Definitions of Olympic Events

     I know, the London Games of 2012 ended about five months ago, and the Sochi Winter Games of 2014 won't be held until, well, over a year from now, and then we gotta wait until 2016(!!!) for the Rio Games....but, you just gotta love the Olympics, right? All those wacky sports, and the things-that-look-like-they-would-be-incredible-to-do-if-you-knew-you-wouldn't-get-hurt-attempting-them...and besides, in four years, we'll be wondering, "Now, what events are in the Olympics again...?"
     So, here's a refresher course on each event. Enjoy!

Archery - The act of launching a sharp stick like a missile at a target, easy to see progress if you practice semi-regularly. The way people have gotten food for thousands of years, and the reason so many men pretended to be Robin Hood or William Tell when they were little boys. Can be dangerous for nearby animals. Received a large spike in popularity from a series of superpopular, ultrairritating and poorly-written books, as well as a movie.

Badminton - That game that's sort of like tennis but wimpier, which no one really knows how to play, but it's always set up at picnics, and the little kids chase each other all around with the rackets while wondering why the ball-thing is called a "birdie", and what kind of bird it was made from.

Basketball - The best game in the world that was invented out of desperation by a preacher teaching a phys ed class using two old peach baskets. This led to the Harlem Globetrotters, "Hoosiers", Michael Jordan, ESPN becoming a dominant force in television, and the state of Oklahoma actually banding together for a common cause for six months of the year.

Beach Volleyball - All the cool factors of volleyball, but played barefoot in sand, which could, if one was scientifically-minded, lead to interesting experiments on how sand particles trap heat. Can lead to friendships being made or frantic prayer. Occasionally played in swimsuits.

Boxing - Where two guys beat each other up only by punching the other guy above the waist, and nobody else really cares or has any idea how the winner is decided.

Canoeing/Kayaking - Paddling a small boat as fast as possible without falling in the water. Sometimes used in sappy love scenes in romantic movies.

Cycling - Riding a bike really fast without falling over. Very hard and not much fun to do.

Diving - Something done only by insane people, leaping off a very high object head-first into very deep water. Boring to watch, the FCC should outlaw the televising of men's competitions.

Equestrian, aka "Riding Horses" - The only Olympic event involving animals, so that's kinda neat. But the dressing up in funny outfits and prancing around looks silly. Not practical at all, but the leaping-over-objects part looks fun.

Fencing, aka "Swordfighting" - They announce the combatants, who then stare at each other and say the immortal words: "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die." Except they can't actually hack each other to pieces, which would be bloody and gruesome and not make very good ratings at all...and they wear beekeeper suits. It would be much more interesting if they were allowed to wear costumes, or there was a mandatory exchange of witty dialogue, or if they could use lightsabers.

Field Hockey - Uh....hockey without ice? Sounds easy enough. But, wait...how do you play hockey?

Gymnastics - The always-entertaining showcase of skills that would hardly ever be practical in everyday life. Except for the balance beam. But really, how often are we required to know how to dance and do cartwheels, or hang perfectly still suspended in midair, or leap over random objects?

Handball - Another sport no one in the US or Canada knows what is. Although from what little I've heard of it, it sounds like Calvinball.

Judo - Kind of like boxing. Except instead of punching each other, you kick the other guy. And it sounds so much more impressive and scary if somebody says, "Oh, yeah, I know judo."

Modern Pentathalon - Five events of something or other. Not too large a following.

Rhythmic Gymnastics - Ballet dancing with sticks, little balls and streamers. Makes no sense at all.

Rowing - A great upper-body workout, used to move across water. Only used in ordinary life on floats along the river, which if taken in middle of summer are basically waterlogged hiking trips.

Sailing - Using outdated slow methods of sustainable green energy to see who can be the first to a certain point. Sort of like racing snails or turtles. Only rich people near the ocean can do this in normal times, thus 98.7% of the country has no interest whatsoever.

Shooting - Using a gun to hit a target. Much harder than archery, much more expensive, and more dangerous.

Soccer - The world's most popular sport, most people have played this as kids. Awesome to play, not as great to watch. Often used in sports movies.

Swimming - Seeing who can stay above the water and get out of it the fastest, only should be done in times of dire emergency.

Synchronized Swimming - Cloned dancing inside a swimming pool? Why?

Table Tennis, aka "Ping Pong" - One of the events played often by normal humans, although at a lot slower, less cool fashion. Good for catching up on news or solving problems, and when passionate enough about it, a fantastic cardio workout.

Tae-kwon-do - Some type of martial arts, can kill people. Interesting if demonstrated in talent shows.

Tennis - An awesome game that looks much easier than it actually is. Teaches you subtlety, that gentleness is more effective than forcing your way through to get things done. You can get a good tan playing it, terrific stress reliever.

Track(aka "Running") and Field - The Olympic discipline most in use by college students, getting from one place to another in as efficient a manner as possible. And running just makes you feel good! The other events, the "Field" part, focus on random things like leaping the farthest, throwing long spears or chunks of metal the longest distance, or using a flexible stick to leap over gigantic buildings in a single bound.

Trampolining - Yes, somehow this is an Olympic sport. What the thrill-seekers who terrify their moms with backflips do when they grow up. Very cool to watch.

Triathalon - The ultimate test of one's athleticism: Swimming a mile(!), then biking for a long ways, then running a marathon(!!). Few try it, which is why anyone who does automatically has their respect level go up about eight notches.

Volleyball - is awesome. Definitely teaches perseverance, is a great stress reliever, and a good way to meet new people. Played on many surfaces, including wood, concrete, linoleum, sand, gravel, and kitty litter. For some reason viewed as a girl's game.

Water Polo - The worst parts of nearly every ball game thrown together in a act of torture surely devised by Count Tyrone Rugen. Football or hockey without any sort of padding, where you can pummel people MMA-style without penalty, in the middle of a freaking pool?! Why not add sharks and pirahnas into the mix and have snipers shooting while they're at it? Seems horrendous to play, awful to watch.

Weightlifting - Large drug-users lifting impossibly heavy objects. Yawn.

Wrestling - The only event left from the Greek Olympics, but thankfully the participants wear clothes now, they try to trap ("pin") the other person to where they can't move. Doesn't involve a ball, so most people stay home instead of watching wrestling matches.

Music Review; Brad Paisley - 5th Gear

     Okay, after this one, I promise I won't post any more reviews of Brad's CDs until the new year(thankful there's just two left). But, this one might be my favorite. I'm not sure. But this was the first album of his that I got, from Target on the way to Oklahoma City.
     You see, one of the local radio stations I listen to was having this contest on the morning show, with the prize being tickets to Brad Paisley's show in OKC Friday night. And so I enter, since I enjoy contests, and that'd be an awesome prize. And somehow, maybe because I started dialing the number before I even heard what type of contest it would be, I got through, and I just happened to be the tenth caller, or whatever the number was that day. So the contest was this: In less than ten seconds, I had to answer all four of these questions wrong: 1) How many months are in a year? (Four.) 2) What is the opposite of "big"? (Giant.) 3) What planet do we live on? (Mars.) 4) What river runs through Tulsa? (The Missouri.)
     So I won the tickets, which was awesome. So Mom and I head to Tulsa to pick them up, then get a few things we needed at Target(including a CD of his, since we figured we ought to be a little more familiar with his music than just the singles on the radio), and then off we went down the interstate, stopping at Subway for dinner. It was an awesome concert. Incredibly loud, but cool, so neat to see everything. Justin Moore was opening, which was cool, Trevor loved his music, mainly due to the fact that since we had cable in Tahlequah, we got CMT, and so I would watch that often in the mornings, he'd watch too. And Justin's song "Small Town USA" was played on there nearly every day. Anyway, he did a good job. Miranda Lambert came next, she was all right, neither of us enjoyed her as much. I like listening to her now better than I did then. Then it was time for Brad - It was awesome. Opened up with him sitting on a stool picking through "Start a Band", and picked up from there into one huge run of hits.
     And a couple days later at church, that neat girl from the ice skating, what did she say her name was? Anyway, she stopped me and asked "Were you on the radio a couple days ago, like, Monday?" "Yeah, I won tickets to the Brad Paisley concert in Oklahoma City." "Cool! Was it neat?" "It was awesome." "I bet! Anyway, I was just curious cause I was listening to the morning show when they had that contest, tried to enter. I thought, 'Wait....I know that voice! It's that guy from the ice skating!' And so I just had to see if it was really you or not." "Huh...well, that's really neat." This was how, at least as far as we can figure, part of why Sam got my name stuck as Brad for about the first month.

     Anyway, this album was (no way!) his fifth CD, released June 19, 2007 by Arista Nashville, it has one of the coolest covers I've ever seen.

Track One - All I Wanted Was A Car - A man remembers how as a teenager he dreamed of getting a real car, and the sense of freedom and power that would give him. Every guy feels this way, probably, but I'll never get to find out what it's like to get behind the wheel on the road. Oh well, there's always pastures. And Courtney will be driving pretty soon, she can be the one who can give Mom and Dad fits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT54h2fsC4Y

Track Two - Ticks -  Classic country tale of the hot girl at the bar, given that Paisley twist to give it a different look at things. Great writing, not that great of a song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tiPndMqxLQ (Concert video, thank goodness.)

Track Three - Online - What can I say? Sheer. Brillance. And also the first fast song I tried to learn to play.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE6iAjEv9dQ (Video could be much better, but overall it's pretty good.)

