Paul Hastings

The End

2009-03-16T13:00:00.007-05:00

Like I said earlier, blogging was fun and enjoyable. When I say, "was," I mean, "is." It still is enjoyable, I like sharing what I find interesting with others and I would encourage anyone to blog.

But today marks the end of my blog.

What? Paul, what are you saying?

Hmm, what's that? Was I too melodramatic?

Who told you to shut it down?

No one.

Who asked you?

No one.

Who suggested it?

No one.

Are you feeling discouraged for some reason?

Umm... not that I know of.

Is your blog audience gradually shrinking?

No, on the contrary it's larger than ever before.

Click for larger image.

Did you endure an emotionally traumatic experience over the weekend?

No, unless you count judging LD.

Have you become emotionally imbalanced?

If I was do you think I would actually admit it?

Is your thinking impaired?

I think it's always been.

Then why did you decide this on the spur of the moment?

I didn't.

What?

This is something I chose to do almost 3 months ago.

Pray tell.

There are various reasons, but the best way to sum them up is that 3 months ago I realized that certain things needed to be done that I would only have the opportunity to do for a short time, after that my opportunity would vanish. So I decided to keep blogging until the 1 year mark was reached. Sure, I could blog less frequently, perhaps weekly, or monthly. Many of my friends do exactly that and I enjoy reading their blogs.

Seriously Paul, that excuse sounds so lame. Someone told you to stop, didn't they?

No.

They hinted?

No, stop asking me that, you're aggravating me.

You have a guilt complex?

No!

Are you in denial?

Forget it.

Then what's the issue?

Um, I feel like I need a hiatus.

Paul, you're over-reacting, just blog once a week instead of every day, okay?

Maybe I am, but for now I feel that I need to finish what I can, while I can.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not turning my back on the world of social media. To all of you who've thought about blogging or already are bloggers, I encourage you to remain connected with the blogosphere. In hindsight, if I was given the opportunity that I had a year ago to start a blog all over again I would.

Maybe a year from now I'll come back, buy my own domain, and blog with a Wordpress installation. Maybe I'll Twitter, maybe I'll get a Facebook... or maybe not.

I'm still keeping my fingers in different websites, but for now my blogging is completed.

Before I make my exit I want to give you a short glimpse into what I may (or may not) be doing over the next few months for those who're interested.

This Saturday, Alex and I will be attending a Special Effects Workshop. Rumor has it that our class will be playing with squibs (basically exploding packets of movie blood) and making a fireball.

The following day I'll be leaving for a week with some men from my church for an entrepreneurial camp in Tennessee.

On the way back to Texas I might be dropped off for a tournament in Arkansas where "For Honor" might be played.

My family might go to the NCFCA National Tournament.

This summer Jeremy will be traveling to Iraq, but Caleb and I might return to Camp Wilderness Ridge to lead worship on the closing night of each boys camp.

This summer Alex and I might shoot another film. We're still thinking and praying about it.

This fall I might travel to Maine to work on a film project for a director I met at the Film Festival.

All throughout this and the next several semesters I hope to begin/continue working on CLEP, DANTES, and TECEP tests for a degree from Thomas Edison State College.

But at this point in time most of these are "maybe's," rather than "probably's". Now, more than ever, I feel at a crossroads of... of... I don't know what, but I feel that I'm at it... whatever it is.

I mention all of this to ask that you would pray that God would make His Will clear to me and that at this crossroads I would take the road of the cross. A lot of stuff is happening in my life that is new to me and that frankly I don't understand.

I thank God for being merciful to me and allowing me to live this long. I thank my parents for letting me share with the world a little part of their upbringing. I thank my siblings, Pat and Christina, for entering the blogosphere with me and giving me food for thought. I thank the 5 authors from ARC who were a part of this blog and brought a different twist to things.

I thank "Paul Hastings", the law firm for reading my posts daily, if I ever visit New York I'd love to come by the PR office for a coffee mug or something. I thank my friends who've read what I've had to say and sympathized or disagreed with me, without you this whole enterprise would have been much duller.

