John's Blog

Alexa Brianne is here
August 25 - 2007

Well my daughter has finally arrived and I never knew how much love you could have for something you've never seen before. I find myself full of emotional moments where I think about her someday going off to school, or riding a bike, or (and this one always makes me cry) dancing with her on her wedding day (I'm tearing up just writing about it now)

She truly is a joy, and I can't wait for all of you to meet her. There is a short video I made to introduce her to the world on our downloads section... be sure to check that out, and also my photoblog for pictures!

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Nursery Pics
August 12 - 2007

Be sure to check out my other blog for some updated shots of our nursery!

www.coastline-studios.com/photoblog

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Another Blog
July 02 - 2007

For those of you who wished I blogged more often... you're in for a treat. I've recently added a new blog specifically designed to showcase photo and video projects I've recently done, as well as highlight anything related to photography or video/film worthy of comment. I've definately been doing better at keeping that blog up todate with more posts. Check it out!

www.coastline-studios.com/photoblog

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Garage Sale Video
May 27 - 2007

We had a garage sale last weekend along with 8 or so other families on our block. It was nice to clean out the garage, and get some of the junk piled up in our basement out of there. We only made around $140, but had a busy day with fairly consistent traffic throughout the day. We shared our driveway with our neighbors (The Hidalgo's) from 2 doors down.

Anyway in true "John Pottenger" form I did a time laps video of the day. I set up my still digial camera to take a picture every 10 seconds. I then put all 2500 pictures into a video timeline and played each picture for 1/30th of a second. There was a lot more of our stuff down our driveway, but the camera couldn't see it. (I hid the camera inside our home in the dinning room so people wouldn't hear the shutter and freak out) : ) Here's the resulting video.

http://www.pottengerfamily.com/media/garage_sale.html

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I was on the Radio
April 30 - 2007

I thought some of you might enjoy my little radio debut on local stations WCSG and WAYFM for the 24 hour film festival I help run. Check it out. they are both less than 2 minutes each.

http://www.pottengerfamily.com/media/WCSG_Spot.mp3

http://www.pottengerfamily.com/media/Way.FM_Spot.mp3

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Lord of the Rings Day
April 06 - 2007

A few weeks ago I hosted a "Lord of the Rings" day in which we watched all 3 extended editions in order ALL IN ONE DAY! Of course I had to make a documentary film about it... check it out at this link: http://www.coastline-studios.com/tv/LOTRMovieSmall.html

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Office Space?
March 23 - 2007

Today Amy and I accompanied our friend Jen Kroll on a facilities tour of a space we are considering for using as a studio / office space. The tour went really well, and the prices of this particular building are incredible compared to anywhere else in Grand Rapids. We’ve contacted 2 other photographers who would also likely “jump in” with us to help pay rent, and both said yes… so at this point we are praying to see if this is what God wants for us, and we are hoping this is where God wants us to be.

The space we looked at was on the North West side of the 4^th(top) floor. It features freshly sand blasted original wood beams, and hard wood floors as well as brand new energy efficient windows. The top floor also features an extra 2 feet higher ceilings than any other floor and of course is quieter than any of the other floors (hard wood floors = noise when people walk above you). I’m not sure of the exact height of the ceiling, but it had to be in the 20’s… possibly even 30 feet high. In addition the building has a locally owned deli / coffee shop (good food and prices), a shared conference room, free parking and easy access right off 131 (the main highway going north and south through Grand Rapids). It’s about a 10 minute drive from our house… 80% of that is highway.

Our hope (if all moves forward) is to move in sometime in between May 15 and June 30^th. While a decision has not yet been made, we are pretty excited about the space and are optimistic that we will move forward shortly. The biggest thing holding us up at this point is cash flow. Being wedding photographers, all 4 of us are low on cash and will likely get a large boost in that department come late May and on. Both Jen and I have changed our packages significantly since last summer, and are now charging over double what we were charging last summer (at least I am) and we are also requiring a larger deposit on all new weddings. This means for both of us that our projected cash flow a year from now at this same time would look significantly different (both in quantity as well as cash flow). So the decision is not so much of a “can we afford it” question as “when this year can we afford it?”

Also the space we were looking at today will be finished and “lease-able” to the public in a week or two, and so our chance of losing that space we liked is possible if we don’t put a deposit down soon… thus the time crunch. But for now we are going on faith that if God want’s us to have that space that it will happen in His time.

Needless to say your prayers are appreciated as we consider this large decision, and hope that the space remains available should we decide to move in. I’ll be sure to keep you posted as things progress.

Oh and here is a link with some pictures of the building… http://www.delta-space.com/properties/401hall/401hall.asp

John

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Self Employment
January 20 - 2007

Well it's been far too long since I blogged so I thought I'd give it a go again on a sunny but cold January Saturday morning.

Probably the reason I haven't blogged much lately is that being self employed has really changed a lot in my life. Maybe this is a bit of a stretch, but lately I've been thinking that its a lot easier to blog when you are on a salary, and not self employed. This is in no way meant to slam people with a fulltime job, but if I had to guess... it's a lot easier to "find time" on a salaried job than when you are self employed. I say this because when you are self employed every minute of the day seams a little more sacred... at least for me. You're either going to make enough money to pay the bills this month, or slack off and go into debt. Granted I know plenty of "employed" people who don't have the time to blog, or do it in the evenings but it just is different when you have to support your family on your own without a regular paycheck.

Being self employed has definitely been a good thing though for Amy and I. We've gotten into a routine which we both love. Sleep in until 9 or 9:30am every morning... don't really start working until 10 or 10:30am... eat a late lunch and dinner... and work a little in the evening while ending the day relaxing together watching some of our pre-recorded favorite TV programs. Its nice not having to "be anywhere" first thing in the morning... especially on Sunday nights. Monday's aren't the most dreaded day of the week anymore. It's especially nice not having to go dig out the cars and plow first thing in the morning after a big snow storm. Just walk down stairs and get to work. Ahhhh...

Business has been good for me through this "slow" (non-wedding) season with all sorts of random projects. Some of these include teaching a 2 week January-term "Intro to Video" class at Grace Bible College, my upcoming photography class, a January wedding, wrapping up left over projects from 2006 and continuing to work on marketing myself and my work. My latest marketing project has been to revamp my "sales presentation" for meeting with perspective brides. I've also managed to book a number of weddings (about 3 or 4) since December, which not only means I'll have work in the Summer, but also some deposit money to live off of for now.

I've also enjoyed keeping more on top of my communication with my clients and friends. It's very common for my inbox to be empty (a feat I am always striving for) as I do my best to respond to each e-mail as soon as I can. Some would say I'm a little obsessive compulsive about this, but somehow it really helps my stress level stay down. When I was working at Cornerstone, I always felt like I was letting people down or at least not communicating as often as I should/could have because I had CU e-mail to keep up with during the day, and Coastline e-mail to keep up with at night... TOO MUCH E-MAIL! So being self employed has allowed me to raise my own professionalism in this (and other) ways for Coastline. And being an all or nothing kind of guy... this is a huge deal for me.

I also have a few larger scale projects in the works, but I can't share them with you yet... maybe that will be an excuse for a future blog. : )

Hoping to blog more often.... - John

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Some Recent Work
November 13 - 2006

Hey all, thought you might like to see some of my most recent work:

http://www.cornerstone.edu/future_students/webjournals/ - I did both the photography AND the flash programming work on this one. The glow effect, mouse overs etc...

www.coastline-studios.com - if you haven't seen this within the last week... you need to see it again. With 3 brand new sites... you're bound to see some cool new stuff since your last visit.

http://www.coastline-studios.com/tv/Sneak-Peak.html - ok so most of you have probably already seen this... its my most recent wedding video using Hollywood movie making tools.

Enjoy! - John

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The last days of the ITC
September 24 - 2006

Though this is a little late, I thought it might be fitting to say something about the ITC and give it a final farewell - blog style. Being the media kind of guy that I am that of course means pictures and more.

CLICK HERE to see the ITC before and after pictures of my office.

About a week ago I picked up the school paper and the ITC had officially died. It was renamed to CAMS. You can read all about it here (click on the picture).

It’s fitting actually that I was there when the ITC was born, and was unceremoniously laid off at its death. It was summer 1996 and I was an eager young freshman just starting my college journey at Cornerstone. It wasn't more than a week that I was notified of a job up at this new place called the ITC... of course I took the job. It was literally not even set up... wires and boxes everywhere it was a mess. I can still remember my first day on the job with Dave Morneau. Dave just starred at me the whole time (kinda gave me the creeps actually). Of course there wasn't anything else to do since no one really even know the place existed. We had the latest and greatest technology (the one and only CD burner on campus) and no one even knew. So I kept myself busy by exploring, and teaching myself everything there was to play with up there. From audio studios to cool new graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop 4.0 and Media 100 video editing software.

ITC had quite the line up in the way of managers. Starting with Forrest Wakeman (who hired me) to Angelo Ortiz and Heath Good... a new manager for each year I was there... that is until my senior year when Hiedi Hansen and myself took on the management of the ITC as senior students. Immediately after graduating I took the newly created fulltime job of "ITC Manager" and went to work June 1st, 2000. Then there was the long line of assistant managers; Chris Robertson, Elizabeth Chapman (Schmucker), Jay Kroll, Josh Haveman, Elizabeth Frederick, Amanda Houdek and last but certainly not least Greg Ohlman. All serving at various times from June 2000 to August 2006.

ITC saw its fair share of student workers, some of the all stars who come to mind include Murphy Felton, Jon Soper, Matt Chapman, Elizabeth Chapman (Schmucker), Ryan Prins, Emily Ward, Dave Mathewson, Emily Bursch, Steve King, Amanda Houdek, Hope Collins, Brad Porter and Phat B who was ITC's only honorary member. Of course there were others, but these ones stick out in my mind.

Some of my favorite memories of the ITC include; finding and hiding the Star Wars “Luke” Action figure all over the ITC… drinking fake cappuccino made from our cool gas station style espresso machine… having hundreds of chats with my students and staff about life, school, relationships and of course work… getting notes from various staff members for me to find when I came in the next morning… defending my staff from the rude and often immature adult students during evening classes… setting up Studio B with sound proofing foam and trying to disguise the fact that studio B was really an janitor’s closet complete with a sink and running water… as a student, when things were slow - experimenting with my voice using Sonic Solutions and creating some fun little songs and raps… as a student, inviting people (especially girls) up to visit me at the ITC during long and boring evening shifts… moving my office from the janitor’s closet into one of the largest offices on campus complete with a couch!... buying tools for our hall of fame gaffers kit (I’m gonna miss that kit Greg)… so many memories… <eyes tearing up>

So how about you? Did you have any memories of the ITC?

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Murphy's Law
August 11 - 2006

So the last 48 hours have been quite the story. You already know how it started, but day two was full of just as many adventures.

Thursday started out pretty good actually. I interviewed, and today accepted a teaching position as an adjunct at Grace Bible College to teach one class of photography. I was shown around the campus, met the president and learned more about the school. It was when I arrived at Cornerstone that things started going south ... again.... only this time it was Murphy to blame, and not Cornerstone.

I gave my keys to Ryan to start helping me load my stuff from the ITC into my car. He returned, and made many trips for me, all the while leaving my keys on the front counter of the ITC. Somehow they magically disappeared only minutes after a few other people in the ITC informed me that they were still on the counter. No one knows where they went... just poof... gone. I spent the rest of the day packing my office.

Then to get home, I had Greg drive me to the VW Dealership where my other car was waiting to be picked up from a $1284 repair. I paid them, drove home, picked up Amy and then went back to Cornerstone to have Amy drive the fully loaded Explorer home. I had a Compass Alumni Board meeting at 5:45pm, so I had to jet from Cornerstone pretty quick.

Less than 3 miles from Cornerstone a little red light started blinking and beeping. It was the temperature light on the Bug. Literally less than 15 miles and 30 minutes from picking it up at the VW Dealer, it was already having problems. I called the dealership right away, and he said to pull over as a blinking light is bad, and driving it could cause major damage. I went about a mile to the exit, pulled into a parking lot and started making phone calls. Moments later I had managed to find a ride to my meeting and filled Amy in on the exciting news.

My meeting went well, and I returned to my car to wait for a tow truck. I eventually got home around 9:30pm that night. It was a very long and emotional day. I was exhausted.

Today I found out the Water Pump was bad and when removed... came out in pieces. The Dealership assured me that this was not connected to the major work they did the day before... it was just an amazing coincidence. After a little questioning on my part I was satisfied that this was the case. The dealer said the repair would take 5 hours and cost $500. Ouch! He knocked off an hour of work knowing my situation which was nice... but it’s still another $420.

So needless to say when it rains... it pours.

On the Upside... this morning I was able to spend some time with my friend Jon and play around with his new Jib. Check out a small sample of what we did here! Take note that this was just for fun, and there are a few bumps here and there that show our amature skills at this new tool. ALSO NOTE that at the end I was yelling "fight" and not something else. :)

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Moving on to better things
August 09 - 2006

After 10 years at Cornerstone (over 6 as a full time employee) I was laid off today. I'm not sure how much I can say about it yet, so to be safe I'll defer from giving the details here online.

While It was certainly out of the blue and un expected, I had a feeling it was coming. Since my boss was let go with reasons that I didn't understand or agree with, I knew Cornerstone was in a time of cutting back. Fortunately for me, I have a side business that I can put energy and time into. That is not the case for my co-worker Greg Ohlman who also lost his job today only 30 minutes after I did. Greg has 3 kids, and a new home (moving in on Saturday) and he has no side business or regular outside income. So if you feel the need to pray, please pray for Greg and his wife Natasha during this time. This is the 3rd time in less than 3 years that this has happened to him, and my heart really goes out to him. I don't even know the last time he had benefits, let alone a solid steady job.

Finally, I just wanted to say that when things get comfortable.. (6 years in a full-time benefits job) its easy to trust in yourself and not in God. And I welcome this time of trust and faith building. My hope is that I would grow through this in as many way possible. This could be for me the opportunity I've been waiting for to really begin to follow my passion. I don't know what lay ahead, but I'm excited to see how God is going to provide, and how this turn in my life will lead me towards bigger and better things.

James 1:2-4

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New Rubix Cube Record!
July 31 - 2006
So I know none of you really care about this, but today I beat my teacher's record of solving the rubix cube! His record time was 1 min 45 sec.... and today I flew by with a time of 1 min 27 sec!

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Hawaii Reflections
June 23 - 2006

When you think of vacationing in Hawaii you always think and hope it will be a paradise vacation… and this trip lived up to those expectations. Here are some of the high and low points from our trip.