Track Four - Letter To Me - A man writes a letter to himself at seventeen, and he's reading it. Amazing concept, sort of "Back To The Future" like, that I've never tired of pondering and reexamining. What would it be like to read a letter to yourself, sent back in time? Would you take your own advice, and if so, how would that change the world you live in later? If you blew everything off, would things turn out the same way? What if you just followed some of the suggestions? Such a great story, with room for so many more... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ3bn7V0zdU (Not how I would have made this video, but it works.)

Track Five - I'm Still A Guy - His humorous take on the feminization of males in our society, and the differences between male and female thinking. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wum5oI65OGA

Track Six - Some Mistakes - We can't learn unless we make a few mistakes...it's incredibly irritating, but it's a part of life. Some are worse than others, some are kind of fun.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv6M_06ypFY

Track Seven - It Did - A song abaout the good moments in life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUQCvek0Y-M

Track Eight - Mr. Policeman - Oh my gosh. This is HYSTERICAL. One of his best. And basically a musical version of every Dukes of Hazzard episode ever filmed. LIttle hard to play, though.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5hFnal_Jug (Naturally I'd pick this video, whoever spliced this together was awesome.)

Track Nine - If Love Was A Plane - The cliche "Love is blind" reworked into a very nice tune. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmjy4kI_xq8

Track Ten - Oh Love  - Duet with Carrie Underwood, the melody of which sounds oddly like "Whiskey Lullaby". It's all right, kinda dull, but they work well together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GX7x_IdnVQ

Track Eleven - Better Than This - The conversations aroud a campfire... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNclXvP8qo8

Track Twelve - With You, Without You - Another in the "Yeah, I'm having trouble letting go here" vein. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCpN1hcMJ3s

Track Thirteen - Bigger Fish To Fry - Shaking my head... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7VdWq6Oh8E

Track Fourteen - When We All Get To Heaven - The classic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft4R93LTX3M

Track Fifteen - Throttleneck - His best instrumental, which is saying something. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuui6WJfd0k

Track Sixteen - Waitin' On A Woman - Everybody loved it so much(for good reason) that it was re-released on this album, too; and then it became a single. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-C-IbkuNWs

Covers pretty much every facet of country music, the great, the good, the sappy, the rough-edged, the dull. My rankings:
16 - Bigger Fish To Fry
15 - Better Than This
14 - WIth You, Without You
13 - Oh Love
12 - It Did
11 - If Love Was A Plane
10 - Ticks
9 - Some Mistakes
8 - All I Wanted Was A Car
7 - I'm Still A Guy
6 - When We All Get To Heaven
5 - Throttleneck
4 - Online
3 - Mr. Policeman
2 - Waitin' On A Woman
1 - Letter To Me.

A Holiday Post

     Here it is, December 25. The presents have been opened, the siblings playing with thier gifts, the Thunder game will start in a couple hours, and my phone's been lighting up with "Merry Christmas!" texts.

     I'm not materialistic enough for a modern holiday, I guess. Everyone kept asking "Is there anything you want this year?" "Um....no, not really, I can't think of anything." "..Oh. Hmm. It's just really hard to think of something." "Things" are nice, but...it's more important to have family and friends around to spend time with.

    Went to church Sunday for the first time in over a month, it was great to be back at GBC. Everbody said something like "You're back!" "We're so proud of you, Wes!" or "Welcome home!". Good friendly people and good teaching.

     It's a little odd to be home again, but it's a welcome change from life on campus. Though it does feel extremely strange to not be going to class and everything...got an A in every class(yes, even Comp I), so that's good, 4.0 GPA through one semester. I wasn't expecting that, but I'm glad. 14 credits down, 110 to go...

     This has been a very hard four months. Learned a lot, about school subjects, about myself, about life, about God. Extremely thankful for the friends and other people the Lord placed along my path to help me through, not sure I could've made it without the encouragement(sometimes daily), advice and prayers of Amanda, Jessica, Josh, Sam and Steven, then Ash, Daniel, Dylan, Jon and Maddie all played key smaller roles.

     I'm only taking 12 hours this semester, but that's offset by a math course. I figured I'd better knock it out as fast as I could, and just try as best I can to understand it. And also computer science, but my tech-genius cousin Logan offered to help me get through that. Then there's Comp II(with a different teacher, thank goodness), and Basic Writing for the Media, those sound challenging but fun. I like challenges.

     Adventures aren't usually very pleasant while you're living them. They only become that way when they're retold, after the fact. While you're there in the middle of the action, they're generally awful and horrible, and nothing is clear at all. But they shape us, grow us. Most of the time, it seemed like my faith was somewhat weak, I was just trying desperately to stay afloat. But, maybe...maybe those are the times it gets stronger? Anyway, God never said that this life would be easy. But he did say that he would give us what we needed at the moment, that He'd see us through. And He does.

     Just some things I've been thinking about. Now, I've got some basketball to watch.

The Best of 2012

     I am all packed up and ready to move out (yay!). Welll....okay, not exactly. More like go on a three-week vacation, kind of. Except people don't usually have vacations during Christmastime...hmm. Well, the point is, this semester is nearly over, and I can leave this place for a while!!!
     So, since I have everything all packed, and there's no way to study for an essay final in the morning, I'm sitting here bored, like always. So, I decided to compile a list of the best things of the past year, and a few of the stranger or worst, too, while I'm at it.

Best Blog  - www.itjustgetsstranger.blogspot.com. Or www.eligetstobeamommy.blogspot.com. These are both run by a Mormon lawyer who lives on an island somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Seriously. And he is a fantastic writer, they're absolutely hysterical.

Best Movie Seen in Theaters - This is easy, there's only one candidate. So, for that reason, this category goes to "The Amazing Spider-Man". (There's two posts written about in, in July and November.)

Most Bizarre, Confusing and Violent Movie Seen - "Inception", I still have no idea what was going on, it's a nightmare for people like me, trying to dissect it.

Best Pro Sports Team - The Oklahoma City Thunder. We got to the NBA Finals, people!!! SO incredibly awesome. (Although points are deducted for trading James Harden in October, but....that's another post.) The Denver Broncos would come second, but they traded Tim Tebow, and then signed Peyton Manning, and started using those awful orange jerseys...St Louis Cardinals are in third.

Most Loathed Pro Sports Team - Hmm. All the usual candidates are still in the mix, so it's a tough call beween the Miami Heat, LA Lakers, New York Yankees, New York Giants or New England Patriots.

Best Non-Country Song of the Year - "Home" by Phillip Phillips would be a good choice, except that I never really liked it all that well in the first place, and then they started playing it EVERY.SINGLE.PLACE.ON.THE.PLANET, so that's out. That horrible Gotye tune "Somebody I Used To Know" is annoying, never understood the whole fuss over "Gangnam Style" or whatever that's called. This is easy. "Call Me Maybe", Carly Rae Jepsen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNaR-rxAic (It's catchy, lyrics are stupid but clean, easy to play, great for making parodies of.)

Best Parody of Best Non-Country Song of the Year - Even easier than the above category, these guys are awesome. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QibG6gTTa38 Although the President (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX1YVzdnpEc) and the US Olympic Swim Team (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPIA7mpm1wU) come close to giving those college guys a run for their money.

Best Country Song of the Year - Hmm. This is tough, but I guess it would be a tie between Keith Urban's "For You" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWK1sG3spiE) or Miranda Lambert's "Over You" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y2icHOgC5U). Jason Aldean's "Tattoos On This Town" would be right there, but it came out in September 2011, so it's doesn't count.

Strangest Experience from January-June - Senior pictures in March, or graduating high school in May. Or maybe not paying any attention to the Super Bowl.

Strangest Experience from July-December - College.

Favorite Unexpected Happening of the Year - Well, going to the Bible conference in Louisville in April was a very neat experience. (There's a post about that, too.)

Favorite Semiexpected Happening of the Year - Alton and JB's wedding, or Buttermilk having twins.

Least Favorite Unexpected Happening of the Year - Rookie Bridge Camp.

Favorite Time Spent With Friends - Helping with the newsletters at the Fergusons' in March, or the last time at SGYC in July.

Best Sporting Event on Television - The Olympics, duh. And the Daytona 500, once it finally started, was pretty noteworthy, too.

Best Time to Walk Around the NSU Campus - Early morning, around 7-8 a.m, the place is sleeping, it's peaceful and quiet, and good lighting for photography.

Worst Time to Walk Around the NSU Campus - Weekends. It's dead. Nothing happening. And you always feel like somebody's watching you, you're about to get attacked....Or nighttime, because it's really dark.

Best Place to Play Guitar on Campus - Uh, well...nowhere, really. But the front porch of Ross is okay, and over by the fountain, or sitting on the memorial in front of Seminary Hall, those are all acceptable.

Favorite American Idol Contestants of Season 11 - Hollie Cavanagh, Colton Dixon, Heejun Han and Skylar Laine.

Least Favorite American Idol Contestants of Season 11 - Jessica Sanchez, DeAndre Brackensick, Joshua Ledet and Jermaine Jones. (Ugh....)

Predictions for Season 12 of American Idol - It will be a mess. Another season of lame themes, dull song choices, freaky antics by judges who don't actually critque anything, and the wrong people getting voted off every week.

Strangest Temporary Job - Being a marketer for a  Nintendo DS video game based off the Nickelodeon show iCarly.

Hardest Item to Write This Year - Either scholarship essays, my graduation speech, or any of the three essays I've had to write in Comp I so far. I just don't know how to write essays yet! Haven't done enough of them to get good at it.

