Day one (6 hours)

Today was the first day of recording. We didn't actually do a whole lot of stuff. Travis set up everything. Jordan did a 2 hour sound check on the drums. Dustin and I got our guitars dialed in. The action on Jared's bass was messed up (for those not down with the lingo, that means that his one sting was too close top the fret board and it rattled). So, tomorrow we'll get him set up. Overall it was a fun day.

Day two starts at 10 am tomorrow.

..and now a word from our sponsors

So, Christmas. It was nice. Lots of family, food, and fudge. I think Mia and Mark are leaving tomorrow. They've been here since Monday night.

This is officially my first post on my new computer. It's a dell. I like dells. It's not the newest or fanciest, but it's not bad at all. almost a gig of ram. a 32MB video card. ATI Radeon mobile graphics card. and Windows XP......thank goodness it's not Vista.

In other news...
We're recording soon. I believe this Friday and Saturday...then Monday I think. Because it's the 1st of the month and there's no school.

That's what she said

So, tonight we spent the evening at Kairos talking and solving Rubik's cubes. Fun times. Brian Has my cube. He's going to lube it for me. Oh, and I completely blew away my old record for solving the 3x3. It was 2:30 and I did it in 2 minutes even. Oh yeah...

As far as the band goes I'm actually really excited. It sucks going through a transition like this, but I'm excited for the change that will be happening. Dustin kind of feels the same thing too. And that's good. It means we'll be refocusing, building energy, and all that good stuff.

This is going to be my last post using this computer. I'm going to be packing it up in a few minutes. Of course I'm going to clean out all of my personal files and programs completely and clean up the drive. I don't want those nosy school Nazis going through my personal things. Not that I have anything they'd object to, it's just I don't want them looking at any pictures or reading any documents....that's just creepy and wrong. I have all my files copied, and I should have a laptop by this time next week. So, I think I can live.

THIS JUST IN.
According to Dustin, Seventh Star broke up. That's sad. I was really looking forward to seeing them again at Cornerstone.

fin.

I JUST GOT A TETANUS SHOT....AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

The above title serves a dual purpose tonight. First, because I got an actual tetanus shot yesterday. And second, because that phrase is one of the funniest and fondest memories I have of Nate.

Nate made the decision last Sunday that he would no longer be a part of 300 Foxes. It hurts a lot. I didn't think it would, but it does.

So, yesterday I had to get shots and all that wonderful stuff for school. The first two were a cake walk (by the way, that saying doesn't make sense). The third, a tetanus shot, was just as simple and painless as the others. For some reason as soon as the needle went in I thought of Nate. My mind in that moment recalled Seneca Hills work day. Scraping the paint in pool. And Nate screaming the phrase that serves as my title as fast and as loud as he could for no seemingly reason. I couldn't help but laugh out loud, nervously trying to stop because I knew my laughter was changing to tears.

I'm an empty nester.

This weekend is a Pine Valley Christmas staff retreat. I had intended to go, but I decided not to. There are two main reasons why. Our youth Christmas shopping trip is Saturday, and I can't miss band practice Sunday.

Here, let me explain myself.

The shopping trip might seem like a stupid, and possibly selfish reason to skip the retreat. I see it as making myself available. Jeremy can't run all the stuff we do on his own and as a youth staff I am making myself available. Also, (especially during this busy season) it's hard to see people and spend time together. The reality is I'm going to be leaving in January and this is an awesome opportunity to be with the people I love for a whole day.

As for band practice it's as simple as this: I would be letting everyone down by missing it. We're recording in a few weeks. We've been working on writing new music and dialing in on our sound. We're at a point where we need to refocus and define what direction we will take. I've let them down enough by not being assertive...by not stepping up to the leadership role I am in.



In other news, I think that I may be done with school TOMORROW. I have half of a unit quiz and then a final to take tomorrow and that's all of it. There's nothing more. This is exciting.

I like fishy crackers

I really hate getting colds. I've had one for the last 12 days. Whenever I get a cold it always lasts for a long time. I think this one is almost gone, but it seems like it is taking a while for it to really go away.

In other news. We're supposed to be recording later this month. I believe the dates are the 28th, 29th, and the 1st.

Nate talked to me today after practice. It seems he's feeling unmotivated. I also share the same feeling. It feels like we're not accomplishing much if anything. There are some things as a band that we need to do, and there are some things that I need to do as a leader. Things that have been put off or ignored for too long. I can't speak for the other guys, but I know it's hard when you want to play shows and you can play shows, but no one is offering us anything. We've had people promise to consider us for shows and put on shows without a word to us. We've had a show canceled because the idiots putting it on didn't have their crap together. We've contacted people about adding us to one of the shows they're putting on and have gotten no response, not even a "We aren't interested." This is frustrating for me, as I'm sure it probably is for the others.

Anyway, on a lighter note. We've re-written part of our song The Spare Room. It makes it a lot better. Although, we still have work to do on that. We are also writing a new song. This song was the new song that we were writing a while a go, but we started over and we're taking it in a different (better) direction.

So, please, please, be praying for us as a band, as well as all of us individually. Thanks.

Nov. 17th

So, yeah. Our show is possibly canceled. The church said they couldn't let us put on a show there because of a Jesus Wept show they had there once where stuff got broken or something like that. Hopefully they'll either decide we can play, or we can find somewhere else to have the show at.

