New Movie Short "The Lost Race" 5 minutes well spent!

As Christians, we often refer to our "Christian Walk."
I personally think it shouldn't be a walk. It should be a race.

Hear me out...

If you, as a Christian, are in a race, who are you racing against?
That's simple.  Satan.

If you are in a race, what or who are you racing towards?
Some people say Heaven, and other people say Jesus.

Well, if you're a Christian, you already have Jesus, and I don't think you're really racing towards Heaven (that's just a missed heartbeat away.)

I think we're racing towards "the lost..."

With that in mind, I present to you my new short film "The Lost Race."

70 mph on a bicycle! Nuts!

This one is just for fun...  Hope you enjoy!

The World Needs More of This

I didn't have an "ideal" upbringing.  I could whine and whine about all the things that happened to me growing up, but, to be honest, I find that annoying.  I'm a grown man.  Whatever did or did not happen in my youth is the past.  I see no reason to dwell on it.  I'm doing my best to make sure I'm not part of a repeating cycle.  That's the end of discussing my past.

Unfortunately, failing to whine about your past is not the cool thing to do.  Instead, it would seem that society celebrates the victim.  You're just not cool unless you have some tragic back story that either excuses all of your failings or further underscores your accomplishments.  I don't mean to dismiss or discount any tragedy anyone has suffered, but I have heard these tales of woe so frequently and with such practiced faux emotion that I have genuinely lost interest.

Call me crass.  I'm okay with that.

What I would rather hear about is how awesome someone's childhood was.  I would just LOVE to hear people tell me how their parents were wonderful, are still married, gave them a good upbringing and are basically incredibly fabulous people.  I know these people are out there, but society doesn't celebrate them nor their parents.

That's sad.

So, when I do stumble across people uplifting good instead of evil, I celebrate it.

If you're like me and would love to hear more wholesomeness, here's a treat...
One of the first videos Taylor Swift uploaded to Vevo was this:

A few days ago, a madman went on a stabbing spree at a school in Texas.  With our nation's lax attitude toward knife control, he had no problem obtaining his deadly weapon.

I'm proposing that Congress immediately pass sweeping legislation to have every knife in the nation registered.  I'm proposing that they require a full background check before any knife can be sold.

My end-goal is to have a complete knife band in place by 2018.

By typing your name in the comments section with any comment, you are adding your voice to this petition to have knives registered, new purchases subject to background checks and the goal to have all knives confiscated by 2018.

Chinese anyone?

I uploaded a new educational video, but I imagine it'll be more popular in China than it will be here.  I was looking at the Analytics page for my Youtube account and noticed that for the most basic videos, the majority of non-US views are coming from China.  So, I looked up the Chinese symbols for the numbers to 30 and added them to the updated Counting to Thirty video.  Hopefully, I can get a bump in viewership.  That'd be nice!

If you're bored or curious as to what Chinese numbers look like, here's the video.  Chinese numbers work similarly to Roman Numerals.  Numbers aren't held in "place value" like they are in Western languages.  If you're clever, you'll note the pattern pretty quickly.

Cheers! 

Two New Videos!

I have two new and completely unrelated videos up on my Youtube Channel.  The first was done just to amuse myself and friends.  I live in Georgia in the United States.  During this time of year, the pollen from the pine trees gets pretty bad.  How bad?  Check out the video for a little demonstration.

The second video is a remake of my very popular "Counting To Thirty" video that has close to a million views.  That video was made several years ago and, as a result, it looks kinda' bad by today's standards.  I have also learned a little about how to make a good video.  For example, in the original, the audio for each number is a separate track.  I have learned that by making the audio one track throughout, it sounds MUCH better!

Hope you enjoy, and, as always, feel free to comment here or on Youtube, subscribe and give the videos a thumbs up!  Thanks!

New Video! Creepy Barbecue Pit at Stone Mountain Park in Georgia!

If you've been following me on here or on Youtube for any time, you've figured out that I have a pretty wide range of video types that I share.  This one is pretty simple and goes along with my ghost videos, I suppose.  Take a look-see and tell me what you think.

This video did give me the idea to make some videos about the parks here in Gwinnett County (where Stone Mountain Park is.)  Several years ago, voters passed a SPLOST for parks development, and it keeps getting re-upped when the SPLOST expires.  So, we actually have quite a few very nice parks.  I'll be making and uploading those over the next few months as things warm up and the blooming explosions begin.

I'm also planning on making a video quasi-documenting that enormous "Century Ride" I rambled on about in my earlier post.

Feel free to share suggestions for videos in the comments.

You're Crazy If You're Really Going to Ride 100 Miles in One Day?!?!