Strangest Argument of the Year - A several-hour debate over whether Ferdinand the bull was gay...Jon and Sam said he was, Amanda and I said he wasn't.

Weirdest Quote I Can Remember Saying - "I wonder what people would do if I started howling at the moon...?"

Best Quote of the Year - "Hey, um....we're awesome, so can you come check us out?!" Sam, very loudly, in the middle of the pharmacy...

Music Review; DC Talk

     I think I might have been born in the wrong time period, lol. At least as far as entertainment and things like that go, anyway. I love watching "MacGyver", enjoy "The Cosby Show" and "Full House",  one of my all-time favorite movies is "The Princess Bride", I like listening to the hair bands like Bon Jovi, and DC Talk always puts me in a good mood. I know, it's weird; a small-town white kid raised on country listens to rap when stressed?
     Well, yeah....with Mom and Dad being youth pastors, I was always around the cool teenagers, and there was always cool music being played in the CD or cassette players: DC Talk, Eli, Audio Adrenaline, Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith...

     Toby McKeehan, Michael Tait and Kevin Max met in college at Liberty University, which is located somewhere in Virginia. they started making music together and realized the impact for ministry that could be found in thier shared interest in the emerging world of hip-hop. So they began to preach around the area, spitting out rhymes that were just plain and simple Decent Christian Talk. And, well, the rest is history...Toby was the rapper, Kevin and Michael did the singing. After they split up, TobyMac went solo, Michael formed a band called Tait and then joined the renewed Newsboys, and Kevin joined the rebooted Audio Adrenaline.

The first album was self-titled and distributed by ForeFront Records in 1989. Mom used to rock out to this cassette in her car while in college, I think she introduced Dad to their music once they met.

Track One - Heavenbound - We're on a mission, y'all: To spread the Word, and we're heavenbound. You wanna listen? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ClRxHBtI6Y

Track Two - Gah Ta Be - You gotta be saved to make this life count. Just sayin'..cause without Christ, this life is nothin'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oti2_wpYhU4

Track Three - Final Days - Jesus is coming back sometime soon. Are you ready? If not, you better change... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBLmPDoV5Uc

Track Four - The King(Allelujah) - The Gospel story meets the city streets. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G_9gT1sPIM

Track Five - Spinnin' Round - Unsaved souls are just spinning in circles with no clear direction, falling deeper into sin, unless you change your ways. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuVGR6A38XI

Track Six - Voices Praise Him - Praise the Lord, you guys! He's just so wonderful! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgIt7YDfkOM

Track Seven - Time Ta Jam - We're gonna preach all the time, we can't help it. It's part of who we are, keep pressing on, serving the Lord! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znDCZonGX3g

Track Eight - He Loves Me - Jesus' love is wonderful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU6yhqcqPvs

There, I feel better already. Now to tackle the rest of these finals....

Music Review; Brad Paisley - Time Well Wasted

     The fourth of Brad Paisley's seven(to date) albums, "Time Well Wasted" was released on August 23, 2005, by Arista Nashville. Despite being named the 2006 CMA Album of the Year, I would rate this as his worst CD. It has some good singles, though.

Track One - The World - This girl is having a really rough day, so a guy she knows tries to cheer her up. Whether it actually would or not, I haven't been able to figure out yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93niv-kijAY (Concert video...but with a neat twist, so that kinda makes up for it.)

Track Two - Alcohol - There's scores of dirnking songs out there...but how many of them have the alcohol narrating the story? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3zkkLckeyM

Track Three - Waitin' On A Woman - This guy is stuck at the mall, waiting for his girlfriend to get done shopping....and still waiting....and STILL WAITING....and getting really irritated. Then he meets this friendly old guy who gives him some wonderful advice. One of my favorite songs, and the video's got Andy Griffith in it! Interestingly, Brad didn't write this one, and neither of his main songwriting pals did, either. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-C-IbkuNWs (Great video.)

Track Four - I'll Take You Back - Bet you thought this was gonna be a romantic comeback song? WRONG! A sarcastic mean-spirited avalanche of rejection. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmawa-qIkuY

Track Five - She's Everything - Ack! The whiplash from hating-to-loving continues.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjXaEbrLdw (Dull video, and that's one of the ugliest guitars I have ever seen.)

Track Six - You Need A Man Around Here - Helping a female friend move into a new place, a guy decides to hint that maybe a man needs to hang around more often. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH5zm4zlF5c

Track Seven - Out In The Parking Lot - Duet with Alan Jackson, people-watching in the parking lot of a bar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chnX2a24WhI

Track Eight - Rainin' You - "Well, she's gone...I thought I'd forgotten her, but no...." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaoOWa_3VH0

Track Nine - Flowers - "Look, I'm sorry!! There, now I apologized. For, like, the ninth time. Can we get back together now?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuJ7N7ckys

Track Ten - Love Is Never-Ending - Twangy mellow tune, kind of nice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlE2NoOyYZg

Track Eleven, "The Uncloudy Day", isn't on YouTube. But it's a gospel spiritual with plenty of banjo and fiddle.

Track Twelve - When I Get Where I'm Going - If I remember right, the guy who'd taught him how to play guitar really well, a sort of mentor, had just died, near the time of year that his grandpa, who taught him how to play, passed away. He was really missing both of them, when he heard this demo, and decided to put it on his next CD. Duet with Dolly Parton.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYHT-TF4KO4 (Not really much you could do with this video lyrically...)

Track Thirteen - Easy Money - Maybe written for his tour band members? Definitely an inside joke of some kind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyIS0oLRUqE

Track Fourteen - Time Warp - Instrumental, crazy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHlmYlwUKHU (And that is a really loud guitar...gosh that keyboardist can play fast....)

Track Fifteen - Time Well Wasted - Sometimes it's okay to slow down and relax, spend some time with people we enjoy being aroudn around, making memories. I kinda forget this most of the time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr4As__lerY

Too much whiplash from one emotion to the next, it's just a weird collection on here. But, anyway, my rankings:
15 - Flowers
14 - Easy Money
13 - I'll Take You Back
12 - Rainin' You
11 - You Need A Man Around Here
10 - Out In The Parking Lot
9 - Alcohol
8 - When I Get Where I'm Going
7 - Time Well Wasted
6 - Time Warp
5 - The Uncloudy Day
4 - Love Is Never-Ending
3 - She's Everything
2 - The World
1 - Waitin' On A Woman.

Music Review; Brad Paisley - Mud On The Tires

     The third of Brad Paisley's albums, "Mud On The Tires" was released by Arista Nashville on July 22, 2003, most of the songs were written while he was dating Kim Williams, the actress from "Father of the Bride". This was where he first started to experiment with songs about non-country topics, or just songs from a different perspective. I don't really like it quite as much as either of his first two.

Track One - Mud On The Tires - New truck, wide outdoors calling...it's time for a camping trip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6nxHNrIwJA (Average video.)

Track Two - Celebrity - His lampooning of the whole concept of celebrities. Pretty funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9mpDAJOPac (Video is okay.)

Track Three - Ain't Nothin' Like - Kind of bland, along the lines of Lonestar's "My Front Porch Lookin' In", except not anywhere as good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6UCgh8MGvk

Track Four - Little Moments - He wrote this for Kim. It's a little oversappy, but still pretty good. Very down-to-earth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBErCVNP6rM (Boring video. I like the old couple, though.)

Track Five - That's Love - Okay, well, if "Little Moments" is the courtship phase, "That's Love" is marriage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBErCVNP6rM

Track Six - Somebody Knows You Now - A less-than-captivating tale of regret. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iP-dZS5zWU

Track Seven - Famous People - Brilliant songwriting. A famous movie star stops in at a southern Ohio/northern Kentucky gas station, i's a great use of double meanings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWLUdrfaPSw

Track Eight - Hold Me In Your Arms(And Let Me Fall) - Just....really typical. Kind of filler, not really anytihng special. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SDqIsXgmgA

Track Nine - Whiskey Lullaby - Duet with Allison Krauss, it's a pathetic song, not really that good content, either, but...wow, is it ever well-told. Very gripping. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZbN_nmxAGk (Long video...)

Track Ten - The Best Thing I Had Goin' - Twangier version of "I've Been Better" from his first CD, and for that reason, better. A guy realizes in his quest for 'stuff' to make his life successful, he lost what really matters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE1yRqYhHsA

Track Eleven - The Cigar Song - He heard this story somewhere, and decided it might make a good song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cor7Kk6FESc

Track Twelve - Make A Mistake - Hmm. Cloudy skies on this message. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs0VMty7pic

Track Thirteen - Is It Raining At Your House - I guess this is a cover of a 1988 song by somebody, pretty self-explanatory lyrically.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yn09uoE-9Q

Track Fourteen is an instrumental called "Spaghetti Western Swing", I couldn't find any videos of it on YouTube.

Track Fifteen - Farther Along - Good song. Either an old hymn from somewhere, or an old gospel tune. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ9JW41Lv8s

There's a couple great songs on here, but mostly clunkers. I guess my rankings would be:
15 - Hold Me In Your Arms(And Let Me Fall)
14 - Ain't Nothin' Like
13 - Is It Raining At Your House
12 - Make A Mistake
11 - Spaghetti Western Swing
10 - Somebody Knows You Now
9 - The Best Thing I Had Goin'
8 - Mud On The Tires
7 - The Cigar Song
6 - Celebrity
5 - Whiskey Lullaby
4 - Little Moments
3 - Farther Along
2 - That's Love
1 - Famous People.

