And its been long enough

Now I know most of you folks out there seem to like this new-fangled music with its drums and guitars and singers (some of whom don't even sing) with its repetitive words and funny-looking dance moves and I might admit that some of it sounds pretty interesting. But for my book you can't beat a guy like Beethoven - who was a true genius (as evidenced by the fact that he yelled at people a lot and walked around his place in Vienna buck-naked and played a piano with its legs cut off and wrote music). Last Friday I got to hear a guy play a Beethoven sonata (op. 109 for those interested - anyone . . . . anyone at all?) and it was pretty good, not as mature as it could have been but it showed promise and it inspired me to return to a sonata I had once learned (op. 110) and relearn it. It is heartrendingly beatiful. Honestly, I could die listening to that song right now and I would be happy. It's like that scene from the end of the Last Samurai where Ken Watanabe is about ready to die and he see's the cherry blossoms and says something like "It's perfect" and then collapse's into a lake of his people's blood that he had killed because of his senseless attack. But I digress.
I don't know how normal people live their lives - it seems to be a mish-mash of banal activities (getting a shower, cooking food, taking out the garbage, going to work, sharpening pencils, etc.) and frenetic attempts to be somebody (American Idol anybody?).
And in a lot of ways I wish that I could be like that. I wish it were ok for me to go into business and work a 9-5, hopefully get a little financial security, have a family and get old and fat and die. I wish it were possible to only dream of getting into American Idol, or of getting a career as a lawyer.

And then, I sit down and play music. I'm not the best pianist. I'm really not even decent by the music world's standards, but when I experience the creation of sound, color, timbre, emotion, knowledge, that is the piano; I realize that I can do nothing else but pursue this desire. I don't know if normal people can relate to that. To be able to feel the sorrow that Beethoven felt. To see the majesty of Kiev. To paint a masterpiece in time - gone the instant it was created is a feeling like no other. I hope in your life that you are able to experience something like that, to transcend the mundane into a glorious world. To see nobility and villainy, tragedy and happiness, power and mercy. This is a great gift - I am humbled that I have been given the opportunity to experience this.
I guess for some people its hard to understand why a person could live a life not knowing about his future, never any real financial security to speak of, and I guess its hard for me too. I rest in the belief that I'm where God wants me, and when my faith becomes weak . . . I am reminded anew of his provision by the gift of music.

my new instrument

well several weeks ago I was talking to a family in my church (the Myers but nobody knows them - I don't think), anyway one of their sons mentioned that he played the nose flute - too which statement I reacted with something of shock, I had never heard of a nose flute, and I'm a music major. So I commented on my amusement and then fairly promptly forgot about it. And then I was invited over to their house for a kind of Christmas/New Years/whatever get together. And the Myers proceeded to present me with my very own nose flute. Unfortunately I was unable to locate a decent picture of my nose flute in my cursory examination of google. so I must only describe it to you. its orange and plastic and the top of it covers your nostrils and the bottom covers your mouth and you make sounds by blowing air through your nose (hence nose flute) and using your open mouth to manipulate the tone. It kinda sounds like a breathy whistle. And so this is my new instrument - I'm thinking an offertory on it is in order. Anyway I just wanted to let you know that I now play the piano, violin, udu, nose flute, and trumpet (a very little bit on the trumpet) - next stop: A street corner near you.

Musings and Uncertainty

I woke up with a splitting headache. I rolled over and looked at the clock with less than open eyes and glared at my clock - hurrah, it was 5:30 in the morning and I had been asleep for three hours. And then I couldn't get back to sleep for a long time - the headache had happened to me before. It tends to attack every couple of months after a period of extreme sleep loss and then my body decides that it will now not allow me to sleep at all. And so I toss and turn and turn and toss until I convince myself that I must have Tylenol. And herein lies the problem - you see, I don't have Tylenol in my house and no place is open at 5:45 in the morning - so I tell myself that I can do it and try to sleep and relax into dreaming. Eventually I get Tylenol. I've already left a note that I'm not feeling well and am taking the morning off, as I collapse into my bed the headaches steel bands are loosening and my body is gratefully falling into sleep. I won't wake up until noon.

