America's Stonehenge

I'm a fairly patient guy. So much so that I've waited to get to a backlog of magazines that have been collecting in a pile for more than a year now; interesting magazines like Adbusters, Discover, and my favourite, Wired.

In reading Wired's May 2009 issue (yep, eek!) last night I came across an incredibly interesting and weird (that's "weird" not "wired") article. The issue's theme was focused on magic, puzzles, and some of the strange places found on Earth. Near the back of the issue, I came across an article dedicated to one of America's least possibly heard of attractions. I'm not a world traveller by any means, so I guess it's not unusual that I've never heard of this mysterious structure. Its name: the Georgia Guidestones.

To look at them, they appear to be a backyard version of Stonehenge. While their appeal is likely limited, the messages that are inscribed upon them are meant to be a guide map for after the apocalypse. The ten "rules" for re-establishing world order are even written in seven major languages to assist whoever might still be around to read the inscriptions.

Due to its controversial message, and the fact that the Guidestones are situated in America's Bible Belt, the stones have seen their share of misfortune. There have been calls to destroy the stones as some feel they are tied to the Antichrist, and there has been at least one attempt to pull them down. To date, graffiti has damaged the site the most and the County has tried lighting the site to avoid further damage (Technically, the site is owned by Elbert County where the stones are situated. The identity of the man who financed and arranged to have the stones erected was known by only one man; the lawyer who handled the legal necessities and immediately transferred ownership of the small parcel of land to the County after the unidentified man paid for it).

The most controversial of the stone's messages are the first three. Do I believe they should be pursued? Absolutely not. We can't snap our fingers and turn back to the clock to a time when Earth's population was more manageable. But I find it fascinating (and spooky) that there are people who take any of this seriously. As to the identity of the man who commissioned its construction? That's just good publicity. No single, largely unknown, assembly of stones are bound to upset life as we know it. For the most part, the recommendations on the Guidestones seem pretty rational. Countless structures that convey their own messages have been erected in cities, townships, and villages all over the world. They're called churches, mosques, temples, or any other variant of places of worship. If you hold your own beliefs to be true, it should matter little as to what another person believes. If no one is inciting hatred or being harmed, let it be.

Were the Guidestone's in my hometown, I certainly wouldn't sweat it.

And now, the time is near, and so I face...

...the end of Semester 3. Yay!

I don't know if I've ever had a late post (oops), but I'm happy to say that I've completed my last assignment for this semester. I've been working on building a four-page website for the past seven hours at the college. It's my last task for Image Editing, and now that it's done I can say that it looks great. If only the actual business that the idea is framed around existed, I would have it hosted and displayed on the web. I feel as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders as I was concerned about my competency going into this assignment, but I feel I have done a decent job. All that I have remaining is an exam in Canadian Literature and then I am done.

I look forward to my fourth semester at Red River College, but I'm looking forward to resting even more. There's at least a couple of things I've had to put on the back-burner at home the past few months; not the least of which will be installing two chandelier light fixtures in our home before Christmas arrives.

My life is wayyyyyyy too much fun.

Filming

A few weeks ago, myself and two classmates began an assignment for TV class that would see us visiting an industry professional's workplace, and asking them questions about their job. As luck would have it, the two classmates I joined for this assignment had located a person to interview, and they were okay with me joining them for the project.

A few days before the shoot, I went to the location where we would be filming. The woman we were interviewing was Deborah Zanke. Deborah is the owner of her own business called Message Communications. She manages her business from a very spacious, contemporary home. I couldn't wait to tell my group-mates about the great location we would be shooting in.

We spent almost two hours filming our interview with Deborah and getting the required "b-roll" to fill in any gaps in the editing room. All told, we spent about five hours editing what would become a three minute, twenty-four second video. I offered to give Deborah a copy of our assignment once it was complete, and upon viewing it, she commented on how "professional" the final product looked.

I think Deborah's video is the best work I've been involved with to date, but I'm still a student so I won't let it go to my head.

As with many of our assignments, there is always room for improvement. Overall, I feel there are some particularly good shots and advice from Deborah. We really appreciated the fact that she agreed to be our subject and allowed us to shoot in her home. Thanks again.

In tomorrow's class, we are watching all the groups' work from this assignment, and getting tips from our instructor, Dean Cooper, about the good, and the bad, and sometimes ugly. :)

I was surprised about how much I enjoyed this assignment. As I sat in the editing room, I really enjoyed all the piecing together and the patchwork quality to creating a film, as short in duration as it was. I look forward to our next challenge.