Highlights:
- Jennie and Kyle’s wedding. I’ve been to well over 75 weddings in my lifetime, and none of them come close to the beauty and splendor of this one. It was simply amazing in every way.
- Hanging with my family, and meeting Kyle’s family. This was the first family vacation since I was in elementary school, and to be able to have our wives along for the trip really made it fun and memorable…. And getting to know Kyle, and his family was a blast.
- Snorkeling. I’ve only done this in swimming pools before, and so to be in the ocean and see so many beautiful fish was loads of fun, and quite an experience.
- Helicopter tour of Kauai. Aside from a little motion sickness for the last 3rd of the trip, the views from the air were simply breathtaking. Flying into the volcano (the wettest place on earth) and seeing the Nepali coast with all the water falls were the best part of the tour.
- Relaxing! Just sitting on the beach with nothing to do… or sitting at our condo in Kauai watching the rain come down for 5 minutes and then clear away while sipping coffee in the morning… man you can’t ask for a more stress free picture.
- Seeing the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor. This was a powerful and very important thing for me to see… knowing the tragedy that took place in 1941. Every American needs to see this at least once in their life.
- A boat trip in Kauai to the “forbidden island”. Seeing the Nepali coast from the water is unreal. I’ve never seen anything like it. We also saw lots of dolphins, snorkeled at the forbidden island, and had great food.- A boat trip in Kauai to the “forbidden island”. Seeing the Nepali coast from the water is unreal. I’ve never seen anything like it. We also saw lots of dolphins, snorkeled at the forbidden island, and had great food.
- Luau in Oahu. Having never been to one, it was a lot of fun to see all the ancient Hawaiian traditions, and eat the amazing pork.
- Shopping for a Hawaiian shirt with my brother. Little did I know that Matt is an expert in the art of finding quality Hawaiian shirts. From fabric, feel, breathability, pattern and price, he knew it all. It was a blast shopping just the two of us for a night. :)

Lowlights:
- Amy getting sick. … (Monty python voice) “she got better…”
- The long boat ride back from the forbidden island across a very choppy ocean. Mom filled 3 doggie bags, and our boat snagged a large net halfway to our port of return. The tipping boat in the rough ocean was not fun at all.
- The early mornings. I need lots of sleep, and I think had I slept more, I would have had more energy to see and do more (with Kyle and Jen who never seemed to stop going).
- Leaving Hawaii

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Hawaii Update #1
June 14 - 2006

Greetings from Kauia! I’ve been meaning to write for a very long time and now that I’m over 3000 miles from home, I seem to finally be finding the space to do so. Right now I’m sitting on the porch listening and watching the rain as it comes down. It’s 8:11am and my cup of coffee is close at hand to complete the relaxing portrait that is vacation. It seems rare to actually go on a vacation and relax but the last 2 days have definitely been relaxing. The beauty of this place is simply amazing. Having grown up in the warmer state of California, and seeing palm tree’s every day of my youth you’d think this is just another California…. but its not. The water is blue and turquoise, and actually warm enough that you want to stay in the ocean. The climate is tropical, and the attitude of everyone here is laid back. The only thing that can stress you out here, is yourself.

Yesterday did have its adventures though. The day started off at 3am when Amy started making regular trips to the bathroom for multiple reasons. We still don’t know what it was, but she was not feeling good for most of the night and didn’t stop her bathroom visits until late morning. It was a slow recovery through the rest of the afternoon and evening, but by the end of the day she was wiped out. She slept most of the day yesterday, and is still sleeping now as I write this.

In addition to the sickness, we also had an adventure with some lost rental car keys. We aren’t sure where they were lost (on the beach or in the ocean), but after a thorough 1 hour search up and down a steep path that we took to a hidden beach, we concluded that they were indeed lost. We parked right next to a hotel’s valet lot, and some of the drivers were kind enough to help us look for the keys, and then eventually break into our car with a wire. The kicker was that we have 2 rental cars, but the only set of keys we had to the other rental car were locked inside the car. So once we did break into the car, dad hitch hiked back to our condo to get the other car so we can finally go home.

The highlight of the day for me was snorkeling. A few hours before the lost key investigation, we all (minus Amy) spent a good 2 hours at the beach watching fish swim just a few feet below us. Dad found an eel and we all took turns diving down to see it as it was hiding in a part of the coral. It was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to get back out there to do it again.

Well Amy has awoken, and seems to be feeling better, so I guess I’ll sign off for now and say Aloha.

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The Perretti Weekend
May 04 - 2006

Well the weekend was different than I expected it to be, but it couldn't have been better! Saturday around lunch time I called up Frank on his Cell phone and was saddened to hear that both Frank and Barb were not feeling very well. After their busy last few days here in Grand Rapids, and with the late night before judging the 24 hour film festival, the Perretti's were fighting a little cold and were just plain wore out. But Frank insisted that he wanted to meet with us and talk. So we made plans for dinner at their hotel later that night.

Then Amy had a wonderful idea to make a surprise care package for them to help with their colds and to make them feel a little closer to home... so we (Greg, Amy and I) ran to Walgreens and bought some vitamin C, Zicam, Echinacea, water and some granola bars and ran it over to the hotel. The hotel staff ran it up, and then we left to go get some lunch.

After an afternoon break, we reconvened at “Benthams” restaurant in the Amway Grand Hotel where Frank and Barb were staying. They of course thanked us right away for the care package and they would have hugged us, except that they didn't want to get us sick... so Frank decided to bow to us instead. : )

The dinner was nothing short of fantastic. It started out a little slow with small talk as we tried to figure out what we were going to order, but it wasn't long until we were talking about Frank's new passion... Making movies! …more specifically "Directing ". Of course this struck a chord with me since that’s what I want to do. I was on the verge of recommending a book on directing I was reading last year when Frank said he was just at a 3-day training seminar put on by the author of the same book I was going to recommend! He had read her book, and more recently been to her class and so we instantly started comparing notes and sharing stories about directing. We did talk about other things as well, including Barbs desire to work closely with Frank and possibly be a script supervisor... and much fun was had by all. By the end of the night it was as if we were all longtime friends. Frank even said something along the lines of "Man this is fun! I’m feeling energized just talking about all this". This was a great thing to hear considering he was sick, and it must not have been as exciting a prospect for Frank and Barb to meet and hang with strangers from the Midwest... as it was for us to meet and be with them. The evening was a success and a blast!

We then made plans to attend church without the Perretti's and then meet for lunch afterward. So after an awesome service together with Greg and his wife Natasha we drove to pick up the Perretti's for lunch. We then took them to lunch at a cute East Grand Rapids restaurant called "Rose's". After a wonderful lunch, we then proceeded to Starbucks where Barb treated us all to drinks on her and Frank. With Starbucks in hand, the six of us proceeded to tour around Grand Rapids showing the Perretti’s a few options (prepared for us ahead of time) of places they could stay long term should they decide to come to Grand Rapids for the summer to take a class or make a film.

After about an hour of driving we crashed at the "Pottenger Annex" (our home) to show some of the creative stuff we have done recently. I proceeded to show Frank and Barb my Star Wars film, a wedding highlight video, and a few other small videos I had made. Frank sat at the driver’s seat of my computer as he has been learning Avid (the video editing program I edit with) and was constantly stopping the video to ask Avid questions and how/why questions about my editing. How cool is that! I was actually able to give some editing tips to Frank on how to edit in Avid! Anyway... it was a fun time of show and tell, and relationship building. By this time it was dinner time, but Barb and Frank were getting kinda tired again … and thus our time together had come to an end. : (

Just before we left, I snapped a quick shot in our living room to commemorate the amazing time we had with the Perretti's (see above picture). It was certainly a once in a lifetime experience and hopefully the beginning of a friendship that will continue to grow in the future!

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A quick update or 2
April 26 - 2006

First, a HUGE thank you to Jesse O'Brien from Australia for making me a SWEET animation for my Coastline site. SEE IT HERE: http://www.coastlinephotography.com/weddings/cover_samples.php

Second, I am going to have quite an exciting weekend as the infamous 24 hour film festival screening is Friday night! I was on the Alumni board and so was not able to compete... but I was majorly involved in planning and running the festival, so it's still exciting to me. The big news is that FRANK PERETTI is a judge this year!

On top of that, I've been asked along with my friend Greg Ohlman and both our wives, to show Frank and his wife Barb, the sites of West Michigan this weekend! I have yet to clear it with Frank and Barb, but I thought it would be cool to bring along a video camera, and make a documentary of our weekend adventure together. We'll see if they're up for it. So I'll either have a sweet video to show of our time together, or just a blog about it. Stay tuned!

OH! and I thought I'd ask... if you could ask Frank Peretti a question... what would it be?

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Sweet Light Saber Battle!
April 13 - 2006

Check out this awesome Star Wars Video Hollis sent me.

http://www.compfused.com/directlink/1283/

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Star Wars Day
April 10 - 2006

So on Friday of last week I embarked on a mission that I have been planning for since the first announcement that there were going to be 3 prequels to the Star Wars Movies. A quest to watch all six movies in order from episode I to episode VI in one day. So you could say this has been a plan of mine for over 8 years.

Since this was such a big deal to me I decided to document the day to show how much a nerd I really am. To watch the short (nearly 17 minute) film click on this link: http://films.coastlinephotography.com/Star_Wars_Day.mov

NOTE: You might need to download the latest version of Quicktime from www.apple.com/quicktime to watch the film.

Enjoy!

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Some new pictures
March 24 - 2006

I've been taking pictures of various people and events at Cornerstone University... check out some places below where they have been put to good use:

Admission Counselors: (click on the names of the counselors at the bottom of the page)http://www.cornerstone.edu/future_students/contact/

Music department pictures: http://www.cornerstone.edu/academics/fine_arts

The President's blog and website: http://www.cornerstone.edu/departments/president/

and http://www.cornerstone.edu/about/rexmrogers/

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Almost Normal
March 18 - 2006

Well I had a doctors appointment this past week and things seem almost normal! There's still a bit of inflammation in my neck, but it’s not visibly noticeable (only to the touch). The doctor said he wanted me to stop taking the anti-biotic and see him again in a month. So I think it’s safe to say I'm definitely almost better, and only have about 5% left to heal.

Probably the thing I learned most through this was what is truly important in life. My Aunt Linda said "it gives our lives meaning the depth" and that is so true. In some ways I miss being in that state of fear. On average most of us don't know what its like to live in a state of fear and trembling, and it’s in those moments that God is closest. Now that I'm on the "other side" of this thing, I feel like I miss that dependency on God. We American’s are such a "fix it now" people that you get used to finding ways out. Is your car broken?... call a mechanic. Do you need money?.... use your credit card or get a loan. Do you have a headache?... take an Advil. I think one of the only things that we as human's still can't fix on our own is our health. Sure we have ways of easing pain, or fixing known problems... but what about things like what I had? Or Cancer, or HIV?

All this to say that I was glad for the opportunity to be in a place where I could not fix my problem. Doctors weren't able to help, and in fact they probably made me stress out worse. How wonderful it was to be able to rest in the Creators arms totally. How unfortunate that it takes things like this to bring us back to Him.

I want to say thank you to everyone who prayed, wrote and called me over the last month. The support I felt in this time was unreal. I never knew I had so many friends. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

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Finally Some Good News
March 01 - 2006

I’ve not posted an update in a while mostly because I have not had much news to report. Today however I do have some updates, so here’s the latest…

I had some blood tests done last week on Thursday… everything from HIV to your standard blood count tests. This morning I talked with my doctor and found out all the tests looked normal. No HIV or Cat scratch, and even my white blood cell levels were normal (showing I’m not fighting an infection). This of course wasn’t helpful in diagnosing what my lump could be, but at least I’m “healthy” right? So the doctor asked if I could stop in so he could check me out again. It had been 2 weeks since my last check up with him (and I had the morning open in my schedule) so I stopped by his office.

He then felt around and took some measurements of my lumps. (When I say lumps “plural” I’m talking about the big one that was the most obvious on the side of my neck, a smaller swollen and hardened gland under my jaw bone, and a lymph node at the base of my neck near my shoulder.) After checking them all out he said I was right… all three lumps had gone down since he saw me last.

He then indicated that based on the blood tests and the biopsy, that he felt that my body was most likely fighting some sort of virus or weird inflammatory infection, and that it was not tumorous in nature (either benign or active). This my friends was the first time has said anything close to encouraging since I first started seeing him, and I was very happy to hear this prognosis! Even though he isn’t sure what it is I have exactly, at least he thinks (and has communicated to me) it’s not tumorous or cancerous.

Before the blood tests had come in he had tentatively scheduled a surgery for this Thursday… but after talking and seeing the progress I had made he gave me 2 options. 1) Either wait a week or two to see if the lumps continue to go away, or 2) have a surgical biopsy to take out the lymph node near my shoulder (which is a much safer place to operate on than my neck) to see what is actually in there. He said “I’m on the fence on this one” and then asked what I thought. I told him I knew these were likely going to be my options before I even walked in the Doctor’s office this morning, and that I was leaning towards waiting. He quickly agreed after I said that (which took me a little off guard because only moments ago he was “on the fence”). And so my visit concluded and we set up a follow up appointment for 2 weeks.

So at this point I’m still in a waiting mode… but with some encouraging news and some hope for the future. So once more I will ask for your continued prayers that God will continue to heal my body and that these lumps will go away. If they don’t I’ll likely go through with the surgery to try and investigate the illness further. Thank you all so much for your e-mails and prayers. Looking back on the last 4 weeks I can truly be thankful for so much and I really have grown in many ways. Your prayers are not only helping me physically, but also spiritually. Thank you.

John

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A Late Birthday Story
February 23 - 2006

In a word... I don't deserve my wife. She made me smile all day on my birthday and its a story very worthy of telling... even if happened a week ago.

The day started out with a present next to my cereal bowl with a note on it. The gift was some donut holes, and the note said to share them with my co-workers. Needless to say I excited about the donut holes, but I was a little confused because there was a "#1" written on the note. I figured maybe there was a "#2" present at work, and maybe a "#3" later that night... boy was I wrong.

Amy called me just after I finished breakfast and told me to check at the front desk at Cornerstone for something she left for me. When I got to work, I found a medium sized cardboard box and I immediately took it up to my office and opened it.

Inside I found a note explaining Amy's grand plan for me on my birthday. She basically had purchased and wrapped 28 presents (for my 28th birthday) and instructed me to open each present every 15 minutes throughout the day! Now if you don't know me very well you might not know my love of opening presents. (Side note: I don't just enjoy opening them, I love to watch other people open them too... its not all about me... its about seeing the joy on peoples faces when they open them!). Not only did I get to open presents all day long, but each present came with a note attached. See each present represented something Amy loved about me which was explained on the note. To give an example, she gave me some seeds because she loves how I'm always trying to grow and become a better person... or the board game "Scene it" because I love to entertain, and use multimedia and movies.

So needless to say I was smiling all day long even amidst my fear of what the doctor was going to say from the biopsy. Even my new 50" Plasma TV didn't compare to the wonderful gift(s) idea Amy had. God is so good to me, and I can't sing Amy's praises enough. Thanks hun. I love you.

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Waiting on Faith
February 22 - 2006

Being the media oriented guy that I am, I thought I'd try an "audio blog" to share where I'm at. It's a little under 5 minutes long, and recorded just after this mornings doctor visit. This is my heart, and I hope it ministers to you.

