The move home…

Posted: 01/12/2010 | Author: | Filed under: Random Thoughts | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

So I mentioned in my last post that I am no longer living in Morehead, KY or attending Morehead State University. Instead, I have moved home and enrolled at Northern Kentucky University. Many of you may already know my reasons for this, but I thought I’d give a quick post to fill all of you in on all the details…

All through High School I was planning on attending Cedarville University near Dayton, OH. About halfway through my senior year that plan completely fell through. That left me at a loss on where I was going to college.  My best friend Jason was attending Morehead State University and told me to check it out.  I did, and chose to go there on somewhat of a whim.  Don’t get me wrong, I think this was the right decision for the time, I just mean that I didn’t look around much before making my decision.  Lots of great things happened while I was there, and I believe God taught me and used me in big ways while I was there.  I made great friendships and had many opportunities to serve.  You could go back and read countless posts about things that happened there.  However, one thing I learned while there, is that Morehead is far from the first choice of people with my interests and goals (i.e. New Media, Production, Technology, etc.)  At the beginning of this school year, my Sophomore year, there were some very frustrating things going on in the production department at MSU and so, I decided I was going to change my major.  For several weeks I prayed and others prayed with me, but I simply could not make a decision on what to change my major to.  It wasn’t much longer that I realized the reason I couldn’t make my decision.  It wasn’t that the major was wrong for me, it’s what I’ve wanted to do for a long time, it was that the school was wrong for the major.  I checked out NKU’s Electronic Media (EMB) department and it just so happens it basically blows Morehead’s out of the water. (Just compare the websites.)  NKU has top of the line software and hardware, and profs with significant experience in the industry.  Not to mention it’s growing each year.  On top of that, there are countless more real-world and networking opportunities in the Greater Cincinnati area than there are in Eastern KY.  So, I began to pray about making a switch.  I knew it was going to have to happen eventually but I knew leaving wouldn’t be easy because of the many friendships and opportunities I would have to leave.  However, after more prayer, and more doors opening and closing, it became evident that this semester was when I was supposed to make the move.

So there you have it…  I now find myself at one of the local Starbucks on the second day of classes writing this post.  I will of course miss many things from Morehead, but I’m looking forward to the new things I have in my future here!

All sorts of change…

Posted: 01/07/2010 | Author: | Filed under: Random Thoughts | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

It’s been a good long while since my last post.  I’ve been contemplating for a while on how to “catch up” so to speak.  I’ve decided that rather than writing an extremely long post, paragraph after paragraph of my personal headlines, it would  be more economical for me to simply make a simple list of everything that’s happened of late in my life and let you ask questions if you so desire… so here we go…

  • It’s 2010
  • I finished my third semester at Morehead State University with decent grades.
  • I ended my time in Morehead and have moved back home and am transferring to Northern Kentucky University to continue my media production major.  (Most likely more in a future post.)
  • I became a proud member of the family of iPhone users.  (I hope to post a review in the near future.)
  • I attended Passion 2010.
  • I replaced my three year old 15″ MacBook Pro with a new 13″ unibody MacBook Pro. (Also will be reviewed in the near future.)
  • I’ve, at least temporarily, ended my time as a guitarist at Crosspoint Church due to the move back home.  I love and will miss everyone there and will continue to be a part of the journey through prayer.

I’m sure there’s more, but those are the main things that have happened in my life in the past month and a half.  If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or email me and ask me!

What’s been going on in your life lately?  Any new year’s resolutions?

Happiness

Posted: 08/30/2009 | Author: | Filed under: Random Thoughts | 6 Comments

A couple days ago I had to choose a topic for my first English paper.  Of the topics that were still available, the one that seemed the most interesting to me was this: “Is happiness real and obtainable or not?”  I’ve been thinking about this question a lot since I chose it.  Not necessarily because I’m thinking about the paper, but just because the question is very abstract and the more I think about it the more I don’t know how to answer it.  Here are a couple other questions that come to mind when I think about it.  I’m going to assume that happiness is real, simply because something that nearly everyone in the world considers either a present or absent part of their life must be, at least in theory, real.  So…

  1. What is happiness?
  2. Does everyone define happiness the same way?
  3. How do you obtain happiness?  In other words, is there a certian boundry or point at which you have obtained happiness, but if your ‘state of happiness’ fell even an ounce (or whatever unit of measurement you use…) you would no longer obtain happiness?

