A (not-so-quick) word.

I know, no interview today. I haven't had people responding and stuff. So I thought I'd share a few thoughts of my own with you.

People think I'm smart. People are right, but they don't often quite get it. I think I've mentioned before that people either overestimate or underestimate it, usually by a fair margin.

People ask questions like, "Who made God?" "Why is there suffering, and pain?" "Why would God love me?" I was asking those questions when I was a kid. A little kid, barely in school. And I was getting answers to them, as well. Not by figuring them out - I might have been smart, but I wasn't wise. And certainly not from God beaming them down to me. Slightly more - indirectly. The first two I got from a couple of books. (Really good books, by the way - the series is called Timebenders, a combination of Christian, sci-fi and teenage.) The third one I got from a person that was talking at church once.

I was just playing off to the side. I always liked church, but when I was younger, I didn't listen that much, I more just played with a couple of friends, and that's what I was doing then. I might've only been eight or something. And they were saying how, no matter what you'd done, or thought, or said - God loves you. Very much. He made you, and he wants to be with you.

That was me at about eight. Course, then, you think I must be some super-Christian or something. But no, not really. I'd say not at all. A lot of people talk about the time that they asked God into their life. With me, it was the times. The massive multitude of times. Because every time, nothing. Nada. Squat. And so I just kept doing it, trying to do it more passionately, more earnestly, thinking I must be doing something wrong. Because isn't there supposed to be a change? Aren't you supposed to feel him, or see him, or....something, at least? Anything!

That was me, even through the majority of high school, if not all of it. Attempting to feel God, to see God, to hear God. Because I knew he was there. There was just something in me that always knew, there had to be a God. And I knew there would never be anything that would be able to make me believe otherwise. So in that sense, I suppose you could say I've always been a person of great faith. I've never had a slump, a dark spot, or anything like that, where I've really been angry with God. At least, not anything that I couldn't sort out in less than a few minutes.

Then, one day I realised I'd started having conversations with God. And I hadn't really realised it, as such. It was like..."Hang on, now I am, then I wasn't, and then I was trying to get to here.....Wow. Cool!" Well, something like that. I don't know if I could quite say that I was hearing God. But there was definitely a level of interaction there, something that hadn't been there before.

And, of course, close to a year back, God gave me what I'd been praying, striving, searching, hoping for for most of my life. A passion for him, a joy that I'd been missing. I felt God, I guess you could say. I mean, every now and then he'd touched me before, but - nothing like this. Nowhere near this.

And so that's me now. Getting close to a year after that, and in some ways it's changed me, and in other areas I've still got a long way to go. I'm still a bit - a lot - of an idiot sometimes, I still make a heckload of mistakes, and I'm by no means completely happy with where I'm at with a lot of things. But I think I'm getting better, and I've gotten better then where I once was. And I'm happy to be here. Even with all those mistakes.

Song Saturday #1: Free Choice

The first of (hopefully many) these Song Saturdays, this one is semi-serious, semi-funny. Worked it out on the guitar, so that's a first. Don't know whether I'd be willing to perform it or not, because it might offend some people....I did try and make it a bit exaggerated to avoid that, but people can be....yeah. Anyway, hope you like it :)


Free Choice


V1:
Black, white, or the grey in between
What lies ahead, what is now, or what has already been
Left, right, or ambidextrous
Head, heart, or neck stress

Chorus:
The choice is yours, it's in your hot little hands
You don't have to give in to the world's demands
Pick one side or the other, or sit high on your fences
Yes, you're free to choose, and free with that come the consequences

V2:
Politically incorrect, xenophobe, or slightly unnerving
Day-dreamer, unplanned, or overly conserving
Rightist, leftist, or wearing too many hats
Smart alec, pushover, or scaredy-cat

Chorus


Bridge:
But don't let 'maybe's or 'might's cause you too much pain
They're always going to happen, you can't stop the rain

Chorus x2

Lolz Reborn...kinda.

Well, this isn't the one that I thought I would do before, but this'll work.

Last Friday, I watched Johnny English Reborn. The basic idea is that he's come back after quite a while, because someone specially requested him. He's looking a bit greyer, and the movie is a little as well, but it certainly has some good moments.

