Andrew Smith

It's been a fast & furious couple of months, I've been all the way from LA to Orlando, and many places in between.

The highlights of things made the "New & Exciting List."

6-month-old adopted brother!
Dad got another bus!
Trapcode!
EX 1!
I drove a stick shift from Inverness to Duncan after not having driven one in 9 years. Then made a detour to Atlanta meet a director I admire from Whitestone Motion Pictures. I've been swing dancing, spelunking, got addicted to iced lattés from Dunkin' Donuts at Happy Hour and have already been through caffeine withdrawal, this month has really been a trip. So glad to close out this year with a bang and I'm already excited to see where God will take me next year.

My brother just started work as the field rep for the local republican party, our family helped with the grand opening in which we held a free car wash sign. I remember a time when I was trying to help a friend, Justin Parker in Florida, raise money for a missions trip by doing a car wash. All fine gentlemen we were. Across the street were some not-so-finely dressed young women having a car wash. They stayed busy all day. Our group washed 3 cars the whole day in the hot, hot sun.
So consider yourself in the inner circle of People that Know the Essentials for a Successful Car Wash. It must be either be free or have at least a few fine young ladies. Hopefully modestly clothed. =)

My Logitech noise cancelling headphones broke last weekend, as I was taking them off. Flimsy plastic. Pssh. They were a nice pair, Logitech is not making them anymore, but they said since I purchased them this year they would refund the full cost. Here's a funny story about their warranty policy.

Last night I spoke at a Final Cut Pro users group in OKC, about my Canon HV-20 camera. Even though I covered my topic well, I fumbled for eloquence a couple times but also made everyone laugh a couple times too. It was a good experience. Next month Canon is coming out with several hard drive based cameras that will blow mine to obsoletision.

Lastly and bestly of all, I finished a video that is so funky-fresh you won't know what hit you! Woohoo! But DON'T you dare watch it here. GO here to watch in HD. After that you can pass go and collect 200 dollars or whatever it is you were doing before you started wasting time on the internet. haha.


Shyla's Photoshoot from Andrew PC Smith on Vimeo.

I love this satire, it's brilliant, if you've seen the show Man Vs. Wild at least once.

1.

Sometimes I feel like I don't have any. Yet I know it's one of those essential small business owner traits. It reminds me of an old movie where Jimmy Stewart's character says, Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be," - she always called me Elwood - "In this world, you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.

SO I DID.

Q. What's the most expensive ingredient in a bottle of bottled water?

A. The water, which was collected by rare lemmings by a special extraction process from a Japanese mountain mushroom.
B. The water, which was gathered by an army of killer bees from dewy flowers guarded by endangered fairies.
C. The water, because it came from the same well where Jack used to fill his watering can to nurture the Magic Beanstalk.
D. The plastic bottle and the label with the obligatory surrealistic mountain scene.
F. (create your own answer)

To all my photographer friends. Just remember, the Vikings of old remembered to pillage before they burned up villages, so should you remember to preform the Trash The Dress shoot only after the actual wedding ceremony.. Cause one time... well, nevermind..

"I'm out of the loop so why are you coming to ca soon

Okay, so let me break it down in plain english... me familia... owns el booko business... me harmono, yo quero denero and hasta friendalo in California. C?

so what you're saying is...
you're hungry for burritos

Yes! and that my family sells homeschool curriculum and it does not include Spanish!"


That was a, (slightly edited for readability) chat with a new online friendAnna Joy about my trip to California in a couple weeks. Which is going be really awesome, we're going to go see Paul, hang out and try and stop the ladies from scopin' us out while we catch some rays, (that's Paul on the left.. lol) and maybe having a shindig with Josh. Sounds pretty good to me. =D

So to change the nagging needle on the E and fill up my good 'ol car... I slid my card, picked my grade and pumped away. As usual, I sat there staring blankly at my reflection in the back seat window wondering if I look more like Hugh Jackman or Steve Buscemi when I heard the "click" letting me know that the car was full. I took the nozzle out, plugged the car back up and looked at the price.

