Community Film making at it’s best

if you liked Lord of the Rings then you really have to watch this. They made this 40 min film with a budget of only £3000. I absolutely love the community nature of this process of people coming together with different skills to add to the project for the sake of the project itself.

The script is adapted from elements of the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows the Heir of Isildur; the “greatest huntsman and traveller in Middle Earth” as he sets out to find the creature Gollum. The creature must be found to discover the truth about the Ring, and to protect the future Ringbearer.

Another Youtube Mixup

This is amazing: Kutiman mixes various youtube clips to create something very special

Amazing YouTube Mixup

This is amazing: Kutiman mixes various youtube clips to create something very special

How am I defined?

One of the regular blogs i go to is ASBO Jesus created by a top bloke and good mate Jon Birch. Jon’s images are really thought provoking and the discussion is prolific on his site. i thoroughly recommend a visit.

Anyway this cartoon has really got under my skin:

Genius Jon Birch strikes again.

The thing that has hit me from this is how i define my self.

For me at least there have been times in my life when i have only found any level of purpose when i perceive that what i am “doing” has any value and therefore I only have self worth when that is the case. When i look at those times i see that my “being” is watered down and pigeon holed into an activity (regardless how worthwhile it is it is not who i am just something i have done).

perhaps it is my desire to be affirmed and praised that i look for my actions to shape who i am.

The reality is that i have to take time out and discover who i am – who has God made me to be. When i am on this journey i am convinced that those things that i do will come out of who i am. This seems to me to be the right way around.

Otherwise, what happens? When we do things we busy our lives and make this define who we are.

Allotment Joy……and pain!

So only 2 months wait and we have it. An allotment in Rochford:

62b our allotment

So keen that we were to get started we were working on the site before the ink on the contract was signed. We were given a choice of 2 sites; one had been a carpark for 20 year and so it was a blank canvas but also was compacted down from years of parked cars. The other, 62b, hasn’t been touched for a year or so but has a bean support, raspberry canes, an old wheelbarrow, composting bins and some rhubarb growing. A clear winner in our book.

So day one and we have quite a bit of work to do:

Day 1 the beggining

In a couple of hours we had managed to clear quite a bit of the ground and the pain was starting to bite. I am sure we will get used to it:

A start was made

If you have an allotment in Rochford come down and say hello to Sie, Karen, Esther or myself and give us as many tips as you like. We may need them!

Wordle

I have stumbled on an amazing site:
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and colour schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
This is my first attempt using the text from wikipedia from their freedom of speech article:

Allotment plans

So some positive news on a new topic:

Esther and I have spoken for a while about having a plot on the local allotment. At the Rochford Christmas Spectacular the local allotment association had a stall and this got us thinking again. As it turns out Esther’s brother and his wife were also keen to get involved so today I have put us down on a waiting list. Who knows how long it will take us to get a plot, but the journey has started.

New Weigh in and a scary thought!

I weighed in this morning and have lost again. Down to 16st 3lb I am now at my lightest i have ever been.

I decided to weigh my 2 1/2 year old daughter this morning and discovered that whan i reach my first target of 15st 9.6lb i will have lost the exact weight of my daughter.

How scary is that i have been carrying that much extra weight around!

Why Weight Watchers?

I was asked recently why i started the weight loss and why weight watchers.

Well in September i went on holiday with Esther, my wife, and two children. On holiday i didn’t feel self conscious at all. In fact i felt pretty good.

Then after we retuned home and downloaded the photos to the computer i found this one:

What a state! I hated it. This is the photo that gives me motivation. Add into that that i was getting out of breath walking up stairs, something had to happen.

So why weight watchers?

I have been on weight watchers before, paying £5 a week to go to the classes. I did ok but became board quite quickly. Also objected to paying £5 and then never felt comfortable to stay at the meetings as i was one of the only men there.

This time i am not paying £20 a month to weigh my self. I am paying £10 for the online system. Digital points tracker and menus with the weigh in tracker as well.

My final reason for Weight watchers is that i am following the core plan not the points plan. I find this gives me a bit more flexibility and less time working out points values of meals.

A slight delay

So the concept 2 has been delayed and i shall now take delivery on Wednesday – Just another day until the pain starts!