Why am I humming 90’s R&B?

That’s right.  I’m man enough to admit it.

I was driving home from work last night and out of nowhere I found myself humming “I Swear” (the All 4 One version, not the country one).  I have no idea where it came from.  I just stopped and said to my self out loud in the car — “what?!?!?”

Since i’m being so brutally honest this morning I guess I might as well bare all by saying I have always been and will always be a fan of 1990’s R&B and Hip Hop.  I’ve tried to not like it, but I just can’t help myself…

What do you find yourself singing with in the car all alone?  C’mon, it’s confession time.

Robert’s Testimony

I caught up with one of my volunteers who runs a camera in our eXchange service and shot this video about his encounter with a homeless guy.

Robert is a simple guy — he simply loves Jesus.  Truly inspiring.  Thanks, Robert.

Blues website almost complete.

The website I’ve been building for the Blues at the Crossroads is mostly complete.  It’s just lacking a little info that they haven’t passed my way yet, but the functionality is all there.

Take a look: www.bluesatthecrossroads.com

What do you like?  What don’t you like?

Nice kicks.

Sure, the special fx are cool on these two Nike commercials, but it’s not the post production that makes them great.  I think sometimes we can get distracted by technology and forget to push our creativity a little further.

I get my best ideas while taking a shower.  Where do you get yours?

My personal jazz favorites.

As I had posted previously, here are my personal top ten jazz favorites (in no particular order).  Please note that I’m NOT suggesting these are the greatest all time jazz albums, they are just the ones I find myself grabbing off of the shelf on a pretty regular basis.

1. Kind of Blue, Miles Davis - This one SHOULD be on the all time greatest jazz album list.  Ah, vintage Miles Davis…
2. 20, Harry Connick, Jr. - Harry Connick, Jr. is most known for singing/acting, but on this album he proves he can play piano-and well!
3. Loved Ones, Branford & Ellis Marsalis - Remember the guy who used to play saxophone on The Tonight Show?  My mother-in-law gave me this as a birthday present around 8 years ago-and it STILL gets played.
4. Blue Train, John Coltrane - considered by many to be Coltrane’s first “true” solo album (1957), before he got all avant garde.
5. Wish, Joshua Redman - Tenor sax never sounded so good; track 7 is my favorite
6. The Best of Cannonball Adderley, Julian Edwin “Cannonball” Adderley - one of the all time alto sax greats
7. The Essentials, Charlie Parker with Miles Davis - live recordings of Bop style jazz from two legends
8. Standard Time Vol. 3, Wynton Marsalis - laid back classic jazz tunes on trumpet
9. Time Out, The Dave Brubeck Quartet - another one worthy of the all time greatest jazz album list
10. En Route, Four80East - one of the only CDs I have in the smooth jazz genre, but it makes me want to buy more

More shortcuts.

Since I didn’t post over the weekend, here’s a special 3 for 1 special…

Adobe Photoshop (Access brush tool):

Press the “b” key at any time to immediately switch to the brush tool.

Adobe Photoshop (resize brush):

Adjust the size of your brush by pressing the “[" or "]” keys.

Adobe Photoshop (tweak the hardness/softness of brush):

Adjust the hardness/softness of your brush by holding down SHIFT and pressing the same “[" or "]” keys.

Enough.

I had a friend.  His name was John.  He died from cancer.

On the day before he passed the staff I was working with and I went to visit John at his house.  Our worship guy picked up John’s guitar from the corner of John’s bedroom and lead us in singing “Enough.”

John couldn’t talk, but he nodded in agreement.  I can’t help but think of how real these words were to my friend that day.

We sang “Enough” during our worship set on Sunday evening, and the truth of those words still stirs me everytime I sing them.

“Man, it was like shooting up…”

Check out this “behind the scenes” video about Rob Bell I stumbled on this morning (difted.com).  I love how he describes the first time he preached, where he gets his inspiration, his passion… heck, I just love hearing this guy speak.  Just watch it.

Today’s Keyboard Shortcut: (Adobe After Effects - advanced)

To quickly nest layers into a Pre-comp, just select the layers and hit CTRL + SHIFT + C and WHAM! — a precomposed miracle!