My heart sank. Like the Titanic. Almost $60. yup. $60 for a tank of gas. I quickly looked at my car wondering if I had filled an SUV on accident - nope, it was my teensy weensy polka dotted Toyota Camry.

$60!! $60 will get you 50 large slurpees. $60 will get you enough hamsters to pull the car. $60 would get me 6 fresh pairs of boxers (aka 6 extra days of no laundry.) Remember that scene from "I Am Legend" where Will Smith's character is pumping gas - I remember the loudest gasps during that scene when they saw the gas prices being over $6. Now, we're not that far off!

GAS PRICES ARE INSANE! You know it's almost to the point where I think if Jesus came down today, his first miracle would be to turn water into...gas. and I'll admit - even with gas prices rising, the weaker dollar, it's getting harder and harder to be a good steward in regards to money. We should all move to Venenzuela -gas is still $.12 per gallon over there. Yup you heard right, cents. I would almost swim there to get it.

Has gas put a strain on your finances lately?

Everywhere I look I see amazing art. I see crummy art. I see mediocre "canned" art. Nearly everyone is an artist in some way. It is artist overload!

With the rise of the internet, artists can distribute art like never before. Now we have sites like youtube giving us art like no other. Then there's the wannabes that see something on youtube and copy the life out of it.
It's sort of like having free reign at a candy store. You eat one sweet and sugary treat after another and another and another. Before you know it, you are sickened by the very thing you love most. Nauseated, you feel the urge to vomit. Several days or weeks later you feel ready to try candy again but something is wrong... you have an ulcerated stomach lining and can't seem to hold anything down. Now, no matter how delectable the treat, how fine the chocolate, how creamy the confectionery, every piece of it disgusts you.

The other day, I was talking with my friend Paul and we decided, (still going with the candy metaphor) no matter how bad the candy is, no matter if the last three you tried left you ready to hurl... (Remember China? LOL.) You keep trying them, like some kind of zombie, until you get one that makes life click again. The same thing goes for music, movies, and pretty much the whole gamut of creative work. Our God-given drive to create is strong and the drive to see the created beauty is just as strong, if not more so.
There is a load of carp (I said carp) to dig through out there, the purpose of art is dynamic, but it should always point us to the truth.

Moses made a snake that pointed to the savior of mankind, Jesus.
Numbers 21:9
So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

Then some time later, it's use was corrupted.
2 Kings 18:4
He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan. )


Paul used the secular to point to the truth.
Acts 17:28
'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'


Can you rise above the mediocre? Can you make something inspiring? You won't if you don't try. You probably will be making a lot of carp till you get to making the killer art that inspired to create in the first place. I hate to admit it, but at times I do make bad art. But hey, if you're not prepared to be wrong, you will never be original. The momentum is paramount.
I'll leave you with a few quotes.

"The faster you fail, the sooner you'll get to success."
"The design is finished not when there's nothing more to add... It's finished when there's nothing more you can take away."
"Predictability = Boring"


Any thoughts?

Many people believe that the best way to learn how to make a movie is to just start making one. And to a degree, I am one of those people. The things you learn are only as good as the extent you put them to use.

Since going to film school is neither convenient nor practical for me, as well as countless others, I am piecing together my knowledge of filmmaking through the internet, books, instructional videos (scouring the web) But what's more fun than the trial & error, monkey-business with camera and lights? Not much.

Of course, the hands-on with the equipment never quite matches up with the theory as easily as one would like it to. With that said, what you learn from a visceral, hands on approach is far more valuable than sitting through a lecture or reading a book. It's much like learning to ride a bicycle... You can read ten books on how to mount the bike, peddle the bike, apply the breaks, use hand signals, repair a flat tire and so on... but the first time you get on the bike, you WILL indubitably fall over. Eventually you learn. Besides, who wants to pay 60,000 dollars to some film school, paying for their equipment, go to classes they want you to go to, and never make a feature film.

Time to hop on that proverbial bicycle and ride it where I like.

