Non-stop Excitement

I'm so excited, I can't help it. Over the last MONTH, all I've been able to think about is FTR. (It's getting to the point where it interferes with my work. :) ) Anyway, it's interesting how pieces of such a huge puzzle seem to come together on their own without you doing anything other than thinking about it. (Assuming it's something you're excited about.) I actually have to work hard not to think about it, and focus on the moment.

Anyway, I just wanted to share some of that excitement with you today, and show you 1 of 4 sets of Gear we will start working on in January.
We are working on our business plan, and in thinking about what we need to do over these next 4 to 5 months, Funding is a big issue. (We're looking at roughly $500,000 to cover the first two years.) Strangely enough, we don't have any doubts that we'll get the funding necessary, but we want to be smart about it, and avoid as much interest as we can. We also want to avoid turning over a large share of our company's ownership to third parties. ...perhaps we're a little naive, but we don't want to empower others with the opportunity to shut us down.

Well, I'm certainly open to ideas. I will still do my research and due diligence, but I believe that within our group I am less aware of what's out there than some of you may be regarding Start up Capital.

Thanks for being such supportive friends. I was talking with Splashboy the other night, and it was exciting to hear his voice again. I see how privileged we are to have such a good group of sharp minded individuals, who collectively can accomplish much good. "If you're not strong, you can't help the weak." This has been a very motivating thought for me regarding our potential. The days are not far off that we will not only be in a position to provide for ourselves and our families, but to reach out and help countless others to do the same. Good luck, guys. I wish you all an enjoyable week!

FTR Studios

I'm pleased to anounce the beginning stages of what we've all been waiting for since "latex and strings" rolled off of James's lips: I'm finally going to open my Studio. FTR Studios (Fantasy To Reality) will be opened in the early months of 2009, working primerily on 4 major projects to be presented to a major company in the month of October. They will be produced under our sub-company EPIC Gear, providing World of Warcraft gamers with the First, Best and ONLY Licenced Sets of elaborate gear and Costumes. Because of the High quality materials and attention to detail, we will only produce 12 to 20 of these a year. They will be priced anywhere from $9,000 to $15,000 a set depending on the customer's prefereces, size, ego, etc.

We've thought this through... a lot. I've spoken to marketing specialists, business owners, and we have each done a lot of personal investigation and research to ensure we don't flop and die. But even if we do, "We come out with some pretty sweet sets of armor!!" according to Brian James, 1 of 2 current business partners. We all feel the same way about it; this is what we want to do, this is what we are passionate about, and we'd work with all our hearts just for the opportunity to do what we love.

This is just a great start to something bigger down the road. Will this change the world? Not likely, but it will empower us with the experience to recognize greater needs, and allow us to start other ventures as we accumulate capital. This is just a vehicle to greater means, to greater ends. (Like buying up all the land in Jackson county and donating it to the church. ...I'd like to see how far we can go anyway before they stop us.) I've got to run, but things are always looking up, and I'm excited to finally start "It all". Don't ever give up guys, this is going to be a great 5 years in front of us!!!

Growing Pains

Wow! Look at all the pretty posts! I must admit, today has been amazing for me. I've spent the last two hours reading up on the blogs, and taking the scenic route throught the links provided. I've never been more honored to be a considered a friend among you.

So, what have I been up to these days? ... I've been growing. A lot! I took a sales team out to Minneapolis for a few months (surly the sharpest guys I've ever hired) and with enthusiasm and guts labored to bring a more enlighting form of media to those families. After two successful summers you'd be sure I'd do well, yet I was presented with possibly the greatest failure of my life. Not only myself, but the three guys on my team. One chose to go home after 4 weeks, and get a low-wage paying job. (No one could blame him; it was the logical thing to do.) The rest of us knew the math, and knew that even 3 or 4 good weeks would earn us more than working a job for the remaining 10 weeks of the summer. So we chose to keep working, earning nothing, and living off of advances from our future earnings. Scary, yes, but we decided we wanted to do something great with our summer. We wanted to use this as an opportuninty to escape our comfort zones and gain the character strength learned from steady adversity. Long story short, we were transfered to Utah to finish our summer. The company was impressed that we hadn't called it quits by now, so they planted us in the most fertile soil in the nation: Northern Utah. So here we are, and we'll finish the summer strong.

Despite the trials, Melanie and I (and the other three guys that have been living with us... and Erin) consider these last 3 or 4 months the most rewarding we've ever had. Erin is our biggest joy-bringer, and we've all grown closer to our Savior. We have also learned much about integrity, and watching out for "our people". Keeping the guys alive has been quite the trick, and anyone who says money isn't important hasn't gone very long without it. (Melanie and I were playing to the tune of 5 months!) But you learn to stay alive, and not be cheap on the things that matter most. We honestly don't know how we're able to get by the way we do sometimes, but we make sure we keep the Lord a big part of it.

