Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Ever since there was even a hint of spring, we’ve had a bird sitting hanging out in a tree in the back yard singing the same short song over and over again. He’s at it for probably 14-15 hours a day. We’ve named him Kevin. I don’t know why it’s Kevin. That was just his name. But as I listen to him over and over and over and over again, I wonder what kind of bird he is. Can you identify him? And do you have and lady bird friends that might be interested in hooking up with him?

Over the last couple weeks, I received my NRA membership card and my Concealed Pistol License from the state. Some people cheer when they hear that and others cringe. Why did I get them? Allow me to explain…

I probably wouldn’t have joined the NRA except that it’s a pre-req for the Snoqualmie Valley Rifle Club. MikeF took me shooting there a few weeks ago and it looked like a place that I want to join. Before I can even attempt to fill out a membership form, they need proof of an NRA membership so I joined. The NRA is like that friend that says things you generally agree with but says them in such an obnoxious way that you cringe a bit. So I’m a member, and I stand with them on just about everything, but sometimes I wish their tactics weren’t quite so divisive.

As for the Concealed Pistol License, there are a few reasons for that:

• As anti-gun fever increases, I want to add one more to the stats of people who carry guns. It’s a stat that gets quoted in lots of news stories and the more of us there are, the stronger our silent voice is. If only 1 in 1000 people have a CPL, it might seem easy to get at law passed against them. But currently in Washington state, the numbers are more like 1 in 12. KIRO7 has a neat map that lets you see what percentage of your city has the right to carried a concealed pistol. (Note that everyone has the right to carry a gun in the open but you’ll probably end up getting busted for disturbing the peace.)
• There’s a 5 day waiting period if you want to buy a handgun. If you have a CPL, there’s generally no waiting period. It’s one less hoop for me to jump through and saves me a trip.
• A CPL relaxes a lot of the restrictions about transporting guns in your car. While I try hard to abide by all the rules when driving to and from the range, this gives me a little cushion in case I get pulled over and I’m accidentally doing something wrong. (This is a bigger deal in other states. Washington has very reasonable laws about transporting firearms.)

Those are the big three reasons. And of course, it does actually give me the option to carry a concealed pistol if I want to. But given that I don’t even own a pistol yet, that’s not going to happen for a while. And even when I own one, will I carry it? Probably not most of the time. I won’t ever carry until I know exactly when I would be willing to pull it out, and I’ll have to do some thinking about that.

For now my gun enthusiasm is targeted (haha) more at sport shooting and less at self-defense. Shooting is a wonderful sport that combines physical preciseness and mental control. I’m loving it!

You know that feeling of guilt/frustration you get when those yellow pages come to your door and you drop them straight in the recycle bin? It’s such a waste of energy and resources. I just learned about a site called YellowPagesOptOut.com. Just as the name implies, you can opt out of the various phone books that you receive. Type in your zip code and the site will show you which directories are normally delivered. For our area, there were six books on the list! I opted out of all of them and hopefully it means that there will be one less thing getting tossed out at our house.

For those of you who were fans of Three Sheets and Drinking Made Easy, there’s good news: Zane Lamprey is attempting to launch a new show! It will be in the same vein as the previous shows. He travels around the world, enjoys local alcohol, learns a bit about the culture, and has fun doing it. He’s a got a good formula and it’s been frustrating to see him have such a hard time getting a network to support him.

He’s finally given up (?) on the networks and decided to fund this effort through Kickstarter. The show is called CHUG and they’re trying to raise $500K. It’s a lofty goal so I hope you’ll join me in pledging a few bucks to help him out. If you’ve never done a Kickstarter project, it’s pretty easy. The site lists out what you’ll receive for giving various amounts of money and you only pay out if the project hits it’s fundraising goal. There’s no guarantee that you’ll actually receive any of the rewards though! It’s possible that whatever you’re sponsoring will go belly up and fail completely so keep that in mind. I don’t have any fear of that with Zane’s project as he’s a pro at this and has been doing it for a long time.

Starting a project like this also means that once he reaches his goal, he can walk into a network and say “Look, I’ve already got the money to produce the show. All you need to do is pony up the cash to promote it and give me a time slot.” That’s a pretty interesting offer, especially with all the new Internet networks that I blogged about yesterday.

Good luck Zane!

PS. If you are a fan of Zane, be sure to listen to his weekly podcast!

We’re all familiar with CBS, ABC and NBC, but the new “TV channels” are shaping up to be Amazon, Netflix and YouTube. All three companies are purchasing exclusive content for their sites. And these are some pretty big deals with names like Kevin Spacey, Bill Murray, and John Goodman. When you stop and think about it, if you have a Roku box or some other way to watch these sites on your TV, there’s very little difference between watching a show on Amazon or watching a show on NBC. House of Cards was released recently on Netflix and got great reviews. There are a lot more shows in the pipe including a new season for Arrested Development which I’m thrilled about.

Looking ahead 5-10 years, it’s pretty easy to imagine this type of “TV” taking over the traditional television model. On Netflix, Amazon and YouTube, producers can create the exact show they want. There’s no need to break at specific points for commercials or create a 1 hour show that is exactly 42 minutes long so that all the commercials fit. Plus, all the episodes can be released at once which is increasingly how people like to consume a series.

