Andrew Smith

2010!

2010-01-28T18:36:00.000-08:00

Wow. It's hard to believe it's the end of January already. I started off the year working with an editor friend, Chris Cole on a motion graphics project at his house for about 4 days. We did some really neat sci-fi screen animations and sliding glass doors and stuff that was a lot of greenscreen compositing work. I ended by showing him the video I filmed for SOZO, with Jamie and Matt Moore. He said it would have been good for a sociology video if it weren't for the religious content at the end. Eh. But he called today and has another job for me.

I recently downloaded a couple dozen ebooks and have been glancing through them. Two of my favorites so far are How To Be A Rockstar Freelancer, and How to Persuade People Who Don't Want to be Persuaded. The first is obviously about being in your own service business, and the second is a story of a master entertainer/storyteller/magician that is sharing his crowd-winning secrets with the world.

Also, I recently finished my demo reel. I've been meaning to get that done since late december. Other things on the agenda are starting a podcast, and having our logo printed on some t-shirts. The latter might be a closer option than I previously thought, as Tree and Leaf Clothing recently contacted me about doing some videos for them.

The Trail Dance film festival was a huge success. Anthony contacted me about doing some motion graphics intros about 2 weeks before the event. It took me about 3 days to make a 15 second intro from a template. At the event I got to see a lot of film that Adam and I were severely underwhelmed by. Our aesthetic is better than 90% of the films that showed, and it was very encouraging, but a little depressing that we didn't end up entering anything. Anyway, we ended up meeting a lot of other filmmakers and gave them cards and showed them our demo reels. It was quite impressive how well people responded to our work, one guy even sent us his idea for a pilot tv episode that was a comedy about alien fashion. We also got a couple requests to do music videos within a week of posting. My friend Ryan Dunlap ended up winning an award for his short film Leave Me, which I accepted on his behalf.

A couple nights ago I found out Caleb Vetter is going to be shooting his second feature on the RED this summer, it seems a feature he worked on last summer got him in good terms with a few of the right people. It's hard to believe it's been two years since his first feature, and my *amazing* motion graphics I did for the titles. Heh.
Paul Rogers invited me to come up to edit on his documentary for Not For Sale. We'll see. It'll be a couple weeks worth of work, but we haven't got to hang out since his wedding last August.

In other, more pressing news, our family is stuck inside during this bad icestorm. No electricity to speak of but Amos and most of the rest of the family is watching a Chuck Norris movie. While Adam and I are both working on our laptops until our batteries run dry...

Good night, and good luck.
-Andrew

Lazy blogger.

2009-11-19T20:04:00.000-08:00

This past two months has been nonstop for me. Adam and I moved into our new house in Duncan, Reggie spent almost 3 months with us. He left 2 days ago. Miss that guy already.

It feels so lame to work on free projects like Meg Guess' promo work until the day I went to Todd Ballje's photographer meetup and have him introduce me as the guy who made this video. People there were like, "Oh, you're Smith Pixels? I didn't know that." Note to self, put up more personal headshots on the website.

We also did an animation for Dennis Johnson, our representative. We worked on it for 4 full days, Reggie and I. We worked with cutouts of celebrities, which is as close as we've ever been to working with real celebrities. Crazy times. Check out the Vimeo page on our website to see it. www.smithpixels.com

I'm pleased with the amount of work we're putting out, and I do see us growing leaps and bounds in the quality of our work since last year. It seems like just now I'm starting to be proud of our work, whereas before I was almost embarrassed to show it to anyone not friends or family. I hope to see even more improvement when we start shooting with Abby's new 5D Mark II, or the Scarlet, when it comes out. Here's hoping.

Pragmatic Idealist

2009-06-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

I finally decided that I need to get my butt in gear and update this blog.

If you haven't already, watch this video:

Josh McCullock 2009Promo from Andrew PC Smith on Vimeo.

One of these days I'm going to take people through the process of getting amazing color. Then you'll see, you'll see!

It would be ideal if this blog updated itself once a week, but it would likely be cluttered with junk and frankly, a lot of words from it's sponsor that nobody really cares about. Like about how in the last couple weeks I finished a dance video and a turkey banquet and a promo video and this week is looking a little grim. But nay, that would be tiresome to read about. Much less write about. ;)

Much love. K, thx bai.
-Andrew

Vacation. In so many words.

2009-03-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

"I feel like I've been on vacation, but I don't know where and it wasn't any fun..." - My grandma, after spending a week in the hospital upon the first day of being back home.