What are your thoughts?  Do you consider yourself a happy person?  What makes you happy?

Inspiration

Posted: 08/17/2009 | Author: | Filed under: Art, Random Thoughts | Tags: , | Leave a comment

A couple of weeks ago my friend Brennan Klensch prompted me, via a Facebook note, to think about and write out in a comment, where I get my inspiration for my writing, music, and films from.  I wanted to share with you the comment that I left.

“I’m inspired mostly by people, experience, places, and my personal passions. The first three usually inspire me to write. I love taking my thoughts and experiences down on pen and paper. For example, as Craig said (in a previous comment made on the note), this note, and these responses have even inspired me. I almost always reflect via writing after a significant, or sometimes not so significant, experience in my life. And certain places, calm places, or places that I can be alone in a crowd and just sit back and watch inspire me to reflect on the condition of the world and human kind.

While these play in as well, the main things that inspire my filmmaking are my personal passions. Since I believe that film is an extremely powerful way to convey a point, I want to use it to convey my beliefs and passions to others. “

To read the full note click here. Thanks for reading.

Where do you get you inspiration?

Breaking the Break

Posted: 05/20/2009 | Author: | Filed under: Acts 1:8, Random Thoughts | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Well, I’m back.  Obviously, it’s been a while… almost two months since my last post, but there is a reason for that.  I’d noticed earlier in the spring that I didn’t really want to blog anymore.  With the constant busyness of my spring semester and the little down time that I had, blogging had become just another thing to check of my To-Do list.  It was almost like a job.  It was just another thing I “had” to do. That is not at all what I wanted this blog to be.  I want it to be something I do because I want to.  I want to host a blog and I want to share my thoughts with you all.  So all this to say… I decided to take a break for a while.  School’s over now, and I’m a little less busy, at least for the next week or so, so I think its about time to get back to it.

There’s a lot I want to catch you all up on, but this post could get ridiculously long, and I don’t want that to happen.  So, I’ll just leave you with a few of the highlights for now… my TOP 5 of the past 2 months.

1. As I metioned, school is over.  This semester wasn’t near as easy as last, but it still finished out all right.  I’ll be thrilled to get back to production classes in the fall.

2. Acts 1:8 starts in just 11 short days.  I’m stoked to get to Louisville and start that whole deal up. We had our final meeting at LTC (Leadership Training Conference) during my “blogging break”… it went well.  I ship out on May 31st.  I’ll be sure and keep you all up to date on the happenings there.

3. As I consider my future, due to one of my friends, Josh Burns (happy birthday!), church media is becoming of much stronger interest to me than it already was.  I’m doing my best to delve into the depths of learning about running Front of House, Lighting, Video, pretty much all aspects of audio/visual production within a church.

4. Speaking of churches… I finished out my semester at Crosspoint on May 3rd.  I was sad to see it go… I’m really going to miss it this summer.  Thankfully I was able to go back and attend this past week for Thomas’s last Sunday.  It was good to go back one more time before Acts 1:8 and see everyone.  I’m looking forward to coming back in the fall and getting back into the swing of things. Daniel, Caleb, Weylin, Brad, Nick, etc. I hope the summer goes well.  You all will be in my prayers.

5. It’s great to be home with family and friends for a couple weeks.  I’ve got a lot to do in these next couple weeks to get ready for 1:8, but I also have a lot of catching up with people to do. Speaking of which… be on the lookout for a long overdue new episode of the JSquared Podcast!

Well… there you have it.  Hopefully I’ll be back soon with another update.  I do have a cool story to share with you that happened during “the break”… a lesson learned the hard way.  So hopefully I’ll get that to you soon.  Thanks for reading!

Follow me on Twitter: @josephdickens

All Things Go

Posted: 03/28/2009 | Author: | Filed under: Acts 1:8, Random Thoughts | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Well, I’ve made it to Chicago.  Here I sit in the Best Western on the corner of La Salle and Ohio.  It’s pretty sweet… somehow we lucked in to getting this room called “The Director’s Suite.”  It’s really big and really nice.  Not to mention, it has a copious amount of electric outlets which is good for a technologically advanced family like mine.  I thought I’d just give you all a brief update of what’s going on in my life.  I’ll try to keep it short, but a lot is going on right now… so we’ll see what happens.

