Sunday Edition : Hymns

Today in church we sang four hymns that have strange but significant meaning to me personally. I thought it was pretty amazing that ALL of them I have a special (if not strange) connection to so I decided to write about it.

Three of the hymns have connections to my mission, first God Speed the Right. A line in this song, "If we fail we fail with glory" meant something to my MTC companion and he mentioned it a few times, in a testimony once I believe, so it always reminds me of him. Next was We Sing All Hail, which has a particular line, "... and bruised the serpent's head" which is in reference to God's promise to Satan given at the fall of Adam, "and he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Moses 4:21) Meaning that Christ will have power over Satan. This line was brought to my attention by one of my favorite people in the MTC, and when I sing this song I always think of him. Finally, Gently Raise the Sacred Strain, became one of my favorite hymns in the middle of my mission when it mysteriously became stuck in my head, and I studied the words and learned so much about the importance of the sabbath day. I used the hymn as the basis for a wonderful talk I gave a few months later.

The fourth song we sang wasn't a mission related song, but has even more meaning.  #166, Abide with Me was sung as the closing hymn at my grandpa's funeral in January, 2006.  Since then I has been one of the most special hymns in my life, and I will never forget it's importance since I almost cry any time I sing it.

Globes and Maps

"...and globes and maps they chart your way back home"  -Something Corporate

I like that song.

And speaking of songs vaguley related to traveling that I also like... A Plain Morning by Dashboard Conf.

Ok, now onto our présentation principale!

New desktop background!

After The Hunger Games had come and gone, I wanted to change my desktop background, but I had trouble coming up with a new theme.  I was tired enough of all the changing and rearranging of geeklets that I wanted to pick something that I could have for a while, something that wouldn't expire (you know, like when the movie came out or holiday passed, etc.).

I remembered that my very first attempt into geeklets was built on top of one of the default desktop backgrounds that comes with a mac (The Great Wave).  So I turned to that folder to find something simple, beautiful, and lasting.  Though I sorted through many amazing pictures, the black and white set stuck out to me and I chose two of those to be my backgrounds (since I have two monitors now).

The geeklets I arranged all on one screen (the secondary) so I could always see them.  The second screen has become somewhat of my status screen now, I look there to check the time, battery level, calendar and weather.

Pretty nice, eh?  

Now, my main screen was just this cool, lighting desktop picture that I never actually saw because I always had windows covering it.  However I got this idea in my head that I really wanted to try.  I wanted to make this apear on my desktop... so I did.  In case you're wondering it does auto-update every 15 minutes so it shows the current sunlight spread over the earth.  I felt so proud I uploaded it to the official geektool forum/geeklet sharing site.

See that, globe and map, in the flesh.. hence my title, and completely random opening.

Now you're just singing like you used to... oh.

So I stumbled upon this article recently, (Ok, 'stumbled upon' makes it sound like I got it from "Stumble Upon" which I didn't, I just follow mashable and you should too) and I though, gosh there sure are a lot of covers!  I wonder how many of them really suck?

I am a huge fan of this song.  I'm thinking of doing a cover of mine own one day (and it will involve amazing instruments I can assure you).  But there are certain elements that shouldn't be changed in order to preserve the greatness of this song.  One of the most important things is the male-female voice exchange.  Including both voices brings the song up to a higher level, one that simply cannot be reached by a single voice or even a male-male combo.  That's probably my biggest peeve, with many of these covers, I'll explain more of them as I go along because now I'm going to rate all 18 of these covers... (please feel free to skip/skim the rest of this post).

Original
Great song, strong vocals from both guy and girl (that's why they're professional musician, right?).  The instrumentation is nice, gives it a haunting feeling which adds a lot to the song.  Video is weird, and unimportant.

Glee Cast Cover
One of the worst covers here, guy-guy is never good, their voices sound so similar  you can barely tell there's two singing.  They do do a good job of keeping the feeling and meaning of the song.. as long as you don't actually watch the video, then you just stare awkwardly as they awkwardly stand next to each other in an oddly lighted high school auditorium... awkward.

