So...One more semester is done with! That leaves only....five more...woo. But at any rate, this was the best semester by far. I started with my music classes, and that was fun. Well, theory wasn't fun...theory was boring as all get out. But Piano, Voice, and Hymnplaying were fun. I also had Circuits, which made me feel like such a nerd. In the labs, I would just build a simple circuit with a light bulb or something, and be sitting there dimming the light going "Woah! this is so cool!!!" and then hoping no one was watching me get so much enjoyment out of such simple stuff. If I were to walk outside and randomly find a couple grand sitting placed on the ground, arranged in a pattern that spelled out "for John," I would seriously consider buying myself a little home circuits lab lol. And then the other class that made me feel like a nerd was Complex Variables, because even though it was hard, I loved it. It showed how all of math fits together in such an intricate way. I never thought I'd be able to see a few numbers show the glory of God, but hey, math just works way too well to be the product of man. And that is as far as my nerditude will reveal itself for today. New topic please.
Did anyone else see the lunar eclipse last night? It was incredible. I love looking at the sky, and that being the first total lunar eclipse on a full moon in 362 years, I thought that was pretty awesome. Makes me want to rerecord Night Sky and do a good job on it this time lol. And speaking of recording, I finally get to record the song I wrote at like the beginning of this semester, now that I'm back home. I tried to do it at school, but not only did I not have a lot of time to work on it, but also, those practice rooms were made for the opposite of recording things in. The most definitely were not meant to record pianos in. Then again, even if they were made for that, a certain nameless person at school had a habit of breaking the pianos anyway, which made it impossible to play on them.
Does anyone want to hear about my roommates? I roomed with a guy I've been friends with for forever, and then a freshman Indonesian and a Japanese PCA student. I kept a quote book for funny things they said because they were either bad at English or just said things funny for no reason. One of my favorites was "So I just realize Janet Jackson is not a man." It wouldn't have been nearly as funny if it had been on-topic.
Enough about my roommates. I made lots of good friends this semester. I met quite a few new people now that I had some music classes, and several more new people now that I'm having electrical classes. And then other people I already knew, but became good friends with just because. It's been a great semester of making friends and growing closer to God, and it's been chalked full of new experiences. I almost felt like a freshman again, but in a good way, without the feeling of "what the heck is going on?" (well, no more of that than is normal for me to feel anyway lol).
One last topic. I'm done typing. End of topic. Goodbye.
Oh nose!!
Post number 40! The number of judgment! Be afraid! Ok, just kidding. I haven't updated in a while...not that you needed me to tell me that. most of you reading this are probably quite aware of this. Unless you've just joined us with this particular post. In which case, let's all take a moment to welcome our guests and newcomers. (*waits for people to applaud, then remembers the internet doesn't actually have hands*).
Our first order of business is to say the following: school is going pretty well! Except for one class that really holds no bearing on my life whatsoever anyway, I'm doing great, and totally understand everything that's going on, despite the fact that I can't understand half the words that one of my teachers says. But that's not her fault...she just has a Chinese accent. So it's actually REALLY funny most of the time! And, the most exciting part of all is that we only have two weeks left!
Second order of business: the Christmas lights concert was tonight! Well, last night, by the time I finish typing this. It was great. I love Christmas. I really don't know how to expound on that. Just that I love Christmas. It's by far my favorite holiday. I love Christmas too much for it to be an order of business. So who'd like to motion that the meeting be adjourned? (*remembers the internet doesn't have hands again*) Oh yeah, ok, well then um...meeting adjourned...motioned and seconded by me....Ok there we go. Now I can continue. Christmas is the only holiday that can make me happy just by existing! Yay for Christmas!
I'm assuming I've made my point about Christmas by now. So I've been thinking a lot lately just about the sheer power of God, and honestly, it just doesn't stop amazing me. They touched on it in chapel the other day with a cool video, but I'd been thinking about it for a while, so it was a well-timed video lol. I just can't help but marvel at the kind of power God has if the Bible can say, just sort of "in passing" that "he made the stars also." I did the math on this, and our sun alone generates about 27 trillion times the amount of power that we use worldwide. That's 384 septillion watts. Scientists estimate there are about 300 sextillion stars in the universe, and that our sun is pretty average for a star. Put it together and these stars generate 1.15*10^47 watts of power. Just to get an idea of how big that number is, imagine you had that many playing cards. Stacked on top of each other, they would reach from earth to our nearest star (at 4.22 light years away) and back 360 septillion times. For another idea of scale, imagine those same playing cards, this time stacked in layers all over the earth so that there is no spaced between any of the cards. This many cards not only could make a sphere that stretches to the sun, but could do it nearly 12 million times. Now, as far as we have been able to estimate, that many watts of power is emitted from the stars in the universe. And the Bible says "he made the stars also." As if it were almost sort of an afterthought, like it wasn't really that big a deal to God. I don't know about you, but I just can't get it out of my head how indescribably amazing our Creator must be to have the kind of power to create all of those stars in one day with nothing more than His spoken word. A lot of people may try to explain it away with the Big Bang Theory, or something similar. But why would anyone choose to believe that that kind of power emanated from a random explosion that happened without plausible cause, instead of a God who has control over everything? And then to think a God that unimaginably powerful loved us enough that He came to earth as a man to give His life just so that we could live with Him, when he could have had no problem just destroying us and making a new creation that wouldn't sin....why in the world would we not want to serve Him?
Well, it's late, and that's the little tidbit that's been on my mind lately. Did I mention this has been like the best semester of school ever? Don't get me wrong, deciding to be an electrical engineer with a piano minor has NOT made things easy, but I'm loving every minute of it. Well, I must leave you. I'm waving now, so wave back! (*waits*) (*hears crickets*) (*remembers once again that the internet has no hands*) Oh yeah.....ok.....well bye then!
Our first order of business is to say the following: school is going pretty well! Except for one class that really holds no bearing on my life whatsoever anyway, I'm doing great, and totally understand everything that's going on, despite the fact that I can't understand half the words that one of my teachers says. But that's not her fault...she just has a Chinese accent. So it's actually REALLY funny most of the time! And, the most exciting part of all is that we only have two weeks left!
Second order of business: the Christmas lights concert was tonight! Well, last night, by the time I finish typing this. It was great. I love Christmas. I really don't know how to expound on that. Just that I love Christmas. It's by far my favorite holiday. I love Christmas too much for it to be an order of business. So who'd like to motion that the meeting be adjourned? (*remembers the internet doesn't have hands again*) Oh yeah, ok, well then um...meeting adjourned...motioned and seconded by me....Ok there we go. Now I can continue. Christmas is the only holiday that can make me happy just by existing! Yay for Christmas!
I'm assuming I've made my point about Christmas by now. So I've been thinking a lot lately just about the sheer power of God, and honestly, it just doesn't stop amazing me. They touched on it in chapel the other day with a cool video, but I'd been thinking about it for a while, so it was a well-timed video lol. I just can't help but marvel at the kind of power God has if the Bible can say, just sort of "in passing" that "he made the stars also." I did the math on this, and our sun alone generates about 27 trillion times the amount of power that we use worldwide. That's 384 septillion watts. Scientists estimate there are about 300 sextillion stars in the universe, and that our sun is pretty average for a star. Put it together and these stars generate 1.15*10^47 watts of power. Just to get an idea of how big that number is, imagine you had that many playing cards. Stacked on top of each other, they would reach from earth to our nearest star (at 4.22 light years away) and back 360 septillion times. For another idea of scale, imagine those same playing cards, this time stacked in layers all over the earth so that there is no spaced between any of the cards. This many cards not only could make a sphere that stretches to the sun, but could do it nearly 12 million times. Now, as far as we have been able to estimate, that many watts of power is emitted from the stars in the universe. And the Bible says "he made the stars also." As if it were almost sort of an afterthought, like it wasn't really that big a deal to God. I don't know about you, but I just can't get it out of my head how indescribably amazing our Creator must be to have the kind of power to create all of those stars in one day with nothing more than His spoken word. A lot of people may try to explain it away with the Big Bang Theory, or something similar. But why would anyone choose to believe that that kind of power emanated from a random explosion that happened without plausible cause, instead of a God who has control over everything? And then to think a God that unimaginably powerful loved us enough that He came to earth as a man to give His life just so that we could live with Him, when he could have had no problem just destroying us and making a new creation that wouldn't sin....why in the world would we not want to serve Him?
Well, it's late, and that's the little tidbit that's been on my mind lately. Did I mention this has been like the best semester of school ever? Don't get me wrong, deciding to be an electrical engineer with a piano minor has NOT made things easy, but I'm loving every minute of it. Well, I must leave you. I'm waving now, so wave back! (*waits*) (*hears crickets*) (*remembers once again that the internet has no hands*) Oh yeah.....ok.....well bye then!
Ah-ah-ah-ah Stayin Alive!
Ok, So in case any of you wondered, no, I did NOT fall off the face of the earth. Partly because gravity currently makes that impossible. School has been really hectic this year, but I'm halfway through! Not sure if I mentioned this in my last post or not, but I wrote a new song. I really like it, and maybe if I ever get a chance to record it, you will too! Or I could torture you and make you wait until I release my CD to hear it. Muhaha.
So...where to start? My short term memory problem makes it really hard to keep things straight right now lol. We're halfway through midterms, which so far are going pretty well. We also had a paper due in the middle of midterms, which I wasn't too incredibly thrilled about, but God helped me get it done on time (even if it did mean skipping my voice class. Not like I really wanted to go and listen to people sing for an hour though). The paper ended up being six pages, and I hadn't had time to start on it earlier, so I pretty much did it all last week. But What took more time than writing it was getting all the resources. I had a two page bibliography. And I, for once, didn't use a single internet source. It was like a word study kind of thing for Bible class. I did mine on the passage of Zacchaeus. The title? "Christ Loves Short People." Don't lie; you know you like it.
So tomorrow, I should be going with my sis and bro-in-law to find some costumes. I said we should do Phineas and Ferb....but "Ferb" wants to be able to wear our costumes to church. That's no fun. I was looking forward to seeing him try to walk around in enormous purple pants. I also wanted to make myself a giant triangular head....I could even stick a periscope in it so I could see out the eyes! But...oh well...we'll see what Goodwill has lol.
We only have one soccer game left. I don't want to talk about that.
I keep having dreams involving ninjas. or things similar to ninjas. I think this having a Japanese roommate thing is getting to me. He doesn't even look like a ninja though! I can see his face and everything! Oh well. I think I will remedy that by eating the chips I got from firehouse and then playing piano for a while. Because that makes sense.
Until next time, remember to never underestimate the power of underestimation!
Week Number Uno!
So I got to the Camp a week ago, feeling like I was virtually starting over (which makes sense, since I'm in several freshman classes). I got put in a room with one of my good friends, and two international students. There were a few bumps in the road to registering. I had no time to do it when I got there, because even though it's all online, I kept getting an error saying I didn't meet the prerequisite for what would have been my freshman electrical engineering class that I was told last semester I HAD to take. The problem was that I did meet the qualifications, so there shouldn't have been a problem. I wasn't able to see my advisors until Tuesday to get it all worked out, so I just filled out a form and hoped it would be resolved before then.
So I went ahead and started my job on Monday. Easy job...anyone who can count to 10 can do it. It just makes it that much better because I don't even have to be awake, really! I was supposed to work 8 hours, but got off an hour early because we had already finished all the available work. I thought, "Perfect! Now I have an hour to go see my advisor and get these registration errors taken care of!" Right before I went, I checked my email, and got a message saying that there in fact was no need for me to take that class because the material had been covered in other classes I've taken, (which is what I had been saying all along) and I would therefore not even be allowed to register the class at all. Stuck a Literature class in its place, and now I'm good. Except for the papers I'll have to write.....
I wasn't able to buy books until Tuesday, and I ended up finding some deals with various people (I'm renting some books from one person in exchange for packs of gum...how awesome is that???), and the price of my books dropped from almost $800 to $220! That felt like God saying "Yup, this is what I want you to do. I'll make it work" Then the preacher brought a message that night that in a way seemed to verify that again. He talked about having harmony amongst ourselves, and not getting worked up about one person having some minor belief or standard that you don't agree with. Then he turned that into an application for the students who felt that coming to the Bubble was what God was calling them to do. Just because we may not like certain rules, that's really not a good excuse to leave the will of God. Then it all clicked in retrospect. That answered why it was so hard to register with other colleges. I can't explain how, but it answered so many more questions I had ever since I decided to forego registering with UWF. I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt God wants me to finish out here. What He plans for me to do with the degree I get out of this, I still don't know, but at least I can rest assured I have another 3 years here.....which should be more fun than it sounds lol.
Classes started Wednesday and all has gone well since then. I've spent the last few nights hanging out with ex-CCA peeps. I've had a blast with them. Greek Rush was last night, and our collegiate (the Cougars!) was doing the theme "Overcoming Obstacles." Mamoo and Topher built a little obstacle course on a trailer, and it turned out great. The trailer was carried by several of the guys (wearing the awesome new jerseys), and I was one of the guys selected to run the obstacle course during the parade (since I'm possibly the lightest guy on campus haha) It was a lot of fun, and I was sad that it had to end; but I did feel kinda bad for the guys carrying the trailer, cuz they were exhausted at the end lol. I'll post sometime in the near future and show you how amazing our soccer uniforms look this year! We have our first game on Friday night.
Well, that was a lot of writing. If you read this far, you deserve a prize. I'm a poor college student, so I won't give you one now, but just take comfort in the fact that you deserve one. Soon I'm going to rule the world, and then I will give you all your prizes. They might include little Ninja figurines. Or tacos. People like tacos.
So I went ahead and started my job on Monday. Easy job...anyone who can count to 10 can do it. It just makes it that much better because I don't even have to be awake, really! I was supposed to work 8 hours, but got off an hour early because we had already finished all the available work. I thought, "Perfect! Now I have an hour to go see my advisor and get these registration errors taken care of!" Right before I went, I checked my email, and got a message saying that there in fact was no need for me to take that class because the material had been covered in other classes I've taken, (which is what I had been saying all along) and I would therefore not even be allowed to register the class at all. Stuck a Literature class in its place, and now I'm good. Except for the papers I'll have to write.....
