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Quite Literally!  I have video taped the turning of pages of my journals (using a tripod overhead, camera aimed straight down and set to manual focus) and uploaded these videos to a private Youtube channel.  Safe, maybe forever?  Even so, I then downloaded the compressed video file from Youtube so I could have it on my own server at home.  It's so much quicker than scanning!  So much easier. It takes as much time to turn the pages, wait a split second, and then turn again. It can be paused if you want to read it, because it was recorded in HD 1080P, and can be viewed on a TV! as a movie. Just pause to read. It's clear as can be... and much easier to access than a bunch of hi-res scanned JPG files, one for each page. So unmanageable that way!  Video is best in this case.

Grant and Christa Johnson, a Family History Video Collection


​Jaylene and Jeff's

Wedding pics
and
Video
Sept. 7, 2014. The Electric Motor Scooter FUN in FuXin China 骑电动车在阜新市 1st Day of Scooter Riding in China  
​​Electric Motor Scooters in China, the CRAZE!!! 
ZIPPING in and out of very tight spaces, avoiding pedestrian and slow bike conflicts while sharing the same lane, jamming brakes to avoid hitting the taxi that just dived in front of you to make a right turn. OH YEAH! 
what a challenge. what an adventure.

The MOTOR SCOOTER is common in China, and we succumbed to the peter piper like call to get on this bandwagon of getting around, crazy as it may seem / is, we did it! I drove all over the city with my wife today. Looking around!
Uh, that's not my wife on the back of that, little Audrey my daughter actually, but Christa did ride and took all the video and pics while riding, and I made the movie of our first adventure.

Let me tell you how it felt. CRAZY. 

But what a FUN ride. Nerve racking yes, but fun, and safer than most sports no matter what they tell you.

Now I am an experienced motorcycle rider, I have owned several, have crashed a few, dumped a few, and know the perils of all this. And how much it hurt once! Fortunately, these things don't go too fast (around 30 mph tops), but its fast enough. The scariest thing is that, there are NO RULES on the road (so it seems), so you have to pay attention, stay alert (that's not hard, ha), and be ready to stop at the blink of an eye. I am.
So, I am sitting at a RED LIGHT waiting for the green light. No cars are going through intersection on the side street, yet they have a green light (fixed time!), but these electric bikes are passing me and going through a red light. They are breaking the "law" and going through the red light, just buzzing past me like they have a green light. Bicycles too. And peds too. No one not driving a car seems to care about that traffic light, probably because only the CARS will get a ticket if they go through on a red. So all the cars are waiting for the green.
And so am I.

But after a while, I look around, I see no cars, and well, I creep on through too, pull back the throttle and zip on through, on my way. I just ran a red light? I am not sure how it works around here. I am beginning to think that they (peds and bikes) can brave things on their own and there is no penalty for them? (I will have to check on that). But I always wanted to do that in America, but you see, in America there are cops that hang out sometimes at an intersection to NAB people for the slightest infraction, even a 1 mph "rolling stop" on a right turn at an intersection. And it costs you 300 bucks, and a mark on your insurance. Such nonsense. I always thought that was a bogus use of police or highway patrol authority.
They don't do that over here, they don't have that over here. The cops are busy catching real criminals I guess. I also never saw a donut shop so definitely things are run differently over here, and that's not to say one is better than the other. I seriously doubt my ability to judge that one way or another. I just don't know excel what I see directly on the road here. I have YET to see ANYone get pulled over in a car to get a ticket. The red light cameras seem to be their only enforcement of traffic rules. So, pay attention when you drive.
Also, no one has to wear a helmut over here. So none do. I kind of like that, as I always disdained the USA helmut laws too, for that, to me, takes away the very exhilarating experience of riding a bike or a motorcycle for fun, to have a hot sweaty helmut all over your head and face. The accident rate over here doesn't seem any different than what is in the USA. I don't think all of the extra laws and restrictions in the USA are helpful at all. Its an illusion that has yet to be proven.
May 25, 2014.  Talk in Church in China  

Our son Adam was called by Bro. Lainhart of the CCID* Branch Presidency to give a talk on what he is doing to prepare for the Priesthood (he will be turning 12 soon and will receive the Aaronic Priesthood by the laying on of hands, by authority, by those who already hold the priesthood and can by authority confer it to another).  

​Adam first wrote his talk completely by himself.  I say this, because some might think that he just read what was given to him...  

​*CCID=Central China International District
​No, he actually composed the whole thing on Word by himself, printed it, and then gave his talk on a polycom teleconference system broadcast to dozens of homes across China tuned in by Skype or phone to the Sacrament meeting held for foreigners in English, in China, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.  That's the way church is done in China for foreigners of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints because of the great distance between each other and the inability to meet together.  If you can get a group of say, 10 or 15 or more, then you can meet together but still call in.  If you are at say 50 or more, they probably make a unique branch for you and you do not call in.

Pioneer Trek Reenactment 1: Come, Come Ye Saints

August of 2012: Pioneer Trek Reenactment, Carmichael Stake. Grant and Christa and Katelyn and Jaylene all went. Jaylene had to go home early.  Grant and Christa were the videographers and made the whole Trek, and also filmed everything. Here is one scene of particularly hard passages and hardship, put to the music of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Come, Come Ye Saints.  This is music specifically written on the trail by a pioneer about these very kind of treks of pioneers in church history mid-1800's.  
trek portion of video shot by Grant Johnson and Christa Johnson under hot, dusty, steep terrain, and otherwise very difficult circumstances. One video camera was ruined on this trip, as too much dust got into the tape mechanism and froze the camera up. It was a $1500 camera.  Its tought out there on the trail!

Pioneer Trek Reenactment 2: Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel

August of 2012: Pioneer Trek Reenactment, Carmichael Stake. Grant and Christa and Katelyn and Jaylene all went. Jaylene had to go home early.  Grant and Christa were the videographers and made the whole Trek, and also filmed everything. Here is one scene about pushing and pulling hand carts on a real pioneer trail... put to the music of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, music written about these very kind of treks of pioneers in church history mid-1800's.  
video shot by Grant Johnson and Christa Johnson under hot, dusty, steep terrain, and otherwise very difficult circumstances. One video camera was ruined on this trip, as too much dust got into the tape mechanism and froze the camera up. It was a $1500 camera.  Its tought out there on the trail!
May 8, 2012.  Baseball!  

This video is of one of Grant and Christa's Grandsons:

JOSEPH TELFORD

in a little league highlight reel of some of his better moments of the evening.

Video taken at Rancho Cordova, CA.
April 24, 2012.  Anniversary.  
31 Years Married. Taken at the 4136 Brookhill Drive home in Fair Oaks, CA.  
​Grant: "I teamed with my kids to pull off a surprise anniversary dinner in our backyard and the kids were the restaurant servants.  I know its strange, but I did grab my video camera to capture some of the moments, and weaved it into this video.  We had a two hour night together and the kids joined us later on and had some of the food too. It was a wonderful event.  I especially noticed how the kids were acting when Christa and I were dancing together to the music playing in the backyard. They were a combination of being touched and bashful at the same time. Watch for it, it was very cute to see that."
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