Lindsey Pavao from 'The Voice'
So she has a decent voice (although I'm still not sure she deserves to be on the show).  Tempo changes = sucks.  I think she's trying to be a little too stylized and different, and I think she totally butchers it, I agree with Adam Levine on why it's bad (only he puts is way too nice).

Elsie and Philip from 'American Idol'
After hearing 'The Voice' interpretation of this song I was expecting to really hate this one, but going back to the male-female interchange makes up for a lot.  Their voices are a little weird, I think American Idol is more about stage presence and looks than it is about voices though.  They do a good job of keeping the proper feeling and mood of the song.  Also the B&W graphics are suh-weet!

Walk off the Earth
I don't love the way he sings it.  With all the musical tallent they have boxed inside this frame you'd think they could have lowered the key a bit so he wasn't so strained on the vocals.  Other than that I LOVE the instrumentation on this video.  It does a wonderful job of preserving the mood especially if you watch the video, all black clothing makes her blond hair stand out and helps the mood (and her voice is great).  In the chorus you can feel the angst, which is important.  His not-so-great voice actually makes it all the more angsty.

PS22 Chorus
These kids totally rock.  Not the best cover, but they're kids and the main kid has an amazing voice for a 5th grader.  You loose some of the mood with the kids, so it's not so great as being true to the original, but it's still surprisingly good.  You should check out more of their videos.

Peter Hollens ft. Evynne
Crazy cool video here.  I don't love the "Ooo Ooo" background music, almost a little too ghostly.  Oh and it just drives me crazy how he looks like a creepy alien when he's arranging his face!  His all a capella style is unique to this list and I like it.  He gets the haunted mood too much, and just barely misses the angst level (his face looks mad, but his voice is so smooth it doesn't seem like he's upset at all).  Twisty face girl's voice is great, and the twisty face is a great effect, but he could have used her voice more than he did.

- take breath, stretch your legs and get set for 7-12 -

Army of 3
Who doesn't love Ingrid Michaleson?!  Watching this video helped me to learn the notes to play for when I do my own cover... someday.  Her soulful singing fits pretty well into the mood, and the bass/snare combo does great too.  I like that she says "nothing" and not "nothin'," nice style.  Missing out on a male voice here, but I can get over it.

Boyce Avenue
One guy singing and playing the guitar.  Slower tempo than normal, and lack of interesting instruments (hands as drumsticks do not count) make me yawn, and move on to the next video before realizing that at least he has some passion in his singing.

Sam Tsui
He does one great thing that, while subtle, makes this effort worth a listen.  He sings the girl part like a girl.  Props to him for even trying, and he pulls it off ok.  Also vocal percussion is well done, but the electronic sound of the background vocals isn't so hot.  It's decent.

Pentatonix
Five voices get five stars!  It's great to sing a capella by yourself and all, but singing with other people is special.  Rock out camera man also gets five stars.  The mood is a little off because it's so acoustic, but it's not bad.  All the back up and percussion vocals are great.  Water drop noise FTW!

Tim Whybrow
Why you gotta slow it down so much, why bro, why?  The glass bottle instrumentation is wonderful, but other than that the mood is a little lost on too much guitar, too much sadness, and too many earings.

Jake and Madilyn
They've both got fine voices, but they forgot about this thing called tempo and they turned this exciting and engaging song into a lullaby.  A very nice sounding lullaby, but the angst has all turned to tears.  If you want a peaceful rendition to play before you go to sleep, choose this one.

- ok break time again -  turn off this song, find someone to love, and go outside....
- 13-18 coming up now

Chris and Kirsten
Uh... they're like what 14?  They used the original sound track and added in their electronically adjusted voices... boo.  They do get points for the awkward dance in between singing.  If one of these covers understands teenage angst, it's these two pimple studded stars.  Costuming is also a plus here... but I'm not judging videos, I'm judging covers.

Olivia and Corey
I like the heavy rock sound, it's a good rendition.  Good voices, good instruments (although the continuos off beat chord is a little over balanced) and a good cover.

