"Recalled to Life..."

Well, the last few months have been quite wild, in the amount of things that have happened. Re-roofing a house, meeting online friends in person, hosting a Homeschool Alumni event, making a kilt, being away from home for a month on a film shoot in Michigan...it's wild!
The Lord has been there every step of the way, teaching me new things, guiding and leading; I can't help but think that it has all been laying foundations for what will happen next. (Not that this has not been happening in the 19 1/2 previous years, but the last two years or so have included big things that make a powerful impresssion on me of the hand of God working in my life.)

Gabriel Everson suggested that I update my blog on the recent developments, and I am hoping that I will be able to give a bit broader of an overview sometimes next week detailing what has been filling my days recently, and just to get back to my blog. :)

I hope you have an enjoyable Labor Day weekend!
God bless,
~Caleb

A little bit of iTunes...

...Went a long way in frustrating this customer...

So, to begin with, I've had iTunes installed on my PC for, I don't know, a month or so, I guess. Yesterday, I finally decided to take it through its paces. Brandon was going out, so I gave him some money, and asked him to pick up an iTunes gift card for me on the way home - which he obligingly did. When he returned, I put in the card number, and started buying my music; 'Postie's Jig', the Excelsius soundtrack by Larry Groupe, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem's 'The Wild Colonial Boy', and 'La Coronacion' from Globus' album Epicon, were soon bought and downloaded. I was excited!

Then I came upon the first obstacle presented by iTunes. The file type. I was hoping to whip the songs right onto my mp3 player and head off to conquer my bathroom cleaning duties. But iTunes...or at any rate, some Apple person or other, had different ideas. No friendly, easy-to-use .mp3 files to be found. No, there were .m4a files. Quicktime was the preferred player...not cool. I love Quicktime as a video player, but I prefer WMP for audio. Anyway, I gave it ashot, I c&p'd the files to my mp3 player. No luck there. Big surprise. My worst fears about iTunes were realized. It's a system! You're not meant to escape from it. I did, but the endeavor drained me.

to be continued...:)

April update

Yeah...no inspiration when it came to a title...
And not a whole lot of inspiration when it comes to content, I just needed to update. No, I wanted to update my blog. As Caleb Holt (Fireproof) said, "Those are called preferences, they are not needs." :)

Okay, where to begin...
Well, I came down with a cold Thursday night on the way home from Lyons'. I think it was probably getting chilled from the rain that did it...though I did feel it slightly in the morning before Michael came and picked us up. It just settled in on the way home.
The work went really well on Thursday. Mr. Lyons, Sean, Mike Thorn, Brandon and I got all 36 trusses up onto the garage! Putting up the final one was pretty exciting! :)

I would like to request prayer for the last couple of weeks of school...the semester ends May 9th. I would especially like to request prayer for my Anatomy and Physiology class. It's my weakest one, and while I'm trying to not think about it at present, I am concerned about the outcome of the Final.

I delved back into Points of Light yesterday (Saturday) and I actually got a pen to paper, even though I only really wrote one paragraph...I did edit some of what I already had, toward the end, because the story is changing somewhat from where I had it in November of last year.
Besides getting it done for my own satisfaction, I want it done so all the people I've teased with it will be able to finish it and tell me whether it was a good enough ending or not! :) Also, Daddy expressed interest in maybe doing some illustrations for it, which would be...well, more cool than I can say! The political subplot is thickening even more than originally...and that's all I'll say. ;)

I'm also getting excited about the Albion/Erie HSA get-together! Really looking forward to that!

Hmmm...not much else going on...
Until next time, God be with you!
~Caleb

Sherlock Holmes fan trailer

Lots of occasions call for video editing...and I am of such a weak constitution when it comes to video editing, that I can rarely say no when the urge comes...
Tonight was no exception. Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie's 2009 reinvention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary master of mystery, Sherlock Holmes, came out on DvD today...or rather yesterday, as I am writing at a quarter to 1 AM on Wednesday morning.
I had not done a fan trailer for Sherlock Holmes, and the DvD release seemed a perfect excuse...(as my mother always says, "If you're looking for an excuse, any one will do.")
So at any rate, here is my trailer:



Comments are welcome! :)