Click Here To Listen - (Windows Media Audio File)

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The Doctors Report...
February 16 - 2006
Well I finally got a call just minutes ago from the doctor (after calling several times), and here’s what he said

They didn’t see any identifiable or positive signs of cancer in the lump, but there are some “unusual” cells in there… and so they can’t confirm that it isn’t cancer for sure either. To say it another way… they still don’t know what it is, but they didn’t see any major red “cancer” flags outside of some “unusual” cells they pulled from the biopsy that they can’t really identify

The doctor then suggested surgery to remove the lymph gland (part of the lump) and started talking about the risks involved in that surgery. Without going into those risks here, I basically was not excited about taking out half of my lymphatic system on a hunch, so I offered him an update on my lump which changed his prognosis a bit

I told him that my wife, friends and co-workers all have been confirming lately that the lump seems to be getting smaller. He asked how much smaller, and I guessed around 30% to 40% smaller. He then said “well… then maybe it will just go away. Why don’t I refill your antibiotic and we’ll set up a check up appointment for mid to late next week”. I said that sounded good… and so that is the current plan

Emotionally both Amy and I are still struggling with this. It’s still a scary thing to go through, and not knowing after all this time is frustrating and stressful to say the least. I called Amy right away to tell her all this and we decided together that waiting a bit longer is the right thing to do. So I guess more faith and trust in the Lord is in order eh

Before I ask for your prayers again, I first want to thank all of you for your encouragement, e-mails, and calls. Amy and I feel so supported and loved by all of you, and the prayers are more than felt in our struggle with this health issue. I’m sure it was because of all of your prayers that the lump is going down, and that we’ve been able to enjoy life together so much since last Friday. Thank you. As I move into another time of waiting, I do ask for your continued prayers that God would use His mighty and powerful work of healing this lump on my neck. Pray also for both Amy and I as we go through this time of faith testing that we would grow and be better representatives of His kingdom to those around us and that God would give us comfort and rest in Him alone

So until next Week Wednesday morning, we will wait and pray together...

John

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An Update on My Neck
February 12 - 2006
This past Friday I thought I might finally be getting somehwere on my neck lump as I was referred to an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) doctor who would most likely be able to help get some answers. My appointment was late in the day, and I was really anxious about it for obvious reasons, but also because I was told that they would likely have to do a biopsy on my neck to find out what it was. This of course means sticking needles into my neck and taking out samples of the cells and tissue in the lump… not something I was looking forward to.

After a short inspection the ENT doctor proceeded to shove some sort of scope up into my nose and down my throat to check things out… this was a little weird to say the least, but not really that painful, just uncomfortable. He then took me into another room to do the biopsy which to my surprise was not painful at all outside of the anesthetic shot. Probably the worst part of it all was the nerves I had of not knowing what they were doing, or what they were going to do next. Anyway… the “bad news” is that I won’t find out what the lump is until Wednesday (which of course happens to be my birthday) or possibly even as late as Thursday this week. The doctor didn’t indicate to me anything about what he thought it was, or if he thought it was cancer or not, so I left the office pretty emotional and scared for the future.

Friday night was pretty tough time for me as the entire week had been building up to hopefully getting some answers, and the “not knowing” was getting the worst of my imagination. Thankfully my wife and immediate family came through with their calls, e-mails and prayers. I can’t thank enough those of you who prayed and supported me for your love and support in these recent days! It’s been a wild and testing time for me, but I believe through it I have learned so much about trust, faith, and what things really matter in life. It’s too bad it takes something like this to show you what is truly important in life, but I’m glad I am going through it. Even if it is cancer, I know is in control and that he has a plan for my life.

So in closing, I want to thank you all for your prayers, support and for the love you have shown in different ways without even knowing it. Please continue to pray for me this week as on Wednesday I hope to finally find out what this lump is all about. Obviously we are hoping its just a virus or illness my body is fighting, and that it is not cancerous. And please continue to pray for Amy, who has been my strength and supporter from day one. I know this has been just as tough on her, and I know she’d appreciate your prayers as well.

Thank you all again, and God bless...

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Just me and my Goiter
February 04 - 2006

So it’s been the joke all week... this lump on my neck...

See I had a cold (again) and somehow my gland on the right side of my neck decided it would swell up and get all sore. I figured it was nothing serious since this is common during and after having a cold, so I let it go unchecked for 2 days, but I was starting to lose sleep because it was agitating all the muscles around it all the way down into my shoulders and back. Imagine having half your neck and shoulders all locked up and sore to the touch, and that’s me.

So on Wednesday I thought I'd stop into the health building at Cornerstone to get it check out by a nurse. (Side note: as I was walking over I had to count my blessings, how many people have a place like that where they work … with PA's and doctors and such right at the same place... pretty cool). Anyway I checked in, and the nurse took all my vitals. Apparently everything was fine, blood pressure, heart rate, no spots on my through etc... So they decided to gag me and take a throat culture for strep, and then poke my finger for mono. Both tests were negative. So then the Physicians Assistant walks in and checks it out. She was just as puzzled as everyone else was and decided to prescribe some antibiotics (Amoxicillin) and have me check back in a week.

So about 3 days have gone by, and it's slowly getting better, but barely. My neck is still tight, but the soreness has gone down so sleeping is easier. Of course it’s been the joke though at work to try and throw the word "goiter" into as many sentences as possible. Like "you better get over here or I'll kick you in your goiter" etc... :) I don’t have a goiter though… but I think its such a fun word to say that people wanted an excuse to say it more often… thus the jokes.

So anywhooo... that’s the latest.... and I thought you'd want to know.

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A New Professor Pottenger
January 19 - 2006

So last Wednesday the new division chair of the new Media Studies department walks in and sits me down for a conversation. He proceeds to tell me that there was an error someplace and for some reason this semester there's both an intro and advanced photography class being offered, but that only the advanced class was supposed to be offered, and not the intro class. The Prof who normally teaches both of those classes declined the offer to teach the intro class, mostly on account that there were so many in the class (24 to be precise) and that there was no way that all those students would be able to share one halfway working print enlarger in the dark room. So the division chair was in a pickle... does he cancel the intro class? Does he find a new professor? And what about that darkroom sharing problem?

Well... 2 years ago I had typed up a 2 or 3 page proposal to update the photography classes taught at Cornerstone and bring them away from the dark room and into the digital age. Nothing came of it, and I just moved on assuming nothing would happen. But then...

The Division Chair asked me if I would be interested in teaching the Intro to Photography class and not only teach it, but completely write and create a new digital version of the class! So I not only get to teach what I love, but also choose how and what will be taught! So needless to say I was both excited but also overwhelmed as I had less than 5 days to try and make a syllabus and teach my first lecture. Also one of the bonuses is that Cornerstone was able to buy a few Digital SLR cameras for the students to use, and those cameras are going to me managed and checked out of the ITC where I work... so in essence the ITC gained 4 new high quality Nikon D50 SLR cameras!

My class is every Tuesday night from 6pm to 8:40pm and my first class went fantastic. I actually have 25 students and the room is packed to the brim. It only seats 24, so we had to bring in an extra desk just to fit everybody. Everyone was real excited to be there, and people were asking me all kinds of questions at the end of class which is always a healthy sign of a good class. You don't get that kind of thing in World Civ. : )

Anyway that’s the latest from my neck of the woods. Until next time.... - Peace

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Penguin game
January 10 - 2006

My friend Topher sent me a link to the famous Penguin Game which was popular a few years back. Here's a picture of my high score of 320.9 (mostly to prove I got the score because as of this writing no one has told me they beat it). I'm sure now all of you who read this will try it and beat it. Happy ADD to you all. - Potts

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Chronicals of Narnia Rap
January 03 - 2006
Check out this link that Phat B Sent me: http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=zLElfJ9YCh0

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New Record on the CUBE
December 14 - 2005

I set a personal record yesterday by solving the rubix cube in 2 minutes and 17 seconds!

UPDATE: Later today I solved it in 1 minute 55 seconds! My teacher Ryan Prins has a record of 1 minute and 45 seconds... It's just a matter of time now. : )

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John Louis FISH Pottenger
December 10 - 2005

I've been called a lot of things in my life, but only 2 "official" nick names have stuck. To my Michigan / College friends I am "Potts"... but a little known secret that probably only my family knows about is my childhood summer nickname of "John Louis Fish Pottenger" (always said in full).

You see I love the water, to the point that I'd give my mom concern with my chameleon like skills in making my skin and lips color match that of the blue water. Growing up we didn't have the good fortune of being on the "correct side" of Cottle road like my friend Greg Keeney who had free access to one of the coolest community pools around. And I'm sorry ... but running through the sprinklers just doesn't cut it. You get grass all over you, and you can't dive for cool stuff at the bottom of the pool. However, as I was growing up I was fortunate enough to have a few avenue's to wet my swimming appetite through some close friend’s pools, and later in life a membership to a pool 5 or so miles away.

Calvin and Charlotte Krug could tell stories of our countless games played in their first San Jose home with an above ground pool. Being round it was perfect for making whirl pools, and since it wasn't super deep it never hurt my ears too much to dive for rings and golf balls. Of course Matt and I were always trying to get Charlotte to kiss us, but that’s another story. : ) Calvin also invited us often to his grandparent’s pool which was always a great time. We invented (or at least played) this game where one person stands out of the pool facing away from the water. That person’s goal was to jump into the pool on instinct and try and tag someone swimming from one side of the pool to the other. Just thinking about that game makes to want to go play it right now!

Swimming lessons were started early in my youth so I don't ever remember not liking the water. I've been told that I pushed matt in a pool when he was only 2 years old, but I don't remember that. (Sorry Matt if that’s true). I too had swimming lessons at Santa Teresa High School with Matt and our neighbor friends Alyssa, Stacy and Taryn. We'd often go and get Taco Bell after swim lessons which are where I think I developed my love for Taco Bell. But I digress...

The only thing I don't like about swimming is if there are things in the water that can sting, pitch, bite or cause infections to my body. Yes, the Ocean is not my favorite body of water to be in.... and for that matter lakes with crawdads are also to be avoided in my book.

I also to this day hate looking into the deep of a lake on a bright sunny day. You see the light from the sun going down about 8 to 15 feet and then.... darkness... It just freaks me out. The closest thing I can compare it too is being afraid of heights, being all alone in the middle of no where and the fear of large meat eating fish… all wrapped up in one. It’s not a fear that ever paralyzes me, but its still there if I allow myself to look into the deep water. (This paragraph reminds me of the movie "the Abyss".... see it now if you have not yet seen it)!

So there you have it, my obsession with swimming. I do lean to the safer swimming pools over lakes and oceans, so maybe that’s why my Fish nickname hasn't stuck around. Maybe I don't deserve it anymore... but I guess that’s life. : )

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Jury Duty John
November 23 - 2005

So amidst the busyness of moving I had the pleasure of answering my first Michigan jury duty summons. I had received a few notices when I was in college, but they were for serving in San Jose, and since I was in school in another state, I was able to slide by. This time though I did my civic duty and reported.

The first day I was called in and joined almost 200 people in waiting for 3 hours for my number to be called. The Jury clerk said it was the largest turn out she'd ever seen in her 13 years as a Jury Clerk, so I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not... but I sat nervously and waited. The first group was called pretty early on and nearly half the people disappeared, myself not being one of them. I sat and waited a bit more, and 2 more groups of people were called, again myself not among them. After another 45 minutes of waiting I was dismissed for the day around 11:30am.

The next day I was still expected to report, and so I arrived again only this time 100 or less people showed up. After waiting an hour they called everyone in 2 different courts for Jury selection. I was the 8th person called to the jury stand (a 14 out of 40 chance of being called), and sat down. For the next hour the two attorney’s started asking questions to the jury in hopes of getting an unbiased jury.

The case was about an African American who had resisted arrest and was charged for resisting arrest and assaulting an officer. So the questions we were asked as jury members were along the lines of "have you had any bad experiences with police officers". I gave what I thought to be a pretty strong case that I did have a few bad experiences with cops (a really grouchy cop pulled me over once and swore at me for no reason). But of course they asked the follow up question of "can you put that incident behind you and not let that effect your decision making process in this case?". Of course being a Christian I tend to not hold grudges and could easily put that incident behind me, so I said yes, and they kept me on the Jury. They then continued down the line and started asking other jurors similar questions and began dismissing people. As this was happening I was battling internally because part of me wanted to see what this whole Jury thing was all about, but the other part wanted to go home, so I was wrestling with myself to see if I could truly and honestly make judgments without letting my bad experiences with police effect me. I guess my curiosity got the better of me since I didn't say anything and ended up on the Jury.

We were then dismissed for lunch. I had a Quizno's sub and then returned to the courthouse. We assembled in the deliberating room and waiting about 5 minutes until we were called into the court room. We were sworn in, and sat down, but only for a moment. The defense attorney and the defendant were not in the room when we were getting sworn in, and just after sitting down, the defense attorney ran into the court room and asked if he could "approach the bench". The Judge and two attorney’s had a little whispering chat and then the judge told the jury that they needed to recess for a short time to discuss something with the attorney’s.

We then were herded once more into the deliberating room. Of course we were told not to discuss the case until we'd heard all the testimonies and seen all the evidence, so most everyone in the room said nothing to each other. The room was spilt down the middle with all the women on one end of a long oval table, and all the guys on the other end... not sure why... I guess it just happened that way. The women flipped through a few “Oprah” and “Good Housekeeping” magazines and made some small talk for the first few minutes and then the room went silent. We all sat there for about 30 minutes saying nothing. Some closed their eyes and napped, while others looked out the window at the amazing view from the 14th floor looking over Grand Rapids. Finally the door opened and the judge walked in. He said, "how would you all like to go home early this afternoon?". Smiles spread across the room as we waited for more information. He then proceeded to tell us that the defendant changed his plea to guilty, and we were done with our service. He did however point out that our presence and willingness to serve on a Jury might have been all it took to get him to realize he was wrong... and then he thanked us for serving. And that was that.

I've heard so many different perspectives on Jury duty... some hate it, others love it... I guess for me the Jury is still out on that decision. : )

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A day to remember
November 11 - 2005

Well today was a day for the history books. I actually beat the rubix cube all by myself from scratch today! I've been learning the different moves from my good friend Ryan Prins who's current record for solving it is less than 3 minutes! It took me about 20 to 30 minutes, but I did it! I know this sounds dorky, but I've always wanted to be able to beat that thing. I remember my dad had one when I was growing up, and I even remember seeing a book on how to beat it someplace in his bedroom... Dad any comments? : ) Oh and for those kids who were born in the late 1970's, you may get a kick out of this old show that I used to watch about the rubix cube. (Or click here for the theme Song)

And for those who think this is a waste of time... check out this cartoon.

Updates: I can now do it in less than 15 minutes! 11/14/2005

NEW FUN LINKS: Solving the rubix cube blind folded and more!

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iPod - a year in review
November 03 - 2005

I was talking with my friend Topher and he asked me to write about my iPod experience over the last 9 months since I bought it. Like do I still use it? Have I found new ways to use it? How has it affected my life etc... : )

Looking back over the last few months (with moving and all) I've found that I've used it more than ever. I bought some computer speakers just before the big move and set my iPod on the subwoofer and plugged it in. I had my entire music collection sitting on that little speaker and I could play all my favorites thanks to taking the time to rate most of the 5000+ songs in my 20GB unit. It was constantly on during home improvement while sanding, removing wallpaper and general cleaning etc… and it was so easy to move since it was just some speakers and my little iPod.

When I first got it however it did take some time to get used to having music so accessible. I found myself looking for places where I could use it like snow blowing, or mowing the lawn (in the summer), or just walking to my car from work. Of course it was new so I was a little obsessed with using it back then, but over time my use slowed down quite a bit. Throughout the year though it slowly crept back into being used more and more.

