Tuesday Tunes: The Script

Some of you already know how cool The Script is, and props to you. But for those of you unfamiliar with their awesomeness, here are a few of my favorite songs. :) I try to link to HD videos, so if you click on the YouTube quality button (the gear logo) you can get nice quality audio.

This = Love

Maybe I'm just a sucker for pop music, but I like the lyrics to this song...

It's in the eyes of the children / As they leave for the very first time

And it's in the heart of a soldier / As he takes a bullet on the frontline

It's in the face of a mother / As she takes the force of a blow

And its in the hands of the father yeah / As he works his fingers to the bone ...

It's in the soul of a city / What it does after it crumbles and burns

And it's in the blood of a hero / To know where he goes he may never return ...

Love is why we do it / Love is worth the pain

Love is why we fall down / And get back up again

Love is where the heart lies / Love is from above

Love is this, this is love

We Cry

We Cry is one of The Script's older songs (from their first album, versus This = Love and Walk Away, which are from their 2011 album, "Science and Faith".) The music is different, with a folksy-ish rock tinged pop-y-ness. =P It takes a bit to get used to, but I really enjoy it. (Also, fyi, there's one swear word about a minute in. It's not very clear in the audio, but you know it's there, and the lyrics have it.)

Walk Away

The remix with B.o.B. makes a pretty song so much cooler. Again, I just like the uniqueness of this music. It's kinda catchy. =P (Oh, and there's a mild swear word repeated throughout.)

"Long words like... Hawaii."

This happened a long time ago, but it's amazing. =D

“How can you get a volcano in Iceland? … When you think of a volcano, you think of Hawaii, and long words like that. You think it’s too COLD to have a volcano there. But nooooo. There it is.”

bread, and debate, and squirrels -- oh my!

Today, we made bread. (Note: That's the royal "we", as I basically sat around and did debate and studied economics.) I'm allergic to wheat, so nice bread is rare. Spelt flour bread doesn't always turn out very well, but this is an amazing recipe. Look how pretty it is! ^_^

As I was dancing around the kitchen, being excited over the prospect of warm bread dipped in garlic and olive oil, I noticed a squirrel in the yard.

While I recognize that a squirrel is basically an oversized rat (read: pointy teeth and a carrier of disease), it's a really stinking cute oversized rat. Also it has bright eyes and a bushy tail. And when it's noshing on a piece of bread right outside my window, I just have to "aaaaawwww!" (and take a picture.)

In other news, I adore my new camera. =P

Quotes - optimism

“I am an old man and have known many troubles, but most of them never happened.” – Mark Twain
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”  - Thomas Edison

Quotes - books and learning

In honor of the essay question on my world history midterm regarding the printing press... I give you, quotes about books and learning!

 “Books to the ceiling, books to the sky, my pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.” – Arnold Lobel

“O what a world of profit and delight/Of power, of honor, of omnipotence/Is promised to the studious artisan!/All things that move between the quiet poles/Shall be at my command.” – Christopher Marlowe

Tuesday Tunes: Carrie Underwood & Steven Tyler

Pretty weather.

In order to make up for the lack of weekend posting, here are some pictures of the snow, and my personal adventures in it. ^_^

Once a year, I wish I knew how to walk in a handstand. =P

How cool would it be to go find a park somewhere, and just handstand-walk all over a clean white patch of unblemished snow? I think that would be so amazing.

We made a giant cat sculpture.

I like snow. This was a tunnel of bent over bamboo and white fluffy happiness. ^_^

It rained, and so the snow is gone now, but it was hecka fun while it lasted. =P

Quotes - talent and hard work

"Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard." - Tim Tebow 

"When you are not practicing, remember, someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him, he will win." - Ed Macauley

Quotes - government regulation

“The First Amendment is 45 words. The Lord’s Prayer is 66 words. The Gettysburg Address is 286 words. There are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence, but the government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words.” – National Review

Tuesday Tunes: Dirty Dishes

Dirty Dishes - Scotty McCreery

Mama hollers "Supper time,

And don't make me tell you twice

Wash your hands and wipe your face.

The table's no place for your toys,

And try to use your inside voice,

Don't dig in 'til we say Grace."

So we put down our forks and bowed our heads

And then she prayed the strangest prayer ever said:

"I wanna thank You Lord,

For noisy children and slamming doors,

And clothes scattered all over the floor,

My husband workin' all the time,

Draggin' in dead tired at night,

My never ending messy kitchen

And dirty dishes."

We all got real still and quiet,

And daddy asked "Honey, you alright?"