Song of the Month

Title: Song of Love
Artist: Rebecca St. James
Album: Worship God

Jesus, King of my heart
Father, my peace and my light
Spirit, the joy of my soul You are

Jesus, to you none compare
Father, I rest in Your care
Spirit, the hope of my heart You are

CHORUS:
The heavens declare You are God
And the mountains rejoice
The oceans cry Alleluia
As we worship You Lord
For this is our Song of Love

Jesus, You save my soul
I'll thank You forevermore
Jesus, the love of my life You are

CHORUS

Jesus, I am in awe
Of the love that You have shown
Jesus, how precious You are to me

CHORUS

"Here is Where the Road Divides"

"Here is where the road divides, here is where we realize
The sculpting of the Father's great design
Through time you've been a friend to me
But time is now the enemy, I wish we didn't have to say goodbye..."

Last Sunday at around 3 PM, I was taking my last glance back at the waving figures diminishing behind us. Brandon beeped the horn, I turned away and Pleasant Hill Outdoor Center disappeared behind us, once again hidden from view by the trees. Many people have been expressing similar sentiments since then, and like them, I felt happy, excited, invigorated in a way, and that inexplicable buzz of joy was ringing in my ears. The melancholy of parting actually didn't hit me until later, in the form of, as Brandon called it, 'denial'. The utter joy that I, and I am assured we all, experienced during the Ohio Winter Rendezvous, is still lingering in my heart, and no doubt will linger for a very VERY long time.

"Painted on our tapestry, we see the way it has to be
Weaving through the laughter and the tears
But love will be the tie that binds us to the time we leave behind us
Memories will be our souvenirs..."

On the way home from class Friday morning, Brandon and I were listening to a Michael W. Smith cd, and when we stopped at a gas station, I turned the music back on while Brandon was pumping the gas. Pray For Me came on, and I sat silent, listening to my feelings, really. The song summed up my emotions on the breaking up at the Rendezvous perfectly! It was beautiful.
As I listen to the song again and again, however, and try to cling to the recorded pieces of the Rendezvous and the people I met there, (the amount of time I'm spending on Facebook looking at pictures, commenting on pictures, etc.,) I'm struck by the debilitating effect doing so can have on my daily life.

"And I know that through it all
The hardest part of love is letting go
But there's a greater love that holds us..."

In November after returning from Virginia, I experienced the same type of slump, and it required some real talking to God to get me out of that. Oh, how terrible are happy times ended! And yet, all things, no matter how good, must come to an end...only one remains. The unfailing love of God.

I believe God has blessed me abundantly by introducing me to all of those who attended the Rendezvous, and I have no regrets about the time I spent there, but I am realizing I need to let go of the event and move on. When flowing streams converge, they should not stop and stay, or they grow stagnant. All of our lives that touched at the Rendezvous are now tied together in the Love of Christ, and I need to take peace and joy from that, let my stream continue flowing in the paths God has laid out for me, and trust that my stream will continue flowing parallel with all my friends.

"Pray for me and I'll pray for you
Pray that we will keep the common ground
Won't you pray for me and I'll pray for you
And one day Love will bring us back around."

The road splits and goes on, but if we are in Christ, we can never really be separated.
God bless you as He leads you on your journey with Him!

Song of the Month

Song: The Problem
Artist: Downhere
Album: Ending is Beginning


There's got to be some reason
for all this misery
A secret evil corporation
somewhere overseas
They're pulling strings,
arranging things
It's a conspiracy

Or what about the ones who
shape the course of history?
What if we petitioned for one
grand apology?
I'll write to my prime minister
You, write your president

Everybody's wondering how
the world could get this way
If God is good, and how it could
be filled with so much pain
It's not the age-old mystery
we made it out to be
Yeah, there's a problem
with the world
And the problem with the world
is me

Some will say the devil
and his legions
They put us in a headlock
of submission
But they lost all power over me
A long, long time ago

And since I was a kid you know
I've caused a lot of hurt
And no one ever taught me how
to put myself first
It came so very naturally
But I'm not a prodigy

So I will look no further
than a mirror
That's where the offender hides
So great is my need
for a redeemer
That I cannot trust myself

No, I cannot trust myself
I dare not trust myself
So I trust in someone else

The sooner you can sing along
The sooner you can sing this song
The happier we'll be
The problem with the world is me