A SpotsBug’s World

interesting creation

I found this cool music video of a song Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie. I like the song, but the video is really what intrigued me. I looked up a little about this fascinating 3 minutes and 36 seconds and here is what I found out…

Fun Facts:

• The video was shot all stills -- roughly 3225 still photos for the entire video, using one camera, hanging from the ceiling for the main body of the movie.
• It took 4 weeks before shooting to create an animated computer generated storyboard for the video, with 3d dummies for the characters.
• It took only 2 days of shooting for the live actors on set to re-create the 3.5 minutes computer sequence, frame by frame.

Enjoy!

a presidential birthday and snow

Tuesday was my mother’s 59th birthday! She’s probably hating that I’m sharing this information with you but I feel it is worth mentioning. So yes, she is now staring down the barrel at 60 which I’m sure for her is coming faster than she cares for it to.

But for now she is settling into being 59. Yes, I repeated her age again… she’s probably going to kill me, this may be my last post ever…

Anyway, aside from sharing some time with me for dinner, she received two special birthday presents, one from Mother Nature and one from our country.

The first was our minor snow event that for a few hours covered the ground in a perfect, glowing blanket of white and the roads in a slick, glassy sheet of ice. It was enough to close down schools, daycares, and government buildings. Though she eventually went into work that afternoon, she was able to have a little bit more of a leisurely morning than usual and so I assume that having that was a nice gift.

The second, and probably not as good (in my opinion), was a new president. President Barack Obama was sworn in at 12:04 pm on my mother’s birthday. And while I know she is just thrilled about that (not) I figure it was worth mentioning.

I tend to be a cynical thinker when it comes to politics. Whether a politician is Republican, Democrat, Independent, Green, or Libertarian, or whether they are black, white, Hisplanic, Asian or any other ethnicity, it really doesn’t make any difference to me. Honestly, no matter who they are I feel like you can only believe half of what any of them say anyway.

I will pray for President Obama as I have for our past presidents and I truly hope that he can make the differences he has promised. But the cynical side of me tends to think that the celebration, joy, and unity will be short lived and that disappointment and frustration will soon find us again. Once he starts actually making tough decisions and having to follow through on them, the American public will turn on him just as we have before in previous administrations. I may be wrong and I hope I am, but I’ll have to wait and see.

I got a little sidetracked… back to my mother’s 59th birthday… oops, I mentioned the age thing again… despite that some of our plans were derailed due to the weather and will have to take place another day, I think she had a good day. I hope so. She deserves it. Happy Birthday again Mom! I love you!

completing the soul

Lately I’ve been struggling with the fact that too many of my favorite hobbies have fallen by the wayside due to a crammed schedule full of busy work days, neverending laundry/home maintenance, adult responsibilities, and other obligations that come with just simply being a member of the human race.

On the rare occassion that I do come upon a spare moment I usually react like a piranha does to the opportunity for fresh meat, quickly devouring every second of the time with endless errands, social activities and the like until there is nothing left.  And then, after all that, it turns out my spare moment was not a spare moment at all.   

Yes, sadly it’s been quite some time since I’ve had the sheer joy of spending time with my equine friends.  Horses used to be my passion.  So much of my character was shaped by the long, hard, work-filled days of my youth when I spent most of my summer and weekends throughout the year toiling away at the local horse stable.  Teaching riding lessons, caring for the horses, and of course, riding for myself were some of the best times of my life.  It didn’t matter what job I was assigned, I was in the presence of the most intriguing and graceful animals ever created.  I was in the presence of greatness and that was enough.

One of my other passions of yesteryear that also seems to have been lost in the trail of dust over the last decade is playing the piano.  I used to sit at a piano and play for hours just because I felt like the notes lived within me and were anxiously awaiting the magical moment when heart, mind, soul and instrument joined together to create something beautiful and memorable.  As I recall, I didn’t care for practicing too much but the music always came from somewhere deep inside me as I poured all that I had into a piece from Mozart, or Tchaikovsky, or even the latest film score that had impressed me.  The simple pleasure that came from hours upon hours spent tickling the ivories is something that I have always cherished.

Over the years I have also picked up some new interests.  Activities like photography and web development have appealed to my creative side.  And, as is obvious, writing has become an integral part of my life and my ability to express my experiences, opinions, beliefs, and any other random thoughts that cross my mind.

I think over the past several years I really have overlooked the need I have, the need my soul has, to enjoy these things.  These hobbies and interests that I’ve mentioned here and others that I have not focused on but are no less important, contribute so much to the quality of my life.  They have all spoken to some aspect of my being and awakened an urgency to appreciate all the greatness this life has to offer.

So my hope is to regain some of what I’ve lost along the way.  To start allowing more time for the simple enjoyment of learning a new piece of music or taking a long horseback ride through the mountains.  To discover and capture the world and all its nuances through my camera lens.  To challenge myself by developing and designing interesting applications for the web. And to continue to hone my writing skills so I can better record and express my thoughts and ideas.  Only then can I begin to completely enjoy the wonderful life God has so generously bestowed on me.  Only then can I begin to complete my soul.