Outside of moving I've found it extremely valuable on trips. It's easy to find albums and favorite songs and it's much better than lugging around all my CD's, or limiting myself to just a few favorites. When I went to Vancouver in September there was a lot of traveling time involved and it was great to have it with me when driving, or waiting in the airport. I even had it on me for when we walked through downtown Vancouver and shopped. It's like having a soundtrack to your day. The trick is to keep the volume at the perfect level so that you can have conversations while still enjoying your music. I found people talk to you and think the iPod is off even if the ear buds are still in your ears. Being a movie buff, I found myself turning the music up at times in-between conversations just like a music montage would do in a movie. It was truly a blast to living a music montage in Vancouver.

I think the biggest advantage of any mp3 player is the ability to rate songs. It's one thing to have all your songs on an iPod or some other mp3 player, but if there's no ranking of songs, or pre-organized play lists, then it's harder to get the most of your listening experience. It takes a lot of time to go through and rank over 5000 songs, but if you do it little by little while listening to all your music, the task doesn’t seem as daunting. I'm actually still working on ranking my songs, but anticipate being done before the 1 year mark of ownership.

Finally I think having an iPod or some sort of mp3 player is good stewardship. If you think about it we all have hundreds of CD's in our collection, but how often do we listen to them all? I'd say on average we listen to maybe 10 to 20 of those CD's a year. And 5 to 10 of those are likely new CD's acquired that year. Having play lists and ranked music helps you listen to more of your music collection. If you haven't purchased an iPod or mp3 player yet, I highly recommend getting one.

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Celebrating one year
October 25 - 2005
Well its just over a year since Pottengerfamily went public with the entire family, and boy it's been a fun year. So much has happened in the lives of the Pottengers that it's impossible to recap it all in a short blog. But I'm glad to know that it's all been chronicled in blogs, news posts, and pictures so that in 10+ years from now we can all look back and remember. : ) Thanks to all of you who read and use our website. Its been a blast getting closer to those who posted comments, as well have the ability to share with all of you the joys, sorrows, and random thoughts that have come my way over the last year. Many blessings to you all

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In the paper
October 19 - 2005

Hey check it out... I was in the University's Newspaper!

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Vancouver - Day 2
September 21 - 2005

My life is complete. I shook hands and talked with none other than Gandalf himself today! Sir Ian MeKellen was “Magnito” today on the X-Men 3 set, and between takes he actually came over and talked to our small group twice! I managed to squeeze in the only questions our group asked him which were “How do you prepare as an actor?”… to which his reply was “get a good nights rest”. I also asked him if he changed the lines he speaks very often or if he says pretty much what is written in the script… he said he stays with what is written most of the time. And with that answer… he was called away to act.

Today we were on the set of X-Men 3 all day. We were led onto the set by the head- honcho himself, Ralf Winter, who is the head producer of the film. Ralf produced all the X-Men movies, as well as the Fantastic 4, and the last 4 Star Trek Movies… so his pedigree is rather impressive. What makes Ralf stand out though is his ability to be the best in the business and be a man of integrity at the same time. Ralf is one of the strongest Christians in this business that I have ever met, and truly amazing. Anyway… Ralf walked us onto the set (a forest scene with over 300 mutant extras today) and introduced us to the Director and Assistant Director. After our brief introductions we did our best to stay out of the way and watch the magic that is film making. During a camera change, the First Assistant Director came over and talked with us for more than 30 minutes. One of the best moments of the day by far (after talking with my pal Ian that is).

After lunch we drove a few miles to the sound stages that for X-Men 3 where we walked through the corridor leading to Cerebral, the Oval Office, the Academy “Xavier’s School for the Gifted”, and (if you can believe it) the X-Men Jet! I actually sat in the cockpit where Halley Berry (Storm) pilots the plane! We then saw a huge “green screen” set where a ton of green screen shots will be filmed. And just when I thought that our journey was at an end, we drove to a huge plot of land where I saw some of the outdoor sets that they had made. Unfortunately I can’t tell you about them now, but they were incredible!

We wrapped up our busy day by spending time in a classroom at Regent College where we heard a lecture from a Christian professor on Film History. We watched “City Lights” which is a Charlie Chaplin film. I wasn’t expecting much because it sounded boring compared to the day I had, but it turned out to be very cool as it really helped to connect film making and Christianity in ways I had not thought of before.

There’s so much more I could say, but as I sit here at a coffee shop watching the city night life, I’m compelled to enjoy this wonderful day, and just let it soak in. Wow, wow wow.

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Vancouver - Day 1
September 20 - 2005

September 21, 2005 - Tuesday
Wow, what a day. We started off our day with a tour of Lion’s Gate Studios which is home to numerous TV shows such as “X-Files”, “Smallville”, “Reunion”, and “Stargate SG-1” as well as a number of feature films that I can’t recall at the moment. We were led around the studio by non other than the president of Lion’s Gate himself, and co-escorted by the VP of operations! How incredible is that! I stood on the future apartment of the 2 main Character’s Reunion set (a brand new show) and was able to see a few Reunion actors preparing for their lines and getting makeup touch ups before shooting.

Right after Lion’s Gate we were off to “Post Modern Studios” where many films go to for post production sound work (such as ADR, Foley, and final audio mix downs). They do a TON of major films such as iRobot, Electra & some work for Lord of the Rings, as well as many TV shows like Andromeda, Stargate SG-1 and The L Word. The pictures (which I’ll upload at the end of the week) tell the story of this studio way better than I can say in words.

The next studio we went to was Rainmaker Studios which is one of the largest Post Production houses in the business (next to ILM, and Dreamworks). They were working on so many projects, you could practically name a movie (outside of a Dreamworks film) and they will have done something for it. Their facility was top of the line, and one of the most artistically collaborative set ups I’ve ever seen. They transfer and profess all their own 35mm film to and from digital and HD, and do everything from special effects to green screen compositing and digital color correction.

After Rainmaker we had dinner with a view at a great sea side restaurant, and then went to see the movie “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”. This was by far the scariest movie I had ever seen, and yet one of the most Christian views on demonic forces I’d ever seen. In fact the writer/director is a Christian. It’s not a movie everyone should see, but for those who do, it will move you… It’s not a movie that you can just watch without asking questions like “Is there a God or Devil?” and “Do you believe in a supernatural world”.

Tomorrow is going to be a fun filled day on the set of X-Men 3 and hanging with Ralf Winter the Producer (and a Christian). I’ll do my best to blog about it if I have the energy so stay tuned!

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Doggiebag Trailer
September 05 - 2005

Check out our downloads section for the new "Doggiebag" Trailer! I have some original music on its way so this version will likely change a bit when the new music is ready... but I wanted to get something up there right away ... so I hope you like it.

A quick word on Trailers... A trailer by nature is supposed to suck you in and sometimes even lead you on. The hard part for me was making a trailer that didn't over promise, or reveal too much of the story. After all, this is only a 5 to 7 minute short film... and it's hard to show things without giving away too much of the story. Plus in a 45 second trailer I get to pick some of the favorite shots and moments and put them into the trailer which gives the potential to over promise or mislead someone. Ahh the joys of movie making... Hopefully it will deliver what the trailer promises and not give away too much in the process.

Of course most of you probably know the story already so it's no big deal... but if by chance you are with someone who does not yet know the story, I'd love to get his or her feedback on the trailer to see what they think about the story (like did the trailer make sense, or would they even want to see this movie after watching it?). So if you have someone who doesn't know the story, please have them watch it, and then post comments on this blog posting so I can learn from it. Thanks all and enjoy!

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Doggiebag movie update
September 02 - 2005

I've been getting numerous questions as to the status of the movie I shot in early August, so I thought I should give an update.

After taking the month of August to try and catch up on weddings, as well as everything going on with our house, and family life, I've finally managed to digitize the video footage into my computer. My commitment to myself after the film was shot, was to not start editing until September (because I knew I had to catch up on weddings). FINALLY that day has come. My last scheduled wedding of 2005 is tomorrow, and I plan to take the holiday (Monday) to edit together the trailer. My friend Andy Ferris (who did the music on my last film "Brainstorm") is going to create a music piece just for the trailer this weekend, and I should have it in hand for Monday's edit if all goes well. So be watching our site later in the day on Monday and I should have a trailer up on the site for you all to enjoy.

Next weekend I have scheduled an afternoon of pick up shots that we didn't get during production last time. In addition to next weekend I will probably need another full day of shooting to get all the police shots since I have not yet been able to secure any policemen who are willing to be in my movie. Sometimes I wish I was in San Jose where I know the 2nd in command officer who I know would help me out... oh well... hopefully we will find someone out here. Pray for good weather to match our previous shooting days!

As I reflect on the process I've learned a lot as a director and I've wanted to put it into writing for some time now... so here it is:

1. Protect Your Actors: I surprised myself when on many occasions I found myself asking the crew to not yell out deadlines or "we are behind" updates. I can handle the stress, bit these kinds of announcements stress actors out, and stifles their performances. As the weekend progressed I found myself regularly asking for updates privately from key department heads which I found very effective not only in reducing the louder "we only have 10 minutes to get this shot" announcements, but also helped keep us on time and the shooting to move smoother.

2. PRE-PRODUCTION: There can never be enough planning before shooting a film. Probably the biggest detriment I suffered personally from a lack of planning was time spent blocking "on set" rather than before we started shooting. Because of this I found myself watching the blocking and timing of things more than the performances which I think could have been better with a little bit of direction. But since I was focused on so many other things, I missed a few opportunities to tweak performances and better the acting.

3. Script Review: I didn't take enough time to go through the script and really dig deep into what each line of dialog was asking. Every line should have a motivation behind it, and I didn't take the time to review the script and make notes. This would have helped on a number of occasions where an actor was over acting, or a performance was flat. If I would have had more time before shooting, I would have made a lot of notes in the script to give me ideas on how to get the performances to be real and accurate for each line. I know this probably sounds like a control freak kind of thing to do, but you'd be surprised how many times I know it would have helped. In fact if it weren't for my co-producer Michael Hidalgo's advice on a few occasions I probably would have found myself with some really flat or "over the top" performances.

4. Read "Directing Actors" by Judith Weston: Without this book I would have not been lost. Well maybe not lost, but definitely much more amateur in the way I approach actors and directing them. If you plan on directing any kind of actors for film or otherwise, you have to read this book.

Well that’s at least some of the major things I learned through this process. I hope you found in helpful or entertaining.

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Flip Flops
August 23 - 2005

Sorry ladies, but I just don't get the obsession with flip flops. Shoes I can at least understand because there's a wide variety of uses and such, but honestly why the obsession with flip flops? I've seen way too many girls have a perfectly good day go down the drain all because... "my flip flop just broke!" Guys, am I right? Everything is was going great until DUN DUN DUN.... the 5 cent flip flops your wife found at Old Navy just broke (imagine that... a cheap flip flop that doesn't last for more than a day?). And how many do you really need? If the purpose of a flip flop shoe is to wear on the beach for easy removal, or to possibly show off that fancy pedicure, or maybe to keep your feet cool on a hot summer day when you don't want to wear socks... sure... Maybe a few sandals or flip flops will do ya... but I have yet to find a girl who owns less than 10 pairs of these flip flops that seem to multiply like rabbits. Personally I own one pair of sandals, one pair of a combo shoe/sandal and one pair of flip flops. Anyway… nuff said. : )

(BTW this blog was inspired by someone else's blog about having a bad day involving her broken flip flop... and no it wasn't Amy)

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Observation
August 22 - 2005
Why is it that when there's so much going on in life that you never have time to blog about it... and when you have way to much time to blog, there's nothing to blog about?

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Shooting "Doggie Bag"
August 09 - 2005

There's so much to say it's hard to know what to include in a blog and what to save for the extra features on the DVD. : ) looking back on the weekend it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. All weekend long I kept thinking how amazing it is that I have a cast and crew of nearly 20 people (plus extras) all donate 3 full days of their lives in hard labor just to help me make this film. I've never felt more blessed and supported in my life.

The teamwork and collaboration it takes to get a single 3 or 4 second shot is unreal... and my movie has over 90 shots. I don't think I've made so many decisions in my lifetime as I did in this one weekend. "How’s the lighting John?"..."How should I walk into this shot"..."Do you want to do it again"... "how should I say this line?"... "do you want to try a different location?"... “Do you really need this shot?”… “How about we do it this way?”… endless decisions and constant questions all to get the perfect shots and acting. I can truly say that the result of each and every one of those 90 shots is the sum total of many people's careful execution. I may have conceived and planned all the shots in pre-production, but in execution I have numerous people watching the monitors for so many things. Greg Ohlman watched the lighting and checked for shadows, Jon Ackerman watched the framing and camera movement, Jessica Staples and others watched for continuity, and I watched for performance and story.

FRIDAY:
Friday was probably the easiest and most laid back production day. We shot all the city streets scenes with Anna walking around trying to ditch the suitcase. We started with the scene where Anna meets up with the bum at the dumpster and is surprised. We had planned on a few shots to cover the scene but managed to save about 30 to 40 minutes by just shooting it all in one shot. Rachel Mingerink, who played Anna was outstanding. Her skill became more and more evident as shooting progressed, but even in this first scene it was apparent that Rachel was going to be awesome. In addition, the actor who played the bum was outstanding in his role, and the relationship between Anna and the bum - however brief - was authentic and real. It was a great start to a great weekend to be ahead of schedule and have a great shot in the bag. The rest of the morning went very well and Amy, Dozer and I even had a cameo on the shooting later in the morning. After shooting was over near 1pm, we broke for lunch and then went to the apartment set to prepare for Saturdays shooting. Amy met the crew and I at the apartment set and worked her magic to make it come to life with her design. We decided to shoot one complicated dolly/jib shot late in the day on Friday that was scheduled for Saturday…. which ended up being a good idea because it took us over an hour to get the shot right which would have put us way behind schedule on Saturday.

SATURDAY:
Saturday was the first time we had a full crew as 3 or 4 people had to work on Friday, so the excitement and potential for the day was very high. Things started out slow with people trickling in a little late, but eventually everyone was there and we started to rehearse the first shot. Being a longer dolly shot, it took a number of rehearsals to get it right and so we started off a little behind schedule. Most of the day was “behind schedule” … or so I was told on many occasions. I’m not sure where, but after lunch I recall us being more than 30 minutes behind schedule, and then within 1 or 2 simple shots we were an hour ahead of schedule and done early. I’m sure if it was a miscalculation in my shot estimates, or possibly that we had shot less angles of a scene than planned… but somehow by the end of the day we were way ahead of schedule. This was a little frustrating to me because I’d much rather work in a low pressure environment because it leaves more room for creativity and experimentation. Had I known we were going to finish ahead of schedule I would have taken some liberties to experiment more and possibly tweak some performances, but I guess that’s just they way it goes sometimes. The second part of the day was tough because we had some real emotion driven scenes to shoot, and that is never easy (no matter how good you are at acting). But I was pleased with the results of all the actors and by the end of the day we had lots of great shots of good acting in the can.