I left Morehead this morning at about noon to drive home and then to Chicago with my family.  We got here at about 9 o’clock central time.  We checked in to our hotel and found our amazing room.  Then I gave my friend Josh a call and we met for desert.  My dad and I walked back to his dorm at Moody Bible Institute him and met some of his friends and visited my other friend Josh who also attends MBI.  Tomorrow, we’re going to meet him (the second Josh) along with a few other of my friends for lunch.  Then tomorrow night we’re heading out of the city to see Chris Tomlin and Israel and New Breed in concert on the Hello Love Tour.  Sunday morning we’re going to meet back up with the first Josh and go to Park Community Church and then I’m headed back to the great city of Morehead.

Monday and Tuesday will be all about prep for Shamrock (Kappa Delta) TNL.  And then Wednesday Jason, Kyle, and I are driving to Nashville to see the US National Team play Trinidad and Tobago in a World Cup Qualifier match.  My friend Ethan Williams and Chris Stern will also be at the game and I’m really looking forward to getting to see them.

Next weekend is also going to be jam packed.  Friday after classes I’ll be off to Cedermore for LTC (Leadership Training Conference.)  All the leadership teams of Kentucky State BCM’s come together at this conference to learn and worship together.  It should be a great weekend.  Saturday night, the Acts 1:8 team will have our final meeting before we embark on our summer journey, and I’m really looking forward to getting some of the final details for my summer!  After the meeting, Jason and I will have to drive back to Morehead to get ready for Crosspoint on Sunday morning.  A new series will be starting and I’m really looking forward to see what God has in store for the next few weeks at church.

I’m gonna wrap this up in one word now because it’s gotten kinda long.  Bye.

JAMS

Posted: 03/17/2009 | Author: | Filed under: Random Thoughts | Tags: , | 2 Comments

I’m sitting at JAMS right now.  For those of you who don’t know what JAMS is… it stands for Jared and Mike’s.  Jared Tolley and Mike Sandberg for you Calvary Folk.  For those in Morehead, these are two guys that I went to high school with.  As I’m sitting here hanging out with some of my closest friends it just made me think how grateful and appreciative I should be for the life that God is allowing me to live.  It’s great!  I mean, not only do I have an absolutely insanely cool family, but I can come back from school and pick up right where I left off with friends from high school.  We can all come together and just hang out, no one has to entertain or put on a show.  It’s just natural, it’s how it should be.  Oh, did I mention that 4 of the 5 other guys here are 2-3 years older than me.  I just thought I’d mention that because people always told me that my high school friendships would die off.  Well, we’re going three years strong here and we don’t plan on stopping.  I mean, I realize that eventually people are going to start getting married, starting their careers and moving away… the LAN parties may disappear.  But, I’m just thankful for what I have now.

Thanks everyone.  Thanks God.

snow and sedatives

Posted: 01/28/2009 | Author: | Filed under: Random Thoughts | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

So, yesterday was a great day.  Snow came in Monday night… then iced over and we had a snow day here in Morehead.  From what I understand, snow days are few and far between in the college world but yesterday we got one… and it was spectacular.  My mind started rolling as I remembered a thought from a book I have been reading.  Wm. Paul Young, author of The Shack says this in the first chapter of his book.

“There is something joyful about storms that interrupt routine.  Snow or freezing rain suddenly releases you from expectation, performance demands, and the tyranny of appointments and schedules.  And unlike illness, it is largely a corporate rather than individual experience.  One can almost hear a unified sigh rise from the nearby city and surrounding countryside where Nature has intervened to give respite to the weary humans slogging it out with in her purview.  All those affected this way are united by a mutual excuse, and the heart is suddenly and unexpectedly a little giddy.  There will be no apologies needed for not showing up to some commitment or other.  Everyone understands and shares in this singular justification, and the sudden alleviation of the pressure to produce makes the hear merry.”

I don’t really expect to be able to add anything else to the well written, poetic words of Young, but rather I simply want to agree.  It is amazing to me how truly relaxing and rejuvenating a snow day can be.  Its almost as if you lose all sense of responsibility… not to say you become irresponsible… but rather the whole concept of responsibility ceases to exist.  Nothing is expected of you… you are free to relax.

Many times you are confined to a single building or that which is in walking distance, and with that, the reality sets in that it is physically impossible to “go out and do” and again… you realize the freedom to relax.

So… all this to say, relaxing is good, snow is good… and the two go together brilliantly.  Yesterday was a good day.