It’s all very intriguing and there are plenty of people cutting the cable cord to consume their TV completely online. While I love the idea and do consume content from the web, I’m still happy with cable TV for the sheer ease of use. Cable comes into my house, gets recorded by one of the four tuners in my Windows Media Center PC and then gets streamed out to the various TV’s in our house, computers or even our phones. Doing something similar without a cable subscription requires us to remember which app we open to watch which show and right now it’s not worth the hassle for our household. Kudos to those of you who are blazing a trail for the rest of us!

We’re getting closer and closer to meeting our son, and we want to document his arrival with some photographs. Tyla found a bunch of great newborn photographers in our area, but for the prices felt much too high for photographers ones she liked. Obviously they can charge that much because they are fantastic at what they do and it’s very difficult to photograph newborns, but we’ve decided to take on that challenge ourselves. HeatherW does this for a living and I can see her shaking her head! Yeah it’s crazy, and yeah, it won’t come out as good as if we had a pro, but here’s how we’re tackling the challenge.

1. I bought a Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 lens for our camera. It’s a fast zoom that takes incredibly crisp photos. The only other lens I have that could have worked was the Canon 50mm f/1.8 but the zoom felt like it would make things easier and it will probably the lens that stays on the camera most of the time when we’re done.
2. Tyla has been hitting up a bunch of the local secondhand shops finding some great fabrics and props. I “helped” by picking up a prop too: a John Deere truck. She’s found a lot of great items including heavy white and black fabric to use as a backdrop, and we’ve spent well under $100 in total.
3. The internet is full of tips for newborn photography and we’ve got a pretty good list built up.
4. Tyla has a Pinterest board full of newborn photos that she loves. I don’t have a “good eye” for baby photos, but I feel like given the right props, I can recreate just about any photo that she finds.

Maybe I’m overestimating my photo abilities, but our backup plan is that we rush out at the last minute and find a photographer who is available. We’ll end up spending extra money but this lens is something that we wanted anyway. So don’t worry, we know this is a bit insane and maybe we’ll regret it, but we’re heading in with a plan and I feel like we’ve got a good chance.

Back in 2001 and 2002, there was a great show on Comedy Central called Let’s Bowl. It was a combination of Judge Judy, Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, and a bowling alley. The idea was that two people would arrive looking to settle some small disagreement. Whoever won the bowling match would win the argument. During the match, two hilarious commentators provide play by play. There were numerous funny segments throughout the show, special prizes for strikes in specific points of the game, and each player gets to use a surprise air horn once during the game to throw off their opponent. If it all sounds crazy, it is. But it worked, and I loved it! Unfortunately, I must have been one of a few viewers because it only lasted two seasons. Ever since then, I’ve searched the web looking for DVDs of the show or some way to watch it again. Late one night last week, I found yet another site claiming to have the episodes available for download but this time it actually worked! The video player on the page doesn’t work but the download link does work. I highly recommend that you go snag an episode (skip the pilot episode) and check it out if this sounds at all funny to you.

Three years ago today Tyla and I were married. The first three years were amazing and this year we’re adding a son to our family. She’s been a wonderful wife and I know she’s going to be an amazing mother too. I love you Tyla!

In roughly two months, I’ll have a son! Time is flying and crawling at the same time. We’ve been making lots of decisions along the way, and one of them is about his baptism.

General tradition is to have the baptism in church fairly soon after the birth, but other than saying that there’s no age too young, there’s nothing in the Bible about specifically how quickly it needs to happen. The Bible says that everyone is sinful from conception, we’re only saved through faith in Christ who died to rescue us from the judgment for our sin, and that this faith is created and maintained through the Gospel that God brings to us in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. That’s what we know. What we don’t know is what happens to an unbaptized person, specifically children. It’s a tough question filled with lots of emotions, but since the Bible is silent on that topic, we shouldn’t try to fill in an answer. Tyla and I don’t want to put ourselves in a situation where we’d have to wonder if something were to happen, so we’ve chosen to do the baptism right in the hospital when he is born. Pastor said he’s happy to be on call and drive over when we’re ready for him, but if he’s not available and the situation is urgent then we’ll do it ourselves. Baptism is about the act that God is performing in the heart of the recipient, not about the person doing the baptism.

We know that many of you are interested in being involved and some are even flying across the country to be here, so we’re planning an affirmation in church later in the month. There won’t be any specific religious significance to the affirmation, but we will do it to let the congregation know that our son was indeed baptized and share the celebration of another soul being added to God’s kingdom. We’re shooting for Sunday, June 23 which should be a week or two after our son is born, but obviously we’ll adjust if there are unexpected circumstances.

P.S. I know that the readers of this blog have lots of different opinions about baptism and about religion in general, but if you want to know more about our baptism beliefs, our church’s site has a good overview. And of course I’m happy to talk about it too.

Earlier today, Grandpa Martens lost his battle against cancer and won his seat in heaven. At 94 years old, he had been fighting complications for quite a while and was ready to go home. This leaves a big hole in our hearts, but it’s comforting to know that his faith was strong to the end and we’ll see him again.

Grandpa holding me in 1980