All star track star; reactions

A lot of times in life the reaction to something odd, interesting, gripping, or even boring is better than the actual thing that is being reacted to. There are a ton of videos on the internet that have become viral that are reactions to something else. Pictures can be made better when people’s reactions are caught. Just look around and you’ll notice it–reaction is key.

These pictures are pretty old, but they contain some good memories. And reactions. :)

Read the rest of this entry »

Bye bye beard. And hair. (+ soccer)

It’s gone–1, 2, 3, 4, 5. ;) As is the tradition–with summer comes less hair. Now…the hair!

Before and after the haircut. :) (

~ Jon

Sex… and God.

No, it’s actually the other way around.

I recently listened to a sermon/lecture by Matt Chandler entitled “God and Sex.”  It really hit home to me and in turn, I feel like I need to pass it on.  However, I have some things that I want to say first:

• This is not a casual listen, it’s extremely blunt.
• This isn’t your muzing section.  This isn’t a feel-good message.  This is serious, down to earth stuff.
• I would recommend you listen to this when you’re in the right mindset to take stuff in.
• This kinda goes with the previous point, but  this recording is about two hours long, so be aware of that too.
• I would recommend not listening to it with someone you aren’t completely comfortable with.
• Different guy and girl… functions are mentioned without hesitation, if that’s a problem–it’s blunt.
• The rest of the disclaimer at the beginning of the recording, and you can also read Mitchell’s disclaimer.

so, here it is:

• God and Sex, by Matt Chandler.

I wouldn’t consider this a guy-only talk, but I hope that it isn’t offensive to anyone.  There’s a whole lot of good stuff in it, and here’s one of my favorite parts.  It got a big amen from me.  :)

Matt Chandler in God and Sex: (this is 1hr:11mins in)

I think that a lot of the problems of dating in evangelical circles is the girls.  I’ll tell you what I’m talking about; you guys will tolerate some flirty idiot, flirting and romancing you without serious pursuing you.  And I promise you, you hold the ace of spaces of maturity for some of these idiots.  Where you would go, “Quit flirting with me and grow up.” I promise you,  they will lay in bed that night and go, “ughhh, I need to grow up.” But because you put up with it and let it feed your insecurities, it just perpetuates it.  And so you keep getting your heart broke, you keep getting your heart broke, you keep getting your heart broke because you’re not willing to tell a man–a little boy, really–”I tell you what, I think you’re cute.  You make me laugh.  If you would act your age and grow up, we might be able to talk, but as for now, you need to get out of my face.”

…until then, when they can get away with [everything], there’s no one pressing on them, except me–and all I do is stand up here and call them idiots.

I sure hope I’m not ever being that guy aka being hypocritical.  Thanks to Mitchell Carter for posting this first.  I hope that I didn’t offend anyone by posting it, unless it’s in a good, life-changing way.  ;-) God bless,

~ Jon

Pro-photo-grapher

A professional is someone that makes money for what they do…or something like that.

I would suggest staying away from calling yourself a professional in the photography world, as it could bring on a mindset that you are good enough, not requiring anymore learning or critique.  This is not a fact–but a mere thought into the situation.  I would not be ashamed to call myself a pro if I made my way from taking pictures, I’d just make sure to always learn and be open for improvement–not doing this is a good business model for failure.

So why all the pro talk?  I have officially been accepted as a Harding school photographer for the bison and the yearbook.  I’m definitely not about to start calling myself a pro (I haven’t been impressed by my own photography in a long time), but this is the first time that I’ll ever be paid to take pictures on a consistent basis–so that’s a step.

I’m excited for the challenge.  My goal for the year as a school photographer is to improve my eye for photography, come up with some creative portraiture, improve my lighting style, get thinking more outside the box, tell stories, and generally create some ‘stunna’ photographs.  ;)

This will probably also get me much more involved with campus events.  I already have been fairly involved with campus activities, but in the past I have been very choosy about doing things if they don’t sound awesome.  Now, I’ll probably be going to pretty much everything.  Hurray!

We’ll see where all this takes me…in the Fall.  :)  Tootles,

~ Jon

2119 days ago, in a land far away…comments

I have memories – but only a fool stores his past in the future.  ~David Gerrold

2119 days ago, in a land far away, lived a very, very sad dragon.

Scratch that.

2119 days ago, in a land not so far away, a person with a name very similar to mine started a blog.  Ever since then, he’s been able to express his inner nerd to the non-caring internet audience.

That was me, and that was xanga.  Tonight I backed up my old xanga.  My first post was on Saturday, January 08, 2005 at 9:11 PM.  My last post was on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 10:46 PM.  Over this amount of time, I posted 91 blog posts and received 935 comments.  935 comments!  That’s crazy!  In the beginning, I probably averaged about 15 comments per post, but towards the end, people commented less and brought the average down to about 10.5 per post.

My new blog has 120 posts and 54 comments.  ;)  That’s about two really good (maybe borderline spammy) commented blog posts from the olden days.

So, what is one to conclude from these series of statistics?

• My cult following has decreased significantly.
• I’m becoming less and less cool as the years go by.
• I’m losing friends at a fast, rapid rate.
• People don’t read blogs anymore.
• People don’t comment on blogs anymore. (do we all just skim a lot more nowadays and pretend that we’re busy?)
• I used to be popular, maybe.
• I’m getting worse in my writing skills as I get older. (I’d like to beg to differ reading some of my old posts, but who am I to do so? the stats speak for themselves. ;))
• Or… something else?

Maybe there’s a lesson to be learned here.  Popularity is something that I never want to pursue.  If I follow the path that God leads me, then it doesn’t matter if I’m a big name guy or an obscure no-name.  God’s ways are so much better.  Every time.

Thanks everyone for reading!  Even if you never comment.  ;-)

~ Jon

We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone seems to think yesterday was better than today.  I don’t think it was, and I would advise you not to wait ten years before admitting today was great.  If you’re hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is yesterday and just go out and have one heck of a time.  ~Art Buchwald