Music

Well, as many of you know, I have well expressed my opinion that bluegrass, in general, is not worth listen to. To me, it sounds like a bunch of people who have been out on the ranch, belting out some tune they happened to put empty words with. I don't like the sound. I don't like lots of chromatics. I just don't like it. Does that mean it's bad? No. Yet, why in the world can you put a rockus beat to it, flash strobe-lights around, say it's bluegrass, and agree that it isn't bad? Why would you sing about Jesus, put a beat to it, call it bluegrass, and yet still agree that it's okay? Just because it's talking about Jesus? The words might not be bad if you read them, but when you drown out the words with music so that you can only vaguely hear the words "Jesus rocks" every so often, does that mean it's okay? Does that mean I think it's bad? Not necessarily. In fact, this is only my personal preference. So why am I making a big deal about it? Because I don't think people know what "bad music" is. So, what is bad music? I think that when trying to figure out what "bad music" is, there are several things you must take into account.

1. The culture-In our western culture, we're pretty tame as far as music goes. Ever heard of the missionaries who go to African countries, hear them playing their African drums, are shocked at what they're hearing, and immediately tell them that they must reform their taste of music?

It's cultural. There's absolutely no reason to force those Africans to stop playing those African drums and reform to our western taste of music unless if there's some demonic reason they're playing them.
2. A lot of what is good music and bad music has to do with what the culture thinks is good music and bad music. Using the example from before, if the Africans are playing what would be considered rock music in their country, chances are it wouldn't really be reverent to play for worship.
3. It has a lot to do with how you've grown up. If you've grown up around a classical-music-only group, chances are, you wouldn't think too highly of rock music. During worship, you most likely would feel uncomfortable with having a worship team. If anything, you would feel that you're being irreverent to God in playing such music during worship. On the other hand, if you've grown up around it, you aren't going to feel that you're doing God justice if you worship with hymns only.
4.It has a lot to do with what the words say vs. what the music says. For example, you could have some contemporary worship song that has basically good words (besides the fact that most of them say absolutely nothing), but it could have such loud, obnoxious music that you wouldn't even be able to hear the words. Does an offertory using the words from "Be Still My Soul" fit with rockus, loud music? Absolutely not. The words are calling you to be still and calm and to walk a life of faith, yet what is the music calling you to do? It's calling you to get riled up. The two don't match eachother; therefore, I don't personally see that this would be considered good music.
5. Having grown up with only listening to classical music, I kind of have the view that rock music is mostly associated with a worldly way of living. Of course this is a rather warped view considering there are perfectly sincere Christians who love their rock music. So what makes rock music so bad? One big reason is because most of the words aren't all that great. Also, the music really can cause you to get caught up emotionally in it. I don't know about you all, but I like to be pretty in control of myself. In worship, I don't personally believe that God is calling us to be hugely emotional. I do believe we should be happy, but not because of some outside emotion-producer. I think it should be because we know who we are in Christ. You can be happy and joyful, but that's not the same things as being out of control. I think that much contemporary worship music today stresses on emotion. It makes you feel good because of the music-not because you know who you are in Christ. Just for a quick example, I think of the Newsboy's "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord". First watch the video

Now read the lyrics:

Blessed be Your name In the land that is plentiful Where Your streams of abundance flow Blessed be Your name And blessed be Your name When I'm found in the desert place Though I walk through the wilderness Blessed be your name
CHORUS: Every blessing You pour out I'll Turn back to praise And when the darkness closes in, Lord Still I will say Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your glorious name
Blessed be Your name When the sun's shining down on me When the world's "all as it should be" Blessed be You name And blessed be Your name On the road marked with suffering Though there's pain in the offering Blessed be Your name
CHORUS
You give and take away You give and take away My heart will choose to say Lord, blessed be Your name I will bless Your name
CHORUS
Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your glorious name
You give and take away You give and take away My heart will choose to say Lord, blessed be Your name *Repeat*

Says hardly anything, right? Yet, the song gets you so emotionally worked up that you think you're listening to something great and you really feel "close to God". Of course, this is only my opinion, and I'm not saying there's a "right way" to worship. This is just the way I see it having grown up the way I did.

So, after saying all of that, what is good music? I think it has nothing to do with the label that is put on it (classical, bluegrass, rock music, etc.). And just because something has a beat and a drum doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad. I think you must determine whether something is bad by if the words agree with the music, if the words are saying anything good, if the music is causing you to become so emotional that you're living into an illusion, and if the music/words are causing you to think bad thoughts or do bad things.

New Twist to Father Abraham!

Tackle Football!

Presidental Elections... *sigh*

If I had to choose one time for being the worst time of year, I would probably pick election time. The country becomes so torn apart that a civil war nearly begins. Suddenly, everyone's true colors come out. People, who used to be friends, suddenly become enemies and mini-wars are started in individual neighborhoods.

I remember reading an article in the newspaper some time ago (I've learned better now :). I couldn't help but notice that a candidate for presidential elections 2008, Hilary Rodham Clinton, spoke in Colorado for the first time. The article started by telling that Clinton knew how to beat all Republicans. It then proceeded to tell that Clinton wants to be a president who is concerned about global warming, solar power, and wind power. Of course, since I'm a sister of someone who knows better, I've heard the anti-global warming/everything else lecture so many times. I'm not falling for that trick again. Had Clinton even considered the fact that it would take so much more energy to make all these solar panels and windmills than it would be just to use water like always?

