The title is definitely lyrics from the song I Want it All by Queen.

I know it is a long shot to be planning all of this almost a year from now, but my intentions are real and I hope to get this growing into an event that will take place in the future. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am interested in traveling to Europe. Though I know nothing about Europe for that matter, this will be a great opportunity to learn about culture and geography all while planning an experience of a lifetime. I don’t want to come off as this for sure happening, as a lot can happen between now and then and I may not be able to afford to go, but with desire and God on my side, what can go wrong, right?

This isn’t necessarily a vacation, but more so a learning experience and an opportunity to experience different life and beauty and be able to capture it all with photography. My intentions after graduation are to become a professional photographer, whatever that means. I picked it up as a hobby in January of 2009 and have loved it since. The concept of photography is incredible and indescribable. While I don’t doubt job opportunities being available after graduation, this could definitely create huge potential for portfolio building.

Who knows what will happen between now and then, but for now I plan to learn all that I can in the opportunity that I do get to go. Ideally, being there by September would be incredible. With this plan set in motion, it will most likely mean that I would move back to Oklahoma before I went out of the country, reducing cost of living at all costs. But, anything can happen, and I’ll stick to trusting in the big man upstairs.

All-in-all, this may never happen. This isn’t thoughts of a quick idea that I might be interested, but more so a longing desire I’ve had for some time now. Of course it all depends on what God has in store for me. While I would like to take this seriously, I will stop on a dime if it is what God has planned for me that I do not do this and that I stay in the States. Perhaps this is a drive that is being led by him, or perhaps he’ll talk to me in a month or maybe wait a year and tell me that he wants me to do something different. Until then, I can only pray and see where this turns, and no matter where, for the best.

I had the opportunity to sit down with one of the pastors from my church, Tom, and hear his story. I missed the opportunity two weeks ago at small group because I was extremely exhausted that week, so I went out of my way so that I could listen. That being said, I am extremely appreciative that I took the time to do this and to hear his awesome story.

While listening to his story and being motivated in several ways, I felt an inward pull that made me want to do similar things, on a different note. After he shared his story, he started asking me questions revolving around what I wanted to do after I graduated from Full Sail. As we talked about it, I realized that my fascination with traveling is way more than a fascination, but a strong longing for travel and adventure. After that conversation, I was fueled to get up and out in the world; to go out and experience life and what it has to offer. I am not sure what God has in store for me, but I don’t want to pass up any opportunities I may have. May is only around the corner and I want to become more prepared as it draws near. Regardless of what I do, exciting things for sure will happen.

This last weekend and past days have been incredible for me in my relationship with God. I don’t want to explain too much, but it was definitely an experience that can’t be described with just words.

Saturday night consisted of hanging out with some friends and enjoying each other’s company. I ended up having a great conversation with a friend, Boyd Hobbs, about spiritual warfare, specifically demons, as well as some basic theology and some philosophy. The conversation went well and I definitely heard some great things I had never heard before. For those that know me know that I struggle to maintain a consistent schedule with prayer. With that being said, I had a strong urge that was definitely not of me to want to walk outside on the porch with some friends and pray. We did just that, and the results were astounding. No miracles were performed, but God definitely stood at our sides as we sat and prayed together. It was an emotional time for me and a few tears ensued. At the end of all of this, it was a great step in friendships and of knowing what great of friends I have down here. I can honestly say that I love them all.

That night I came home and went to bed at a decent time. The next day I woke up from a dream that was really strange and potentially perceived as scary. It only makes sense if I share a story. Earlier Saturday, some friends and I went on a bike ride, met up with some other friends at a lake, set out a blanket, and hung out. While lying down, a friend noticed that you could hear running water under the ground. Whether it involved the lake or not, it was interesting to listen to. Going back to the dream, I was in the ocean, by myself, and I was in an inflatable tire tube. I had my side laying on it and I was listening to the sound of what was going on underwater. While I was listening, I heard the voice of a creepy woman that had a somewhat young sounding voice, if that makes any sense whatsoever. I don’t remember much, but I do remember her saying something along the lines of three people dying. Before any names were said, I woke up to my right arm not thrashing, but being hurled in front of me [since I was lying on my side]. I don’t know what to think of it, but despite that being so, it still happened.

As mentioned above, it has been a great past few days and I can’t thank God enough. I have felt compelled on more than one occasion to immediately start praying and the effects have been wonderful. I notice a change in being able to discern when God is speaking to me, even in the most simple of moments.

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31

 

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Originally uploaded by Frienca

This is a picture from a photo shoot I did last Friday. It was definitely an interesting learning experience, as all things are. Two friends from church agreed to help with the hair and makeup, which went incredible. I felt slightly bad because the hair looked great until we went outside and the humidity that encompasses Florida went straight to her hair.

All-in-all, it was a great experience and quite fun. I hope everyone enjoys the photos and more will come late.