I wasn't able to buy books until Tuesday, and I ended up finding some deals with various people (I'm renting some books from one person in exchange for packs of gum...how awesome is that???), and the price of my books dropped from almost $800 to $220! That felt like God saying "Yup, this is what I want you to do. I'll make it work" Then the preacher brought a message that night that in a way seemed to verify that again. He talked about having harmony amongst ourselves, and not getting worked up about one person having some minor belief or standard that you don't agree with. Then he turned that into an application for the students who felt that coming to the Bubble was what God was calling them to do. Just because we may not like certain rules, that's really not a good excuse to leave the will of God. Then it all clicked in retrospect. That answered why it was so hard to register with other colleges. I can't explain how, but it answered so many more questions I had ever since I decided to forego registering with UWF. I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt God wants me to finish out here. What He plans for me to do with the degree I get out of this, I still don't know, but at least I can rest assured I have another 3 years here.....which should be more fun than it sounds lol.
Classes started Wednesday and all has gone well since then. I've spent the last few nights hanging out with ex-CCA peeps. I've had a blast with them. Greek Rush was last night, and our collegiate (the Cougars!) was doing the theme "Overcoming Obstacles." Mamoo and Topher built a little obstacle course on a trailer, and it turned out great. The trailer was carried by several of the guys (wearing the awesome new jerseys), and I was one of the guys selected to run the obstacle course during the parade (since I'm possibly the lightest guy on campus haha) It was a lot of fun, and I was sad that it had to end; but I did feel kinda bad for the guys carrying the trailer, cuz they were exhausted at the end lol. I'll post sometime in the near future and show you how amazing our soccer uniforms look this year! We have our first game on Friday night.
Well, that was a lot of writing. If you read this far, you deserve a prize. I'm a poor college student, so I won't give you one now, but just take comfort in the fact that you deserve one. Soon I'm going to rule the world, and then I will give you all your prizes. They might include little Ninja figurines. Or tacos. People like tacos.
Something's different.
I woke up at 6 today. Why, I don't know. But it wasn't normal "waking up at 6" where I'm tired still and go back to sleep. No, I was wide awake. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I slept for 12 hours the night before last, fighting off a cold; my body just decided "Ok, mister. You've slept enough. Get your butt out of bed."
I will say one thing though: I love the dreams I have when I'm on Nyquil. They are sheer awesome in its truest form. I'll spare you the details, though, because I don't want anybody assuming I'm crazy.
Most of my day today will consist of me getting the rest of my stuff together to leave for the Bubble tomorrow. I set up blogging via email, but I'm not sure how much time I'll have to do it. We'll see. Blogging doesn't take up too much time, though, compared to videos. So don't expect any of those for a while. If I can surprise you, I will. Just don't hold your breath for one. I'll be working on campus this semester, and my homework will change dramatically from the past. In previous years, I've been doing straight engineering work, so my homework was all math stuff. This year, I only have two engineering classes, and the rest are music. That means a lot of practicing. So while I'll inevitably have more time for music, I'll likely have less time for MY music lol.
Things I'm looking forward to:
Driving west, into from the sun.
Junior year, coming with all its thunder.
...I should actually stop there. However apropos it may or may not be, I feel weird, knowing that I'm sticking words about doing to school into the tune of a military song.
I will say one thing though: I love the dreams I have when I'm on Nyquil. They are sheer awesome in its truest form. I'll spare you the details, though, because I don't want anybody assuming I'm crazy.
Most of my day today will consist of me getting the rest of my stuff together to leave for the Bubble tomorrow. I set up blogging via email, but I'm not sure how much time I'll have to do it. We'll see. Blogging doesn't take up too much time, though, compared to videos. So don't expect any of those for a while. If I can surprise you, I will. Just don't hold your breath for one. I'll be working on campus this semester, and my homework will change dramatically from the past. In previous years, I've been doing straight engineering work, so my homework was all math stuff. This year, I only have two engineering classes, and the rest are music. That means a lot of practicing. So while I'll inevitably have more time for music, I'll likely have less time for MY music lol.
Things I'm looking forward to:
- Seeing friends I haven't seen in a while.
- Meeting a ton of new people (With the major and minor change it feels like I'll be among a whole different class of people. I'll only have one class this semester with my usual classmates)
- Being guaranteed to finally have a girl in one of my classes now.
- (Hopefully) only rooming with two other guys.
- Soccer season.
- I might try for the volleyball team if I have time.
- Seeing people I don't want to see.
- Meeting a ton of weird people (There are bound to be a lot. It always seems to me that half the new music guys are gay)
- The one-on-one piano lessons. I love learning music and stuff, but one-on-one lessons always kinda terrify me for some reason. Maybe it had to do with the fact that my first piano teacher had a Siamese cat that I hated. Siamese cats look evil.
- The possibility that I room with 3 other guys, and one might be the last person on earth I want to be stuck in a room with. If you knew the guy, you'd side with me, I promise. Don't get paranoid dude, I'm not talking about you.
- Soccer practices.
- Waking up early every day and needing to be alert.
Driving west, into from the sun.
Junior year, coming with all its thunder.
...I should actually stop there. However apropos it may or may not be, I feel weird, knowing that I'm sticking words about doing to school into the tune of a military song.
Short update
Ok so, the video was a couple hours late in coming, but that's not my fault! Someone tripped over an elk (which translates to "technology hates me"). Seriously though, I must have done something to anger the world's computers when i was young. It took forever to match the video to the audio because, somehow, the video recorded slower that it was supposed to (which means I have a time-traveling camera!!) Anyway, this is the video, right here. Click this link. This one here. Do it. In all honesty though, this is one of my favorite songs. There's a chord in there that literally sent chills down my spin as I listened to it a few minutes ago. But enough of that, I'll just let you hear it.
I recently held a "Facebook election" to decide whether to go watch a soccer game on Friday or to go to Milton to hear bro Kenny Baldwin. I was completely torn, because I love soccer, but it's also been a while since I've heard Kenny Baldwin. Well, in case any of you were wondering, the election has been decided (partially because of a mandate from mom 2.0; partially because in the end, when my fellow short friend and I pooled our votes together, Kenny Baldwin really did get more votes than soccer), and Friday will be fun! I'm excited! If that paragraph didn't make a lot of sense, get over it. It's late, and I'm going to bed. *Looks around at pretend audience* Goodnight, person. Goodnight, that other guy. Goodnight, cute girl. Goodnight, rest of world. Goodnight, Jeltso Falkroff, the alien from Saturn who has it out for me and keeps praying to the overseeing powers of technology to rain down their curses on innocent me. Even though you are mean, I will return kindness to you. May your children grow three extra heads in plenty of time for the convention, and may your aerobatic cattle bestow wonderful gifts upon your family for 3.2 generations.
I recently held a "Facebook election" to decide whether to go watch a soccer game on Friday or to go to Milton to hear bro Kenny Baldwin. I was completely torn, because I love soccer, but it's also been a while since I've heard Kenny Baldwin. Well, in case any of you were wondering, the election has been decided (partially because of a mandate from mom 2.0; partially because in the end, when my fellow short friend and I pooled our votes together, Kenny Baldwin really did get more votes than soccer), and Friday will be fun! I'm excited! If that paragraph didn't make a lot of sense, get over it. It's late, and I'm going to bed. *Looks around at pretend audience* Goodnight, person. Goodnight, that other guy. Goodnight, cute girl. Goodnight, rest of world. Goodnight, Jeltso Falkroff, the alien from Saturn who has it out for me and keeps praying to the overseeing powers of technology to rain down their curses on innocent me. Even though you are mean, I will return kindness to you. May your children grow three extra heads in plenty of time for the convention, and may your aerobatic cattle bestow wonderful gifts upon your family for 3.2 generations.
Woah...Time is Weird
So I can't believe it's been only a week (and a day) since my last post. Feels like it was almost a month. What with people leaving for school, gettin married, and everything else. I won't elaborate on any of the time-stretching details that come to mind, because they're all long stories. Anyway, I guess another video is due soon, hopefully within the next few days. If I give myself a deadline, maybe I'll actually do it lol. Let's say before Wednesday at 10:07pm. Sound good? Ok, good. But let's make that Pacific time, so I get a few extra hours to procrastinate. I like my deadlining style!
So last night was fun. Went with some friends to the mall and hung out in the arcade until they kicked us out. I was pretty sure we were going to get locked in the mall, but it was all good. We took off to the bowling alley and played pool for a while. Enough for me to remember why I don't play pool too often. After that, went to the bowling alley on base so we could do laser bowling. I love laser bowling. I also bowled my best game ever last night (but I won't say what I got, because I don't think I'm supposed to be as happy about the score as I was lol). Anyway, stayed there till the kicked us out again, then headed back to el casa and watched Green Zone. That movie definitely wasn't worth watching till 3am. A slow-moving plot and an embarrassingly short attention span don't mix very well. But it was definitely a lot of fun just hangin out with friends all night.
This morning, I got to go out on the bus visitation and invite some folks to church. There weren't many people home (or just not many people answering their doors), but we handed out a few tracts, and it went pretty good.
Well, I really don't have much else to say. If you promise not to trip over an elk on the way out of your front door, then I promise to try to stick to my deadline. Gyuunyuu! (That means milk in Japanese. I randomly wanted some. I think I might get some, which involves me getting off the computer and going to the fridge. Goodbye!)
So last night was fun. Went with some friends to the mall and hung out in the arcade until they kicked us out. I was pretty sure we were going to get locked in the mall, but it was all good. We took off to the bowling alley and played pool for a while. Enough for me to remember why I don't play pool too often. After that, went to the bowling alley on base so we could do laser bowling. I love laser bowling. I also bowled my best game ever last night (but I won't say what I got, because I don't think I'm supposed to be as happy about the score as I was lol). Anyway, stayed there till the kicked us out again, then headed back to el casa and watched Green Zone. That movie definitely wasn't worth watching till 3am. A slow-moving plot and an embarrassingly short attention span don't mix very well. But it was definitely a lot of fun just hangin out with friends all night.
This morning, I got to go out on the bus visitation and invite some folks to church. There weren't many people home (or just not many people answering their doors), but we handed out a few tracts, and it went pretty good.
Well, I really don't have much else to say. If you promise not to trip over an elk on the way out of your front door, then I promise to try to stick to my deadline. Gyuunyuu! (That means milk in Japanese. I randomly wanted some. I think I might get some, which involves me getting off the computer and going to the fridge. Goodbye!)
Smile big!
Smile often.
Let your smile change the world, but don't let the world change your smile.
Each little sincere grin I receive carries a much bigger impact than the person who gave it ever realizes. When someone else is happy, it brightens my day. I think we all need to strive to have this effect on others. I have noticed at times that I'm not completely happy unless I'm helping someone else. You never know what a person might be going through when you meet them, and for all you know, a smile could make a world of difference. I can think of instances where I couldn't t imagine my day getting worse, but once i get a peek at the joy someone else has, it can bring my day into a new light.
Simplifying everything down to its purest form, it's easy to recognize that joy stems from love. Most importantly, the love of God. Accepting God's love for me (shown in the giving of His Son so that I might fellowship with Him forever) has given me the truest joy I've ever known. If I turn away from Him, or question His love, the joy is gone, and I have no song.
Recognizing and accepting God's love for us then leaves us with a choice -- to return that love or not. If we choose not to love Him back, we sink back into that state where true joy is gone, and you often feel like something is missing. This is because God made us so that He could have someone who chose to love Him back. Without a love for Him, there's something not right, like sometimes when you make Jello, and that weird crust forms on the top. It looks like normal Jello on the outside, but dig a little deeper, and something's just not quite right. He loves us regardless of anything we say, do, think, or feel. Rich or poor, regal or pauper, righteous or profligate, God's love stretches no less to you than it does to me than it does to the most unlikely person you can imagine, and He gave His Son for each individual. The least we can do is love Him back. When we choose to love God to the best of our finite human ability, we've completed Part 1.
Some people make the choice to not return His love because they can't accept God's love in the first place. Some see their lives full of trouble, and don't believe God loves them because they don't believe He would allow their circumstances. God still loves these people just the same, and He would never give a person a trial they could not bear. Sometimes He allows things to happen to us so that we have a chance to grow stronger, sometimes it's to teach us something. If God had the power and wisdom to breathe the world into existence, who am I to question His plans? An uncut diamond doesn't look so hot in a piece of jewelry, and gold can't serve its purpose until it goes through the fire and is purified.The only way through trials is to keep our eyes on Him and know that He, as the Master Gem-cutter, is beautifying us. He will give us the peace to come through.
If someone we know goes through difficult times, then we as Christians should be an encouragement, and lovingly point them to God. It is important to realize that the Lord never forsook Job when he lost his family, his possessions, and his health? No, God was there the whole time, strengthening Job, molding him into a priceless work of art. Job focused His eyes on God, Who brought him through and gave Job twice the life he had before. It's often difficult for us to see God's in control when we are in the middle of the situation. We need to be there to encourage them through love and prayer, and to be a friendly reminder that God always has been and always will be in control. Job's miserable comforters did him no service, and neither will we if we point someone in a direction other than God's. Sometimes people need help a hand to hold through a difficult life crisis, and sometimes they just need something much less significant in our eyes, such as an extra hand to help them carry a bag of groceries. Regardless, the least we can do for God is to be his servant and point others to Him. The best way to do this is by loving others. This is Part 2
There you have it, two key elements for joy in the Christian life: love God, and love others. All that's left is to observe the effects of joy. It is my goal to spread some joy and the love of God in whatever I may do, and wherever I may go. I have no idea whom I could serve and in what way with just a simple smile.
Let your smile change the world, but don't let the world change your smile.
Each little sincere grin I receive carries a much bigger impact than the person who gave it ever realizes. When someone else is happy, it brightens my day. I think we all need to strive to have this effect on others. I have noticed at times that I'm not completely happy unless I'm helping someone else. You never know what a person might be going through when you meet them, and for all you know, a smile could make a world of difference. I can think of instances where I couldn't t imagine my day getting worse, but once i get a peek at the joy someone else has, it can bring my day into a new light.
Simplifying everything down to its purest form, it's easy to recognize that joy stems from love. Most importantly, the love of God. Accepting God's love for me (shown in the giving of His Son so that I might fellowship with Him forever) has given me the truest joy I've ever known. If I turn away from Him, or question His love, the joy is gone, and I have no song.
Recognizing and accepting God's love for us then leaves us with a choice -- to return that love or not. If we choose not to love Him back, we sink back into that state where true joy is gone, and you often feel like something is missing. This is because God made us so that He could have someone who chose to love Him back. Without a love for Him, there's something not right, like sometimes when you make Jello, and that weird crust forms on the top. It looks like normal Jello on the outside, but dig a little deeper, and something's just not quite right. He loves us regardless of anything we say, do, think, or feel. Rich or poor, regal or pauper, righteous or profligate, God's love stretches no less to you than it does to me than it does to the most unlikely person you can imagine, and He gave His Son for each individual. The least we can do is love Him back. When we choose to love God to the best of our finite human ability, we've completed Part 1.
