There once was a King named Erle.

He was the King of the Kingdom of Boredom

He sat in a chair

And played with his hair

And wasn’t too terribly hansome

The Creative Process

I thank God for the creativity He’s given me. One of my biggest regrets is how I’ve failed to truly live up to this gift. I know people can have a hard time being creative and coming up with ideas, but for me it’s always come naturally. This is not a brag, I can only boast in Christ and His gift to me. Without God’s grace upon me, I would never have an idea worth anything. But He has allowed me to work this way.
The whole reason I want to go into films and writing is because I want to use this gift to the best of my ability and glorify God in the process. I want to use the talents He’s given me and come to Him knowing I didn’t waste His mercy. I hope that someday I’m doing more than just posting a video on Youtube. But, it will only be because God has allowed me to.

Looking through a Child’s eyes

Art. Music. Your job. A sport. Everything you do can be put to creativity. Everybody has a different way of showing their own style. Children are the most creative persons you can find. They imagine a world that adults cannot always see. they build, draw/color, create things out of nothing and who knows where that will lead to. My little cousins love to imagine being on a ship and landing on some land where we see Paul Revere and help him spread the news that the British are coming. Maybe we all should try to go back to being a child again, so we can relook at the world with some new creative ideas.

I can’t imagine that I feel bored.

Imagine there is a bank which credits your account each morning with $86,400, carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day.

What would you do?
Draw out every cent, of course!
Well, everyone has such a bank. It’s name is time.
Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.
Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.
It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.
Each day it opens a new account for you.
Each night it burns the records of the day.
If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.
There is no going back. There is no drawing against the tomorrow.
You must live in the present on today’s deposits.
Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!
The clock is running. Make the most of today.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time.

And remember, time waits for no one.
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.

The origin of this text is unknown.

There’s a lot of variations on it, additions and even jokes. There’s some stuff connected with it and found on the Net:

To realize the value of ONE LIFETIME, ask someone who has missed his or her chance.

To realize the value of A SISTER, ask someone who doesn’t have one.
To realize the value of TEN YEARS, ask a newly divorced couple.
To realize the value of FOUR YEARS, ask a graduate.

To realize the value of A FRIEND, lose one.

To realize the value of ONE THOUSAND YEARS, ask a programmer who has programmed with 2 digits for the year’s value.
To realize the value of ONE HUNDRED YEARS, ask a Hong Kong resident who has witnessed the Handover.
To realize the value of SEVENTY YEARS, ask a dying Christian who has never shared the Gospel with others.
To realize the value of FORTY YEARS, ask an Israelite who has traveled in the wilderness.
To realize the value of SEVEN YEARS, ask a professor who did not get his sabbatical leave.
To realize the value of FOUR YEARS, ask a U.S. president who was not re-elected for the second term.

To realize the value of ONE MILLI-SECOND, ask the (electric) power engineer who has brought darkness to a city.
To realize the value of ONE MICRO-SECOND, ask the person who has bought a Pentimum machine.
To realize the value of ONE NANO-SECOND, ask the digital circuit designer who has just been promoted.
To realize the value of ONE PICO-SECOND, ask the analog circuit designer who has filed many patents.
To realize the value of ONE FEMTO-SECOND, ask the physicist who has won the Nobel prize.

To realize the value of ONE MICRO-SECOND, ask NASA’s Team of scientists.
To realize the value of ONE NANO-SECOND, ask a Hardware Engineer.

Lets Get Creative

This picture of the fish makes me laugh.  It makes me think of how often we view the world the same way.  We fail to look at something and see it from a different perspective.  We get caught up in what’s normal and safe and don’t want to strike out and invent something, try something new or even take a risk. 

       I think we should start looking at things in new ways, notice things we haven’t seen before, try to see the fish in the lightbulb.  If we do this we can come up with so many things.  We can have a fresh change in our daily routines and become more creative.  Don’t get caught up in the mundain.  Make things as simple as a lightbulb and make it into something fun and interesting.  If we do that, I garantee we will star to have more fun with doing the same old routine we always do.

What to do in boredom?

Almost like any girl, I take photos of myself on my phone when I am bored. Though, that does not mean I am a girly-girl. I also like to take photos of random things when I am bored, such as a pattern that I did using chess pieces. Even though you are bored, does not mean you can’t find something to do. Take pictures, play a game, or even jump around in circles are some ideas that can be done when you are bored. Now, whether you are still bored while you are doing something, at least it is better than being in bed counting the dots on the ceiling. By the way, yes, I do do other things besides taking pictures of myself- I’m not that self-centered. Now stop being bored and go do something!! Such as writing your own blog, or even commenting on other people’s blogs, which is what I’ll being doing soon as well. Boredom can lead to random statements that comes out of nowhere- “I see the blood all over your hands, does it make you feel more like a man?” The music sinks in as your mind tries to think of something to avoid the boredom. When this occurs, you yell out “RAINBOW” in the middle of the hall. Then, you won’t be so bored.