I am definitely slacking on keeping this updated, and for that I am extremely sorry. This weekend has been a great weekend for me in several ways, though I have been lacking in the sleep department. Friday night consisted of a photo shoot with some friends. I had the model come and actually had friends that came and helped with the hair and makeup which I am extremely grateful for. Aside from that, it was a fun shoot that lasted a lot longer than expected, but not in a horrible way. After that, we all went to Dennys and experience some great shakes.

Saturday was awful in the sense that I had class for 8 hours, meaning that I did not have the opportunity to sleep in. I did, however, meet with some friends that night after I got out of lab and had some intentional conversations about spiritual warfare. We also delved quite deeply into theology and and some philosophy. It was an intense and amazing conversation that resulted in a few of us going outdoors and praying. God definitely threw bricks of discernment at me that night, and for that I am thankful. The end result was incredible, just knowing that you have people that you call friends that care about you and what you’re going through. Some friendships were definitely strengthened and it was for sure an emotional night for me.

I had the opportunity to sleep in until 11:00pm today, which was needed. I met with some friends and ate brunch outside my friend’s house by the pool. It was perfect weather in Orlando today and we took advantage of it. After the breakfast, we planned on watching The Jane Austen Book Club, but got distracted by the beautiful weather. We ended up turning off the movie and heading to another house to get bikes, ride to a lake, and lay on a blanket. We did just that and it was incredible. I can’t say that I slept, but the relaxation of peace with the inclusion of weather and friends was perfect.

Church tonight was a success. It was a really great experience and I am glad that a friend from back home had and took the opportunity to check it out. I wish the whole world had the opportunity to come and experience Status like I do. God is definitely moving in the church and the community within.

pictures were taken by both Aaron Chewning and Boyd Hobbs

I haven’t updated in a few days and I am trying to to be one of those bloggers that does that. The sad thing is that I don’t really have an excuse as to why I am not updating often. Being busy is the last of my concerns. I should rephrase that and say that being busy with productive activity is the least of my concerns. I am just now getting to people that were on set from my class’s 16mm project! It’s sad that I am not good at being productive, but I suppose I could be optimistic and say that now is better than never.

I’ve had some good talks with friends in the past week. The last weekend I went to a Halloween party and met some awesome people, as you saw in my last post. Also, some friends and I went to the beach, which was really great. I had a bad experience with the man at Walgreens while trying to develop my film, but it finally turned out. He couldn’t get me a CD, which was very frustrating, but I am trying to deal with it.

I have several projects that just keep stacking on top each other. My friend and I have had a stop motion concept going for probably four months right now, at the minimum. I really need to step on it and get things going. I need to change the way I go into each day. I need to set goals that I can work towards so that each day counts for me. Even if my days don’t count, the days count towards my life, which won’t last forever.

Last night was a random night for some friends and I. Aaron works part-time for this organization called Booster, if I am not mistaken. Long story short, the guys he works with threw a Halloween party and some friends and I tagged along with him. It was an interesting night filled with a nice house, a roaring fire, loud dance music, such as The Chacha, and great people in costumes. Practically everyone there I was meeting for the first time, which can sometimes be intimidating, but it helps when everyone is pretty awesome and open to talking.

We got there late due to some circumstances that encompasses all of us. Aaron and Scott decided to be cute and dress alike, then demanded that I take “a few” pictures of them that ended up turning into a risque photoshoot. (I’d add the comma above the ‘e’ in risque, but I don’t quite know how) That being said, here are some pictures from last night. Not all of them are added obviously, but it’s a glimpse.

Definitely a thanks to Aaron for letting me use some of his camera equipment. I had my XSi body with his Canon 580EX II Flash and Canon 17-40mm L series lens.

A friend recently let me borrow Halo 3:ODST for my Xbox 360. I was stoked at the thought of playing it, despite not playing as the master chief. For anyone that knows me well, knows that the Halo franchise, more specifically the story, is one of my obsessions. I have read the first four books, played most of the games, and loved every second of it all. There was one point in my life, not even a few months ago, that I replayed Halo 3 and actually found tears rolling down my cheeks as the beginning cinematics started. Bungie has yet to let me down with anything they do to develop Halo. ODST was a great game with a really good story that can even be compared alongside the “first book of the Divine Comedy, Dante Aligeri’s ‘Inferno’.”

For those of you that don’t know, Halo is a franchise revolving around the super soldier Master Chief [John 117]. To go into detail, Dr. Halsey and Lieutenant Keyes meet 6-year-old John on a playground in Elysium City. Being trained to be the best soldiers in the world, the Spartan Program has John and the other spartans undergo a “radical series of biological, neurological, and physiological alterations,” which causes more than half of the soldiers to die or become disabled. In August of the year 2552, Planet Reach, UNSC’s primary Naval yard, training academy, major producer of warships and colony vessels, as well as a training ground for covert operatives and Special Forces, is destroyed by the Covenant. The Covenant are a “theocratic military alliance of alien races,” “united under the religious worship of the enigmatic Forerunners and their belief that Forerunner ringworlds known as Halos will provide a path to salvation.

