Habakkuk Project

About seven weeks ago my youth pastor approached me and said, "Hey, I'm doing a sermon series on the book of Habbakuk. You want to shoot something for it?"

I said, "Of course". Thus began my crazy adventure in directing for the very first time.

We met shortly after this exchange and I asked "Well, do you have an outline for what you want to do?"

"No." he said.

"Well isn't that fantastic."

So for the next few weeks we got together and ironed out a story that we both agreed on. Then talked about casting choices, figured out who would be a good leading man, and then I went off to write.

Two weeks later I had an outline and approached the family I wanted in my movie. They said yes (after saying please and offering lots of beer). At this point I had about four weeks until it was due and I had to figure out when everyone was available to shoot. So I call my actor on a Tuesday and asked him if it would be better to shoot this Saturday or next. He said this Saturday would be best. No problem, I can get my act together in 3 days.

Ignorance is such bliss.

I managed to make a shot list, get a camera, get a A.D. (assistant director), location scout my two major places I was shooting, go to home depot morning of shoot and get last minute supplies and then hopefully by 7am start shooting.

Which I did.

About half of my short was shot in sequence, which was awesome. The other half was out of sequence and much harder to keep the story together in my head. However, the day went very good and my last shot was 3:30 that afternoon. I was beyond tired.

The following Thursday I shot the last remaining scenes that I was not able to get on Saturday. It went quick and painless and now there was only one more day of shooting left.

So, the next Saturday we shot the last of my short in a few hours and thus concluded principal photography.

Now, for the last week in a half I have been editing. I have a third of it done and working on the rest now.

I know I haven't posted in a while and I know this isn't really mean or funny (or both), but I thought I would just give you a quick rundown of what's been going on over the past month. Hope all of your Christmas' were awesome. As soon as I'm done editing I will get back to my regularly scheduled tom foolery.

(My short is about a guy who interviews for a promotion and instead loses his job. )

Restoring America

I never really thought I could make a difference in this election. Sure I voted, which is an important civic duty, but how much difference does that make? Even if I did vote for McCain, do you really think he would win California? I want to do something historic, something grand.

And then it happened.


Someone actually voted for me for President. This is a legit ballot from one of my friends in Eugene. I am now a contender for the presidency of the United States. Not only that, but look who my running mate is - Ryan.

When I saw this I felt a huge weight of responsibility. I have had so many ideas on how to make this country better and, let's face it, so does Ryan. It was time to make a decision. I talked with my family a great deal and we came down to a decision. Ryan and I are going to run. How fitting it is to celebrate the launch of my campaign at the place where this all started: in my office about 10 minutes ago.



Ogden/Ogden 08'

We are part of the SUA party (Straight up Awesome) and we have a platform of important issues we are running on.

Phil Ogden - President


Education - I feel like teachers aren't paid enough so starting in my first day of office, teachers start at $100,000 per year. Teachers will also be on an incentive bonus payment plan. Every time they disregard one of the states standardized tests they will get an additional $30,000, and a teacher's aide. Teachers are limited to 10 teacher's aides per year.

Economy - I will look to my trusty cabinet members and tell them to FIX IT!

Energy - We will establish our independence from foreign oil by completely getting rid of the middle east. We will bus everyone out of the country in a diplomatic and peaceful way, then turn it into the worlds largest starbucks/jamba juice. Problem solved.

Ryan Ogden - Vice President


Here are some platforms that Ryan will be running on.

Mac and Cheese - starting in his first day of office, Mac and cheese will be delivered to every home in the world as a way to open up lines of communication with foreign countries and those who hate us. And because it's good.

Thomas and friends - Thomas and friends will now replace the nightly news. Anchors from NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox will, instead of news, voice over characters from the famous English show. Brian Williams will be Thomas, Tom Brokaw will be Gordon, Katie Couric will be Emily, Dan Rather will be Cranky the Crane, Sean Hannity will be the troublesome trucks, and Rush will be Sir Toppham Hat.

