Life, music, and not quite everything.
Well, I guess I'll write a bit of an update about life.
1. I have been breathing lately. I am sure this comes as a shock to most of you.
2. University is keeping me busy, especially the side of me that is almost uncontrollably inclined to procrastinate.
3. I have an assignment that I thought was due on the 16th. I have recently learnt it is due on the 9th. I now feel like I am up shit creek, but luckily, I am not without a paddle; we had to write a page-long outline of the essay for an earlier assessment task, so I have that to work off. Maybe that assignment wasn't as worthless as I initially thought!
4. Hey, Horowhenua-Kapiti, you know what'd be cool? If you'd play as well this year as you did last year! Losers.
5. My friend Jamie visited me last weekend. As I had not seen him (or anyone I knew from high school, as a matter of fact) since my birthday back in January, it was really nice to catch up with him. We stayed up late into Friday night playing Monopoly, which was grand fun. The New Zealand edition of Monopoly must be the only edition of Monopoly that has streets people from other countries just can't pronounce - hearing Jamie get his tongue tied on Taumarunui Station or Rangitikei Street was priceless. The best moment of the game came late at night. We were both getting quite tired, our mathematical skills were starting to go to hell, and Jamie happened to draw the Chance card that reads "you have been elected chairman of the board". He stared at it intently, focused, and read it slowly and methodically: "you have been elected boardman of the chair", at which point I just cracked up laughing. In between fits of laughter, I remarked that it probably wouldn't seem as funny if I weren't so tired, but my goodness, I still smile about it now because of how focused he was and that he STILL got it wrong. Alas, he nonetheless beat me at the game. I owned the entire expensive side of the board, but Jamie muscled me out of the rest of the board, and even though I could milk him for heaps if he landed on Queen Street, the other three sides of the board were death for me and I ultimately lost - even though at one point, I had Jamie down with just $3 to his name!
6. I am currently completely addicted to the first three songs on Spock's Beard's Day For Night album, especially the third song, Skin. It is the kind of music that makes me feel truly happy, not only because it is genuinely good music played by talented musicians but because it is so uplifting. I'm also pretty much addicted to Orphaned Land's album Sahara. Orphaned Land's pre-Mabool albums didn't initially strike me all that much, but they have grown on me massively lately; they are more death metal focused than Mabool, but still with Orphaned Land's Hebrew and Arabic influences very prominent and strong focus on the Abrahamic religions. Songs such as Ornaments Of Gold, Seasons Unite, and The Beloved's Cry are simply stunning. Nothing is left, just the dust ...
7. I was going to write my thoughts about U2's recent actions, but you know what? I'll keep them to myself. I'm sick of people on all sides of the debates at the moment. I'm particularly sick of all you overly positive, overly defensive U2 fans who paint every remotely negative argument with the same brush, characterise it as childish, and completely uncritically dismiss it. But I'm also sick of people who uncritically dismiss everything U2 does without providing any substance to justify their insults. Why can't we have a calm, reasonable discussion about the merits of something without assuming someone's losing sleep over a largely unimportant matter?
Also, theological ponderings will be coming sometime soon, but it's hard to get my thoughts in order at the moment. I hope the more intellectually and theologically inclined folks on my friends list are up for some serious, in depth discussion, because I could really use it when I get around to finally posting my current thoughts.
1. I have been breathing lately. I am sure this comes as a shock to most of you.
2. University is keeping me busy, especially the side of me that is almost uncontrollably inclined to procrastinate.
3. I have an assignment that I thought was due on the 16th. I have recently learnt it is due on the 9th. I now feel like I am up shit creek, but luckily, I am not without a paddle; we had to write a page-long outline of the essay for an earlier assessment task, so I have that to work off. Maybe that assignment wasn't as worthless as I initially thought!
4. Hey, Horowhenua-Kapiti, you know what'd be cool? If you'd play as well this year as you did last year! Losers.
5. My friend Jamie visited me last weekend. As I had not seen him (or anyone I knew from high school, as a matter of fact) since my birthday back in January, it was really nice to catch up with him. We stayed up late into Friday night playing Monopoly, which was grand fun. The New Zealand edition of Monopoly must be the only edition of Monopoly that has streets people from other countries just can't pronounce - hearing Jamie get his tongue tied on Taumarunui Station or Rangitikei Street was priceless. The best moment of the game came late at night. We were both getting quite tired, our mathematical skills were starting to go to hell, and Jamie happened to draw the Chance card that reads "you have been elected chairman of the board". He stared at it intently, focused, and read it slowly and methodically: "you have been elected boardman of the chair", at which point I just cracked up laughing. In between fits of laughter, I remarked that it probably wouldn't seem as funny if I weren't so tired, but my goodness, I still smile about it now because of how focused he was and that he STILL got it wrong. Alas, he nonetheless beat me at the game. I owned the entire expensive side of the board, but Jamie muscled me out of the rest of the board, and even though I could milk him for heaps if he landed on Queen Street, the other three sides of the board were death for me and I ultimately lost - even though at one point, I had Jamie down with just $3 to his name!
6. I am currently completely addicted to the first three songs on Spock's Beard's Day For Night album, especially the third song, Skin. It is the kind of music that makes me feel truly happy, not only because it is genuinely good music played by talented musicians but because it is so uplifting. I'm also pretty much addicted to Orphaned Land's album Sahara. Orphaned Land's pre-Mabool albums didn't initially strike me all that much, but they have grown on me massively lately; they are more death metal focused than Mabool, but still with Orphaned Land's Hebrew and Arabic influences very prominent and strong focus on the Abrahamic religions. Songs such as Ornaments Of Gold, Seasons Unite, and The Beloved's Cry are simply stunning. Nothing is left, just the dust ...
7. I was going to write my thoughts about U2's recent actions, but you know what? I'll keep them to myself. I'm sick of people on all sides of the debates at the moment. I'm particularly sick of all you overly positive, overly defensive U2 fans who paint every remotely negative argument with the same brush, characterise it as childish, and completely uncritically dismiss it. But I'm also sick of people who uncritically dismiss everything U2 does without providing any substance to justify their insults. Why can't we have a calm, reasonable discussion about the merits of something without assuming someone's losing sleep over a largely unimportant matter?
Also, theological ponderings will be coming sometime soon, but it's hard to get my thoughts in order at the moment. I hope the more intellectually and theologically inclined folks on my friends list are up for some serious, in depth discussion, because I could really use it when I get around to finally posting my current thoughts.