One thing that does happen a bit, though - I get a "cringe" moment with some things that happens in movies (I'll probably do a post to actually explain that later), and that certainly popped up a few times. But that's half of the idea with Johnny English, really - he's just a bit of an idiot.

Though there are some classic gold scenes. One of the best is certainly where he's chasing after a man through a high-rise area. The man is doing these elaborate things to get away, and English is using his "wisdom" to figure out simpler ways to do the same thing. One classic example is where the man climbs down the outside of it, on the scaffolding, and English takes the elevator. And gets down to the bottom at the same time, very suave.

All in all - a fairly enjoyable movie, good for the younger generation, but does have some moments of the corn, and a bit of suspension of disbelief at times. Nevertheless, certainly a decent movie.

Interview #1: Mozart Palmer

I did plan to do someone next obvious. Hopefully, that'll be the next one. Anyway. This is the result of an interview between me and Mozart. Well, me sending him questions. Think it turned out pretty well.

"For those who don't know you (doubtful, but mandatory), who are you/what do you do?"

Well, my name is Mozart, I'm twenty years old, and I'm a musician from a small town outside Western Sydney. I'm also a writer and a third year Bachelor of Music student. In my ample spare time I write press releases for Pirate Party Australia, a (hopefully) soon-to-be-registered political party. I'm also a hopeless romantic and seem to be chronically unemployable.

"So is music something you've been interested in a long time - and if so, has your interest changed over that time?"

I guess you could say that. I'm not a "dad made me learn piano when I was three" musician, but I decided I wanted to learn a bit of flute at eight years old. That turned to guitar, guitar to bass, then songwriting and composing. So my interest has changed certainly. I prefer writing music instead of actually playing it like I used to. I'm looking at getting into teaching too, but I've been focusing a lot on the music industry and what value music actually holds in the world lately. So, yes, over the last twelve or so years my interests in music have diversified into its' many aspects.

"So you've evidently chosen to do music at uni. Was that always a goal, or a more recent choice?"

Depends on what you mean by "recent" really. Halfway through eleventh grade I got bored of school. I planned to be a history teacher right up until then, and I suppose I just burned out. The only thing that I really stayed interested in was music, because it was something I had talent in, but was too busy focusing on everything else to really explore. In twelfth grade I made up my mind that I'd aim to do a Bachelor of Music instead of Arts at uni.

"You mentioned that you were involved with PPAU. Why/how did you start getting involved there?"

A friend told me about The Pirate Bay and BitTorrent technology. I was fascinated with it. At some point the documentary "Steal This Film" came onto my RADAR. I'd always thought piracy was a bad thing. But something that everyone did from time to time. The film switched me onto the idea of "piracy" actually not being as bad as it was made out to be. I read a few interviews and articles and came to the conclusion that copyright should be reformed. In "Steal This Film" there are a few snippets with Rick Falkvinge, who founded the Piratpartiet (Swedish Pirate Party) in 2006. I finally got the nerve to join PPAU and start being active in September of 2011, and my contributions were valued enough for me to become fairly acknowledged within the party.

"Apparently, you've also been in charge of doing a fair number of press releases for PPAU. What's that been like, representing a political party to the media and the public?"

It's been a good experience. I've learned to work with deadlines and to get inside the minds of people. Sometimes people aren't available for quotes, so you have to write one for them. You have to think about how they would say things, what words and phrasings they would use. It's also difficult trying to balance what you want to say, with what is appropriate to say. You can't be too aggressive, but at the same time you can't be too toned down. Getting the balance right can be heard. I've done a phone interview once, which was interesting. You just gotta make sure that everything you do and say won't be misquoted or manipulated.

"Final question: wth - why the hair?"

I just never thought I looked good with short hair. Not unless I lose weight. And I'm too lazy to even go for a trim. No kidding. Plus, it's been way too long. I've forgotten the last time I had a cut, but I think it would be at least three years.


Thanks/kudos go to Mozart for doing that with barely any notice. Should have a review for you guys on Thursday. Already got one possible idea...

Walking the knife's edge.

There seems to be a lot of situations in life where you stray just a step either way and life just knocks you down. Some in particular pop up - mainly, when people's eyes are on you. So, of course, the people that find this most difficult are the politicians, the celebrities, the high-flyers.