SUNDAY:
Sunday morning was both fun and easy. We shot the scene where Anna leaves her apartment, and the stairwell scene where the suitcase falls down the stairs. Greg Ohlman (lighting) had a great idea to look for an alternate location which worked out perfectly considering it was last minute. The head of security was right there on the front steps and she agreed to let us shoot and signed a release form only minutes before we started shooting. The stairwell scene was something to see because we had nearly 15 people packed into a stairwell to set up and watch the shooting. Jon Ackerman (my DP) was not able to be there in the morning, so Ryan Prins filled in as DP and did a great job. The afternoon shoot was a little trickier because I had to block and coordinate all the extras at the hotel scene as well as work with a few new actors. The shots at this scene however turned out fabulous. With 3 dolly shots and one glidecam shot it was an exciting shoot to direct. Our shoot was cut a little short however when a large tour bus pulled up to the rear of the hotel where we were shooting. We only had 5 minutes at that point to try and squeeze in one more shot before a second tour bus would arrive. So with some high pressure near the end of the day we managed to get in our last shot at the hotel in 2 takes. Just after we finished with take 2 the second bus arrived and we had to strike the set. A few of us then moved around the corner to film the reporter giving his report. That took a little while because there was so much dialog, but we eventually got the shots we needed and finished packing up.

When I look back on this weekend I can’t help but feel a rush of excitement and happiness. As cheesy as this might sound, I know I’ll never be the same after going through this process. I got closer to so many people who not only made the process fun, but also worked extra hard to make each shot the best that it could be. Even now, 2 days later, I smile just thinking about it. Thanks to all of you who helped out. It’s a time I will never forget. God’s presence was certainly apparent with a near perfect weather weekend, no injuries, lots of creativity and a great team building and friendship growing experience. Thanks everyone who prayed for us, and a HUGE thanks to all the cast and crew who made this weekend one of the best weekends of my life.

Check out the pictures of this weekend in the pictures section!

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Quick Overview
August 07 - 2005
Well it's late in the day on Sunday and the big shooting weekend was a huge success. I promise a full update and report soon (hopefully on Monday) along with some pictures. The shoot not only yielded some great acting moments and creative shots, but also a fun and collaborative group effort. I know I've made some closer friends because of this, and also learned a lot about directing and producing. A special thanks to all you who participated in this weekends events, as well as to those of you who kept us in your prayers. God was certainly with us this weekend, and I can't wait to begin editing. More to come soon...

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Weather Report!
August 03 - 2005
As of 1 day before shooting:

"Friday will bring cooler and less humid air with highs in the lower 80s and partly sunny skies.

Right now, the weekend looks nearly perfect with plently of sunshine and highs in the lower 80s." - WZZM 13 News

Woo hoo! - John

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Major defeats
August 01 - 2005

Well in the last few days some major defeats have come my way. Both the Police and Fire Department said no to being involved with my film. There's still a chance that I might be able to talk the Police chief into letting me get one shot that doesn't show any logo's or Grand Rapids titles on cars, but thats very much up in the air still.

While this is frustrating, I was reminded by my friend Anthony about my earlier blog about God being one of my producers, and that there's a reason things happened this way. In fact it's very possible that my story will be better because of it... we'll just have to make the best movie we can and see what happens. I've already started thinking of how the story might change (for the better) without involving the PD or FD.

Another technical bug was that I ordered a dolly about 3 weeks ago, and have been in constant communication with the vendor to make sure it arrives on time. I guess the manufacturer custom makes each one and parts won't be in until late this week... so needless to say I now have to try and find a dolly somewhere.

On the positive side, I've been successful in finding someone for makeup and hair, as well as a head Production Assistant. I've also recruited some people for sound, as well as craft services, and some extras... so my cast and crew continues to develop and grow which is encouraging. Also a special thanks to my parents (in-law) for sending the famous suitcase that will be in my movie. Thanks guys!

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Major Production Meeting
July 26 - 2005

Yesterday I had one of my first "major" productions meetings. By this I mean that nearly everyone involved was at one of our locations to scout it out, and talk through all the issues. It was really exciting for me to be there with so many people who not only took the time to be there, but also do it all for free. It's such a blessing to have such great people around me who are as excited about this project as I am.

Yesterday was the first time I had my DP and Gaffer (Lighting) guys there and we were able to go to our 2 main locations and look around, talk through shots and lighting and potential snags. Everyone was taking notes, making to do lists and moving forward. It was really fun for me, and my stress levels were going down while the excitement was going up.

Another major bonus and exciting part of the process was that Amy is now fully involved in the set design. She's not only excited about it, but already way ahead of me with ideas, props and questions about the sets that she will be decorating. I'm very excited to have her helping out, and hopefully this is the beginning of many future collaborations on future movies. : )

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God... The Ultimate Producer
July 21 - 2005

I was thinking the other day how other people's attitudes and kindness plays into making film. My current film involves working with the largest hotel in Grand Rapids, the fire and police department and many hours of people's lives to make this happen on no pay whatsoever. And maybe when you have a budget things are different, but you still have to interact with people and try and get locations and permission no matter what your budget.

This lead me to think that who better to have on your producing team than God. After all He's the one that changes people's hearts, or can cause a potential road block to fall through and open up a door for your production. Talk about power! Not that I'd ask Him to do that, but it never hurts to have the almighty creator on your side you know?

So this morning I was really stressing out about this movie. It's actually been looming for weeks, and every day that we get closer means more stress for me. So this morning I said "you know what, it's not worth it. If making movies is this stressful then why make them". And the first thing I did when I walked into my office was pray. I put the whole thing into His hands and asked Him to comfort me, and take away my stress. I felt a little better after that, but letting go takes time.

So here's where the story gets good... I had 2 auditions today. One was a recall from a previous audition, and another was a brand new actor who couldn't make it to my last audition night. The first actor wasn't very good... but got a little better with some direction, but I could tell it was going to take some major rehearsals and direction to get the performance I was looking for out of her. Then came the 2nd girl.

She was late because... get this... she was trying to find an outfit to wear that she thought Anna (the lead in my story) would wear. She had her fair done up, glasses, the outfit... everything. She then proceeded to ask me all sorts of questions like, "who is Anna talking to in the beginning of the story?" and "What is her attitude here?" and "What kind of relationship does Anna have with Steve and Lisa? (the dog owners). She then asked for 10 minutes to think about my answers and practice with me out of the room. When I came back and heard her audition its was so natural. I was literally watching Anna give the lines, and not an actor playing Anna! She brought depth and realness to the character that I'd never even fathomed before. During her entire audition (when she was acting that is) she was shaking a little like she was nervous and so I asked her after it was all over if she was nervous. Her response was "Well Anna is someone who has a lot of fear. She seems nervous throughout the entire script..." and I thought she was actually nervous to be acting in front of me, but it turns out she was just playing it into her performance! I couldn't even tell and was completely surprised!

Needless to say God answered my prayer and my stress level is back down to normal. If ever any of you make a movie I highly recommend you recruit God on your production team. He's definitely worth the time. You just have to trust Him. : )

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Doggie Bag Updates
July 20 - 2005

Well a lot has happened since I wrote last. I've secured my locations, cast most of my actors and I'm 80% done with getting the Police and Fire Dept involved, but thats looking positive. I've also made a shot list (over 70 shots) and begun storyboarding with the help of Ryan Prins.

Something that I can't say enough is the importance of having quality fellow producers to help out. Michael Hidalgo and Laura Stanberry have doing so much for me on this project its unreal. It's pretty cool to have people volunteer so much time, and care so much about this project for free. They are my right and left hands in this project, and without them this project might not have happened.

Lately I've been thinking that making a movie is a lot like planning a wedding. You spend hours and days and weeks planning for shooting, you have coordinate millions of little things, you have to make it all work within a budget and everything is more stressful than it should be. : )

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The Script
July 12 - 2005

Well here it is... the script is done. Could it be better? Most likely. But at some point you have to move forward with what you have, and I think the story is pretty solid. After all its a short film, and my first one at that, so I'm sure I'll look back on this project in a few years and see how far I've come... at least I hope so. : ) Enjoy the story.

Click Here for the Doggie Bag Script

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Auditions & Updates
July 02 - 2005

Well I survived my first round of auditions. In total we only had roughly 10 people audition, but out of those 10 I was only really looking for 3 main actors. So in spite the low turn out, I'm fairly happy with the results. I haven't made any final decisions yet, but I'm fairly certain I have the 2 supporting roles nearly filled. The lead role is a tough one, and I didn't see enough people to really make a good decision on it yet. So I'm currently planning on doing another round of auditions as well as "call backs" for some of the people I want to see audition again (a little differently this time).

In the meantime, my small no/low budget film has exploded into quite a larger version of the same story. Yep that’s right... just when I thought my script refining was over... BOOM... my friend Rik Swartzwelder goes and shows me where my story is week, and then gives some suggestions for a stronger story. I was both thrilled and depressed at the same time when we had lunch this past week. His ideas were right on, and though I wish the script were locked, I know the story will be better because of his suggestions. Some of his ideas were not completely new to me, but after hearing them expressed within the script I already had it somehow seemed more feasible to do the changes he mentioned. Some of the changes now include a real news cast with an actual Grand Rapids TV news anchor, 5 to 15 Police cruisers, 1 or 2 fire trucks, a swat team or bomb squad, and a whole heck of a lot of extras.

I know I promised a version of the script to be online soon, but since it's still being finalized I feel the time isn't right just yet. I'm hoping within the week to wrap up the script as my time table is growing short to squeeze in all the planning needed to get this off the ground.

I'm finding more and more of my free time is going towards this movie now, and less towards Coastline or Cornerstone. Finding a balance has truly been difficult, but I'm making it through. Amy and I have managed to keep out date nights in tact (however more sporadically), and so far none of my clients has complained.

Please continue to pray for this project. Pray for the many people who might volunteer their time, resources, vehicles (cop cars), & locations ... and most of all for the crew on this project. Pray that this film will ultimately bring people together, and bring people closer to the Lord (even though it's a comedy). And finally pray for me and my producers, Laura and Mike. We have a lot to get done (outside of our normal lives and jobs) to get this movie made in 1 month. Thank sall... More to come soon....

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Me? Act?
June 20 - 2005

So tonight we learned about how to pitch a film to investors. What to do, what not to do, how to do it, and how to prepare for it... but I'd rather talk about something else I learned tonight... actor auditions.

At Compass Film Academy (where I have my classes) there was a well respected and successful young director holding casting auditions for a short film Compass is helping make at the end of this week. I've worked with Rick Swartzwelder before as an editor and a sound man on some of his films, but tonight I was able to experience casting. My class was in session during most of the auditions so I only had a chance during the break to sit in and observe about 2.5 auditions before I had to get back to class. I had lots of questions for him about why he did what he did, but had to get back to class, and so I put my questions on hold...

Well after class was finished I went over to him to ask him my questions, but before I knew what was happening, I found myself in the audition seat in front of Rick and Gabrielle who was assisting him. Since I knew I wasn't free for most of the day they were shooting, I figured I was kinda safe and secretly thought it would be kinda fun to "see how I did" in an acting audition. Having watched a few auditions during my break I knew roughly what he was going to do, but of course he changed it on me... just a little.

He told me that we were going to improvise a scene together... we were both in the "12 items only" line at a grocery store. He (Rick) was in front of me with 15 items, and I was standing behind him. He asked me to be peeved at this, and try and explain to him that he was over the limit. After these short instructions he said "Go!" and we were off.

My heart beat rapidly as I struggled to imagine what I would do in that situation. I constantly told myself, "don't over act!", as I feel my acting tends to lean that way. We had a few bouts back and forth, and then he said... "Good... now I want you to imagine that you are a quiet person... someone who gets annoyed at people easily, but has a hard time saying it... Go!" My heart beating stronger now, I tried to subdue my performance... "Sir could you use the other line please?" I asked in a frustrated manor. We had a few more improvised lines, and then we moved on.

Finally Rick asked me to think about something that really gets me frustrated... deeply annoyed... maybe a pet peeve.... and then... tell him about my favorite Christmas memory in that mindset and tone of voice. WOW. You try doing that... holy crap that’s hard to do. I made an attempt, and then Rick stopped me for a few tips... "Don't act", he said. "Just be upset, and don't focus on the words of your Christmas memory... they are just words... be annoyed". I tried again. He seemed to take it in well, and I wondered how I did. Finally before I was through he asked me to do the entire scene all over again (the shopping line scene) using no words... just looks, using him and the girl next to him as people to interact with. At this point there were 2 or 3 other spectators watching my performance... I proceeded, and our audition was at a close.

Immediately after we were done, he pulled me aside and said, "You sure you aren't free on Thursday?" I was floored, amazed and confused. "You don't actually think I was better than the rest of your auditions do you?" I asked. He proceeded to answer by saying he wanted to keep an open mind, and had some hard thinking to do tonight in picking people for the parts. "Some of the guys who auditioned tonight were ok, but your presence on screen is really good. Your a good 'natural' actor," he said. Since I wasn't free on Thursday morning, or Friday at any time during the day, he asked me if I might be willing (if asked) to act in a smaller supporting role in the afternoon on Thursday. I said yes I think I would... So I guess we'll see what happens. Wow...

The irony of this whole thing is that I am less than 2 weeks away from holding my own casting auditions for Doggie Bag. I can't tell you the wealth of knowledge I gained tonight by going through this experience. It will certainly prove valuable when I'm in the other seat interviewing actors. What an experience....

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Refining the script
June 16 - 2005
Probably my least favorite part of making a movie is writing. If I had my way, I'd hire a writer or just find a pre-written script and then go shoot it. My skills apply more to the production and post-production side of film making. There are SOME elements of pre-production I enjoy... like getting a crew together, finding locations and getting all the little production details ironed out... all of these are pretty fun to do, but refining and writing the script just pulls me into the abyss of unproductiveness, and depression.

However, bad writing = bad movie. So without this EXTREMELY important part of pre-production all movies would become second rate “cable TV” quality garbage, with the occasional cool camera shot or two if you’re lucky. Writing a script involves looking at the story to see if it makes sense. You want to find out if there are any holes, or anything that doesn't add up. You’re looking for flow, pacing and continuity. You're building character traits, habits and flaws. And most importantly, you are looking to see if your script has a good story in it. While this probably sounds like fun to many of you… trust me, its not easy… especially when people keep telling you to “do it this way” or “no this way is better”. Just give me the best story, and let me film it dang it! I want to go make it!

In my producers class they have said that it’s rare to come up with something new or original. You are much better off adapting an older story, or finding some urban legend and making a film out of that. My current project "Doggie Bag" was something of a true story, but told to me 3 or 4 people removed... so I'm not sure how true it actually is. But after hearing the story I heard I was inspired (partially with the help of my wife) to write a script for it.

So for the last 2+ months I've had countless meetings with writers, producers and friends, and have heard nearly 20 to 30 different versions of the original script I wrote! I even had 3 other writers write their own versions of the story for me, all completely different. So after many hours of discussion and debate I've finally ironed out the details to the point that I think I have a solid story that I feel is worth telling. Who would have thought it was so hard to write a simple script for a 5 minute short film. Now that I'm nearing the end of this process, I am grateful for all the work that has gone into "getting it right", and I’m extremely grateful for those who have helped walk me along this journey so far (you know who you are). After all it’s better to work this all out in pre-production than to get on set and have to figure it out then... or worse… start editing it together and find out the story doesn't even make sense.

