The Miracle of the Newspaper

I’d like to start off this post by informing everyone that I’ve officially taken two studio strobes out of commission in two days. Aka I broke them. Yes, I’m that talented. It’s not a terribly huge deal, just a flash bulb, light bulb, and a loose power adapter. But still, not the best inconveniences to have in the middle of a shoot.

On the home front, I don’t really have anything newsworthy to report. I just thought I would throw that in so that I could use the phrase, “on the home front”. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Moving on…

This is a Chimes post. For those of you who are out of the loop, the Chimes is Biola‘s student newspaper that I worked for as the photo editor this past school year. I’ve shed blood, sweat, and sleep for the paper – sometimes in vain, and sometimes in victory. Mostly in vain. So here’s the mandatory nostalgic summary of a year of way too many office hours:

Freshman year, watching from the passenger seat (just freelancing), I thought, “holy crap these Chimes peeps know their stuff.” Then when I took over Faith’s position of photo editor I realized that they really just took their best guess at what they were doing. In fact, when considering the mass chaos that happened on a daily basis in the Chimes office, it was really a miracle that the paper even got out every week.

But I have to say that the Chimes staff this year really impressed me. The first few weeks we pulled off the miracle of the newspaper pretty well, but the Chimesfolk weren’t content with that. They totally blew past the standard that was set before. I mean flat out smoked it. Take a look at the photos, stories, and layout of the first paper from this year and compare it to some of the most recent ones. That’s just a flat out brutal comparison. That’s not to show that our first issue was bad, just that we progressed that much.

Mr. Gilbertson aka Kyle aka Flapper Hair and I were talking at the beginning of the year, and we both agreed that Michelle didn’t give off the immediate “bossman” attitude that we thought an editor-in-chief needed. We weren’t quite sure how she was going to keep all us crazies in check and on the same page. But she did. And she did it without the “bossman” attitude. Instead of pushing us along, she set the standard let us rise up to the challenge. Definitely way more of a leader than I originally thought she was. And definitely way more of a leader than almost any other person I’ve met.

I was originally gonna make this a shout out to all the chimesfolk and give everyone their own paragraph describing their awesomeness in a nostalgic manner, but I’ve realized that nobody wants to read 20 more paragraphs of my nonsense. But really, you folks know who you are, and you know how freaking well you rocked it.

So readysetsummary: Chimes took up way too much time in my life, but I’m sure glad I go to spend it with you guys.

Ok, Chimestolgia over, time to go summer.

Peace.

A Life Worth Blogging

It seems like every time I start a blog post it starts with me apologizing for not updating in a long time. Well this time I’m not apologizing. As usual, I’ve been too busy to provide your lovely eyes with the pleasure of reading another mikepost. However, I realized that I have really been diggin living. It’s not that I normally don’t enjoy being alive and happy and all college-like, it’s just that recently I’ve been blessed with an overwhelming gratefulness for the opportunity to actually do something with my life.

Of course, I haven’t done anything that should put me on the cover of Newsweek, but I’m realizing that the jobs that I am doing, the relationships I’m building, the lessons that I’m learning, are all forming me into someone completely different than I was 5 years ago, 2 years ago, heck, even last semester. And I’m realizing this is a good thing. I’m slowly becoming the man that God desires me to be. Dang that feels good. The best part (or funniest part depending on your perspective) is that all of this snapped into focus for me last night while hanging with my group of guys. We weren’t having deep, spiritual talks or getting ready for Bible study; we were just chillin’ on the patio playing music and smoking some cigars. The fact that I can realize matters of this epicness while sitting around with my best buds tells me that they’re the kind of guys to keep around.

All of this has complied itself into a motivational calling to live a life worth blogging. Why not live a life worth living? Because that’s cheesy and there are 6 billion other people trying to do that. If your life has such an impact, makes such a difference that people can’t help but read about it… That’s when you are just starting to skim across the surface of the potential that God has given us.

I want people to want to read about my life. And more importantly, I want my life to be worth being read. Don’t confuse this with a selfish desire for fame, it’s not (I’m plenty selfish in other ways, but I have no desire to be famous). Rather, it’s a desire to be great, in every way. For me that means that I am going to strive to be the best photojournalist, both in the work that I produce and the way that I create it. That also means that I’m going to strive to be the best friend, husband, dad, and leader in every way that I can think of. We all have this calling. We all are called to be epic. Our lives should be blogged about because they are worth blogging about.

Ok. I’m done with the rant on the deep side of my life. Let’s wade on over to the shallow end, shall we?

Finals are over, school’s done, and Chimes is finished. Summer is most definitely here. Me and the fam took a trip up to Boston and Baltimore exactly 6 hours after I got home to AZ. Tiring? Yes. Glorious? Yes. I partied it up with Bethc and miss Emily Kearns while I was over there and they showed me what the East Coast is all about. It was so sweet. Ridiculously sweet. Boston has now officially made it on to my places to live. And the Cissels were grand. Thank you Cisselclan for the good times.

Baltimore wasn’t quite as cool (in terms of general likability and temperature), but we got to hang out with some family along with ping ponging it up every night. We got our own ping pong table within three days of getting back home. Now it’s a nightly tradition.

I came home to find that I had no job at Central Christian waiting for me, so I looked elsewhere. I’m now happily employed at Leasures Portraits, where I spend my days snapping away senior photos. I can dig it. They’re a little too traditional for my tastes, so once they get a little more aquatinted with me, I’m going to start rockin’ their world with ideas.

Also, I mentioned early cigars. I smoked my first stogie the other day. It was actually pretty cool. No worries though, I’m pretty sure I’m not about to become a chain smoker.

Long blog posts intimidate me, so I’m going to call this one finito, but posts coming to a mikeblog near you (maybe even tonight?) may include a Chimes recap, school casualties, manly guns and cigars part two, and statement of excitement about London.

Roll out.