Freak Morice
Woah! they've got accents to the max(ents)!  Turns out they're from Australia so props for being a fan of/covering your own countrymen.  They probably covered this before most of us americans had even heard it.  Alas they're only 14 and I think they could have put a lot more emotion into this, and I'm disappointed that really only one girl has the lead.

Gavin  Mikhail
Piano rendition is suprisingly well done.  The angst and passion come right through with the pounding of the ivory, but his passion is clearly in the playing and the singing is just a byproduct.  It's about as good as you can get using only one instrument.

Chester and Tiffany
His voice sounds a lot like Chris (the 14 year old in teal,) they must have used the same filter.  Tempo is a little off, but it fits in okay with their country rock beat.  This one gets points for just being different.  Country is not my favorite, but here they adapt it well with out too much twang.

Michael and Max
er... umm... ok, I'm about out of words for the guitar-only cover.  meh.


After those covers there are two parodies.  The first is pretty funny but not amazing, the second is wholly inappropriate and not worth watching.  But what is worth watching is this music video I found independently.  Points on that one for the editing and funny kids.

Apple and Amazon

Two of my very favorite tech companies, that until recently, have held their place in very different parts of the technology world.  Slowly though, over the past two years or so, Amazon has been creepin' in on Apple's turf, and even going beyond in someways.

Amazon started with mp3 sales.  Something they've really promoted with college students.  After I bought some books from Amazon (using my free 1-year amazon student account) I was awarded with $20 towards mp3s at their online store.  I think in all I've recieved about $35 worth of free mp3s from Amazon, showing that they really want me to explore their store, and they often have really good $5 albums (two of which I've bought).

Then this spring the launched their cloud player, a huge step up and above almost any other company's cloud based music services.  (The greatness or lack thereof is still in debate after some server blackout issues).

Amazon also began to offer movie downloads/streaming and soon created an app store for both Android devices and general PC applications (I got the free AirPort Mania, not a bad game).  And now they're poised to strike at the near monopoly Apple has on the tablet market.

Everyone knows that the iPad rocks, and that all the imitators really just don't cut it, especially when they're just as, if not more expensive than the iPad.  This is where Amazon steps in and slashes away at the tablet market

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/02/amazon-kindle-tablet/

With prices to beat the iPad and an online media store (probably bigger than Apple's) the next generation Kindle is likely going to become the next hottest device in America.  I already think the Kindle has some great stuff going for it, and it is only going to get better. 

So now I am faced with a hypothetical dilemma, if I were to stumble upon several hundred dollars to be used in the purchase of a personal media consumption device, which one would I pick?  $499 for the baseline iPad, or $250 for the Kindle, but then you get the rest of the money ($249) to spend on accessories, apps, music, and movies...  That's a tough choice!  You know that if you bought an iPad it would be nearly worthless without at least some money put into useful apps...  It's a tough decision, and luckily not one I have to make anytime soon.

On a strictly media standpoint, Amazon offers media at lower prices, so I might be inclined to go with that.

Moosebutter

Every now and then I like to take a trip down good-music-memory lane, and today I came up with this song:
http://www.moosebutter.com/lyrics.php/harry-potter

and even better is the video:



22 days 'til the last movie :-D

and now you're older still....

I often have made fun of old people.  In my mind there are endless jests toward students who have children, and those who show obvious signs of having a wife watching over them.  I know several engineering students who often mention, my wife made me do this, I need to do that for my wife....  

Living my own life, making my own decisions, that is a symbol of my youth and independence.  Old people are made old by losing their independence, first by marriage, then by the baby in the baby carriage.  

So often have I scorned the student eating the sandwich his wife made, pulling it out of a plastic tupperware, along with a yogurt and spoon.  All carefully packaged with the care only a woman could possibly have for lunch.

......

Such were my thoughts today as I put my plastic tupperware back into my backpack and thought, I'M OLD!!!    though I don't wish anything else, since being married is so much better than single life, and the 'loss of independence' really isn't bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQd4tAQJT_M

not today

Remember that part on Toy Story when Woody and Buzz are flying up in the air 'cause Buzz is strapped to that rocket and Wood is all worried that they're going to explode and he says, "This is part where we blow up!" and Buzz suavely replies, "Not today!" pushes the button to release his spring-loaded wings, cutting the duck-tape and allowing them to glide away to safety. ... yeah, I like that part.

