John 1:1-11 Visuals

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came as a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.

He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

My New Hobby:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 1:1-2

Okay, that's nice, but what is it?

This, my dear friends, is a visual diagram of Psalm 1:1-2. See?

A true work of art, if I do say so myself. And it was very easy! I used drawing on Google Docs to create it.

I'm also working on a series of these for Genesis 1, and another for Psalm 119. The one shown above was my first attempt.

I find that they're a great way to help with memorization as well.

I hope to share more with you in the future!

I'm Breaking My Own Rule

But I have a legitimate excuse, really! Basically, we tried and tried to reload Sibelius and my computer couldn't read the disk. Apparently it forgot it has a disk drive! On top of that, it's just been really, really slow lately and it's clear that there's no hope of it recovering, so I'm getting a new computer. For the past couple of days we've been busy saving as much from this computer as we possibly can and erasing it from the computer after moving the files, and seeing as my pictures and such are rapidly migrating, it means that for a while my posts will probably be relatively void of pictures.

It figures... I was so very uninspired to write up anything on Sibelius when I had the chance, and now that I have no access to it I compose brilliant works of art! The audacity!



But not all is lost. With my computer being all finicky, I've had nothing to do but tidy up and organize. Just tonight I must have cleared out half of my bedroom! I've also been sorting through my bookshelf in order to make room for everything. My bookshelf, you see, is was rather cramped.

But while sorting through my books I was reminded of how much I loved certain ones and of the fact that I hadn't actually read some of them, and suddenly I wanted to read or reread about half of my shelf.

So I began making piles. I now have one pile for library books, one for to-read, and one for to-reread. Not only that, but I have also put them in the order in which I wish to read them. I ordered them so that my shorter books are positioned right after my longer books, and my fantasies all have either nonfiction or realistic/historical fiction between them, because I can't take too much fantasy at one time.

But I couldn't help noticing the sorry condition of a few of my books and I thought how nice it would be to buy fresh copies, so I made a list of which ones to replace.

And while I was list-making, I made a list of books I want to buy, and another of books I wish to check out from the library.

But then another thought struck me: Where am I going to store all of these books (since they clearly won't all fit on my shelf)? I came to the conclusion that I'll keep my organized stacks, with a couple changes, and I'll get some sort of storage unit that will fit beside my bed. I'll have one for my "currently reading" (library books included), one for "to read", and one for library books to be returned that will probably fit nicely by my door.


I'm pretty satisfied with my plan of action. Let's see if I actually follow through or not.

I'm thinking I had better get organized in case I happen to win anything from this:









Seriously, The Director is giving away some great stuff (I've seen it with my own eyes). I want those pens! I'm in love with pens! Did you know that I walk around school with only one pencil and one highlighter but 12 pens?

Oh my. I digress...

So while we're on the topic of giveaways...

I've been thinking of hosting one myself. Now I can't promise anything, but I hope to have a crochet giveaway, and if that is to happen, then I must set to work!

Of course... I'm not sure if it would be worth it since as far as I know, only 14 people would actually enter. So if you read this post and would participate in this event, please kindly leave a comment. You don't even have to say anything, I just want a head count. Thanks!


P.S. I apologize for any typos you might find. I didn't proofread this post. I was too lazy. I don't normally write and publish posts this late at night.


Now, to find some yarn and a hook...

Soundtrack Saturday

My selection for this week is the Main Title from the movie Flyboys by Trevor Rabin (Review coming on this).

This score is very heroic sounding. I absolutely adore the use of a high wind instrument (I don't know what it is) along with a horn. And the drum? Don't get me started!

Then the strings come in to tie it all together.

This track especially is so uplifting and hopeful that it's difficult not to absolutely love it.

On Procrastination and Inspiration

I've been meaning to post on this topic for quite a while. I'm sorry if this makes absolutely no sense. I just needed to get my ideas out there. Try not to get too dizzy.


Way back in February, I composed.

I was at school, in science class. While reading Dandelion Fire, the second book in the 100 Cupboards series, a song randomly popped into my head, and it was brilliant! I wrote it on the only piece of paper available: the back of a library receipt. It was incredible (at least, in my head it was) and I couldn't wait to get home so I could write it all out on Sibelius. I was so excited that I told The Director that she had had had to write that series into a screenplay just so I could do the score for it. (Besides, they would make a pretty awesome movie if done correctly...)

But when I got home, I was uninspired, so I let the library receipt sit there next to my computer all weekend (Since I was out of town) gathering dust. I resolved to write it up when I returned.

Well things happened and I became overly busy. The school play was happening and it was the first week of the new semester. Needless to say, I forgot about composing all together.