Christmas Trees

     There are a few things in this world  so wonderful, so mesmerizing, that you have to stop whatever you're doing and just admire the beauty. A well-made classic movie(say,"It's a Wonderful Life", "The Princess Bride" or "The Sound of Music"), a sunset, the rolling scenery of Missouri,  animals playing or sleeping or eating, the lyrics of hymns, the sound of a piano being played by an expert pianist, leaves as they change color, new-fallen snow before it gets trampled on.
     Another of these things, for me, at least, would be Christmas trees.

     Why is this? I have no idea, but I've always loved them. They're so pretty, and the shiny ornaments look so nice, the lights shine with that gentle warm glow, the little plastic bristles are green...good grief, it's hard to explain! Somehow, they're just...really peaceful.

     I guess, in a way, that they show hope. That you might get that present you were wanting, that there will be another Christmas next year, that every once in a while this crazy life we're living in can slow down and fade into the background. I used to sleep underneath the tree, actually, when I was little(Mom probably has pictures), and I could just sit and stare at it for hours, just thinking. I still can, to be honest.

     Something about the whole scene is so wonderful, so happy, yet so sad. I guess I get to thinking about what happened when Jesus came down to us in that Bethelem stable, what a marvelous mystery that is, why it would be in God's plan. But so amazing that it was - you just are dumbfounded thinking about it, the magnitude of the fact. And then knowing what coming to earth meant; the looming death in the future of the only righteous man who ever lived, in the most brutal way possible; and by His death, we received life. There isn't a better definition of love than that. (Sure, we create different definitions for the classroom or TV, but we know those are lacking, somehow.)

     And then there's your family around, knowing that you're part of a group like that, knowing your role, and that bond can grow tighter this time of year. The yummy baked treats in the kitchen filled the house with good smells and tastes, the TV commercials are simpler and more straight-to-the-point. Even though they infiltrate everything with consumerism, they're more restrained this time of year, locked into the old familiar patterns of a different generation. There's the TV specials, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, which must be quoted all through and loved to pieces. The Peanuts gang makes their trek from the comics page to the small screen, and there's so, so much good music.

     I've always had this scene inside my head, since I was little, set somewhere in the future, of myself probably in my early twenties or so, and there's this girl there with me, my wife, I guess. She's pretty. Where we live isn't much, almost "Gift of the Magi" like, but we've decorated for Christmas and now for a little while there aren't that many problems to deal with.
     Another variation of this scene, which follows nearly always after the first, picks it up about five years ahead of that, and there's little kids playing with the train and watching he tree and thinking, they're my sons.
     I don't know exactly why these pictures exist, but they do, for some reason. Sort of like our memories of dreams we've had, the especially memorable ones that we recall long after we've been  awake.

     On the morning of Friday, December 12, 2008, our house caught on fire, we were all able to get out quickly, though, and no one was hurt. The fire department put it out after about three hours, we could only watch helplessly as the flames and smoke warred with the water inside, not knowing how far it might eat into the house. That was terrifying. We were able to re-enter to get a few things about noon, I was barefoot and only had my phone in my pocket. The walls were blackened with soot everywhere, the acrid stench of scorched plastic was overwhelming. The couches were toasted, pictures blistered beyond reognition, the TV and VCR/DVD player fused together into a shapeless mass, the blinds on the windows had melted. So had our Christmas tree. There was no way the house would be livable for a while.
     So we checked into a hotel for the weekend while figuring out what to do next. Friends called from everywhere checking on us, we went to Wal-Mart to get some new clothes that weren't smoke-stained and wore those to church the next morning. We moved into my grandpa's trailer, family had fixed it all up and donated furniture and everything, that was amazing. The crowning touch, though, was the tree in the corner. It was one of those color-changing fiberoptic ones, which pretty well fit the situation, things were changing every day, it seemed. But really, it was that someone had given us a tree, that was just so amazing. The first example of many that would follow over the next year, that even though life might seem upside-down most of the time, God was still there, working things out in just the way they needed to be, and teaching and growing us into who we were supposed to become.

     When I moved in here in August, it was pretty cold. And extremely bare. I needed some decorations, something everyone kept reminding me of. I put it off for a while, because how exactly do you search for decorations? And besides, it wasn't really necessary...I just was staring at blank white cement blocks, was all. Well, in October they put up the Christmas section in Wal-Mart, so I went exploring through there one night. "Hey...decorations!!!" So I found a nice red stocking with Rudolph on it, and a desktop Christmas tree, which brightened the place up a bit, which was needed. Made it feel a little more homelike, a reminder that there are certain things that won't change, no matter where you might find yourself.

    There will always be Christmas trees, God will always be there to help us, to guide us, and we should always be praising Him for His gifts to us.

Spider-Man Revisited

     Rewatched "The Amazing Spider-Man" twice over Thanksgiving break, enjoyed getting to study it further.

     There was something different in the wind as the release date kept sneaking up closer and closer...first the shocking news that it would be without Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and everybody else, then hearing that Mary Jane wouldn't be involved at all, and then that a British guy would be Peter Parker...the Lizard would be the villian, which sounded cool...and then there were the promos run during the NBA Finals, spliced together with highlights of the Thunder and Heat. Kinda interesting how often it would go from Spidey to KD or Westbrook or Harden, and from the Lizard to LeBron...well, the bad guy won that round, but there will be another day, sometime....
     Oh, right....the movie. Yeah. Well, like I said, I asked around who wanted to see it, Sam and Josh both were all for it. Suzanna, Cassie and Courtney jumped on board, Bennett followed; and then Marie and Katie and Lilya all asked if they could come along that morning. "Um...sure....we'll need to figure out how to get to the mall, though...."
    
     Boy, was that ever a headache. Actually, the whole project was like construction work; as soon as you (think) you have one part tied down, another place needs to be worked on. At first we were going to go to Woodland Hills mall, a good generally-centerish spot from where everybody came from. Then we realized Woodland Hills didn't have a theater. "But isn't there a theaer like across the street or something...?" "Yeahhhh....but it's the cheap one that shows movies that a few months old, not the brand-new ones." "Okay...what about Promenade?" "Promenade's creepy! I always feel like - I don't know....it just doesn't feel safe." "Oh, I know, it's awful. But it does have a theater..." "...That isn't showing the movie." "....Oh." "Yeah." Hmm...."Hey, I think there's a theater over by Promenade that's within walking distance; could that work?' "We'll make it work, somehow; there's been too much planning gone into this already to back out now." "You got that right..."
    So, it's Sunday, finally; the expedition is all planned out. We've enlisted the help of some parents to get us over there, and then we find we have about three new travelers along for the ride, throwing us into a scramble to figure out how to deal with the latest wrinkle. "If you can get a ride with somebody, I guess that's cool..." Stephen and Nick, newish guys to the youth group we were trying to welcome in, were going to come, but couldn't make it at the last second. Dylan probably would have came, too, but he was on vacation or something. I guess church went about ordinary, I have no idea, it was a few months ago and I was having a hard time paying attention.

     We arrive at the mall, Cassie, who beat half our group there, has this quizzical and somewhat distressed look on her face. "I don't think they're showing it here, guys." "Oh, yeah..." Sam looks slightly embarrassed. "I guess we forgot to tell you the plan, huh?" "You're right, they aren't showing it here," I pick up the story. "which is why we're eating lunch here, and then walking to the theater." "Ohhh....." "Sorry....thought we'd told everybody that....so many details flying here and there. It's been a little hectic." "Yeah, and there was kind of a lot going on this morning."
     There was, too...a lot of strange, tense undercurrents that didn't leave any clues just then for why they existed. But our gang managed to find the food court, took a look around to see what the food options were, then ate lunch. I wasn't hungry, just ate a brownie coated with peanut butter and chopped Reese's. Most of the others got Subway. Somehow or another, the conversation turned to those who couldn't make it, including Cassie's brother Garrett, and from there to speculation about his new girlfriend. Cassie's saying she wished that she had a boyfriend, and Bennett leaps in emphatically: "ME TOO!!!" Instant stunned silence for two seconds. "That was not - Wow....you know what I meant..." So. Awkward. It was pretty hysterical, though....once we were finished laughing, somebody involved with the CVS Scotch-Tape Incident commented on the similarities between the two statements; and that set off another round of uncontrollable mirth.