The snow has fallen all day long. Contrary to the idiot weather man who said that it was supposed to be done by 1 pm. I hope he starts carrying a bow-and-arrow. But its Monday night and I desperately need to go shopping. So I leave, pushing my way through the flurries, hoplessly hoping that my lights will reach further than 25 ft away. I make the trip in reasonable time - the roads are surprisingly good - then eat at the E.Coli factory. After shopping and gassing and eating and driving and shaking and desiring. I returned home. I then cleaned for almost an hour - boxes were destroyed, I cleaned my refrigerator, cleaned up Christmas trash, discovered that I need extensions cords, moved most of my clothes, cleaned the kitchen, set up the vacum, set up the dvd player, swept, wiped down and generally made a nuisance of myself. Then I realized that the Globes were useless, predictable people with prosaic phrases organized into dull speeches with boring clothes and stupid announcers. but sam fisher was not. And so I slept.

Children are interesting. It has been often said that children have the purest outlook on life. They get excited that their sister uses the training potty and sleeps in a real bed. I wonder if its possible for adults to ever enjoy that wonder at the world. Too much of life is devoted to car registration, worrying over schools, pleasing people, working. Where is the excitement that comes with the way the ice froze on the windowpane? Is it a bad thing that the adult brain becomes focused? Is it any less serious to be simple-minded than it is to be driven? Ambition is a hard taskmaster - but it is an accepted one. While musing over aviator's and blue t-shirts, while considering cannonballs, in view of screwdriver sets and broken castors, consider the icy windowpane.

Apocalypse When?

Ladies and Gentleman

drumroll please

A group of United Airline workers including some pilots swear that they saw a saucer shaped disk that hovered over the ground above O'hare Airport and then shot back up into the clouds.
The FAA blames the weather. One controller a Craig Burzych said "To come 7 million light years to O'Hare and then have to turn around and go home because your gate was occupied is simply unacceptable".

I couldn't agree more.

whatever

Lot of stuff on my mind, I think that I'm going to be moving to the 'never posting' stage. I think I've said what I wanted to say. Not totally destroying the blog but . . . . I don't really feel like I've been effectively communicating what I want to say and its irritating me to death. I'm kind of halfway serious and halfway cynical and I don't know why. Anyway, I'm out. I'll see you when I see you.

The Nobility

Throughout recorded history, in every culture that has been uncovered, in every philisophical movement set up, there has always been a caste system. From the nomads of the desert to the halls of Versaille, from the Wild West to the Soviet Union, mankind has stratified itself. In some instances this stratification has taken place based on absurd grounds such as, race or skin color. In many instances the division has been based upon the accumulation of wealth. And in a few instances the division has been based on an idea (or idea's). Our Nation has always been a stratified society - divided by race, creed, wealth, gender and a host of other issues. Thomas Jefferson during the drive to throw off the stratified society of Great Britain wrote that he wished to make a nation where the aristocracy was not based on wealth or family but rather on the so-called 'intellectual nobility', that is he desired an aristocracy of knowledge. So much for true democracy. Like many grandiose, utopian idea's this one has fallen by the way side in this day and age. Indeed, it seems that in our postmodern age we have lost any sense of nobility left in our society. As our public men and women are held up to increasingly powerful media scrutiny, the secrets of people, that fifty years ago would have remained unknown to the vast majority of our world, are now displayed for all the world to see in newspapers, blogs, tabloids, and TV. Because of this attention we have lost one of the most valuable aids to human progress - the ability of myth-making. We have no person in any part of society that is able to rise above the mundane aspects of life and become a hero (I use this term in a gender-neutral way). And our increasingly critical eye has now been turned to the past, in an effort to "debunk" history we are forced to research and read books that are more interested in the sordid details of a man's life than in his idea's and accomplishments. In a way, this is not a bad thing. For instance, it is exceptionally ironic - and necessary - to know that Jefferson could write "that all men are created equal. . ." and own slaves and have a slave mistress. But in all of this inquiry into people's lives we have lost mankind's nobility. And it is quite sad.
It is not that I am any better than you, or that you are better than me. Its the fact that we seem to have lost the ability for a person to raise themself to the level of 'nobility'. Part of the problem is the people that we focus on: frankly, any person in Hollywood is not worthy of any respect not entitled to a common person, nor are there many politicians that are worthy of even being in office let alone being objects of hero-worship. It is possible that amongst the people of some backwoods town or amongst the vast middle-class suburbs or the ever-growing inner-city there is a person who deserves the right of nobility. But that person doesn't make himself known to the common man. So yes, it is possible that this is more of a rant against the media, it is possible that this is a meditation on the ills of postmodernism. It is also possible that my own inexperience, lack of knowledge and youthful idealism are combining to make a fool out of myself.
All of which begs the question, what is nobility? Is it my ability to lead a great portion of society? Is it my ability to be a good, decent citizen. How does God figure in to this situation? Is it God's will that there even is nobility? Would it be possible that God would want me to lead people? For these questions I have no answers.