But last of all I thank, you, the reader, for putting up with me for the last year. Thanks for reading and traveling with me.

Looking back one year I see all that happened that I never dreamed of. It makes me that much more excited to think of what may occur in this coming year.

-Paul

The Middle

2009-03-16T07:00:00.001-05:00

Having a blog was fun. I could tell the world what I had eaten that day, relate the latest adventure I or my friends had experienced, prognosticate doom over the economy, rant about politics, and more or less speak about what was on my mind. I suppose that to some extent I did all of those.

Essentially, my life was on the web for one year. Over the last 365 days this blog saw and heard about many things in Paul's life.

Final Year of NCFCA

High School Graduation

2008 NCFCA Nationals

Eagle Scout Court of Honor

Making and Playing Music

Patriot Academy

Summer Camp Counselor

ARC History

Movie Making

Camping

Coaching

In retrospect, I'm slightly amazed that all of that happened in such a relatively short amount of time. When I first began this blog I had only the foggiest clues that some things, like graduation, might occur. But other events, like the movie, were completely unforeseen.

I can't take credit for anything that happened this past year. Credit belongs to where credit is due, and that's to God. He alone, and nothing else.

The Beginning

2009-03-15T23:30:00.001-05:00

One year ago I was cleaning a facility (very typical) and thinking (very untypical). I was thinking about robots... because robots are cool. More specifically I was thinking about a robot that I had made with Anderson High School over the past few weeks.

Isn't it beautiful? 14 feet, 120 pounds, 25 miles per hour... (sigh).

We were taking our robot to the Lone Star FIRST Robotics Regional competition in Houston later that week and I wanted to share pictures with other people.

So I started a blog. Since I couldn't think of anything intelligent to say to announce my arrival in the blogosphere I resorted to "The Ten Commandments" for inspiration.

We're Home

2009-03-15T00:22:00.002-05:00

We arrived back home a few moments ago. The tournament was very tiring but rewarding. Throughout the week ARC performed amazingly well. More later...

Mock Trial Team Gets Third

2009-03-12T13:21:00.001-05:00

All of us at the tournament are faring well and anxiously anticipating the breaks tonight.

I received an update from Zack Reynolds that their Mock Trial team placed 3rd out of 24 at the State Tournament. Only the 1st place team advances to Nationals, but nevertheless Zack won the most Outstanding Advocate award out of about 100 student attorneys.

Peter Goes to Virginia

2009-03-11T10:50:00.001-05:00

(Twitter)

Peter Thelen is en route to Virgina for the National Homeschool Basketball Championship.

ARC Goes to San Antonio

2009-03-11T07:01:00.000-05:00

(Twitter)

Starting today ARC will be competing in San Antonio for the Texas State Championship.

Fireproof

2009-03-10T02:02:00.000-05:00

(Twitter)

I finally got around to watching Fireproof as of a few moments ago. It was way cool.

Caleb Szajner

2009-03-09T22:41:00.006-05:00

Posted from ARC Blogs

Caleb has passed away. Please visit Caleb's website and sign the guest book! Please continue to pray for the Szajner family and the Ingrams!

Here's the site: Caleb has passed away. Please visit Caleb's website and sign the guest book! Please continue to pray for the Szajner family and the Ingrams!

Here's the site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/calebszajner

Update on Caleb

2009-03-09T12:21:00.001-05:00

Rebekah called again. The hospital just performed a brain-scan on Caleb about an hour ago and they're awaiting the results. If there is no brain activity then the family will make a decision today.

Prayer Request

2009-03-08T17:02:00.003-05:00

I just got a phone call from Rebekah Ingram... posted from ARC Blogs:

Hey there…Bekah here, i have a prayer request.

My friend, Hannah’s, older brother, Caleb, was snowboarding yesterday and fell.

He knocked himself unconscious. They took him to the hospital and now he is in a drug induced coma. His vital signs are not stable. There has been some activity on the right side of his brain, but if there is no change between now and midnight, they will have to decide if they are going to let him go. To the best of my knowledge he is not breathing on his own.