Some people make the choice to not return His love because they can't accept God's love in the first place. Some see their lives full of trouble, and don't believe God loves them because they don't believe He would allow their circumstances. God still loves these people just the same, and He would never give a person a trial they could not bear. Sometimes He allows things to happen to us so that we have a chance to grow stronger, sometimes it's to teach us something. If God had the power and wisdom to breathe the world into existence, who am I to question His plans? An uncut diamond doesn't look so hot in a piece of jewelry, and gold can't serve its purpose until it goes through the fire and is purified.The only way through trials is to keep our eyes on Him and know that He, as the Master Gem-cutter, is beautifying us. He will give us the peace to come through.
If someone we know goes through difficult times, then we as Christians should be an encouragement, and lovingly point them to God. It is important to realize that the Lord never forsook Job when he lost his family, his possessions, and his health? No, God was there the whole time, strengthening Job, molding him into a priceless work of art. Job focused His eyes on God, Who brought him through and gave Job twice the life he had before. It's often difficult for us to see God's in control when we are in the middle of the situation. We need to be there to encourage them through love and prayer, and to be a friendly reminder that God always has been and always will be in control. Job's miserable comforters did him no service, and neither will we if we point someone in a direction other than God's. Sometimes people need help a hand to hold through a difficult life crisis, and sometimes they just need something much less significant in our eyes, such as an extra hand to help them carry a bag of groceries. Regardless, the least we can do for God is to be his servant and point others to Him. The best way to do this is by loving others. This is Part 2
There you have it, two key elements for joy in the Christian life: love God, and love others. All that's left is to observe the effects of joy. It is my goal to spread some joy and the love of God in whatever I may do, and wherever I may go. I have no idea whom I could serve and in what way with just a simple smile.
Woohoo!
So I finally finished that Who Am I cover. It took for-E-VER (scenes from the Sandlot flash through my mind). My computer forced me to use Windows Live Movie Maker simply because I was running Windows 7, and Microsoft is irritating. I finally managed to get a copy of the old XP Movie Maker, thought I still kept having to switch between the two. But it was still a lot harder than it needed to be. I had considered switching to Apple when I got rich. I have no problem with the accompanying actions of only eating at Panera Bread and going to Starbucks twice a day…but I’m still not ready to drive a Prius, so I can’t get a Mac. Anyway, after lots of slaving over a hot CPU, here is the finished product:
The little Lego guy (Captain Rafael…he is the captain of his soccer team, as shown by that captain’s headband) gave me a bit of trouble. He was very fidgety, which is not an admirable quality for a stop-motion film actor. But by the end of shooting, he had learned his place. He may even show up again sometime. Just as long as he doesn’t raise his rates. He certainly drove a hard bargain. Luckily I have a sister who will work for free. If she reads this and demands payment, I’m quite prepared to offer her 10% of my profits that Youtube pays me (lol).
Still waiting on some good movies, too. We got Lovely Bones from Netflix last weekend. After we watched it, we sent it back. Then there was some weird mixup, and Netflix sent the movie back, saying that it hadn’t been opened, so they didn’t think we had received it in the first place. Then it just got left on the counter for the next two days, instead of being mailed back to them again. Guess we just can’t get rid of that movie. It was a good movie and all, but I want to see The Book of Eli. In the meantime, I’ll just spend my free time working on music (shocker, I know) and reading books. Right now, I’m reading White, the third installment in Ted Dekker’s Circle Trilogy. Ted Dekker is a fascinating writer. Rarely does a story that exists in another reality/fantasy world and still feel so incredibly realistic. I would definitely recommend the Circle Trilogy (or anything by Ted Dekker, honestly) to anyone. It has quite a strong allegorical value, as well, with each event in the book’s other “dimension” lining up with Scriptural teachings. All of that going on while the entire world is scheduled to meet a very abrupt and catastrophic end.
My sister (not the one in the video) insists I’ll be working in the dish room when I get back to school. I hope she’s wrong lol. But if she’s right, I can’t complain too much, cuz I need the job either way. My car needs some repairs done. I’m actually getting excited about school. It’s been a while since I’ve had any music classes/lessons. I’ve got a music theory class, a hymnplaying class, a voice class, and a piano lesson. Then two engineering classes and a Bible class. I’m actually hoping that I can get lucky and they’ll movie some of the classes around so that I can keep those classes and add another engineering class, so that catching up won’t be so tough my senior and super-senior years.
And with all that being said, I bid you all good day, I’m going to go listene to the auto-tuned Bed Intruders song again. It’s by far my favorite Youtube video now
32 posts, 32 days left
So I go back to that little bubble that we like to call PCC a month from tomorrow. I'll be working on campus this semester, So I'm headed back a few days before the semester actually starts. I'm not sure where I'll be working yet...I'm supposed to find that out the day I go back. It's funny every time I think about it, how that place is just its own little world. The mall looks like a completely separate country in comparison. The PCC people are always so easy to pick out, because 50% of the other people are wearing baggy shorts (so big you could use them for shelter on a rainy night if need be) or mini skirts, have their hair bedazzled with each of the three primary colors, and look like that just came straight out of a hip hop video (you know, the ones that are trying to express their individuality that just so happens to match the individuality of everyone else they hang around with). Then 20% are dressed like typical human beings, and 30% are walking around in groups wearing khakis and a collared shirt (or skirts if they're girls...obviously). Then you get back to this Bubble that's running completely independent of the outside world (apart from US Mail and water) go to dinner with friends, and laugh at things that, really, no one in that mall you just came from would have found funny...for the simple fact that they've never experienced this other world you live in.
I mean, sure there are times when I'd rather be anywhere other than there...but when it comes down to it, I don't think I'd trade it (besides, we all feel like that about most places from time to time). I like being at a small school where everyone knows each other, and you've got so many people you can depend on. I just love the whole atmosphere and idea of smaller communities.
I mean, sure there are times when I'd rather be anywhere other than there...but when it comes down to it, I don't think I'd trade it (besides, we all feel like that about most places from time to time). I like being at a small school where everyone knows each other, and you've got so many people you can depend on. I just love the whole atmosphere and idea of smaller communities.
That being said...here are some things I ponder when boredom sets in:
- When cleaning products say stuff like "It is a violation of federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its directions," how much room does that give me? Can I land myself in prison for cleaning the grout in the tile with a product that says it's for counters? Or do I have to feed the Lysol to someone's cat before I'm charged with a crime?
- Do whales snore? Can they? If not, do they "talk" in their sleep?
- Who was the daredevil that decided eating eggs would be nice to try?
- How many attempts at bungee jumping did it take before they managed to convince people to pay to do it?
- Could it be that the chicken really DID just want to get to the other side, and has now become a laughing stock, just because of this one simple desire?
- Why do so many people think it plausible that an alien race would travel many thousands of light years to come specifically to our planet and do tests on us, when we haven't even made our presence in the universe obvious until little more than 100 years ago?
- Why am I still writing when I so desperately crave a snack right now? Goodbye
I'm sorry, Blog
It appears i have been neglecting you these past two weeks. That "Blogger.com" button just kinda sits there on my bookmarks page looking lonely while I pass it up for Facebook and YouTube. I apologize, old friend.
... [*Blink*] .... OH! Hey there! If you're reading this, it means you care about what I have to say. Aww you are all so nice. I thank you all from the heart of my bottom! Ok, just kidding...that's slightly weird. I'll thank you from the bottom of my heart instead. I've had a busy week. I've spent a lot of time working on music, particularly Meant for Me. It's pretty close to done (considering where it was a few weeks ago, that is). There are a few spots I still need to smooth out, but after that, we'll be good. Don't worry, the other ones shouldn't take this long. This is hard because it's my first song I'm actually trying to do a really good job at producing, and I also feel like it's my most important song, so it has to be perfect. I can't help but analyze even the most minute details in this thing. it's starting to drive me crazy. I really don't know how professional audio engineers can do this kind of thing every day and retain their sanity. Then again, I've only met two people who ever do anything with recording and/or mixing. One's a musical genius (and I've never heard of a genius who was in his right mind), and the other is weird and annoying and hated by almost everyone I can think of at school. So I guess there's no sanity to retain in either of them. Now I understand how this works!
Steps to becoming a professional audio engineer:
1. Lose mind
2. Develop an excuse for said lost mind, so no one suspects it (i.e. music or nuclear physics)
3. Get lucky. Win the lottery. Inherit Bill Gates' fortune by mistake, and unethically keep it.
4. Use the aforementioned fortune to buy the kind of expensive gear you need or just think you need.
5. Make money and get discovered by producing a song with a heavy enough beat that no one cares how good it is. They just listen to it anyway because it's the coolest thing to listen to when you're walking down the street with your pants down around your ankles, obviously.
6. After step 5, you can record anything you want, because you're already a famous producer now.
Sounds like i've got a business plan! Let's just hope there are better fads by the time I get to step 5. Ok, just kidding again. I don't plan on working in a studio for a career. I'd actually like to design wireless communication or digital entertainment devices. I'd also like to make sure that whatever career path i embark upon, it consists of big words, so that I can still look smart, even with a retarded grin on my face! =D
So anyway, i hope you're still reading, because I have big news! I registered 5 songs today to be copyrighted! Woohoo! Now I get to wait for "up to 6 months" ( though I've read it could take longer =/ ) for them to mail me a certificate (providing I did everything right). It was kinda nerve-racking doing it all.
The US Copyright Office's site is not the most self-explanatory site in the world, and it was difficult to find sufficient help. I called them, but it took around 15 minutes for me to get in touch with somebody (and every minute, this recorded voice that sounded like it belonged to a guy who wore square coke-bottle lenses and had a pedo-stache would say "Sorry, but due the the very high volume of calls, there is no one available to take your call at this time. Please hold for the next available information specialist" or something close to that) I hope Mr. Recorded Voice Man doesn't read this. It might affect my success in securing that fancy certificate. Nothing against you, Mr. Recorded Voice Man. I was just really bored waiting. So i apologize for whatever offense I might have caused. Some hold music would have been cool. ANYWAY, I asked the lady all the questions i could think of at the time, and she sounded more like she was quoting things from an internet forum. her answers seemed sorta distant, like they only partially applied to me. So for the questions that arose when finally working my way through the confusing details of the site, I just resorted to reading the forums myself. That way i wouldn't have to say "I'm sorry, what did you say?" after everything she said (I'm bad at understanding people on the phone).
But oh well. While I would argue that the site could stand to be slightly more self-explanatory, it's all done now. I submitted Meant for Me, Timeless, Once Again, I Need You More, and Night Sky; all in an EP collection I entitled Actual Size. =D
I know you haven't heard Timeless or I Need You More yet, but you will before too long. I like them both a lot
I'm off now. As the Beatles once sang, "Go dig a pony!"
... [*Blink*] .... OH! Hey there! If you're reading this, it means you care about what I have to say. Aww you are all so nice. I thank you all from the heart of my bottom! Ok, just kidding...that's slightly weird. I'll thank you from the bottom of my heart instead. I've had a busy week. I've spent a lot of time working on music, particularly Meant for Me. It's pretty close to done (considering where it was a few weeks ago, that is). There are a few spots I still need to smooth out, but after that, we'll be good. Don't worry, the other ones shouldn't take this long. This is hard because it's my first song I'm actually trying to do a really good job at producing, and I also feel like it's my most important song, so it has to be perfect. I can't help but analyze even the most minute details in this thing. it's starting to drive me crazy. I really don't know how professional audio engineers can do this kind of thing every day and retain their sanity. Then again, I've only met two people who ever do anything with recording and/or mixing. One's a musical genius (and I've never heard of a genius who was in his right mind), and the other is weird and annoying and hated by almost everyone I can think of at school. So I guess there's no sanity to retain in either of them. Now I understand how this works!
Steps to becoming a professional audio engineer:
1. Lose mind
2. Develop an excuse for said lost mind, so no one suspects it (i.e. music or nuclear physics)
3. Get lucky. Win the lottery. Inherit Bill Gates' fortune by mistake, and unethically keep it.
4. Use the aforementioned fortune to buy the kind of expensive gear you need or just think you need.
5. Make money and get discovered by producing a song with a heavy enough beat that no one cares how good it is. They just listen to it anyway because it's the coolest thing to listen to when you're walking down the street with your pants down around your ankles, obviously.
6. After step 5, you can record anything you want, because you're already a famous producer now.
Sounds like i've got a business plan! Let's just hope there are better fads by the time I get to step 5. Ok, just kidding again. I don't plan on working in a studio for a career. I'd actually like to design wireless communication or digital entertainment devices. I'd also like to make sure that whatever career path i embark upon, it consists of big words, so that I can still look smart, even with a retarded grin on my face! =D
So anyway, i hope you're still reading, because I have big news! I registered 5 songs today to be copyrighted! Woohoo! Now I get to wait for "up to 6 months" ( though I've read it could take longer =/ ) for them to mail me a certificate (providing I did everything right). It was kinda nerve-racking doing it all.
The US Copyright Office's site is not the most self-explanatory site in the world, and it was difficult to find sufficient help. I called them, but it took around 15 minutes for me to get in touch with somebody (and every minute, this recorded voice that sounded like it belonged to a guy who wore square coke-bottle lenses and had a pedo-stache would say "Sorry, but due the the very high volume of calls, there is no one available to take your call at this time. Please hold for the next available information specialist" or something close to that) I hope Mr. Recorded Voice Man doesn't read this. It might affect my success in securing that fancy certificate. Nothing against you, Mr. Recorded Voice Man. I was just really bored waiting. So i apologize for whatever offense I might have caused. Some hold music would have been cool. ANYWAY, I asked the lady all the questions i could think of at the time, and she sounded more like she was quoting things from an internet forum. her answers seemed sorta distant, like they only partially applied to me. So for the questions that arose when finally working my way through the confusing details of the site, I just resorted to reading the forums myself. That way i wouldn't have to say "I'm sorry, what did you say?" after everything she said (I'm bad at understanding people on the phone).
