Brandon's Blog

Welcome, 2009

Another great desktop wallpaper design with a thoughtful quote, featured on Smashing Magazine.  (Designed by Joshua Friend.)  Happy New Year!

Cancelled Flights & A Brilliant Photo Book for Your Coffee Table

After checking Southwest Airlines website for our flight status (it said "30 minutes delayed"), we set off in the snow and ice down the 5 in my parents' SUV, all chained up.  When we arrived at PDX, I ran in to check the departure screen and was shocked to see "CANCELED" flashing all over.  I guess I shouldn't really have been all that surprised, but we were pretty confident that we'd be spending Christmas in Colorado after the website told us that the flight would just be delayed a bit.  After waiting in the queue for an hour-and-a-half or so, we re-booked the flight for Sunday evening and the guy behind the counter tried to convince us that he was saving us $160 by waving all of the re-booking fees and I rolled my eyes and thought, "Bull crap.  You haven't done us any favours.  If you didn't wave those fees, you'd have a whole airport full of VERY angry customers."   (Many of whom had already spent two nights sleeping on the floor.) 

So Christmas with Kristy's family in Colorado is a bit delayed this year, which is a bit of a disappointment, but it's out of our control.  We'll still get to see them.  It'll be kinda strange spending Christmas here at my parents' place, since we already celebrated as a family this last weekend.  Kristy and mom want to re-wrap all the presents and do it again.  We'll see . . . .

When you get a chance, be sure to CLICK HERE and check out a new photo book that my friend Dave just published through Blurb.  In fact, why don't you purchase one as a last-minute Christmas gift for that photography buff in your family?  They'll love Dave's knack for a good capture and they'll be supporting an independent artist with a big heart for serving the people of Cologne, Germany.  (And BTW, the photo of the plane above is NOT one of Dave's, lest there be any confusion.  His stuff is much better.)

=)

More Christmas

We've had a really good early Christmas here in the Pacific Northwest with my family (minus my brother Tyson and his family from California, unfortunately).  Today, we're off to Denver.  At least, we hope we're off to Denver.  Flights have been delayed on and off throughout the last few days due to this winter storm we've been enduring.  It was fun for a while, but now it's just getting kind of disruptive.

Also, have a look at this great Christmas graphic I received from the folks from 3Rock Youth in Dublin.  I'm continually impressed with the creative talents of that team. 

A Christmas Playlist

I was just poking around on Imeem a little bit and I'm really liking what I see there as a way of discovering and sharing new music.  Below, you'll find a little Christmas playlist that I've thrown together for your listening enjoyment.

Christmas

Also, below are a few videos from my "favourite songs of 2008" list.

Random Links - A Little Bit o' Serious, A Little Bit o' Fun

• I'm with Shane Claiborne in saying, "ENOUGH!"
• I continue to be impressed with our president-elect . . .
• Arcade Fire have released a film that looks to be a documentary on the recording of their last album, Neon Bible.  I'm looking forward to getting a digital download version of it.

And here are a few links in the "TOTAL waste of time" category that are, nonetheless, rather entertaining.

• If you've always wondered what it would be like to work in cartoon animation, whether you're even very creative or not, GoAnimate has made it really easy. And a TONNE of fun.
• LineRider have done something similar but connected it with videogaming.  
• ElfYourself 2008 has a bit of an upgrade from last year.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Year in Music (or at least on my iPod) 2008

Earlier this month, all the major music publications and blogs were putting out their “Top Albums/Bands of 2008” lists.  Paste Magazine had a curious Top Album of 2008 from a band called “She and Him,” which left a lot of bloggers and music fans scratching their heads.  But that’s Paste for you.  Neither music snobs nor pop music aficionados, they really don’t give a rip about expectations “out there,” which I find refreshing.  (BTW, I got the “She and Him” album just to see what the hype was all about.  IMHO, it’s a decent album, but I’m joining the head-scratchers.)

A few years back, I wouldn’t have considered myself a big fan of folk music.  However, with some of the great songwriting coming out in that genre over the last couple of years, I’d have to say that’s changed.  Even screamo star Dusin Kensrue of Thrice has had a decent go at a folk album (entitled "Please Come Home").  While Fleet Foxes got a lot of attention this year, I’d have to pick Wisconsiner Bon Iver as my top “folk-ish” album of the year.  Others that I’m hoping to look into more are The Tallest Man on Earth, Hayden,  and The Avett Brothers, whom I’m way behind with (think they’ve put out more than 10 albums.)  Also, Conor Oberst (a.k.a., Bright Eyes) put out an album a few months back that I had hoped to look into getting by now.

As much as I’ve enjoyed Bon Iver over the last few months, Sigur Ros’s 2008 offering was probably my favourite release of the year. 

Caitlyn's First Trip to the Zoo

First Trip to the Zoo from Brandon Wellcome on Vimeo.

Why I Serve (in 912 Words)

A few weeks back, I was asked to put together some thoughts on serving from a faith perspective for some sort of Bible study guide.  Unfortunately, I got the request in the form of an e-mail sent to an address that I rarely check, so I barely made the deadline (which I think was yesterday).  It was supposed to be 700-900 words, so if I had a chance to put some more time and editing into it, I may have been able to be a bit more concise and make the ideas flow together more smoothly. 

So if you asked me to write out a "devotional" on how I feel about the way my faith informs my desire to serve, and you gave me a 24 hour deadline, this is how it might turn out.

Hearing The Voice

It was a year and a half ago that I first learned of a new Bible project being undertaken by author and church leader, Chris Seay.  The description of the project’s intent was absolutely thrilling - a holistic approach to translation that would capture the dynamism of scripture through not only the traditional use of scholars, but also of storytellers, poets, artists, and songwriters.  “The team writing The Voice brings unprecedented gifts to this unique project. Award-winning fiction writers, acclaimed poets, pastors renowned for using art and narrative in preaching and teaching, Greek and Hebrew authorities, and biblical scholars are all coming together to capture the beauty and diversity of God's Word.”

I really like the fact that, instead of making Bible translation something that only belongs to academics (whether Greek or Hebrew or theological) and thus making it an almost purely scientific endeavor, the Voice team wanted to bring in artists in order to capture some of the creative dynamic and tone that we find in scripture.  By retaining the academic disciplines of biblical scholarship but also bringing artists into the process, I really believe that a far more meaningful balance can be struck in the work of translation. 

The Waiting Begins . . .

... carry on
Originally uploaded by Jibbo.

I came across this photo the other day and thought that it captured the Advent season rather nicely.

(See also this post from the beginning of Advent 2006.)