Well goodness sakes alive it's been a long time since I've written on here :/

The time has come....finally. I am moving back to Texas and heading out tomorrow. I talked to some of you and originally was going to come down in January, but that changed about 50 gazillion times until it finally settled on Texas again. I should be getting down there on Saturday and hope to see all of you soon!

And as always I apologize for my lack of communication. It's not been the easiest time recently, but hopefully things are looking up from here :)

Hey everyone!!

man, you all must think i've fallen off the edge of the earth. well i have, but somehow climbed back up :/ ANYWAYY i sincerely apologize for basically having no contact with anyone in so long, i feel really bad about it. lets just say that it's been an interesting few months up here. so anyway, thought i'd give you a few updates of what's been going on.

okay for one, i got the job at costco..then i quit. yeahhh it just wasn't the job for me. sooo i got a job doing construction with my friend's dad. it's been intense, but i'm getting in better shape and learning some stuff too, so it's all good.

yes, i crashed my car. so long story short, was going on a dirt road, went around a corner, lost control and somehow spun 180 degrees so i was looking where i came from and flipped into the ditch onto the side of the car. i wasn't hurt at all, but i can't say the same for the car. the damage didn't look all that bad from the outside, but the damages totaled up to over $11,000. thank goodness for insurance. i'm hoping to get it back from being repaired early next week.

lets see, as of now, i'm hoping to come down and visit everyone the second half of august :). hoping everything works out and have been pricing airline tickets.

i think that's about all. again i'm sure sorry that i haven't been in contact with like anyone during this time. look forward to hopefully getting to see you all soon!

I just needed to let everyone know that I am going to be leaving Texas. I wanted to get a chance to see and spend time with some of my friends from Montana that I haven't seen in a really long time before I head up to Seattle. There is also a really good job opportunity up there for me to make some money. That will help me to get some stability before I go gallivanting off to Washington for the year of film school.

So as of right now I will be leaving Texas on March 17th. I'll be driving by car over a period of four days and it's worked out really well, because some of my friends up there (two different families) have offered to let me stay with them, which helps so much.

So I just wanted to let all of you know! I'll see some of you at church over the next several weeks, and if I don't live in your general area, or see you regularly, it has been great getting to know you!

Something hit me just a moment ago while watching the trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie that is coming out in May (of which I am really, really excited for). What interested me about the look of this movie was how much it resembled the look of the first three Indiana Jones films. This got me to thinking, CGI (Computer-generated Imagery) has completely infiltrated the movie industry, ever since it first started to become prevalent in the 90s.

Is this a good thing? Well it depends on how you look at it. It has allowed film makers to do some really incredible things with their film making, but it also has added a sense of unrealism to the movies. If you do not have a high enough budget, but still want to film a movie that requires a lot of CGI scenes, your movie is going to look like a piece of garbage. In my opinion, this was one of the biggest downfalls to the three prequels of the Star Wars trilogy. Although the films were relatively impressive, I believe it was something like 99% of the scenes (all but one) in the third episode were filmed with a blue screen. Even with the massive budget that George Lucas had to work with, it still ruined the feel of the whole Star Wars universe. As the old saying goes, "Don't fix what isn't broken". I believe that it also makes film makers a little too imaginative in what they can do.

If you'll notice, the majority of the movie classics (and I'll admit, I haven't seen many, but it seems to be fairly well known) are very good films. That is because they were grounded in reality, without some 18 eyed, 6 armed she-baby attacking the empire state building.

What is sad is that the technology in computers has evolved so much since it was first used in the film industry, but only very few film makers have really been able to incorporate it into a believable format. Peter Jackson is one of those film makers, and there is a reason for this. When Peter Jackson filmed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he was very diligent in the use real world objects and sets in his movies. I believe it was the small city of Rohan that was built on a hill in New Zealand. It was not digitally imposed in front of a blue screen. It was built, from the ground up, by hand, so that the set was an actual village. Not only does this make the film have a more traditional and realistic feel, it also gives the actors and actresses something to work with. It allows them to get into the mood and fulfill their roles to the ultimate level that they might not be able to in front of a blue screen. When Peter Jackson DID use CGI in his trilogy, he used it with moderation and it really helped to keep his movies grounded in reality.

And thus, ends my rant on the use of CGI in movies. Now don't get me wrong, it's a great technology, but I just really don't believe that it is there yet, unless you have a director with an amazing vision for their movies. I plan on using as much real world material in my films as possible, until I need that 32 fingered, mountain dew drinking dog, then CGI will be the way to go.

Well I'm finally just starting to get well. Ever notice (especially while you are sick) that when you're in a place where you need to be quiet (church, school, etc.) that suddenly you have an urge to cough repeatedly or something? This always happens to me. I don't know if that's worse, or having a runny nose that you're constantly trying to retain its contents. Oh well, just glad this virus is almost over.