Studio711.com – Ben Martens

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

Our church has been trying to get a new sign for years. It must have been three or four years ago when we raised the money for it, but for one reason or another, it never got completed. Late last fall, the project got kicked into high gear. TimS got the permit from the city, we moved all the landscaping back to it’s new location on a work day, FrankL did the masonry and TimS designed/ordered the sign. It finally arrived and last weekend I helped Frank install it! There’s still a little masonry work left on top and a two line reader board will go in at the bottom, but it’s getting close to being done. We’re having a workday in a few weekends to finish the landscaping around the sign too. I’ll post more pictures when it’s done, but this is pretty exciting for us after all these years of waiting so I wanted to get it posted.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.  Come and see the place where he lay.  Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee.  There you will see him.  Now I have told you.”  Matthew 28:5-7

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Every year, the Cirque du Solei show comes to Marymoor Park in Redmond and sets up their tents for a month or two. We’ve always talked about going and this year we finally pulled the trigger. We were a little hesitant because we’ve seen some Cirque-style shows on the cruises and haven’t been that impressed. WOW. I’m so glad we went to this! It made those other shows look like a grade school performance.

The particular show we saw was called Amaluna. The story line is something like two people who fall in love and are surrounded by people with freakish athletic ability and a lizard man. Spoiler alert: the lizard traps the guy in a giant tub of water but he escapes and marries the girl in the weirdest wedding you’ll ever see.

But seriously, there was some incredible talent in the show. From unicycles to slack lines and teeter totter acrobatics to some kind of crazy light twirling thing, this show had a wide variety of acts. There were definitely some boring parts like the two clowns that came out between acts, but overall the show moved quickly and was very entertaining. The video below gives you a rough idea of the show, but it doesn’t look nearly as impressive as it did in person.

One note for those looking to buy tickets: you can pay a LOT to see this show. The seats cover bout 70% of a full circle and the most expensive seats are right up the middle. We sat in the second section from one end and still had a great view at about a third of the price. We also saved money by sitting in the very top row. We were prepared with binoculars but didn’t need them at all. There are only maybe 30-40 rows in the place so it makes very little difference unless you’re in one of the first couple rows. I’d happily sit in the cheap seats again.

So even though I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy this kind of show, I can definitely recommend it now!

I generally shop at Home Depot because it’s closer than Lowes, but as I wandered through Lowes recently, I wondered what is different between the two companies besides the colors. Here’s what a little internet research turned up:

• Size: Home Depot has 500 more stores than Lowes
• Original: Lowes started first but they lagged until the 90s when they decided to turn themselves into a nicer version of Home Depot. They tried to accomplish that with better service and better looking stores.
• Money: Home Depot has a 5.91% profit on $73 billion in revenue. Lowes does 3.9% on $51 billion. Home Depots profit margin is one of the best in the business.
• Growth: Home Depot’s stock has gone up 150% in the last five years. Lowes has gone up 50%.
• Price: Price comparison are almost exactly identical when you look at a large project.
• Products: Home Depot has more tile and toilets for your bathroom remodel but Lowes has more appliances for your kitchen or laundry room.
• Returns: Both have almost identical return policies, but while Home Depot will only give you 30 days to return damaged goods, Lowes gives you 90 days.
• Military: Both stores will offer discounts to military personnel (Home Depot and Lowes details.)

So as expected, these two companies really are extremely similar. It looks like Home Depot takes the edge in the business world, but the consumer probably won’t notice the difference.