Denbow The Daring

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Way back in 1983 I was a wee lad who lost a lot of quarters at the video arcade and especially to the game depicted above, Dragon’s Lair. As valiant knight Dirk the Daring, your noble but precarious quest is to rescue the beautiful Princess Daphne from the lair of Singe, a fire-breathing dragon who lurks in the foreboding castle of an evil wizard. DL was twenty years ahead of anything else and was also the most challenging video game.

I am happy to report to everyone else my age that you can now play this on your iPhone/Touch for only $5 (iTunes store link). Heck, I spent that much for the game within thirty minutes. Nowadays I am not a gamer, having outgrown such wastes of time and money. I am however looking forward to getting past the first level finally.

Merry Christmas to me!

Simply Wow.


Did you enjoy the special effects of the original King Kong and the Matrix movies mixed in with a little Dances With Wolves? Go see Avatar in 3D. The imagination, details, depth and scope of this movie is amazing. The future of film making is here and it doesn’t disappoint. Thank me afterwards. I’m thanking my good friend Jacob who took me to go see the visually best film I’ve seen in a long time and a great story today.

Last Minute Gift Ideas

Vintage Santa Claus Calls All Good Children

Just in case you are a last minute shopper as I have been known to be, stress not at the thought of visiting the mall with all of the other slackers. These are but a few suggestions. Not for me of course, although I would never turn them down! What makes them a great gift is the fact that most of them allow you to choose what you would actually want, come in various dollar increments,  or would be something you would actually use and appreciate.

  1. iTunes gift cards for music, movies, apps & more
  2. Flickr Pro subscription (mine is up in 03/2010, oops!)
  3. The only thing on my Amazon.com wishlist was an Amazon gift card
  4. Netflix. I’ve given away a few of these myself. Love this service.
  5. Jelly-of-the-month club. Yes, it exists. No, this is not what anyone wants

Scripture Sunday 12.20.09

Tiny hand

In celebration of the Christmas holiday this week, here is a very relevant passage. Below that are the lyrics to one of the only modern day Christmas songs I can actually stand and that is from Michael W. Smith’s “Welcome To Our World”.

Luke 2:11 “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

 

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You’ve been promised, we’ve been waiting

Welcome Holy Child

Hope that you don’t mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home
Please make Yourself at home
Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven’s silence

Welcome to our world

Fragile finger sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy

Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world

The Art of Relaxation

I had mentioned in a previous article about my desire to relieve stress from my world. I wanted to share some tools I have discovered that may be useful to others. I started off with my basic issue of sleep deprivation and discovered some great apps for my iPod Touch. These apps are mostly sound-based such as WhiteNoise which plays a variety of background noise such as wind chimes, rainfall, airplane travel and more. Another discovery and one that was a little awkward to get use to is iBrainWave which allows you to “tune your brain”. It is a binaural brain stimulator by playing constant tones at frequencies you choose, you can sleep, meditate, or relax. If you need energy, just simply raise the megahertz frequency. 

I have even downloaded a few yoga and meditation apps to guide my breathing, posture, stretching and body/mind relaxation. I’ve even downloaded a few relaxation/meditation podcasts that incorporate verbal instruction as well as soothing music to help relieve stress. 

Perhaps as a new year resolution to self I will pursue light yoga as a means to stretch and relax my body more. In the past I will admit I had had reservations about these techniques but when I hear of professional athletes using these as a means to stay healthy in addition to their workouts…well, it deserves consideration. I will avoid all references to Eastern spiritualism as I know it is not relevant in my world. Instead I will probably meditate on God’s Word just as the writers of Psalms instruct.

I’ll be honest when I say that this is an endeavor I will struggle with and could use some support and guidance. How do you manage your stress?

Where Ya Headed, Buddy?

ROAD TRIP 1 (Revenge of the Baby Boomer)

I hear this question a lot during interviews: “Where do you see yourself in five years?” Well five years might as well be fifty. At the pace our society and technology are going we need to shorten that down to a maximum of two years.

If you haven’t asked yourself this question now (end of year) may be the best time. Time to start planning your goals for 2010 and maybe even to 2012. For me this includes not only my personal life but one for the photo business as well.

If we fail to do so it will be as if we are on a road trip with no destination in mind. All of a sudden you have to pull over for a pit stop and realize you have no idea where you are, where you are going, how to get back, and are out of fuel with no way to pay for it.

Plan your journey to get to where you want to go.

Snow Day



Snow Day, originally uploaded by Photo Denbow.

Houston had a rare day today with the winter blast that hit us. We here on the third coast are not used to this or prepared for it. Daphne thoroughly enjoyed her first experience with it by helping to make a snowman.