We just finished United Way auditions today, and only 14 people total showed up. So we are going to end up using all of them. I thought we'd get at least 30 but that just shows how off I was. There's got to be a better way to audition people than what we thought of. Having them state their name and two interesting facts about themselves might be a good start, but fails to convey any acting ability. The interesting problem is, none of them have any lines.

Friends, family, and all the rest of you people. =)

A very stimulating website if you're into new and used ideas.

Proverbs 15:
19 The path of lazy people is overgrown with briers;
the diligent walk down a smooth road.

20 Intelligent children make their parents proud;
lazy students embarrass their parents.

21 The empty-headed treat life as a plaything;
the perceptive grasp its meaning and make a go of it.

22 Refuse good advice and watch your plans fail;
take good counsel and watch them succeed.


(Maybe I should take some of my own advice and put pictures up. But they're all on my sister's computer and I really don't feel like bugging her. Ehh.)

Hey everybody, I'm on my way to Winter Park hittin' the slopes & tearin' up the gnar with a snowboard!! It's going to be totally amazing and you should come. Pictures to come. If you're lucky. ;-)

Matthew 15:19
" For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, FALSE WITNESS, slanders.

Matthew 19:18
... And Jesus said, " YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS;...

I started to think about what it meant to "Bear False Witness/lie or Bear a False Report". What first came to my head was what I had been taught all my life, don't lie if someone asks you a question. But as I thought on it more a dim light clicked on in my little brain and began to brighten as I started to think on it more. I asked myself, can one
"Bear a False Witness" with the way he/she lives his/her life? If you are a COP and dress as a Firefighter while on the job, you are bearing false witness to the truth of what you really are. You are deceiving the public to believe otherwise. You don't have to go down and shout it in their faces or really even say a single word to them, but rather by subconscious reasoning the average passerby is going to assume you are a Firefighter. Now say you really wanted the people to believe you were a cop. So, you run into the street, grab people by their collar, stare them straight in the eyes and tell them that you are a cop. My guess is, many won't believe you but I suppose out of the few that do they will most likely ask you, "why then are you wearing a firefighters uniform?"

I think in the same way we can at times "Bear False Witness" against the Lord Jesus Christ. We claim to be born again and yet put on the uniform of sin in our every day life. We tell people about Christ and how we were washed new in His blood but when they look at our lives they see the very opposite. The Lord commands us not to Bear False Witness and yet we do it so often. This was really convicting to me and caused me to really rethink my life, knowing that at times though I may be saved I wear the uniform of this world and am regarded to the average passerby as no different then everybody else.

Don't lie to this world about who truly lives in and through you. Put on the garment of righteousness so that they may see the glory of a living and active God and not a false image of who He is through the putting on of our old, ugly and disgusting nature.


1 Corinthians 15:15-19
Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

Matthew 5:16
"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.



This is copied from my friend Paul Rogers' note. Because he needs more publicity, and also because it was amazing. =)

So the exciting conclusion is this video.

I know, eX-Ci-Ting...

Book in question: Philosophical Issues in Adventure Education.
As you can clearly see, the cover is atrocious. (Almost like my spelling of the word 'atrocious' before I used spellcheck.)

Upside down or not, this book's cover is still ugly. To add insult to injury, then people have to go and write long, boring books about nothing in particular. It makes me wonder if they had a point in the first place. Or maybe they were writing and their dog ate half the manuscript they started back in the 1890's, and they were only able to recover parts of words that they somehow tossed into the new book via incoherent sentences.

P.S. I didn't actually read the whole book, I sort of just skimmed it, and that's when I did it... I read a page.
It might not be as bad as I made it out to be. Oh well. Regardless of any useful information the book may or may not contain, the cover is still ugly. Unfair? Yes, why yes I believe so.

This is what I wanted to say, with a song.

Truth: is an expression, symbol or statement that matches or corresponds to its object or referent.  Truth must correspond to reality in order to be true.
Absolute Truth: “Something true for all people, at all times and in all places”

This proves two points in the search for truth. 
1. Existence (To be aware of yourself proves existence)
2. Reason  (To think about yourself proves reason)
3. Relativism is self-defeating:
The relativist believes that subjective truth is true for everyone, not just from them. This is the one thing they cannot believe, if they are relativist. Therefore, if a relativist thinks it is true for everyone, then he believes it is an absolute truth. Therefore, he is no longer a relativist.
 
