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musicmanHEDGE
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Name: Timothy
Country: United States
State: Indiana
Metro: Warsaw
Birthday: 2/13/1987
Gender: Male
Interests: Jesus Christ, following His example in love, the well-being of His children, World Peace, ART (visual, performing, and audio! A.K.A. - MUSIC!) Viola, Singing, Theatre/Acting, Pottery, Photography Literature, Dance, helping others, seeing other people succeed, TEACHING!
Expertise: Stringed instruments (viola), singing, and Photography.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Art
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  VIOLIST4HIM
Member Since:
1/10/2006
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| late night museI have an inability to do homework during the day. and I have ADD. it's really a suicidal combination when pursuing any type of academic goal. but while attempting to finish theory homework i tend to think about many other things - this is of course good and bad. i should focus my thoughts on the obligatory task. but thinking for it's own sake is something that i embrace. this stated:
doing right is not about abstaining from certain activities.
doing right is about actions - that's why it's DOING. it's not "not doing wrong." it's more. - no i take that back it isn't more... it's something different altogether.
doing right is opening the door for the guy in a wheelchair.
doing right is helping the old lady put her groceries away.
doing right is recycling and properly disposing of rubbish.
doing right is helping people.
doing right is deciding to not think about yourself. it is not selfish.
doing right is being concerned about other people because God loves people for who they are - it isn't karma.
you can do right and wrong in the same day... even at the same time by the same action.
there is one thing that is wrong. all the other things are results, symptoms, of the one thing that is wrong. that one thing is selfishness. sin = selfishness.
think about that. what things are sin? gossip? stealing? cheating? sexual thoughts and actions? lying? gluttony? drunkenness? laziness? NO! these are symptoms of the sin: selfishness. sin (selfishness) is a disease.
not doing wrong means not thinking about yourself. doing right means thinking of others before yourself. i've read probably over 90% of the Bible, and i think that those two beginning sentences basically sum up the whole thing.
now i realize that i just summed up a huge literary work in two sentences so you're probably thinking: "it can't be that easy!" to which i would reply: "following those two sentences may just be the most difficult task there is - EVER!!!" think about it. how often do you think about yourself? 99% of the time? 95%? maybe if you're like right under Jesus holy you think of yourself only 50% of the time... even still you're only halfway there!
all i know is my own personal experiences and for me i think of myself like basically all the time - really! all the time... maybe i consider other people like 2% of the time that i'm awake during the day... if that.
i think that we need to spend more time perfecting our lives in the "small" things that Jesus told us to do - like loving our neighbor and our enemies. and spend less time arguing about specific theological absurdities. cause i think that there is way more in the "small" things than we give them credit for.
i'm going to focus thought on mus theory hw now.
Peace, Love and Grace to you. | | |
| one false dichotomy in musicthere is a false dichotomy that is music related that i intend to shatter into millions of pieces.
the dichotomy is:
"classical" art vs. "popular" art.
there is no merit in making such a distinction. classical art can be popular and popular art can me classical. bach was popular in his time as was beethoven and liszt! liszt had a very similar audience as the beetles did (girls screaming, throwing underwear onstage, jumping up and down etc... don't think such behavior is new!) symphonies and operas were once as popular as musicals and jazz are now. yeah we have a different culture but quality has never been biased. quality cn exist in any musical style whatsoever!
regina spektor is going to be studied in music history textbooks in ten or twenty years. i have confidence in this because of what i know about her background. she was born into a musical family and has studied extensively at the collegiate level. she has an intimate knowledge of theoretical concepts.
billy joel is the same way - he even did an entire classical album of his compositions that were just piano and had a more classical sound.
phenomenal pianist/composers like liszt are still playing and composing - i.e. ben folds who is absolutely incredible. his compositions are so thick and communicate so well!
and even those who may not be the musical composing types are still influential for the lyrics the compose and their voices. one example of this is ani difranco. she is continuing an ancient tradition of simple but profound minstrelsy. her voice is amazingly descriptive and her guitar skills never hold her back... they follow her voice where ever it should happen to go. also the lead singer/guitar player of dashboard confessional. his voice is VERY clear and the feel of his music definitely resembles that of the ancient minstrels.