She said, "Dear, ain't nothing wrong,

Noisy kids are happy kids,

And slamming doors just means we live,

In a warm and loving home,

Your long hours and those dishes in the sink,

Means a job and enough to eat.

So I'm gonna thank You Lord,

For noisy children and slamming doors,

And clothes scattered all over the floor,

My husband workin' all the time,

Draggin' in dead tired at night,

My never ending messy kitchen

For my little busy bees

Beggin' mama, mama can you please?

Always wantin' me to call their name

Loads of laundry pilin' up

Crayons crushed into the floor

And those little sticky kisses

And dirty dishes,

And dirty dishes...

Gratitude truly is a choice. Gratitude will sometimes seem like the "strangest" thing that you "ever said". Yet, gratitude is fundamental. It changes absolutely everything. 

“Something I learned early in college is to not worry about what I can’t control…But what I can control is my attitude, my effort, my focus every single day and that’s what I’m trying to worry about.” – Tim Tebow

Quotes - MLK Jr Day

“Before the victory is won some of us may have to get scarred up. Before the victory of brotherhood is achieved, some will maybe face physical death, but we shall overcome. Before the victory is won, some will lose jobs, some will be called communists and reds, merely because they believe in brotherhood, some will be dismissed as dangerous rabble-rousers and agitators merely because they are standing up for what is right, but we shall overcome. … there is something in this universe that justifies Carlyle in saying that no lie can live forever. We shall overcome because there is something in this universe which justifies William Cullen Bryant in saying truth crushed to earth shall rise again.”  – Martin Luther King Jr

Quotes - "a person fully alive"

 “The glory of God is a person fully alive.” – Irenaeus, 2^nd century theologian

Yucky weather.

Hail. It's lame snow. Actually, it's just the definition of lame. I don't like it. At all. =P

Wannabe snow = hail

Lame = Hail.

That's pretty much all hail. Yuck, right? =P

We don't get much cold precipitation around here, but when it does snow, it's seriously awesome. We built an igloo a few years ago by packing snow into plastic boxes and stacking the cubes up. It was a little over 5 feet tall, and you could chillax inside -- it was so cool. But hail? Not so cool. You can't do anything with it, it's just slushy, which is sad.

