I don't know when it started, but I used to say "Frank you" instead of thank you. I guess it was a thing to see how many people actually listened. Rarely did anyone say anything about it. Jasmine always hears it though.
We had a spectacular thanksgiving. We ate with 30 other people at our pastor/leader's house. It was really fun. The food was wonderful, the people were great, and the outsideness was amazing as well. I'm running out of adjectives here. The long and short is that it was a really good time. What does long and short mean? is it like, To summarize? I guess that's what it means, but I wonder where it comes from. I'll wikipedia it. No luck on the wikipedia. The phrase finder says that it's really old, circa 1550, but no real explanation of it's origin. do you know?

I'm writing a little again. I have about 20 pages on the second draft of my screenplay that i wrote while at the lafsc. It's got a ton more direction this time, which I'm really excited about. Last time i was so focused on finishing it, it was lacking all direction. This time i hope to have some direction and hopefully something profound will come through the words and worlds I create.

Here's a random question, does anyone who reads my blog have any experience with apple script? Specifically I'm trying to use applescript to control Final Cut Pro, and I'm feeling rather inadequate because i've never used Applescript before.

hope your holidays or non-holidays are well.

jack.

Posted by jack. |

of the things that make me smile and cry, this is one of the best:

driving home after 12midnight and this song, postal service - such great heights, comes onto the radio. turn it up, way up. at 2:31, there is a guitar solo, it gets me every time.

it gets better, on the single this song is on, there is a repeat of the song, with this, iron & wine - such great heights, yes, it's the same song, covered, it's fantastic as well.

Posted by jack. |

Yesterday I read this article about why only suckers have jobs. I then read a lot of comments from people who said that the author was full of himself or something else. The long and short of it is that it piqued my interest in the idea of passive income, i.e. income that generates itself, with some initial work put in, but once it starts it hopefully stops little. I guess the old way of doing that was with real estate. You buy something, rent it out, market shifts (hopefully for the better) and you make money. Some suggest that bank accounts also have passive income--interest. With the invention of the interents (thank you al) there are a lot more ways of creating situations of passive income--mostly with intellectual property and advertising on websites. The idea is similar to real estate, you write a program or an article, people rent it, and you get money for it. Especially with the website, you don't really have to do anything except let the search engines find you--and people click on ads on your website. the guy who wrote the article claims to get $9000 per month because of traffic on his website. that's crazy!

My co-worker, Amy, as she was leaving the edit bay said this, "I read this quote, it's, 'Imagination is worth more than knowledge.' " It seems, imagination is worth much more than knowledge when it comes to working a normal type job, or coming up with an idea that everyone will want.

Here's my thing(s) though. About the whole no-job thing. Even if you're working for yourself, you still have a boss and a timetable. My favorite comment on lifehacker was, "I used to be self-employed, but I quit because my boss was an idiot." All this talk about stopping your normal 9-5 so that you can work for yourself seems a little naive if you ask me. If you start working for yourself you are very likely to work 7a-10p or something ridiculous--just because you can / or because a client needs it, like, right now. And things get crazy, when you don't have a traditional 9-5, things aren't as steady--even if you are loving what you are doing, you may not be getting paid for it.

Part of my response to this article was a memory about how we were created to work. That we find fulfillment in our purposes (there might be a better word...actions?). I'm not sure if I'm recalling that learning correctly, but it seems that there is a Christian calling to be working people. Whether that be working at bestbuy or at microsoft, you are working, as everyone else is. it seems much more likely that you'll have opportunities to show your faith and even share your faith while you are working.

Where does passive income fit into being a working Christian? I'm not sure. It would seem responsible to be forward thinking and working towards financial independence (especially from college debt). But part of me wants to say live for today, for tomorrow will worry about itself. But what if today includes a passion for writing software that people will be paying you for a long time? what if it's making art that will appreciate over time? what if it's buying art that will appreciate? should appreciation exist in a mindset of a working man?

Conversely, what if you are completely content with your 9-5, should you still be looking for and finding ways to earn that passive income? One website suggested, you may never know when the pink slip my slide onto your desk, so passive income is a must. Whenever I think about things like this I'm reminded of this joke from either junior high or early high school (imagine a mid-puberty boy telling the joke):

So there's this guy, I'm not sure what he does, um, well, how about, he's a steel worker. And he lives in this place where it rains a lot, you know, like, yea, it rains a lot. And this one week it starts raining a lot a lot, and people are freaking out. But this guy, he's a christian, and he always says, "God will provide." And it keeps raining. Soon the rain has totally filled his main floor, so, this steel guy and his wife, they are stuck on the second floor. So this guy in the national guard shows up in a boat, floating to his second story window, and he's like, "Sir, we can get you out, the water is rising" and the steel worker is like "God will provide, thank you, anyways." So it rains more. The water floods the second floor, so this guy has to go onto the roof. This time the Army comes, they are in a helicopter, they drop a ladder and this guy he just tells them, "God will provide." And he doesn't leave. His wife, right there with him on the roof, and the helicopter flies away. And it rains more, and more. Now this guy, and his wife are on the chimney, the last, highest place they could be. A Navy boat comes to them, they plead with him, they plead with his wife, but they stay, saying "God will provide." They both drown. (dramatic pause.) When the arrive in heaven, this guy he's mad, he wants to see God. Finally he gets into the thrown room and he's like, "God, what happened, you said that you'd provide??" And God is like, "Well, I sent the National Guard, the Army, and the Navy."

And of course, there would be uproarious laughter, especially if this is at some cadet (read boy scouts) type event, and the boy telling the joke is one of those kids who just can tell a joke, even if he stammers around his words a little bit.

The punch line of the joke is so scary some times. God will provide, but we need to take him up on it. If we have the opportunity to make some passive income, or, if that we have the desire to make the opportunity, should we do it? Should we take him up on it?

Posted by jack. |

the radio below me is playing this song. i'm reminded of trying to watch the wizard of oz with the dark side of the moon album playing. how painful it was, everytime we'd get to a certain point, i think this song was one of them, joshua would be like, stop, stop, we need to have it earlier, and then we'd start it up again, and it'd be off some more and he'd be like, stop, stop, okay now play, and it'd be on, kinda, but not really. later i found out you can buy dvds with it the album playing already built in. that would be less hassle, but would it be better? i don't know.

sorry for the delay in posts, we were in san diego for a time and i didn't use a computer while i was there--it was kinda nice. (firefox wants me to capitalize san diego, but it doesn't think that kinda is spelled wrong.)

i'm not feeling very inspired to work today. i'm not sure why, i think it may be because i don't have music to cut to for this wedding i'm working on, it makes it more painful somehow, to edit under those conditions. i hope you are doing well.

Posted by jack. |

i just stumbled upon some old things i wrote on the internet, i had forgot i wrote a lot of them. it's weird, how you forget things. the internet is so unforgiving about what you wrote, you can't change it you know? oh well. i doubt anyone really remembers or cares about that now. time is a weird thing, constantly moving. you can't take anything back really. especially if it's on the internet.

Posted by jack. |