Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Okay, so this morning I am really excited because it's a WEEKEND! That means more practice time on the piano! Which I really need right now, because I'm not getting even half of what I need. Maybe God will bless me and I can go practice in another place where there aren't so many distractions of various kinds for a few hours. But the point of this post is quotes, whether I got them from song lyrics, poem, whatever...
"...Doing an injury puts you below your enemy;
Revenging one makes you but even with him;
Forgiving it sets you above him..."
-Benjamin Franklin
"When you can't get through it, you can listen to it."
-Hanson
"For some, music is just a pastime,
It's an undeniable fact of living,
A blissful slavery of mind, body, and soul.
To rise about the ashes of mediocrity is rare,
Yet the gift is freely handed out to anyone who cares to receive it,
Instantly shattering our daily drudgery.
The path to pursue more that the usual,
More than what is safe and known,
Is wrought with time-sharpened jagged blades that cut deep,
Blocking many from the road to something greater,
Beyond the stunted imagination of their peers.
Within the veins of the few,
Passion fills every sinew with a sweet unquenchable purpose,
Calming the fear of those treacherous paths.
Though every slice burns and bleeds,
Still they take each cut
And wear the scars with pride to signal their choice,
That undying pursuit of greater joy within every chord.
And so they say- Watch me bleed"
-Hanson
"When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest! if you must; but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow;
You might succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup.
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit;
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit"
-anonymous
Friday, January 18, 2008
Quotes from Hanson:
"If only you could feel what I dream, maybe you could hear what I mean."
"I'm dying to be alive, yeah, not trying to just survive, yeah. Let's not go through our lives, without just dying to be alive, yeah!"
"Little angel you got to learn to fly
Get up and earn your wings tonight
Little angel just look in my eyes
Get up and earn your wings tonight
Push and shove then climb aboard
This is the shuttle train to the top of the world
When you look around what do you see
These are all high flyers
But none of these high flyers look like me
What is that supposed to mean ?
What am I supposed to be? "
"You really got a hold on me. You really got a hold on this feeling good, You really got control of me...."
And last but most certainly not least:
"Tell me does it move you, does it soothe you, does it fill your heart and soul with the roots of rock 'n' roll?"
If you're laughing, then you shouldn't be. :P
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Yesterday my mom took me to my piano lesson. *sigh* I have MEMORIZE this 5 page Beethoven song for the recital. I also am working on Lion and You Never Know (is that the one we'll do?) for the talent show. I'm hoping to have Lion memorized. Then my sister signed me up for a solo as well, for which I'll do Hundred by the Fray. I also have to play that song for a performance class. At least I have a really good excuse to practice.
I can't tell you how happy I am about my band. After several months of doing nothing with myself, I finally have something. I go to band practice and everyone's so happy and we open with prayer... It's a really nice feeling. We have Jake playing for us now, which is a little strange because I year ago I would have never in a million years thought that he'd be playing with us. I never thought I would let him. lol I feel a lot different than I did a few weeks ago. I was getting no where, my older sister leaving me every day for school. It's not a great feeling when I watch her ride drive off to school nearly every morning. It seems like the more she's gone, the farther away she seems, even when she is at home (do you get what I mean?).
There was one night, when a lot of things were happening, i was really stressed, and I went out and sat down at the piano that's on our porch. As I played, it got dark outside, but even thought I could hardly see the keys, I played better than I've EVER played before. I just started playing, making it up the whole time; going up and down the piano. (Hey Ashes, you know that song that I wrote? That was SMALL PART of what I made up that night. I took that little part, and never forgot it.)
Thanks to those who read!
Jo
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
I've had "blessed Be Your Name" stuck in my head because we played it at band practice. I'm listening to it now.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Lots has been happening.
Band practice yesterday. If you look at our myspace and Ashley's, you'll see just how excited we are. All over, we are posting blogs that say stuff like,"Our band is so cool!" and, (this one's from Lanna, maybe you can tell?) "Our band has so much talent!"
So the other night when we had that practice with just Lanna, Ashley, myself, and Jake, we all started talking about (okay, Jake started to conversation...) how we need to have God in our band, and how he'll keep us together. We start our band practice in prayer now, and every once in a while we decide to play a worship song. Last night I went into my room and prayed that he would keep our band together. I think that what we have as a band is awesome, and I'm just so excited and don't want it to fall apart. So if you will, could you pray for the band as well?
So my close band members (I guess I"m not really all that close to all of them yet, because we just started, but I love 'em all... dang it, enough with the mushy gushiness.) say that I'm "AMAZING" on the piano. Well, shucks *blushes* lol. To Ashley, you are an AMAZING singer (hope you read this post), and my sister, you are an AMAZING drummer (you better read this, too ;D)
Thanks to those who did read...
Have another cheery day,
JO
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Hey everyone,
Last night we had a very nice band practice. Jake came to practice with us! I think this whole band thing is really going to work out, and Jake is going to help so much. I can't wait! The Private School's talent show is coming up on the first and we already signed ourselves up, so we're going to practice as much as possible so that we're ready. Ashley's church is letting us use a room that has amps, piano, keyboard, drum set, microphones, everything. It's so nice of them to let us use it!
I'm really excited about the whole band thing (maybe you can tell?)
We also started play practices a few days ago. It's so nice. :) I'm so happy. We're doing a Midsummer Night's Dream (in case I didn't tell you.) I got the part of Hippolyta, the duke's wife. Our performances are sometime in the beginning of March. I'm so excited. I had to miss the very first practice because I had to go food shopping :( but I went to the second practice, which was on Thursday.
Thanks for reading!
Blessings, and have a cheery day!
Jo
ps. I think that avatars on yahoo are strange. They just look weird. I accidentally got one... Anyone know how to get rid of them? :)

