Okay, so I felt my blog was lonely with only one December post, and I kinda wanted to write anyway. It's just like me to get the urge to write when I should be sleeping, but it doesn't really matter. I have nowhere to be until next year really, so right now I'm just epitomizing the word lethargic.
To be frank, I don't like how my break is going. As much as I disdain schoolwork, and ASU as a whole to begin with, it at least gave me a reason to leave the house. Now, I have to forcefully will myself to go do stuff, and with a limited budget, and living in Phoenix, AZ where anything fun to do costs money or a marriage (ha), my options are a bit limited.
That being said, I had a good day today. I left the house. Twice. BOOYAH, GRANNY, BOOYAH! Yep yep. It was sweeeeet.
First, I went and picked up a new friend of mine; her name is Elora. She's a pimp, no lie. Anyway, we went and saw Avatar this morning, and afterwards I took her to work, which may not seem like a lot of fun to some of you, but I'm a big proponent of singing in the car, so the drive back alone was worth it, though the drive out was cool too. Apparently, Dethklok is epic enough for me to like.
So yeah, that was the first time. The second was when my new friend had accidentally left some of her belongings in my car. So I got to go drop them off (no biggie, more singing!), and then I went and hung out with another friend of mine who I'm trying to start a band with.
That's my day, folks. And this was an adventurous one. Imagine my life. Go ahead, do it. It's pretty sweet, right? Yep, God is good =)
Anyhoo, I guess I should actually update you on some things besides my day. My singing is going well, and I found a vocal warm-up which I'll be testing out this week methinks. My screaming is a bit funky and spotty, so I'm going to try on a couple different types and see if they prove more fruitful.
The whole band thing I mentioned is kind of an interesting topic I suppose. A bit of a backstory: this past summer, I began praying a lot about discerning God's will regarding my future, and specifically my area of ministry. Sure enough, the Big Guy came through and started pointing out a LOT of scripture in Psalms and other areas of the Bible talking about singing, and music, and instrumentation. And then later on, I went to New York for YL Summer Staff (totally a great experience, by the way) and met this dude named Barrett, who's basically my skinny twin. He loves God, and he loves music, and he even has snakebites like me =)
Moving forward a bit, I pieced this all together and deciphered that I had a definite gift for singing, and a desire to learn to scream. I also have a huge heart for the hardcore scene, as it's so passion-filled, and also, unfortunately, severely oppressed by the Church. I could name about six or seven bands right now that do what I want to do, so I will: Underoath, For Today, Sleeping Giant, Oh Sleeper, Impending Doom, The Great Commission, and A Plea For Purging.
All these guys do is make great music, and tour around the country, and world, sharing Christ with not only the fans, but the fellow bands as well. Brook, the vocalist from Impending Doom, as well as several others, have visions of Christianity taking hold of the world from the underground, and it gets me so fired up that I just want to drop everything and get into a band.
So, with that in mind, I starting looking for possible bandmates, or even a band in need of a vocalist. I found two of my YL club kids, David and Clendis. They're both only 16 or so, and none of us are well-honed super musicians, but we're a start, and I think these guys share my goal.
Anyway, that's the whole band thing. What to talk of next...OH! It's my friend Bethany's birthday today. You should comment below wishing her a happy birthday and I'll show her the love!
Also, I realize that 2009 is almost over, hence the title of the blog. I've been seeing a lot of introspective think pieces in facebook notes from friends, so I guess I could do that, as cheesy as it seems.
This year hasn't been too bad, but not too brilliant either. Done!
Seriously though, one notable thing is that I'm finally over the girl from my fiasco in 2007, which is awesome. And if you read this blog, she-who-must-not-be-named (not because your name is evil, but because I'd like to prevent any undue embarrassment), please know that I'm sorry the whole thing went down, and I truly do miss you and your other half as friends.
Speaking of girls, and of moving on, I find myself in what I lovingly call my "hunter mode". It's quite silly really, because I'm no good at this whole girl-liking thing, so it seems pretty futile to try finding one at this point. But still I trudge on. What's funny is, my motives for doing so aren't entirely what you might think.
