Merrily on high...

Because, as I heard in an impromptu speech at club today, bells are important.

Bell choirs, yes or no?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I AM LISTENING TO CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just had to let y'all know. Usually, we wait until atfter Thanksgiving, but I couldn't resist. =D

Interesting question:

Do you think that Thanksgiving will slowly become forgotton because it's not a very marketable holiday?

Music and Worship

This is the only version of Paul Balouche/Brenton Brown's Glorious I could find on youtube. I love this song! It was really cool to be able to see both writers perform this song separately and see their different takes on the same song.

Last night, we also got to see Newworldson which was crazy awesome. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed the performance. Here's one of the songs we got to hear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKGOnAQllP0&feature=channel

Concerts are so amazing, amazing, amazing.

Comment tag (If you read this, you've gotta comment) : Who performed at the last concert you went to?

Musicians Unite!

This weekend, I am attending a musician's worship conference-ish thingy. It's amazing, but the days are long! So hang in there while I'm gone!

For me it's been an excellent time of worship, despite the fact that I can't sing because I don't have a voice.

Bye!

A laugh for all you NaNoWriMo-ers:

Here is a hilarious, indispensible quote from William Somerset Maugham:
(It made me burst out in giggles, [yes, giggles mind you] when I first read it)

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

Is that hysterically, tragically true? Boy, do I know it. I am in the process of creating a villain (not for NaNo, for school!) and I have decided to make him as interesting as the main character. Huh. Easier said than done.

Anyway, here's some inspiration for you writers:





I am convinced that most bloggers decrease posting by half in November, if they are doing NaNo. Not that I blame them or anything.

Here's to NaNo-ers! Best wishes to you and have fun writing. I hope your eye's don't dry out from staring at the computer screen!

Sublimate!

My current vocabularily word is SUBLIMATE.

The official definition is:

sublimate (sub' le mait) [limen sublimate (sub' le mait)

To turn aside an instintual, perhaps primitive impulse in favor of a more socially or culturally acceptable activity.


However, I have redefined the word. Here's what it now means:

sublimate:

To suppress the desire to squeeze a brand new tube of toothpaste in the middle. To chose to not eat the first bite out of every apple. Deciding not to hurl the chair you just stubbed your toe on half-way across the room.

In a sense, sublimate means, "Don't anything Ramona Quimby would do."

Sublimating is choosing not to throw the Murder in the Cathedral commentary at the librarian's head because it's the commentary and not the actual play. It means to not bang the keyboard in frustration when the computer deletes the resource page that you've been collecting for the last hour.

Yup. It's been a great Monday.

Enough complaining. You know what I need to do? I need to go write a story about a character who attracts misfortune. Right now. Then, if I can make enough horrid things happen to them, then I will feel better.

After all, didn't Jonathon Swift say, "Nothing is bigger or smaller except by comparision."? So by comparison with this story I am going to write, my little troubles will melt away like, um, er, uh, butter?

Here's a song for you all:

Music and an article worth reading.

I am a creature of habit. Every morning at precisely 6:02, I get up, put on my fuzzy slippers and plaid bathrobe and I sit down to a cup of coffee with 3.7 teaspoons of sugar, one egg done over-hard, and the Wall Street Journal. Rain or Shine.

Okay, so maybe not. I am not a creature of habit, nor would I willingly get up at 6:02. I don't measure my sugar and I don't drink coffee every morning.

But, every couple days or so, I do read the paper. And a couple days ago, they published an interesting article on the power of music. You should read it! The article is worth the time it takes to peruse it. Not necessarily because I agree with everything the author says, but because it is inductive to thought. And thinking is always a good thing.

To quote Beauty and the Beast:

Gaston: "I'm afraid I've been thinking,"
Lefoo: "A dangerous pastime!"
Gaston: "I know."

It intrigued me, and I especially liked this quote that the author, um, quoted.

"Only a world without love strikes me as instantly and decisively more terrible than one without music." ~Sir Kingsley Amis

In the article, they presented two different opinions in a paragraph that starts with the words, "Enter the men in white coats" The first opinion hypothesizes that the human brain is wired to find meaning in music, whereas the second maintains that music is merely "auditory cheesecake."

I noticed that the first opinion was from a neuroscientist, while the second was just from a psycologist. Thoughts on that anyone?