2. Relativism is full of contradictions.
If Billy Graham believed God exists and an Atheist believes God did not exist both would be right. God would have to exist and not exist.  If the Christian believes Jesus died on the Cross and Muslim believes Jesus did not die on the Cross, both would be right.
 
3. Relativism means no has ever been wrong.
With Subjective truth, no one could ever be wrong since there is no standard for right and wrong. As long as something is true to holder of truth, it is true even if it is wrong for someone else.




Today at our bible study we watched "Everything Is Spiritual" by Rob Bell. Okay, this is a thinking man's delight. Even if you dislike Rob's other stuff, (Nooma videos or his books) this is golden. He crams so much into a two hour period, so polished, like a Steve Jobs keynote speech for a Macworld conference. Hah.

I admire the way he thinks about things in the duality of the material and spiritual. Plus he has this smooth analogy about the 2-D world (based on Flatland) we live in but as humans we are the only creature with both a physical body and a spiritual being at the same time. The juxtaposition is fascinating. (ie. a bird or a tree has only physical and angels have only spiritual.) Anyway. Watch it already. It's amazing.

From Threadless, a really awesome t-shirt company.

Nikola Tesla, inventor/discoverer of many uses for electricity (IMHO he did more than Einstien for mankind but doesn't get proper credit) once said that he doesn't consider himself very intelligent person. He just worked on every single thing that interested him ten times more than anybody else. In his opinion that was the key to his success. People who love what they do get others to pay money to watch them enjoy life.

If you get a chance, rent The Simple Life Of Noah Dearborn. (It relates to this post. Trust me. Heh.) It's funny and has a great story. There's some really good lines. I'd give it a 4 out of 5 stars.


This week has been one great week for my movie career, it's hard to believe one connection in a small town can get you so very far. Never judge people too quick; I've got a bad habit of sizing people up fast. A lot of times I don't even realize I'm doing it. However, sometimes the person you least expect has more connections than you can imagine and can get you some incredible jobs and/or contacts if you'll just be friendly and look sharp.

Okay, I was going to post about what I did this weekend... <_<

But against my better judgement, I opted not to.




I thought, you know, a couple days from now and the world is going to talk about Valentine's day and how I need to polish up my handwriting so I can write a decent love letter. (Someone did tell me that actually. Love letter to who?)






I took calligraphy for a while, but just so I could make a fake degree. ;-]














The Ladies Man Of God, (AKA Mark Lowry) has a couple tips for all you single christian homeschool guys out there.

*Disclaimer* the 80's just called, they want their music videos back.






So do you guys think I should do something a little more serious next time? Maybe throw out a few of my favorite pickup lines? Qualifications for the ideal woman?

We just had the presidential primaries just a couple days ago here in Oklahoma. There are some who take these things VERY seriously.


And then... those that think otherwise.
Take a look a this unedited chat transcript.

Kind of crazy these elections eh?

Methinks the candidates should settle it with a fisticuffs match.

Verily!
Or a umm...
UFC champeenship?
Presidential Edition.
LOL

Hah
Iron Obama vs. the HuckaBeekeeper
Those are the best wrestling names I can come up with

Obama vs. Yo Momma.

Haha
Exactly

Me like.

So, who do you think is going to win?

Yo Momma.

I can't say, for security reasons... Who participated in this chat. I will just say that one, or quite possibly both were named Andrew Smith. =)


In other news, apparently I released a Contemporary Christian album...




I believe it may have something to do with THIS. bahaha.

Cover design by my good friend Josh Osborne.


Really the best thing you can do, besides maybe studying the candidates enough to make an INFORMED VOTE, is prayer.
God might not care about the Superbowl, but he is interested in Government. After all, He did institute it.

How much does a pirate pay to pierce his ears?










A buck an ear!


What is the latest pirate movie rated?




Arrrgh!!





Sorry, every now and then I have to tell some pirate jokes. It's something we ninja's do for street cred.