One of my friends, when I mentioned to him that I'd gotten on to Australia's Got Talent, told me about how he'd tried applying for X Factor. Basically, the judges had slammed him down, because he did an angry song angrily. Go figure. It wasn't his choice. But he was just like, "yeah, whatever." The host was trying to get him riled, to make good TV, but he was just being cucumber cool. So he warned me to be careful of that.

Another friend of mine has ventured a little into politics. Which can be even more of a minefield - so many opinions to take into account, so many people to try and get on to your side. And if you get it wrong - well, the people kick you out. Quite simply. Whether it be the government, or the voters. Both happen on a regular basis.

Course, the trick is to not walk the knife in the first place. Or not care if you fall. But both can be quite difficult, in some cases. Are they more difficult than walking the knife itself? Who knows.

Win And A Half.

God so be trolling me. Just had my last post, then this....

I just got the phone call, telling me I got in for Australia's Got Talent. So I'm going to be performing in front of the judges, on the stage, the whole shebang! :D Whether I actually make it on to TV/through to the next round, we'll see.

I'll update FB with this when I have some actual times for people and such. I know it's the 3rd, 4th and 5th, but no idea which it is yet, but should know within the next couple of weeks.

So yeah, coolness :D

Blaming yourself.

I'm the sort of person that keeps a lot tucked inside. Mostly, the bad stuff. And so people don't know my failings nearly as well as I do. I'm always....acutely aware of them. Part of me likes to emphasise them for me. It can get a little....depressive, at times. I guess I've avoided that, fr the most part, because I've got a bit of a happier/funny personality.

Course, now and then, you stuff things up in a way that makes Chernobyl look like Cher-ry bomb. And when you know it's your fault....

In my case, that leads to me giving myself no end of shit. It's not particularly fun, and usually takes a pretty Epic Win to make up for the Utter Fail.

Some people, of course, will get out of it by blaming someone else. I don't like doing that, because I like people. People are cool like that. Other people blame God. That's just a fail and a half, because he can go Right Back At You times Infinity. Then some say, no-one's to blame. It's all cool and fruity. Right. Would you like guilt with that?

So, logical conclusion, I blame myself. It's right, but the trick is then being able to forgive yourself after that. Which is harder. I'm.....working on it.

Mad World...

It's a bit of a crazy world that we live in. This may already be something that you're acutely aware of.

If not - not that long ago, you were believed to have a mental condition if you were a homosexual, or a slave that ran away.

A little further back, there was an idea that the Earth was constantly expanding, and that there were canals on the surface of Mars.

Go back a little further, and we actually believed this stuff about everything going around the Sun, and spontaneous generation.

And, of course, we had the death sentence, and we were killing each other in wars with sharp/hot/fast/explosive things, and we were all at each other's throats, and.....oh, wait, no, that's still happening. Woops.

We're pretty good at getting things wrong. Making mistakes. And of course, we just keep getting more practised at it...

Recently, there's been quite a bit of hubbub about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) being thrown around in the good ol' US of A. Basically, this brilliant idea means that if you're a copyright holder, and you think I'm infringing (or somehow aiding this) on copyright, you can shut me down. This goes for pretty much any site, I believe. So you could shut down Google. Wikipedia. eBay. If you suspected them of participating or aiding in copyright infringement. I'm pretty sure that's right. If not, someone will be looking at this shortly who understands this a heck of a lot better than me.

It seems like they're hitting the PANIC! button. "We can't do anything, we can't do anything....let's just make it so anyone can play vigilantes! Oh no, it'll be fine. I trust people to not shut down anything important..." Right.

As I said. It's a mad world.

If you want to find out a bit more about it, try here: http://sopa-blackout-template.blogspot.com/ or here: http://americancensorship.org/

Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm thinking so much about something happening over in America - it's happening to the internet. The World Wide Web. World Wide. As well as that, we may as well replace the old Union Jack with the stripes and stars, we're getting so cosy. :P

Very, very soon....

