The Rose-colored Glass is Half Full

Moving is always a bit of an emotional time for me. Often it's hard to know what to feel about leaving a place, no matter what the overall experience was like. It's as if a pair of rose-colored glasses were forced on my face, and I had no choice but to look at that location in purely positive terms. This is especially bizarre in light of my penchant for pessimism. An inexplicable rise of some sort of "good old days" syndrome.

Part of the emotional experience of moving comes from going through all my stuff as I decide what to keep, and what to throw out. I wouldn't call myself a packrat, but I think most people would be surprised how sentimental I can get over certain things. A few days ago I started looking through some plastic containers, trying my best to be ruthless as I tried to balance that scale of sentimentality and practicality. I discovered I had a drawer full of photos I have taken over the last 12 years or so. There were pictures in there from a mission trip I took in the summer of 1997. There were pictures of my highschool classmates (my highschool reunion is this weekend, and I can't think of a single reason to pay money to relive that era. It wasn't a bad time, but as I only really knew a handful of people, I could find any reason to go) and pictures of the worship team I led at Grace Community from 2000 to 2002. There were pictures of our family dog Wrecks, and pictures of the kids I worked with in the '02-'03 school year at Rabbit Creek. There were pictures of people I haven't seen in years, some I hadn't thought about since the pictures were taken, and some very dear to my heart. So I went through hundreds and hundreds of pictures, weeding out the significant ones, tossing the crappy ones. I won't miss the pictures I threw away, but I was certainly given the opportunity to relive the last dozen years of my life. Bizarre.

I have a handful of little trinkets that sit on my desk wherever I go, which I rarely notice unless I'm moving. There are my small Buzz Lightyear and Woody bendy figurines that I got in a Christmas stocking the year Toy Story came out. Toy Story is still one of my favorite movies. I have a Lego AT-ST Walker and little Lego Chewbacca my good friend Gary gave all his groomsmen when he got married. I also have a Star Wars Airspeeder from Episode II (don't worry, I didn't actually remember what these vehicles were called. I looked them up. Actually, maybe researching their names is indeed grounds for concern. I'm a nerd. It's what I do, okay?) that was given to me by Rachel Heath, I believe. Actually, when I was a kid Legos were too expensive, so the most of the Legos I got were the little sets you'd get at McDonalds, all primary and secondary colors, and you could build anything rectangular. Even today Legos seem like a luxury, especially Star Wars Legos, so the combination of two of my childhood loves is the perfect trinkety kind of thing to keep around. It's funny that I don't really think about the significance these little things have until I put them away. Life's like that sometimes, I guess.

So my time here in Bend has been great times and really difficult at other times. I got to better know a handful of people at my dad's church, and be near my dear friends the Sheldons. I got to enjoy a lot of sunshine (I think I'm addicted to Vitamin D), and the beauty that Central Oregon has to offer. However, being away from Mandi, and my Portland family and friends most of the time has been hard. Really hard. It was a bit of tease that right about the time I really felt like I had true community somewhere, I felt I needed to move back in with Mommy and Daddy. I missed my church, missed playing on the worship team there, missed the diversity of Portland, as compared to Bend. I had a hard time appreciating my job in Bend, especially since the whole goal of moving back home was to save some money so I could get out onto the mission field sooner. However, despite the consistent frustrations living in Bend, I'm glad I did. Were there any "good old days?" Probably not. But God had things he needed to teach me, and people to learn to love. So, I think the rose colored glasses have been removed, but a bit of a rosy hue remains. It's been a difficult year, but all the goodness contained therein was worth the difficulty. It's kinda like God actually knows what He's doing. :-)

I'm excited to be going, despite my moments of melancholy over the last week or so. Seriously, just look at the way God has provided for my housing! How can this move not have God's name written all over it?! So while I'm leaving the peace of living with my folks, there are new and exciting things just over the Cascades. I'm excited to share it with you guys.

Cheers.

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Back to Portland

So here's the news some of you have been sort of waiting for! I'm moving back to Portland in a week! Ta da! My friends Dan and Erin head up an organization called Lahash, whose objective is "to partner with East Africans in advocacy and care for the vulnerable, in response to Christ's love. Recently one of their local church partners, Berean Bible Church, gave them the use of a large house on BBC's property. So the Lahash folks have been working on restoring the dilapidated house to use as office space, as well as housing for travelers coming through Portland working with Lahash. (Dan or Erin, please feel free to correct me if I'm inaccurate in any way.) Lahash and BBC both have need for some media support, so Dan proposed a trade: I get housing in exchange for 8 hours a week of media work. HUGE BLESSING! I've been stressing a bit about coming back to Portland to pursue videography because there is no guarantee of work, and living accommodations can be expensive. This arrangement with Lahash is pretty much an incredible miracle God has done in my life. Special thanks are due to Mandi who is my connection with Lahash, and extra special thanks to Dan and Erin for thinking of me. Wow. He's just so stinkin' good sometimes!