Okay, I'm done sharing the difficulties (as educational as they are sometimes,). What I really wanted to share with you is my next post....

Another week

Another week

Not much to show for the new week, but doing alright just the same.
Have to keep looking for jobs and applying this week and hopefully
start I start getting more replies back from the applications I
already sent out. Sometimes I feel like I don't have a clue about how
to find a job and in fact I don't. Hopefully I can find something that
at least acknowledges my degree and counts that as something.
Mathematics, what was I thinking. Oh yeah, I was thinking I was
goingyo go to grad school, well we will see about that.

I really need to start using my new computer more and do some
programming that would at least give me something to be working on and
something to accomplish. If anybody has ideas of things I could
program let me know. Need something that does a specific task? Let me
know and you can get a custom program that meets your needs.

I will keep you all updated and I hope things start to pan out at
least a little so I can be providing a more stable income for my family.

Super Guy
(on the move)

A different way to do things--Pixar's President

Yes, me again.
I've been researching a lot of things lately, trying to find my path out of college and into a career. I've enjoyed comments about Ed Catmull's different working and leading style in media production. I think it even seems to be more what the Herd used to do than what normal production companies do. Here are a few links.

Pixar's Superhero Shakes Up Disney

Blog from BYU speech

Love, Media, and Success

I agree with Benjamin and he said exactly what I've been pondering for the last few weeks. I have also asked myself what is success and what it would mean to do everything out of love. Charity never faileth. Perhaps charity is the ultimate form of success.
If we made good media because we wanted to counter the bad, our motives are good. If we wanted to make good media because we wanted to express our ideas, those motives can also be good. However, what if we made media because we loved people? What if we loved our siblings enough to make films that would help people have hope, help inspire them, uplift them, encourage them?
God has done so much for us because he loves us. What could we do with love for our Father and our fellow man? I do think, as Ben suggested, that that would be success.
One medium often used or referred to in the scriptures is the word of God. There is much written in the scriptures about this subject and from various perspectives, but I will just make a few references. John frequently calls Christ "the Word." I find that interesting. He also said that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Thus, you could say that God, in his love for us, gave us the ultimate and eternal medium. This medium would be above every form of media ever. This medium would not only teach, inspire, give hope, etc. but this medium would be the very means of our salvation and exaltation.
We currently live in a world where media takes us away from love, takes us away from Christ. Much of the media distracts us, causes us to be removed from the Spirit, desensitizes us. I firmly believe that people often can't see how these things affect them. Satan is gaining a huge grasp through technology that could and should be used in the opposite direction.
Our media, in essence, should be symbolic of Christ and have motives like his. I do believe we should make good media because we love people and only want the best for them.

Beginnings. I like that. We are not merely finding answers or ending a quest. We are beginning a journey, a mission, that may have been in the works...for a long time.

Ben asked how we do it. Let's find out together.

Renascence

I have very much appreciated Ked's renewed energy for life and his comments on media and re-discovering his passions.

At the moment, it's 11:45 pm, and I've not been able to sleep. I just read the Andrew Stanton interview Ked referenced, and found it inspiring. I deeply hope that Pixar will continue to hold the banner of standards which they now wave. One notable thing that stood out for me that was referenced in that article was the fact that Pixar takes on complicated themes. The Incredibles, for example, values achievement over fairness. Life is not fair. Everybody knows that. What is important is that everybody is encouraged and has drive to achieve in his own frame. That is not a popular theme to preach these days. The themes these directors take on are current, valid, and important. Even better to put them in movies for children so as to give parents a frame of reference for teaching their children.

I may have mentioned this here before, but I set a fairly lofty goal at the beginning of the year to be in a house by the end of the year. This has caused me to be extremely focused on working to get a financial hold, which I still think is important, but I seem to have lost some perspective, and I'm feeling a bit disconnected from something (don't know exactly what) that is very important. Perhaps this reminder about love being the most important thing is a key to the problem. Should we not make the most important thing, Love, central in everything we do? How can I make Love part of my current and future goals, even if those goals include earning money? We look up to Andrew Stanton for making Love central to his work in media. I've been recently feeling a rekindling desire to get back into music, will I be a better, or at least more useful, artist if Love is what drives my craft? Will we as a group be successful (read: successful != rich) if Love drives us, whatever happens?

How do we do that?

Unanswered questions.

Beginnings.

p.s. "!=" is programmerspeak for "not equal to". For some reason "!" means "Not". I don't know why.