this living room just fine.

Writing during a commercial break, and just saw this the best 17secs of the afternoon:

I got a new set of earphones at the Apple Store today, looking forward to writing up a quick review for them later. Happy New Year everybody! Happy New Year!