Anyway, I absolutely loved this quote(it made me laugh):

Donald Francis Tovey "I have (this sounds like fantastic nonsense, but it isn't) frequently caught myself positively solving some problem (of a more or less philosophical nature) in, say, the key of A minor, where I had utterly failed to reason it out in words." Who cannot empathesize with that?

Love this song!

Humor me. I love this song.

All Who are Thirsty

1Th 5:23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rev 22:17 The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

Rev 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

The Celtic Zucchinis: The Latest to Today's Show

Is it just me, or is this our best one yet?

Attempts at Opera... sort of.

Sometimes, in video-making (we are too un-serious to call it filming) the mess-ups are a million times more humorous than the actual movie. These attempts were first tries on making a video about elevators. The idea was to for us to be trapped. It wasn't the brightest idea.

Eventually, we abandoned these clips, as they were...um... maybe a little too embarrassing, and a little too...unintelligent. Why I am posting these, I wonder? Maybe I need to rethink this. By the way, Lib, please don't kill me for this. (She's the middle girl in the below clip)

Somehow, watching these, all my ambitions to be in The Marriage of Figaro crumble and fade. I don't think I was born to be an opera star.

Amazing Grace

Revelation Song

One great scene:

Michael who?

Just kidding! =D

For your Information:

#1. I am done with Algebra 1 forever! Ha!
#2. I really hate hair.
#3. I am going to install a playlist on this blog, but it will not start automatically.

I know that those three important facts will help you move through your day uplifted and encouraged.

TTFN!

Post Script:

I never saw a purple cow
I hope I never see one
But I can tell you here and now
I'd rather see than be one.
Gelett Burgess

Update: The aforementioned Playlist now resides at the bottom of my blog.

Relief!

Dear readers, I have decided you have suffered enough, and thus I have removed the Mozart playlist. I am thinking about some Bach, or perhaps some Prokofiev...

Or how about some Victor Borge?

I's is smart.

Ha!

Ha!

Ha!

I have decided, that for the next couple of days, I am going to improve you intelligence. That is why you are listening to this lovely music. All I want to do by this is have the ability to claim that reading The Reluctant Dragon increases brain activity or something. Everyone knows that listening to Mozart makes you smarter. At least, I think it does.

But don't worry, it shan't be for too long. And by the way, you are furthering scientific research. So if after reading this post, you go out and come up with an entirely new mathematical theory (a correct one!) be sure and credit me.

Ode to Speech and Debate

Sing to the tune of "Favorite things" from The Sound of Music with some friends in front of several hundred people for the best effect.

Red clicker pens on a bright yellow flow pad,

Evidence twisted so it won't sound too bad,

I find my sanity's only so-so,

Community judges: Oh won't you please flow?

When the snow blows,

When the neg. pwns,

When my nylons run

I simply remember the rest of these things,

Thank goodness the round is done!

My Extemp. speech,

Didn't say much,

Judges thought it dull

The left one kept snoring-he thought it too boring,

To stay awake through the whole.

I must admit that my throat's raw from screaming,

But to be honest my D.I. is creaming,

I scare the judges each time I go in,

And while they're crying they give me the win!

7 speeches,

And debate too,

How will I get through?

Will someone please tell me what pernicious means?

I'm up in Impromptu!

FYI for non-NCFCA-ers:

Flow: Following the debate on paper

Neg: Negative =D

Pwn: Complete domination in a debate round

Extemp: Extemporaneous

DI: Dramatic Interpretation

The Latest to Today Show #2: The Alphabets

Alright, gentle readers, I am going to force, (whoops, I mean treat) you to watch another episode of the Latest to Today Show. So, uh, hang on to your seats.

A couple of things before you watch:

We officially apologize for the instruments: the flat piano and the sharp guitar. Our piano's sound board or whatever, (How would I know the anatomy of a piano?) is split down the middle so it is un-tune-able. Oh, and we named the guitar "Tuneless Tina." Let's just leave it at that.

And I would make apologies for being so weird, but I can never shake the feeling that is presumptuous. Because after all, no matter how strange you are, there's always someone moreso. Besides, we aren't being weird, we are only acting weird. And "weird" is completely relative.

But I still can't believe I'm posting this!