Jacob F. Roecker's Blog, page 6

Rainey’s 5th Birthday Video

Each of our children has a vibrant spirit and is a joy to our home.  Birthdays are a fun time to celebrate each of our children’s uniqueness.  Because we’re a family that takes a lot of photos throughout the year we tend to do a photo montage of each kid and have it ready for them to watch on their birthday morning.

Today is Rainey’s turn, and the boy just has good timing!  Recent upgrades in my video editing software have given me access to features I didn’t previously have available and allow me to increase the quality of the productions normally done here at home.

I’ll give the tech-specs and how-to’s later.  In the meantime, please enjoy celebrating Rainey’s birthday with us!

Rainey's 5th Birthday Video

Each of our children has a vibrant spirit and is a joy to our home.  Birthdays are a fun time to celebrate each of our children's uniqueness.  Because we're a family that takes a lot of photos throughout the year we tend to do a photo montage of each kid and have it ready for them to watch on their birthday morning.

Today is Rainey's turn, and the boy just has good timing!  Recent upgrades in my video editing software have given me access to features I didn't previously have available and allow me to increase the quality of the productions normally done here at home.

I'll give the tech-specs and how-to's later.  In the meantime, please enjoy celebrating Rainey's birthday with us!

How Many Contintents Are there?

Spoon Fight!

The kids and I have really been enjoying Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender series.  In addition to thoughtful writing and good artwork, the series features a wonderful soundtrack.  The end credits music is featured here as the background for this piece.  In fact, it's what inspired this sequence.

This was Eliza's and Daniel's first role together where they had to take direction.  They're still learning how their actions translate to the camera.  Although it was filmed over two days D, and E both remarked how it looked like it all happened at the same time.

The technical specs for this film are as follows:

Filmed with a Sony HDR-CX100
Edited with Apple's Final Cut Pro
Approximately 1 hour of principal photography, and 90 minutes of editing

Cello Wars

New Children's Songbook to Include Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down"

"The Children's Songbook of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been in use since 1989 and is used for ages 18 months to twelve years old."  So begins a recent report given to the First Presidency's Commission on Church Publications for Review.  A copy of which has been shared with the author of this blog.  The report continues to outline that the 21 year old publication is in need of immediate revision.

The report included a draft of a more modern songbook that would include songs like "Scripture Power" among the revised music.  On page two the report plainly describes the need for this revision.  "It's initial audience are now the parents who are loosing their hair and chasing after their own crew of primary aged children.  We've already alienated them by adopting songs such as Scripture Power which is not in the current songbook.  One of the major comments from newly called primary workers is their general frustration at singing songs not listed in the current songbook.  It's clear that either Bishops need to be instructed to call younger primary workers, or the book needs to be revised."

The review board was instructed to secure songs written by non LDS authors for inclusion in the new book.  Similar efforts were made to include now LDS favorite "Love at Home" in the current hymnal.  Among the list of new songs appears Tom Petty's 1989 hit single, Won't Back Down.  "We felt this was a way to connect with the now balding generation the Children's Songbook was intentionally written for, while appealing to the younger generation that are their children.  We felt particularly passionate about this song choice after reading Malachi 4:6, specifically where it talks about 'turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.'  The song very plainly discusses standing by one's beliefs even though the "gates of hell" are before you.  Clearly this is a message needed in these latter-days."

Copyright issues with using the piece were easily resolved.  Missionaries in Mr. Petty's mission district were all given a contract to have him sign if spotted in the area.  When one companionship spotted him entering a local Atlanta Bread Company they decided to fast the rest of the month in order to afford a meal with the Rock and Roll Giant.  They essentially gave Mr. Petty two options for the lunch conversation, baptism or copyrights.  Mr. Petty chose to discuss copyrights and the rest is history.

Of lesser note, a song about dinosaurs will be included in the upcoming version because (according to the report) "they're just cool and certainly underrepresented in the LDS song library."  I can't disagree with logic like that!

Although the church's news and events website has not been updated to note any announcement of the upcoming songbook at the time of publication many in the LDS community (including this author) await its anticipation.

Author's note:  This blog post is categorized as sarcasm.  I'm sorry to report that nothing in here is actually true.  Just something fun to write about.  Hope you got a laugh reading.  Please share it with your friends, and here's to hoping the next songbook has something about dinosaurs!  After all they're just really cool!

Visionaries

This week we saw the loss of a great mind.   If Steve Jobs was the Alexander Graham Bell of our time, then Gene Roddenberry was the Jules Verne of our time.

Putting Down the Miles

It's no secret that I enjoy running.  Yesterday it was 92° and the route below had the sun in your face the entire trip back.  I loved it.

We don't often get opportunities to fight our own personal demons sitting behind a computer desk, but pounding out a few miles on the road in heat you're not used to, and those same demons start creeping up just enough to let you see them.  Running is a sport where you're constantly smacking your feet into the pavement, but the mental sport is a lot like a game of whack-a-mole with your personal demons.

Kicks for this route were my New Balance Minimus, and my total time was 54 minutes putting me at just over an 8 minute mile pace.  My pace out was closer to 7, so I definitely slowed down on the way back.  The demons I was fighting were sore feet, dehydration, and sunlight.  The same route is on the schedule next week as well, I'll let you know how it goes.

Game sporting event concert etc

Any game sporting event or concert should be recorded to be posted on here. Agreement needs to be made regarding permissions to record minors etc, but likely not an issue due to public access to such events.

Senior profile

These are episodes that serve as a bio for someone who is graduating. What their plans are etc