My apologies for missing a blog update this last week. I was in Michigan for a week, and then my brother Drew got married, so it's been a busy couple of weeks. My friends Sam and Amanda got married in Jackson, Michigan, and they paid my way there to capture the whole event on video. It was awesome to get to play a part in their wedding, and even better that they were so generous to get me out there. The wedding was beautiful, probably one of the most sincere ceremonies I've ever experienced. I got a little misty twice that day, which is pretty serious for me. Though the ceremony itself was incredibly thoughtful, the days leading up to the wedding were some of the most fun days I've had in a while. Hanging out with Mandi, Jeff Budke, and my new friends Matt and Raeanne, made me laugh until my face hurt. Oh my gosh it was fun. From Sam and Amanda's wedding, Mandi and I drove over to West Michigan to surprise her parents for their 30th anniversary. Mandi's brother Justin helped us into a giant wrapped box, and when her parents arrived, they opened the huge present. It was pretty great to watch Mrs. Stonehouse literally jump into the air as she screamed with surprise. All the Stonehouse kids pitched in and rented a house on a lake for a few days, and a good time was had by all.

We came back from Michigan, and went straight into wedding stuff for Drew and Ashleigh. It's a bit strange watching your little brother get married, especially when he's nearly 7 years your junior. It was the first time I've ever sat in the front row at a wedding, which is pretty sweet. The wedding went well, and when they did a money dance to raise some cash for the newlyweds, I gave Drew $10 so I could dance with him. I think it was funnier to me than it was to him. But hey, I paid him, so he had to like it. I hung around Portland for another couple days, moved a little stuff into my new digs, and now I'm back in Bend for the week to get my things ready to move. It's going to be a really busy week, I think. Please pray for my sanity as I try to get all my ducks in a row, and pray that the move will go smoothly. Also pray that I won't lose sight of where it is God is taking me, as the present has a tendency to drown out the future. Thanks to you all.

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Hey everybody.

As you can see, I got the new video camera, and am enjoying the results. Keep praying I can get a lot of work so I can get it paid off. Please. Pretty please with a cherry (not maraschino) on top. Thanks.

So on Wednesday I'm heading out of town to shoot a friend's wedding. In order to do that, I had to get video done for the wedding I shot on May 30. After several entire days and a few half days, I got it finished. I don't mind how much work it is, but there are moments where I definitely need a break. Today was a nice break. I'm excited to get into the swing of doing video all the time, to establish good work patterns and such. It's going to be pretty great to spend my working hours doing what I often end up doing in my spare time (which is why I haven't read an entire book in ages, much to my chagrin.) Please pray for safety on my trip, and that I can enjoy the sometimes stressful work of wedding videography.

My little brother Drew and his wonderful fiancee Ashleigh get married in a week and a half. Please pray all goes well for that. I'll be doing some passive videography for that one (passive, as in I'm setting up a couple cameras on tripods so I can sit like a normal wedding-goer and enjoy the event.) I wanted to be able to experience the wedding, rather than just watch it through my viewfinder. I'll shoot anyone's wedding, except immediate family. I want to be there.

Anyway, those are the bland details of my life for the past week or so. Thanks so much for the support, and I look forward to continue sharing my life and footage with y'all. Here's a clip from this last wedding. Enjoy.

Fischer Wedding Reception from Dayn Arnold on Vimeo.

This is the first part of Chris and Carrie's reception highlights. It was an enjoyable group of people, for sure.

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Last Thursday

Here's the whole thing from Last Thursday. Enjoy.

Last Thursday from Dayn Arnold on Vimeo.

Ah Portland. Alberta Street on the last Thursday of the month is a feast for all the senses. Music, art, food, and characters all around.

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Fire Dancing

Went to Last Thursday last Thursday on Alberta Street. Incredibly Portlandy. More clips to come later. Enjoy.

Fire Dancers from Dayn Arnold on Vimeo.

