Wonderment - In Perspective

There are five basic food groups that our body needs, I should look those up some day. Similarly, there are some basic groups that the soul needs and  I'm going to give some thoughts on the "wonder" group. Wonder - to be filled with admiration, amazement, or awe; marvel.

There is a memory from my childhood that definitely left an impression, my earliest memory of wonderment. I want to say I was about 4 or 5 years old  and my parents took us shopping at Christmas time. The mall or store we were at had Christmas lights and they seemed larger than life to me, almost  like I was seeing a new dimension. While I'm sure my parents had no idea what I was experiencing, I was filled with amazement, and it made me  wonder what more I had yet to experience.

The picture you are looking at is real, captured by the Hubble Telescope. It speaks of God's wonders. We are to behold His wonders and be amazed!

Psalm 40:5 - Many, LORD my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and  tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare.

The mistake I often make is getting caught up with trying to create something wonderful rather than just behold it. While we are to work and pursue  things that are part of His plan, the reality is we contribute very little and in the end, behold something that is a lot bigger than us. Even Walt Disney  kept it in perspective. "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down  new paths."

My conclusion is that I'm happiest when I am beholding wonderment than trying to create it.

Dream #2 - Disney by the Numbers

If you're standing in line to board Space Mountain are you watching the passengers boarding ahead of you or are you looking behind the glass booth trying to figure out what those employees are doing? If the latter you will probably identify with Tony Caselnova, owner of Disney By The Numbers. "I took my first trip to Disney when I was 13 and became completely fascinated with how things operated." This fascination led to Tony taking a job at Epcot in 1995. By working security, Tony got a close up view of how things worked. Now he's taking those experiences and bringing Disney to us 'by the numbers'.

Let's test your Disney trivia knowledge. What is the length of Rapunzel's hair in the movie Tangled? What was the cost to purchase the 27,258 acres of WDW? How many Oscars has the Walt Disney Company won? All of these questions and thousands more are answered at Disney By The Numbers.

For the avid Disney aficionado, Disney By The Numb3rs is a reliable news outlet on the front lines, providing daily coverage of the most current news and analyses about the Walt Disney Company, from its parks, to its films and to its corporate activities. Tony likes to know all the crazy, odd and interesting facts about Disney. The more odd or interesting the better. Besides containing thousands of facts about Disney, Disney By The Numbers also contains videos, photos and much more. The blog on the website is updated most every day.

Two men who have influenced Tony are Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Both started in humble garages and eventually built empires that have defined the world of computers. Walt has also been a personal hero for Tony who has visited the parks every year since he was 13. To Tony WDW is simply the only vacation spot on earth!

Tony also has a Disney By the Numbers book and iphone application in the works. He also has some custom designed Disney themed pins that can be pre-ordered at his site.

If you need your fix of Disney trivia check out Disney By The Numbers. You can also follow the latest DBTN news at Twitter, Facebook and Facebook Group pages.

Check out the live interview with Tony (episode 9) and all the Dreamers Empire Podcasts at the itunes web site

Exodus: Gods and Kings

Given I have written a version of this story I planned on seeing it regardless of my hesitation. I read the reviews and guess I went with very low expectations because I liked it more than I thought I would. Yeah, I had issues with the story but I want to give the film some credit.

I was almost an hour into the film and kept thinking, I'm enjoying this! The major reason I believe is because I've wrestled with trying to tell the story too, so I was looking for all of the elements of Moses life that they were trying to capture. They were there, albeit wrong in a few ways, I didn't feel like they were trying to reinvent Moses in some flagrant liberal message. So I'm thinking at that point "Try to remember when you stop enjoying this film." A lot of the enjoyment started subsiding shortly after that point, about when the plagues started, but I didn't leave feeling crappy.