But oh well. While I would argue that the site could stand to be slightly more self-explanatory, it's all done now. I submitted Meant for Me, Timeless, Once Again, I Need You More, and Night Sky; all in an EP collection I entitled Actual Size. =D
I know you haven't heard Timeless or I Need You More yet, but you will before too long. I like them both a lot
I'm off now. As the Beatles once sang, "Go dig a pony!"
One small step for man = One giant leap for leprechauns
Yesterday was a good day. I got the violin part recorded for my song, courtesy of Ericka Wright! It went pretty smoothly. We only had about an hour to record anything, so we got about 5 takes done. I told her to ad-lib for the first part of the song. Little did she know that I planned to use the ad-libbing. Muhahaha. I've also been arranging several other songs at the same time. (Ok, not like simultaneously or anything, but you know what I mean, right?) Some are a little intensive, others not so much. I was having a hard time getting my vocals to sound right today, so instead, I recorded a version of me singing with this weird british alternative-rock style accent. Only reason I did that was because my roommates made fun of the way I pronounced "man" in my first recording of it (the low-quality one that's on my youtube channel:
...there are only three uploaded videos...it's not hard to find lol) and sang the whole thing with an accent all the time. There's also my video bar to the right if you don't like clicking your mouse more than once. So anyway, I told him I'd record a weird-accent version just for him. And I did! Woohoo!
Which reminds me! I need to put up another song, so yall don't think I'm just being lazy! I think I decided the next one I upload will be one I named Once Again. Piano is the main instrument (in the video, it will be the only instrument) in this one, as opposed to my oh-so-incredibly-cool Cougar-branded guitar:
See that awesome-looking shiny new soccer ball next to it? My sister bought me a new one because mine is beat up. Isn't she the best sister in the world? Now I have a fresh ball to practice with as I prepare to have a rockin' season this upcoming semester. Last season wasn't so great, because we lost more than half of our team, and they were all replaced with new freshman. Don't get me wrong, we have some talented players, but the face that they were all newcomers meant that we lacked the chemistry that a team gets when they've played together for a while. But this season will be better, I can feel it. We had all last year to get to know each other and grow as a collegian, which always makes for great chemistry on the field.
Where was I? British leprechauns...wright-handed rock...woo's and hoo's........Oh yeah! You should be able to expect an upcoming video in the next couple days. And by the way, if you remember when I mentioned going to Open Mic Night at Playground Music a few weeks ago...well, it's on Thursdays, and i somehow managed to have something else planned like every Thursday. So i might not get a chance to do that for a while, if at all. If I don't, it's no big deal. It's not like people who participate in it get the musical debut of the century. I'm pretty sure Youtube gets more business than Playground anyway lol, so it doesn't matter much. I'll only go if people write me and beg me to change my mind so they can come watch. Since I don't see that happening, looks like I'm safe to enjoy my Thursdays! (they're the new Tuesdays, you know).
Will all of that...and i mean AAALLLLLLLL of that...being said, I can now bid yall adieu (i refuse to say the word you and all separately in succession. I just won't do it) Do something good this week. Go adopt a penguin, or feed a starving leprechaun. Be a good example to every midget that may be watching you from underneath the couch! (bet that'll make you think twice before you sit down)
--- Me, myself, and John
...there are only three uploaded videos...it's not hard to find lol) and sang the whole thing with an accent all the time. There's also my video bar to the right if you don't like clicking your mouse more than once. So anyway, I told him I'd record a weird-accent version just for him. And I did! Woohoo!
Which reminds me! I need to put up another song, so yall don't think I'm just being lazy! I think I decided the next one I upload will be one I named Once Again. Piano is the main instrument (in the video, it will be the only instrument) in this one, as opposed to my oh-so-incredibly-cool Cougar-branded guitar:
(BTW, if you can't make it out, those fancy letters of Greekness are Pi Kappa Delta)
Where was I? British leprechauns...wright-handed rock...woo's and hoo's........Oh yeah! You should be able to expect an upcoming video in the next couple days. And by the way, if you remember when I mentioned going to Open Mic Night at Playground Music a few weeks ago...well, it's on Thursdays, and i somehow managed to have something else planned like every Thursday. So i might not get a chance to do that for a while, if at all. If I don't, it's no big deal. It's not like people who participate in it get the musical debut of the century. I'm pretty sure Youtube gets more business than Playground anyway lol, so it doesn't matter much. I'll only go if people write me and beg me to change my mind so they can come watch. Since I don't see that happening, looks like I'm safe to enjoy my Thursdays! (they're the new Tuesdays, you know).
Will all of that...and i mean AAALLLLLLLL of that...being said, I can now bid yall adieu (i refuse to say the word you and all separately in succession. I just won't do it) Do something good this week. Go adopt a penguin, or feed a starving leprechaun. Be a good example to every midget that may be watching you from underneath the couch! (bet that'll make you think twice before you sit down)
--- Me, myself, and John
Recording day
So I got to spend all afternoon recording that duet I had mentioned earlier. If you didn't read that post, now is a good time to go back and read everything I've written! Muhaha! But seriously, it was fun. Had to relearn the song pretty much, because I found out like 10 minutes before the two spiritual attributes got here (I wonder how many of you guys are going to get that? her sister came too, if that gives a decent clue) that I had learned the wrong chords. So i tried to quickly relearn it, and then I had to transpose it down a key, because I just couldn't reach the notes I needed to sing today without sounding pubescent lol. I could reach those notes at midnight when we decided to do that song, but we started recording at 2 in the afternoon. It takes several hours for my higher notes to sound good lol. Needless to say, it took a while to get started. Good thing it's a home studio, so that whole "time is money" thing doesn't apply! We had fun practicing it a bit, then tried with the microphones. Those took a few tries to get set up right. It's not often I record anything for multiple people and an instrument all at the same time, so I'm still learning how to set up all those mics. Eventually we started recording with video too! Until the battery died. Then we just goofed off for a while. But amidst all our fun today, I managed to learn a very valuable lesson. Always check to make SURE a memory card will fit in your memory card reader before just sticking it in. I had to spend quite a while trying to fish the memory card back out of the computer, because it got stuck so deep haha. We almost lost all our video. I ended up taking apart the entire laptop, hoping to maybe get it out from inside, but that didn't do any good. After about half an hour of fiddling with it, we finally got it out with a bobby pin.
Speaking of bobby pins (by the way, if i awkwardly misspell that somewhere, i apologize in advance...spell check doesn't catch it), have you ever noticed how functional those things are? Think about it...there's very few situations where a bobby pin will not come in handy! Need to fix your computer? Get a door unlocked? Hold some papers in place? Find a fish hook? Increase your radio reception? Replace a zipper handle? Poke at something dead? Cause a short circuit in a large power station and take out half a city block? Stab someone who breaks into your house when you don't have a knife handy? (Yes, that was discussed as a serious use) There's virtually nothing these little guys can't do. And to think people actually pay good money for Swiss Army knives! And on top of all that, they can hold hair out of people faces! Ahh...bobby pins.
If you haven't gotten bored yet, I'm helping another friend record some music he wrote. He should be coming over tomorrow. I get to arrange stuff for it! Woohoo!
I watched a movie tonight...about Ramen. I love ramen. Have i ever told you guys how much I love ramen? I'm not sure why, but it's one of the most amazing foods on the planet to me. If I won a lifetime supply of ramen noodles, I would eat it all in a month. I'd be willing to eat it much faster, but I have to spend 3 minutes cooking it, and all those 3 minute waits add up. I sure hope Maruchan never goes out of business. I would probably cry at that sad loss of incredibly cheap ramen. I don't know how much this love of ramen stems from my limited cooking ability, but i just want to shout it out to the world that I love ramen. My roommate and I wrote a song about ramen noodles. It had an organ in it. I don't know why, but it sounded cool. J, if you're reading this, do you still remember that song?
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, so that duet turned out pretty good. I listened to what we had, and I like it. As soon as I get the video (since that whole getting the memory card stuck inside the computer still resulted in not getting anything transferred to the computer), I can start working on it, and if by the Grace of my duet partner, and if the camerawoman has enough Faith in her abilities to show yall, maybe I can put something online for yall to see! (That might be the first time I've said yall on my blog. Now it's there three times.)
Bye yall!
Yall come back now, y'hear?
(To certain possible readers, I add an evil laugh to that. Yall know who yall are)
Speaking of bobby pins (by the way, if i awkwardly misspell that somewhere, i apologize in advance...spell check doesn't catch it), have you ever noticed how functional those things are? Think about it...there's very few situations where a bobby pin will not come in handy! Need to fix your computer? Get a door unlocked? Hold some papers in place? Find a fish hook? Increase your radio reception? Replace a zipper handle? Poke at something dead? Cause a short circuit in a large power station and take out half a city block? Stab someone who breaks into your house when you don't have a knife handy? (Yes, that was discussed as a serious use) There's virtually nothing these little guys can't do. And to think people actually pay good money for Swiss Army knives! And on top of all that, they can hold hair out of people faces! Ahh...bobby pins.
If you haven't gotten bored yet, I'm helping another friend record some music he wrote. He should be coming over tomorrow. I get to arrange stuff for it! Woohoo!
I watched a movie tonight...about Ramen. I love ramen. Have i ever told you guys how much I love ramen? I'm not sure why, but it's one of the most amazing foods on the planet to me. If I won a lifetime supply of ramen noodles, I would eat it all in a month. I'd be willing to eat it much faster, but I have to spend 3 minutes cooking it, and all those 3 minute waits add up. I sure hope Maruchan never goes out of business. I would probably cry at that sad loss of incredibly cheap ramen. I don't know how much this love of ramen stems from my limited cooking ability, but i just want to shout it out to the world that I love ramen. My roommate and I wrote a song about ramen noodles. It had an organ in it. I don't know why, but it sounded cool. J, if you're reading this, do you still remember that song?
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, so that duet turned out pretty good. I listened to what we had, and I like it. As soon as I get the video (since that whole getting the memory card stuck inside the computer still resulted in not getting anything transferred to the computer), I can start working on it, and if by the Grace of my duet partner, and if the camerawoman has enough Faith in her abilities to show yall, maybe I can put something online for yall to see! (That might be the first time I've said yall on my blog. Now it's there three times.)
Bye yall!
Yall come back now, y'hear?
(To certain possible readers, I add an evil laugh to that. Yall know who yall are)
Ok try this.
So for the past couple days, I've been trying to make a decent video of one of my songs, but I just can't get them to turn out right. It's in a weird key, so it's still not often I can play through it without messing up, since it's a pretty new song lol (if only there was a transpose down button on my guitar). And when I do play it right, the video gets messed up on almost every take anyway. Why? I don't know, but the fact that this camera is about 6 years old, and I have to start my computer in Windows XP just to get it to connect doesn't make it any better. I usually end up with about 10 seconds of my video disappearing from the middle. However, I was playing around with another song I wrote last summer that I have a lot of fun with, mainly because of how upbeat it is. It's still not perfect, but I'm starting to think that there's no way I'm going to get a video just right without just going out and buying a brand new camera. Since a camera isn't on my list of priorities right now, I thought I'd just show you a video with not-so-great quality. My youtube channel is just looking so lonely...I couldn't no put anything up for much longer. Don't worry though, you'll get to hear the other one before long. Anyway, click the word " PENGUIN! " to see my video over on youtube. Why? I like penguins. Get over it. And because it's not letting me embed the video like normal. Standard computer weirdness.
Speaking of my list of priorities that got mentioned up there, something just got bumped to the top. I hadn't realized it before, but you can get Star Wars voices for your TomTom GPS. I don't have a GPS, but now I need one, because probably the only thing that could make my car cooler would be if I had Darth Vader telling me how much farther until I turn left. Shoot, I'd even use that thing jut to move my car to the other side of the driveway when I'm blocking somebody in! I'm sure you'll say it would just get old once the 'new" wore off, but all I can think about right now is hearing the phrase while driving, "In 200 yards, turn left you must. mmm?" You can just never go wrong with Star Wars, and I don't care how nerdy that makes me sound lol.
By the way, (actually, considering my last paragraph was about Star Wars and TomToms...this is probably about as far out of the way as I can get) last night, Michael came over to work on a new song he's written. He just wanted me to write out some sheet music to it. It's a pretty cool song. I like it. He's a pretty good songwriter. I won't say too much about it right now, but he's trying to get a CD made as well, and I get to help with some of the songs :D.
Happy Cow Appreciation Day! (Oh yeah, forgot to mention, today is Chick-Fil-A's "Dress-up-like-a-cow-and-we-give-you-free-food-because-anyone-willing-to-go-out-in-public-dressed-like-a-cow-deserves-something-free" Day. Yeah, they were so close to going with my catchy name there, till someone ran in at the last second and said "NO!! Call it Cow Appreciation Day!" Darn. So close. Foiled again by catchy marketers! Guess I'll have to try again later...Anyway, bye! Have a good day! Watch my video! Buy me a steak! (the first one is optional =P )
Speaking of my list of priorities that got mentioned up there, something just got bumped to the top. I hadn't realized it before, but you can get Star Wars voices for your TomTom GPS. I don't have a GPS, but now I need one, because probably the only thing that could make my car cooler would be if I had Darth Vader telling me how much farther until I turn left. Shoot, I'd even use that thing jut to move my car to the other side of the driveway when I'm blocking somebody in! I'm sure you'll say it would just get old once the 'new" wore off, but all I can think about right now is hearing the phrase while driving, "In 200 yards, turn left you must. mmm?" You can just never go wrong with Star Wars, and I don't care how nerdy that makes me sound lol.
By the way, (actually, considering my last paragraph was about Star Wars and TomToms...this is probably about as far out of the way as I can get) last night, Michael came over to work on a new song he's written. He just wanted me to write out some sheet music to it. It's a pretty cool song. I like it. He's a pretty good songwriter. I won't say too much about it right now, but he's trying to get a CD made as well, and I get to help with some of the songs :D.
Happy Cow Appreciation Day! (Oh yeah, forgot to mention, today is Chick-Fil-A's "Dress-up-like-a-cow-and-we-give-you-free-food-because-anyone-willing-to-go-out-in-public-dressed-like-a-cow-deserves-something-free" Day. Yeah, they were so close to going with my catchy name there, till someone ran in at the last second and said "NO!! Call it Cow Appreciation Day!" Darn. So close. Foiled again by catchy marketers! Guess I'll have to try again later...Anyway, bye! Have a good day! Watch my video! Buy me a steak! (the first one is optional =P )
Hello again, Internet!