OK. Finally, planning to get into some of this: http://modnarama.blogspot.com/2011/10/plans.html At the moment, I'm thinking interviews, reviews and songs. Other ones will probably pop up now and then, but one of those each week is the idea. Song Saturday, of course. Then I'm planning to do the interview for Monday, and the review for Thursday. So that's three guaranteed a week, and I'll probably do others now and then as well.

I'll be starting in this new format from next week, hopefully. :) Looking forward to it.

Finding your "true name"

Knowing yourself is a bit more complicated than it might seem. People often aren't that introspective until they're forced to be. Though most people would say they know themselves - I'd say that most only know a part.

In the Inheritance series (starting with Eragon) there's the concept of a "true name". The idea is that your true name describes you completely. All of you. The ups and the downs, the ins and the outs. You get it. Of course, people didn't know it instinctively. (Well, the elves did, but they're elves :P) They had to figure it out, through a heck of a lot of soul-seeking, as it were. It wasn't an easy thing. But if you knew your true name, then you knew yourself. Of course, if other people knew it, then they knew you, and had an element of control over you.

Knowing yourself, of course, isn't a walk in the park. And that's good, I think, but it does make things difficult.

I've been attempting to do my own sort of song about me (that I mentioned a while back) but it's proving to be fairly difficult. Hopefully, though, should be done within the week.

Grateful.

I've decided to start doing this 365 Grateful Project. You may have heard of it, either from friends doing it, or the original.

Anyway, if you haven't, the basic idea is to take a photo of something each day that you're thankful for. And then I'm going to be uploading them to FB. It's supposed to help you, I suppose, to not take things so much for granted - but to actually recognise things that you're grateful for.

It's a good idea. So I thought I'd give it a shot. Hopefully, I can run with it.

The "C" word.

And I'm not talking about either of the four-letter ones. I'm talking about the nine-letter one.

This word, these days, carries a heck of a lot of baggage with it. Oh so much baggage it's not funny. As soon as you say that an event, or a cause, or a group, or an idea, or a song, or anything is Christian - in some places, you're suddenly going to be very unpopular. You're not going to reach the people you were hoping to, some may label you with all the bad things they've expereinced from other Christians - it's hard.

So what do you do? Do you call it something else - humanitarian, or social, or philosophical? Or do you try and fight all that baggage that comes with the word?

It's a difficult decision, never really made any easier. Nor do I think it probably ever will be, really. Not in this world.

tl;dr

I seem to be seeing this phrase a few times here and there. If you're not familiar with it, it means "too long; didn't read." I think this may be a recurring problem that seems to be cropping up a bit here and there. And - perhaps evidently - the problem is two-fold. The "too long" and the "didn't read". The latter is fairly simple, it's just a bit of laziness, tiredness, etc. The former, however, I'd like to talk about briefly.

I mentioned a few posts ago going into rather elaborate obfuscation. A lot of people seem to like doing it now and then. And many like going on for quite a while.....and then adding a bit.....and then quoting random person.....insert slightly related witty anecdote....relate from left field back to main point, and we're at three pages or whatever.

Whatever happened to a little thing called simplification? Well, the word isn't that little, but you get what I mean. KISS seems to be quite lost now and then. And I think that's a bit of a pity. Because people can have important points, good things to say. That can be lost, because people see a wall of text.

Ironically, of course, this post in itself isn't my shortest. And of course, if your audience/person you're writing to is fine with reading long things (you get them now and then, but we're a rare breed), then go ahead.

But yeah. Seeing a bit less of tl;dr would be good.

G flat and F sharp.

If you're not musical, by the way, those two are the same note. Effectively. Same key on the piano, that sort of thing.

But some people will tell you that they are very different. That Gb "feels" different to F#. That one is warmer, and the other is brighter. And then some people get in to different colours for keys and such. Right....

Might I suggest, that it would simply be the way you're playing it? Perhaps?

To me, the only difference is that one is more annoying than the other in terms of how it looks. You can get double flats and stuff. And then it gets annoying. So I just generally go with the easier ones.

As such, these are my preferences of the ones that can be pronounced two different ways:

C sharp/D flat

D sharp/E flat

F sharp/G flat

G sharp/A flat

A sharp/B flat

Just in case you forgot...

Do you remember that job I told you about a while ago - the one at the Italian restaurant, where I'm basically washing/drying dishes? Well, I'm still doing that. It's a good place, I like it. But I've gotten reminded a couple of times recently that I'm still slow.