I’m asking you all to join with myself, my family, the ALERT men, and all of his family and friends in prayer for this young man.

Caleb is 21 (i think), going to college, and loving life. Please pray that the Lord’s will be done, grace to know what to do, and peace about the decision that they have to make. I’ll be posting what happens tonight. If you want to email them encouragement, then email me and i’ll send it on,

firefly4jesus [att] gmail.com

Please also pray for me, I’m having a hard time with it all.
Thanks so much!

Rebekah

Insight From Calvin and Hobbes

2009-03-07T20:14:00.003-06:00

Without a doubt, Calvin and Hobbes is one of my favorite cartoon strips of all time, not only for it's zany energy and colorful imagination, but also for it's profound insight. The below panel was drawn over 15 years ago. Click for enlarged image.

Did that spell out "Auto Industry" or what?

Did You See?

2009-03-07T15:48:00.003-06:00

If you visit the front page of former State Representative Rick Green's website and wait for a moment, you might see some familiar faces.

One-Man Star Wars

2009-03-06T12:19:00.003-06:00

This is the ultimate interp... or close to it.

Charlie Ross, the One-Man Star Wars Trilogy.

This is how it works. Imagine cutting the entire 300+ minute storyline into a single performance. I'd like to see this guy live someday.

C++ Trivia

2009-03-05T17:28:00.001-06:00

I've been catching up on my C++ class over the last few days and decided to share some trivia with you from my text-book (yeah, I'm plagiarizing).

- Windows 2000 and Red Hat Linux both are estimated to have over 30 million lines of code.

- Debian Linux has more than 50 million lines.

- General Motors had to check and repair over 2 billion lines in preparation for Y2K.

- In 1999 the Mars Climate Orbiter crashed into the red planet instead of orbiting. A study revealed that the programmers failed to convert from English units to metric.

- In 1996 an unmanned rocket built by the European Space agency at a cost of $7 billion exploded 37 seconds after lift-off. It was caused by a 64-bit floating-point number that was converted to a 16-bit integer.

- In 1991, during the Gulf War, 28 US soldiers were killed and another 89 were injured by a Scud missile that should have been intercepted by a Patriot Defense Missile System rocket. The error came from inexact binary representations of real numbers. Sadly, the corrected software arrived on February 26... the next day.

The moral of the story is to do whatever you do well. Something as seemingly mundane as programming incorrectly can be embarrasing, costly, or tragic.

Laser Tag and Bowling

2009-03-04T20:56:00.001-06:00

I went to a friend's 16th birthday party this evening at Main Event where we played a round of laser tag and a couple rounds of bowling. We had a blast, but it was also then that I realized that I'm not good at any type of party game.

Out of 15 laser tag participants I ranked 14th, defeating a 10-year-old girl. Everyone else, younger, older, male, female, beat me. Bowling was just as futile, scoring a 70 and then a 51-ish.

Sigh... I guess I won't make either of the Olympic laser tag or bowling teams.

Piano Repair by Josh

2009-03-03T17:29:00.002-06:00

Joshua Hammond came by this morning and hung out for a couple of hours while his family ran errands in town. While here he fixed 3 broken strings on our piano. Paul volunteered as his lovely assistant.

He did a great job. I hadn't heard those notes for several months so it feels good to have them back. Following the tradition of home-schooling (yes, he is), Josh is a self-taught piano tuner; he also performs piano repair and restoration. For more information email him at: fromnightintoday att gmail.com

Attic Film Festival Website

2009-03-02T09:12:00.000-06:00

The Grace Arts Project updated the Attic Film Fesitval website over the weekend. Included are the synopses for the 13 films that will be shown on March 28. The schedule lists "For Honor" to play at 7:00pm.

Back Home

2009-03-01T21:33:00.003-06:00

(Twitter)

We're back from Houston. Thomas Umstattd arrived safely in Russia.

Maple Leaf Rag - Or Not

2009-02-25T16:04:00.003-06:00

We're leaving today for another tournament in Houston this weekend, so I thought I would upload this before we left.