Here I am, talking to a box sitting on my desk, so that when I turn around, it can start gossiping to all the other boxes around the world who will in turn secretly tell their owners everything that I've been saying, without me ever knowing anything was said to these people! But to whomever is told this via their fancy big-mouthed boxes, don't worry...my box tells me everything you've done lately too ;) Man...the 21st century doesn't sound very fun when you put it that way. Oh well. Gotta love what words can do.
So I spent much of the day at the church cleaning up the mess I made setting up for Vacation Bible School. I'll be honest...I don't want to see anymore staples for a while lol. We had stapled tons of colored-paper onto the walls all around the Wright Hall building to give an under-sea atmosphere. The theme was Diving for God's Treasure. It took a solid week (many days, 12 straight hours of work were put into a single day) to put everything together, and about 3 hours to clean it all up. But that was a lot of staples to remove.
Anyway, on to the important stuff. I just recently recorded every song I've finished to video, so that I could put it all on a CD and mail it...to myself. I'm just going to let post-office records verify everything until I get everything mastered and have money for the US Copyright Office. It's technically not an official method, but copyright law only requires you have a tangible copy, and it's best if there's a verifiable date on it, so I think this method will do just fine for now lol. I've got 12 songs on the CD -- one more song than I had counted last time, but I can't remember when I last counted, so I'm not sure if i counted wrong, or if I simply wrote my newest song after counting. I won't upload any of those videos because it was a little late, and I don't want to torture the world with recordings that didn't turn out so great. One song did turn out pretty good, and I considered uploading it, until, after watching the video, I realized that I apparently was flipping the camera the bird through the whole song while I was playing guitar. That or it was a weird shadow that just made it look that way. I didn't really care which one it was, it just didn't look right. But I'll try again after I get this whole CD/mail thing finished. The song was called Night Sky, in case you were curious, and it would be part of my Color Series that I mentioned a while back, if I ever write the REST of the series, that is =P.
More important stuff to look forward to. Grace and I plan to do a duet within a couple weeks. We've been considering a duet cover of Hillsong United's "Lead Me to the Cross." Can't wait for that! :D
One last important stuff: I'll be changing my blog's design by the time I release my next post. So don't get thrown off when next time you come back, it's a lot different! Just a head's up!
Okay, everyone say "Bye, John's magic box that tells us everything!"
So I spent much of the day at the church cleaning up the mess I made setting up for Vacation Bible School. I'll be honest...I don't want to see anymore staples for a while lol. We had stapled tons of colored-paper onto the walls all around the Wright Hall building to give an under-sea atmosphere. The theme was Diving for God's Treasure. It took a solid week (many days, 12 straight hours of work were put into a single day) to put everything together, and about 3 hours to clean it all up. But that was a lot of staples to remove.
Anyway, on to the important stuff. I just recently recorded every song I've finished to video, so that I could put it all on a CD and mail it...to myself. I'm just going to let post-office records verify everything until I get everything mastered and have money for the US Copyright Office. It's technically not an official method, but copyright law only requires you have a tangible copy, and it's best if there's a verifiable date on it, so I think this method will do just fine for now lol. I've got 12 songs on the CD -- one more song than I had counted last time, but I can't remember when I last counted, so I'm not sure if i counted wrong, or if I simply wrote my newest song after counting. I won't upload any of those videos because it was a little late, and I don't want to torture the world with recordings that didn't turn out so great. One song did turn out pretty good, and I considered uploading it, until, after watching the video, I realized that I apparently was flipping the camera the bird through the whole song while I was playing guitar. That or it was a weird shadow that just made it look that way. I didn't really care which one it was, it just didn't look right. But I'll try again after I get this whole CD/mail thing finished. The song was called Night Sky, in case you were curious, and it would be part of my Color Series that I mentioned a while back, if I ever write the REST of the series, that is =P.
More important stuff to look forward to. Grace and I plan to do a duet within a couple weeks. We've been considering a duet cover of Hillsong United's "Lead Me to the Cross." Can't wait for that! :D
One last important stuff: I'll be changing my blog's design by the time I release my next post. So don't get thrown off when next time you come back, it's a lot different! Just a head's up!
Okay, everyone say "Bye, John's magic box that tells us everything!"
Tough to top
Well, that was possibly the best fourth of July I've ever experienced. The day started off outstandingly. In the morning church service, We were privileged enough to experience the presence of God all throughout the church building. There was hardly a dry eye in the building. The kids sounded great singing I Have Been Blessed, and their tender hearts reached out to the entire congregation. By the end of the song, so many of the kids were fighting back tears that I was wondering if they would be able to finish. But they did, and it was the most moving thing I have experienced in quite a while. We all sat and thought about the son of a preacher at whose funeral the song was sang, and then proceed to think of Mrs. Jill, and the marvelous work God has done in encouraging and helping her through her trials, and being able to just praise God in the midst of it all. It was incredible. Then, it was like God went and outdid Himself, when Lexi chose to accept Christ immediately afterward. The Lord's message had already been delivered before the sermon even started. All of this before noon. I never again want to take for granted the literally countless blessings God has given me in my life =)
Anyway, after church, I watched Dad's amazement as he realized you could get a Hot-n-Ready pizza in the drivethru in under a minute =P. (By the way, as soon as I figure out where I'm supposed to find real smilies for this thing, I'll use em lol.) Then I had a good friend come to help me with a song (my violinist...she sounds great so far. Hope to record her in one of the upcoming weeks). So this afternoon was a lot of fun. I can't wait to hear the whole thing together when it's all done. I hope you'll all enjoy it.
As if the day needed to be better at all, James brought a great message about choices during the evening service, which really made me stop and think how much every decision I make affects my life and those of others. Thinking about that really makes it difficult for a person not to take the opportunities God gives him in life. I never know when the next person I decide I'm currently too busy to talk to could step out into eternity, and if i could have made a difference and told him about Christ. Every decision we make adds up to something bigger later on down the road. I think we all to an extent realize that, but we definitely need to be reminded more often that good choices will reap good outcomes, and that bad decisions are a lot like Lay's potato chips...because chances are you won't make just one.
So yeah, then to end the day off with a bang (pun intended), a big group of us got together and watched Niceville/Valparaiso put on a terrific fireworks display. It was the most impressive I've seen in quite a while. I can never get enough of exploding smiley faces. I could reword that, but I think I'll just leave the interpretation up to you on this one (big wink)
Got home, watched a movie with the sister (the one that's actually related to me), and ran through a couple new songs in my head. One of them I really like, even though it's pretty simple. Later this week, I'll probably just make a video of it, nothing to fancy -- I just want you to have a good idea of what it is. But until then, Me and Myself bids you all sayounara. I already went to bed.
Anyway, after church, I watched Dad's amazement as he realized you could get a Hot-n-Ready pizza in the drivethru in under a minute =P. (By the way, as soon as I figure out where I'm supposed to find real smilies for this thing, I'll use em lol.) Then I had a good friend come to help me with a song (my violinist...she sounds great so far. Hope to record her in one of the upcoming weeks). So this afternoon was a lot of fun. I can't wait to hear the whole thing together when it's all done. I hope you'll all enjoy it.
As if the day needed to be better at all, James brought a great message about choices during the evening service, which really made me stop and think how much every decision I make affects my life and those of others. Thinking about that really makes it difficult for a person not to take the opportunities God gives him in life. I never know when the next person I decide I'm currently too busy to talk to could step out into eternity, and if i could have made a difference and told him about Christ. Every decision we make adds up to something bigger later on down the road. I think we all to an extent realize that, but we definitely need to be reminded more often that good choices will reap good outcomes, and that bad decisions are a lot like Lay's potato chips...because chances are you won't make just one.
So yeah, then to end the day off with a bang (pun intended), a big group of us got together and watched Niceville/Valparaiso put on a terrific fireworks display. It was the most impressive I've seen in quite a while. I can never get enough of exploding smiley faces. I could reword that, but I think I'll just leave the interpretation up to you on this one (big wink)
Got home, watched a movie with the sister (the one that's actually related to me), and ran through a couple new songs in my head. One of them I really like, even though it's pretty simple. Later this week, I'll probably just make a video of it, nothing to fancy -- I just want you to have a good idea of what it is. But until then, Me and Myself bids you all sayounara. I already went to bed.
Well that was fun...ner that being roasted alive
So as most of you know, I've been looking for a summer job. I would really like one in a retail position, since engineering internships don't like like they're going to happen this summer. Electronics retail would be ideal. Well, yesterday, I got an email from RadioShack inviting me to attend a hiring fair on Monday. Pray that goes well! I also went up to Winn-Dixie to ask about an application, and I was told to fill out the online application, and they gave me instructions about which links to click to get there. So i get on the computer and follow those instructions. The link doesn't exist. So I search through every page of the site i can find. Still no luck. I eventually had to google "winn-dixie careers" to find it. Then I started the application. Everything looks normal. Then there's the tax credit questions. About 20 questions asking if I'm white or Latino and if I collect unemployment benefits. After that, they want me to complete a 118-question personality assessment (you know, the kind that ask you the same 8 questions so many times that it's unhealthy). That's right. 118 questions. No, I didn't have the patience to count them all. There were just 24 pages with 5 questions on each page, and only 3 questions on the last one. Anyway, I forgot to answer a couple before clicking next, but it wouldn't let me go to the next page without answering those questions. There was no way out of this assessment. So I spent an hour doing this. I FINALLY get to the last question, and I get a pop-up window that says "This completes the voluntary question portion." I don't want to work for Winn-Dixie anymore.
As always, I was up sorta late last night working on music. Found out that trying to use Finale to score and try out parts on a jazzy piece like Timeless is simply not an option. (Don't worry, you'll get a chance to hear that one when I finish everything.) I saw some of the weirdest music in my life when I tried to input the music files that I had played through my keyboard. I was looking at a measure with 128th notes, dotted 64th notes, and double dotted 32nd notes all in tuplets with each other. I played it back, and it didn't sound like the song at all. I tried just entering the notes, but I don't know how to tell Finale "Play this song with this rhythm," so it sounds all wrong. All that accomplishes is getting me to look stupid by talking to my computer. So I went back to getting the music right for Meant for Me. I think I have everything I need now (minus the violin, but that's coming soon). I'll just have to work with the takes and get the levels right, and with a bit of luck and a lot of prayer, maybe it can actually sound like a professionally done piece! =D
When I finish it, I'll probably be re-releasing the video. I'd like to compare the final product to the original recording that I did with my guitar, Audacity and a $10 headset from Walmart. Let's hope the new one sounds a thousand times better lol. If you haven't heard the song, it's here.
To tie things up with the beginning of this post, I finally found the employment link on Winn-Dixie's website. You have to scroll to the right, which I was unable to do before, and it's way up in the top right corner in size 8 or smaller font. Scroll to the right? Really guys? I'm sporting a dual monitor setup with a screen resolution of 1280x800 pixels on each monitor, and I STILL have to scroll right? REALLY?! Great planning there, guys...
Oh well, on that note (pretty sure it was an A#) I'm off. Don't forget to water the dog!
As always, I was up sorta late last night working on music. Found out that trying to use Finale to score and try out parts on a jazzy piece like Timeless is simply not an option. (Don't worry, you'll get a chance to hear that one when I finish everything.) I saw some of the weirdest music in my life when I tried to input the music files that I had played through my keyboard. I was looking at a measure with 128th notes, dotted 64th notes, and double dotted 32nd notes all in tuplets with each other. I played it back, and it didn't sound like the song at all. I tried just entering the notes, but I don't know how to tell Finale "Play this song with this rhythm," so it sounds all wrong. All that accomplishes is getting me to look stupid by talking to my computer. So I went back to getting the music right for Meant for Me. I think I have everything I need now (minus the violin, but that's coming soon). I'll just have to work with the takes and get the levels right, and with a bit of luck and a lot of prayer, maybe it can actually sound like a professionally done piece! =D
When I finish it, I'll probably be re-releasing the video. I'd like to compare the final product to the original recording that I did with my guitar, Audacity and a $10 headset from Walmart. Let's hope the new one sounds a thousand times better lol. If you haven't heard the song, it's here.
To tie things up with the beginning of this post, I finally found the employment link on Winn-Dixie's website. You have to scroll to the right, which I was unable to do before, and it's way up in the top right corner in size 8 or smaller font. Scroll to the right? Really guys? I'm sporting a dual monitor setup with a screen resolution of 1280x800 pixels on each monitor, and I STILL have to scroll right? REALLY?! Great planning there, guys...
Oh well, on that note (pretty sure it was an A#) I'm off. Don't forget to water the dog!
Long road ahead
Well, it looks like I'm one step closer to the one thing I've always dreamed of. Funny...it's not to be famous. I really don't care if I sell millions of copies. All i really want to do is release and sell a CD that sounds good. If one person that I don't know buys it, I've pretty much accomplished my goal. Anyway, after doing a count, I have enough songs for a CD. The only problem standing in my way is actually developing more complete arrangements and recording them lol. I've got a friend who's agreed to help me out and play violin for me. Yay! As for other instruments besides piano and guitar, I don't know where I'll get those yet. Maybe 1-800-SAX-FONE will help...I could always use a mail-order saxophonist! I need instrument players. Unless you're reading this and you play the vuvuzela. If you're a vuvuzelist, please don't call me, because my CD doesn't have room for you. I think I'd rather listen to a walrus and a seal doing a duet of "Toxicity" by System of a Down a half-step off-key from each other than hear one more vuvuzela (on second thought, that might sound better than the original "song"...hmmm...). I have to mute the World Cup...it's so sad. Nothing against South Africa, but I do think whoever decided they'd make an instrument modeled after a bicycle horn and give it to 50,000 people to play at the top of their lungs...was on crack.
Ok, scratch that previous idea...apparently calling 1-800-SAX-FONE (729-3663) gets you in touch with a health food company that sells "cayenne pepper heart food caplets." That is possibly the farthest from a saxophone I can get...
Oh well...back to the drawing board.
In other news, another friend wants to record stuff with me! Awesome! Only problem is we haven't figured out what to record. Any ideas for a good guy-girl duet would be appreciated! Meanwhile, I'll be working on a song to sing as a duet. This should be fun. Maybe even as fun as having someone buy me a steak, who knows! Well, it's almost midnight, and I have to press this orange "Publish Post" button before my computer turns into an eggplant, like my fairy goduncle warned me. Yeah...don't ask...seriously...
Ok, scratch that previous idea...apparently calling 1-800-SAX-FONE (729-3663) gets you in touch with a health food company that sells "cayenne pepper heart food caplets." That is possibly the farthest from a saxophone I can get...
