Coldplay does it again!

The first part of this post was written a week before the release of the new Coldplay album. I opted to wait to post till the album officially dropped.

Okay, so I got my hands on a pre-release copy of Coldplay’s newest album “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.” It’s perfection in a speaker. Now for those of you who are wondering about how I got it a full 7 days before release, I’m not going to tell you. Except to point out that I have already pre-ordered the album from iTunes and will be also purchasing a hard copy.

Written Today – 6.17.08

Back to the album, the foursome have put out a superb effort once again. After the huge success of X&Y, the expectations were pretty high. Coldplay has a way of putting together an album in such a way as to take you on an emotional roller coaster. They are masters of manipulating your emotions in time with the music.

In particular, the track “42″ is a great example of how, within one song, a listener can ride along with the band as they reach rafter level anthemic rock and take it back down to a ballader’s pace.

The only criticism I have of this album is that it doesn’t seem to be as bold as X&Y. They’ve taken a step back from their previous offering and reinvented how they deliver their musical vision. But that is a very small criticism of an otherwise great album.

Flickr UnUsed

So, I was looking around today on Flickr and noticed that it had been a long time since I posted any of my pictures. I have taken a lot since the last time I posted, I just have been lazy about the post-processing and uploading. I’m going to remedy that tonight. I’m gonna post a bunch of pictures….maybe…haha.

But really, when I’m paying $25 a year to have a “pro” account, I’d probably be better off actually using the service.

Indy is like a Fine Wine

At approximately 19:20 CST May 22, 2008, the lights dimmed in Warren Theatres in Moore, OK. The curtain was raised and the beautiful Lucasfilm Ltd logo came on screen. Now, the previous three times I saw this logo on screen, my mind was filled with what can only be described as apprehension. But, tonight it was excitement. The reason, Steven Spielberg. His direction was what Lucas was missing in the movies-that-won’t-be-named. Steven did not disappoint.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is most definitely an “Indiana Jones” movie. Now, to some, that distinction means nothing. To those same people, the simple fact that it was titled as such, qualifies. To those that truly understand and loved our previous three trips back to a time when a simple bull-whip could do so much damage, the distinction is important. I, of course, am not going to spoil any parts of the movie. I’m a better movie fan than that. However, I will say that the story and the acting are just as good as they were when Indy was a few years younger.

Harrison Ford, while looking the part of the older character, certainly had the physical chops to pull off this movie. I’m pretty sure he didn’t do quite as many of his own stunts has he had in the past, but he carries this movie on his back with the strength of Sallah. He has aged extremely well, and has not lost a step in the 19 years since he donned the ubiquitous fedora.

Shia LaBeouf has a good turn as the ironically named Mutt Williams. Supposedly, Lucas has ideas to take the story on using Mutt as the primary character and have Indy play a smaller role. After this performance, I think he could pull it off if the story is right. We’ve seen too many movies series’ go past their prime because someone wanted the story to keep going. Hopefully this won’t be the case. It has a good shot, as long as Lucas remains an Exec Producer and co-writer, and not step behind the lens again. He is far better a producer than he ever was a director.

Overall, it was a quality movie. Of course, it had the requisite references to the past movies, but they were done tastefully and weren’t overdone. I’ll be seeing this again in the theater and will of course be buying it to add to the collection.

Pretty Much Dumb

So, I’m dumbfounded how I can never really get a blog going. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, it’s more that I feel like no one is listening. And they really aren’t. But it’s a double edged sword because if I don’t write, then no one will read and if no one reads, then I won’t feel like I need to write.

I find myself reading lots of blogs everyday, but they always skew towards technology, design and the like. I really would love to find a blog where someone is just writing. Maybe it doesn’t actually mean much to most people, they just write. 

I think that’s what I’m going to focus on from now on. I’m just going to write about what I’m feeling rather than worrying about what would be most popular to read. Because honesty in your writing is the most important thing. If you aren’t honest with yourself, you can’t really ever be truly honest with anyone.

So this will be a starting point for a true blog, not tech news, design musings, but whatever I’m honestly feeling or thinking about. If you want to stick around, I would love to have you. Talk back to me and let me know what’s going on in your world.

Photoshopping is fun

I’ve been working all day on improving some Photoshop design skills. I was already pretty good at working with photos, I’ve been doing that for years. But I was never completely confident in my abilities as a designer using photoshop. The header of this page is going to be one of many that I will be trying out over the next few weeks as I decide exactly how to best use this blog. I’m probably going to use it to comment on tech news, but also to display what I’m able to do with design work. Maybe even try to pick up some freelance logo design or page design work. We’ll see.

But for now, it’s just a simple blog for experimenting. Let me know what you think and don’t be shy.

Just here

I’m here at Journey Church in Norman, OK working the video production end of the whole affair. It’s actually pretty interesting.