Every few days or so it would pop into my head one way or another and I'd always tell one of my friends, "Oh yeah. I composed something last week and I haven't written it up yet. I'm going to do that when I get home." That never happened.

I was reminded of it just last weekend and I was all inspired and ready to go. I even had my chicken salad!

I got all ready to sit down for a day of serious composing, and...


My computer was, er, under the weather.


Alrighty then... I guess I won't be doing it after all.

So here I am almost a month later. That library receipt has made its way into my binder of ideas. Sibelius isn't working for me and I think we'll have to reinstall it. Same with iTunes (which I don't look forward to).

See where procrastination got me? It reminds me of Pharaoh and his reaction to the frogs that were plaguing his home. He had the option to get them out of there, to be done with them. He was asked when he wanted them gone. He said "Tomorrow."

Quite honestly, this whole thing is becoming a frog to me. I kept putting it off like Pharaoh did and now it's only giving me trouble.

Now, I've had this happen to me before. If you were with me a couple of days before the premiere of Pirates in the Suburbs, you know what I'm talking about.

If you weren't, then know this: I decided to put off composing the score until about 2 days before the premiere. That's right, I did most of the score on the day before and the day of! It was stressful, it was tiring, and it made me never want to compose again.

But it was entirely my fault for putting it off. I could easily blame it (along with everything else) on The Director, but I'm not going to. Actually, I'm pretty sure the only thing that made me finish was the deadline. If it weren't for deadlines, I probably wouldn't get much done at all.

But why do I tend to wait until the last possible moment?

Much of the time, it has to do with inspiration. Normally, there are only two times when I'm inspired.

1. Directly after an idea gets planted inside my head (normally the first hour or so)
2. Directly before a deadline (Again, an hour or two before)

There is a bit of a creative dry spell, a gap of blah, if you would, between the time a project is assigned and the time it's due. For this reason, I don't write papers for school until the night before. For this reason, I never practiced speeches until right before giving them. For this reason, I waited until the last possible moment to compose the score. In order to finish something, I need a deadline. I need the stress. Stress is what helps to inspire me.

Since stress comes with deadlines, I've settled on a way to make sure I get this song written up once and for all.

Over Spring Break, which is this coming weekend, I have made a personal commitment to, first, reinstall Sibelius, and then, I will sit down and compose before I even think about touching this blog. Hopefully by then I will have also learned how to add audio clips to my posts so you can all hear my masterpiece.

So if you don't hear from me for a while (my Soundtrack Saturdays are scheduled- they don't count) you can be sure that I'm working on something (hopefully) incredible and (Lord-willingly) awesome and epic.


Wish me luck!


-E.F.C.

Soundtrack Saturday

My selection for this week's Soundtrack Saturday is from The Prince of Egypt. There isn't much I can say about this except that it's wonderful and lush, heroic and hopeful, and I love songs like that.

For All You Music Fanatics Out There

With my mother in mind...

My photography teacher showed us this video in class today. It really isn't photography-related at all but it was cool.

And musical.

And this guy (I think he's about 16) composed and filmed this on his own.


Enjoy!

Soundtrack Saturday

This week's selection is from one of my favorite animated movies, Tangled.

The score is absolutely incredible. That's really all there is to say. Way to go, Alan Menken!

I think it's the rhythm that really drew me in.

Zap!

The school play Zap had its first performance today! I think we did a great job and got many laughs. I found it interesting that the audience laughed at the times when I was least expecting it. Suddenly, things that had never before been funny to me before were all because the audience thought it was. I was rather surprised.


Here I am in full makeup. My character is Mrs. Hardwicke, an older English woman.

Don't. Laugh.

Beautiful, aren't I? This year's wrinkles are a huge improvement from last year's.


It's interesting though... My role in this play is almost identical to the one I had last year.

In both plays I was the only character with Mrs. in my name.
In both plays I had to wear wrinkles.
In both plays one of the lines is "Dead? Is this some sort of joke?"
In both plays there is concern over a bridge being washed out.
In both plays it is stormy.
And finally, in both plays I am strangled to death. Except I wasn't really killed last year.


I guess I'm just really good at this sort of role.

He is at work in my life.

And there's nothing I can do about it...

And there's nothing I want to do about it....

Because He's working in my life...

And He's God.

(And I'm not, just in case you were wondering.)

And I will let Him work.

I will allow Him to use me.


It's funny, looking back on the past couple of years. It all fits. Everything.

I never realized that before.

Until now.


Odd the things that pop into one's head as they search through their church notebook in search of a past musical idea...