Tractors - Since Ryan is a big advocate for tractors, everyone should have one. That way, when he comes to campaign in your town, he can check them out and think they are cool.

On November 4, do the right thing. Vote Ogden/Ogden 08'



Straight talk hope we can all believe in.

Ryan is going to be a big brother

Yes, it's true. In June, Ryan's going to have a buddy. I've tried for a couple of weeks now to blog about something even half as cool as this (btw, it's debatable whether I blog about cool things) but I haven't been about to come up with anything.

We decided to wait a few weeks to tell anyone. After we decided to start telling people we had a shortlist of people we wanted to tell before the news got out of control. Chances are if you read this blog, you already know about our news. If, for some reason, I forgot to tell you and this is new to you, there's a good chance I don't care about you and wish you would would get run over by a car.

I'm just kidding . . .about the car part.

It's great news and we wanted to celebrate it with youalleverybody.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Look at me

I know I vent about many necessary things, make fun of stupid people, and laugh at other peoples' expense. Well, it's only fair that once in a while I take some of my own medicine. I thought it would be fun (and funny) to post some pictures of me in my younger days and show you all that I was awesome then, and now.


This is me at Magic Mountain chillin' with Wile E. Coyote. I was about 4 or 5.


Rockin' the Olan Mills photo shoot. Big Pimpin' at 6.


Here I am with my date Tracy before the Christmas Formal. I was a Junior in High School then.


Is this me or Brian Austin Green? Maybe Parker Lewis?


Seth, Me, and Mark at our favorite karaoke bar in Korea town. No joke, I thought that shirt was cool!

Battlestar Galactica is awesome, which is why Dayton needs to start watching it

Meet my friend Dayton



He is a rock star, a husband and a great dad, and he's been my friend for 10 years. I stayed with him and his fam last year when I was in town for a wedding (Trevor's) and we got to hang out and do some old traditions (drink caribou coffee) and new traditions (drink beer and buy Petra songs online). It was awesome.

What was not so awesome is when I told him "You have to watch the new Battlestar Galactica. It's Awesome" and he said screw you hippy, I don't watch nerd things like that. (I may be paraphrasing . . .)

Well, I'm here to start a campaign to get Dayton to start watching one of the best written shows on TV.

Dayton, just between you and me, here are 3 reasons why you should watch this show.

1)I don't steer people wrong.
I told my friend Eddie, who is an avid Lost watcher, "You have to watch Battlestar Galactica." Unlike you, he tried it out and became hooked. He finished the mini-series in the first day, the first season in a couple days, and within two weeks finished season 2 and 3. Dayton, I know you love Lost, trust me, you'll love Battlestar.

2)The show redefines the sci-fi genre
The show deals with the conflict of a monotheistic and polytheistic society, it deals with racism and prejudice, and takes the best part of space exploration and makes it look cool.

3)In the future, everyone's hot. (I thank Mary for point #3)
That's right, nobody's ugly on this show. It's comforting to know that our future is full of hot women in red dresses and, well, I can't remember what else is important.

So, my challenge to you is to watch the Mini-series. How do I get the mini-series you ask? Well, I will send it to you to watch. It's only 3 hours. If by the end, you don't like it, I won't hate you. At least you tried.

Stop it with the blue tooth in public

You know who you are. You're the guy who goes into Subway with your friend from work, catching up on the day's memos, then right in the middle of your friend's sentence you tap your ear and say "hello".

Stop it. Seriously.

Nothing says "I care about you, but really I hope someone more important calls" than a blue tooth in public places.

Oh wait, let me guess, your excuse is "well, I wear it so much that I don't even notice."

Bullshit. How do you not notice a piece of electronic equipment in your ear? You look like those guys in Star Wars that control the Death Star. Just robots desiring to be controlled by jackassery.

Stop it.

Here's a tip. When you leave your car or walk out of your building to eat, shut off your earpiece and be part of the human race. We like you, just not your jackassery.