From November

11/22/06
I have all of this “stuff” I don’t really want or need. It’d be nice to be able to run away from books, CDs, computers and just live in a little fort outside and listen to the rain fall overhead.

Music and Memories

Isn’t it interesting how music can evoke memories of the past? Lately I’ve been thinking about the possibilities of using music to store information in the mind. I’m not sure how this could actually be done, though, and music might work better for memories or feelings instead of non-emotional data. It’d probably make studying for tests a lot easier, though!

Money and Leprosy

Woke up around 4:00 AM, for some reason… probably from not having had enough water. Went back to sleep hours later… and was able to remember some of my dreams.

I had a dream where I was walking around some city and randomly began to notice some dropped, folded-up money on some nearby park benches. Altogether, it came to a total of one or two-thousand dollars! It was so unbelievable! But I wanted to keep the money for myself (without even trying to return the money to some sort of authorities.) I eventually realized, though, that I would probably have to write this down as some sort of income for my taxes… were I to keep it. Later in the dream I started giving away some of the money to help a friend do whatever it was he needed to do. But my initial reaction reminds me of how greedy and self-centered I yet am, inside. I don’t want to be like that, though… money is not worth the focus of my attention or my excitement.

Later on (in the dream) I was at some sort of Catholic convention or gathering in whatever city I had been visiting. There was this one older, middle-aged lady there who was in the same room as myself, and she had leprosy. At some point, I was introduced to this lady by someone else… and I had to shake her hand. I reluctantly shook her hand… thinking that I might get leprosy in some way, simply by being around her during my stay. After thinking about this dream, though, I’m reminded of how I hesitated before shaking the lady’s hand; how selfish I am in trying to avoid “unclean” people.

I think I failed both tests.

That Jealous Balance

(On Jealousy and Relationships)
I wish I knew where to draw the line between having a healthy jealousy and having an obsessive jealousy for someone else.

When it comes to having a healthy jealousy (or having a “normal relationship”, for that matter,) one might think of the old adage: “If you love somebody, set them free.” It seems like this idea that one should both “care” yet “not care” for a loved one has quickly become ever more socially acceptable (at least in the United States.) If one cares “too much” for one’s significant other, it may be a sign of further, underlying issues at work. But on the other hand, if one does not give love, time and attention to one’s significant other, the relationship may become hard to maintain. Is there any middle ground, here? Is there any way to care for a loved one while still maintaining a healthy level of jealousy?

When it comes to having an obsessive jealousy, one might be tempted to think of the relationship between G-d and the Israelites. The jealousy of G-d is a curious thing. When reading Exodus 20:5 or Deuteronomy 6:15, one word for jealousy (“qanna“) can be found (and this is just a superficial look at the meanings that accompany and make up the word “qanna”.) This word “qanna” is interesting in that it appears [1] to also translate to the word “zealous”… which (in English, at least,) can also be interpreted as a good thing, depending on the context. Is there any middle ground, here, as well? It would seem that there could be a way to be jealous (zealous) without obsession.

I suppose this balance between healthy and obsessive jealousy has something to do with trust… and, perhaps, not putting one’s every hope, whim, and concern into a loved one. Still, I wish I knew how to find that jealous balance…

1. Skip Moen, “Till Death Do Us Part”, Hebrew Word Study, October 12th, 2012.

Consolidation

Been working on consolidating the different branches of this website into one “easy to navigate” collection. Not sure if that “easy to navigate” part has happened yet… but at least the sites have a common navigation bar at the top (kind of like all those other websites on the Internet…) so that it’s at least a little harder to get lost when browsing the sites.

At the same time, I’ve been trying to add more detail to entries in the Music Scrapbook so that I can then automatically pull information from the Scrapbook for display on the main website. Trying to reduce the number of times I repeat myself… and maybe it’ll work out this time…

Still Waters

A few days late… and a few dollars short… but the Christmas Gift for 2012 was finally finished around the 1st of this new year. Good timing, eh…? I’ll try harder next year… like a good rover should!

Anyway, if you’d like to hear (or download) the songs for the “Still Waters” album (also known as the “Christmas Gift 2012” album…) here is the album link:

still-waters-cover
Still Waters Album Booklet

Thanks for listening!
And I hope you have a good new year!

Almost There…

Although the Christmas Gift album for this year is nearing completion… I do wish I had had more free time to work on it before Christmas. I started planning for it back in November (as usual…) but some things came up and work on the album had to be put off until later (in late December.)

We’ll see how the album turns out…

Next Christmas Gift Album Underway

Work has finally begun for the next Christmas Gift album. It seems that the album will probably be just a seemingly-random assortment of different types of songs… instead of being a concept album, like that one Christmas Gift 2010 album.

A lot of thoughts have been put upon my mind over this past year: thoughts about loss, self-centered thinking, and (a lack of) spiritual growth. Somehow these thoughts will most likely find their way into songs on this next album.

I also am hoping to get another song in the Life of Christ series added… if possible. 🙂

Here’s an early quote from the project:

“You cannot have just what you want
without hurting yourself
and others, too.”