methodist musings

Hey all!

I know this may come as a surprise, but I’m not keeping up to date real well on my blog here, and I don’t want to pay another $85 to host the thing at siteground.com, so I’m moving this to http://rmwatson.wordpress.com. I also find that I want most of my entries to be about me personally, not necessarily me as a professional. So, redirect your browsers to rmwatson.wordpress.org to follow along with life.

There’s plenty happening, so hopefully I’ll be able to write more about it soon.

In a sad way, this is slightly funny. Who would have thought the headline and bus ad would align so well/poorly.

i have NEVER seen senior high students play mafia for so long… 4 hours last night and 2 hours so far tonight. it’s amazing, but i’m still not sure it’s healthy

I’m sitting here at Living Springs Camp. I came in last night to help run a senior high late nite/climbing camp that has 10 youth. It’s a good group so far, but it’s not quite like marked. The table by the door isn’t covered in laptops, very little is scheduled, and we’re sharing the place with 30 junior high students, most of whom are ok…but a couple of those 6th graders…

I sat and reminisced in my own mind since no one else here was around for marked. We’re focusing on rock climbing today including knot tying and teaching the youth to belay for our trip to upper limits in Bloomington on Wed. Last night we climbed ntil about 11, watched The Pursuit of Happyness, then they all played Mafia until about 3:45am when we made them go to bed.

It’s fun to create new memories with new people, especially when it allows to you remember older memories and smile. Hope everyone’s doing well.

it’s been over a month since i last posted here. that’s a crazy long time. guess i’ve just lost track. i’ve been really busy with church camp and photography, so sorry for the long gap in time. i’ll try to get some up in the next few days.

this week i’m doing late nite camp, next week is a 7 day mission trip with sr. high youth, then a 5 day photography camp, followed by a 2 day trip to st. louis with the local church youth group…

it’s amazing what you find when reading people’s postings…

Mom: Well Ty, I was thinking and if you want to take some of your graduation money and have your big drinking party I guess that’s ok.
Son: What?
Mom: Well you told me that you didn’t want to have your graduation party at the church becasuse you wanted kegs.
Son: Mom, I was kidding
Mom: Well, I thought you were serious about getting “clown faced”, or haetver you call it. I tell you what, I need to get “clown faced” after raising you.

i found this on a friend’s facebook wall today, and i just had to share it with my readers

He’s Just Being Miley

where does an 8 year old get this much talent??

summarized statements from the pew research foundation’s report on teens and writing/electronic communication.

1. even though teens are heavily embedded in a tech-rich world, they do not believe that communication over the internet or text messaging is writing.
2. the impact of technology on writing is hardly a frivolous issue because most believe that good writing is important to teens’ future success.
3. teens are motivated ti write by relevant topics, high expectations, an interested audience and opportunities to write creatively.
4. writing for school is a nearly every-day activity for teens, btu most assignments are short.
5. teens believe that the writing instruction they receive in school could be improved.
6. non-school writing, while less common than school writing, is still widespread among teens.
7. multi-channel teens and gadget owners do not write any more - or less - than their counterparts, but bloggers are more prolific.
8. teens more often write by hand for both out-of-school writing and school work.
9. as tech-savvy as they are, teens do not believe that writing with computers makes a big difference in the quality of their writing.
10. parents are generally more positive than their teen children about the effect of computers and text-based communication tools on their child’s writing.
11. teens enjoy non-school writing, and to a lesser extent, the writing they do for school.

whether you like him or not, whether you care for his stance on issues or not, there’s no denying that barack obama has the gift of public speaking that draw people to him. received this video in my inbox today, and it gives some inspiration, hope, and even the chills.

75,000 Strong

Barack Obama. Portland, Oregon

some people keep things for a little bit, the government requires us to keep taxes for 7 years…but this is crazy. one of the girls from my old youth group put this on facebook.

the caption reads “every single paper i’ve saved from 7th grade till senior year. ya know, just in case anything came in handy.”

I’ve noticed a trend over the past few years in wedding photography. There has been a shift in the type of photographs that families want taken, and I attribute some of that to the digital camera.

It used to be that a photographer showed up, set up his or her equipment and did primarily “traditional”, posed photos the the wedding party. Most it those photos were done in front of the altar. The shift has slid in the direction of photojournalism, in that rather than the posed images in front of the altar, the bride and groom want snapshots of life throughout the day. In other words, they don’t want to be told where and how to stand to have their pictures taken. They prefer, instead, to have a photographer that can capture the day as they live it. To catch them in moments throughout the day.

That shift has been possible due to the digital camera and changes in supplementary equipment such as remote flash triggers, on-camera strobes, etc. The question that comes into play is how to please two audiences…

While younger generations (usually the bride and groom) want photojournalistic weddings, parents and grandparents prefer the more traditional posed work. I foresee another shift in the works: as time passes and fewer photographers do any amount of posed shots, couples will begin to miss some of that formality and will begin to prefer it again, although less than their parents and grandparents.

So, the question, is:
1. if you’re married, what type of photography did you have done?
2. When you get married what type do you prefer and why? Or, if you are already married, are you happy with the style you got? Why or why not?

–originally posted on my facebook group for Still Life Photography