Oh well...back to the drawing board.
In other news, another friend wants to record stuff with me! Awesome! Only problem is we haven't figured out what to record. Any ideas for a good guy-girl duet would be appreciated! Meanwhile, I'll be working on a song to sing as a duet. This should be fun. Maybe even as fun as having someone buy me a steak, who knows! Well, it's almost midnight, and I have to press this orange "Publish Post" button before my computer turns into an eggplant, like my fairy goduncle warned me. Yeah...don't ask...seriously...
Well, well, well...
So i must say I've fallen in love again. Sadly though, I can't afford her. No, not that, sicko. I found a guitar. But, sadly, I have rather expensive taste in instruments. So, first thing's first: get a summer job. I've got a pretty good lead on one right now, but we'll just see how it goes, and if I actually get it. Hope so. But of course, that money will have to go towards college anyway, so I hope Miss Martin can wait for me. We met yesterday, when I made my way down to Ye Olde Guitar Center with my friend. He went to get some recording equipment. All I got were guitar strings. Which got me thinking:
Guitar strings are like soccer players on a team. Unless you get the more-expensive long-lasting ones, they can't go too long before you gotta change em out for some fresh ones. But when you replace the old strings with the fresh strings, they have to be really nice and stretched out, or they're going to sound awful. But then it usually still takes a good 15 minutes of playing time with the other strings for them to perform well, cuz they have to get in tune with the rest of the guitar. Ok, whether it's world cup fever or what, I for some reason developed that analogy, and if you're still reading this, I assume that means you didn't hate it! :D
Speaking of soccer, I'd like to applaud the USA team for a good effort. They played a great second half against Ghana. They still didn't make the quarter-finals, but I can't be upset with them, because no team I've ever played on could have lasted one game in the world cup. So, good job guys! Maybe you can make it farther in Brazil in 2014.
In one of the upcoming weeks, I hope to attend Open Mic night at Playground Music. It could be my first public performance of any kind outside of church and high school competitions. Hey, you gotta start somewhere! I have a song I'd like to debut. I don't currently have a band, so it will just be myself playing piano and singing. Stay tuned and I'll give you more information about if and/or when i do it!
Well, that's all for now. Talk to you later, internet!
Home sweet home!
Well I finished up another year at school. Taking classes post-term was actually pretty fun, for a couple reasons. One was the fact that my class was macroeconomics, which was particularly easy due to the fact that it's pretty much the same course i took in high school AND the tests were so close to each other i never had time to forget anything! I don't feel like typing all the rest of the reasons, so that's all you get for now! Muhaha! But anyway, two years down! But since i changed my major last semester and added a piano minor this past semester (that should be fun), i'll be there for three more years. I made a lot of new friends over the semester, and grew a lot closer to the friends i already had. It's been a good four months.
My room was nice and not too bad when i got home...then i took everything out of my car...now i have a lot of work to do lol. Remember that humble little recording setup i showed yall around Christmas? I might have to rethink the placement of that too. But right now, I just need to finish arranging a couple of these songs.
I got a lot of free stuff at school! It's kinda nice having roommates that graduate and have to fly home...they give you everything that won't fit on the plane! Like a desk, and a cool motion sensor Bug's Life Flick, and a magnetic dart board, and a water purifying pitcher, and a printer, and a laundry basket, and pretty much anything else you can think of that i didn't already have. Oh, and a bag of puzzles that come in clear plastic bags instead of boxes....so I'm trying to put them together, and have NO idea what they look like until I'm finished. I started one this afternoon with my dad. We worked on it for about 5 hours, and still have a long way to go lol.
The only thing about being home is now i have to finish all these TV series i started and haven't finished yet. Like Lost. I hate that show. It keeps making me watch it! I'm still only halfway through season 6. Everyone else in the world knows what's happened, but I haven't been here to see any of the episodes, so I feel so alone in the world! Ok not really; it's just taking a while to finish up. And to make it worse, abc took the first half of the season off, so I can't find the next couple episodes. Stupid show lol.
On that note (it was a C#, in case you weren't sure) i'm off! I'll talk to you later, internet. Maybe next week, I'll tell you how awesome this week was!
My room was nice and not too bad when i got home...then i took everything out of my car...now i have a lot of work to do lol. Remember that humble little recording setup i showed yall around Christmas? I might have to rethink the placement of that too. But right now, I just need to finish arranging a couple of these songs.
I got a lot of free stuff at school! It's kinda nice having roommates that graduate and have to fly home...they give you everything that won't fit on the plane! Like a desk, and a cool motion sensor Bug's Life Flick, and a magnetic dart board, and a water purifying pitcher, and a printer, and a laundry basket, and pretty much anything else you can think of that i didn't already have. Oh, and a bag of puzzles that come in clear plastic bags instead of boxes....so I'm trying to put them together, and have NO idea what they look like until I'm finished. I started one this afternoon with my dad. We worked on it for about 5 hours, and still have a long way to go lol.
The only thing about being home is now i have to finish all these TV series i started and haven't finished yet. Like Lost. I hate that show. It keeps making me watch it! I'm still only halfway through season 6. Everyone else in the world knows what's happened, but I haven't been here to see any of the episodes, so I feel so alone in the world! Ok not really; it's just taking a while to finish up. And to make it worse, abc took the first half of the season off, so I can't find the next couple episodes. Stupid show lol.
On that note (it was a C#, in case you weren't sure) i'm off! I'll talk to you later, internet. Maybe next week, I'll tell you how awesome this week was!
Don't Open the Queso!!!
Ok, so that MIGHT seem a little random. But I can't say that I care!
So anyway, life is hectic. I basically found out I have three days to decide how the rest of my life is going to work, since changing my major to electrical engineering on the off-semester kinda threw everything off, and i now have to add a minor, or become a town student, which isn't as worth it as it sounds. So i decided on a mixture of possibly the most unrelated courses imaginable! Go me!
Oh, I have a new favorite song (of those I've written, I mean). It's brand new, and sure to be on my debut CD. Whenever that gets here. I still plan to have something by the time I graduate. That may be the only thing that hasn't changed.
So let's see. Maybe my blog should include what i actually have been doing. A lot of rock climbing. It's so fun! And to think I used to be scared to death of heights! Turns out rock climbing was made for tall people though, sadly. I just have to be that much more ninja-like, I guess. I've also been writing music, of course. And a lot of engineering...almost too much....And I've been reading Lord of the Rings, since I never actually finished it in high school. Only problem is that I've also been reWATCHING the same trilogy. So things get really confusing at times. One moment Frodo is getting attacked by a giant spider, and the next he's getting attacked by a giant squid-thing. Then he's getting attacked by Gollum. Then he's running from a Balrog. It's hard to keep straight lol.
Although other things on my "what I've been doing" list shall remain unnamed, rest assured, it's all been fun! I'm exhausted though. Maybe too much fun really is possible. That or waking up at 5:30 in the morning is inhumane. It's gotta be one of the two.
Well, as I said, I'm exhausted. Time for a good night's sleep. Goodnight, internet!
So anyway, life is hectic. I basically found out I have three days to decide how the rest of my life is going to work, since changing my major to electrical engineering on the off-semester kinda threw everything off, and i now have to add a minor, or become a town student, which isn't as worth it as it sounds. So i decided on a mixture of possibly the most unrelated courses imaginable! Go me!
Oh, I have a new favorite song (of those I've written, I mean). It's brand new, and sure to be on my debut CD. Whenever that gets here. I still plan to have something by the time I graduate. That may be the only thing that hasn't changed.
So let's see. Maybe my blog should include what i actually have been doing. A lot of rock climbing. It's so fun! And to think I used to be scared to death of heights! Turns out rock climbing was made for tall people though, sadly. I just have to be that much more ninja-like, I guess. I've also been writing music, of course. And a lot of engineering...almost too much....And I've been reading Lord of the Rings, since I never actually finished it in high school. Only problem is that I've also been reWATCHING the same trilogy. So things get really confusing at times. One moment Frodo is getting attacked by a giant spider, and the next he's getting attacked by a giant squid-thing. Then he's getting attacked by Gollum. Then he's running from a Balrog. It's hard to keep straight lol.
Although other things on my "what I've been doing" list shall remain unnamed, rest assured, it's all been fun! I'm exhausted though. Maybe too much fun really is possible. That or waking up at 5:30 in the morning is inhumane. It's gotta be one of the two.
Well, as I said, I'm exhausted. Time for a good night's sleep. Goodnight, internet!
My 20th Post!!!!
Everyone! Gather round for this momentous occasion! Party we must, and party we shall! You bring the drinks, she'll bring the chips, and I'll bring the penguins! Because penguins are awesomeness incarnate, and the rest of the world simply wishes they could be more penguin-esque.
Well, the Ides of March came and went, but not without making a mess of things. Stupid Ides of March. They pretty much murdered my GPA. Among other thing, not liking March so far. But, if you're March, and you're reading this, you've got 11 days to straighten up.
The GOOD thing about those Ides is that I managed to get off campus for a while. That was fun. Was like 5 minutes late to prayer group...and i was supposed to be leading it that night...whoooops. But it's ok, cuz the next night, we all went off campus for twice as long, and we were only half as late to prayer group! Aaaaand while I was off campus, I found something I desperately need: The Veggietales Bible! =P Yeah, my current Bible is slowly losing itself. Right now, it ends at 2 Timothy. Give it a few months, and I may be out of a New Testament. Getting the Veggietales Bible would totally fix that! Plus I'd get to read Veggietales comic strips any time I wanted! Maybe next time, when I have money with me.
Went to the beach today. That was fun. Just being lazy, while frying at the same time! Topped it off with some Baskin Robins. Almost as awesome as penguins!
Got yet another new roommate. Well, and old roommate...who returned. So we're back up to four people. Fun stuff. Well, I think I want to go work on a song. Got so many running through my head. They're coming faster than I can record them. Sooner or later, I'll get em all down. I should totally write one about penguins. Aaah, penguins.
Well, the Ides of March came and went, but not without making a mess of things. Stupid Ides of March. They pretty much murdered my GPA. Among other thing, not liking March so far. But, if you're March, and you're reading this, you've got 11 days to straighten up.
The GOOD thing about those Ides is that I managed to get off campus for a while. That was fun. Was like 5 minutes late to prayer group...and i was supposed to be leading it that night...whoooops. But it's ok, cuz the next night, we all went off campus for twice as long, and we were only half as late to prayer group! Aaaaand while I was off campus, I found something I desperately need: The Veggietales Bible! =P Yeah, my current Bible is slowly losing itself. Right now, it ends at 2 Timothy. Give it a few months, and I may be out of a New Testament. Getting the Veggietales Bible would totally fix that! Plus I'd get to read Veggietales comic strips any time I wanted! Maybe next time, when I have money with me.
Went to the beach today. That was fun. Just being lazy, while frying at the same time! Topped it off with some Baskin Robins. Almost as awesome as penguins!
Got yet another new roommate. Well, and old roommate...who returned. So we're back up to four people. Fun stuff. Well, I think I want to go work on a song. Got so many running through my head. They're coming faster than I can record them. Sooner or later, I'll get em all down. I should totally write one about penguins. Aaah, penguins.
New Post Time!!
Ok, so, life just keeps moving faster and faster. I think dad's getting impatient and wants grandkids, so he's tryin to make sure I keep meeting new girls. I think he's hopin for a new daughter-in-law by this time next year! (j/k dad!) But really...where do i start...
I'll just get on with it, I guess. I have a new roommate, and he's already one of my good friends, so that's pretty cool. He's been learning Japanese with me. Yes, you read it right, I am learning Japanese. I still haven't figured out why...all I know is about two weeks ago I suddenly had this uncontrollable desire to learn Japanese, and I've dragged a few people into it with me! Woohoo! I haven't gotten very far yet...like I said, it's only been a couple weeks. But, give it time. Maybe it'll soon take me less than three minutes to read a Japanese sentence! =P I currently have a quest, to learn how to say the phrase "The boy is under the airplane" and "what is this?" in as many languages as I can. So far, I'm up to 7! You might ask why. I prefer not to answer that question.
Right now, we at The Camp are smack in the middle of midterms. I only have one left, and it's in my easiest class...which is taught by a Chinese woman who has trouble pronouncing her words. It's so awesome!! I've only got four midterms this semester, so it's not too bad. I had a Differential Equations test about a week ago that was simply miraculous. I got the highest grade in the class. Just when I thought I was in over my head in my classes and wasn't getting a thing, here comes this Oasis with the title "A." I really had forgotten how nice it felt to get one of those lol. Now if only I could do as well in the other classes....I guess we'll find out soon enough, when the tests get graded....
So I've agreed to play piano for a friend in his voice class. As it was, we needed to have two new songs ready about two weeks from now. I was just informed, however, that his teacher decided to move everything up. Now we need to have these two songs done Monday morning. Yikes!
Oh! I also had my other roommate, a senior church music major, start teaching me cello! I love cello. It's pretty hard though, as it's so vastly different from piano and guitar. There's making noise, and there's making music. I may be at the "noise" stage for a while. Seems like form and technique is EVERYTHING with that instrument! But hopefully by the end of the semester, I can learn the basics, then go from there.
Still don't know what's happening after the semester ends. I've applied for UWF, but I still haven't gotten a reply. It's amazing, while life flies by at remarkable speeds, in most aspects, i still have nothing to do but wait. I was hoping I was done learning patience, but I guess that's not for me to decide lol.
So Bible Conference is next week. Which is good. I love discovering Mullenix's unique doctrines, but there's only so much I can take. Now we get a smorgasbord of other preachers whose level of sanity is not under debate. I have no idea most of who's coming, but apparently Johnny Pope is going to be there.
I keep having epiphanies. The most recent one answered the question I wake up to every morning: "Am I doing the right thing?" See, I would absolutely LOVE to be a professional musician. But at the same time, to make music my career...I can't be sure is a good idea. For years, I've used music as my personal venue of release, a constancy in the midst of an ever-changing world, a nice warm shelter in the middle of tremendous blizzards. This is why I'm studying engineering. I've come to realize that if the aspect of life i most love is to remain constant, it has to remain that shelter. It can't become the storm itself. But fret not! (see what i did there? fret? like on a guitar? nevermind...) I'm still writing music, and you will still see that CD someday. As long as it is within my power, I plan to have a complete CD officially mastered and released by the time i graduate college!