So the other day I was feeling very grateful for some of my material possessions, namely my beautiful earphones. A few months ago I posted about the varying quality of the earphones I used, saying how great it would be to have a real nice pair of earphones that could deliver superb quality etc. Well my loving mother read that post and decided that Santa should give me such for christmas, hence I now own a very fine pair of d-Jays, noise-canceling, in-ear earphones. While ecstatic over their quality I was dismayed that I had but my laptop in terms of portable music (translation: I had no iPod), it was still absolutely marvelous to watch movies with my own personal surround sound.

However, before the new semester even started, I was chillin' with some friends talking about Christmas gifts when one friend mentioned they got a new iPod Touch, I jokingly (but slightly serious) asked if I could then have her old iPod nano. She said sure, and I am now a happy owner of a silver, 3rd gen. iPod nano :-D. As I was moseying around campus, listening to some killer tunes, I realized how extremely glad I was for this gift. I think it is a great halmark of a deeply christian person that they may not act nice on an outward, every-day level, but when it comes to the big things they're ready to give.

All I have to say, go world.

Stereophonic...

I like music. Not only is it music that I like, but I like sound. It bothers me when watching a movie and the surround sound setting aren't adjusted properly, I love to adjust my equalizer settings all the time for every song, so that it sounds just right. Recently I've been comprimising a LOT on my love for proper sounds. I have an old pair of Apple Ear Buds that I got with my first iPod (a green 4GB mini) that have been through a lot, to the point the cover is sliding off and wire is exposed around the junction. I have a second pair that I picked up somewhere along the way that were equally hashed (including having been through the wash). I have been consistently using the ones that were physically intact (that is the ones w/o exposed wiring) despite their lack of quality sound. The left ear driver was messed up going through the washer and couldn't produce any quality sound (is lost it's bass register), but I settled for it supposing the exposed wires to produce an even worse sound. Last week I lost this faulty pair of earbuds, and today I started using the exposed wire ones (with some clear tape surrounding the junction of course...) and I found that they work great! I could hear stereo again! I watched an episode of Glee and the talking had spacial relativity, the transition sounds were off in the distance, bouncing right to left, what a marvelous experience!! I was so happy I listened to music not only for my whole free hour, but throughout my physics class too!

I was impressed to see how much a good pair of head phones can change your musical experience, something I always knew, but perhaps never appreciated. It makes me think that someday perhaps I will go the whole 9 yards and get myself a $50+ pair like these Skullcandy babies here... For now, I'll stick with the earbuds with exposed wires.

go stereo!

Day 6

Saturday: Movie Making
This actually only took about 2 hours to film all we needed and a couple hours on Sunday to clip it all together. ENJOY (click here to go to the YouTube file of this video)

Other than that I went shopping on Saturday, got some new white shirts for work, a black belt, and a new wallet. This time I didn't get a big thick, fill with junk wallet, but a small, simple, hold-your-ID-and-some-cash wallet. I'm really excited to start using it, it's just so nice and small and makes me happy ^_^

Art is...

This is going to be kind of long, so please bear with me. First I'd like to start off with an interesting view on art, as told by Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World in his blogg:

Jim: I don’t usually discuss what songs are specifically about. But I think Table is worth talking about because it can help explain why that is. I was working at an art supply store off and on in between Static Prevails tour legs. At the end of the month we would be instructed to rip off the covers of the magazines we didn’t sell and box them to be returned. Being a not so great-paying retail gig, the staff would have little remorse just taking the old zines. I would check out Flash Art and Blind Spot. I found myself liking Maurizio Cattelan’s stuff. It was engaging in a way I hadn’t expected. He was the first person I found presenting art in a way that got you to think about what art really is. 


