My Unpredictable Utterances...

Moved

30Jun08

Just in case any old blogger friends visit this blog and wonder why I haven’t posted in a while, it’s because I officially switched to blogspot. Please visit me here!

Thanks,

-Jen

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I’m going to New York tomorrow to visit my family, so I won’t be posting for a while. I’m excited we’re going! It’s about time I get out of here and go somewhere far away! =) Please pray for a safe trip there, a good time, and a safe trip back. Thanks!!!

-Jen

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Blogspot or WordPress?

17Mar08

I’ve had a WordPress blog for over a year, but it seems like Blogspot is getting more popular. I decided to try it out. Here’s my newest blog! I’m finding that I like it a lot, and it seems to have many more flexibilites. I can make my blog look almost however I want it to look, and with using WordPress, I can’t. I pick a theme that a billion other people have, because you can’t customize it like you can on Blogspot. But—it seems there are a lot of people who seem to really like WordPress. So, what are your opinions? Do you like WordPress? Or Blogspot? If you like one better than the other, why? Just wondering. Throw in your comments!

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Follow Jesus

15Mar08

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The most important thing we can do in life is FOLLOW JESUS! =)

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Innovate-2008

12Mar08

This past Monday and Tuesday (March 4-5) I went to a music conference at the Rock Church entitled “Innovate.” It was the very first music conference they had put out, and it was a big success. I had the privilege of going with my friend Rebekka. We had fun, learned some new things, and made friends. The first class I went to was a master clinic—“Secrets to writing great worship material.” Pastor Myles Young taught this class, and it was a really good one. He brought up some things about song writing that I had never thought of. Here are some ideas he gave that I took notes on during the class:

Remember the 5 W’s when writing a song–Who, What, When, Where Why. Is the song to God, or about God? Or is it to the congregation?

Make sure you have your tenses straight.

One thing he pointed out was what I just wrote above. Tenses. An example he used was a song with the words “All I wanna do is praise ye the Lord.” I guess people really don’t think sometimes when they write songs! Praise ye the Lord–that’s telling people to praise the Lord! And the way it starts off? All I wanna do….is praise ye the Lord? What?! That makes me laugh! But it’s easy to do without thinking about it, even if it’s not so obvious as “All I wanna do is praise ye the Lord.”

Another one which is not so obvious, is the song “I Am Blessed.” It’s really slow, and doesn’t sound very happy. He went on to say when he hears people sounding sad and singing slow “I ammmm bleeessseed,” it makes him want to sing “I’mmmm deeepresssed.” lol SO–remember to have your tenses straight, and think about what message you are conveying when you write a song. Write words that go with the music.

Write songs how YOU write them. Don’t be trapped into someone elses style of writing songs. Different things work for different people. Write for yourself–everyone is unique.

Don’t write like a beginner! (Don’t write just to write) Don’t keep repeating the same thing over and over, but don’t ramble when you write. Remember–some repetition is good, but not a lot.

The Rule of Repetition: 3 is plenty

Don’t repeat a line of words more than 3 times.

Don’t repeat a chord progession more than 3 times.

Maybe a 4th time with a twist.

I won’t go into everything he said, but he gave me a cool idea! For those of you piano players, or musicians in general, when you go to sit down at the piano to write a song, you tend to go the same chords and maybe end up playing the same tune. At least that happens to me all the time. The idea I got from him is so simple, but can make a big difference on your song writing. So, here it is: Get a cheap keyboard. Yep, you heard right! Go get yourself one of those cheap keyboards you can get from Wal-Mart or Costco. The reason is, these little keyboards (try a Casio keyboard) have many recorded beats on them. Different rythyms. To get out of the rut of going back to the same old chords, set one of these keyboards up next to your piano, start a beat, and wah lah! There’s something about a simple little beat that can help. He demonstrated this is the class. He started a fast beat, sat down at the piano, and something other than his normal piano chords came to him. He had other people help out. He started another beat, and asked if anyone was hearing anything they wanted to add in. A guy in the class said he could think of a bass line to go with the beat, so Bro. Young gave him a base, and the guy started playing to the beat. Then Bro. Young followed along with him on the piano. It started to turn into a song really fast. People from the class started suggesting words, and within just a few minutes, we we’re getting a song going. It was amazing how fast it happened! I tried using a beat from a keyboard I have at my house, and something else other than my normal chord procedure on the piano started coming to me. It’s really neat how the simple things in like can make a big difference.