Today I spent most of my time trying to get my expensive camera to connect to my expensive computer and software. I spent a nauseating amount of time on user forums, Apple discussions, culminating with a hour-long chat with an Apple Final Cut technical support guru. All to no avail. I'm still at the same place I was at when I started... many hours later.

There was no logical explanation as to why it wasn't working. 

It seems that as of late, a reoccurring theme for our weekly bible studies often run past the notion of hearing God's voice. "What does God's voice sound like anyway?" Or, "How do I know if that's what God is really telling me to do?" These are questions that often pop up in the back my mind.. Actually, most of the time they just lurk back there, way back in the deep end, the breed of questions you have to go scuba diving after.

Anyway, we all want answers to our questions so I hope this shines a little ray of light into your dreary existence. =D


God wants you to hear his voice!

You already hear God's voice but most people don't know what it is or what it sounds like. You can only love God as much as you love His Word. And you can certainly cannot obey God any more than you obey His Word.

You need to have an essential view of God's voice. It's not as if you say, "I'll give you five minutes if you speak to me in that time, then fine, if not then I'll get along fine without it." Or waiting several weeks without speaking to God, then asking him to get you out of your predicament, then going back to your carnal, sinful ways. If you aren't seeking God with your whole heart, you won't hear God clearly.

If you have an old tv with a bad signal, you wouldn't call up the television company and complain about the poor quality of their transmission, the station is broadcasting all the time. You'd try to discover what was wrong with your tv receiver and try and adjust it to get to work better. You'd take it in to somebody and get it repaired. However, in Christianity, we beg and plead with God to fix his transmitter! God's transmitter is never broken, it is working 24/7 365 days a year.. Our receiver is broken. John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Most people are expecting to hear God's voice in a 'third person' voice. i.e. "I want YOU to move to Dallas." 1 Cor 6:17 "But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit." In other words, your born again spirit is one with God's Spirit. Therefore, God's spirit will communicate to your spirit which will transfer that knowledge to your brain and that will be first person. "I think... I should move to Dallas."
1 Cor 2:16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
Other passages: John 4:24, 1 John 2:20.

God doesn't typically speak to us in a showy or spectacular way. (Yes, He still does awesome miracles.) His customary ways of communication are natural, simple and often subtle ways. When Jesus came to earth, he could have showed up in a rocket ship and used a big booming voice, but he just had a bright star and came as a baby to a manger. He could have had his angels announce his arrival to kings in every nation. But the angels just told shepherds. He could have a tree point to direct you, or he could have clouds printed with messages for you. His ways are are ones that take faith to perceive.

Your spirit already knows your gifts and calling of God, the clincher is getting that knowledge to your brain so you can use it!

The only way your can know which thoughts or intuitions are from God is through his Word. Hebrews 4:12
"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

You have to have a thorough knowledge of the Word of God to know use it correctly. If you're going to let someone else tell you what the Word says, or if you are living a self-centered life then you won't be effectively using it. Also, if God has already showed you His answer out of his Word, then don't expect any further specific direction until you are obedient to the first thing He told you to do.

If you landed on the beaches of Normandy and there was a huge minefield you couldn't see, would you rather have a map of where every mine was, or someone directing you on your radio guiding your every step? The Spirit is like a voice telling you where to go. The Word is like a map. You need both.

God's Word speaks to everything, it's like a football field that has boundries, if you are out of bounds, your forward progress stops.



I hope you learned something helpful, these are my notes from Andrew Womack's (http://www.awmi.net/) sermons on hearing God's voice.

God bless you all!

What do you do if a cute girl asks you to go polka dancing with her & her friends?

It's a bona fide fact. People look up to me. For no apparent reason, other than the fact that I'm crazy tall. I never asked to be tall, but it sure is awesome. Thanks God.

Well I got back from Chicago today after an amazing Tuesday night with the Barlow family and my sister, and arrived in the Will Rogers World Airport, at 1:15.

After several minutes of gutwrecking name calling... Or more accurately, looking for names to be called, I found the not-quite-but-almost perfect name for my blog.