EDDIE DANIELS – Well, it’s been a few months since our last WJTL kitchen mystery and this one is a doozy.

I got in this morning around 6am and, as I put my lunch in the refrigerator, I noticed an unidentified bag of random mystery snacks. Here’s what was in the bag:

• 1 Dr. Pepper
• 1 half-full bottle of Arnold Palmer half-tea/half-lemonade
• 1 Starbucks frappuccino
• 1 box of peanut M&Ms
• 1 box of Swedish Fish
• 1 bag of chocolate Chanukah coins

To say that we are stumped is a major understatement. Kristi and I must have hypothesized for a good 10 minutes. Ann suggested we test the partially-consumed tea/lemonade for DNA. Was it someone on the air over the weekend? At first I thought it may have been Lisa Landis, but if you know Lisa you know she’d never get caught with so many sugary treats. I thought it may have been Ashlea, who was in on Saturday, but she usually keeps her snacks stashed upstairs in her desk.

So again, I turn to you, WJTL blog-reader. I’d love to hear your theories. Where did the food come from? Who brought it? Why was it left here? Who keeps candy in the fridge? And, most importantly, how long do I have to let it sit there before I crack open the M&Ms?

EDDIE DANIELS – Congratulations to Aden Jackson of New Providence PA! Aden’s video was chosen as the winner of WJTL’s Sing Yourself Silly Contest. Aden picked up 30 (count ‘em…30!) Veggie Tales DVDs! Congrats Aden and everyone else who submitted an entry! 

Here’s a look at some of the entries we got for the Veggie Tales Sing Yourself Silly Contest. Thanks to everyone who entered! We had a blast watching your videos! CLICK HERE to see the winning video!

EDDIE DANIELS – Way back in 2008, there was a conference held in Camp Hill, PA called Freefall. Chris Strayer asked me to make a video to show on the big screen before the conference started. When I asked him what he wanted, he said, “Whatever. Just some sort of countdown to the conference beginning.”

Hm. A 15-minute countdown to the start of the conference. I didn’t want to just do a generic clock counting backward. That was too simple. Why don’t we do a parody of the TV show 24, where it’s a race against the clock to find Chris, the conference’s emcee who’s gone missing.

OK, so we don’t have any budget at all (let alone the connections to get Kiefer to make a cameo appearance), but we don’t need explosions or guns. We’ll use cookies instead. And why go for an elaborate car chase when we can just sit in a stationary car and shake the camera? And who needs Kiefer when I have the entire gang from WJTL as cast members?

The ironic thing is, it only ended up being 13 minutes long so ours isn’t entirely in real time. Oh well. After the conference, we couldn’t upload the video to share with everyone else on YouTube because videos had to be less than 10 minutes long in order to be uploaded It looked like our goofy short film would forever  be destined to be a long-lost file on my hard drive.

Until this weekend.

YouTube upped the video length to 15 minutes and this goofy little project can once again see the light of day. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. :) Which WJTL-ers can you identify?

Eddie Daniels, Video Guy
eddie@wjtl.com

EDDIE DANIELS – A police officer shut down an impromptu concert by Switchfoot front man Jon Foreman Sunday night. According to CNN, Foreman posted on his Twitter account that the officer “forcefully” removed him from the aftershow attended by group of fans outside a Tampa amphitheatre.
The crowd showed up when Foreman tweeted to fans, asking them to meet him after the show.
Video of the incident shows Foreman playing a couple of songs on an acoustic guitar with a collection of fans around him when the officer walks up and says “It’s over. It’s over. C’mon, let’s go.”
When Foreman hesitated to leave, the officer said, “If I call somebody over here, we will be forcing you out. So what do you want to do?”
Foreman offered his hand, which the officer shook, and escorted him away.
CNN contacted Tampa police, but a spokesman said he was not aware of an incident.

Comments? Reactions?

I’ll be honest: A policeman only has to tell me once to get going and my guitar is packed and I’m on my way. As much as I hate to see a good time cut short, I’m too much of a wimp to push my luck over one more song. My fans might be disappointed, but at least I’m not in jail. :)

Eddie Daniels, Video Guy
eddie@wjtl.com

EDDIE DANIELS – A couple of weeks ago, I posted a blog about being at Creation 2010 and the different ways artists greeted us. I promised video evidence of who-greets-how and, well, here’s what we came away with:

Eddie Daniels, Video Guy
eddie@wjtl.com

EDDIE DANIELS – As I’m nearing the end of my video footage from Creation 2010, I couldn’t help but notice the four primary ways artists greet Kristi, Ashlea, and I when they enter the WJTL trailer for their interview. Sometimes it’s a simple “hi” or “hello”, sometimes a polite handshake. Some people greet everyone with a friendly hug and some opt for the high five. Collectively, they are the Four H’s (not to be confused with the high school agriculture club).

I am considering compiling a video of the Four H’s and keeping a running count of how many of each we get.

I’m wondering what your predictions are. Which H will have the highest count? The lowest? Which artist practices which greeting? Will the high fives outnumber the handshakes?

I’ll post the video here in the near future with the results.

Eddie Daniels, Video Guy
eddie@wjtl.com

*UPDATE 8/9/2010: Here are the results!

EDDIE DANIELS – Yesterday I posted a blog about a mystery food lurking in the WJTL refrigerator. Without any evidence, I went ahead and accused Lisa Landis as being the culprit who left the baggie of UFO (Unidentified Food Object) and it turns out I was correct. Eat your heart out, Gwenda Gumshoe!

In a comment left on the blog, Lisa confessed to leaving them in the fridge and identified them as sugar plums.

Seriously? Sugar plums?

They exist?

I’ve never seen a real-life sugar plum. Actually, I’ve never seen a photo of one. Or a drawing, even. The only time I’ve ever heard of them is in the Christmas poem where the kids have “visions of sugar plums” dancing in their heads. But in all the books I used to see this poem in, the accompanying drawing reveals the kids are actually dreaming of candy canes.

So now I’m left with even more questions that I’m too lazy to Google on my own. Are sugar plums a natural food, or are they sweetened and man-made, like candied apples? Do you just eat them with your fingers? Do they have pits? Are they actually plums, or do they just happen to have plums in their name?

I’ll be honest, seeing as how this was my first encounter with sugar plums, it may have ruined me on them even before I’ve had the opportunity to taste them. Sorry sugar plums. I’m prejudiced against you now.

Lisa said I could throw away the sugar plums. So I did.

Eddie Daniels, Video Guy
eddie@wjtl.com

EDDIE DANIELS – It’s probably wrong of me to assume it was Lisa Landis who left this mystery food in the WJTL refrigerator. But since she’s on vacation this week and not here to defend herself, I’m going to do it anyhow.

Lisa is my prime suspect mostly because she has a history of bringing in random food items such as the one(s) pictured below. The only other person who uses the fridge on a regular basis is John, but he’s very good at making his usual sandwich, banana, and yogurt disappear during the lunch hour.

But my biggest concern isn’t who left these weird deep-red mystery items in an unsealed plastic bag. My concern is what are they? I haven’t bothered to smell them because I’m not that brave. They appear to be small plums. Or large cherries. Or beets. Or something else I haven’t thought of.

I’m also not sure why they are all three in different stages of decay. One seems perfectly round, one looks a little bruised, and the third looks downright smooshed.

Have a look. What do you think they are?

Eddie Daniels, Video Guy
eddie@wjtl.com

Jul 27 2010 – READ THE UPDATE ON THE MYSTERY FOOD HERE!