They've hired two more people since me, and they wouldn't have been there more than a couple of months, maybe a month for the more recent one. I've been there a few months. Recently, I've been rostered on at the same time as each of those guys.

They're both better than me, already. One of them took over from me in the middle of washing-up because I was going too slowly. And I was really going slow - I hadn't even filled one load and he'd dried and put away two. In my defense, those pans required a fair bit of scrubbing to get some of that stuff off.

So it was a bit of a downer for me knowing that I could be so easily overtaken. Both of those guys have shown me stuff that I didn't know. Which is a bit annoying. I wouldn't be surprised if, as soon as someone else applied for the job, I got kicked out, honestly. Don't particularly want that to happen, but I'm not fond of speeding up, either. I can do it a bit, but then I don't really enjoy it. And to me, if I don't enjoy my job, I've got no interest in doing it. So here's me hoping, for now, that no-one else applies for the job :P

My most sincere....contrafibularities...

Being most overtly rampunctious, I thought it significantly meritorious to regale you with this particular anecdote.

A while ago - when I was back in year 12 - I was doing Earth and Environmental Science. And we had a great teacher, really knew his stuff. Anyway, one day he thought we'd do a sort of energy summit, with each of us representing different people - and it being a certain amount in the future, and people wanting to drill under Uluru for more oil.

I was representing the "alternative fuels" area. And, intrinsically, I fabricated the most intertwined and brobdingnagian load of obfuscation that you ever did see. I was quite impressed with myself, actually.

The basic idea in itself was fairly simple. It was a hydrogen car, that also took in air from the surrounding environment and converted it into hydrogen, and also had tiny - panels, for want of the actual word - that created electricity from the surrounding heat on the outside of the car that would power the hydrogen conversion. So the idea was that it was extra efficient. Chances are, of course, that because of all that it was actually extra inefficient, so that's where the excessive obfuscation came in. And I have to say, I quite enjoyed doing that. ;)

Changing.

I believe I've mentioned once or twice how I've changed a bit over the past little while - I'd say, fairly significantly. And I've known that, but it's not something I really shout out to the streets.

But a few times over the past while, I've had different people tell me how I've changed, and how it's really nice. And it's...nice. Yeah. :) It's good to know that it's not just in my head.

It all feels the same...

There was a particular comic in the Sunday paper. Funnily enough, they were all new year-themed. Not sure whether you're familiar or not, but this one is called Snake Tales.

Basically, the main character wakes up looking excited that it's the new year. Goes and looks around at a few places. The desert, the beach, the road. Then he goes back to his bed, saying "Looks just like last year."

I think a few people can be like this with a lot of different things. New Year, birthdays, Christmas, Easter, etc etc. People say, it looks the same, it feels the same. There's nothing different about it.

And yes, it often does look and feel the same. But there is a difference. But it has to be internal, not external. In your own attitude to the occasion. Only then can the external really be changed. It doesn't really go the other way around quite so well.

On changing your world.

Well, we've looked at three different ways people measure their life's worth, how people decide to change their worlds. Now, I'd like to take a moment to put in my thoughts on it. Calling this the "Empathetic" view.

There's a bit of a story - I have no idea whether it's true or not, but it would be fantastic if it was - about a person who decided to change the world. And so he helped three people - changed their lives. And then he asked each of them to, in return, help three other people, change three other people's lives. And then for each of them to do the same, etc, etc. And, of course, it becomes an exponentially increasing number.

Personally, I have a similar idea. It's not quite as goal-oriented - but for myself, I would measure how much I am worth by how much I have changed other people, and for the better. Of course, as such, it's possible that at times you won't know, because some people don't really talk about these things unless you ask. And then, of course, people find it awkward asking people what they think about them, etc etc, you get the picture.

Sorry. 3rd person/1st person moment there.

And, of course, this view has it's down side. If you think that you've changed someone else's life in a bad way - well, you feel like absolute shit, to put it bluntly.

If that is the case for you....my only suggestion is this: as always, people make mistakes. Sometimes, they can be pretty massive. But we're also able to forgive, forget, or clean up our mess. Don't just run away from it. That doesn't really solve anything. And we tend to be very good at keeping guilty feelings hanging around.