It's been an interesting week. I have tallied the week's score for your information. It reads as follows:

Early last week my new video camera arrived. Awesome. (Score: Good things - 1, Bad things - 0) It uses special memory cards, so I had to install special drivers on my computer to read the cards. My computer slowed down, and eventually stopped booting altogether. (Good things - 1, Bad things - 1) So while I had everything backed up on another drive (an obsession I picked up a couple years back after nearly losing 3 months of work from one project) I couldn't use the computer. I had a wedding coming up that weekend and really needed to use it to offload footage as I took it with the camera. Computer problems began Tuesday night. Wednesday I took my new camera out for a spin, and it performed beautifully as I took in some nature shots from a ways out of town. (Good things - 2, Bad things - 1) Did a little time-lapse, some slow-motion. So great. Because I was already headed to Portland the next day, I arranged to meet the Apple people in Portland (I refuse to call them the Genius Bar, though that's their official title, because it's beyond pretentious.) Went to the Apple store, was given a quick fix, and I was back out the door, waiting to try the fix later. Well, the fix didn't work, (Good things - 2, Bad things - 2) so I had to make another appointment on Friday, the day before I needed it for shooting a wedding. Went in the next day, and they had to take my computer in for two days to fix it. (Good things - 2, Bad things - 3) That evening I went to play guitar at a party, for which I was being paid more than fairly for 2 hours of playing. By the end of the night, I had played 3.5 hours and was paid more than twice the original agreed amount. Also gave out some business cards to the woman who hired me because she wanted to recommend that service to her friends who also throw small events. (I didn't tell her I had never done this sort of thing before and that I was just making it up as I went along. Good things - 3, Bad things - 3) Next day didn't have the computer, which is a bummer because I needed to upload my footage onto a computer throughout the night. So I used the computer of my friend whom I hired to shoot with me. We got to the wedding and had just finished shooting the most important part, the ceremony, and discovered that one of the most important files from my friend's camera didn't transfer properly, and we ended up losing the shot. (A predicament which we know how to avoid in the future. Good things - 3, Bad things - 4) We were able to get some additional footage from the church's video camera, thanks to my obligatorily new best friend Jake. The rest of the evening went pretty well, and was an enjoyable event (Good things - 4, Bad things - 4), though with the two of us, I heard at least one comment about feeling like there were paparazzi skulking about. Also my friend Fritz, the photographer who got me both of the weekend's gigs (thanks Fritz!) let me use his fisheye lens, which gives a really unique effect when held in front of my camera.

The day after the wedding was a nice relaxed day, biked a bit in the heat, hung out with friends and fam, and it was really great. (Good things - 5, Bad things - 4) Also got to meet with CJ from my church, which was great. The next day I went and saw "UP" the new Pixar movie, in 3D, which was pretty stinking cool. ((Good things - 6, Bad things - 4) Then I had to head back to Bend, and on the way my car overheated. Actually, I forgot to mention it did the same thing on the way TO Portland, so I'm afraid the score is off by two. (Good things - 6, Bad things - 6) It was frustrating, but I made it home in one piece. I spent the evening reloading all my files onto my computer, and reinstalling the entire Adobe Creative Suite, which alone takes a couple hours. The next morning I had the computer working just fine, and decided to reinstall that camera card driver, which promptly sent my computer into a stalling and crashing trajectory. (Good things - 6, Bad things - 7) I managed to uninstall that driver and after a bit of research, found an updated driver that wouldn't do that to my poor computer. (Good things - 7, Bad things - 7) So now I could actually use my camera with my computer, and was all ready to take my loads of files from the wedding and get editing. Well, I discovered that the import process we used on my friend's computer put the files into a format unreadable by my computer. (Good things - 7, Bad things - 8) So 1.5 hours of research and $80 later I could actually read the files I needed to use and made some real headway with the footage. (Good things - 8, Bad things - 8) And from that point on, the editing has gone on relatively smoothly.

Today I worked a bit more on the wedding footage, and worked a bit for my boss here in Bend. He told me to bring my older video camera along to see if a friend of his would want to buy it from me, which would be a huge blessing, and money I can put toward the new camera. So tomorrow I'll be picking up a check for my old camera, thank you Jesus! (Good things - 9, Bad things - 8) So the last week has been just a shade above neutral. Actually, one more thing I forgot (forget editing what I write, I don't feel like updating every score just for a bit of continuity). I think I have a place to stay in Portland, possibly for free. More on that later. So it looks like the score is officially Good things - 10, Bad things - 8. So all turned out well, but what a crazy week. I think I need a nap.

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