Made it to IL just fine last night.

This morning, before work, I finished proof-watching the 4 hour DVD, which was finished yesterday. All looks good, for which I give God the honor and glory! I only had to build it 3 times in the last 5 days, (not to mention the other 2-3 times before that.) But, I’ve burned 4 copies so far, and have it on my to-do list today to send for a quote on this for printing. Thank you all that prayed and were an encouragement through the last couple three days!

BTW: I am in correspondence with tech support from the makers of the software, but nothing really has been figured out yet. I really haven’t done anything different, other than lean more on the Lord to see this finished.

So, thanks again for your prayers and support through this one! Keep pressing on.

With the troubles in DVD Authoring on my mind, I figured it was time for a good bike ride. So, after church, hopped in the Corolla, drove to Rose Lake, and started riding. Mullen was the destination, 1,100 feet up and 37.8 miles away. Then, of course, had to come back, with a headwind, the ride totaling 75.7 miles, in 4:50. This included a short stop at the top, and about 10 min in the bike shop, moving average of 17 mph. Real good ride to help work out some of the stress of the week.

Today I spent trying different things with different computers. Since I have 2 projects to do, and one is relatively easy, I decided to work on that a bit. I took an older file, and had to re-link the video clips / audio clips / subtitles to their new location, and all looks good, until go to compile and burn—CRASH!

Well, learned one thing - the computer doesn’t seem to be the issue anymore (one is a MacPro running Windows, which I was thinking could be a problem somehow.)

So, back on my MacPro machine, I decided to start from scratch on the easy project. Threw it together without all the links, compiled and burned. That worked. So I did the finishing touches on the linking, and it’s in the process of burning (88% done as I type.) So, I’m at least thankful for that and might have a product to produce if it proofs out ok.

I do have a tech support ticket in, but not expecting anything back until Monday. Tech Support is hit or miss—it seems whenever I need them it’s a really bad thing that nobody can fix. But I have been pleasantly surprised in the past, too. It’s my prayer that this DVD gets authored, and I don’t care about how it does, just so that it does. Thanks for those of you who wrote / prayed for me in this!

Pete and Repete were sitting on a wall. Pete fell off—who was left?

That about explains today. Yesterday I was proofing our new DVD (Stranger Interactive Edition), a 4 hour long disc containing 110 different video clips, that will be included in the back of a specially marked The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus book. I watched the whole thing, but decided to update the very last one because it had the old, red Stranger book cover and needed to be updated to the new brown version. Two small subtitle / Closed Caption fixes as well. No problem, just fix the video, re-encode and re-master the DVD.

Well, for some unknown reason, that DVD Authoring file crashed on me. No problem, I have a backup. That crashed as well. Tried again with an older version (works fine until the changes are made and—CRASH!) And that’s how yesterday ended, it wasn’t an upnote, but a chance to again realize I’m just a small payer in this game of life, so managed to look on the bright side of things.

Today I tried this and that, and finally decided to re-do the whole authoring process. The first time I built this dvd, it took 4 days. The second (after the file crashed) it only took 1 day. So, my goal today is to have that finished again. But we shall see… come 10:30, I realized Lloyd and Faith weren’t coming in, so I have to pack orders and stuff. The day is still young…

Should I mention that I had this DVD completed 2 years ago? For some reason we never got it published, but now is the time for that. The fight is on.

Oh, in case you want to see what’s involved with this, here’s a link to a post 2 years ago: http://www.krazycheck.com/index.php/site/article/07_06_13/

The day was dedicated to Kellen and Jessica, who got married today!

After work, headed up to the Heartland Ranch for the rehearsal of Jessica Iott and Kellen Wright’s wedding. I don’t have much to do with this one—just set up the sound, get a ton of ice, and “B” photographer. I hope that’s it, because that’s all I can remember.

With my part of the 2 days worth of web meetings over, and one skid of books safely delivered, I was free to head back down to the US of A.

Today I drove back down from Canada, what seems to be something that I could do in my sleep. However, this time I had 2,600 pounds still on my truck that needed to be taken care of. First stop was the Christian Bookstore in the Chinatown of Calgary, where I dropped off 18 cases of The Lamb in Simplified Chinese. The other 788 books needed to be shipped to Ontario, so I headed over to the YRC truck terminal to send that on its way. It was noonish when I was able to leave Calgary. I do wish I had some photos of those events, as they were memorable. I guess a few words will have to suffice to hold those down.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, except for seeing ~20 deer, and almost hitting a fawn. I decided to take another way home, which took me through Montana through the back woods of Yaak. I would not recommend this trip if you are in a hurry of have a passenger susceptible to car sickness. Or in the winter. Or at night. But I had fun.

Drove a truckload of books to the Canadian office, with a stop for a nice hike in Kootenay National Park—the Kindersley-Sinclair loop up from Radium Hot Springs. It was a 3,400’ vertical climb, 10.8 mile long trip that took me 5 1/2 hours. Next time I’ll bring something to eat…

Spent the day hanging out with Fred, as well as a quick trip to town for parts / pictures.

The best ride yet. Camp 5 Road was the best. Road is not a good term, unless you had a bike!

Drove to Sturgis on Tuesday, and spent Wednesday working on the bike (new tires, suspension, etc.) and headed out to the camp, where we took the first day’s ride (of 76 some miles.)

Spent the day finishing packing The Stranger DVD sets, to make room for 10 skids of Lamb books coming.