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Ukulele Day
posted by Kyle on May 2nd, 2011
Julia on Facebook just wished me a happy National Ukulele Day!
I had to do a quick search to find out that today was, in fact, “National Play Your Ukulele Day.”
Lucky for me, I play the ukulele every day. Still a few hours if you missed it.
Holy Week
posted by Kyle on April 20th, 2011
We were in Pittsburgh over the weekend and I just got caught up on some of the things I missed while out of town.
Here is a video our good friends from Spirit Juice Studios and Outside Da Box put together. I am posting this a little late for Palm Sunday but still works for Holy Week. I hope yours is full of great blessings.
The Ubass in Action with Paul Simon
posted by Kyle on April 15th, 2011
You may remember me mentioning awhile ago that I got a Kala Ubass, which is a baritone ukulele body with these crazy strings that let you play it like a bass guitar (same tuning and octave). It has been a ton of fun but I have yet to use it at a Popple event.
Bakithi Khumalo is the bass player for Paul Simon and plays the same bass frequently. In fact, he played it last week on Jimmy Fallon. So turn up the bass on your speakers and check out how great this thing sounds.
It has inspired me to bring it along this weekend to Pittsburgh and have some fun.
World’s Tallest LEGO Tower
posted by Kyle on April 13th, 2011
Poor California. First, you have the financial problems, then you loose your Governator and now someone beats your record of the world’s tallest LEGO tower.
Yes, that is right, our lovely Northern neighbors in Toronto, Canada created a 96.1 foot tower using 465,000 LEGOS. They beat the tower at LEGOLAND by less than 2 feet. So will California just add a few feet to their tower? Will they kick it over? … That was always the fate of our LEGO towers.
I will tell you what would be better, if someone would build a ukulele out of LEGOs . . . what? It has been done? And it works?
I can’t find this video on youtube anymore but check out this ukulele made out of LEGOs that you can play!
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjAxNjk3OTQ0.html – you get to learn some Chinese in the process.
Story link
Picture link
Uke Picture link
The Importance of Design
posted by Kyle on March 31st, 2011
Frequently, when we are performing at an event, they will give out shirts to all the participants. Out of the hundreds of shirts that I have seen at youth events, there were only a few that I actually liked.
It is great to get the youth involved in the planning of the event and even brainstorming on ideas for the shirt, but when it comes down to the actual design and color choices, I highly suggest you hire a professional.
A retreat can be an amazing experience and the shirt is a memento of that time. It can also invite conversation when someone asks you what the shirt means or where you got it. It can be an evangelization tool by what it says or what is said when someone asks about it. There is power in the shirt . . . but only if it is worn.
The majority of shirts that are given out at retreats, 5K runs, conferences, and other events are most often used for sleeping, working out, rags or given/thrown away before they are even worn. We all have tight budgets and we want to save money any way we can, but you are wasting money if you are printing shirts that won’t be worn. My suggestion is to either not print shirts at all, or print shirts that are so great, that the kids will be excited to wear them to school. Then, the message of your event will be remembered and will spread.
So, hire someone that has a great portfolio and get shirts that the kids will wear. My brother designs shirts at Likable Art.
a shirt designed by likable art
Also see my post: All Shirts Aren’t Created Equal
All Shirts Aren’t Created Equal
posted by Kyle on March 24th, 2011
In college, I had a roommate that sold me on a brand of shirts. He said, “Look in your drawer and without looking at the tags, pick out your favorite few shirts.” At this point, I would challenge you to do the same.
Every shirt that I chose was a 50/50 blend (cotton and polyester). Most of them were even a certain brand, Fruit of the Loom, Best 50/50. I have a shirt from 1994 that has been worn and washed a ton and still is super comfortable. I was shocked and my shirt buying was changed. I didn’t buy a shirt unless it was at least 15% polyester.
Things have changed a bit in the shirt market. Here are the three main shirt options when printing your next retreat shirt.
100% COTTON (Cheapest): The majority of free shirts are printed on cheap 100% cotton shirts. They tend to shrink and the necks stretch. They have a stiff feeling to them and wrinkle like crazy. They look like a cheap shirt. Unless that is the look you are going for, I would avoid it. My favorite brands: none.