To be Continued

well what shall we talk about today.
I could argue the Wii vs. PS3 vs. XBox 360
I could talk about the man who wanted to commit 'violent jihad' in a Rockford mall that I'm going to today.
I could talk about the joys of Christmas that shine through in spite of the greed.
I could talk about the coolest background ever on my computer. (a photo of a place in Finland)
I could talk about having the bulletin ready at 11:15 in the morning (almost ready that is)
I could talk about the One, Double, Triple, and Quadruple Bypass burgers along with their Flatliner fries (cooked in pure lard)
I could rhapsodize about cheap chocolate doughnuts
I could discuss my horrors of dentistry and tie it in cleverly with my spiritual shortcomings
I could talk about the future and how motivated/unmotivated I am about it
I could tell a sappy story
I could mock RuthAnn for posting about guys
I could mock Daniel and Dale for never posting
I could discuss some random movie that I enjoy
I could go on and on and on and on and on about music and its quality (or lack thereof)
I could discuss summer plans
I could jamwrite about nothing
I could talk about the Packers, or the Bears, or the Steelers, or the Chargers, or almost any other football team
I could tell funny anecdotes about my students
I could complain about being so busy that I'll hardly get to see my brothers this Christmas
I could rejoice about getting to see Brittany over New Years
I could try to be open and real and discuss things that bother me in regards to me, christianity, the world, friends, enemies, future, past, etc.
I could post cool paintings
I could make up pseudo-intellectual discussions like: Is silence a sound? or "is black a real color"
I could talk about dark matter

But I won't

(another logical well-rounded post from the man who is supremely logical)

ummmmm, yeah . . . . . .

This week I have two signs of the apocalypse
1. A grandmother in AZ was caught with 200+ lbs of pot in her trunk. She said she got into drug running to support her bingo problem.
2. Customs officials searched a plan flying from Jamaica to Miami and found/confiscated 4000 lbs of marijuana.

If you need commentary on either of these pieces, you are a hopeless wreck of humanity.