The local art scene was totally different than the music scene. Working at the store helped me find out about openings and showings. My group of friends were living in the university area but no one was going to school. We would hit up any and all openings. It felt like we were infiltrating a secret society, taking all their free food and drinks. Once, one of my dance-based coworkers had a performance on the college campus. It was tied in with some other local people’s work. Some with visual art, some with human-involved installation pieces. While we were outside waiting for my friend’s dance piece to start, there was a girl cleaning the ground with the tail of an all white dress. I think I was the only one of us who noticed. She went behind us and across a courtyard very slowly until she got to a candle lit table that had already been set up. She just sat there picking out the dirt from her dress into a few dozen tumblers. It occurred to me this was intended to be art. I know that sounds funny. This image of her stuck with me and for a while I couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t because I had been searching for some deeper meaning in why she was presenting her piece. It was because I realized it doesn’t matter why. This is the reason I usually steer conversations away from exact, specific explanations of lyrics and song-meanings: there is no correct way to interpret art. And there is no meaning more important or special than the one the listener/reader/viewer decides for themselves. 



He then goes on to talk about how this song just developed over time, creatively. I had read this once randomly through a Twitter link, but it stuck with me, I will probably always remember how he spoke of the meaning of art as no meaning at all. I feel that often in my life when I have tried to be artistic or done something creative, often there is simply too much meaning in what I have tried to do. Writing a song about a girlfriend, or an event. I try to make the song fit perfectly to the situation, and it just never turns out right. I think what I may be lacking is the concept of ‘based on’ where you don’t have to literally tell the story of something that already happened, but you can simply take the concept of it, and tell your own story. It may have the same beginning middle and end, but all the filler stuff is what you can make up, and what truly makes it an artistic endeavor.
So today I thought of it again, let me explain how this came about (I enjoy following the progress of my mind) First I was organizing my iTunes playlists. I get really annoyed when there are too many lists that you can’t really find the one you want, but today I discovered that you can make folders of playlists… so I put all my ‘classic playlists’ into a folder (labeled ‘Classics’ of course). Then I had more room to make a new playlist. I began to make a Car Dance playlist (possibly to be burned someday) for playing in the car and dancing to. It was comprised mostly of techno music, dance-pop and a couple rock songs. Since I was all over itunes I decided to look around the store when I noticed that a new music video was available from The Killers for one of their songs that I love, A Dustland Fairytale. I searched You Tube and found this beautiful video, and was naturally fully intrigued by the meaning behind it. As I watched a little ‘behind the scenes’ spot on it, I heard a quote saying the video was about such and such… which made sense, but to me it opened up my eyes to the idea that this video could mean anything you wanted it too. There is no official yes or no clear cut meaning, but it conveys feelings, attitudes, and emotions to us which we can then interpret for ourselves. Needless to say I was inspired and wrote this blogg.

Just Tonight

Today I love fruit
I love doing puzzles
I think I look hott with a tan
I don't like air-con

Today was a great day
I did homework
I took an easy test
I went to work

Tomorrow should be fun and exciting.
as a Friday it is entitled to such
Class gets over at noon
and the weekend party starts

.. don't wake me I plan on sleeping in....

It is currently 12:30 am. I am sitting in bed with my laptop, eating ice cream and not caring one lick that it's ridiculously late and I have classes tomorrow. I'm not even going to set an alarm for tomorrow, ha! how exciting.

This evening I went on a whim to watch a video production of the french musical, Le Roi de Soleil. It was an amazing production, despite me only understanding 10% of what was said. The costumes and sets were phenomenal, and the music and dancing was beautiful and intriguing. Despite being about 15th century france, it had a very modern feel that made all the boringness of a history story melt away and the excitement that it must have had (back when it actually happened) came through quite strongly. Something I would recommend, although having english subtitles may have proved useful.

Today I lined up an interview for the best job ever!! -oh hush, hush, I'm afraid we don't want anybody else taking the idea, so I can't talk about it.... it's a very top secret, very original theme... I mean job. Anyhow, I'm really excited, and I pray that this will go better than the other ten on-campus jobs I've applied too.

