And WildDog won’t stay out from underfoot as I shoot, so he gets the wirelessly triggered flash used against him.

I had the melody and little bits of lyrics rattling around in my head for a while so I dusted off the ol’ microphone and laid down a few tracks in honor of Easter.

Sarah, on the other hand, went to watch Titanic 3D. Look who’s spiritual now.

Music is both relaxing and meaningful to me because the rules are few, it’s very subjective, but it can also be such a powerful tool to share emotions and ideas. You just turn on the mic and create a moment…

So here’s a little guitar, classical guitar, djembe, and Irish whistle…

an easter song

Jesus came
Born a babe
Empty of all but love.
Bethlehem
In God’s good plan
Joyed the earth at the Savior’s birth.

In a moment, in an instant
The Christ child is born
And the cold night of sin
By the dawn
Starts to warm
As a grateful world kneels and the angels all sing
Jesus is born for a sinner like me.

Jesus came
To seek and to save
All those lost and gone astray.
The way he showed
The truth he spoke
The life he gave
The world to save.

In a moment, in an instant
Was light first beheld
By eyes that sickness and sin once had veiled.
In a moment, in an instant
A dark heart believed
Jesus came that I might see.

Jesus came
Bore my shame
Shed his blood to bring me to God.
My sin he wore
My shame he bore
Up that hill where sinners where killed.

In a moment, in an instant
The cross raised to the sky
And the arms of my savior were nailed open wide.
Bought with blood sealed with love
This gift that he gives
Jesus died that I might live.

Three long days
The world awaits
What long foretold we soon would hold.
Death’s dungeon bars
At the cross set ajar
And now the King will come, life to bring.

In a moment, in an instant
light flashed through the tomb
And triumph took form from the shadows and the gloom.
In a moment, in an instant
For all the world to see
Jesus arose that I might be free.

Alleluia will be the song of all the redeemed
Alleluia throughout all eternity.

———————

RANDOM FUN BONUS:

click to enlarge

The image to the right is called a stereogram. A stereogram is a set of at least two separate images that are taken at slightly different angles. When you know how to look at it properly, a stereogram creates a 3D image. In this case, you’ll see a 3D picture of my recording setup!

To view a stereogram, look at the image then slowly let your eyes unfocus until you see a third “ghost” image appear between the two pictures. It’s like seeing double at first, but then your brain aligns the two images to make a new one appear. Cool!

It takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty awesome.

Need more instructions? This article is a very handy resource!

I don’t know how to say this but, in Israel, I’m kind of a big deal.

Let me take you along the trail for gems like: “Texas….Oooo.” “A microphone!” and “Welcome to Israel…. I love you SO MUCH.” Along with two impromptu Hebrew lessons. Maganiv!

See more photos from my day at En Gedi here on the Insight for Living Tour Blog.

Click the photo to explore the 360 panorama….

The Insight for Living Trip Experience Blog

Interactive photo map I’m updating as I go

To me, media is at its best when it blurs the background noise of life and pulls an essential moment into focus. When it helps us see what we’ve always seen for all it means. When it makes everyday details seem important and what’s important appear arresting.

When it reminds me that some things may be usual but nothing is common.

Media becomes art when it makes art of life.

And saving webpages as pdf files on my iPhone and iPad was one nut I just couldn’t crack. Until now.

Let me show you how.

Wanted: PDFs

I’ve been looking for a simple way to save webpages as PDFs from the iOS Safari browser for quite some time. See, I use Evernote to store research, interesting tidbits, records, blog material, and just about everything else I’m interested in. The great thing about Evernote is that everything I save in it is searchable — including pdfs.

That’s why I wanted to do more than just email a webpage url which is the usual MO for sharing web content from Safari. I want to capture the text itself as a gloriously searchable pdf file that will look great and print well for years to come without the need for tedious copy and paste and without the aid of a computer.

Magical Javascript

I finally have a simple, handy solution. In a few easy steps, you can create a custom bookmarklet in iOS Safari that will do just what I always dreamed — take a webpage and convert it to pdf. It’s free. It’s easy. And it has this digital squirrel twitching with delight.

The secret is this little string of letters and symbols:

javascript:pdf_url=location.href;location.href=’http://api.
joliprint.com/api/rest/url/print/s/joliprint.com?
url=’+escape(pdf_url)+’&disposition=attachment’

It’s a javascript. A magical formula that we’re going trick iOS Safari into running for us to create pdfs.

A Few Simple Steps

Follow the easy steps below to create your own pdf maker bookmarklet. Before you jump into step one, copy the javascript above exactly  and send it to yourself in an email. That will make your task easier.

A time lapse of a simple DSLR shoot set up using a GoPro hero2 and a few bars of original music.

How time flies…

Sarah and I take our new waterproof gopro camera out for a swim with Lewis, and we decide to take it slow…

(The music’s from the ol’ dot deluxe and garageband for ipad)

Weird and embarrassing and fun — all at the same time.”

You don’t have to hang out with me very long to know that I almost always have a notebook within reach.

It’s a habit I’ve had since I was about 13. That’s when I finally realized that I forget almost everything that I don’t write down. When I fill up a notebook, I put it on the shelf, and start another.

Funny thing about these notebooks is how my relationship with them changes over time. My current notebook is like a bank. I deposit ideas, thoughts, and doodles for safe keeping — and hope for future…um…”interest.”

When I thumb through previous notebooks, they’re less like banks and more like mirrors. I see my past reflections, a blurry image my former self, and that view shows me some of what I’m like today. How I’ve changed. How I’ve grown or slipped. What core passions link my present decisions with my past desires.

Sometimes the image in the mirror makes me smile or laugh out loud. Sometimes it’s sobering wake-up call to see what I was and what I’ve become.

garageband for ipad

I was itching to try out recording with my new (to me) guitar last week when I came across an old notebook. There were some quotes to remember, some books I wanted to read. And here and there were a few lines of verse and some chords.

So I fired up the ol’ iPad and gave it a whirl. I remember playing this song at my little country church a few weeks after Christmas about a dozen years ago. Refreshing myself on the picking pattern was like crawling inside the attic and finding boxes of old photos from high school. Weird and embarrassing and fun — all at the same time.

Life was simple. Dreams were big. Odds were long. Risks were easy.

I had a good heart back then.