     It's nearly 2 p.m, there's just enough time to walk over before the show starts. So we rush out the first door we see, and walk around the building....and around the building....and around the building....and realized we went in a huge circle. (The Horrible Sense of Direction strikes again!) We finally get pointed the right way, and race across too many large traffic-laden streets, going about a mile or so until we reach the movie theater, where we purchase tickets, head into the wonderful cool darkness of air-conditioning, waaaaiiiiitttt for those standing in line for popcorn, and then, finally, go pick our seats. We didn't have to be so choosy, I suppose; since there was only about ten other people in the whole rest of the theater, but this was a rare experience for most of us, and we wanted to make the most of it.
     Well, nobody warned us about the previews. They started about 2:07 p.m. or so and rolled for TWENTY MINUTES STRAIGHT. Preview after preview after preview...most for shoot-'em-up actioners like "The Bourne Legacy", "The Dark Knight Rises", or "Total Recall", crass "comedy" buddy movies like "The Watch", or an interesting-looking Kevin James flick titled "Here Comes the Boom", featuring an out-of-shape schoolteacher becoming an MMA fighter. And then without any heads-up a cousin to Pac-Man or Dig Dug or something fills the mammoth screen, a 1980's video game is being played. And then we see that it's the newest Disney movie coming out, about a video-game villian in a midlife crisis trying to become a hero, called "Wreck-It Ralph". It stood out, for one, being a cute throwaway kid's movie in the middle of all these kill-people, loads-of-violence-and-gore films. I want to see that, kinda...looks good.
     Yeah, so, anyway, the movie began about 2:30 p.m, it was different right from the opening credits. I had some trouble following the actual movie at first, examining all the new camera angles and editing techniques, adjusting to the lighting and dialogue, and otherwise noting the successfullness of how being trapped in a dark box can suspend disbelief so well. Movie theaters have amazing sound systems, by the way. So I was pretty distracted, monitoring all the chaos leading up to/on the trip, was hoping it would go down as a successful venture. Kind of like the person with the camera at Christmastime who runs all over the place documenting the holiday and never actually taking part of it, having been directing things behind the scenes so much as to not taking part in the actual play.
     And then I was noting the changes of lighting, camera, editing, scenery, wardrobe, music, ACTORS....and dialogue. And trying to unsuccessfully reconcile the obvious contradictions between this and the trilogy, never mind that this is a total reboot....took me about an hour to get fully involved with the plot, I wasn't really that impressed with the film. Peter was too cool-looking to be a believable nerd, the dialogue seemed mumbled all the time, the plot was shallow, and with the exception of Dr. Connors, every role was overacted and felt forced, and Peter and Gwen seemed way too old for their roles. The scene where Peter asked Gwen out was great; and there were a few zippy one-liners that were worthy of a grin, but overall I didn't know what to think of it, honestly...a real head-scratcher of a movie, that was maybe better cinematically than the original, but far short in terms of storytelling to the trilogy. But, then I had to remind myself that it's the beginning of a new trilogy, so hopefully things will make sense later on. I (of course) stayed behind for the credits, like I usually do, and there was this confounding miniscene halfway through that left us on even more of a cliff than we were already. I kinda went into a writer's vortex, a sort of trance that's somewhat indescribable how to explain. You kind of go into the story's world and attempt to know everything in it; to understand the entire universe of the tale. This movie was puzzling, it was an especially deep vortex they had to pull me out of. "Hey...you okay, Wes?" (Startled look at finding myself back in the real world) "Huh?! Oh....uh, yeah, I'm fine. Just was.. thinking." Cassie grins, knowing what the vortex is like. "He'll be all right."

     Courtney hated it, I wasn't sure what I thought of it. This made Mom even more curious to watch it than she already was; so she was anxiously keeping an eye out for when it would come out on DVD. "Hey, we ought to see if Netflix has the new Spider-Man in stock yet!" "Already looked." "Did you put it in the [phonetical spelling here because I can't spell strange foreign words] cue?" "About two months ago, yep." "Oh, good! I'm moving it up to the top of the list."  So about the first thing Mom said when I got back for Thanksgiving break was: "Spider-Man came in yesterday! When do ya want to watch it?" Dad decided he'd watch, too, so we set in the family room and watched the film. It's a long movie...two hours and sixteen minutes. And there were a ton of previews here, too(I timed it later while doing laundry, there's at least thirteen minutes of trailers on the DVD.)

     I liked it a lot better the second and third times. It's a darker, more realistic world; not quite as touching and at times corny as the trilogy. We don't know the characters' backstories and histories very much, so that kind of takes away your involvement as an audience. The dialogue feels more like true-to-life conversations, which somehow loses points, even though technically it should be better. And there isn't those awkward spaces where a phenomonal line is followed by a ridiculously out-of-place one. Denis Leary as Captain Stacy fit his role well; there was a few good exchanges and snappy insults, like the meatloaf, or the climbing up the fire escape. Like "Is that a real knife?" "Yes it's a real knife!" Or Gwen's exchange with her dad: "Hey hon, do you want some cocoa?" "No, Dad, I don't want some cocoa. I'm seventeen years old, not some little kid." "All right...I just thought last week somebody said her fantasy was to live in a chocolate house." "Welll...that would be impractical!...And fattening!"
     The plot is shallow, yes; but it's very suspenseful...keeps you guessing all the time. A very slow-paced movie, but the action scenes are very set in this world(Strange, I know, seeing as they're between a gigantic mutant lizard and a human-sized arachnid, but....yeah.) Really intense.
     Curt Connors makes a great villain, a man capable of great things, who went just a little off, which leads to some much mayhem....why are the bad guys so well-known and interesting to study throughout history? Darth Vader the most famous face of Star Wars. Napoleon and most of the Roman ceasars. Hitler's rise to power. Anakin Skywalker's fall. Doc Ock's attempt to create a new energy source. The Lizard's efforts to restore health to amputees. MacGyver's arch-enemy, the incredibly crafty and malvolent Murdoc. Gollum. Maybe because they show us what can happen if we abuse the powers and gifts we've been given...and that in trying to do the best for others, we not only have to have the right motives(Genuinely wanting to help, not greed or lust or personal gain or pride or....), but we also have to go about it in the right way. We can't take shortcuts, because those are the paths to our downfall. Which is why it's so terrifying sometimes, this life, of always trying to make the right choices, right decisions. It's hard in places, what's right and good can be twisted and rearranged all everywhere so that we don't know which way to go. Thankfully, those of us who are Christians have the Holy Spirit leading and guiding us onward in the right way, but being humans, we kinda have this way of sinning. A lot.

     Anyway, comparing all four films side-by-side, you see a lot of similarities: A gradual introduction to the main conflict, highlighted by lots of minor conflicts, violence, and personal growth. The villian is usually taken care of by the end, there's a lot of relational problems between characters, a lot of webs woven. We hear some good advice given, observe how mistakes can be overcome, and we our somehow...inspired by those stories. To live our ordinary humdrum lives in a way that's more heroic, to be better people.
     Something I was wondering the last few days/weeks, which was sort of brought up again by the movies: Which teaches us more, external conflict, which you may take part in, but ofterwise don't have control over, or internal conflict, where it doesn't involve any outsiders, but for that same reason, makes it so much harder to deal with? What makes the better story? And which is easier to deal with?
     I don't really know. But whatever trials and struggles we face, no matter how dark the road ahead may seem; God will not test us beyond what we can bear(1 Corinthians 10:13), and He will provide a way through the whatever-it-is that we're facing. We just have to do our best to hang on to the truth of His Word, and try to believe the promises and follow His commands. Which is a lot easier said than done sometimes, which is why the church exists, to strengthen and encourage our fellow believers.

     Oh, by the way....witty comebacks towards the problem may not solve all of it, but they don't hurt, either. And they make us feel better.
    

Thanksgiving Break

     I like Thanksgiving, it's my favorite holdiay. Low-key, not that stressful, just spending time with family you enjoy being around, watching football and eating terrific food. And, you know, having a break from school isn't bad, either.

     Got home Tuesday night, everybody was excited to see me again, got bear-hugged by Copper, and Skeet about barreled me over. Spent Wednesday resting, trying to shake off all the stress and everything from college and attempting to relax. Went grocery shopping in the moning, read a book through in about three hours and cleaned the van. Did a little bit of studying, had a headache.

     We watched some of the parade Thursday morning, Amy enjoyed that. Then it was off to Tahlequah again - this time for a visit, which seemed a little odd. The van was loaded down with seven people, two pies, a salad, several containers of pop and cranberry sauce, a guitar, a mandolin, and two rifles. Noisy trip, I'd sort of forgotten what it's like being aroud that many people all of a sudden. Nice, but takes some getting used to again.
     Got to Grandpa's around noon, where as soon as I slipped in the door my legs were lovingly-attacked by Gretchen and Fancy(I just get along well with dogs, I've sort of "got a way with them", as my grandma used to say. It's good to be considered family by so many.) We sat around and talked for a while waiting for the food to finish cooking, watched the National Dog Show on TV, admired the different breeds, most of which were exotic types that aren't normally seen in reality.
     The food was great, like usual - Ham, rolls, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, there was also broccoli salad, deviled eggs, an experimental corn casserole, and then for dessert apple, chocolate, pecan and pumpkin pies.
     The four-wheeler was ridden, the rabbits admired, then Caleb, Trevor, Grandpa and Dad went shooting. Those of us inside tried to figure out a remedy for Gretchen's nonstop coughing while searching for good Black Friday deals, and unsuccessfully tried to come up with Christmas lists.

     We then went to Louise's to see everyone out there, talked for a while, then I played ping pong with my 8-year-old cousin Lilly. She was pretty good, we weren't keeping score or anything, but it was pretty fun. After she got tired of that, she wanted to shoot baskets, so we did that for about another twenty minutes or so.
     By then the Cowboys-Redskins game had kicked off, so the TV was flipped over to that and watched in the living room, once Damon and Clay figured out which channel it was on. Usually we have a betting pool set up on this game, costs about fifty cents to get in, the closest pick to the actual final score takes the pot, but this year, no one could really get into the spirit of the thing. Missing Ken, I think. He was always an enthusiastic supporter of this tradition, seemed like he should be there.
     I got out my guitar, Mike grabbed his, and Trish and Courtney picked up the mandolins, and we played for a couple hours, spirituals and Christmas tunes, mainly, and then just picking around. Louise wanted to jump in, so she got behind the piano and the rest of us trooped into the living room and we played through a couple songs. That was great. We missed Kenny Chesney performing at halftime, and thus an oppurtunity to critique another musical event together before Idol starts, but that's all right, it'll just be January when the reboot lifts off. (Now, how long we can tolerate yet another lame season, we'll see, but...)
    Some more ping pong in the garage, and we headed back to Grandpa's to pick up the boys and eat leftovers.  And that Thanksgiving was over.