So–those are just some of the thoughts from one of the classes. I might end up posting more later about other things I learned from different classes.

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Not Guilty

04Mar08

This past Friday, some members of our home-school group headed up to a law school in Stockton. A mock trial had been put together and the participants were nervous! Well–at least I was. I was the head defense attorney, and the other defense attorneys with me were Zach Kolej, and and Emily Courtney. We were defending who? *Drum-Roll* Peter Pan! He was accused of kidnapping the Darling children one night, but the defense had evidence that Peter Pan was indeed, NOT guilty!

As the trial began to take place, the jury filed into the room, and the judge took his seat at the head of the room. While the jury, defense, prosecution, witnesses, ballif, and court clerk were all part the home-school group, the judge was not. An audience of parents and friends were gathered together to watch the trial take place. The judge then began speaking, the defense and prosecution introduced themselves, and the lead attorney of the prosecution was then asked to give his opening statement. Following immediatley after the opening statement of the prosecution, I gave an opening statement for the defense. I don’t think I stumbled over my lines, (I was reading them since I didn’t memorize them) and I tried to read loud and clear. Once I got through that, the prosecution called their first witness to the stand, and questioning and cross examination began.

On my part, I made an objection once, which was sustainted, cross examined the arresting officer, and called Peter Pan to the stand to question him. After all of the questioning and cross examination was over, closing statements were given by Sarah Courtney (prosecution) and Zach Kolej (defense.) The judge made a brief statement to the Jury, reviewing the charges and then instructing them to the jury room to decide their verdict. All the lawyers took a 15 minute break while this was going on, and a refreshment room had been prepared for us—Thank God! The cookies were good. 😀

Everyone re-assembled into the court room. The jury filed back in. The atmosphere was tense, with people wondering, is he guilty, or not guilty? “Order in the court, all rise,” came the command. Everyone rose to their feet, and the judge asked to see the verdict before it was read.

“We find the accused, Peter Pan, not guilty of the charge of unlawfully taking Wendy, John, and Michael Darling to Neverland.”

YAAAAY! Defense had been successful! We had a little In N Out celebration later that night. 🙂

Here are some pics from the trial:

(L)-Me (R) Emily

Prosecution questioning

Peter Pan in the stand

Defense closing statement

The judge

After the trial, the judge answered many questions, pointed some things out to everybody, and was very friendly and helpful. He seemed to be a good judge, and made the trial a big success.

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Just my ramblings….

28Feb08

Just an update on me. I’ve been feeling a little sick for the past few days. Don’t know what it is. It was nice this past week to visit with family from out of state. My uncle Bob came to visit and we had a lot of fun with him, making videos of ourselves and taking funny pictures. It’s always fun to have him out here! Also, my Auntie Kristin’s parents came out here and we got to meet them. They we’re fun, and I liked them alot. We aren’t related through blood, but I guess you could say we are by marrige. Kristin is my mom’s brother’s wife…lol I miss their whole family, I wish they could have come out here too. Anyhow, on Monday night we all went to Olive Garden, along with my uncle Tom and Grandma. Bob didn’t go cause he left to go back to Chicago earlier that day. Tom had me laughing a lot that night. Thanks uncle Tom, I needed that. I would like to ask you all to pray for me as I am struggling with some things right now, and I’m frustrated and confused. It’s been very easy for me to snap at people lately, and want to be left alone. Also, pray for me in Bible quizzing. With everything going on, it’s been hard to memorize, and I know I need to really try and step it up and catch up. With God’s help. I don’t want to let my team-mates or coaches down, and I’m sorry if I already have.

On a different note, it looks like I’ll have my lisence by the end of April, or early May. It would be nice to have a car too. LOL But I need a job and I have to wait to get one for now. If anyone decided to get rid of their car that’s in good running condition, let me know. Hehe! That’s all I’ll post for now. God Bless,

-Jen

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