First I have to contrast this with "Noah". That movie was never fun and I didn't like anything about it except perhaps Russell Crowe, a little. I like Christian Bale, he is a thoughtful actor who manages to evoke the emotions behind the kind of struggle a man like Moses must have gone through. I didn't care for the representation of God and I didn't think the relationship between Moses and God was the way we wanted to see it. I liked the way Moses defended what Israel meant, those who wrestle with God.

The biggest take away I wanted from that film was, is this the kind of movie that is dangerous, and I think its dangerous ground, so I'm trying to be careful. At one point I thought they might be trying to present an Oprah like "this is what I don't like about the Bible" message. That seemed to come and go, so while I'm not 100% sure what the writers, director were thinking, I don't think they nailed down that message. It seemed to me in the end they had it resolved OK.

All that said, this didn't come remotely close to the grand epic classic done by Cecil B Demil, and if you live in Minneapolis you can see it on April 1st, 2015 at the Heights Theater.

Story of this Poster

The story of how I ended up with this movie poster is pretty cool. I had this idea for my modern day Ten Commandments in 1992 but just formulated the idea for well over a decade. I had envisioned what I wanted for a poster and had done some business with an amazing graphic artist, Fuchsia McInerney. For grins I sent her out an email asking what she'd charge to do one up. I was expecting a price that I couldn't afford. I had gone out that night and when I returned home I had a reply from her. I was kind of excited to hear the quote, but to my surprise, the email had an attachment! She had already done it, for free! After seeing the poster, it was one of those dreamers moments where you think, maybe. I loved it, and was greatly humbled by her generosity.

I have often wondered why people who see it don't ask me more about it. In particular, the reflection of a mountain in the building, but its not in the water reflection. Suffice it to say, its perhaps the most important scene in the movie.

I've got these tickets that I'll be selling in a Kickstarter campaign for $5. They are promisary tickets that should my film ever be made, I will exchange it for a real ticket. I've got some to hand out, so if you want one all I ask is you share this page or post on your Facebook page or twitter account, and I will send you one along with my story.

Thanks..

Dream #1 - Dreamers Empire

When I was a kid, maybe around 9 or 10 years old, I saw a cartoon of Goofy driving a car at Disneyland. Unlike the actual ride, it appeared to me  he was driving all through out the magical park. I was in a state of awed admiration, or wonderment. I asked my mom if we could go there some day  and I think she said maybe, which I decided meant yes. Indeed, in 1974 my family piled into our Pontiac Catalina and drove to California. Besides  getting car sick I have a ton of great memories from that trip. We stayed at a hotel in Reno that cost like $20 and breakfast was a couple bucks  at most, and we loved it. We swam in small hotel pools, played pinball machines, flew in my moms uncles plane over Los Angeles, saw Hearst castle,  but the highlight was Disneyland. Those cars btw, not quite what I had imagined. However, my dad was really impressed with Disneyland and I loved  that he felt that. At the end of the day we had 3 extra E tickets and not only did my parents allow us to ride Pirates of the Carribean one more  time, but they let me navigate my brother and sister there, through the park, on our own. This has to be the peek of wonderment in my childhood.

Having a company name like Dreamers Empire is a little tough to explain when your trying to pitch a distance tracking web site to a health care  company. I don't care, I love the name and I'm keeping it. And 40 years after that first trip to Disneyland I still love to wonder. I like to think about ideas and imagine working for myself. I enjoy looking back at the  visions of great folks like Walt and others who built great attractions at the Worlds Fairs. I enjoy the amazing architecture you see springing  up in Dubai and modern trains in China. I also enjoy talking to folks who are chasing a dream.

The purpose of this blog is to follow the pursuits of dreamers. I'm interviewing folks and discussing the highs and lows of pursuing a dream and what they've learned on their journey. The focus of the interview is what I call 'The  Dreamers Moment'. That moment is something that happens during the journey that feels magical. It makes you feel like you are on the  right trail, your pursuit is working out or you just experience something amazing. So while I'm chasing my dreams I'm going to continue interviewing other dreamers  and I hope to capture that sense of wonderment that inspires folks to keep dreaming.