As soon as I get a "locked" version of the script, I'll post it on the site so you can read it for yourself. So stay tuned!

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How to make a short film
June 15 - 2005

My apologies for those who may have noticed a shortage of blogs in the past few weeks. I've been spending most of my time either working on improvements to this site (coming soon), wrapping up the extra features to the "Brainstorm" DVD (the film I made for the 24 hour film festival), or more recently working on my next short film "Doggie Bag".

Over the next few weeks and months I will be doing my best to journal my process in making a short film. Even though "technically" I've made 2 short films already (Roads, and Brainstorm), this film will constitute my REAL first film in many ways;

- First time with a real crew (including an Assistant Director, Script Supervisor, a Gaffer, a Director of Photography, and other roles I've never had before)
- First time with actor auditions, and a casting "recruitment poster"
- First time spending 2+ months in pre-production
- First time doing rehersals with the actors prior to shooting
- And other things I can't remember right now... : )

In addition to this film, I'll be including things I learn in the "Advanced Producers Course" that I'm taking at Compass Arts Academy this summer. This class walks you through every aspect of making a film from script to screen. Talk about the perfect class for me! So be sure to stop in often. I'll REALLY try and keep posts coming... at least one a week, and hopefully more.

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Star Wars - Episode III
May 23 - 2005

So I've seen "Revenge of the Sith" 2 times now, and I really like it. Amidst any Star Wars film you will find moments of bad acting, but if you can sift away those moments, and just watch the story... you'll find yourself enjoying the film. Overall it was a sad story, but everyone knew that going into it. I personally found enjoyment in all the little things, like Yoda's "force move" on the Emperor's guards, or R2's heroic beginning to the movie. I also enjoyed hearing how they tied up 3PO's memory of the first 3 movies, and also an explanation on Obi-wan's immortality. If you haven't seen it yet, go see it. It's worth getting all the answers, and getting some closure on connecting the new movies with the original ones. A must see for any Star Wars fan out there!

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The Pottenger Addiction
May 05 - 2005

Ok, it's time the world found out about the Pottenger's little addiction to the arcade style game "Snood". If you haven't heard of, or played Snood, there's still a good chance that you've played a game like it. I've seen similar games titled, "frozen bubbles", "fruit", and "balloons" that play in a similar fashion to Snood. The basic idea is you shoot similar pieces (or snoods) from a cannon up into the playing field above, and try to get three or more of a kind to link up and disappear. It's such a simple game, and yet strangely addicting. In fact the addiction runs through my extended family as well (I think we might have even heard of this game from our extended family). Anyway, this game is worth reporting on in my blog since it seems to rival so many other things going on in the Pottenger household.

The Pottenger Snoods Set - By John Pottenger There is a free version that never expires that you can download here. I was inspired to purchase the full version since we play it often enough, and upon exploring I found out you can make your own snoods! So of course I did. So now YOU can download you very own ANIMATED "Pottenger Family" snoods set ... for FREE from our website! Click here to go to our “downloads” section and get the set! Once you download the snood set (a .bmp file), go to the "preferences" menu and choose "Select Snood Graphics Set". Then at the bottom of the screen, check the little box to "import custom graphics set" and then click the button to browse to our Pottenger snood bmp file.

Enjoy, and happy Snooding!

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The Results Are In
April 30 - 2005

Jon, Jeff, Danielle, Me & Ryan After an exciting and nerve racking night of screening films, the winners were declared. In all, my film "Brainstorm" took home every award except 1st or 2nd place. We actually came in 3rd place due to a technicality, or difference of opinion (from that of the judges) on our interpretation of a "Bridge" as a location. I was told by the director of the alumni board just after the ceremony concluded that we didn't get first only because we didn't include a bridge in our movie. Of course everyone on my team will argue that not only did we have a bridge, but it was a highly creative, "outside the box" use of a location to shoot the bridge as a location on a guitar. Apparently the audience agreed with me and my team because as soon as that part of my movie played, the audience began talking and laughing... There were a lot of "wow's" and "ohh's" going around the room as if to say... "wow that was a really creative idea", and "I get it!... very cool". And yet amid the crowd's endorsements the judges (who weren't present) apparently didn't agree with our creative choice, and that cost us 1st and/or 2nd place.

In addition to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards, the festival gives 2 other awards; "The People's Choice" award, and "The Best Alumni Film Award". The Peoples Choice award is determined that night by the audience (who all were given a list of the top 10 films on a paper) to vote for their favorite film of the evening, and the winner gets free admission into next October's "24 Hour Film Festival". The Best Alumni Film award is voted on by the alumni board, and the winner is awarded a free round trip ticket to LA! And I'm proud to say, Brainstorm took both of these awards home last night!

Me with the 3 awards "Brainstorm" won It was an interesting night to say the least. Since they only show the top 10 films, no one knows if their film will be shown or not. As the evening progressed, we watched film, after film, and my movie hadn't played. Right around the 7th film I lost count, and when we finished watching the 9th film, I thought it was over... my film didn't air. But my count was off, and Brainstorm was the last film to play. After playing it was the only film to receive an additional round of applause right before the winners were announced. Right after my film finished I heard someone behind my say "NUMBER 10!!" The way they revealed the winners was to play an encore showing of the film. And for some reason they showed the 2nd place film first, then 3rd, and then 1st. So when 2nd place wasn't my film, I got real excited. I thought for sure we had won. But when they did 3rd place next, and my film was showing, I was confused. I think the audience was confused too, but because everyone was laughing at my film the first time they saw it, and this time it was dead silent in the room. It was like everyone was disappointed, confused, and scared to laugh. After winning the people’s choice award later in the evening, I would guess that the silence was because everyone thought my film was going to 1st place for sure.

So to summarize, I was very pleased with the results. Even though the judges didn't award "Brainstorm" 1st place, I feel confident in our artistic decision to do what we did, and I think the audience and alumni board agreed with us. I guess we'll just have to SWEEP in October's 24 hour festival right? !! : )

Click here to watch "Brainstorm" - It's 18MB file, so it might take a while to load.

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24 Hour Film Festival
April 25 - 2005

Jeff & Jon This past weekend I had one of the most exciting experiences of my life... The Compass Arts 24 hour film festival. The basic premise is that any number of teams compete to create a story, write it, film it, edit it and turn it in all within 24 hours. In addition to the time limit, you must also include 4 items that are determined at the beginning of the festival by drawing them randomly out of a hat. The 4 items are; a prop, a line (to be spoken), a location, and a theme. This year the prop was a "spork", the line was from Raising Arizona, "You ate sand? Thats right!", the location was "a bridge", and the theme was "If I knew then, what I know now". This was the largest turn out Compass Arts had ever seen... in that they were hoping to double their previous festival turn out of 12 teams, and get to 20 teams. In the end I was told there were over 30 teams that competed! Needless to say I had my work cut out for me.

Ryan enters My team consisted of Jon Ackerman, Jeff Sickles, Ryan Prins, Andy Ferris (music only), an actress named Danielle Beckwith, and at the last minute Kyle Millen joined us for the first half of the 24 hours. Without giving away too much of the story, we did a story of 3 guys (Ryan, Jon & Jeff) who get together to try and come up with a story. As they tell their versions of the story, you see it happen as they explain it. The story they tell involves a guy, and his girl.... and thats where Danielle comes in. Who was they guy you ask? Well, I'm not sure how this happened, but I was the guy... yeah, the closet actor waiting to be discovered by Hollywood. (yeah right).

John (thats me) editing at 8:40am with Ryan Since we had 2 story's going we were able to shoot the 3 guys part of the story first, and then after a short nap, edit that part of the story together. This allowed us to do 2 things. First give Andy a copy of the story so he could try and write some music for it since he wasn't with us for any of the day so far. Second it gave Danielle and I something to act off of when filming our part of the story.

We wrapped shooting a little after 5pm on Saturday, and after a fast strike of the set, we went to my house to continue editing. Editing went very well but we ended up needed every second as I delivered the final video at 9:28pm ... just 2 minutes shy being docked points for being later than our 9:30pm deadline. I actually ran out of time and didn't get a movie title made in time... : )

God was certainly on our side as there were countless God moments throughout the day.

Ryan tells his version First we were able to get a well written story with the help of Jon, Ryan (and I) by 2:15am. There are some moment's in the script that simply amaze me. I was helping to set up the camera towards the end of the script writing, and was pleasantly surprise on a number of occasions during the day when a line slipped in that was just awesome. Good writing can make or break a production.

Second since we edited a version of the story before shooting the 2nd set, we saved ourselves a lot of time later for editing, as well as allowed Andy to write music to a nearly locked picture. Andy actually e-mailed me 4 different songs in Mp3 format over e-mail of which I was able to drop into my timeline, and have the music line up perfectly. Each song came at different times between 6pm and 9pm.... with the last song arriving at 9:05pm... now thats cutting it close! Andy is simply amazing... with only a few small explanations of what was going to happen with the 2nd part of the story that we had yet to film, he was able to clue in on the exact mood, and feeling that our film needed. You know that part of the movie "That Thing You Do" where they hear their song on the radio and they all go berserk... Well every time I dropped in a song into my timeline, It was that feeling... It's quite an amazing thing to be editing for hours without one ounce of music, and then hear music fit your film so perfectly. Amazing.

Me acting w/ Jon on camera and Jeff Assisting Third, the trip to our drop off destination is roughly a 18 to 25 minute trip depending on how you hit the traffic lights... well by the grace of God (and I honestly believe it had to be God) we hit every light green from 9:15pm when we left my house and I somehow got it there in less than 12 minutes. And I never went more than 5 mph over the speed limit for the entire trip.

The screening is next Friday, and they will only be showing the top 10 films (out of 30+).... so I'll be sure to update how we did. I am fairly confident that we are in the top 10, but I am going to strive to remain humble and not try and guess how we placed. I couldn't be more proud of how it turned out (especially given it had to be all done within 24 hours). My team never had a "my way is better" attitude. It seems like everyone wanted the best for the story, and if it meant letting go of an idea... then that wasn't an issue.

What a great experience... Praise the Lord for film, and the arts!!!!

UPDATE: Click here to view the teaser trailer for my short film!!

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I give this blog 4 stars
April 14 - 2005

Lately with all my travels I've been enjoying the use of my iPod and listening to playlist of my favorite songs. The only problem with playlists, is it takes time to make them... especially if you have over 3000 songs in your library. Thats where "smart playlists come in" (in iTunes). As many of you know, you can rate your songs with stars (both in iTunes and Windows Media Player). Since I'm using an iPod I've been rating everything in iTunes from 1 to 5 stars and creating a mixture of standard playlists, as well as smart playlists.

A smart playlist lets you add songs to it dynamicly, meaning you set up parameters like "include my top rated songs" which will play only 5 star songs. I experienced the joy of this dynamic playlist this past weekend when driving to and from Ohio for a wedding. It was like listening to "the best of..." my entire cd collection! We've all been in car trips where you have to organize your current favorite CD's and then in the car you play 2 or 3 songs, and switch out the CD. Those days are gone with the iPod and smart play lists.

Of course rating songs takes time. And so I've committed to listening to my entire music collection little by little by making a "smart playlist" that only includes "unrated songs". That way as time goes on that playlist will grow smaller and smaller until there are no songs in there. Cool eh?

In case anyone cares, here's how I rate my music:
1 Star - I hate this song, why did they ever write it! I never want to hear it again
2 Stars - I dislike this song, maybe I can listen to it someday (I use this rating for a lot of soundtrack stuff to, since I don't listen to those as often)
3 Stars - It's a song, but I don't like it or hate it. It is what it is.
4 Stars - I like this song, I wouldn't mind hearing it more often
5 Stars - I LOVE THIS SONG! I want to play it until I'm sick of it, and demote it to a 4 star song.

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A "stop doing" list
April 11 - 2005

In a recent and enjoyable breakfast with my mentor I came to realization that I needed to make a "stop doing" list to help me counter my busy schedual. As simple as this sounds, it is difficult to put into practice as most items on a "stop doing" list are usually good things. For me my largest decision on the list was to stop booking weddings for 2005. Granted there may be a few exceptions, but only with Amy's concent and a mutual agreement that I should take a gig. (like say if the wedding was in Hawaii or near family or something) : )

In addition he explained his personal conviction to keep the sabbath. I think he's the only person I know personally who actually does this. From sun down on Friday night until Sundown on Saturday he spends time with his family and God, and does no household work, nor office work. Just time to relax and be with his loved ones. Now that is a tough one to swallow, but once my business slows down a bit, I hope to try it out. (that will likely be in August or Septmeber unfortuantely due to currently schedualed weddings)

Probably the most imporatant thing we talked about is career vs family, and where priorities should be. America is certainly a proponent of the carreer priority, and family is often neglected. I came to the conclusion that in this "land of opportunity" that I need to be spending more time with family. Right now that means Amy, and someday children. I also was convicted that if I should ever find a reason to move out of Michigan, that I would want to be near family. Both Amy and I grew up away from our relatives, and we someday hope that we can give our children the opportunity to grow up with thier grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

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To busy to poop
April 07 - 2005

Ever since just after lunch today I've needed to poop. It's not the "man I really gotta go" kinda of poop... just the... "man I'm not comfortable, and I should go soon" kinda feeling... with the occasional gas bubble to remind you that you should take care of things. Have you ever had one of those days where you are too busy to poop? That is WAY TOO BUSY if you ask me. It's now 10:30pm, and I finally had my chance while waiting for a DVD video to finish burning at Cornerstone. HALLELUJAH! <-- (music from the Handel's Messiah) To quote one of my high school teachers... "Sex has it's place, but nothing quite beats a good dump." Well said Ken... well said.

Yeah so life has been crazy. I'm heading up 3 side video projects (films), and am responsible for overseeing a small number of other people who need to complete 10+ other videos by next Friday. Add to that a weekend away to photograph / video a wedding, and editing the pictures and video from my last wedding and you start to see where all my free time has gone. My advice? Never be too busy to poop. Pooping is good for you, and you always feel good afterwords. Having a bad day? Go poop... I guarantee you will feel better instantly... like a load has been lifted, ... your burden is lighter, and you day will most definitely be less crappy.

(My apologies to those who might have been offended by the content ... or should I say ... aroma of this blog. But I guess I don't have to worry about brown nosing to anyone with my own blog right?) : )

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Getting back to work
April 04 - 2005

I just returned from a nice trip to sunny California and a much needed break. The primary purpose for the trip was a wedding that I photographed and video taped, but after that was finished I had a week to relax. In all, we went to old town San Diego, a beach in Carlsbad, a state park near Santa Cruz (with huge redwood trees), and a few other places that I can't spell in the north bay of San Francisco. You can see pictures of our trip in our photo gallery here!

It was a great trip, and for the most part relaxing. The wedding went very well, and I'm very pleased without how the pictures turned out (haven't reviewed the video footage yet). It was great to be with family, and build some more memories.