Short term memorizing has never been all that difficult for me. I love words, I love the taste of them in my mouth and I find myself constantly filling my mouth with as many words as I can, and then spewing them out wantonly as fast as I can and at whatever I can. So I don't really understand why the kid next to me can't remember the little two-line verse he's supposed to be memorizing. Until, that is, I realize that the kid can barely read the verse, and it would take a miracle for him to understand what the verse is actually driving at, which in this case is why we should love God. Now, disregarding the obvious parellel between my experience and the kids ignorance and God and myself, I began to think about two things. 1) how quick I am to skim the knowledge offered me and discard it. and 2) my horrendous propensity to take the love of God and my ability to love Him for granted.
Most of you know that I was involved in a rather serious accident this past summer, in a matter of seconds I went from the inside of a vehicle to being the next incarnation of Superman. I had never realized how fast everything can change. How fast a split second is. And the fragile hold I have on life and my own well being. But for me, the hardest thing about the accident wasn't the accident, or the hospital, or the pain, or even the fear which assaulted me every time I drove past the accident site, the hardest thing was how normal the next day was. Your not supposed to walk away after being thrown 20 ft in the air. Your supposed to end up with your back broken and your hands mangled beyond recognition. Not wearing your seatbelt isn't supposed to save you from a closed casket funeral. Your not supposed to be blessed with almost no memory of the accident itself. But that's the way my accident worked out. Now I was really sore and stiffer than I'd ever been, but that didn't stop me from walking out of the hospital the next day and driving back to camp. After the initial hugs and queries over my well-being life settled back into its normal routine for everyone else. But it was hard for me to go back to the normal routine - my world had just been exploded around me. Suddenly it wasn't quite so important that one counselor bugged me to death, it didn't matter that it was hotter than I liked, or even that I wasn't able to counsel that week despite really looking forward to it. For the first time in my life I realized my vulnerability, and then God proceeded to hammer it home every single time I drove by the spot where we flipped. And then the summer ended and I flew back to Wisconsin. And the Midwest is a lot different from California - there's no sand, or heat. No scorpions to catch and feed to your pet (also a scorpion), no rattlers to kill with a pair of scissors, there's not a hundred kids running around screaming bloody murder from sunup to sundown (as you love every moment). And so I forgot - until a kid next to me couldn't memorize his verse.

Fine . . . . . I'll be serious

First off I would like to say Thank You to all you people who commented on my lack of posting. Sometimes, in this world, its nice to know you've been missed.

These last few weeks have been extremely eventful for me. I've had tons of new experiences and have mostly loved them. I've served on a federal jury, helped plan and work in a Missions Conference, finally figured out where my parents stand on Brittany (more ups and downs than a roller coaster), traveled to and from Ohio, had Thanksgiving with Justin's family, saw James and Aisling Solarek and burned my throat out from the chlorine in their hot tub, actually got to see Dale and Jess a little bit and realized I haven't read a good book in months (by far the longest time in my life - previously it was maybe two weeks).

Back at Maranatha I was extremely tired of the politics involved with the college. I was tired of having rules all around me that - while they made sense and were possibly necessary - were not at all what I believed in. I was almost physically ill with the way that people were destroyed because of the way they didn't fit into the 'good kid' mold. And I was upset that the system in place had no way for me as a person to voice my concerns in a way that would not be construed as rebellious and sinful.

Because of these things (and because I'm twenty-two and ready to get on with my life) I was very happy that God plopped the opportunity to go to Shannon into my lap. But I was concerned because of what I would be giving up, I wouldn't see any of my friends, I was moving away from an established routine, I wouldn't be able to see much of Britt, etc. Now I can see that - just as I needed to gain perspective from Falls before I could judge it accurately - I also needed space from Maranatha and all that I had known to be able to accurately understand what it had meant to me. I don't profess to understand everything, I can't even understand myself 90% of the time but I do know that I've started to be able to judge effectively for my own self for the first time. (sorry for the syntax of that sentence - but I try never to rewrite).

I have seen that it is possible in a staunch Midwestern community to have a traditional fundamental church that does well. But more importantly I've seen that the importance isn't the preaching or the music or the knowledge or the standards that make this difference. Its the people, the people here are genuine, there belief in the tradition that makes up most of fundamentalism is still real and unjaded. Its because of this belief that the church works - because they haven't forgotten about people and because they haven't forgotten that mistakes are part of being a human. Now I'm not really saying that I'm a traditional fundamentalist - because I'm not and I really can't stand the stigma that's attached to the title. What I'm saying is that it is very encouraging for me to see Christian faith in action; with a group of people who are truly passionate about what they believe.

And now its your turn. Is it possible that the move to postmodernism in Christianity is driven by people who are disillusioned with fundamentalist modernity, or by the desire for change, or is it possible that there really is no change in Christianity, only a rewording and retradionalizing?


p.s. Dale - this discharges me from having to write anything serious for a long time.