     My Black Friday was quite a cultural event - Exploring an art museum and then attending a dance right after.
     Well, it was kinda like this...one of the things you can do for extra credit in English would be to attend something classy, a play or museum or along those lines, and then tell about what you thought of it. So that's how Courtney and I found ourselves trapped in a large mansion filled with centuries-old paintings. (She'd volunteered to come along to keep me company.) We saw some nice landscapes, especially those done by a guy named Thomas Moran, whose work we remembered hearing of vaguely from Antiques Roadshow or History Detectives(Two of my favorite TV shows, btw). Neither of us liked the Impressioist art or African sculpture collection; we enjoyed the modern design collection and aincient civilizations sculpture collection, we could understand those. Indian pottery and handmade baskets captured my attention while boring her to death, same thing with the pop art. By now having completely examined everything available to the public in about an hour and a half, we had two hours or so to go until Dad was back to pick us up. So we re-examined the temporary gingerbread castle contest, and judged all forty-five entries in a style similar to our ratings of AI performances or the latest bizarre college football uniforms. After one round, we kept nine of the forty-five, the only ones to receive a "good" rating, due to such various criteria as imaginative buildings, proper use of tasty decor, realistic side details tucked in the background like Pixar, and overall appearance. We cut about three the second round, including a giant castle/fortress thing made of cookies-and-cream Hershey's and the Roman Coliseum. A library was cut for not being Christmassy enough, as was a campground that had too many colors, and a gingerbread house was reluctantly dropped for oversimplicity, it was too plain. That left either a pretzel-stick log cabin with Fruit Roll-Up tents with people sleeping on gum-stick sleeping bags and a fire roasting a Swedish fish; or a classic gingerbread house in the snow built by a Girl Scout troop that featured a garden hose coiled up in the side yard near the bushes. The Girl Scouts won after we realized that the people were camping in the snow, thereby losing some of their points for not being realistic. Once that was done, we prowled around the gift shop, and then CJ drew her self-portrait. It was an interesting place, but not one that I would have gone to otherwise, and probably won't go to again for a while.
     Then it was time for the square dance!
     This family we know, the Ruscos, they and their neighbors host this square dance with an open invite to everybody, it's a neighborhood tradition or something, kind of a party. Anyway, we were invited, and immediately made plans to attend. Mom wanted to learn how, and Courtney and I couldn't wait to get to dancin' again. Because it's just plain fun! I have now been to dances held: A) In the middle of a field in humid low 90's temp, B) Inside a hot, crowded building that smells like sweat, and C) On a cul-de-sac in the middle of Tulsa in mid 30's temp. In any of those settings, it's a blast. Instant community, much like at a ballgame, one of those shared experiences that can create lasting links in our lives. I knew next to no one; and it was a little odd, knowing my usual partners were a couple states away; but it was a good time, just the same. We did the Virginia Reel(of course, that's practically a requirement for all square dances), which just happens to be my favorite. Also a variation of the Gay Gordon, which was pretty easy, and then a cousin of the box-and-square called Horse and Carriage. There was also a lot of line dancing, which I'm not too good at, and some two-stepping, which I sat out of because I have no clue how to two-step. Talked to Dylan some, he, Paige and the rest of their family was there. Had a great time, it was fun.
    
     Spent time with the dogs, ran a couple loads of laundry, some ping pong thrown in there, too, today; catch with the little brothers, and a lot of hunting for Amy's glasses. It's been one of those days that's just packed. Church in the morning, then heading back to campus for a three-week 15K in bad weather conditions(Or in other words, three weeks until finals, with a ton of material needing to be covered. It's gonna be rough.) Not too many snarky Bedlam-related posts on Facebook today; maybe now that the game's over there will be. Think I'm gonna finish watching the Spider-Man movies tonight.

Life

     Three more weeks after Thanksgiving break, then this semester will be over. I can do this...right?

     Last week was crazy. Had three tests, a huge class project, and a paper to write. So I wake up Monday moning about six o'clock, check the news and Facebook, eat a protein bar for breakfast, all that. I decide that since I'm up anyway, may as well finish the last Strat chapter quiz and the test. One test down by 7 a.m. - Good feeling. Classes were about normal that morning, then right out of history I head to the Carrie Underwood Finish the Lyrics contest we were holding; a class project in MassComm that went much, much more smoothly than the rain barrel did. The university was given a certain amount of tickets to her show on Wednesday, and it was our job as MassComm students to figure out ways to get them to people who wanted them. We brainstormed ideas for a while, settling on a crossword puzzle, a tie-in to the NSU Facebook page, and (my idea) a lyric-finishing competition. Our teacher said, "Those are great. Run with them. I'll be out of town this week, though." Our response: "We got this, don't worry."
     We drafted the rules, made up posters, scribbled advertising on the sidewalks, borrowed a PA system, hung the posters in high-traffic areas; everything. It was kind of cold to be standing outside doing nothing, there were four people who signed up first hour. The last person in line won the tickets, so we had plenty of time to keep drumming up interest before the next hour's contest. That went a little better, six people signed up, and two advanced through the first round, after about three rounds of a face-off a guy finally won. That generated a lot of interest, plus one of the sororities heard what was up for grabs and came trooping down en masse. Nineteen(we'd set a cap of twenty, never dreaming it'd reach that high) people tried for the last pair of tickets, about seven advanced to the second round, it was a nailbiter all the way through. Several people suggested I should enter; but that kinda seemed like it would violate some ethical code, being as it was my idea and everything. Our teacher thought we did a great job of coordinating/running the project from start to finish, that was cool. Then I found a MacGyver marathon on TV, which was pretty awesome.
     Monday night was a study-group meeting for Wednesday's history test with a couple of guys I know, that went pretty well; got two of the three chapters completely covered in about four hours.

     Tuesday was a study day, like usual, finishing up my argumentative paper on why raw milk ought to be sold to consumers. Got to talking about theology while helping Russell home after psych, it's a little hard to explain the doctrine of sanctification in ten minutes. I listened to a sermon online that evening, and also to a recording of last summer's talent share at camp, then went to CCF that night, thought I ought to force myself to spend some time around people. Then I looked up a bunch of bluegrass versions of hymns on YouTube before going to sleep.

     Wednesday had the last small-group Strat class, so I officially have two credit hours down. As a class, we got chewed out for forty-five minutes for writing stupid English papers on the disobedience thing; that was a little rattling. And this history test was hard. So I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, but much better than the score I figured I'd gotten.

     Thursday morning I went down to Morgan's Bakery, had to see how the new oven was working(the old one had been replaced after more than sixty years' service, they'd been closed all the week before while making the switch). It doesn't make magic Tiger Cookies like the old one, but I think it's kind of like stoneware; takes a long time to break in, so the more it gets used the better the food it creates is. And I'm about halfway done with my try-everything-that-they-sell project, the new things sampled this week were gingerbread men and chocolate long johns.
     Then we had a special test on Chapter 6 of our psych textbook, on "Developing Close Relationships": Friendships, dating, marriage, and divorce, pretty much. It came out of nowhere, we were kinda surprised, but I think it went okay, won't know how I did until tomorrow.
     There was a Mario Kart tournament for Nintendo 64 in the lounge, single-elimination, I was racing against my creepy neighbor Drew. Having Controller 1, he got to pick the track, and so we were racing on Rainbow Road??? Seriously? Thankfully, in the N64 version, unlike the Game Boy Advance, Rainbow Road has wall-barriers to keep you from flying into space. Still, it's a hard track. His Bowser shot off to an early lead over my Yoshi, about halfway through the first lap I slip past and build up a good-sized lead. He catches up with the help of several bananas and well-thrown Koopa shells, we're neck and neck all during the second lap, the other dozen or so people involved in the tournament watch breathlessly, marveling at the intensity of this race. Throughout the race he's placed about half-a-dozen bombs and bananas in key points, I drive my kart a little too hard last lap and hit four bombs, and so Bowser wins by about three seconds. It was a good race, though; while it lasted.

     Friday went all right, found out I'd gotten a B on the disobedience paper, and after some petitioning we got a day of editing on our argument papers before turning them in online(I need to do that. Hmm. After I'm done with this.) Started in on the Cold War world in history, that was interesting.
     Nothing much happened after that, I studied some, and then wrote up the FFH review. Was thinking of going to the soccer game, but my stomach was a little upset, just stayed home. The youth group had a get-together at our house, think that went well fro mwhat Mom and Courtney said, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, talking about a lot of things, and of course, ping pong.

