It’s a VERY, VERY rare occasion that I ever get to claim the fame of a friend. And even more rarely that the fame I claim isn’t a friend of a friend’s sister who knew her mom’s cousin’s dog. Know what I mean? Isn’t it cool to be able to watch something that million’s of other folks are watching and go, “I legitimately know that dude!” And by legitimately know I mean we keep up on a semi-regular basis, could hang and have a great time at any given moment and am on a first name basis with. Last night during the super bowl was one of those moments.
The first commercial was a Doritos commercial that was actually directed by Erwin McManus of Mosaic Church in Los Angeles. Now, I don’t know Erwin and don’t aspire to, but the dude who played the “fake dead guy” destroying Doritos as he enjoyed a football game in peace was good buddy David Leo Schultz. I met Dave face to face for the first time over 5 years ago when I brought him to southern Missouri to speak at our Tri-State District youth camp. Dave has his own style for sure, and it was great to re-connect at LoveMercy Denver in December. But I FREAKED when I saw his commercial be one of the first to air on Super Bowl Sunday. Look familiar? Click on the screenshot to view the video. Or click HERE to see Dave’s IMDB page.
The second bandwagon I’m hopping on is that of Mikey Gilbertson. I met Mikey for the first time in the fall of 2003 when I was new to the Tulsa/Bartlesville Oklahoma area. My BFF since Kindergarten Tim Fruits was living in the Broken Arrow area and one of his roommates was the Scandinavian descended Minnesotan. Mikey is a borderline “friend of a friend” but I’m sure we go past that after years of hanging with mutual friends including some great chill time in LA/Hollywood/Malibu at Tim’s wedding this past August. Want proof, you say? Fine, look at the pick below and notice Mikey to the far right, and me just to his left. He’s slightly taller than me, but only because of his enormous head.
Below you’ll see Mikey’s super-bowl add debut screenshot. He’s the one on the left. Click on the pic to visit the whole video. And sorry Mikey, I know the Screen Actor’s Guild knows you as Mike Gilbertson, but to me you’ll always be Mikey from Minnesota. Good times, bro! I’m proud of you! Oh, and thanks for giving me someone famous to associate with. ROFL!
Maybe I’m deranged, but I’ve personally really enjoyed watching everyone bellyache about how much they HATE the new Facebook home page layout. I wouldn’t be surprised if 25% of all of the posts I read when I woke from my day-off snooze this afternoon were some type of beef about the new format with 0% supporting it:
“It’s so confusing!”
“I was just getting used to the ‘OLD’ layout style.”
“I can’t find any of my games or settings!”(Heaven forbid we won’t be able to find farmville!)
If you’re one of the gagillion users who’ve said something like this, humor me for a few minutes. Just for once, I would love to see everyone post the heart of what they’re really feeling, and whether you object to this statement or not, the odds are that subconsciously they’re true:
“I HATE CHANGE, I HATE IT, I HATE IT, I HATE IT. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO LIVE WITH THE COMFORT OF KNOWING THAT WHAT SURROUNDS ME IS STABLE AND WHAT IS FAMILIAR WILL NEVER THROW ME FOR A LOOP AGAIN. I SWEAR TO YOU, IF THIS THING CHANGES ONE MORE TIME I’M GOING TO THROW THE BIGGEST TEMPER TANTRUM YOU’VE EVER SEEN!!!”
There are a few other things I should be wrapping up now as our midweek services approach, but I needed to take a minute aside to absolutely brag on and freak out about the job my assistant, Amanda is doing. We just launched our page to the website for our Ukraine 2010 mission trip that I have the privilege of leading and she did an outstanding job. Literally, she did ALL the work, I passed the materials on and she made it happen. Talk about owning it!
You know the branding is good if you just see the logo and it gets you psyched about the opportunity. Click the link below to go to our info page and find out more about the trip. If you’re part of our GWC crew check out the video from last fall’s English camp, download the recruitment info packet and pray about joining us in the Ukraine this summer. Space is limited! Minimum age of 17 upon departure July 31.
I just entered my 3rd month of blogging exclusively via video. It’s been an interesting journey so far, and one that I’ve enjoyed. While I’m not entirely certain what the feelings among my followers/subscribers has been, I have inclination to believe that maybe my primary content being via video isn’t the best or only avenue I should be using. It’s unlikely to think that I’ve lost any “readership” during this transition, but it doesn’t seem like the visits are as frequent or lengthy thanks to the videos. Here are a few things I think I’ve learned from this transition to help improve even more. These are my “do or dies” for video blogging.
I MUST keep the time down. Anything over 4 minutes is too long. Instead of apologizing for a long post, I just won’t publish it. I’ll re-record until I get it right. 4 minutes or LESS, your time is valuable.
I MUST use an outline or I ramble. Having the video idea isn’t enough to stay on task and be effective.
I MUST keep my energy level high or I’m just going to lull you to sleep. As a public speaker, this is a much different and almost “fake” feeling phenomenon in speaking to the camera which has zero non-verbal communication or response as a live audience does.
Videos are easier just to skip past if the visitor doesn’t like the title than a text blog. So where with a written post the reader needs to read a little to get a feel, the video will probably just be overlooked. My views on youtube and blog visits aren’t matching up. I may have 72 individual visits to the blog in a day, and only 35 views on the video I posted.
My solution is a happy medium. I feel like I’m a decent writer, and swaying to the video only side is probably not as effective, and maybe even a little lazy on my side.
In closing, I’m going to continue using video blogging to its maximum effectiveness, but NOT primarily. I’ll start re-inserting some written posts several times a month to coincide with the video posts. Until then, thanks for visiting and supporting ericebbinghaus.com!
How about a nice dose of ericebbinghaus.com video updates a day early! You’re right, because of this infraction I’ll do my best to get another video up no later than Thursday.
Also, check out my modifications to the “thisishaiti.com” tab above. Some great happenings going on to take the project to the next level!
Sorry folks, no HD day. I’m really feeling like I’m not making the cut as far as looking good “in HD” goes. So, as usual, here’s your standard quality weekly update from yours truly.
Brian Buzzell is a Junior at Greeley West High School right here in Greeley, CO. He’s our resident magician and a master at card trickery. Check this one out we call twin sisters.