Whatever I feel like saying

So I realize I haven't blogged in a while (for me, not for you other retards who don't ever blog, or for those people who don't tell me their blog so I can't go and read while they can read mine!! - that's right, you know who you are).

I served on a federal jury all of last week, really quite an interesting experience. I kept thinking about Shakespeare and theatrics and staging and all sorts of odd things. I also was learning about drugs and distribution schemes, I heard the word "cumulative" enough in those five days to last me the rest of the year, I sat for five days straight and then ate and then sat, I got to spend a couple of nights with Dale and Jess in their really cool new place, I only made Jess mad at me once or twice and Dale and I argued with each other over everything - good times all round. I also drove a lot.

I think that this Thursday will either be
a) unqualifiedly (is this a word?), unbelievably, stupendously amazing. Or,
b) horrible

I also had to help get a missions conference ready (sorry Pastor Tim for not being here last week), and try to help run said missions conference.

I talked to Justin from Ironwood on Monday night so that was really cool. Dude might be going to Oxford this summer - I'm completely totally jealous. Really I am - it almost ruined the conversation with him (ok, maybe not - sarcasm doesn't communicate in print very well does it).

I'm almost sick to my stomach with terror.

I haven't been this nervous since my junior recital.

I love you all - some more than others but I still love everyone.

going to print reports, distribute reports, cut prayer sheets, set up video equipment, teach piano lessons and not fall asleep.

I would address you by name if any of you were able to communicate anything going on in your life through your blog - but since your not I think your all idiots.

(thats sarcasm)

I now will attempt to ruin every joke on my blog by explaining it ad nauseam thereby creating a commentary on the irrelevance of your actions and my actions and promoting the atrophy of the collective American brain.

Did you know that Bill Gates made some comments saying that America needs to make it harder to graduate from high school (while I tend to agree with him) its ironic coming from the richest man in the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . who's a high school dropout.

bye

Space

Ok, so I was able to take this astronomy class once and I loved it. The teacher and I got along great there was a math major in my lab group so I never thought in numbers, the tests made sense, the sky was cloudy so I wasn't up till all hours of the night doing observations, and I took it in summer school so it was over in about 3 weeks. (did I mention that I got an A in it?) All in all a great class. I tell you this to let you know that I tend to find space fascinating (see sci-fi post) and I really love space photographs (may Hubble live forever!!!) And so there's this photograph which, honestly, is incredible. Space, in my estimation, is one of the great proofs of God. Because of its complexity, incredibly vast distances and amazing beauty I can not help but look at it and see God. (I do realize that other people see other things - but there wrong and I'm not). So heres the picture, take a moment to marvel at the amazingness of the beauty God has given us.




By the way: this is a picture of Saturn eclipsing Sol, taken from the Cassini spacecraft. The camera was facing back into the solar system and if you can zoom in on the picture (try clicking on it). you can see Earth at the 10 o'clock position (Saturns the clock face) just inside the outermost circle.

Why do we have to settle?

What is wrong with a society that consistently denigrates and mocks one of the true achievements of mankind. Why do we feel consistently inclined to mock people who choose to spend years of their lives investing their entire beings to know the unknowable. Music is one of God's great gifts, and over time their have been men and women who have devoted themselves to the skillful (key word here) construction of music. I am consistently amazed that people who consider (and sometimes are) themselves reasonably intelligent people will ridicule classical music. Now, admittedly I am biased in this case (horribly so, in point of fact). I grew up with classical music - I get classical music - I love classical music. But!!!!! that doesn't mean that you should ignore what I'm saying here. I'm not saying that you need to like it. I'm completely fine with you not enjoying classical music and with you not understanding it. Frankly, if everyone 'got' classical music it wouldn't be a hard thing to be a musician. But why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, do you feel the need to mock the music or the musicians? Really, for those people who have actually taken the time to understand what they're talking about your just making yourself look like an idiot. The level of complexity in the philosophy, technical details, performance details, history, and performers far surpasses anything that the 'pop' realm has ever offered. There's a reason that its called a 'fine art'. It's comparable to a chef and a Mcdonalds worker. Sure, your going to get fed at both of them - but one of them will fill you up with chemicals and grease, (thereby killing you) and one of them will give you a range of flavors and tastes that will satisfy your palate and your stomach, oh, and it won't lessen your lifespan either.
Now, I will confess to listen (and even enjoy) non-classical music. Some of it is even well done. (although we're discussing 10 songs out of every million - and no, thats not an exaggeration).
But just like Mcdonalds, too much is a really, really bad thing. And too much is a very small number.
And, I think that its even worse when the people mocking it are Christians. Seriously, who else in the world should tolerate and encourage things of value if not for the Christians? In fact, its strangely ironic that I'm credited with a higher degree of respect amongst secular people for being a classical musician than I am amongst the Christians that I've met.