It's been a long month. It feels like I've been on vacation and it was a lot of fun, my brother, sister and I went to WPPI in Vegas. WPPI is a worldwide wedding and portrait photographer's conference and it was really fun to meet and share ideas with other creative minds there. Along with seeing so much talent and people putting themselves to good use. We stayed in the Motel 6 across from the MGM Grand with a friend Jacob Preedin.

At the end of last month my brother and I shot a highlight video for a robotics competition in OKC for FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. Acrostics seem on par with puns, both are often of the Dark Side. Anyway, it was fun, there were some awkward interviews, as my friend said, "It seems like those are the first words they've spoken in months." It's true, if you have the gift of gab and gizmo brainology then more power to ya. It reminds me of a illustration Dane Sanders used in his workshop at WPPI:

Portrait of Albert Einstein with Other Noted Scientists

Dane asked the audience, "Who do you recognize in this picture?" of course the answer was, "Einstein!"
Then he explained that Einstein was a leader in his field and the other guys, though also very smart were just "Props" in the picture. He was saying that if you aren't going to be a innovator in your career then you should keep it as a hobby so you can be happier and more fulfilled. (Oh, and wild, crazy hair is a sure way to establish your personal branding.)

That's all folks! If you want to see some of the work we've been putting it up on vimeo.com/smithpixels and be sure to leave some comment love either here or there. =)

God bless us, everyone!
-Andrew... and some other guy.

Something Beautiful

2009-02-05T12:54:00.000-08:00

Ever work on something for so long you doubt if you'll ever get finished with it?

Well I've felt like that on this new logo my brother Adam and I designed. It's so ready to be out. We travailed over it for months and you start to wonder why it doesn't just 'click' for you like you think it does for other professionals. It'd be so much easier to make the 50th design first, wouldn't it? Sometimes I get caught up in the Magic of other people's work, but in reality, they might have just had a little more perseverance than I do.

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity. — Lou Holtz

Every person has the battle of speed over quality and I'm thankful that this was a personal project so we were able to spend a little more time on it. But sometimes it's the personal marketing that you must be a warrior to deal with. It's easy to try and justify inner-compromise because, "Well, it's just for me, so it's not that important." Au contraire, my friends, this crux will help divulge deep, personal thoughts about your work, whether it has turned into drudgery or if it's still your passion. This is the resumé of your soul.

Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

It brings me great joy to have this logo done, and to have confidence that I'm doing what I love. =)

Overdue Update

2008-12-23T10:33:00.001-08:00

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.

The color of infinity fits inside an empty glass.

2008-09-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

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.

Man Vs. What??

2008-08-26T18:28:00.001-07:00

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

Top Ten Reasons To Procrastinate

2008-08-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

Charisma

2008-08-02T20:31:00.001-07:00

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.

A question for my readers

2008-07-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

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)

A friendly reminder

2008-06-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

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..

AIM dialog.

2008-06-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

"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

"Special" Superheroes.

2008-06-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

Crazy go nuts!

2008-06-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

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?

Velvet Elvis

2008-05-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

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?

I want to ride my bicycle...

2008-05-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

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.

Hotshot filmmaker

2008-04-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

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.

Anyway, not one to be easily discouraged, we started filming today. Also the 16 hours of footage from the STL conference started importing today after a major data rearrangement and a new hard drive put in. *Sigh* You don't know the relief that comes with knowing your data is safe and FAST. (Thank you Lord.)

I love my HV20 and my Dell monitor.

I wish I could invent some sort of anti-gravity thing to help with toting all my stuff around. Of course, if I invented that, I probably wouldn't be toting it around would I? ;]

Tomorrow, big video meeting with a huge oil company called Hydra Rig. It's amazing how when you really, really throw yourself at a task, God sometimes just opens the floodgates all at once.

It also helps to be the only game in town who knows how to edit ruthlessly... =)

Spread The Love

2008-04-25T12:22:00.000-07:00

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

I'm in the lovely city of Chicago, with some very lovely photographers, Sarah, Shyla, and though they left this morning, Justin & Mary.

We just finished up an incredible workshop appropriately dubbed, Spread The Love. It was a session for other photographers who wanted to learn more about client interaction, and covered everything from business to posing. It was a little dose of awesome.

(When I get home I have to watch 16 hours of footage. 16 is not a small number.)

There is one thing I can't wait to have while in this famed region, of course I'm speaking of none other than the legendary Chicago deep dish pizza!!! Woo HOo!

Here goes nothing

2008-04-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

AHHHHHH!!! mY blog is destitute. It needs a post like I needed a desk. Alas, I HAASS one now.

Annnnd... nothing's pretty much what this was. But now everyone knows that I now have a desk and a nose.

I really do have things to post about, just give me time, my friends. Until next time, Cheers.