After reading the article, I was fueled up to go lecture someone on the cost/benefit analysis and to start lecturing everyone on why Clinton would make such a bad president, but then, I stopped. I remembered something. God was in control. It was He that had power over all things and nothing I could ever do would alter His glorious plans for eternity. It was He that protected our forefathers on their way to America, and it was He that had allowed Bush to be elected (for better or for worse), and it was even He who allowed 9/11 to happen to His glory. If Clinton is elected, it will also be His plans. And what do we know about His plans? They will glorify His name.

It's hard (and most of the time impossible) for us to see how bad things could work together for the glorifying of His name, but that's where faith comes in. How hard it is for us to realize that everything that happens is according to His plans! And, no, I'm not saying that we should all isolate ourselves from the world in our lonely mountain cottage and just wait to die, but we must also realize that even though we can't see the grand scheme of things, we have the assurance that all will work together to His glory and that all things are apart of His glorious plan.

Am I saying that we should never take part in elections? After all, it won't really matter if we vote or not. No, that's not what I'm saying at all. What I'm saying is that it's not worth having a bad day over things that don't seem like they're going the right way. We must have faith to believe that all things are according to His plan.

There Are Great Uses for Gerbils!

So, after resupplying my stock of gerbils yesterday, I started to realise how great they are for our environment. My room has taken on such a wonderful, earthy savour, and everything is once more in balance. Here are a just a few great things gerbils will do for you:

Have a surplus of meal worms? These little critters will keep you down to just a few.

Need a cheap paper-shredder? You got yourself one.

Need to dig a foundation for your house? Just stick several hundred of these on the case, and you'll be in business in no time.

Want less sleep? Here you go!

Tired of not being distracted from school work? I can guarantee you that they will help your problem.

Are you in the medical field and need to draw blood on occasion? I'll get you one of my meanies. "Here you go. Just hold this nice, friendly, furry gerbil for a few minutes..." I can guarantee that the kid will enjoy this kind of blood-drawing much more than the typical "force the syringe up your arm" method.

Tired of having empty space in your room? These are great for taking care of that problem.


And that's just to list a few...


Okay, it probably sounds like I hate my gerbils. Actually (as I'm sure everyone of you knows), I really do enjoy breeding my gerbils, and I try not to kill them too often. Now Ben on the other hand...

So, here are some pictures of my new little critters:

Sage sitting on The Litter

Mango (he's impossible to take of!)

Sage and Jasmine's litter (two days old) There are actually six of them, but one is hiding.



Kiwi (I'll be breeding her with Mango)

Sage, Jasmine, and Litter

And those are my new ones. Besides that, I have Oreo and Olga. :S

Hallmark Day!

Valentine's Day should be banned. There. I've said it. Do you know how much happier the whole country would be if it were? Not only would husbands not have to worry about supplying their wife with bountiful gifts, but elementary schools could also skip out on the hours (I'm sure!!) it takes to make all the valentines. Face it. Not too many people like Valentine's Day, and the people who do? Well, let them find sometime else to do what they want to do. You know, I think that the only reason Valentine's Day stays "in business" is because stores keep them in business. After all, if it weren't for stores, I have no doubt that holidays such as Saint Patrick's Day and Labour Day wouldn't be observed. Thank goodness for those stores! They give us a day off of work once in a while.

Honestly, though, if that's the only good reason there is to keep a holiday in existence, it should be put to rest.

There Is a Reason It Was Invented...

hi...i thought i wuld right a post on how confusing it is when pple right like this and i am buying more gerbils next week...punctuation is very stupid because they're going to be black and white and yellow...do u like snow...guess what...i had to shovel a few days ago...we didn't get the snow blower too work but a neighbor got they're's two chug...........

You know exactly what I was talking about, right? What do you mean it took several times of reading (or at least slow reading) before you could decipher the meanings of all my random phrases/sentences?

Well, after reading several gerbil "business"- related emails--and re-reading--, I came to the conclusion that, yes, it does matter whether you use punctuation, paragraphs, capital letters, and correct homonyms.

The earliest writings had no punctuation, no spaces, and no capitalization. Until the eighteenth century, punctuation was only used for people who were reading aloud. Eventually, however, people become so confused about whether you were talking about the winter or the bear, that punctuation was also used for people who were reading silently to themselves. Whether you're shouting or whispering, you shouldn't have to read things over and over in order to finally grasp the meaning (unless they're writing in a high vocabulary level). Punctuation actually developed dramatically when large numbers of Bibles were being produced. These Bibles were designed to be read aloud, and the copyist began to introduce a range of marks to aid the reader, including indentation, various punctuation marks, and an early version of capitals. Having all this punctuation helped greatly in the clarifying of things written.

Unfortunately, many people have taken to writing everything the "fast, easy" way. Doing this probably actually takes more time to be processed when you think of how much time the recipient of the writing spends reading a single sentence.

Homonyms! Bye, by, buy; to, too, two; there, their; they're; etc. Believe it or not, it does matter whether you use the right homonym or not! Do you have any clue how confusing it is to read something when the writer used the wrong homonym? Very. "Next vacation I'll go with them to by some clam chowder. >:\ It was two bad there car stopped working last trip. "

~~~

There. The lecture for the week. Hopefully somthing more interesting soon.