50/50 BLEND (Slightly more expensive, but sometimes the same price): If you are on a tight budget, this is what I would suggest. They hold up much better, don’t wrinkle and generally look much nicer after a few washes than the cheap cotton. They usually don’t shrink much if any at all. My favorite brands: Fruit of the Loom, Next Level Apparel, and Jerzee.
But, if you are willing to spend a little more (sometimes very close in price), check into…
RING SPUN COTTON: These shirts are still 100% cotton but it is much softer and a much nicer shirt. If you have a 100% cotton shirt that you really like, it is probably ring spun. In addition to them being nicer shirts, you can do some nicer printing on them (discharge/water-based), but that will have to be addressed in another post. My favorite brands: Anvil, Canvas, Alstyle, Next Level Apparel, and Tultex.
All of Popple shirts were printed on 50/50 shirts but recently, we have switched to ringspun cotton shirts and even have some printed with Discharge/waterbased inks.
So the next time you have a big event (retreat, rally, conference or shark chasing party), and you are going to print up some shirts, try to avoid the cheapest shirts. They are the most likely to become rags. Give the teens a shirt that they will actually wear.
Also see my post: The importance of design!
(photo credit)
Another Use for the Shift Key
posted by Kyle on March 22nd, 2011
The shift key doesn’t get enough credit. We use it to capitalize the first letter of a sentence or a proper noun like Abraham Lincoln. We use it to write an email address (shift-2) to get the “@” symbol. Heck, I just used it to get quotation marks.
We travel all over. We see many posters for events and other printed material. Often, the shift key is not used enough.
When you re-size an image, holding down the shift key will keep it proportional. Often, images are either fat or thin because people change the size by grabbing the cursor with their mouse and dragging to fit the size they want. If people would only hold down the shift key, it would look … less ridiculous.
Sometimes we look chubby, sometimes we look crazy thin, but either way, it looks like you didn’t use the shift key.
So please, consider this your public service announcement. Don’t forget your shift key.
Catholic Media Promotion Day
posted by Kyle on March 15th, 2011
Today is Catholic Media Promotion Day and we were asked to post our favorites in the following categories. Here are Kyle’s thoughts:
Favorite 3 Blogs: Bob Rice, Lower Your Nets, Tech Tips for Catholics
Favorite 3 Podcasts: The Catholics Next Door, Sunday Sunday Sunday, Catholic Answers
3 Other Media: Apex (Juggle), Spirit Juice Studios, Likable Art
3 Random Catholic Things Online: Judy McDonald, Free Catholic Audio, Janet Smith (great talks)
My Own Projects: Help with Likable Art, Popple, Urinal Book and Family
Dan’s Favorite 3 (not previously mentioned): American Papist, Catholic Vote, PAL Campaign
For more info on this “holiday,” visit http://www.facebook.com/promotecatholicism?sk=info
Footprints . . . in the Snow
posted by Kyle on February 9th, 2011
So, like much of the country, we have lots of snow here in Indiana. I have been trying to keep on top of things and shovel the sidewalks to keep them clean. Really, the only person that comes to our house with any regularity is the mail person (sometimes male, sometimes female). The person doesn’t change genders but … oh, you get it.
I like to keep things nice so he/she doesn’t have to tromp through 2 feet of snow. Apparently, the mail person doesn’t realize how hard I worked to clear a path just for him/her (right about now I am wishing I would have just made the person male for the whole story and been done with it).
I was looking out my window and watched my sidewalk being completely avoided as the mailman walked through the grass/snow.
After getting upset, I thought that is probably how God feels when he has this perfect path for us and knows how much easier our life will be if we just stay on His path. But there I go, blazing my own path totally oblivious that he is watching me and saying, “What the heck are you doing!!!!????”
Books are shipping
posted by Kyle on January 27th, 2011
If you wanted a hard copy of Choosing the Right Urinal, they are shipping in various quantities. The more you buy, the cheaper they get. www.kyleheimann.com/urinal
