Full disclosure: I’m a big fan of this guy and he’s my brother. So anything I say could be biased. ;) But still–I think he makes great music.

Old Winter EP

The artwork for this was done by Marcy Owens with some editing and color changes by me.

Links:

• Old Winter EP site on Bandcamp
• Christian’s first hit EP, The Awkward Introduction (still free for download) – Christian’s first band name was Anonymous, but he more recently opted to real name. I guess the other one wasn’t a distinguishable name.

There are a lot of things I like about the south.  One of the reasons: bluegrass.

~ Jon

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.

My homees, yo. (spring sing)

Some things I’ve learned along the way:

• Don’t wait for something great to happen to you to start making a difference.  Pretty much everyone has equal ability to make a difference.  Having a title doesn’t change much at all.
• Live life and don’t take it too seriously.  If you’re always worried about people’s perceptions of you, you’ll most likely be miserable.  Take each situation as it comes and don’t over think things.

My computer.

“Out with the old, in with the new”?  Not really the case, I just made that up because it came into my head–they can’t get rid of me that easily! ;)

~ Jon

Psalm 86

¹ Hear, O LORD, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.

² Guard my life, for I am devoted to you.
You are my God; save your servant
who trusts in you.

³ Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for I call to you all day long.

⁴ Bring joy to your servant,
for to you, O Lord,
I lift up my soul.

⁵ You are forgiving and good, O Lord,
abounding in love to all who call to you.

⁶ Hear my prayer, O LORD;
listen to my cry for mercy.

⁷ In the day of my trouble I will call to you,
for you will answer me.

⁸ Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord;
no deeds can compare with yours.

⁹ All the nations you have made
will come and worship before you, O Lord;
they will bring glory to your name.

¹⁰ For you are great and do marvelous deeds;
you alone are God.

¹¹ Teach me your way, O LORD,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.

¹² I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.

¹³ For great is your love toward me;
you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.

¹⁴ The arrogant are attacking me, O God;
a band of ruthless men seeks my life—
men without regard for you.

¹⁵ But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

¹⁶ Turn to me and have mercy on me;
grant your strength to your servant
and save the son of your maidservant.

¹⁷ Give me a sign of your goodness,
that my enemies may see it and be put to shame,
for you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

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

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 – 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

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.  :-P

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

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

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