I've been in a bit of a spot as of late over my hair. I'm not usually one to obsess over how I look, but now and again my hair will throw me for a good one.. Today I had to comb it nice and I even put a little hairspray in to keep it there for my choir performance. After the performance though I noticed it in some side glances of semi-silvered windows about campus, and it was not looking good. It was neat, yes, but so plastered and lacking style or attitude. As the progressed some wind knocked it here and there, but really it stayed pretty much the same. Before my evening class I ran my fingers around it trying to bring back a more natural feel, but it just kept looking my mom had combed my hair that morning :-( (not that that's always a bad thing, but...) Anyhow, that is me today.

The Troublesome Duo

Trials and Blessings....

Two occurrences in life that come too close too often. Example: I get a huge tax return, day later, I get a speeding ticket.... I have a great time performing in dancesport with my super awesome girlfriend, day later, we break up.... point proven. Life really isn't fair, although I think this evens it out a little more. Think of it, those in more unfortunate circumstances sure don't experience quite so much heart break since they're dealing with where's my next meal, and not who's my next date. So in the end I'll try not to complain, but if you don't mind, let me paraphrase one of my favorite bands in saying, "It's giving me hell." Although blessing: I was able to sleep last night :-) and I'm not terribly ill today, just a little on edge. Also I had wicked cool dream where we were plaing soccer and I scored the winning goal... that was random considering I don't really play soccer at all. It was a pretty amazing shot too, although the game wasn't super intense so the defence was lacking at the moment and I had a nice shot and I curved it right into the corner, wow!

I am very baffled over life at this time. Part of me wants to wait patiently while it heals, and another part of me wants to tear it apart 'til it bleeds itself out. I'm scared and trying to be courageous, but the truth is I'm terrified. Most of life I can deal with, most of life's problems I get over pretty quickly, I deal with things and they go away, but I don't know if this is going to just go away....

.... Actually I think it will. Luckily I have great friends, and lots of help in life. I am beginning to remember that life is only what you make of it, and I am going to make this fun... or at least not not fun. I could be miserable and hate life, but that's just silly and I'm ready to have the best life ever. So brighten up sunshiny day! Watch out mr. raincloud, I have no time for you! It's my time now. I'm gonna take those many blessings and let them trump this trial.

Consequences

I love music. Music can really make or break my day, it can cheer me up or make me sad, help me remember or help me forget, and I feel like I could eat and breathe nothing but music for a week and be just fine. Since I was young I liked to listen to music when I did my homework, and when I was young my dad would tell me I couldn't study with such a distraction... then as I got older it turned into a question, "How can you study with music on?" Now and days I get it every now and then, "You can study and listen to music at the same time?"
I thought it was just a generation thing, that because he was old and I was young he didn't get my live/love of music. However recently I've been running into this problem more and more (aka, everyday!). On idle MWF afternoons when I come home to do a little homework, I turn on some tunes, sit down in the middle of our floor, and work out some Mechanics of Materials problems. It's usually not long before my roommate comes home and also starts studying and within minutes I can be guaranteed that he will ask me to turn off the music because he just can't think. More than once this has spawned conversation of how he can't stand to study with music on, and how I can hardly stand to study without music on. Truthfully I can hardly stand to do anything without music on, but I've learned to be very tolerant of those with less brain power than I ;-).

Today however I encountered a most amazing experience. I was sitting in the computer lab of the SWKT doing some ISYS quizzes and checking facebook and listening to Pandora, and checking my registration status and checking my e-mail..... so I was working on this quiz and I was doing just fine, but I got to the point that I couldn't think very well so I took a break for a second and when I got back to work on the quiz again I still just couldn't think, I couldn't really even read the question! I was quite frustrated when my frustration was compounded by my realization that the music was listening to was inhibiting my thinking! I could hardly believe it! Me, marvelous Mike, sting, *I* was having trouble thinking because of a song!

Mind you this was quite the amazing/distracting song ("Consequences of Sound" -Regina Spektor) and you might realize where it gets its namesake. All I know is that I was suffering some serious consequences from the sounds in my head at that time. Now I know that it's not any music that I can stand to have helping me study, and I think I may go back to my techno station when studying.... that seems to get me in the groove pretty well.

Several Ways to Die Trying

"When you can't fake it hard enough to please everyone, or anyone at all..."
"The artist these days are not who you think they are,"
"...'cause I'm scared of myself again."