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Steadycam vs Glidecam
March 21 - 2005

Anyone who has ever done video or film work knows the importance of a "Steady Cam". They would also know how expensive and cumbersome they are. The cheapest steadycams for DV cameras range from $3,000 to $6,000 and the ones used in Holleywood are many thousands more... on into the $20,000's. They involve a heavy vest, lots of extra weight to help balance the camera, and are terribly difficult to operate correctly, especially if they are not balanced. In fact people often rent a steadycam oporator when they want to rent a steadycam for thier production because of the difficulty to set up and operate a steadycam and the skill and practice required to pull off a good shot with one.

Well I recently ran across a product called a "Glidecam" and was blown away by the demo footage they were showing on thier website. When I saw that the price for a Glidecam was a quarter the price of a cheap steadycam I jumped on it. Kinda an impulse buy, but I had been looking into steadycams for over a year and thought for the money, It couldn't be that bad of an investment. Well after following a few simple instructions on how to balance my new "Glidecam4000", I was off... and boy did it deliver. Here's a link to the demo video I made from the first 2 shots I ever captured using this device! By far the smoothest video I have ever created. Right up there with MTV Cribs! Hope you like it!

(btw the way there is a Glidecam 2000 that is for smaller cameras. I needed the Glidecam4000 because my camera was to heavy for the 2000 model... but they are practically the same thing)

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Fun audio clips from my class
March 16 - 2005

Many of you know that I teach a course at the University here called Media Production. In this class I give the students a crash course to audio, video cameras, composition... pretty much anything media. Well one of their assignments was to create a 5 minute radio drama. The idea is to use music, sound effects and voices to tell a story while practicing the editing and recording techniques I taught them in classes prior. I have 7 students in my class this semester and 2 of them did such an exceptional job (especially for having never done something like this before) that I asked if I could post their projects on my website. Both of course said yes... so here they are as mp3's!

Attah Obande - Club scene - 4.9MB

Luke Stire - GR radio talk show - 4.5MB

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A new video toy... er... I mean tool
March 04 - 2005
I recently purchased an "on camera" light for my business and it just arrived today! I purchased it for use in dark reception halls, and cave exploring (like the stuff we did in Greece). For those who care about the technical details, it came with a 2 hour battery pack, barn doors, a diffuser, a color temperature filter (for shooting in sunlight) and it even focuses the beam.. and all of this is on the light... no switching filters around or anything. It can swival up and down as well as left or right, and even has the ability to mount on a tripod. I had a chance to put it to use for the first time in a video we just made tonight which you can find in our downloads section titled "Winter Frolic". This video was inspired by seeing the thick snow falling when we left the store this evening which was absolutely beautiful to watch. As soon as Amy and I arrived home, we decided it would be cool to make a video of the snow falling. Then I remembered my new light, and put it to work. I love it! The lighting it provides is very natural (at least at night time). As a viewer, you hardly even notice there's a light being used unless you stop and think about the fact that it's there. Hope you enjoy the video!

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Huge day for me in Photography
February 22 - 2005

Cover Yesterday I was asked to shoot the cover of the Cornerstone Magazine and today I actually did it! For me this is huge because this magazine is the largest publication for the University, and is sent to over 20,000 readers. And even if people don't read the magazine, just seeing the cover means they see my work. It's always been a big deal for me to someday "shoot a cover photo" ... because in the past I've been asked to shoot a photo or two for articles inside the magazine, but never the cover... that was always reserved for "the professionals". So when the director of marketing told me yesterday "I think your ready" I was very excited that I was finally considered up there with the pros. (Hopefully I was able to deliver what they were looking for) The Magazine is due to arrive April 1st. So I'll be sure to get a few extra copies for any of you who would like one. :)

After a few comments/requests I have posted a "sneak peak" at the cover with permission from Cornerstone. You'll notice that there's extra space at the top of the image to allow for the magazine title and headlines. This is the one I liked the best, however Cornerstone may choose a slightly different shot.

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BPM Program
February 17 - 2005
While importing all my CD's to Mp3 I've noticed that in iTunes there's a section for BPM (Beats Per Minute). I noticed that not one CD had this information stored on the database iTunes references for CD information and so none of my songs had the BPM filled out. Maybe you don't care, or maybe you don't see why this would be important... well I'll give a few examples of how this could be beneficial. 1) You could plan a workout routine by adding in songs that are not too fast to try and run with, but also not to slow. And at the same time you could plan in slower songs to give yourself a break, or choose songs of similar tempo to help you keep a good running rhythm. 2) You can sort playlists by their song speed, and mix music together better from song to song... granted this is more useful for DJ's, it's still a nice feature.

Well in my search for a tool that would find the beats per minute in my mp3 files, I ran across MixMeister which is a free BPM program. What it does is scans a folder (and subfolders) for mp3 songs, reads the songs, and then reports the BPM. There are other programs out there, but they all cost money, and some are only for MAC. This program seemed to be the only one that stood out and was worthy to be mentioned. It has both good and bad features... so read on:

The Good:
- I was surprised to find that it actually updated my mp3 files for me without my needing to go through each file and update the bpm. After all I have over 3000 songs now on my HD and I wasn't about to update 3000 records just for the bpm info tag. So that was a nice surprise.
- It does a very accurate job on most rock songs, or any song with a clear drum beat.
- It's fairly quick. Approximately 3 to 7 seconds per song.
- Easy to use, you'll know what you are doing in just a few clicks.

The Bad:
- Any music that had DRM (Digital Rights Management) in it did not scan or update. These would be the songs downloaded from iTunes or the Windows Media Player music store.
- It sometimes gives a false reading on songs that have syncopated percussion (like R&B type songs) .... so a 72 bpm song would be read as a 144 bpm song in MixMiester.
- It does not do well with classical music, R&B, or even some easy listening songs (like Chicago). Anything without a pronounced beat is difficult to read. So you may have to use a metronome to find out the bpm for those Enya cd's : )

So in summary, it is a worthwhile tool if you are into this sort of thing, but you may have to do some database clean up afterwords. I was checking anything that registered over 140 bpm for the "double time" error (when it should read as 70 bpm). It certainly helps to have a metronome which is what I used to check it's readings. I'd say it gets about 7 or 8 out of 10 songs right... but albums that don't have a beet or have a lot of percussion it struggles with.
Click here to download the program directly and bypass the mailing list form.

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Ramblings
February 16 - 2005

- Saw "Hitch" last night... great movie! Go see it! It was fairly clean and very funny. I give it 4 stars (out of 5).

- I recently upgraded to the newest version of AVID Express Pro HD, which allows for High Definition editing. I don't have a HD camera, but I can edit footage from those cameras now! : ) Actually the reason I upgraded was for a "multi-camera" feature which allows you to group 2 to 4 cameras together, sync them up, and then literally watch all for cameras play at the same time and edit live! So for me, this means that I can now shoot weddings or plays with more cameras, and easily edit them just by pressing a few buttons while watching all 4 cameras play back on my computer all in sync with each other. If you want to know more about this product click here.

- My friend Leah Wyant just returned from a 3+ week trip to Alaska. Leah is the closest thing I have to "an employee" with Coastline, and so it will be nice to have her back working with me again. Her parents are missionary's in Alaska, and she went to help move in her parents and assist in setting up their new home there. Welcome home Leah!

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Another Year
February 15 - 2005
Well today I turn 27 years old. Not much has happened yet since it's early in the morning, but later tonight Amy plans to take me to dinner and movie. I'm not sure what movie we will see, but Hitch looks pretty funny in the previews. For my birthday I received the U2 Special Edition iPod from Amy and with my parents birthday money. I really like it! I chose the U2 iPod because it came with a $50 off coupon for "The Complete U2" which is a collection of 446 songs from U2. And as you might guess by the title, it's a fairly complete collection including many unreleased and rare songs, live performances, and remix version of the songs I like. I've spent most of past few weekends encoding all my CD's into MP3 in preparation for it's arrival. I actually got the iPod on the mail last week on Wednesday and love it! It's been in interesting adventure figuring out iTunes and how it works since I'm so used to Windows Media Player 10. Anyway its been fun putting my songs on random and hearing songs from CD's I haven't listened to in a long time as well as new U2 songs I've never heard. In addition to listening to U2 and all my old stuff I'm excited to pick out 30 new songs from iTunes thanks to Matt and Peg for their gift certificate! I'm very excited about that and can't wait to browse on iTunes! Thanks everyone who has made my day special with your cards, gifts and e-mails. I'm blessed to have such wonderful family and friend around me!

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Nintendo and cell phones can save your life
February 11 - 2005

After reading my mom's posting about a cell phone related accident I was reminded of the last time I was in an accident using a cell phone... however I think it was because I was on the cell phone that my life was spared. Allow me to tell the story.

I was test driving a co-workers car as a potential purchase about 3 years ago (a 92 Toyota Corolla) and talking on the phone with my friend Anthony in California. The weeks prior to the accident I had been playing pretty regularly a new racing game on my Gamecube and I dare say I was getting pretty good at it. Its one of those games where you slide around corners, control spins, drive dangerously and is extremely realistic in it's handling and speed.

Anyway... as I was driving around 40-45 MPH (the speed limit was just changing from 45 to 35) in the left of 2 lanes, and a car pulled out in front of my from a side road on the right to turn left. This car that was turning left in front of me didn't see me because a large school bus was turning right onto the street this car was pulling out from. If I hadn't seen this car or had done nothing, I'd probably have killed the other person, and very likely myself as well. Now remember I only had one hand on the steering wheel (because I was on the phone) but I managed to break and swerve my car sharply to the left into oncoming traffic lanes (which were all clear of any traffic for quite a distance). I couldn't swerve right as there was another car to the right of me, and there wasn't enough space to break hard without slamming into the other car. What ended up happening is the other car hit my passenger side rear tire, and I went into a clockwise spin, while the other car was hit on the passenger side front bumper and just came to a stop. Luckily neither of us was hurt, just some body damage on the car (mostly to the other car).

To summarize I strongly believe that if I hadn't been playing my driving game on the Gamecube, and also talking calmly with my friend on the phone, I think the results of the accident would have been quite a bit more severe. Maybe you will think I'm "reaching" with my conclusions... but if I really do believe both my cell phone and the Nintendo saved me from serious injury. I actually had a small adrenaline rush just after accident (as opposed to fear, or trauma) and I felt a little like James Bond. I know that sounds silly... but if you can imagine the scene... a cell phone.... a one handed maneuver, a controlled spin... wow. And yes I do credit God of course for his mercy and protection, but I do think the cell and the Gamecube played a role as well. : )

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Scott's last day
February 10 - 2005

Today is the first day without Scott Pfitzinger at Cornerstone University. Scott is one of my closest friends and co-workers at Cornerstone and it's not going to be the same without him. For those who don't know Scott, he's one of those fun loving and goofy people you need in your life, and yet still Godly and very intelligent. Scott's role at Cornerstone was to oversee our online learning tools, as well as train people (like new employee's, or people who just needed to know who to do something advanced in Word, or Excel etc...). Scott and I would often hear someone say something in a sentence and we'd both look at each other and do a movie quote from a word in their sentence that caught our attention. Most of the time we'd actually say the same thing at the same time, and it was way too random that our minds would think in such similar ways. When I booted up my laptop this morning there was no sign of him on IM which is very rare, and it served as a sad reminder that he's not around anymore. For those of you who want to know more about Scott (or even see his great head shot) : ) check out his blog here. Scott is moving down to Butler University in Indiana to work in an area that better fits his calling and training in library services. You will be missed Scott!

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New Cell Phone
February 02 - 2005
Well after attempting to use the "bottom of the line" model that an ex-Tmobile friend loaned me, I broke down and decided to get a new cell phone. I didn't want to renew my contract with Tmobile for another year so I knew I was going to have to pay full price for whatever I bought. To make a long story short, I ended up purchasing this phone for only $45! It should have cost $99 but for some reason (probably because I haven't purchased a new phone for so long) I got a massive discount without any rebates or contract renewal rebates. I also needed a case, but the phone only came with a car charger. When I asked for the case instead of the charger the sales rep said he couldn't do that. However God must have intervened as they were out of the car chargers and he said "it's your lucky day" and threw in a case in place of the missing car charger. So for less than $50 I got a decent flip phone that will certainly last me until July and maybe beyond. Cool eh?

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Cell Phone Woes
January 25 - 2005

My cell phone is a large part of my life, and my phone recently starting acting up. When I turn it on first thing in the morning it works fine, but after closing it and opening it up again, the screen goes blank. This means I can't see who's calling, or even see what numbers I'm pressing in to dial. Everything works fine, except the screen (even the external screen doesn't work). So I started researching replacement phones, but didn't really like anything I saw out there from T-Mobile. I admit that I'm probably too picky, but I'm a gizmo guy, and I want my phone to be practical as well as unique. Well as I searched around I found a few phones with other companies that looked cool, so I started investigating other services providers (mostly AT&T/Cingular). To make a long story short, I'm thinking about changing services in July when my contract runs out. I was all excited to switch service providers and get this really cool phone I found online, until I found out that my contract had been renewed when Amy got a new phone last July. So for now, I'll probably end up getting a cheap or free replacement for now, and get something cool later. Who knows technology might have something better then anyway.

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What is too cold?
January 18 - 2005
I ask you... when is it too cold? Is it 32 degrees? 23? 11? Try 3.7 degrees Fahrenheit (today's low). Today it only got up to 16 degrees outside and averaged below 10. Let me tell you I used to think that 32 degrees was too cold (back when I lived in California). I've lowered my cold limit to 20 now. I was thinking all day... man if I could just get a day when it was 20 again, then I'd be ok. I don't mind snow, but below 10 degree weather really slams you in the face. : )

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New Year's Resolutions
January 09 - 2005

So I'm not a big resolution person, but I've decided to share a few of my resolutions for 2005. Most of these are dumb, or even funny... but what the heck... everyone enjoys a good laugh right?

1: Work out: I haven't had a good exercise routine for quite a while... weights or otherwise... and my youthful abs are missing. :)

2: Blog more: I have this voice in the back of my head that keeps saying I should write more. Even if I have nothing to write about... just the practice of writing is an overall good thing (that voice is mom's voice by the way)

3: Make 2 films: A short film... something easy to do, yet serves as good practice... and the 2nd a longer feature (currently in the works with my friend Anthony)

4: Eliminate small debts: This excludes only our house, and Amy's school loans.

Well there you have it... 2005 here I come

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A working snow blower
January 06 - 2005

Last night we got dumped on with over 6 inches of snow. Now 6 inches may not sound like a lot to some of you who have never had to dig out a car from 6 inches of snow, but believe me it's more than you think. Well ironically enough my posting yesterday was all about how I liked the snow... I guess that still stands... but after this mornings adventure, I couldn't help but laugh at myself for the post I made yesterday.

I recently acquired a used snow blower that a friend sold me. It is very hard to start, and until today I hadn't been able to get it started without my friend there to help. But after a few lessons over thanksgiving weekend, I remembered my training and was finally successful in getting that thing fired up! Snow blowing is so much fun! Imagine taking 1 or 2 hours worth of hard, back-wrenching, snow shoveling and compressing that down into 15 minutes of easy walking behind a machine. Everything looks real nice when you are done, and it only took a few minutes to get those results. But my adventure this morning was a little different.