     Had absolutely nothing to do Saturday morning, it was a quiet news day, nothing happening in the world, and there is zero interesting shows on TV on the strange array of channels we get here in the dorm  So I wrote up a review of a Taylor Swift CD.
     Watched football in the afternoon, went to the basketball game that night. I completely fail as an ordinary fan, it seems. You just can't really turn that critical observation system off...kept wondering how I could spin the all-too-familiar action into a new package that I hadn't used recently. NSU played horribly. Armadillo-speed offense, everyone standing around the perimeter, then some guy launching a 3. True, they usually went in; but on a night when they don't, they're going to get crushed. The defense had gaping holes up the lane, and rebounding was a sometimes accomplishment. Only thing was, the other team was even worse, and so NSU coasted to a thirty-point win, 77-48.
     It's a nice gym, though a bit on the small side. Felt like I was watching high school ball, the Demons or the Knights at the Eagles, about the same size and atmosphere, and NSU played just like the Lady Knights did while I was with the Free Lance. Run out to an early lead; then make mistakes the rest of the game and hobble to a victory. Exhausting to watch, hard to write about with a positive spin.
     The gym was built in 1955, they're going to replace it with a $13 million facility off-campus by the football field next August, seating 3,000 people with new offices and everything. I estimated Dobbins Fieldhouse to hold about 900 people fully packed, there was maybe 300 or 400 in attendance Saturday night. Yeah, it's great to have a lot more seats...but if nobody's going to fill them, won't that look even worse? I've heard the women's team is a lot better than the men; going to need to watch one of their games to compare. From what I've seen so far, though; college sports' atmosphere is one of apathy. It's kinda sad. Completely empty and dead, most of the fans(?) aren't even paying attention to what's happening on the field or the court.

    Listened to a GBC sermon yesrterday morning, then walked a mile down the gas station to get a Sunday paper. Read through that(I love reading newspapers), watched the NASCAR race(tried watching the Cowboys, but they were just too terrible to bear), then went over to Grandpa's. Petted the dogs and helped Robbie plan the Thanksgiving meal.

    Got mostly positive reviews of my argumentative paper in English this morning, went over more Cold War facts in history(I was starving, and he kept going into irrelevant disgressions today, little hard to pay attention). Had Chick-Fil-A for lunch like usual; it's sort of neat when the cashier notices you did something different from your routine, lol. "You're not getting nuggets today?" "Nope...just thought it was more of a sandwich type of day." Braces make it very hard to chew; it's weird. I have a very high pain tolerance, except for my mouth, which is extremely sensitive to pressure. Nuggets are easier on the jaw to chew; which is why I typically get those. If I'm really hungry, though; I'll get the sandwich, need the extra carbs from the bread, though the meat is thicker and therefore requires more pressure to chomp.
     In MassComm we had a great lesson today on advertising analytics; how to use the data gathered by polls and review services to best place advertising, and thus sell your product. It was terrific. And then, being an Olympic-level klutz, I clock myself in the chin while putting my backpack on as I leave. Still aches, gonna need to take an ibeprofen.

     The Tim Tebow Saga continues....now anonymous Jets have been quoted as stating the world's most famous backup quarterback is "terrible", according to several New York papers and endlessly debated on ESPN this week....he's not a great football player, no. His mechanics are weird, his delivery strange, and the way he conducts himself is unusual. But he is a very good quarterback. There isn't a way to measure the ability to win games, to spread confidence and hope among your teammates, that yeah, we're down late, but we can still pull this thing out. He's a great leader.
     And, oh yeah, remember how everyone said he'd be used in the Wildcat? Hasn't happened hardly at all. Mark Sanchez is one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL, statistically and team-leadership-wise. And the Jets suck. But they still aren't playing Tebow? Last time I checked, Denver was in about the same place as New York is last season; and he nearly took them to the AFC championship game. If he's just going to stand on the sidelines, he's not going to terrify anyone, and you aren't going to win.

     Those 80th anniversary Steelers throwback uniforms are HORRENDOUS. "And I seen five or six convicts a-runnin' up and down..." Or maybe that was bees, Andy. Ugh....I literally leap backwards in fright whenever I see those.

     And just when we thought things had settled back down again in college football, and just getting used to the way things are arranged with the conferences and everything, Rutgers bolts from the Big East(Very smart move), and Maryland divorces the ACC(which they helped found sixty years ago), both headed to the Big Ten(which now has fourteen teams. Go figure) So...here go the dominoes again....and as we inch closer to the playoffs(yay!) and the banishment of the BCS(YAY!) and the development of four 16-school superconferences, Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech go to the Pac-12, Kansas State and West Virginia join the SEC, any Big East team runs for shelter anywhere; and Boise State goes to the Canadian Football League, where they win eighteen Grey Cups in a row. (Okay, I'm exaggerating slightly. But it could happen. Now we're back to anything and everything is possible in college sports, with nothing for certain any longer. To find out which schools belong to which conferences at the moment, check any and all reputable sports sources as often as possible, and things will stop shifting when there's pro hockey again, the NFL has a team in London, and people say "Dad, when you were my age, people listened to Katy Perry and Lady Gaga?...And thought they were good?" "Well, yeah. We also listened to Brad Paisley and Taylor Swift, news was read on paper, Toy Story ended, football was The Main Sport, and nobody dreamed that Oregon-Missouri would be a huge rivalry." "Wooooww....you're oooolllld." "Thanks...." "Can you tell me a story about when you were growing up, like what it was like when the Thunder got started?" "Sure! Well, I was fifteen when the Seattle SuperSonics..." "The who?" "The - Oh...you're too young to remember, but there was once an NBA team in Seattle, and....")

Music Review; Taylor Swift - Speak Now

     Okay, I don't really like most of Taylor Swift's music - It's annoying. But, my mom does, and so I'd gotten her each of Taylor's CDs for her birthday as they came out. One night last spring, we were driving along the highway, it was pouring rain, and my siblings were fighting with each other. So I flicked on the CD player to drown out the noise. One of the CDs in the case was this one, Mom was wanting to show me one of the songs on there. I shrug. "Okay." So she plays the song(I forget which one), I'm like "Hmm..that was pretty good." "I know! Isn't it? Have you heard that one before?" "Nope." "Have you ever even listened to an entire Taylor Swift CD before?" "No..." "Well, you are now." It was a lot better than I expected, I liked about half the songs on it. And it was hilarious to hear my brother Caleb(he's eleven, loves the outdoors, guns, fishing, etc) singing along with nearly song at the top of his lungs, and adding snide commentary in between verses.
     Anyway, it was released October 25, 2010 by Big Machine Records, and it was her third album, she wrote every song single-handedly.

Track One - Mine - If she tried writing novels, would they be any good? This tells a story well, about a couple meeting, then dating, getting married, then hitting some rough places, all in about four minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPBwXKgDTdE (Never took the time to ever watch this video...it's kind of interesting.)

Track Two - Sparks Fly - "I know this is probably a really bad idea, getting to know you....but I don't really care." Dumb... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPBwXKgDTdE (Concert video...)

Track Three - Back To December - Ouch. Why is this the only country song on radio that just right out says "It was my fault, and I feel awful about it, and everything that happened later." Painful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUwxKWT6m7U (Boring video.)

Track Four - Speak Now - I've always sorta wondered what would happen if a wedding was broken up in the middle of the ceremony...an interesting look at that hypothetical situation. The lyrics don't match the melody, that's always really  irritated me, for some reason. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUwxKWT6m7U

Track Five - Dear John - I have never listened to this all the way through, it's so boring and excrutiatingly dull. Actually, I don't think I've ever made it past the first line. But I think it's about some guy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55c1wo0zUV4&feature=related

Track Six - Mean - Now I remember...this was that song that we were trying to find that night. Heard it on the radio, and then wondered which CD it was from. A great song, alleged to be written in response to an unfavorable critic, which is slightly hard to play, and good for singing with your brother. Okay, actually, it's almost like something from The Sound of Music; one person starts singing it, and everyone else has to join in. (Of course, we also launch into "Call Me Maybe" in the middle of Wal-Mart...) Anyway, it's very catchy.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYa1eI1hpDE (Average video, a little strange.)

Track Seven - The Story of Us - Terrific writiing, captures all the emotions and scenes perfectly. One of my favorites from her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN6VR92V70M (I had no idea they shot a real video for this, but it's fantastic.)

Track Eight - Never Grow Up - This was written for all the little kids that listened to Taylor, sort of a song for all the little siblings in the world. Kind of bittersweet. Good song, good to play. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6qutPepOdc&feature=related

Track Nine - Enchanted - This is kinda forgettable, until it gets stuck in your head and won't leave; then it's just annoying. But anyway, this is supposed to be a song she met after meeting Adam Young(better known as the one-man band Owl City), and then as a sort of thank you he re-recorded it and sent it back to her. Don't know if it's true or not, but it makes a good story. And I like his version better. (Taylor - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGEsRZf_txw Adam - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JGHd0NWmGM)

Track Ten - Better Than Revenge - "What? Miranda's considered more country than I am, because she has bad-girl breakup tunes? Even Carrie is considered more country than I am for the same reason? Okay, then....take this, y'all."  Kind of entertaining. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYSgEFS11GU

Track Eleven - Innocent - I don't know how to categorize this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnHsQcv_Qqc

Track Tweve - Haunted - Never heard this song before. A deep friendship or relationship is splitting apart, it seems. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHvys3BJmko

Track Thirteen - Last Kiss - Reminiscing about an old boyfriend? Never listened to this, either. Boring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulyG94KsJpY

Track Fourteen - Long Live - This is great. It should be played at big events, like homecomings or graduations, and should be used as the goodbye song on American Idol. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sUrr4wf0Kc&feature=related

     Very Taylorish material here, good for inspection and worldview-examination. Enough music that isn't completely feminine to enjoy, pretty good writing throughout, nice melodies, when it isn't mind-numbing "Alas is me" timewasters.

My Rankings -
14 - Dear John
13 - Last Kiss
12 - Haunted
11 - Innocent
10 - Enchanted
9 - Sparks Fly
8 - Speak Now
7 - Mine
6 - Better Than Revenge
5 - Never Grow Up
4 - Back To December
3 - Mean
2 - Long Live
1 - The Story Of Us.