Just what are you? Just who am I? What am I tring to be, myself? is anyone ever truly tring to be themselves? who are they and how do they find themselves? I don't claim to entirely be myself, and I'm not saying that no one can be theirselves, but I just like to wonder just who exactly is 'yourself?' I believe that the society that we live in has such a great influence on our attitudes, minds, perceptions, and actions that almost nobody can truly be something not part of it. Even those who are trying to be different, rebel against the norm and be a punk, they too are molded by the society we live in: whatever we are they aren't... So if what they thought was cool became a norm in society would they stop doing it...? Doesn't society then have a sway over what they do just as much as anyone else? maybe not....

I once heard a very interesting quote about self-esteem or self image. This is in relation to what has the greatest influence on our actions/attitudes: "It's not important what you think of yourself, or even what others think of you, but what matters most is what you think other people think of you." How about that? Isn't it true though? You may have great thoughts about yourself, but what if others don't? you don't know that, but you sure might worry about it a lot. Perhaps we're all stuck trying to live the expectations that we expect others to give us........ but I guess in that way we are basing our actions off our own perception of what the norm is, therefore doing what we want, or what we think we want... or want to think.

Enter one of my favorite pasttimes: people-watching. I was at a concert the other night full of emo punks and hotshot rocksters, and it was interesting to think about who they really were or who they were tyring to be. A lot can be ready from a persons clothing, speech, and actions. Then as you observe thier age and supposed social status it begins to paint a picture in your head of who they might think they are. I'm not supposing to be all knowing, nor do I pass judgement on these people, just simple observations that I do believe to be generally true, if not for all cases.
Another hobbie of mine is reading the readers fourum in our campus newspaper. Some people have some crazy opinions. They are often very ridiculous filing thier opinions with extreme biases and generalizations. I once again wonder, what are they trying to be? Are they like this in 'normal' life or is this something they only woud say on paper. Some kid criticized the paper for running an article on getting into fall fashions saying that it was worldly and encouraged people to buy immodest clothing, thence becomming immoral people.... WHAT!?!? I think he just isn't in style and therefore was jelous of those who have even a slight sense of what looks good.

In the end I guess I want to say that I don't necissarily claim to be entirely who I am either. I know a lot of what I want and don't want, but I'll be the first to admit that I am very much in flux, chaning daily. I do think it's interesting how 'finding ourselves' pops up often in our society, especially at this time in my life, college students are bombareded with choices and chances. I do though, love love love the Dashboard Confessional song "Several Ways to Die Trying" about trying to be 'normal.' http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/dashboardconfessional/severalwaystodietrying.html

OK... so this all stemed from some Panic! at the Disco Lyrics. They have some crazy weird meanings in their songs, and it's interesting for me to know that the lead singer grew up mormon, but is no longer. The song, "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage" is about "how kids today are being raised under high expectations that create pressure and make them uptight" (a good interepretation). Because of my own gospel centered point of view I do know who I am, I'm not weighed down by worldy expectations, but only that which I have learned to be of real importance. Meaning those things pertaining to eternal salvation. The gospel is the aswer to the question I have posed in this post. Just who are we, and what are we doing here? We are children of God, he loves us and we are here to prove ourselves and someday return to Him.

Album Artwork

I really love album covers. For some reason I feel a very special deep connection to a band or an album when I can have some kind of connection to the artwork on the cover. I guess there are some where I first like the music, then the cover reminds me of that great music. Then there are others that just seem to have a great deal of meanig in their pictures. Most of them are pretty stinkin' random though... and I think thats what I like most about them. The have no real meaning, just kind of a funny story. So here I would like to place before you several of my favorte album covers. (Most of these I know and like because I actually own that CD... although not all.)