Contrasted with my excitement of getting my snow blower started and working, I had the joy of losing my keys in the snow somewhere along the way. After feeling rather good on a job well done snow blowing... I spent about 30 minutes looking for my keys. Now being that it was in the morning, my brain wasn't firing on all cylinders, and I couldn't remember when I had my keys last (meaning, did I even bring them outside or not?). Well after a ton of searching both indoors and out, I finally started looking through the snow near my garage thinking that maybe they fell out when I tried to start the snow blower. (It's one of those pull start ones). My thought was that since this blower is so hard to start that maybe my wild pulling motions caused the keys to fly out of my pocket. My theory turned out to be correct as I found my VW bug key covered in snow near the garage entrance.... only it was just the one key. After some intense digging I spotted off in the distance a little spec of color which looked very similar to what a small twig or blade of grass buried in the snow would look like. Upon a closer investigation of the area I found the rest of my keys.... a few of them mangled and bent from going through the snow blower and being launched into the nearby snow drift.

So all that to say, I guess I still like snow... just not losing keys in the snow. : )

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Snow
January 05 - 2005
Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I enjoy snow. It's probably because I didn't grow up with it, but I honestly don't mind wiping snow off my car in the morning, or driving slower than normal to get someplace. Yes it's cold, but without the cold we'd never appreciate the warm days of spring and summer. Actually I think it's a great parallel to James 1:2 in some ways. You can either complain about the cold and snow, or choose to embrace the fact that it's here, and look ahead to warmer days.

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The Ultimate Gift Experience
December 18 - 2004

I just got back from a 2 day trip in Chicago with my friends at Compass Arts. We took about 14+ people along to help raise money for a film being made in 2005 called "The Ultimate Gift" based off the book by Jim Stovall. The event went really well, and I made some new friends as well as strengthened some relationships. A DVD is going to be made of the event to help continue to raise money for the Movie, and likely when the film is made and then put on DVD, there will be a lot of this event on that DVD. All in all, it was a lot of fun, and I learned quite a bit more about lighting. I can't wait to start on my next film!

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Michigan Drivers
November 24 - 2004
I can't stand Michigan drivers. I'm sorry to all of you native Michiganders who are my friends, but the good majority of Michigan born drivers are just not qualified to be on the road. A continual reminder of this is found at 4 way stop signs. There's one in particular that is near my house that I go through every day to and from work and it always has problems. This morning I pulled up behind one car who sat there for at least 2 or 3 seconds (a long time for a stop sign mind you) and eventually went. Then when I got to the line I saw that there were 3 other cars each of the other stop signs just sitting there waiting. Since I knew it wasn't my turn yet, I waited ... and waited... and waited.... finally the car directly across from me went, so I decided to go too. The car on my right and left both just sat there... Uncanny! This is just one of hundreds of times things like this have happened at 4 way stops in Michigan. People don't know the rule "the person on the right has the right of way".... they all get confused, and just wave you on! I figure if they want to waive their right to go before me, then that serves them right and I usually go when they wave me on. This is just one example of bad Michigan driving... there are many others to tell... but not today.

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I want to make a movie!
November 23 - 2004

I'm getting an itch to work on another movie. Since I've only really made one movie, I'd really like to put my skills to the test again and see what I can do. I've run across countless friends who have indicated to me that they'd really want to assist on my next movie (which makes my feel very loved) and I'm excited to get an idea or a good script together and then assemble a solid team.

I'm amazed now that I think about it at how many people will volunteer their time for making movies. Can you think of many other things in this world beyond ministry that large groups of people will just give up their time for? That says something about our culture I'd say. We are a movie generation... no... let me try again... we are a story telling people, and movies are the technology of the day by which we tell stories.

Anyway back to making movies. I've been meeting with a few select people to try and get a creative team together so we can bang out a good idea / script. Hopefully something good will come along soon. If anyone out there has a good idea for a cleaver short film (5 to 15 minutes) then send it my way. : )

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The Christian Purple VW Bug
November 17 - 2004

I'm seeking wisdom (or at least your thoughts) on a kinda random topic.... Most of you know I have a 72 Purple VW Beetle. Some of you know that it was in an accident about 4 years back. It's been sitting in my garage for the last 2 years avoiding the 3rd law of thermodynamics (rust and corrosion) and I've often wished I could invest like $4000 into it and make it all "hot rod like" again.

As I reflect on the accident I kick myself because I have never contacted the girl who hit me (and it was 100% her fault - no question). In Michigan we have this dumb insurance law called "no fault" insurance which means that no matter who's fault it was, your own insurance company pays for the damage of your own car. The only thing that fault has to do with in Michigan is who gets a ticket, and who has to pay a deductible for their insurance check.

So back when the damage was done I invested the "totaled value" of the car back into the repair of the car's internal parts (steering, tires etc...) but did not have enough to pay for the body work as the damage was beyond the value of the car (thus the term "the car was totaled") So what I wonder from all of you is should I have made the girl or her pay for the repairs beyond the "totaled value" of the car? I sometimes have thoughts of "if I weren't a Christian I'd sue that family"... now of course I'd never do that... but I still wonder if I dropped the ball and should have asked her to pay for the damage above the value of the car since it was more of a "classic" car than just an old beat up 72 Dodge Dart.... you know? What do you all think?

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Many Star Wars Updates
November 15 - 2004

- I recently watched all 5 of the DVD released Star Wars movies within the last week with that friend of mine who had never seen ANY of the movies. It's been fun to watch them all so close together to see the entire story (minus episode III). We watched Episode IV through VI last Saturday, and episode I & II this past Friday.

- My friend Anthony in California knows someone in Lucas Film and was able to see the first 10-15 minutes of the new Star Wars "Episode III" movie set to release this May 19th. I made sure I didn't get any details from him, and yet at the same time am extremely jealous that he has this perk and I wasn't there to share it with him.

- If you haven't seen the latest Star Wars Episode III teaser trailer check it out by clicking here! It looks like it's going to be the best of the prequels especially for die hard Star Wars fans! (Thats according Anthony who knows the whole plot of the movie now from his friend) : )

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The Internet
November 08 - 2004

I'm amazed at how dependant we have become on the Internet in today's world. I've been having issues lately getting my DSL to work because of a computer upgrade I did... the process of installing all my programs and getting everything back to normal probably involved the Internet at least 80% of the time, and so my DSL problems were amplified. Thankfully things seem to be running fine again.

I can remember a time when my dad showed me my first look at the Internet... it was just a few sites (since there wasn't a lot out there yet) and I couldn't understand why it was such a big deal. Now everyone uses it for everything! I check the weather, news (election results), directions... everything is online now. It is hard to imaging a world without it now. Even when Amy and I were in Greece, we used the Internet to connect with the our friends in the US. It will be interesting to see what other trends take our world over like the Internet has. For example consider the world without cell phones, that one is fairly new as well.... going back farther, imagine the world without air travel, or cars... you see what I'm getting at. I guess you might say that I embrace technology and innovation, however I feel it is our responsibility as Christians to approach any technology to see how we can use it to better God's kingdom.

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Spooning
November 04 - 2004
I'm surprised to find out how many people know what "spooning" is and yet still load the dish washer with multiple spoons facing the same direction in the same little basket. I can't figure out why people don't get the fact that doing this means that their spoons will not get clean. My momma always taught me to load the spoons in alternating ends as to avoid a potential "spooning" of the spoons which would lead to dirty spoons even after the dishwasher runs. I know you all think I'm probably weird to be blogging about this, but it's a pet peeve of mine and maybe by blogging about it, I can awaken some ignorant minds out there, and make this world a better place. : ) Happy spooning everyone... (well at least those of us that are married)

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Still Sick
October 31 - 2004
Amy and I have been fighting colds. I started it about 2 weeks ago and its just hung on like a bad habit. Amy just got it this week ... from me no doubt. I don't think I remember being sick for this long since I was high school. In fact I don't even remember the last time I had a cough. I'd forgotten how bad cough syrup tasted. Yuck! Anyway I'm at the tail end of it, and hopefully Amy won't get it as long (or as bad) as I got it.

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Great Commercial
October 29 - 2004
I came across this great commercial featuring Star Wars characters and ESPN announcers. Check it out by clicking here!

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"Easy Going Sickness"
October 24 - 2004

I've found that when I'm near the end of a sickness and I go back to work that my personality and "way of life" seem to much more easy going and smooth... at least for a few days. For some reason, being sick is an excuse to not be stressed out... after all I can blame any problem on "I've been sick the last few days", or "I still kinda fighting this cold". No problem from the past weeks seems to trouble me because there's nothing I can do about it... after all, it's not my fault I've been sick. I've even found that in the way I talk with people, and react to new problems right after a sickness is much more considerate. I appear to be even tempered about everything, and because not all of my strength is quite back yet I tend to listen more.

It's interesting to me how much I could learn from myself if I just tried to act more like this "post sickness" personality. Not that I want to be slow and boring, but that I could try to manage stress better, or listen more.

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We live in a "reboot" world
October 19 - 2004

Part of my job is managing this small technology lab at Cornerstone University which houses many different technologies mostly relating to media and audio / visual type projects. As the manager I'm often asked to fix a problem here or there and most of the time my response is "did you reboot yet?". 6 out of 7 times this fixes the problem. My student employees have now learned to only ask me for help if they've already tried rebooting and the problem still persists.

Well it occurred to me this morning that rebooting is really a Biblical thing to do. Have you ever noticed many the problems that seem overwhelming and are very stressful right before you go to bed, seem to be less daunting the next morning? I find that for some reason, going to sleep "reboots" me, and I'm no longer worried about the things that seemed so overwhelming the night before. There's a sense of new energy, new possibilities and a fresh start at the struggles we face in life. In the same vein I believe that God's model found in Genesis of a "work 6 days, and rest for 1" is another form of rebooting. We being made in the image of God seem to carry that same need to "rest" on a regular basis. Steven Covey calls this process "sharpening the saw" as to illustrate that if you don't stop every now and then and sharpen your saw, it will take you 4 times as much work to "chop down that tree" then if you had just rested (or sharpened that saw).

So my advise to all of you out there is to simply remember to pause, rest, and remember that with a good nights sleep, you can in fact take on the problems that seem too big to tackle. A reboot is all you need. : )

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Star Wars Changes
October 15 - 2004

So today a friend of mine pointed me to a site that shows all the changes from the original Star Wars release to the current DVD release. There are various changes of which I never would have noticed without spending a lot of time on, but they are worth sharing. To see images comparing different shots from the movie checkout this site. If you are a Star Wars fan of any kind, it's well worth a few minutes to check it out.

Here is a sample of what I'm talking about... the following 2 images represent the 1977 release, and the 2004 DVD release:

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Surprise in Return of the Jedi
October 11 - 2004
For those of you who have not purchased the Star Wars DVD's or have not yet watched them, there are a few interesting pieces of information worth sharing. The first is a surprise at the very end of Return of the Jedi.... I don't want to give it away, so go out and watch the new DVD of Return of the Jedi all the way to the end to find a surprise addition. : ) The second reason for watching the Star Wars DVD's is to hear some of the dialog that Chewy speaks. In the long documentary there are lines spoken by Chewy that were later replaced with the growling sounds. Before watching the documentary I never knew what Chewy was saying... now I know thanks to Disc 4 of the Star Wars DVD collection! There's many other reasons why you should get this DVD set including a gorgeous picture, and superb surround sound effects (if you have a home theater). .... so go out and purchase it & watch it today!

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How many pictures do you take an hour?
September 27 - 2004
I've owned a digital camera for just over 3 years now. In that time I've found a trend in my shooting habits that involves how many pictures I take in a given setting. For example when you look at the first couple of months worth of digital pictures I took, I would take an average of 30 to 50 pictures per event (like a day trip to the beach). I believe this quantity reflects my film shooting days where all the pictures I took were "on a budget" meaning I was responsible to pay for every picture I took (develop it, print it etc...). With the addition of a photography business I've been able to follow that same trend with my clients, and I've found that I now shoot on average 100 to 150 pictures an hour! Thats crazy! Where I once took 50 pictures to represent a day trip, I now take 150 pictures to represent an hour. Now I know that they are different venues, but the same tend exists. Where I was taking maybe 25 to 50 pictures an hour before on weddings, I now take 100 to 150 an hour. It only makes me wonder what my PPH (pictures per hour) rate will be in the next year. Have I maxed out? Will I eventually double this? More good questions to come on this subject soon...

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Trash collector holidays are fake
September 24 - 2004
Have you ever wondered how the trash collection system in America gets back on track after a holiday? Take Labor Day for example. There's no trash collected on Monday, so everyone's trash gets picked up one day later. But the next week things are back to normal. So does the trash collecting company employ their workers for an extra day? Do they work harder on the remaining days? One way or another it seems to me that there really are NO HOLIDAY'S for the trash collecting employees. It's a perplexing mystery .... anyone care to offer thier opinion?

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Someone has never seen Star Wars before?
September 22 - 2004
To my utter shock and amazment I ran across 2 people yesterday who have never seen any Star Wars movie EVER! Both were girls born around 1983-4ish and both of them didn't even know what the movies were about! I can't belive this! Someone should do something about this. I even heard from another friend of mine (who happends to be female) that she didn't even have a TV until she was 14, and she's seen it. I think I'm going to have a Star Wars movie day or something and force these girls to get some culture! <under his breath> .... never seen Star Wars.... ...unreal...

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Star Wars on DVD!
September 21 - 2004

Well today is an important day in history. Millions of Americans sat in their homes for the first time today to watch Star Wars at the highest quality ever made possible for personal viewing. In other words, the long awaited DVD's for Star Wars are finally available. I can remember sitting in my dorm room watching the first DVD movie I'd ever watched on my brand new computer with a DVD-ROM. It was the end of the school year and we rented "Field of Dreams" from blockbuster which at the time only had like 10 DVD titles available for renting. It was during this first encounter with DVD that I began my longing to see Star Wars on DVD. The best deal I found was to get it from Blockbuster (pre-order) as they were selling it for $41.99 with 10 free rentals. I passed on the opportunity thinking I could find it cheaper... however the cheapest I found it for was Suncoast at $39.99 which also was a pre-order price only. So I reverted to Best Buy at $42.99.

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Blueprints for Moses
September 15 - 2004
So I'm reading in Exodus and I'm at the chapters where God gives detailed instructions on how to build the temple. I had no idea there were so many specifications and practices to follow! I've been trying to figure out if Moses was writing it all down as God spoke it, or if God wrote it down for him. There is so much there ... it's hard to say. : ) I've also found it ironic that while God was talking about appointing Aaron as a head priest, he was at that same time being a key player in building the golden calf idol down with the Israelites. I'm sure if I were a preacher I could find a sermon in there somewhere.

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Hard Drives Anyone?
September 15 - 2004
Today I went to Best Buy to get some hard drives for work. When I arrived however I found 1 remaining 160GB Maxtor hard drive on clearance for only $87! Thats marked down from $130. Not bad at all. In my experience anyone looking to buy a hard drive should avoid the time it takes to order on-line, and just hop on over to Circuit City or Best Buy for the deals. One of these 2 stores usually offers better deals than you can find on-line anyway, and you don't have to worry about the integrity of those low price internet companies. : )

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My first blog EVER!
September 14 - 2004
Well after hearing all the buzz about blogs and having a lot of my friends tell me that I needed one, I've finally fallen to peer pressure and got a blog. We'll see how consistent I am at writing in it. Happy reading everyone! - Potts

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