And now its your turn. Tell me about how I shouldn't make fun of people who like something thats not cultured. Defend yourself by saying "I guess I'm just stupid". Tell me that I'm not being tolerant while preaching for tolerance.
In reply to this I say that it is never appropriate to settle for 'good enough'. It is never right to not push your mind to the limits. It is never right to mock anything that God has given to us.

good evening friends.
Just to warn you, I don't think this post is going to be to random. Its more a personal way to work some stuff out, pardon me for being ambigous, for the lack of connected thought and (of course) if I would happen to offend anyone I am terribly sorry.
( I mean that )

Ok, so a couple of weeks ago Josh was a big idiot and did some stuff that he didn't talk with his parents about and they they weren't happy with him, and then another person brought up more issues with him, and then Josh found out that he had offended other people by not talking to his parents thereby putting them in an untenable position, then Josh found out that some of his bestest ever friends were feeling a little neglected and unloved. Josh is also trying to work his job, teach his lessons, practice for a concert, get a relationship going, apply for grad school, and stay current on the world at large. Needless to say, I either failed or completed the above items somewhat shoddily.

One of the reasons I tend to stay away from making deep, spiritual applications in my posts is because it always rings false when I try. It sounds cliched, tired, and weak, but in this case I have to make the application. In the midst of the craziness of my life - I got away from relying on God, and from the people that God had put in my life to sustain me. I got wrapped up in my own desires and wishes and forgot to keep God guiding me. As a result God stopped the train (rather violently) that he had started so that I could realize that I needed my conductor back (sorry for the cliched analogy).

Soooo couple of things.
1. I apologize to my friends for not being there all the time for them. Its not a lack of desire but more of trying to balance a new life with an old one. I love you all (and I do mean that in a mocking way.)
2. I admit that I'll never be good enough to punch my own ticket.

I went to Chambers Choir today for the first time since I graduated and Dad had this Hungarian guy (missionary to Hungary) come and sing and he sang "Why should He love me so" and when he was done he said something like "I don't know why He should love me, I still wonder at that" More than anything, I forgot God. I forgot His mercy, His love, His compassion. I became selfish and withdrawn, closeminded and arrogant. I forgot His holiness, and His judgement allowing myself to be drawn from His side and forgetting the price that was/is inevitable. And so I apologize to each and every one of you that I have hurt - some of you I need to talk to in person and I will.

I love you all

p.s. sorry for the rambles - if I didn't make any sense I am sorry - it was at least cathartic for me.

Fall Days

Saturday's.
Football
College Football
Sunny Skies
Plain Doughnuts
Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts
Hot Apple Cider
Leaves
Crisp Weather
Sweaters
Fire
Peat
Trepidation
Anticipation
Chores
School
Books
Travel

p.s. Thanks to the Ironwood peeples (I like that spelling better) for commenting. I miss you all

seven

Do you ever have numbers that you think are complete?
For me 19 is an incomplete number it needs to be 20. but 3 is perfect and 4 should be five. 11 and 12 and 13 are all bad but 14 and 15 and 16 would all be complete. This has always kind of intrigued me, also, the fact that when I spout off random numbers (it happens a lot btw) I tend to choose numbers that I feel are complete. For me, any number that contains "seven" in a predominant place is complete and so I use it a lot. "seventeen thousand times this, seven hundred times that, etc. etc. etc."