music is all the same - there is good music and there is not-good music. we recognize differences in music and our brain has an uncontrollable desire to clump similar sounding music together however, in reality the clumps are very misleading and encourage us to only explore music that we believe will please us. this is sad because it often keeps us from exploring music in other clumps! i appeal to you: do not allow your musical experiences to be defiled by false classification systems. as duke ellington says: all good music is BEYOND category. | | |
| hello (im)moral m(in)ority - i can assure you there is NO liberal conspiracy!!!so as i was leaving the little work out room in the basement of my building i spotted a colorful piece of paper by one of the treadmills. it turned out to be a crappy home-made pamphlet with an american flag on the back. you can so tell this pamphlet was made on someone's PC and probably an old PC at that. it is advertising the "silencing of God seminar" which is put on by the "muncie/yorktown churches of Christ" and the speaker is some hick from arizona. he has his degrees from southern state schools and tiny Christian colleges in the south. his Ph. D. isn't even Bible related it's in speech communication. he was the pastor for "various congregations of the churches of Christ" for ten years after which he was a television host for a Christian television program i've never even heard about - but it's evidently a gay-bashing television show. i hope by this point in the post i have established in your mind that this man is a hick who doesn't know anything except for how to convince people that there is a liberal conspiracy. (like i said he does have his Ph.D. in speech com.) so the absolute WORST part about the whole ordeal is that this seminar is held, of all places, IN EMENS AUDITORIUM ON BALL STATE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS!!!!! What the F!@#?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I'm sorry but why would they even rent Emens out for such a creep? He's going to try to convince us that the "founding fathers of america" were opposed to the separation of church and state and that america was intended to be a christian nation that is absolutely closed to liberals, pluralism, and any other religion besides Christianity. then he's going to convince these people to go commit hate crimes against gays and bomb abortion clinics. how can a person read the Bible and pull out an excuse to hate? I do NOT even LIKE america but this was supposed to be a land of religious freedom! this was supposed to be a land where everyone could decided for themselves what to believe. this was supposed to be a land where all men and women who had been created equally could feel free to live their lives however they saw fit providing it did not take away from the rights of others! how can people who don't believe that claim they are supporting american values?
i'm sorry if this is offensive but i needed to vent - this seminar is so wrong it makes me cringe. i feel the same way i feel when i see on the news about some child molester! it's just wrong!
what are christians to do? is the question he plans to answer on the last day of the seminar. i'll answer it for him: "repay no one evil for evil. be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live AT PEACE with everyone." Romans 12:17-18 | | |
| I've sorta boycotted xanga recently... that's not cool. anyhow...
Ball State University is basically incredible! it's the BEST school for music education in this fair state of IN and possibly one of the best schools in the US for mus ed. I absolutely LOVE it here and I'm learning so much. The only problem with BSU is that it is 112.46 miles away from Cheryl Elizabeth (according to mapquest) that's the worst part. Because she lives far away now I've told her that if she goes to Berrie again this year that she has to take me. I'm not sure how our parents would feel about us leaving the country together and living together all summer... but we'd live in separate houses so it shouldn't be that bad... and we'll be 20 and 21 years old so it's not like our parents can do anything except for disapprove. anyhow...
I've been thinking about feelings a little today and I've decided that they're necessary. Oh, so is thinking... but they're both important... you can't have one without the other... otherwise things don't work the way they're supposed to. some people feel too much. other people think too much. both vices are exactly that - problems. i don't know if this makes any sense. but hopefully it does.
I was having problems with my student loan because the initial proof of enrollment paperwork i had sent them wasn't sufficient because it didn't show how many credit hours i was enrolled for. then once i got the correct one in they told me it wasn't right because i had said on the application that i would use the money for this whole school year but my POE only stated that I was enrolled for this semester - not the whole year. so I had to reprint the application, cross out the old dates, write in the new ones, initial and sign it, drive to Goshen, have mom initial and sign it, drive back, fax it, and wait. BUT I learned yesterday that the paperwork gods at chase bank have finally been appeased and i will receive a check from the paperwork gods soon. meaning i can now purchase textbooks... yeah... like 3 weeks after school started... I'm just glad I can finally stat getting my homework in on time and be more prepared for classes. oh... i can also get microsoft office put on my MacBook so I can open word documents teachers send to me!!!!
i want to go to europe - all of it... i want to roam the entire continent this summer or something. chamber choir MIGHT tour europe this spring. if we go i might not this summer... or i might stay longer than they stay... idk. but i need to go to europe soon or the music major in me will explode!
i don't close my eyes when i pray anymore... and i can't go to church without overanalyzing EVERYTHING. i try to stay positive about church. but i'm realizing more and more that churches are messed up. don't doubt my salvation - i'm still a Christian Spiritualist. but churches should be more intellectual. i went to "the campus house" and we talked about if being "A Christian" (a term that was thrown around but never clearly defined) was easy or hard. after listening to the rhetoric of fifth graders who happened to be in college for an hour and a half i was frustrated. the church reminded me of the movie "save" where they attend "american eagle high school" no one really looked like they loved each other... they were just trying to be cool. that is rather judgmental of me - it's the vibe that i got... i'm sure it's more than that to some people but Christianity shouldn't be cool. i don't think - maybe i'm wrong but i don't think it's supposed to be cool. i'm a bit of an optimist so i'm still going to look for a good church and hopefully i'll find one. i like grace community in goshen an awful lot why can't there be one of those here? i would even settle for a church as fun as the goshen college mennonite church. i like it a lot too. or WCC why isn't there a church like WCC in muncie? anyhow...
i'm going to go down to get some lunch/breakfast and do hw and clean my room and wish that cheryl elizabeth and i were in the same city. *sigh*
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| Godless goldevidently some of the new John Adams dollar coins don't have "In God we Trust" on them... I think that this is good because the references to God that have been added to US currency and to the pledge make people think that the US is somehow a Christian nation... and it is NOT at all. Notice how I said ""added to". that's because initially those references were not there. they were added by Christian extremists. Christianity has been cheapened by such references and I'm glad to see that one day soon it will gain strength. I'm looking forward to the day when none of the US currency has "In God we Trust" on it. | | |
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