PS My new macpro is a beaut, ain't she? ;] But whatever you think about her, she's a total babe with 16 gigs of ram and 8-cores it really turns me owww-oon!!! J>K. Can't wait till I get a flatscreen!

Academic Inflation

2008-03-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

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

School = learning; Not a big party.

2008-03-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

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.)

On my way to Colorado

2008-03-06T16:35:00.000-08:00

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. ;-)

Bear False Witness

2008-03-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

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. =)

Modern Parable

2008-02-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

So the exciting conclusion is this video.

I know, eX-Ci-Ting...

Should you judge a book by it's cover?

2008-02-20T17:51:00.000-08:00

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.

I had a friend once, who only read books with a picture of a dragon on the front. It had to do something with either hearing Puff the Magic Dragon as a small child, or reading a children's storybook about dragons as an adult. (Perhaps I would be amiss to use the term adult.) Anyway, we came up with an ingenious method of getting him to read the books he needed to by taping a picture of Trogdor to the cover of said books. Worked like a charm.

What's your favorite book? Why? Is it about Hobbits? Do I need to come to your house and tape a picture of cute, little Hobbits on books you need to read?!?

It's fascinating what some people are interested in. Even more so when you find a way to connect to others in ways that make sense to them. The human mind is so good at remembering great stories, especially one relates to one or more of the characters in the story. Jesus knew that, which is why he told so many parables... Tune in next time to hear the exciting conclusion!

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.

A little ditty.

2008-02-19T07:15:00.000-08:00

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

2-D. 3-D. Truth.

2008-02-16T17:17:00.001-08:00

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.

Everything you always wanted to know!

2008-02-14T16:13:00.000-08:00

So I was out washing windows today and I wore this shirt:

From Threadless, a really awesome t-shirt company.

Which pretty much sums up this blog post and my love life.

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

Seek not to find who you are, but determine who you want to become.

2008-02-12T20:33:00.000-08:00

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.

Cheers.

In The Spirit Of Valentines

2008-02-09T18:49:00.000-08:00

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?

Obama vs. Yo Momma

2008-02-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

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.

Here goes nothing

2008-02-04T19:16:00.000-08:00

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.

Thinking inside the box.

2008-02-01T20:33:00.000-08:00

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 all had worked so beautifully before! I glanced at all my options. Window, soda, flowers. After I got done screaming out the window, drowning my sorrows with Coke, I figured the flowers were the only thing I hadn't tried.. so I took a bite, they were a little tough so instead I sniffed them. They smelled like plastic. And they were. So much for trying everything.

Later on this evening, I was reading this passage in Matthew 25. It's that parable about the talents. You know, every servant was given a certain number of talents. It was an investment by the Master, and He expected a return on them.
It was convicting, that sometimes I don't live up to the talents given to me. It's easy to give a cheap cop out and throw on some false humility and say I don't have any talents. Several people in the bible tried that.. Moses, Jeremiah, Timothy, ect.

I'm so grateful that God doesn't say, "There's no logical explanation why these humans aren't working." Jesus Christ didn't die on the cross to get us to get us into a boring box of religion, confined to a bunch of rules and filled with other christians just waiting to get to get off this lousy planet waiting get to heaven like so many containers stuffed with cheap stuff from Shanghai going to Wal-Mart stores everywhere. (btw, my brother is there right now. You should pray for him please. No, not in Wal-Mart. In China... silly.)

This all fits in as a part of my whole theory that life is supposed to be EPIC. But you have to wade through the mundane, character building, boring life to get there. We have to be faithful in small things over a long period of time. Our influence goes as far as our character is going deep, but not as fast as our talent goes wide.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Luke 16:10-12 Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

Quote of the day: Security is worthless if you have to sacrifice growth to get it.

Have a great weekend everybody,
~Andrew

On hearing God's voice.

2008-01-29T13:14:00.000-08:00

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!

A time for some reflection.

2008-01-25T17:01:00.001-08:00

You may recall a couple weeks ago my sister and I went to visit Sarah Barlow in Chicago. If you don't just scroll down a few posts, you'll find it. (She's only in every other post since I started this blog LOL>) In any case, here's a video of one of our photoshoots. Which, in my humble opinion, turned out pretty durn cool. So please watch, enjoy, comment, & leave some love.

Chao.

Photography in Chicago from Andrew PC Smith.

You may have heard...

2008-01-22T11:38:00.000-08:00

I was on my way to Florida once... My uncle Tony and I, we had nothing but a '85 Volvo and our dreams and aspirations of going to our friend Elisha's wedding. This is the true story. I filmed an hour and edited enough to get the gold out. There were many, many other interesting things that transpired during this trip, but guess what? I don't want to talk about it.