I'd like to mention my friends again who helped me through the day in ways they may not even be aware. It may seem kinda dumb, but I woke up this morning to the realization that I had a test coming up that very well could have detrimental effects on my college career. I studied. I studied more. I studied even more. But I still couldn't understand the material. Each time I tried to answer questions, I felt like I was losing information. I couldn't get a single one right. I thought for sure I would fail. I'd worked myself into a panic of sorts. Then I talked to a friend briefly, and something they said reminded me that no matter what happens, life keeps going. There's no point in worrying. What will happen will happen, and the biggest way we can affect it is by changing out attitude toward the situation. I was able to calm down and think clearly during the test. I still don't know how it went, but at least I finished it. At any rate, I should have credit for trying! So...if you're reading this, and you are a friend who's made a difference in my life (which I guess would probably be anyone reading this lol), thank you!
Have I left anything out? Of course! If you'd like to know the rest, you could call me up, or wait for me to release a book. But the internet currently doesn't have enough room for everything. In the mean time, I hope to be perfecting my music. It's a slow process, but it's a road that only leads forward!
Sayounara! Otoko no ko wa hikouki no shita ni imasu!
I'll just get on with it, I guess. I have a new roommate, and he's already one of my good friends, so that's pretty cool. He's been learning Japanese with me. Yes, you read it right, I am learning Japanese. I still haven't figured out why...all I know is about two weeks ago I suddenly had this uncontrollable desire to learn Japanese, and I've dragged a few people into it with me! Woohoo! I haven't gotten very far yet...like I said, it's only been a couple weeks. But, give it time. Maybe it'll soon take me less than three minutes to read a Japanese sentence! =P I currently have a quest, to learn how to say the phrase "The boy is under the airplane" and "what is this?" in as many languages as I can. So far, I'm up to 7! You might ask why. I prefer not to answer that question.
Right now, we at The Camp are smack in the middle of midterms. I only have one left, and it's in my easiest class...which is taught by a Chinese woman who has trouble pronouncing her words. It's so awesome!! I've only got four midterms this semester, so it's not too bad. I had a Differential Equations test about a week ago that was simply miraculous. I got the highest grade in the class. Just when I thought I was in over my head in my classes and wasn't getting a thing, here comes this Oasis with the title "A." I really had forgotten how nice it felt to get one of those lol. Now if only I could do as well in the other classes....I guess we'll find out soon enough, when the tests get graded....
So I've agreed to play piano for a friend in his voice class. As it was, we needed to have two new songs ready about two weeks from now. I was just informed, however, that his teacher decided to move everything up. Now we need to have these two songs done Monday morning. Yikes!
Oh! I also had my other roommate, a senior church music major, start teaching me cello! I love cello. It's pretty hard though, as it's so vastly different from piano and guitar. There's making noise, and there's making music. I may be at the "noise" stage for a while. Seems like form and technique is EVERYTHING with that instrument! But hopefully by the end of the semester, I can learn the basics, then go from there.
Still don't know what's happening after the semester ends. I've applied for UWF, but I still haven't gotten a reply. It's amazing, while life flies by at remarkable speeds, in most aspects, i still have nothing to do but wait. I was hoping I was done learning patience, but I guess that's not for me to decide lol.
So Bible Conference is next week. Which is good. I love discovering Mullenix's unique doctrines, but there's only so much I can take. Now we get a smorgasbord of other preachers whose level of sanity is not under debate. I have no idea most of who's coming, but apparently Johnny Pope is going to be there.
I keep having epiphanies. The most recent one answered the question I wake up to every morning: "Am I doing the right thing?" See, I would absolutely LOVE to be a professional musician. But at the same time, to make music my career...I can't be sure is a good idea. For years, I've used music as my personal venue of release, a constancy in the midst of an ever-changing world, a nice warm shelter in the middle of tremendous blizzards. This is why I'm studying engineering. I've come to realize that if the aspect of life i most love is to remain constant, it has to remain that shelter. It can't become the storm itself. But fret not! (see what i did there? fret? like on a guitar? nevermind...) I'm still writing music, and you will still see that CD someday. As long as it is within my power, I plan to have a complete CD officially mastered and released by the time i graduate college!
I'd like to mention my friends again who helped me through the day in ways they may not even be aware. It may seem kinda dumb, but I woke up this morning to the realization that I had a test coming up that very well could have detrimental effects on my college career. I studied. I studied more. I studied even more. But I still couldn't understand the material. Each time I tried to answer questions, I felt like I was losing information. I couldn't get a single one right. I thought for sure I would fail. I'd worked myself into a panic of sorts. Then I talked to a friend briefly, and something they said reminded me that no matter what happens, life keeps going. There's no point in worrying. What will happen will happen, and the biggest way we can affect it is by changing out attitude toward the situation. I was able to calm down and think clearly during the test. I still don't know how it went, but at least I finished it. At any rate, I should have credit for trying! So...if you're reading this, and you are a friend who's made a difference in my life (which I guess would probably be anyone reading this lol), thank you!
Have I left anything out? Of course! If you'd like to know the rest, you could call me up, or wait for me to release a book. But the internet currently doesn't have enough room for everything. In the mean time, I hope to be perfecting my music. It's a slow process, but it's a road that only leads forward!
Sayounara! Otoko no ko wa hikouki no shita ni imasu!
Home for the weekend!
I decided I'd take a break from my brain-numbing classes that you don't want to hear about almost as much as i don't want to tell you about them. But other stuff has happened. Such as...I wrote a new song. It's kinda awesome, although i just might be a little biased =P.
Also, turns out I'm going to be accompanying my friend in his voice class for performances. This was decided last night, when he called em and asked if I could play a song for his performance this morning. I knew the song, so it wasn't too big a deal, but from here on out, I'll have to actually learn some of the songs. That won't be quite as easy, because I'm not the best in the world when it comes to sight-reading piano sheet music =/. Oh well, it should be fun!
Let it be known that i have awesome friends, who magically know exactly when i need a break lol. Granted, I'm not positive McGuire's a place I'm allowed to take a break at while attending the Camp...but who cares? I'm probably not allowed to become a newlywed either, but that didn't stop the Irish officials from declaring me as such.
It snowed here today...for the first time in 17 years! there was VERY little...didn't even have enough to accumulate anywhere. but there was snow nonetheless. It melted by the time it hit the ground. But i still am happy that we had snow in Florida, however meager it may be. All the northerners at school were making fun of us for being excited, but what do they know? Snow's normal for them. This is Florida, people! This doesn't happen! Lol. On that note...it's cold as crap outside!
Oh! I am assistant prayer leader this semester! Not that that means anything to most people reading this. But...my very first prayer group meeting that i led ever was Monday night...and I got in trouble for having Ben play piano for us. We were singing Lord I Lift Your name On High, and Ben's piano playing was great, so it was kinda awesome. Everybody was excited about prayer group and everything. But apparently we're not allowed to be excited about praising God..."PCC: Praising Christ Counter-intuitively."
Started watching the cartoon series Avatar. I'd only seen a few episodes...now I'm watching the whole thing so i actually know what the plot is lol. It's pretty awesome. I like picking out at least one phrase in every episode that stands out as hilarious. Especially when you use it out of context. Examples: "Come back! I want to eat you!" and "Where we're going, you won't need pants!" I also started watching the series Supernatural. That's weeeeeird. But still interesting. But weeeeird.
Well that's all for now. Until we meet again! Have a happy Abraham Lincoln's birthday!!!
Also, turns out I'm going to be accompanying my friend in his voice class for performances. This was decided last night, when he called em and asked if I could play a song for his performance this morning. I knew the song, so it wasn't too big a deal, but from here on out, I'll have to actually learn some of the songs. That won't be quite as easy, because I'm not the best in the world when it comes to sight-reading piano sheet music =/. Oh well, it should be fun!
Let it be known that i have awesome friends, who magically know exactly when i need a break lol. Granted, I'm not positive McGuire's a place I'm allowed to take a break at while attending the Camp...but who cares? I'm probably not allowed to become a newlywed either, but that didn't stop the Irish officials from declaring me as such.
It snowed here today...for the first time in 17 years! there was VERY little...didn't even have enough to accumulate anywhere. but there was snow nonetheless. It melted by the time it hit the ground. But i still am happy that we had snow in Florida, however meager it may be. All the northerners at school were making fun of us for being excited, but what do they know? Snow's normal for them. This is Florida, people! This doesn't happen! Lol. On that note...it's cold as crap outside!
Oh! I am assistant prayer leader this semester! Not that that means anything to most people reading this. But...my very first prayer group meeting that i led ever was Monday night...and I got in trouble for having Ben play piano for us. We were singing Lord I Lift Your name On High, and Ben's piano playing was great, so it was kinda awesome. Everybody was excited about prayer group and everything. But apparently we're not allowed to be excited about praising God..."PCC: Praising Christ Counter-intuitively."
Started watching the cartoon series Avatar. I'd only seen a few episodes...now I'm watching the whole thing so i actually know what the plot is lol. It's pretty awesome. I like picking out at least one phrase in every episode that stands out as hilarious. Especially when you use it out of context. Examples: "Come back! I want to eat you!" and "Where we're going, you won't need pants!" I also started watching the series Supernatural. That's weeeeeird. But still interesting. But weeeeird.
Well that's all for now. Until we meet again! Have a happy Abraham Lincoln's birthday!!!
Sleepless in what I wish was Seattle
Can't go to sleep...again. So I just lay awake thinkin about stuff (which usually just gets me in trouble lol)
This is my last post before I head off to prison...err...i mean college (=P) tomorrow. I'm done packing everything that I won't need in the morning. I'll have to leave my computer at home, so dad can fix it. The way my luck has been going, I really don't need to be anywhere near technology right now...so ssshh! Don't tell my sister I'm blogging on her computer. Oh yeah, I didn't tell you...My backup harddrive fried too! Well..not so much "fried" as "became possessed by Satan himself." Everything was working fine. I backed up everything I could find from my broken hard drive onto it, and I still had other backups and everything...but then suddenly I plugged it into another computer to try to get something off of it, and EVERY file on the drive had suddenly become weird alien files like "Y.a" and "a.Y" and ".a" Literally every file on the drive had that name or one similar. There were hundreds (possibly thousands) of these files, and every 50 or so had the exact same alien name. Tried plugging it into other computers, and found the same thing. Don't know what happened.
And then ...to make things even funnier...my sister wants me to fix her flash drive. Ha! I'm pretty sure the very reason my backup hard drive went demonic was because I touched it. You don't want me trying to FIX your flash drive, sis. sorry lol.
Oh well. I managed to salvage my recordings and put them onto ANOTHER hard drive before i had this problem. Hopefully that one doesn't get eaten by a goat or anything random =/. I'm still pretty bummed though, because my very first song was on that hard drive, in its original form. As in...the poem I wrote before I even had music to it. Well, I guess there's nothing I can do now. I guess I'm going to try to grab some sleep now...apparently I've made the sandman AND his IT department pretty upset lately. Idk what I did, but I need to buy them some gift cards or somethin....
This is my last post before I head off to prison...err...i mean college (=P) tomorrow. I'm done packing everything that I won't need in the morning. I'll have to leave my computer at home, so dad can fix it. The way my luck has been going, I really don't need to be anywhere near technology right now...so ssshh! Don't tell my sister I'm blogging on her computer. Oh yeah, I didn't tell you...My backup harddrive fried too! Well..not so much "fried" as "became possessed by Satan himself." Everything was working fine. I backed up everything I could find from my broken hard drive onto it, and I still had other backups and everything...but then suddenly I plugged it into another computer to try to get something off of it, and EVERY file on the drive had suddenly become weird alien files like "Y.a" and "a.Y" and ".a" Literally every file on the drive had that name or one similar. There were hundreds (possibly thousands) of these files, and every 50 or so had the exact same alien name. Tried plugging it into other computers, and found the same thing. Don't know what happened.
And then ...to make things even funnier...my sister wants me to fix her flash drive. Ha! I'm pretty sure the very reason my backup hard drive went demonic was because I touched it. You don't want me trying to FIX your flash drive, sis. sorry lol.
Oh well. I managed to salvage my recordings and put them onto ANOTHER hard drive before i had this problem. Hopefully that one doesn't get eaten by a goat or anything random =/. I'm still pretty bummed though, because my very first song was on that hard drive, in its original form. As in...the poem I wrote before I even had music to it. Well, I guess there's nothing I can do now. I guess I'm going to try to grab some sleep now...apparently I've made the sandman AND his IT department pretty upset lately. Idk what I did, but I need to buy them some gift cards or somethin....
A whole new set of issues
Well, after being on drugs and in pain the last few days, I've had a lot of time to just sit and think, rather than talk lol. Found a lot of logical reasoning to answer questions I've been having. And amid all that, the prescribed pain-killers made me say pretty much anything that was on my mind (which is dangerous, considering I am, at my nature, a multitasker with a short attention span). Basically, nearly anything I've been wondering about in my life over the past week has been answered some way or another. But then, as of Wednesday, I was presented with a whole new set of everything! Yay!
It all started when my computer crashed. At first I thought, Oh no big deal. Windows does this all the time! But when i restarted it, I just had a blank screen that read "No internal hard disk found. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart." I restarted it ten times, and kept getting the same response, the only difference is that by the tenth time, the hard drive started speaking car for "Change my oil or I will die." =/
I took the hard drive out, reseated it, tried to run system repairs/recoveries...nothing was working. Once or twice I at least managed to make it say "Starting Windows" before the computer started mimicking a timebomb and i had to shut it off. Anyway, I eventually decided I wasn't going to boot up anytime soon, and had my dad take it to work to try to salvage some information. He only managed 17Gb out of the 58Gb being used. This drive was destroyed. Gone were all my recordings :(
After quite a bit of nerdy technical stuff, I got my computer to a fairly usable state. Right now, I have to boot of of a live Ubuntu cd, and I have to reorganize everything every time i turn it on, since I have no hard drive, and no where to save any information. But it's ok, because I have a brand new hard drive in the mail. Twice as big and a whole lot faster. Should be here tomorrow! Anyway, the point of this whole paragraph was that, while booting up from a cd under a different operating system, I was actually able to read most of what was on the hard drive, and copy off everything that could be located! I managed to get almost 52Gb, so that's a lot of progress. How much of that is usable data, I don't know...
But what REALLY freaked me out Wednesday, was when my brand new digital piano suddenly wouldn't work. I thought...maybe the outlet went bad. So I kept trying different outlets, to no avail. After about half an hour of searching frantically for a solution, I found out that the power adapter had fried. I found a new one that worked...it's the same one the powers my external hard drive, where I store my piano recordings, ironically.