That being said, Halo: Combat Evolved, the first Xbox video game, starts out with the Master Chief escaping Reach on the ship known as The Pillar of Autumn along with Cortana, an AI created by humans. Cortana is different from other AIs in that “she is a direct copy of a human being, Dr. Halsey.” They crash into the newly found ring Halo and that is where the game takes you. I won’t go too far in, seeing as the games help tell the story perfectly. I’d love to sit and share the whole story, but that is what the books that are already published are for. Definitely check out Amazon or any bookstore and some copies can be found.

Sites Sourced:
http://halostory.bungie.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covenant_(Halo)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(series)

Last night at church was an intense night, but it worked. As a congregation, we were told that the head pastor for Status was stepping down from his leadership role as an act of faith. While some people might view this as a “cop out,” there is no reason for me to believe such things. I was talking to a friend, Reidland, last night, which I will further delve into later, that mentioned how comfortable the transition felt, though it is only the beginning. He mentioned that he had experienced several transitions in his time with churches back home. Of all the churches though, he placed emphasis on how great it is to see a group following God’s heart be so obedient and acting on faith, that being Status.

I will try to intertwine everything in the end, but for now you’ll just have to bear with me. To explain myself, I’ll start earlier. I volunteered doing some tech work for the first service at church last night, heard the message that was given and took it all in. Second service came around and I stayed for worship, then felt compelled to call a friend that I hadn’t talked to in awhile. I went outdoors for the phone call and talked for only a few minutes before he had to go, which makes it all more interesting. Looking back at it now, the key wasn’t necessarily the phone call, it was instead the process of getting me outdoors.

After talking for only a few minutes, the conversation had ended and I slowly made my way back inside. No sooner had I gone inside when a friend comes walking by and asks if I want to go get some free doughnuts. Not being able to refuse something that is free, even though the circumstances were known, we headed out to drive to Dunkin Donuts. Casey recently spent around four and a half months in Alaska, being able to work and experience a completely different life than what he was used to. He just recently got back in Orlando, which makes time for great stories of adventure and experience.

We had checked out the dumpster behind the store, grabbed a few doughnuts that were sanitary, then hung out on the curb and talked. His stories were incredible and very inspiring and I wish that each and every person that reads this would have the opportunity to hear about his travels and what he learned in those months. One of the main motifs of his story was the simplicity of living while in Alaska. Not that it was easy, which I am almost positive wasn’t the case, but the simplicity of a life in the sense of being mobile.

Here in America, society often finds itself tied down to possessions, having to own special and expensive items to help us live and feel better about ourselves. Casey explained how he had packed boxes of things he felt he needed for when he came back to Orlando, but when he got here he realized it wasn’t really necessary. He said it was liberating, being in Alaska and wondering not necessarily what to do each day, but more so how to survive each day.

I won’t speak his story, because I don’t know all the facts and I don’t want to say something that may be wrong. But, just to see his heart after he came back from a great adventure that God had provided  everything for was really great. I often speak about finding inspiration and motivation through people and I can say that this is no different, except it is inspiration in the simplicity in life; living with only what I need and not necessarily what I think I have to have.

I know I said that I would talk more about events that took place later last night, but I don’t want to write a book for one single post. I’ll see what I can do in making this a two part post and eventually finish.

I feel compelled to start this post with another link to another artist. I was with some friends last night and we decided to watch the movie The Strangers. I had the seen the movie before, so there was no element of surprise, but the film was still good. At one point in the film, a song comes on the turntable and it is a woman with a unique voice. I was convinced that it could have been CocoRosie, but to my surprise it wasn’t. Doing some research, I found the name Joanna Newsom and a song called Sprout and Bean. All that being said, here is a link to the song on Youtube. As mentioned above, the voice is unique and it’s a thoroughly enjoyable song.

Joanna Newsom – Sprout and the Bean

I usually create a new post on Saturday, but I found myself occupied with simple things all day. It also didn’t help that I didn’t really have much to talk about, and I feel it is still the same way sort of.

Monday starts a new month of classes for me. We get to edit our film that we shot last month for 16mm and for some reason I am dreading it. The footage wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t anything amazing. Simple mistakes were made throughout the production by all and I’d say that it was an incredible learning experience. After this month I have two online classes. I won’t take full advantage of going home for the whole time, but I will be in Tulsa for around three weeks when I do get there. Plans are to leave a day or two after Christmas with some friends and road trip back to Florida so they can hang out and what have you.

Bowling last night was quite enjoyable. When it comes to bowling, I am pretty competitive, especially with myself. I try to tell people that it is like basketball to me, in the sense of aim. As soon as I let go of the bowling ball, I can definitely tell if it is going to be a strike or if it is going to be off. Despite a lot of mistakes, I ended up getting 165 on my first game, which is around average for me. It makes me really like bowling and want to go a lot more often.