I was bored one day and decided to see how fast I could play "Maple Leaf Rag". This ragtime piano classic (Maple Leaf Rag) was written by Scott Joplin in 1897 and was published in 1899 after being rejected by 2 publishers. For more information regarding the history of this song see the Wikipedia page.

This recording was performed under 2 minutes even though an extra repetition of the second section was accidentally played. I would guesstimate that I had around 85% correct note accuracy. This is not intended by any stretch of the imagination to represent how the song should sound or be performed.

Wall-E Gets an Oscar

2009-02-23T23:52:00.000-06:00

In case you didn't know, I'm a big Wall-E fan. Big.

So it's not without a little excitement that I announce that one of the world's coolest, little robots scored an Oscar last night. Read more.

Jack Youngblood, Peter Thelen

2009-02-23T01:32:00.002-06:00

This Sunday was a very special day on 2 counts.

1. Our church installed our 3rd elder, Jack Youngblood (no, he didn't play for the Rams).

We've enjoyed the privilege of getting to know the Youngblood family over the last 5 years. From Michoacan, Mexico, to Austin, Texas, I've personally seen Mr. Youngblood work hard as a manual laborer and lead as an instinctive administrator.

2. My mom and I, along with several friends attended Peter Thelen's baptism this afternoon.

I think I first met Peter 2 years ago at an ARC meeting. He accepted Christ as his Lord almost a year ago this month.

As you might deduce from his photo, Peter's a serious basketball player. If you visit the Texas Christian Athletic League website, you'll see that he's listed as the athlete of the month. He's a senior this year, and just got accepted into Liberty University.

I look forward to what God will do in the lives of the Youngbloods and Peter as they embark upon their new journeys.

Olly Hicks is Rowing

2009-02-21T14:03:00.003-06:00

Olly Hicks is doing an undone. The 26-year-old departed from Australia last month on a 2-year quest to become the first human to row solo around the world. His craft, The Flying Carrot, is fitted with the latest satellite technology that allows him access to millions of books, videos, and songs via the web.

The The Flying Carrot was made specifically for this voyage. Virgin and Google are 2 of the most notable sponsors.

Olly is an adventurer, or at least, of the modern-day sort. Achievements include:

Olly will be blogging and posting videos of his voyage for the next 2 years on the voyage's website. A map is also available showing progress made thus far.

Normal Life

2009-02-20T01:10:00.001-06:00

Life has been full of "normal-ness" again which is relatively nice. I'll be taking another CLEP test this Monday: English Composition with Essay.

The first copies of "For Honor" were shipped in the mail to sundry locations: Washington, Illinois, West Virginia, Canada, and France. So I guess I can say it's going to the corners of the Earth.

ARC is still strewn between Austin and New Mexico. They're returning weary yet triumphant, taking 7 1st places at the tournament. Right now I'm tackling the At-Large points.

Beyond Region 4

2009-02-17T18:21:00.001-06:00

It's always cool to see NCFCAers excel in areas beyond NCFCA, so I thought I might share a little with you.

On January 31, Zach Reynolds (front, gray suit), Stephen Muldrow (second from right, standing), Paige Toppert (girl from right), Melanie Muldrow (second girl from right), Truett Whitt, Lael Lawless, and Philip Schultz won their Regional Tournament in the National High School Mock Trial Competition.

The first 5 of the 7 students mentioned above currently are or have been competitors in NCFCA. Ironically, the region they represent in their new league is... region 4. Their coach, Adam Muldrow (seated, far left) is an NCFCA alumni as well. The State Championship will be in Dallas from March 5-7.

The same day on a university level, Patrick Henry College (PHC) hosted their first National Forensics Association (NFA) tournament. Of the 16 National Qualifying slots available, PHC took 12. Alan Carrillo took 2nd debater and 3rd speaker while Ian Reid placed 14th debater and 11th speaker. Both are alumni from NCFCA Region 4.

And if you didn't hear, a sizable contingent of ARCers is in New Mexico this week for a qualifying tournament. Check out ARC Blogs later tonight for breaks.