And that was just Wednesday night...I won't even begin to explain what's been happening in my mind since Thursday morning!
It all started when my computer crashed. At first I thought, Oh no big deal. Windows does this all the time! But when i restarted it, I just had a blank screen that read "No internal hard disk found. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart." I restarted it ten times, and kept getting the same response, the only difference is that by the tenth time, the hard drive started speaking car for "Change my oil or I will die." =/
I took the hard drive out, reseated it, tried to run system repairs/recoveries...nothing was working. Once or twice I at least managed to make it say "Starting Windows" before the computer started mimicking a timebomb and i had to shut it off. Anyway, I eventually decided I wasn't going to boot up anytime soon, and had my dad take it to work to try to salvage some information. He only managed 17Gb out of the 58Gb being used. This drive was destroyed. Gone were all my recordings :(
After quite a bit of nerdy technical stuff, I got my computer to a fairly usable state. Right now, I have to boot of of a live Ubuntu cd, and I have to reorganize everything every time i turn it on, since I have no hard drive, and no where to save any information. But it's ok, because I have a brand new hard drive in the mail. Twice as big and a whole lot faster. Should be here tomorrow! Anyway, the point of this whole paragraph was that, while booting up from a cd under a different operating system, I was actually able to read most of what was on the hard drive, and copy off everything that could be located! I managed to get almost 52Gb, so that's a lot of progress. How much of that is usable data, I don't know...
But what REALLY freaked me out Wednesday, was when my brand new digital piano suddenly wouldn't work. I thought...maybe the outlet went bad. So I kept trying different outlets, to no avail. After about half an hour of searching frantically for a solution, I found out that the power adapter had fried. I found a new one that worked...it's the same one the powers my external hard drive, where I store my piano recordings, ironically.
And that was just Wednesday night...I won't even begin to explain what's been happening in my mind since Thursday morning!
Drugs taken, Questions addressed
Though not in that order. Without getting too specific, I'd been having quite a few questions lately regarding...well...everything. It's really hard to pick the right people to talk to about them too, because of the subject matter. I have to talk to people who are open-minded, and who i won't throw off-guard (I REALLY don't want to catch anyone unprepared with some of these). So i talked to Iris a few days ago, and dad yesterday. None of the questions have been answered yet, so my current viewpoint on the situation has remained unchanged, but I've got most of my opinions out finally lol. Both of them understood my point quite well...Iris maybe TOO well haha. Well enough there are even plans to open a coffee shop! Eat your heart out, Starbucks!
If you haven't seen Sherlock Holmes yet, then stop reading this blog, and go see it. NOW! Great movie. And speaking of movies, lately there's been a buzz about Avatar passing up Star Wars in ticket sales. It's a lie, and it always will be a lie. Avatar simply can't catch up with Star Wars. Inflation, people. If you look at Star Wars IV: A New Hope's total worldwide gross theatrical earnings, and then convert the numbers with respect to inflation to match the value of today's dollar, it earned over $2.8 BILLION. Avatar only managed (take a breath) $1.6 billion. Titanic, which claims highest revenue, only got (considering the value of today's dollar) $2.5 billion worldwide. So before believing these lies, consider my facts first. I did my homework. Star Wars can't be beat. Take that internet!!
(Now for the drugs portion of my blog) I had my wisdom teeth removed today. That was fun. I don't remember a thing between 10:00 and 1:00. Apparently, I was texting people and everything. I couldn't even type at all lol. What gets me is the fact that I couldn't even figure out where the letters on my keyboard were, but I still managed to take a decent picture of myself RIGHT after surgery, and send a picture message to two different people! How did I do that?! I can barely figure out how to send picture messages to multiple people sober!! I texted my dad too..."iv sedtion is nice, last,i memver is footbell, theni nothin" Oh John....*shakes head* I don't know how i did that...once I was able to verbalize anything, I couldn't think of any word bigger than "eat," yet while under anesthesia, i managed words like sedation? I'm so odd...Oh well...time to eat some pudding! woohoo!
If you haven't seen Sherlock Holmes yet, then stop reading this blog, and go see it. NOW! Great movie. And speaking of movies, lately there's been a buzz about Avatar passing up Star Wars in ticket sales. It's a lie, and it always will be a lie. Avatar simply can't catch up with Star Wars. Inflation, people. If you look at Star Wars IV: A New Hope's total worldwide gross theatrical earnings, and then convert the numbers with respect to inflation to match the value of today's dollar, it earned over $2.8 BILLION. Avatar only managed (take a breath) $1.6 billion. Titanic, which claims highest revenue, only got (considering the value of today's dollar) $2.5 billion worldwide. So before believing these lies, consider my facts first. I did my homework. Star Wars can't be beat. Take that internet!!
(Now for the drugs portion of my blog) I had my wisdom teeth removed today. That was fun. I don't remember a thing between 10:00 and 1:00. Apparently, I was texting people and everything. I couldn't even type at all lol. What gets me is the fact that I couldn't even figure out where the letters on my keyboard were, but I still managed to take a decent picture of myself RIGHT after surgery, and send a picture message to two different people! How did I do that?! I can barely figure out how to send picture messages to multiple people sober!! I texted my dad too..."iv sedtion is nice, last,i memver is footbell, theni nothin" Oh John....*shakes head* I don't know how i did that...once I was able to verbalize anything, I couldn't think of any word bigger than "eat," yet while under anesthesia, i managed words like sedation? I'm so odd...Oh well...time to eat some pudding! woohoo!
Much better
Well, I started keeping a dream journal. It's really funny. I love my dreams sometimes. Even if they are beyond weird. Maybe this way, I can find out if my recurring dreams are ACTUALLY recurring, or if I just dream that they are lol. Other things I've started doing daily include biking and recording SOMETHING. I'm going to try to bike at least three miles every day. Today I only went three, because I was in the highest gear the entire time (my bike wouldn't change gears...gotta fix that) going uphill...both ways. As far as recording goes, I'm constantly having melody ideas hit me, so I try to get that captured on piano, and then dig it out later for something.
But enough about me. Why don't you for once, tell me about YOUR day?
Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. - Robert Heinlein
But enough about me. Why don't you for once, tell me about YOUR day?
Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. - Robert Heinlein
Doomsday announced
So Monday morning, I plan to be drugged up like no tomorrow, after getting all four wisdom teeth removed (oh boy!) Somebody needs to come and record it! Hit me up, and I'll let you know where to be! I really need to watch myself on drugs later =D
Tonight was the first night of revivial at our church. It was a great service, basically about keeping the church alive. He touched for a little while on having a greater concern for others, because many times the only thing people need to convince them to come back to Christ is simply having someone love them and encourage them. A visitor got saved, too! We'll be having services all week, right into Sunday. They're at 7:00 each night at Faith Independent Baptist Church in Niceville. I'd encourage you to come if you can.
Also, youtube is funny. I watched a video, and happened to look down and notice it only had 301 views. However, it had 8,149 comments. How does that work? I took a screenshot XD.
Had a conversation with my dad today. We discussed the existence of other dimensions. I came to several conclusions. One of them is that Heaven and God exist in more dimensions than we can imagine. Think about it, if you had the power to do ANYTHING you wanted...would you REALLY limit yourself to three dimensions? Heck no. God existing outside of our dimensions explains a lot of things. I also decided that we subconsciously have access to a fourth dimension (time), which explains psychic experiences and dreams. Yes, I've been having quite a nerdy/philosophical day. I could get into it a lot deeper, but you don't want to read that, I'm sure. Instead, I'll just leave it with "Later!" (Or earlier, if your dimension so allows)
Tonight was the first night of revivial at our church. It was a great service, basically about keeping the church alive. He touched for a little while on having a greater concern for others, because many times the only thing people need to convince them to come back to Christ is simply having someone love them and encourage them. A visitor got saved, too! We'll be having services all week, right into Sunday. They're at 7:00 each night at Faith Independent Baptist Church in Niceville. I'd encourage you to come if you can.
Also, youtube is funny. I watched a video, and happened to look down and notice it only had 301 views. However, it had 8,149 comments. How does that work? I took a screenshot XD.
Had a conversation with my dad today. We discussed the existence of other dimensions. I came to several conclusions. One of them is that Heaven and God exist in more dimensions than we can imagine. Think about it, if you had the power to do ANYTHING you wanted...would you REALLY limit yourself to three dimensions? Heck no. God existing outside of our dimensions explains a lot of things. I also decided that we subconsciously have access to a fourth dimension (time), which explains psychic experiences and dreams. Yes, I've been having quite a nerdy/philosophical day. I could get into it a lot deeper, but you don't want to read that, I'm sure. Instead, I'll just leave it with "Later!" (Or earlier, if your dimension so allows)
Feeling Productive!
So i cleaned up my room/studio today! I have an actual workstation deal set up now! Check it out!
So it's not much. get over it. See that Yamaha digital keyboard there? Early birthday present!! Here's a closeup!
88 fully-weighted keys, MIDI In/Out, sheer beauty on a stand...I love it! You know, posting all these pictures has made me think...Many of you have never seen me with facial hair! I don't have a lot, but it's as long as I want it....don't wanna be walkin the streets of The Burg lookin like a hobo!
Come on, you can't look at this and not think to yourself, "wow, he's hot." While I may or may not be kidding (that's for you to decide, since you wouldn't believe me if i said I was anyway), I have ONE more thing to show you! Last night, I was playing around on the guitar with my microphones, and decided to record some video too. Took me about an hour just to set something up. There was no more digital tape for the camcorder, and the memory card was too small. So I tried hooking it up to my computer, but that didn't work, because Sony didn't have any Windows 7 drivers. Then I tried using a regular digital camera...but all the ones we have refused to record video for some odd reason. So I resided to using my cell phone, hence the horrible video quality to follow. The audio was recorded using my awesome new microphones though!
This has been covered songs with Johnbobz. Come back next time to hear...oh, sorry. Started thinkin in Veggietales for a second. Anyway, as you saw in the video, that was me covering A Beautiful Mess. Messed up a couple places, but oh well. it was 2AM, so I really didn't care lol.
Revival next week...
...For nights that my face ISN'T planning on being twice it's natural size. But if any of you are going to have chipmunk faces, maybe we could meet up at church and you could give me company!
It's really cold outside right now. Last I heard, Cameron said there was a chance of snow flurries, but it wasn't very likely. I hope it does, cuz I miss snow so much. Granted, I won't be building any buff snowmen like we did in Colorado in the middle of an evil snowball fight (Man, now i miss that entire state!)
Sooo...last night I set up a friendface account! If you haven't watched the IT Crowd, you won't get it. But long story short, Moss is now my friend on facebook! Now I'm just waiting on Roy to approve me XD.
Did anyone else see the list of movies coming out this summer?! Prince of Persia, Toy Story 3, The Last Airbender, just to name a few. I can't wait! Needless to say, I'm moving this summer. My new address will be the Rave in Destin (I'll keep you posted about which theater.) I'll be throwing a house warming party right after I get out of school. RSVP!
Stop reading now and go outside!
It's really cold outside right now. Last I heard, Cameron said there was a chance of snow flurries, but it wasn't very likely. I hope it does, cuz I miss snow so much. Granted, I won't be building any buff snowmen like we did in Colorado in the middle of an evil snowball fight (Man, now i miss that entire state!)
My muscles look better, but I'm jealous of his mohawk...
Sooo...last night I set up a friendface account! If you haven't watched the IT Crowd, you won't get it. But long story short, Moss is now my friend on facebook! Now I'm just waiting on Roy to approve me XD.
Did anyone else see the list of movies coming out this summer?! Prince of Persia, Toy Story 3, The Last Airbender, just to name a few. I can't wait! Needless to say, I'm moving this summer. My new address will be the Rave in Destin (I'll keep you posted about which theater.) I'll be throwing a house warming party right after I get out of school. RSVP!
Stop reading now and go outside!
Little kids at Target are funny!
And hobos can be too!
So after I got done at the dentist, I went to Target to check out some mp3 players. While I was there, these cute little kids came up to me. There was a little 5-year old bald black boy, and his 4-year old sister. I couldn't pronounce their names right (partly because I had no feeling in my face), and I'm not about to try to spell them.
Anyway, the boy walks up..."Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me, sir. Excuse me"
I turn around, make an attempt to smile (but I don't think it worked...stupid anesthesia). "Yes?"
Boy: "Do you work here? My mommy needs something."
Me: "Sorry, I don't work here."
Boy: "Are you sure? Cuz I think she wants a camera."
You don't need to know the rest of the conversation, because it involved me asking his name, and failing miserably at repeating it lol. Cool kid.
Then five minutes later, this other kid, who I'm going to guess was about 9, walks up, points to a display model of a portable DVD player, and says "Hey mister, why doesn't this DVD player work? You tryin' to rip us off?!"
I don't know why I looked like I worked there...I was wearing green. But apparently I could pull of Target employee pretty well.
On the way out, a hobo was glaring at me. I tried to glare back, but I still couldn't change my expression. (My face is still stuck on "smile stupidly") But it scared him! He glared at me for a few seconds, then got this particularly frightened look on his face, and walked the other way! I like going to Target after being drugged!
Until next time, viva la cows!
So after I got done at the dentist, I went to Target to check out some mp3 players. While I was there, these cute little kids came up to me. There was a little 5-year old bald black boy, and his 4-year old sister. I couldn't pronounce their names right (partly because I had no feeling in my face), and I'm not about to try to spell them.
Anyway, the boy walks up..."Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me, sir. Excuse me"
I turn around, make an attempt to smile (but I don't think it worked...stupid anesthesia). "Yes?"
Boy: "Do you work here? My mommy needs something."
Me: "Sorry, I don't work here."
Boy: "Are you sure? Cuz I think she wants a camera."
You don't need to know the rest of the conversation, because it involved me asking his name, and failing miserably at repeating it lol. Cool kid.
Then five minutes later, this other kid, who I'm going to guess was about 9, walks up, points to a display model of a portable DVD player, and says "Hey mister, why doesn't this DVD player work? You tryin' to rip us off?!"
I don't know why I looked like I worked there...I was wearing green. But apparently I could pull of Target employee pretty well.
On the way out, a hobo was glaring at me. I tried to glare back, but I still couldn't change my expression. (My face is still stuck on "smile stupidly") But it scared him! He glared at me for a few seconds, then got this particularly frightened look on his face, and walked the other way! I like going to Target after being drugged!
Until next time, viva la cows!
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