But yeah. That's my little idea, and the conclusion of this series. Unless either Mozart or Jessie want to do their first guest post here on the same topic, which would be cool.

Jesus - All About Life

OK, yeah, stole that title. This post is about the response to how you measure a life, of: "In living faithfully to the Lord Jesus." And I'm calling this the Evangelistic view.

Of course, being a Christian, I could just say this one = win! and end it there. But that would be slightly anticlimactic, so I won't.

This view believes that your life's worth comes from living faithfully to Jesus. Now, if you're at all familiar with this Jesus character, you'll know that that's no walk in the park. You ain't always gonna come up trumps. So it's not so much a black and white thing, of whether you have or you haven't at all; nor is it like a score, with how much time you've spent living how Jesus wants you to. It's more based on effort - the willpower put into it. Generally, that's something that each person can measure fairly well, if they're any good at being honest with themselves.

Of course, though, if this is all that you use to measure your life's worth, I'd argue that you're missing a lot. People do a lot more in their lives than serve God, even if that is the most important of them. Don't ever think that any of these views I've mentioned have to stand alone. You could be an Evangelistic Epicurean or even an Economic Evangeliser (though good luck with that :P). But each of these are very different areas, and don't sum everything there is about a life. And they're not supposed to.

That's the last of the three responses that I got. Tomorrow, I'll finish with my own thoughts on it - how I measure my life. Or how I would, at least.

The first days of the last days...

A term borrowed from one topic of Biblical Studies. A quick aside from my mini-series.

This year is my last year doing the Bachelor of Music. That's a bit sad for me - thinking that next year, I probably won't see half these friends much at all. Knowing me, more than half. And I've made some really good friends, had some really good times. So I'm going to miss them.

But that means that I'm going to enjoy this year the best I can, and not think too much about the afterwards. Because it's all I've got left with this great bunch.

Living in the moment.

This second response is looking at the answer of, "You don't." in answer to how you measure a life's worth. Now, that could mean a few different things, but for now, I'll choose to say that it means that rather than worrying about how well you've done or haven't, you just live as you do. That may or may not be what was originally intended, I don't know. Knowing the guy who said it...I think it would be something along those lines. I think. But anyway. I'm calling this the "Epicurean" view, based on the Ancient Greek philosophy of the same name.

Living in the moment is not a particularly new idea - well, obviously, since it's also an Ancient Greek philosophy - but it has seen a bit of a recurrence of late, with lots of self-help peoples and the like advocating this way of living. Not worrying so much about the mistakes or achievements that may have happened before, or what might happen tomorrow, but more about what's happening here and now.

And it's certainly a solid way to live. It's a bit hard to fault - apart from other people perhaps being annoyed by trying to grab hold of these people and pin them down a bit. So you do usually get people planning a little, even when they are living in the moment and such. Cause planning tends to help with some stuffs. And many other people aren't quite as willing to move on from the past, so that can create a bit of tension sometimes.

But I think that not being weighed down by all your past mistakes is definitely a good thing; as is not dreading the coming day. So, honestly, I don't really have much of a problem with this view. I don't think there's anything bad about it, really. As long as you don't get dogmatic about it, but that's the same with anything.

But, of course, yes. I do think it's missing something. However, if you're not a religious/Christian/some-sort-of-God-believing individual, I'd probably say this is good. Though if you can add on the one I'm going to mention after these three, extra kudos to you.

Next up, as you might have guessed, the Evangelical view.

And a happy new year...

And a new year is upon us. 2012. Let's hope that we don't suddenly crash and burn near the end... but anyway.

I'm hoping to try and be a bit of a better person this year. Don't know how well I'll do - well, I'll inevitably fail, given I'm human - but I'm going to give it my best. Not give it a go, give it my best. For once. :P Thought it would be helpful putting it up here to keep me accountable, as such.

• Staying fit/healthy.
• Being honest.
• Taking my own advice.
• Not getting lazy.
• Putting others first.
• And keeping God as the basis of it all.

Seems like an impossible list, to some. Hence, adding "asking God's help to do it all" to the end. Will be most necessary.