That's what I think some friends might be thinking when I tell them about my plans to ride the entire lengths of the Silver Comet Trail and the Chief Ladiga Trails in one day.  My friend Eric is going with me (I actually think this was his idea,) so I won't be alone.  Neither of us have ridden 100 miles in one day before, but we did manage 45 miles in 5 hrs 26 minutes last October.  We're both trying to train for the trip, but with work and kids, it's a challenge to get the time.  Eric's family is also planning a move in a couple of months, so spending several hours riding a bike isn't going to win him any love at home.  

So, for now, we're doing the training thing and researching.  I think I have a pretty good idea of what I need as far as gear and supplies go.  I purchased a rack & panniers for the bike.  I bought riding gloves a few months ago and finally got some shorts with pads in the butt.  I thought I'd hate them, but they do make a considerable difference.  I may replace my saddle, but don't think that's really necessary.  Mine is old, worn and cracked, but still quite comfy, so I'll probably keep the one I have.  The fact that I think most saddles are insanely overpriced is a big part of my reluctance to replace the one I have.

We both already have decent bikes.  Mine is a 2012 Windsor Wellington 2.0, and his is a Diamondback Interval from the late 90s.  Both are in pretty good shape. I'd dare say the bikes are in better shape than we are.  

A few years ago Eric was, according to his own self-description, huge.  While reading on the Internet, he stumbled across someone's rather moving account of running and finishing a marathon.  This struck a chord with him, and he told his wife that he wanted to do that.  While most wives of "huge" men might laugh, his gracious wife simply encouraged and supported him.  Awesome!  Now, he runs marathons on a regular basis along with any other race he can track down.  So, he's in pretty darn good cardiovascular condition.  He's probably in better shape than I am even though he still outweighs me by about 40 lbs.  I KNOW he can outrun me by a very long shot.  We're well matched on bikes, though.

I never really stopped riding bikes from when I was a kid.  When I bought my first car, I quickly realized that riding my bike to work was much cheaper, and I loved riding about as much as I loved driving (that's saying something about a 16 year old!)  I went back and forth between mountain bikes and road bikes, but have been exclusively on road bikes since my mid 20s.  I did take a break from riding when my 2nd son was born.  There was simply not enough time to devote to riding, anymore.  So, my vintage Schwinn all steel downtube shifter racer sat for about three years.

In 2011, I "blew out" my left knee.  By that, I mean I tore all but one of the tendons in my knee, bruised the bones, and shredded my cartilage.  I got a little fatter, the muscles in my legs disappeared, and I generally felt horrible.  It took a full year to completely heel from the accident and surgery.

Being inspired by watching Eric very visibly drop huge amounts of weight in a pretty short amount of time got my ever-widening butt back on my bike as soon as my knee was healed.  Last July, I discovered rust HOLES in the frame of my bike, a bike I dearly loved, so I replaced it with the Windsor (you can read more about that in an earlier post.)  It's a slightly heavier bike, but with completely modern components, and it actually fits me (something I couldn't say of the Schwinn.

Since January of last year, I've dropped over 30lbs.  I'm down to around 185 or so, the lowest I've weighed since about 2001. So, I'm in pretty decent shape for a 38 year old dude.  I put in 38 miles on the bike last week, and am hoping to repeat that feat and then some this week.  I found a wonderful trail in Suwanee that is probably very similar to the Silver Comet, so I'll be putting in as much time there as possible before our "Century Ride."


Here's a pic of my "rig" with the panniers, rack, top tube bag, handlebar bottle holder etc...

Wish us luck!

Not Exactly a Home Repair Video...

It's been a while since I've put anything up, hasn't it?  Forgive me!  Winter is rather busy for me.  Work gets insanely hectic, we have tons of obligations at church (which we love,) and then there's the usual holiday crunch.  Work has finally slowed down to the point that I can breathe, so I have begun to get back to my normal pace.  With that came a slight remodeling of our master bathroom.  It's still not finished, but I did manage to replace the shower.

It's funny.  We didn't start with a plan to remodel it, but to only replace a dripping shower faucet.  At first, I attempted to just replace the worn out washer in the faucet, but in doing so found the manifold of the faucet was actually cracked.  So, I had to replace that...   The shower is an enormous single piece fiberglass unit, so replacing the manifold BEHIND it was a huge task.  At first, I attempted multiple times to do so through a hole cut into the fiberglass.  I'd bought a decorative piece to cover the hole when I'd finished.  Alas, I simply couldn't do the plumbing through that hole...  the only solution would be to remove the single piece shower and replace it.  If I was going to do that, I may as well do the whole bathroom!

I had it in mind to do a "home repair" video like I've done in the past, but just didn't have the patience.  So, I put together a slightly different kind of video...  It's only a minute long, so I hope you enjoy!