Music Review; FFH - Ready To Fly

     Thia music-reviewal project continues tonight, because I'm bored and cold sitting here with nothing else to do. This time, it'll be the FFH album "Ready To Fly", which was released on April 15, 2003 by Essential Records. It makes terrific cleaning music; unfortunately, there's not really anything to clean here, and barely anything to straighten. Anyway...

Track One - You Found Me - Downside of trying to summarize anything that isn't country, and therefore doesn't expressly tell a story that's easy to sum up: You kind of have to guess as to what it's about. This is either a couple falling in love, or an illustration of how Christ saves us, or both. It's a good song, though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SVDDdxJ0-Y

Track Two - Good To Be Free - A song of praise and thankfulness for God's mercy and grace to save us, therefore freeing us from sin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRCEYyO5NcQ

Track Three - It's A Good Day - This is one of the greatest songs ever written. Things don't always go the way we'd like them to in this life. Most of the time it's tough; you're fighting just to get through the day, much less the next month, year, semester, whatever. But if we stop and think about the size of the gift that we have, of being children of God, that's just so incredibly amazing. And when that's true, really, it's always a good day. We just sometimes forget. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S-KdxH848I (I need to learn how to play this.)

Track Four - Ready To Fly - Sometimes, we just long for heaven. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUdy3Y4K4Ko&feature=related

Track Five - I'll Join The Rocks - One of my favorites on this CD. This tells of a journey being undertaken; I've mentioned it several times in earlier posts, like the first camp history, or several of the graduation posts. It's also stating, "Hey, even if things go crazy and nothing is as it once was, I'll still praise you, Lord." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxBq1XGhGBY (I also need to learn how to play this.)

Track Six - Follow Love - "A melancholy hopeful song about starting over somewhere new", I said of this earlier on the graduation songs post, and it is. And part of starting over somewhere new is leaving everything you knew behind. It's so sad, but at the same time, sort of an adventure...of course, adventures aren't very much fun while you're in the middle of them. One of my most-played songs here lately; along with a few hymns and several country songs. There's some mental block, besides the not-really-having-time-to-play-my-guitar thing, that's kind of frustrating. I've kind of been singing hymns nonstop since August, though; there's some fantastic truths to remember in those. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyAHBzqzBwM

Track Seven - Never Gonna Be Alone - More of the same general theme: When life seems dark and terrifying and lonesome, we've got a Friend, a Guide to help us through it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9YAVlpag58

Track Eight - Ready For A World - Is it time for heaven yet? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrDkNFbxpNQ (This guy must have had a blast making this video. Good job, dude!)

Track Nine - Waltz For Jennifer - The main singer wrote this for his wife. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc_3MDN2Uzg

Track Ten - His Love Goes On Forever - Preach! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdyXoGvvXns (This is a horrible cover, but I couldn't find anything else on YouTube.)

Track Eleven - If Not For Christ - Pondering how without Christ, we can't even hope to possibly save ourselves, and the marvelous mystery of the cross. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz3uPxCxGu8

Track Twelve - Here I Am - A prayer for mercy, plea for forgiveness, and thankfulness for grace. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtGt3cIOpzY

     This is a fantastic CD, which I've listened to scores of times; enough so that I wonder how it can possibly play each time through all the scratches, though I'm glad it does. Full of great preaching, reminders that this world isn't all we have to look forward to, that God will help us through the rough times, and that we should try to live our lives pointing others to Christ. Very encouraging, I've been listening to it often. I guess I should try to rank these, just to be consistent, though they all have good qualities, some I just enjoy more.

12 - Here I Am
11 - Waltz For Jennifer
10 - If Not For Christ
9 - Ready For A World
8 - Good To Be Free
7 - You Found Me
6 - Ready To Fly
5 - Never Gonna Be Alone
4 - His Love Goes On Forever
3 - Follow Love
2 - I'll Join The Rocks
1 - It's A Good Day.

Bits From All Over the Place

   School! School. School? School..Yeah, school.

   That's basically all I've been doing lately. Not too exciting, just time-consuming and stressful. Lots of tests and papers with the semster winding down and all.

   Other things that have been happening....hmm. Well, I finally bought some decorations for my room, like everyone was telling me I should do. I got a Rudolph Christmas stocking and one of those desktop Christmas trees. They make it a little brighter and more home-like in here, sort of calming. And the basketball hoop needed company. Now, why did I get those two items, you might ask? Well....I like Christmas, for one thing. For another, they were the only decorations I knew where to find in Wal-Mart, haha. They're colorful, which was needed. And I've got this thing for Christmas trees...(I'm sure that will become a post of its own here in a few weeks, working on it.)

   It is nearly Thanksgiving, and it can't come fast enough! Family, food, football, resting, sale-finding, break from coursework...and Christmas music on the radio. Thanksgiving's my favorite holiday, it's the least stressful.

   My friends Alton and JB got married Saturday, so I went to the wedding. It was a good one; whatever the criteria for wedding-rankings are. In the town where I grew up, at the church where the drama group started their practices, with people around that I'd known for a while. It was good to see those people again.
   When they started dating, we all teased them about getting hitched, asking when the bells would ring and things like that, they just kind of laughed it off. Anyway, they got engaged sometime around spring, and that was the way things should be, that was good. Very happy for them, they both love the Lord, and each other, and hopefully their life will go well.

   As for everyone else that was part of the homeschool group; we've kind of all moved on into our separate pathways, we're grown adults now, and beginning that journey. For some it's a struggle, for some there aren't too many hurdles. For some life hasn't changed that much, for others it might soon, for still others the world's been flipped upside down. Starting college, new jobs, attempting to chart out the future, get everything figured out, trying to find where you fit into this big world.

   Josh and Dylan are both good about keeping me updated on life back at GBC, and they're sort of using my experiences out here to help guide their decisions on what to do soon. Bennett's once in a while asking for advice or prayer on some subject or other, maybe I can sort of encourage him in the faith like Daniel has done for me; I don't know, we'll see.

   DC Talk and Owl City are terrific to listen to while studying for tests, very calming. That reminds me...I've got a history test in the morning, and a psychology test Thursday afternoon...I need to get back to work.

Music Review; Brad Paisley - Part II

   The second part of this music-reviewing project, on Brad Paisley's second CD, "Part II", which was released by Arista Nashville in 2001 on May 29.

Track One - Two Feet Of Topsoil - At first glance, a typical breakup song...but then you start to notice the landslide of adjectives used in these sentences...and by then you're smiling in sympathy and nodding, with tears possibly escaping from laughing so hard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9R7Zs-odjU

Track Two - I'm Gonna Miss Her - His first huge hit, George Strait, Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks all wanted to do this song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9R7Zs-odjU (Video is okay.)

Track Three - Part Two - This has one of the most famous backstories in country music. In college, before he moved to Nahsville, Paisley was dating this girl he knew back in West Virginia, they went to see "Father of the Bride" on his mom's birthday. Well, people convinced him his path lay in Tennessee, so he moved down there, and this girl immediately started dating his best friend back home. That led to them breaking up, and he had an impossible time getting over her. His two songwriting pals got sick of hearing his wistful complaints, and when the sequel came out, they convinced him to go see it, on the very same day, at the very same time, in the very same theater, where he and that girl had watched the first one. They figured if she was as torn up about it as Brad was, she'd have the same idea and they'd be reunited. If not, well, he would finally be able to put it behind him and move on. He went, felt like an idiot, and came back to Tennessee complaining, and the three of them got to talking, and it led to this song. Also, he did see the girl who would become his wife...who just happened to be the main actress in the movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVQY3yJ5z5Y

Track Four - Wrapped Around - Not much of a story here, just that a guy has finally decided to ask his girl to marry him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbe9mCVYL54 (Concert video.)

Track Five - Two People Fell in Love - A great look at how the ordinary leads to the extraordinary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNU3k_poj_Q (Great video.)

Track Six - Come On Over Tonight - A guy who swore he'd stay away from relationships finds himself in one, and his humorous explanation of the fact. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIvJUcCyP7k

Track Seven - You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive - A dark, depressing lament of life in a coal-mining community. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1BGyegjiT8

Track Eight - I Wish You'd Stay - An incredibly sad story that you almost cry at while listening. But it's a good one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV-kzLZs650 (The video adds so many more layers to this song...it's great.)

Track Nine - All You Really Need Is Love - Wonderful. He can take a cliche like the title, and then flip it upside down and inside out into a hilarious ode to "Well, yeah, that's true, but..." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhxPIrPpc20 (This video is homemade, but they captured it perfectly.)

Track Ten - Munster Rag - Instrumental, again, this is crazy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcxLQ9fRxKc

Track Eleven - You Have That Effect On Me - Sort of a continuation of "Wrapped Around", but a little different view. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHqAq-RmrFU

Track Twelve - Too Country - This is a song featuring a bunch of old guys, and it's a little boring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZIxonh56jI

Track Thirteen - The Old Rugged Cross - A live recording of this song he did when inducted into the Grand Old Opry, and it's great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emTMoLaRGy8

   There's some clunkers on this album for sure, but on the other hand, there's some gems, too.

 My Rankings:
13 - Too Country
12 - You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive
11 - You Have That Effect On Me
10 - Munster Rag
9 - I'm Gonna Miss Her
8 - Wrapped Around
7 - Come On Over Tonight
6 - Two Feet Of Topsoil
5 - All You Really Need Is Love
4 - The Old Rugged Cross
3 - Part Two
2 - Two People Fell In Love
1 - I Wish You'd Stay.