 

Cabin Fever

There are times I get really bored. The problem is that most of my boredom is self-inflicted. However, there are times I can’t let boredom win! The motto of Red Raptor Productions is to make the mundane more manageable, and I stand by it. Don’t let the daily mucky-muck get in the way of you having fun. Take the boring and make it exciting!

Laughter is the Best Medicine

On Saturday night I was sitting around the living room with my parents and my sister and her fiancé. We had just received word that a high school friend had tragically died at the age of 22. We wept for Susanna, we prayed, we sat in silence. And then after a while we began cracking jokes and laughing. We didn’t know what else to do with ourselves.

I almost asked myself, “is this wrong?” But no, laughing was the best thing we could have done. Laughter heals the soul.

My dad tells the story of being in college anatomy class, dissecting a cadaver. There were over 30 dead bodies in the lab, and the only way to handle the stress and morbidity of the moment was simply to crack jokes and laugh. The cadaver became “Uncle George” and suddenly death didn’t seem so cold.

Not only does laughter heal the soul, but it relieves tension. Laughter unites cultural and language barriers. We had welcomed a missionary family into our home that did not speak any English. My brother farted at the table, and suddenly everyone erupted into laughter. We don’t always need words to communicate.

Laughter is the best medicine.

James Bond, Romantic Comedies and my friend Eileen

How have we defined the hero? A muscular man likened to a Greek god, with a chiseled jaw and steely eyes, a man who is both the guardian of justice and every ideal we set our sights on. Maybe he rides around in an Aston Martin and a black tuxedo. The hero is a man strong enough to slay the dragons and tender enough to woo the woman.

I think about Matthew McConnaughey and Jennifer Lopez in the “Wedding Planner.” Jennifer Lopez gets her 4-inch Jimmy Choo heels stuck in a sewage plate in the middle of a San Francisco street. Matthew – the heroic doctor – carries her to safety only moments before she is crushed by a runaway dumpster.

Why do I love James Bond and romantic comedies? Because these stories of courage and strength resonate with my soul. The human soul wants to hear stories of heroism.

Maybe it’s time for us to stop living in Hollywood visions. Perhaps we set out sights on these Hollywood stories because we have stopped imaging real courage and real strength in our own neighborhoods.

Have we stopped imagining – or have we simply stopped telling the stories of unlikely heroes?

My friend Eileen is an unlikely hero. Her husband died to cancer over 7 years ago, at the age of 30. Eileen helped to raise over $150,000 dollars for a new cancer suite in the local hospital. She took up the art of photography to bring about her healing and share her grief with the world. All of Eileen’s photographs are taken in her back garden; she sells each framed piece for cancer research and keeps no profit for herself. Eileen recently remarried and adopted two stepchildren.

Eileen has a survivor’s heart. She is not a Hollywood hero, but still a woman that lives in the epic.

Are we not the saints? Our lives are rich in stories. I think we have just forgotten how to tell them.

Thoughts on Laughter

Laughter indicates that something has been found funny.  Often it is the reflexive and involuntary result of having genuinely found something amusing.  At other times, it is forced out to create the facade of amusement; often a form of kissing up.  We will call this pseudo-laughter.  The former, reflexive, sort is of greater interest to us.

Within the former kind, there is an entire rainbow of variety.  There is the chuckle.  Creases form at the corners of the eyes.  Little sound escapes but the diaphragm gives enough of a punch for the sentiment to be heard.

There is the hoot.  This is comprised of a single salient breath found amongst the laugher’s higher register.  Eyebrows are often raised during the procedure since this variety of laughter is more often the result of surprise and only glossed with amusement.  Hence, it lasts but a moment, but consumes the entire moment in which it lived.

Next there is the side splitter.  This is the antithesis of the hoot.  At its root is pure, unbridled amusement, it’s only time frame is “long”, and also requires more breath than the laugher has at his/her disposal.  The side splitter begins its life as a chuckle or a higher pitched laughter.  Once it has reached its adolescence, the recognizable sounds of laughter begins to fade.  The laughter begins to consume its host, doubling it over.  The laugher’s eyes squeeze tightly shut.  Arms cross over the abdomen and clutch at the sides in an attempt to keep breath in.  Coming to full maturity, laughter has reduced the host to a fetal figure, shaking uncontrollably on the ground, with tears of pain mingling in the tears of joy that stream down their face.

Lastly we have the ever popular snort.  This, laugh is mistaken for any other regular laugh until it reveals itself with an all but surreptitious snort.  At this point the laughter comes to a momentary hiatus, and then is resumed in a glorious chorus by all those present.

Laughter is really a very strange reflex.  It serves much less purpose than catching ourselves when we fall.  It is never as subtle as a smile.  It is probably the most enjoyed and “sought after” of reflexes.  In a way, it is one of the most genuine signs of ones feelings.  Laughter is a release.  It is bold.  It has no apologies.