Good night!

See what I see

Last night I watched Saw 3 for the first time. It was good. Much better than Saw 2. But sadly it still isn't better than the original. I guess that's what makes the first one so great, it was the first. It didn't have anything to measure up to.

Tomorrow is the NFL/NBA (guys and girls activities) things for youth group. I really don't feel like going to the guys thing. Football. Eh. First, I'm not much for football. Second, it has been raining all day today which means it's most likely going to be cold and wet even if it doesn't rain tomorrow. I'll probably go to the worship thing afterwards regardless. Plus I have things I need to do, and that's an extra 5 hours to do them tomorrow if I don't go. On top of that I'm going to be out all day Sunday.

If you didn't already know, which you should. We're playing another show November 17th. The horrible thing is that is the same day as our Pine Valley work day. Of course I want everyone to come, although many of them won't be able to because of that. But to be honest there's only a handful of people who'd I'd be upset if they missed it. Won't say who, but they just seem to really appreciate us and enjoy our musical efforts. For info. on the show go to our myspace.

Do you think I'm joking?

I don't write words down on paper and scream them.

I take a deep part of my heart, that very few have seen and express it in the most passionate way I possibly can. I cannot compromise. I cannot forsake my very heart. I will not compromise.

I write songs that tell stories about myself. Stories that I'd be horrified to tell someone face to face. I'm even putting myself in a vulnerable place writing a song about it. I write about secret things: the very things that weigh on my heart.

What am I rambling about? WHAT!


I'm talking about certain song that an alleged band that I am supposedly in is writing. Nate came up with some stuff. The arrangement was for him to show us and the guys would learn it as well as contribute/change it so that it would become a collective effort. My job is to supply lyrics. (Although this may not seem like much, it is a huge responsibility and a challenge.) Now, the problem is that some "people" want the name to be completely non sequitur, in other words it has no meaning connecting it to the song. For me, that is unacceptable. I cannot allow the subject matter for the lyrics I had been toying with to be belittled by such a title. Believe me, this is a song I've been scared to write since day one. I believed that after the success of the last song we wrote, in addition to my own personal growth, that now was the time to face this monster head on. I find myself unable to compromise. It's either my lyrics with my name, or the other name and some generic lyrics I'd probably just pull out of my butt.

Video Blog 1x01 - The heart of Hardcore

If you wish to view my post from August with the lyrics
to our song click here

nox intempesta

Today we finally finished our new song, nox intempesta. Still needs to be hammered out. But it's done from begining to end. Here is the final revision of the lyrics I posted earlier. Enjoy.

nox intempesta

Lend me Your strength
Tear down these walls
Destroy Your enemy (Judges 16:28)
Crush their jaw
Break their teeth
Deliver me from the wicked (Psalm 3:7)

Lord my God, I call to you
For strength to offer: my sacrifice
To honor them: to honor You
Humble my heart: prostrate my body
In this dark hour grant me strength to persevere
To persevere
Awake within me the warrior in my heart

No one can stop me
My strength is not my own
It’s from the One who gives me life
The Lord God Almighty

Tonight!
In the dead of the night
I will make my stand
I will not let you continue
This perversion will end
My God will strike you down
Before Him you cannot stand
Tonight you fall

I will stand and fight
For once I will be a man

I will stand and fight…

Brutal

Got back from practice. It was pretty darn good. Things are looking up. I'm exhausted. My voice sounds funny. And chances are my diaphragm is going to be killing me in the morning. But it's worth it.

Amber left today. *cries* I'm happy for her though. The drive-in last night was great. It was cool being with her at the last possible moment before she left. I always hate when you see someone a week before they leave for something. I'm not that hot on goodbyes. I like long, slow, drawn out goodbyes. And that's kind of what I got.

Something different. (sound clip)

Here's a rough demo of a a lead guitar part I wrote for our new song. This is pretty much it's final version...other than possibly a few changes.

Three Hundred Farts

So, today I went to band practice. We haven't had a good practice in a while, but that changed today. We all did really well. Jordan is getting a lot more consistent with drumming. Jared just got a new bass which is a blessing from God (his old one was crap). Nate brought a bucket of energy as usual. Dustin....well, he's still a weenie. But he's learning a lot of stuff fast and getting a feel for being in a band. He's doing good so far. Anyway, our new song is coming along well. We didn't get much time to work on it though. But I'm pretty sure it'll be ready before our show. Also, since we added Dustin I've been hammering out my vocal styling. Before, when I played guitar and sang, I was restricted to a lower growing tone. That was because of how hard it was to play and sing at the same time. Believe me, I've almost passed out a few times from over exerting myself. Anyway, now I'm free to focus on tone. What I've come up with is pretty sweet. It's a crunchy mid range yell. Maybe kind of like War of Ages, but with a more distorted sound. Adding Dustin as also allowed me to make the vocals more varied/dynamic i.e. changing pitch. Just the fact that our vocals are improved and more dynamic gives us a harder sound...it's pretty cool. I never realized how much a few vocal improvements would help the band as a whole.

Ok, if you've endured my long rant about how amazing my band is, God bless you. If you stopped reading half way through, I don't blame you. I had only intended to write about half as much as I did. Sorry. But yeah. I'm really passionate about my band.