A new favorite

Funny story, my grandmother often says the world favorite giving emphasis to the 'a' but pronouncing the 'i' as 'eye' not 'eh' like it usually is... when we were kids we thought that was the right way say it. :D

So yesterday I stumbled across an amazing song... it's funny 'cause I'm not entirely sure just where it came from, but I think Pandora played it for me. It's by Snow Patrol, which I've heard a lot of, my sister has a CD or two of theirs I think, but I ever really gave it too much notice. Yesterday however when I was idly trying to write a seven page paper I was listening to some background music and all of a sudden what I heard caught my attention. I listened even more carefully for a moment and it was amazing! It was a most amazing and beautiful song, and I loved it!! I haven't had a new favorite song for a long time so this was kind of a big moment for me. Hearing this song made me do a little reading on the Snow Patrol which I thoroughly enjoyed, and it gave me a nice little break from my homework.

Naturally after this the song was stuck in my head, but that's okay because I do love it. Then this morning it was like an addiction, I HAD to hear the song... so I listened to it like four times in the past hour... I love it! Having a new favorite song is for sure an important thing, and I feel it give me a solid step in the 'adjusting' to normal life that everyone keeps asking me about.


I love music.

Heart Attack

Sometimes you just have to take a bad day to make life fair. Since last Wednesday I’ve been having pretty good days, I love waking up every morning, seeing the sunrays coming over the mountain and getting ready for another day of life. Honestly every day for nearly a week has been good, and even some great days mixed in there. Last night I went to bed happy, looking forward to today. I had a bunch of stuff to be happy about, dressing up, a dance test, religion class… It was supposed to be great. Then this morning came…. Ugh! Today was not quite the spectacular wonder of happiness that I was expecting, and I’d almost complain about it, but I guess it’s only fair, right? I mean there are children dying in Africa and I can’t take one bad day? Nah, I’ll take this one, I can do that… In fact it’s almost a blessing, a way to remind me that I’m not perfect or invincible. I think there’s a song about that… something about how bleeding lets you know you’re still human. Speaking of songs I think I just want to sing a couple to the world…:

What's a day when it all ends up the same,
and lasts forever?
Can't complain when there's nothing there to blame,
and things can't be better.
Summer evenings, teenage grievings,
got no problem with the life that I've been leading.
No concentration or hesitation,
I can't make time when nothings new,
‘cause waking up is hard to do so...
-Sum 41

If I had a dollar bill for every time I’ve been wrong
Id be a self-made millionaire and you’d still be gone
So hand me down my best dress shoes and my best dress shirt
‘Cause I’m going out in style to cover the hurt…
‘Cause now I’m drunk again
The leads to my end
And I’m scared of myself again….
-Reel Big Fish

On a Sunday go once around,
because when the rides done,
the hopes that you have carried,
they fall out from your hands back to the ground.
Live with that, with that.
They fall out from your hands back to the ground.
Baby live with that, With that.
And the haze clears from your eyes on a Sunday.
Yeah, the haze clears from your eyes on a Sunday.
Learn as the drugs leave.
Learn as you lose it.
You will.
-Jimmy Eat World

On the Way Home....

This is a CD that I've listened to a hundred times, not one of my absolute favorites, but one that I have and often gets played for its namesake, Dashboard Confessional. I love their 'early material' on The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most and such, but their middle CD where they took some big changes in their overall sound I never got really into. This of course is the rather notable A Mission, A Mark, A Brand, A Scar which made much of their popularity in the early 2000s. This morning however I idly turned on some music to get ready to and this CD happened to be conveniently located in my CD player already (it's been a dashboard sort of month I guess ;-] ) So as I listened to the music it all of a sudden had a bunch more meaning than I had heard from it. Not just song for song, but the album as a whole is quite the amazing story.

I LOVE the lyrics of all dashboard songs, and these ones are particularly potent, and thier story is so moving. As you listen to the album straight through you are indeed taken on a journey with the singer as he loves, lies, dies, and somehow fights through the sorrow to live and love again.
And as we see, the Dashboard Confessional goes on. That name in and of itself is a wonderful lyrical majesty. The song, “Sharp Hint of New Tears” speaks of driving home, and letting the car “hear my confessions.” Giving the idea that all these songs could be considered as though sung in the car, trying to choke back the sharp hint of these new tears, but being beaten with ease.
If anyone is up for some intense poetry just check here http://www.azlyrics.com/d/dashboard.html under the first three full albums, any of those songs will amaze you with amazingly poetic lyrics.