Here's Our Latest Newsletter

Here's our newsletter for March, 2011. Just click on the each page for a larger image. We hope you enjoy it!

Images of Spring! The Winter Is Ending!

We've been blessed with wonderful spring weather the past three days. Warm sunshine, blue sky, a cool breeze...the grass is starting to turn green again, buds are popping on our roses, the birds are singing, bulbs are blooming, and Tucker and Tanner are back on the deck catching a few rays.

This is one of our local Cardinals in our front tree. He was singing his lungs out when I snapped this picture.

Tucker and Tanner soak up the sun. They're ready for their spring haircuts.

These are in our front garden.

Thanks for your gifts and your prayers that enable us to serve. We couldn't be here without you being there. Are you as ready for a season change as we are?

New Microphone, New Video

When I entered my office at MMS this morning and sat down, I found myself in a pixel frame of mind and started throwing video clips together like a mad man. That led me to get my nifty new Audio-Technica AT2020, cardioide condeser, USB-powered microphone out of its box, set it up, and hook it into my computer. With that, and my handy-dandy "pop" filter, I embarked on a new video narration career.

I think you'll notice a difference from my last narration attempt (since removed from the blog and replaced to with a "re-mixed" version utilizing the new microphone). Oh man, it's like night and day using this mic as opposed to the previous mic. It pays to have the right tool for the job.

Anyway, I was a bit "out of the box" with my thinking as I worked with the clips and ended up scripting a rather non-traditional narration scheme.



I really like the microphone. It's totally easy to use and sounds great. What do you think?

The Sky Is Blue And The Sun Is Out!

After Thursday/Friday's latest "winter storm warning, watch, advisory" rain, and snow and localized flooding, it's kind of nice to see some blue sky and feel the sun again. It's windy, but we'll take a little wind to help dry things out. The local river levels are dropping and damage wasn't much beyond some closed roads in outlying areas. We're getting closer to the beginning of spring and everyone's more than ready for the season change.

While things around 368 McClain are pretty much the same, this morning was a little different in that it's newsletter time again. We're spending the day getting our March Coshocton Flyer ready to mail. Be watching for your copy in a mail box near you. If you're not on our mailing list and would like to be, send us an email to let us know: kdodson368@gmail.com and we'll be glad to add you to our ministry team.

Keith works on newsletters.

And, as it's Saturday, Karen was in the kitchen baking away. This morning it was oatmeal, raisin, and pecan muffins...Oh Yeah...

Karen drops batter in the paper muffin cups...

And a few minutes later, removes the muffins from the oven.

Tucker is very interested.

Tanner is very interested.

Keith is very interested.

Have a great weekend. We hope to get the dogs out for a walk after we get a few more newsletters in envelopes!

Wednesday Morning Blurb

I'm up a bit early this morning and thought I'd post a quick update. We're in a couple days of rain right now, local flooding continues to be minor and "usual" for this time of year. Karen conducted a rather "gutsy" demolition project in the basement yesterday which really improved conditions down there as she continues to develop her sewing area. Baby blankets and personal tote bags are her two current specialties. I think we've had ten babies born over the past ten months at our church here in Ohio...God's growing His Kingdom from the inside out at Fresno Bible Church!

Up at the mission I have two primary projects underway: 1) putting the April issue of the GroundCrew together (the MMS organizational newsletter); and 2) continuing to explore new areas of video/audio editing, production, and authoring. The new microphone has arrived and I had something of a DVD authoring/production breakthrough yesterday which cleared up several months of video related confusion and frustration.

In my office at MMS working on GroundCrew

With the GroundCrew, I spent Monday afternoon making a broad review the project photographs I've taken over the past four months. That gives me a feel for the direction the newsletter will take. Yesterday I pulled photos to "build" the issue. Today I'll crop, edit, and adjust each photo as necessary. Tomorrow, Lord willing, I'll write the copy and captions. And Friday I hope to put it all into a digital package, with preliminary layout, and attach it off to our graphic designer (Tammy, Karen's cousin!). With all that, you can look for your issue of GroundCrew to arrive toward the end of April.

On the video front, I finally stumbled onto the realization I needed an additional software package to deal with the VTS and ISO files generated by the DVD authoring process. I've been very happy with the AVS video editing software but didn't understand I needed an additional package to re-use the DVD files generated during the original authoring process. Yesterday while exploring the AVS website I found a question amid their "help" pages that clarified the problem and, after a quick download, provided the solution. I can now retrieve and re-burn previously generated DVD projects. The process of technical/digital self learning is unreal. Paul Jones, our latest apprentice mechanic to finish his training at MMS and an extremely talented videographer, describes the process of teaching yourself video/audio editing as "months of nauseating discomfort and frustration punctuated by a few moments of joyful creativity." I can relate.

I don't intend working with the new microphone, or venturing into an additional audio editing software package, until AFTER I have the GroundCrew finished. Amen? Amen!

At home, we're also working on our personal newsletter, Coshocton Flyer. Our goal is to have that in the mail before the end of this month.

Have a great week. Thanks for your prayers and your gifts which enable us to serve. There's so much going on at MMS right now it's crazy. Heavy restoration and reconstruction of airplanes. Heavy restoration and reconstruction of missionaries into Christ-likeness. Paul finishing apprenticeship. Ben & Caroline moving in from Missouri to start apprenticeship. Stay tuned. Be checking your mail box. Hard copy newsletters will be headed your way soon.

God's blessings upon you!

More Rain, Snow(?), and Video

I'd rather have 50 degrees and rain (like right now) instead of 32 degrees and rain which is more typical of our Coshocton winter. It does appear we're transitioning into spring though a snowy mix is predicted for tomorrow. The crocus and daffodil bulbs are starting to break ground and we are experiencing more rain than snow. We even had our first real thunderstorm earlier in the week.

We're also having our usual late winter/early spring flooding of low-lying areas. At this point, there's no threat to most of the county beyond the inconvenience of some rural roads being closed and flood-plain farmland getting wet. The Walhonding, Tuscarawas, and Muskingum rivers are all above their banks in various spots.

On the video front, I've made another attempt at narrating a video clip. The learning curve continues as I know nothing about recording audio beyond 1)you have to speak into a microphone and 2)I'd like a higher quality recording than is on the clip below. I did purchase a microphone specifically designed for recording through a computer (and a "pop" filter) which should arrive sometime next week.

I'm also researching and trying out various DVD authoring freeware in order to put the MMS videos on DVD's anyone can watch or share. The commercial software I used to use isn't compatible with Windows 7. I've had some luck with video production freeware before but so far am finding the DVD authoring choices to be either too limited in options but simple to operate, or very manual and rather complex to work with operational glitches. I won't go into all the details because I'm not that much of a geek...I just know what I'm looking for and haven't found it yet. There's got to be a happy medium somewhere. I'm not adverse to buying a commercial package, I just want to find the best package for the best value. I have my eye on a couple "free trial" downloads for the next level of exploration.

Besides, next week I need to be totally focused on writing, assembling, and editing the MMS April GroundCrew newsletter.

But all that to say here's the latest video from the MMS Aviation Video Production Department--(you may need to turn your volume up to understand what I'm saying and no, I wasn't standing in a box when I made the recording...)