I really wanted to tell you all that.

Now, on to other more interesting things.

I really don't like being a news blog (where I tell you - 'I went here and saw so-and-so, and it was sooo cool, and we went shopping, and then we went to his house and watched movies, and I saw this movie and it was great'
MY BROTHERS, THESE THINGS OUGHT NOT SO TO BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't want to know, or if I do - you can tell me in person.
So in that light, Ironwood was at Maranatha today and it was really cool to see them. [side note of not insignificance: (great english huh?) I'm curious which of you ironwood peeps read my blog. I know Katy does and Matty. So if I met you at Ironwood and you don't normally comment please comment so I can find out who reads. and yes, this is a shameless ploy to have my ego stroked (or destroyed) by realizing how many (or how few) people actually read my blog]. And I got an email months ago from an Ironwoodie that I just got yesterday and I'm going to teach a piano lesson.

Waldo on, friends
Your friend, Waddles

Waldoing

So growing up I always heard about these "Waldo" books. And I wondered - why in the world would anybody want to sit for hours and look for this stupid little idiot in a red-and-white stocking hat on a printed page. And so I scoffed and mocked and teased and decided to (at the first opportunity) go and get one of the books. And as I sat down and began looking at it I was completely blown away. At the millions of details given in the pictures, the absurdity of the situations found all over every page, the comic genius needed to be able to think of anything like it. And then I started looking for Waldo AND IT WAS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, HARD!!!!!!! Now, I'm not the most patient of all people so I will admit that I didn't always find Waldo on every page, and I even 'gasp' looked at the back of the book to find the answers. But I really liked the book(s). Fast-forward to today, I saw the name Waldo in a post on a tech blog I like and I said: "Eureka!!!! I have found it, the perfect nonsensical title to the most retarded blog ever, hurrah!!!!!!,
'I gloat
tirra-lirra-la
Hear Me'
(Family Members are not allowed to answer: but what book is this from?)." So for the present, my new blog name is "Here's Waldo"
on a slightly related note: I'm thinking of changing my sign-in name to Waddles if only for the shock value. thoughts???

As regards daily trivia: I was looking for the music thing, I also accept: hair, statesmen (Beethoven does tend to be a bit of a stretch here though) and wacko's (all to smart for their own good)

Coming Soon: Josh opens up and tells you how he watched a flower grow. Stay tuned for this riveting account.

oops

Did you ever have a couple of days that were really hard to get through. Since Saturday night's been like that for me - stupid decisions that I'd made came back to haunt me and, man, is it irritating and humiliating to look at yourself and realize how wrong/dumb you really are. Anyway, that's why I haven't posted.

g'night friends/colleagues/family/peoples/immigrants/athletes/etc.

Daily Trivia

Who was Paderewski and what did he have in common with Einstein and Beethoven?

Part II

So lately I've been wondering why I like sci-fi.
I mean, the acting is horrible, the plot is despicable (to plagarize Yustin: a vast void with wisps of plot floating across it - not a direct quote, but you get the point), the cinematography is so bad that the blind man on the corner can do better. Plus, (and probably most damning) it spouts more cliches than any other genre of movie/tv. [note: in this paragraph, and in my life, I really only like sci-fi shows and movies. NOT books.]{of course, no genre can hope to compete with the chick flick for spouting cliche's, in fact its an insult to every genre of movie/tv to be compared to the chick flick}. Also, sci-fi has always been the domain of the nerd and the geek (labels I've been trying to escape since the beginning of time). But I really like sci-fi. oh, well

p.s. I had a piano student this week who devised a code for the phrase "Hi, how are you." The code was had probably 5 times the amount of letters that it would take to spell out "Hi, how are you" BUT!!!!!!!! YOU COULD PLAY THE WHOLE THING AS A SONG ON THE PIANO!!!!!!!! (she was pretty excited about that) [admittedly it did sound a little pointilistic, but who's complaining?] Another exciting day in the life of Josh