My Knee

This is what I did to my knee:

I was playing paintball. It was the beginning of the second round. I ran and skid on my knees to get low behind a pile of logs. My right knee (re: the picture up above) made contact with a very long and sharp rock. I laid on my back with my knees up in front of my, right next to the bunker, so as to allow my to stay low, out of the line of fire, and be able to lean left and right to see around the logs. Of course I felt the effect of the knee-rock collision, but I didn't see the damage, so I kept playing. I ran out of paintballs after about 7 or 8 minutes, so I stuck my head out to get hit by a paintball. As I stood up to walk off the field, I felt a rush of wetness drench my right leg from the knee down. I kept walking to at least get out of the line of fire before checking my wound. As I approached the young-lady ref guarding the field's exit, I opened up the rip in my right pant-leg. What I saw shocked the young lady as much as it shocked me. Since some of the refs were First Aid certified, they took care of me while they called for help on the radios. I laid down and had one of the refs grab something to rap my knee. Within about 10 minutes there were a couple nurses and several other First Aid people to help me. One of the main nurses who took care of me, Sandy, rinsed my knee with some sort of liquid. That hurt like hell. Thanks to my buddy Pablo, I had a hand to hold throughout the whole process. Next thing I know, I'm airlifted on a stretcher, watching streams of sunlight seep through the branches or trees passing over head. Or, in my case, in front of my face.

(To be continued. Maybe.)

Exactly 2 Months

Filming for the last project was stressful, as usual. I found that most of us wanted the process to end as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Week 10: (June 8-13)

We had a guest speaker named Callan White. She is a very talented actress, and has a huge heart for teaching. This whole week of classes was... a relief. A breath of fresh air. Rejuvenating. For the first time in several years, I was on the receiving end of acting instruction. We learned breathing techniques as well as acting methods, and just had a dandy ol’ time.

Week 11: (June 15-19)

A film producer, Mike Leahy, was our speaker. For half of every class we would watch an episode of the TV show Project Greenlight 3. Mike was actually on the TV show as one of the producers responsible for making the film that the lucky-chosen Director and Writers created. I would highly encourage Youtube-ing Project Greenlight 3 and watching as much as you possibly can. It is VERY entertaining, as well as insightful. Apparently it’s a great peak into what the “film industry” is like.

June 20:

All the sweat and loss of sleep during the weeks of filming paid off in a glorious way. We had our film premier, and it was beautiful. Taylor Collins (a student of the School of Acting for the Screen, and a good friend) and I were co-MC’s for the night. It felt good to hold a mic again. Feels like it had been too long.

June 22:

“Wendell Moon Day”

Yes. Officially.

June 25:

2009 School of Digital Filmmaking Officially ended.

June 28 – July 1:

I took a friend of mine (from the film school) with me to Kaua’i. The actual beauty that I experienced in my three days on that island will only ever be truly understood by me. Neither photos nor words will suffice. Which is good… because I don’t have many photos, and my verbosity is eluding me.

While we were on the island, we staying with the gracious family of a good friend of mine. The friend who I know wasn’t actually on the Islands at the time, and I had never met his family before I landed on the island, but it all worked out more than perfectly.

One of the highlights of my time on the island turned out to be one of the highlights of my life. Sean (my buddy I brought with me) and I camped out on the beach, far from civilization, with mountains right behind us, and a long stretch of sand in front of us, ending in the ocean, which ends in the horizon. I climbed the mountain in flip-flops (dumb idea), Sean fished (and failed), philosophized (and succeeded), swam, made a fire, lounged around, nibbled on snacks, and eventually fell asleep.

July 1:

Fly home.

July 2:

Arrive at home (It was a long flight). Home for 18 hours, including sleep.

July 3:

Had 1 hour to re-pack for what I thought was only a week or so, but ended up being three weeks.

Dad and I drove to a place in far-East Tennessee called Doe River Gorge (DRG) where I helped with a hybrid program of DRG and the Institute for Cultural Communicators (ICC)

After that, I stayed at DRG to help with their normal camp program.

July 22:

Filleted my knee. I’ll post pictures soon. Long-story short is this…

Paintball. Rock. Knee. 39 visible stitches. More stitched beneath the flesh. No bone or tendon injury (thanks God!)

July 24:

Went home to recover from knee injury.

The 2009 Communicators For Christ intern team is here preparing for the ’09 camps and tour.

http://www.instituteforculturalcommunicators.org/09staff

http://www.instituteforculturalcommunicators.org/tour-prep

And we can’t forget the prep-team

July 28:

I was awoken by the most joyful noise in the world: the laughter of young people. They were running in the rain—singing, dancing, playing games. I just watched, admiring God’s creations.

Still can’t bend my knee. But I can walk on it!