Quotes series

For an undetermined amount of time, I will be posting some of my favorite quotes, just because. I'll keep posting weekly music, and whatever random stuff like normal.

~~~

“But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than to be ignorant.” – H.L. Mencken

Even surrender is something I can't do.

Jon Acuff writes the following in his post “Losing Your Religion.”

“I don’t want to experience the best of what Jon Acuff is capable. That’s small and tiny and insignificant. I want to experience the best of what God is capable. A supernatural God who breathed life into me and set the stars in place and moves with as much mystery and creativity as he did when he wrote a message on the wall for a king or burned a talking bush for a prophet.

I don’t want to be in charge of my growth, with effort-based faith that hollows me out and leaves me shiny on the outside and empty in the middle.

I want Christ to be in charge of my growth. A Christ that didn’t say to the disciples, “Come and you will learn how to be fishers of men.” A Christ who said, “Come and I will make you fishers of men.”

If you and I believed for a second that the same power that raised Christ from the dead was in us, can you fathom how different that day would be?”

This rings so true. Why don’t we see God’s power manifest in our lives? God hasn’t changed. He is still the same God who created the entire universe. He is still the same God who sent His Son as a sacrifice, and the same God who raised His Son from the dead. He is still the same God who parted the Red Sea. He is still the same God who parted the Jordan River. He is still the same God who healed the sick, and cast out demons. He is still the same God who told us that if we asked in Jesus name, and for the glory of the Father, He would grant our requests.

So why doesn’t it feel that way? It’s not because of God that we don’t see his power. It’s not because of God that our lives aren’t anointed. It’s not because of God that we aren’t truly sold out to Him and surrendered. It’s not because of God that we aren’t on fire and impassioned for His glory.

It’s because of us.

Francis Chan writes in his book “Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit” that followers of Christ should be described as “powerful”.  Are we afraid that God won’t show up in answer to our prayers? Or is it possible that we are afraid that He will?  God’s power can be kind of scary. Being on God’s side requires that we surrender. That we relinquish control. But isn’t it what we want? We certainly want to be on God’s side.

Often when I hear inspiring messages, my initial response is “Whoa. That’s amazing. I’ll have to try to live more in surrender.” Yeah. It doesn’t work that way. By definition, “trying” is making an effort to do something. But “surrender” is giving up control, giving oneself up.

Even surrendering is something I can’t do on my own.

I need God’s help to surrender to Him. I can’t conquer my controlling nature by controlling it more. I can’t even conquer my controlling nature at all. I must make my choice, and then rely on God’s power to conquer my control. He, and only He, can conquer my control.

Tuesday Tunes: Catch All the Fish

I was going to write a nice long contemplative post, and then give you a thoughtful song to go along with it. However, in my excitement over this last weekend, I decided not to. Instead, I give you my and my partner's "theme song" from the recent tournament, which apparently propelled us to victory. ^_^ I love country music.

"We drank all the fish/we caught all the beer..."

("X all the Y" credit to hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com, "This is why I'll never be an adult" -- content warning.)

Love people? Cook them.

My mom cut up a bumper sticker she got from a cooking magazine, to make it funny. ^_^ My family is so amazing.

I've been gone at a speech and debate tournament all weekend. If you know me personally, and you want pics, comment or email me, and I'll send you the link to my album. ^_^

Tuesday Tunes: Without You

I'm in a hurry today, so you get a song that doesn't require any explanation or thought. This song is just so pretty. The music video is funny, and Usher's voice is awesome.

Without You - David Guetta & Usher

New Years/Haircuts

I thought for a really long time, but I couldn’t find anything suitably interesting to post about for New Year’s – my apologies. ;) My New Year’s was super relaxed, which I like, but which doesn’t lend itself to funny blogging.

In the evening, I did debate work, getting distracted partway through and watching the Times Square celebration. Then, my parents and I did a puzzle and listened to rock music until midnight. ^_^ At midnight, we went out to the backyard, and danced around with sparklers we bought approximately five years ago. When we came back inside, we transitioned to country music and resumed the puzzle, until I spilled Mom’s chocolate banana smoothie on the pieces. We frantically cleaned up the pieces, dried them with a diffuser, and puzzled some more.

Eventually we got tired and went to bed.

Anticlimactic, I know.

Because if that story was a person waiting for the bus, it would be an average middle aged person going to Walmart to buy toothpaste and iceberg lettuce, and a good blog post would be an eccentric college student with a neon green Mohawk wearing combat boots and going to a swing dance, I thought I’d tell you about my experiences at the haircutting place. (yay long sentences!) It doesn’t really rate at the level of neon-green Mohawk kid, but it’s a little more interesting than boring Walmart shopper. ^_^

I was super excited this week, because I got a hairstylist who had gone to college to study for a medical degree, been part of a class where she participated in debate (yay!), and was friendly without interrogating me about my social life. =P

The last girl who cut my hair didn’t really talk at all, which was okay with me. The one before her chit chatted the whole time, referred to herself as a troublemaker, talked about her boyfriend, and gave me a very important piece of life advice: “Seriously, if I can tell you one thing, you shouldn’t drop out of high-school. Like, seriously, life will be so much better.”  She asked me what I wanted to do with my life, and after I explained that my cousins were in the arts, but I wanted to do something more academic, she summarized this choice as “So, basically you were like, ‘screw you guys, I don’t want to be like you.’” Yeah, not exactly. =P

Maybe it’s just me, but whenever the question “so, where do you go to school?” comes up, I cringe. Homeschooling. People never know what to do with it. You usually get one of two reactions: 1-They’re super confused, and you have to spend a bunch of time explaining co-ops and that you do in fact have a social life. Or, 2-They tell you all about a distant cousin who homeschools, leaving you in a super awkward position. Occasionally you get someone who was homeschooled, or is familiar with the concept, and doesn’t think you’re insane. That’s always so nice.

I have two distinct memories of haircutters from when I was little. I was probably around 9 years old, and this girl was asking me about cute guys at school, and whether I had a boyfriend. Yeah. Probably not the best way to endear yourself to a little kid. I thought she was lame, and I basically stopped talking for the rest of the haircut.

The other memory is the one time I had a guy cut my hair. I was a little older, probably 11, maybe 12. He seemed like he was grasping for conversation topics, and he asked what I thought about Twilight. I answered vaguely that I wasn’t into vampires. I was expecting something along the lines of trying to convince me how awesome the series was, and how I should read it, and how hot Edward was, so I was pleasantly surprised when he let out this huge sigh, and said “GOOD. I don’t even understand that obsession, and I don’t know what I would’ve said if you went all fan girl.” I was amused.

This feels like it was a really long post, which I wasn’t aiming for, but whatever. I always come back from getting my hair cut with funny stories. We have this haircutting school right by our house, so they’re all college-age. It’ll always be an adventure… =P