It still gets me right here. Ow.

If there's anything I learned from this trip, it was that Romans 8:28 is still very true and applicable. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Sure we didn't make it to Florida, but we got to spend a couple days chillin' with Nathan, my very good friend I went to Honduras with.

It's undoubtedly one of the best promises in the bible. I've heard it said that this verse in the basis for true optimism. You've probably heard a negative comment about your situation, say, that time you were 12 and pessimists often say, "I'm just being realistic."

I say, that if you live only by what you can see you have a very dangerous outlook on life. It takes vision and faith to live a God-honoring life... Which reminds me, do yourself a huge favor, and surf over to Amazon and buy a copy of The Principles and Power of Vision. It just might change your life. I'd say a good 89% chance anyway. Props to Sarah Barlow. Yay!

D-Now 08

2008-01-19T01:08:00.000-08:00

A video I helped with, there was one for each age group. Quite fun indeed. Yes, yes.

Question

2008-01-14T21:24:00.000-08:00

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

a) tell her you don't dance.

b) tell her that dancing isn't for everyone, and by everyone I mean me.

c) go for it just for bragging rights to say you did the polka once.

d) lie and say, "Music goes in my ears and comes out my feet baby."

e) ??? _________ ???

RSVP

New Blog Look

2008-01-10T19:22:00.000-08:00

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.

Ahem... so I let Captain Obvious write the first couple sentences for this post. He may not be as tall as I am, but he's about as transparent as you can get. I don't care what people say about him he's still a great friend.

I'd like to talk about my ambitions for this year, and how they pertain to this new blog... I have been considering blogging more, as my Xanga is now RIP.

In reality, we broke up... or rather, just grew apart. Relationships are the same way. If you don't spend time with someone, you eventually get so out of touch with their life that you don't even know that person anymore.

The same thing is true with blogs as well as God. Let me explain.

God created us to love Him, and to be in relationship with Him. We can't really love God if we don't know Him, and the only way to know Him is though His word. You can't love God anymore than you love his His word. You certainly can't obey Him more than you obey His word.

His word is alive and tells us who He really is. Lots of us are in love with the idea or concept of God. We as christians, have been ingrained with the notion, (and rightly so) that we ought to love Him so we attempt to conjure up that "love feeling" on our own, then get distressed because the feeling fades and we can no longer feel God's love, or our love for Him.

The reason we can't feel it, however, is because we don't take the time to get to know Him. We don't know Him until we read his word. It's similar to being in love with the idea of being in love with someone, talking about it, then not really taking time to get to know the person that we think we're in love with. We need to read, know and meditate on God's word in order to live and to love. It's tough. It will help me get closer to God this year. It will help me live an original life.

I've noticed. That when I write. I speak in more complete sentences and I are sound more american. Okay, really though.

The purpose of this blog is not to act stupid online, (I do that enough in RL) but rather to share what I hope will be some useful, interesting and occasionally humorous information.

Things I do not want my blog to become:

Cheesy, trite, or cliche one-liners.

A monotonous personal diary, updated hourly regardless of the triviality of new events. i.e.

1/1/08 Stayed up till after 12.
1-1/2-08 Woke up to post here.
1/2/08 Slept in late.

What this blog is about:

At the same time, I wish to journal things that I have done so that when '09 rolls around, I'll look back and say, "Wow, look at all that happened this year. I couldn't have done better myself."

I want to script out my life so I can plan for a better future. As a man thinks in his heart, so he becomes.

Your input and encouragement as a fellow internet neighbor, is highly prized by yours truly.

It must be kind of random and zany. Occasionally bombastic. Like me. =D

I want to commit this blog to the will of my heavenly father.

Peace, to all my people... All 2 of you.

Back in OK

2008-01-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

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.

Call it ironic, sarcastic, or cynical, but you've got to hand it to the guy who names an airport after a guy who died in a plane crash. lol. We ate lunch with my dad and *Uncle Tony at my favorite restaurant, On The Border.

We spent the evening telling tales of our travels and getting my brother packed for his trip to China. We have D-Now, a purity conference at the church tomorrow, and I'm cameraman. We're also having an "80's night" so that should be fairly stellar.

I think Trademark by Relient K is my theme song.

*not my real uncle (long story)

Chicago is rad

2008-01-07T21:02:00.000-08:00

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.

Andrewoutgrewyou. It's simple, it rhymes, and it's my new claim to fame.

So aside from my new blog, (which I'm planning to update frequently) I'm in Chicago with Sarah Barlow, an amazing photographer and my sister Abigail, who is also a photographer.

Pictures to come, and to all a goodnight!

/edit for picture

~Andrew