Author: Mat

  • Pearls of Irritation

    1687943687

    It’s amazing how the smallest pebble can cause such irritation especially in your shoe, but an oyster turns that same irritation into a pearl.

    Just a thought.

  • Best 2011 Super Bowl Commercial (so far)

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0?wmode=transparent]

  • A Social Network Christmas

    What if Facebook was around 2000 years ago?

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sghwe4TYY18?wmode=transparent]

  • Way Cool Video Technology

    [vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/15393180 w=500&h=283]

    Ford launched the new S-MAX in London with a very cool multi-sensory 3D projection mapping experience/video produced by Seeper.

    For similar affects view a video and photos here.

    http://www.blainehogan.com/post/1203891683/story-2010-opener

  • Dot: The World’s Smallest (stop-animation) Girl

    Dot is one of the world's smallest girls.  She's only 9mm tall.  This is a cute stop-motion animation film about her.  It was filmed entirely on a cell phone, the Nokia N8.

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD7eagLl5c4?wmode=transparent]

  • Three Life Lessons from Frodo

    I just finished watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy again.  No matter how many times I’ve watched them I’m always surprised at how profound Tolkien was at his understanding of the human condition, our frailties and our strengths.

    Lessons I learned this time. (and probably many times before)

    1.  Life is about choices.  Those we make and those we have thrust upon us.

    2.  Life is about personal sacrifices.  Life is bigger than us and requires that we think of the other people in our life first.

    3.  Life is about following your calling.  We all have one.  Have you found yours?  Are you living it?

  • Life Lessons

    Have you ever had one of those moments in your everyday routine that all of a sudden hits you like a ton of bricks and becomes a life lesson?  Well, I just had one of those.  The light in our closet burned out.  It was quite dark in there.  I've never really liked the lighting in our closet.  It's too dark.  After the light burned out I was a little miffed, because I could swear that I replaced it with a CFL just a few months ago.  I thought to myself, "See if I buy those lights again.  Five years my !&%…."  Needless to say as I unscrewed the ballast and noticed that there was not only one light, but two lights that were burnt out I knew why it was so dark.  Hmm, I thought, no wonder it was so dark.  It was at this point that our Divine Maker gently tapped me on the shoulder and as I turned around smacked me upside the head.  It wasn't a mean smack more like a "Man, why did you assume?  You know where that gets you" kind of smack.  All too often, as least I, assume things are one way only to find out something completely different.  How often do we miss opportunities in life because we were sure it was "A" and it was really "Z" and had we taken the time to slow down and not assume things we would have been so much better off.

    Just some food for thought.  Do you have one of those "assuming" stories?  Share it here and lets talk.

  • This Guy is Great and Crazy

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxYXg5vhqjw?wmode=transparent]

  • Some seriously hip dads YO!!!

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZa7hU6tP_s?wmode=transparent]

  • You Never Know

    Have you ever had one of those, “you never know” moments?  You know, they’re those moments that make you think, “Hmm, you never know.”

    This morning I had two of those moments shortly after waking up.  The first, a call from my dad, telling me he has a job interview this week.  He’s one of the many, how can I say, seasoned employees that have currently been replaced by younger, cheaper employees, but that’s not why we’re here.  He told me that he got the interview because he was volunteering at a medical clinic assisting with the computer networks and basic desktop support.  My father is a network engineer with many years of experience and the ladies in the office think he “walks on water”, at least according to the Director my father was helping out.  It just so happened that the Director was married to an IT VP of a large regional bank in central Kansas.  One of this bank’s network engineers had just left the company and he was looking for a new staff member.  His wife told him that she had a guy, you guessed it, that walked on water, so he gave my dad a call.

    The second “you never know” moment came when reading The Pioneer Woman‘s blog post from today.  Yes, I’m a guy and yes from time to time I glance over my wife’s shoulder to see what she’s reading.  Okay, fine!  I’m busted, I like to read her blog!  What can I say, she’s great and I love to laugh at her expense.  Anyway, her post this morning was about a moment on a plane ride back from Seattle.  I won’t go into great detail, I’ll let you read that, but just as the plane was about to land the pilot hit the throttle sending the plane skyward again.  Of course, this rattled the usually strong hearted Pioneer Woman and at that moment she did what any passenger with a heartbeat would do.  Her mind started racing, wondering what went wrong.  Was it the landing gear?  Did we almost have a mid-air collision?  What could it be?  A few minutes later the pilot came on the loudspeaker and informed the passengers that he had detected some dangerously strong crosswinds so he aborted the landing.

    So, what do walking on water and job interviews have to do with The Pioneer Woman and aborted landings and how do they relate to “you never know” moments?  As you can see, I’m sure there was no way for my father to know the set of circumstances and events that he set in motion when he agreed to volunteer to assist the medical clinic with their computer needs.  Just like The Pioneer Woman had no knowledge or foresight of why they had to suddenly abort the landing and circle back around to make the landing several minutes later.  These are you never know moments.  They are moments when we encounter, fate, divine providence, accident, luck or whatever you might call it, but these moments happen and all too often, I find myself quitting just before I would have had my moment.  

    I once remember reading that the Space Shuttle expends an unbelievable amount of fuel just getting free from the launch platform (something like 85% I believe).  If, for some reason the engines would be throttled back a few milli-seconds early it would be catastrophic.   Instead it’s pedal to the metal until the Shuttle has reached escape velocity.

    The you never know moments can happen at any time so I think the lesson here is to keep pressing forward, because you never know what’s just around the corner.

    Do you have those “you never know” moments?  If so, would you share?