Look Up “Wasted Effort” in the Dictionary…

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…and you’ll see a video I created that took over an hour to render on my overclocked 2.8 Ghz Quad Core machine, at the end of which I noticed the mis-spelling of the word “Premium”. Time to re-render. Sure makes me wish Adobe Premiere Elements 7 had a spell-checker!

Terrible Terry Tate: Office Linebacker

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Don’t ask me why, but I was wondering who did the voice of Augustus “Cole Train” Cole from Gears of War, because the voice sounded quite familiar but I couldn’t place it. It turns out the voice is none other than Lester “Mighty Rasta” Speight, better known by many as Terry Tate: Office Linebacker. If you haven’t watched the videos, they’re some of the funniest “corporate” commercials and short videos ever made – check ’em all out. I only wish they’d made more of them – they probably ran out of stunt guys to take the hits from the 6 foot 5 Speight! My favourite Office Linebacker short film is below. Enjoy!

Regrets of a Storm Trooper

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Found this amusing image over on Motivated Photos, quite a funny site – but be warned, once you start looking, the time will fly… [thanks Oilman!] [NSFW]

Woah…I’m a Thumbnail!

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Totally random, and a tad egotistical, but what the hell, it’s a personal blog. When I did the CityTV interview, I recorded it on my Windows Media Center so I could capture and convert the video file for archiving. What surprised me was seeing the image thunbmnail showing yours truly – it’s an image taken from a certain point in the program. I doubt that’s something I’ll ever see again in my life, so it was kind of neat. 😉

Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico 2008 Photos

I’ve had some fun over the past week and a half posting some of my favourite photos from my November 2008 trip to Mexico. Below are a few more of my favourite photos.

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Favourite Songs: “World’s Apart” by Jars of Clay

One of the joys in my life, one of the great blessings, is to discover music that connects with me on such a deep level that I can listen to it over and over again, reading the lyrics and be impacted by them every time. I wanted to share some of those songs with the readers of this blog; to shine the light on some great music that you may not have heard.

One of those songs is “World’s Apart” by Jars of Clay. The first time I heard this song, the lyrics hit me like a thunderclap. The beauty of music, of any poetry, is that the interpretation of the lyrics is left to the reader – but in my case, the fact that the first line is an admission of responsibility for our own actions is powerful. I believe pride, and the endless repercussions of pride, are at the forefront of so many things that are wrong with the world today. People hurt other people because of pride. People refuse to forgive others because of pride. Pride blinds us to our own faults, our own limitations, and our own mistakes. Blinded, we often cause harm to those around us. Pride limits us from learning, from growing. Pride keeps us from admitting when we’re wrong, or admitting when we’ve wronged others. And pride, in so many different ways, keeps us from admitting that we need something bigger than ourselves. In my own life, I often struggle against pride – I strive to be humble of spirit, sometimes succeeding, often times failing. Check out the lyrics to this song below…

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[click here to listen to a 30 second sample of the song]

“Worlds Apart”, Jars of Clay

I am the only one to blame for this
Somehow it all ends up the same
Soaring on the wings of selfish pride
I flew too high and like Icarus I collide
With a world I try so hard to leave behind
To rid myself of all but love
to give and die

Continue reading Favourite Songs: “World’s Apart” by Jars of Clay

Ashley and I Are Having a Baby!

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I wanted to share some special news: I’m going to be a dad! The above picture of Baby Dunn, aka Dunn 2.0, aka The Dunnling, was taken today at Ashley’s first ultrasound. She’s 12 weeks pregnant. We found out on the morning of December 24th, so it was a wonderful surprise for us and for our families. In typical geeky fashion, our way of announcing it to our families was to print out individual Christmas cards (see below) and give them to everyone at the same time – the look of puzzlement, followed quickly by delight, was quite the wonder to behold. Ashley is due August 30th. I wanted to get this quick announcement out the door – I’ll post more ultrasound pictures later, along with the thunderclap that hit me when I saw my baby move for the first time. One word: wow. God is good!

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CRTC Reaches New Level of Idiocy

“Amid fears that Canada’s culture is being drowned in a sea of online video from around the world, federal regulators are looking at setting up a $100-million fund to support homegrown programming on the Internet. The controversial proposal, which is aimed at staking out a more distinct national identity online, has pitted the television production community against Canada’s Internet service providers, who may ultimately have to foot the bill, or pass those costs onto customers.”

I can hardly believe what I read in this article. For the non-Canadians out there, the CRTC is the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. They’re the regulatory body that’s made some very unpopular and rather questionable decisions over the past few decades. Canadian radio stations, for instance, have to play a certain percentage of Canadian content – which means we tend to hear a lot of the same songs over and over. There’s a lot of good Canadian music out there today, but forcing it to be heard is ridiculous in my opinion. Though I understand the concept of having the Canadian voice be heard, I believe that good music floats to the top of the refuse regardless of where it’s from – and that it’s not the job of government or my tax dollars to enforce that. It’s no different for Internet video – I’m a Canadian who makes videos and posts them online, but I don’t need or want my government to somehow “encourage” my fellow Canadians to watch my content. My tax dollars should be going toward health care, defense of this nation, and other government-run areas. Keep your hands off the Internet CRTC – this is one Canadian who doesn’t want your help!