Out with the old, in with the new

About a week ago PTP voted in four new beaux.  About this time last year I was all giddy with excitement and anxious for what the future would bring.  This time around was still really exciting, but instead of having a mob attack me, I was the mob, although I played the role of grandma and tagged along towards the back trying to get some video.  It’s just a lot of fun running around campus with 100 people.

Some frames from the videos I took. Might make a video one day.

Now, some stuff about my year as a beau.  It’s been a good time.  There’s been the ups and downs, but all in all it’s been a blessing. 

• It’s sometimes a lot of work to be a beau, especially if you can edit/film videos and take pictures.    Editing and organizing the making of videos can also be a lot of work.  I learned to freak out less about it now, but I’ve spent up to 10 hours messing around on a single beau video.  The cost of being a perfectionist.
• There are many different ideas about what your role as a beau is, but it’s definitely takes a lot of commitment.
• I had pretty high aspirations about integrating Christ into more conversations, but for the most part this has been unsuccessful.  This has to do with everyone in general, but also ptp.

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Music, songs and some favorites

I’ve been scavenging for songs to download, and then got sidetracked all over the place–

Before I get into that, here is a quote that I found / like, that happens to do with nothing else in this post.

found via: Bethany Kay

Edit: Once upon a time (yesterday), there was this deal where you could get 60 free songs from napster.  This deal became known to the likes of slickdeals.net (a deal site), and the hoards and masses began to sign up and download like crazy.  The napster staff soon caught on and ended the deal.  Sadly I didn’t move very fast, and only got 3 songs.  Oh well.

Here are some of my favorite bands / current favorite songs: (click to listen)

• Flame (christian rap)  -  See More Him.  I also made a picture centered around this song about two years ago here.  I forgot that I had this blog for almost two years…hmm.
• Lecrae (christian rap–has been pretty influential to me, this song especially)  – Praying for You.  This song is super powerful.
• Fernando Ortega (christian adult contemporary)  -  Give Me Jesus.  There are many other great songs that he does, but I like this one especially.
• Sufjan Stevens (adult contemporary) has a sad song that I like  -  Sister -  also Chicago is a classic, along with Lord God Bird (mentions Arkansas…whee) and Concerning the UFO Landing… (which I know I’ve probably listened to like 50 times in a row before, still like it too).

Those are the songs that are on the top of my head now.  I listen to a lot of music, and some of my other favorites are Tree 63, Leeland, Seven Places, LaRue, Glassbyrd, Switchfoot, Chris Rice, Chris Tomlin, Copeland, Owl City, Jars of Clay, Justin Unger(!), Newsboys, dc Talk, Nickel Creek, oh and Christian Yoder , all in no particular order, plus many many others.

These are some of my favorites, what are some of yours?

~ Jon

One day, old spice, sugarloaf

It’s Tuesday.  It’s been a pretty chill day for me.  I’m still a tad sick (mainly congested), but it isn’t too miserable.  I had the last class of racquetball before tennis starts up after spring break (it’s just a 2-hour a week activity class).  I like racquetball a lot, and hopefully I’ll get around to playing it some more.  It’s fun.

I could go to the nurse and get excused for my other class, but I kinda don’t feel like it.    I don’t have anything too specific to write about this time, but here are a few random things that are on my mind:

One Day, by Matisyahu, great song.

I’m kinda thinking of making a video to this song.  I have a few ideas.  I also never really make videos, so we’ll see where that goes.

Here’s another video that I discovered today.  It’s from the superbowl, and I think it’s pretty great.  It was also done in one take, which is amazing (take 57 on day 3).  The bathroom was a built container that was raised with a crane, the boat was also a set (it was actually just half a boat), then the ex-NFL player actor sad onto some sliding/roller type thing which slid him onto the horse.  Very few digital elements.  It’s pretty mind-boggling to me. 

Details on how it was made, where I found this, and an interview with the minds behind this commercial can be seen here (making of Old Spice commercial).

Finally, here are some pictures from our late mountain climb up Sugarloaf.  Just some snapshots.

This is a 20 second exposure. It was pretty dark out.

I like how this turned out. =)

Much love to all,

~ Jon

Anonymous EP Release

My brother’s first EP is out today (or tonight).  He had it ready last week, but I convinced him to hold it off so that there could be some build up before hand, and then more people would be exposed to it.  It’s for the betterment of mankind, I tell ya.  He’s been making music for quite a while.  It started on the computer, then he started learning guitar, then he started recording things, then he opened his mouth, and brilliance resulted. 

Anonymous – The Awkward Introduction

There’s not too much to say about it, except that it’s the best free album that I’ve ever heard, and in my opinion it’s great.  =)

~ Jon

Jon’s Ultimate Playlist

Have you ever pondered the idea that it’s possible to have a large yet limited number of songs that you like that will satisfy your music desires fully?  I’ve been thinking about that a bit as I put together a list of all my favorite songs that I have.  This may be due to me going through a phase where I listened to random secular music for a while, but as of right now I’m completely satisfied listening to only the music that I have now.

I know that everyone has different tastes in music, and if a perfect playlist is possible, mine probably won’t be as good, but here is mine: Jon’s Ultimate Playlist

My top listened to songs

I guess I like about 50% of the music that I have.  I guess that’s pretty low, but I don’t delete very often. 

In other news, since posting every week isn’t really going well, I think I’ll change my goal from posting every week to having enough posts as there are weeks.

A last tidbit: Free – Tree 63 is an awesome song.    Check it out!

~ Jon

Wide-Eyed and Mystified

Yep, I know that I’ve been blogging about music a lot–probably too much. Oh well, I don’t regret it. So I’ve been listening to this awesome CD:

What’s new, you may ask? Well this I got online for free. And…what’s new with that? Well I actually got it legally. You can get the entire CD Wide-Eyed and Mystified, and it’s free. I don’t know what their thought process was in doing this, but I think it’s a great idea.

~ Jon

Musics

YouTube – Switchfoot – We Are One Tonight

I thought this song was pretty cool. The song itself didn’t really seem that awesome (at first), but the video is what makes it cool–the videography is just awesome. I’ve been looking through a lot of songs for slideshows today…this is hard business.

Also, I finally finished the Memorial Day Campout slideshow, except it isn’t uploaded yet because it is still encoding. Sit tight. =)

~ Jon