Yes, it is time again for Scout Camp. It seems like we were up there just a few weeks ago but if you look at the calendar very carefully, you will be able to see that 365 days have passed.
To help Andy get excited about Scout Camp, I promised him that we would make a movie while I was up there. Once I was up there, I kind of lost some of my enthusiasm because I was so tired after serving dinner to 120 scouts. I asked Andy if he still wanted to do it and he still was willing to try it. So, Andy grabbed one of his friends and came with me as I put together this little "commercial".
If you are not familiar with the "Old Spice" commercials on TV and on the Internet, you may not "get" the funniness of the video we made. BYU also made a hilarious commercial as a Spoof off of the Old Spice video that can be viewed at this link.
The Special Olympics just became more special for our family this year. Zach Mayer, my nephew and our kids' cousin, qualified to travel to Lincoln Nebraska to compete in the 2010 Special Olympics USA National games. Grandma Wardle and a bunch of family members volunteered to help support Zach in this endeavor and invited Savanna and Katie to travel with her to this wonderful event.
Zach's events included several entries in the Power Lifting competition. While competing for one of his events, the dead lift, he noticed that he had reached the limit of which he was capable of lifting, however, this weight would put him in second place. He knew that 260 lbs was the most he had ever lifted in this particular event but, he found that if he could muster up some extra courage, and extra strength, he would win the gold metal. With his determination fixed, he made a small comment to himself that he was going to try his hardest for his Grandpa. He steadied his feet and fixed his grip. Giving all that he had, Zach somehow managed to lift all 265 pounds, a personal best, to win the gold metal. Many in the audience did not realize that almost a year earlier, his Grandpa Wardle had left this earth unexpectedly. It brings tears to my eyes that Zack still remembered his Grandpa Wardle and wanted him to continue to be a part of his life even though he was on the other side of the veil. I know Grandpa was proud of you Zack and I know he was giving everything he had to help you succeed. I know the veil is thin and I believe that on special occasions, loved ones are allowed to come and witness special events in our lives.
Below is a video clip of Zach taking second place in another event, however we will always remember his triumphal power lift (with the help of Grandpa Wardle) that placed him on the top podium at the Special Olympic Games.
For those of you that don't know Zach, he is on the 2nd place podium on the left of the stage.
I thought I was going to be all cool and start producing some amazingly funny video clips (Like this guy) and post them on YouTube and have a thousand people start to follow my YouTube Channel and start earning a ton of money from advertisements and quit my job and move to Hawaii and live on the beach. So (big breath) I decided I needed a studio. I fiddled around the internet looking for "inexpensive" ways to create my own video studio. I gathered the pieces together and made my first video clip.
I must say, it is horrible, terrible, dumb, pathetic, too hot, the sound is too soft, video is too dorky and my face is too fat.
Just thought that I would let everyone know that I'm taking my video producing and editing skills to the next level. I decided to try out some GreenScreen effects and see what I could do. You probably already know what "Green Screen" is but all of you non-video-editing-producers-and-editors, it is a technique where you put a green color behind your subject, take a few video shots, then take a seperate video shot of something else and then blend the two shots. Everything in green is filled in with the second video shot.
Below is my first try at green screen techniques. I know that it isn't very creative but I didn't have a whole bunch of time to play with it. I just wanted to see if it would work.
Here it is, I've named it, Katie walking around the back yard. Ok, not a very creative name either.
I swear that I just did a video of Katie playing softball last month so I went out to my blog to find it. To my amazement, the "Kate playing softball" post was a year ago. I couldn't really believe it so I looked at the posting date to double check. I'm sure that I just did that video last week. Sure enough, the posting date reflected the same date on the video, June 2009. I guess it is time for some more pictures of Katie playing softball.
Katie has really done well this year. This last game, yesterday, she hit the ball well and was able to advance to 3rd base off of two of her power hits. In one particular inning while playing 2nd base, she was able to get all three outs all by herself. She would get in her ready stance, put her glove down in the dirt and prepare for the worst. She would then inch forward in anticipation of a well hit grounder. When the ball was hit to her, she kept her knees bent and scooped up the ball looking for the nearest base to tag. In these three cases, she simply stood up and ran down the nearest player that was running from first to second rendering them "OUT!".