Sure, there's the benefit of all that mushy stuff like holding hands and texting random things at 4AM to each other, which are definitely perks, but really don't hold a place in the top three reasons why I want to date someone. What are my top three reasons, you may ask?
1. I'm surrounded by love stories and feeling a bit left out. You literally cannot turn a corner in this damned world without running into some form of romance going on. No story is a good one with love involved, everybody knows that. It's just slightly depressing and escalates downward into self-depreciation after awhile. Hooray!
2. I guess the perks mentioned above might fit here, but whatever. I want intimacy. I don't want sex (that's for married or marred people) so much as I want to have a close relationship with someone. Sure, I've got Jesus to talk to whenever I want, and I've got plenty of spiritual intimacy, but (and this will sound very atheist-like) it's hard to experience physical intimacy with a spiritual being. Why do you think I love hugs so much?
3. I want to further experience God's love. Over the summer, I read a book by Donald Miller called
To Own A Dragon. It's about his struggles of growing up/adjusting without a father. I, too, did not grow up with a father, so it spoke to me about a lot of stuff. One of the chapters was about Don's friend who had gotten married. Don asked him about marriage and what it was like, and the thing I walked away with most vividly imprinted from that chapter was what his friend said. He said that being married revealed a whole new view of God's love, like an undiscovered waterfall or something. Who wouldn't want that?
And I know it's not all easy, and I realize that God's not going to miraculously plop a girl down at my front door on a silver platter who instantly falls in love with me and we get married and live happily ever after. I realize this. But something's gotta give, right?
I'm a weird dude. I somehow ended up writing a checklist application for a girlfriend and posted it on facebook. Wanna read it? I'll copy+paste it for you.
Eligibility is based on these, and a few other select items:
EDIT: I added a few things I forgot. They're located below, and denoted by a double dash like so "--".
--is single (generally a good thing to check for).
--is willing to pray with me and for me (believe me, I need it).
--has a face.
--reads the Bible (or at least tries to) [just a check on the whole Christian deal].
--loves themself (not in the naughty way).
-is a girl (read: confirmed female).
-has a face.
-is willing to not get bling (no gold diggers).
-actually likes me as a person.
-is between 17-23 (no, I'm not a pedophile).
-is a Christian.
-does not want premarital "relations".
-is willing to let me help you.
-is okay with me spitting from time to time (it comes with the job).
-has a face.
-is able to let me have guy night LAN parties.
-is willing to get married someday (oooh, scary)[also note, not necessarily to me].
-does not mind loud music.
-does not mind screaming in said music.
-likes hugs.
-does not want to cohabit (read: live together).
-has a face.
-is okay with my weirdness.
-is currently my friend (not on facebook, for realzies).
If you've made it this far:
Let's hang out =)
Some of these are negotiable, while others are not. Apply if you dare, muahahahahaha.
In all seriousness, this is a slight peek into my "ranking" of potentials, but was also made for funsies and is severely lacking in certain things.
Besides, if you really wanted to, I'm sure you'd convince me to ask you out. Shoot, some girls have done it without even trying! =)
At any rate, I love you all very much.
Again I say, I'm a weird dude. Anyway, much to my confusion, this actually generated some interesting conversation which gives me hope that I'm not completely unwanted by the female population (not to say that those who DID reply were actually interested). But nonetheless, it helps.
So I guess I'll stop writing now. I mean, I've already shoveled a lot of crap at you with this one, and I don't want to scare you away any more than I already have =)
As always, I'm open to discussion. Just email me or drop a comment below, or even bring up some stuff in person.
I've been trying to get some inspiration for writing more songs, but I don't just want to churn out crap lyrics, so I guess I'll wait. I'll probably also post my "confessions" list soon. Maybe as part of a new year's resolution blog or something. Could be fun, eh?
Okay, I'm going now.
Love you,
~@
