Swim Until You Can't See Land

Frightened Rabbit: A superbly spectacular band that deserves a lot more attention than it's gotten. In a world where "indie" is becoming a cliche, this band seriously redefines the genre, redifines music. I love them. Their last album "Midnight Organ Fight" has some of the most beautiful songs ever ("The Twist", "Keep Yourself Warm", "Floating in the Forth", "Heads Roll Off" and "My Backwards Walk" to name a few) and this new album that they just released this March is full of new songs that I already know are going to be fueling my inspiration for quite some time now. I love them.

This song so far is one of the first to jump out at me from their album, I love the beat, I love the feeling it has, the ambiance, it makes feel like I'm floating out to sea, it's got a hint of darkness to it but it's empowering, beautiful even while mournful. It feels like hope. I think one thing I really appreciate about Frightened Rabbit is how poetic their lyrics are, they have a way of stating something so simply in a way that is just completely and utterly unique and fitting, i.e. the chorus of this song which is just the simple statement succeeding the song title "Swim, until you can't see land--Are you man or are you a bag of sand?" Gahhhhhhh! Beauty.

In other new, I need ocean. Spring break: COME QUICKLY!!!

As the Day Begins to End

I hear you beckon, as the day begins to end, with the thunder storms you’ve reckoned. I don’t want to just pretend. Break me. Don’t let me be. While I have the strength to ask. While I have the will to see. You know me— I can take it. But if I stay here, I won’t make it. Rip me from this safe place I’ve been hiding. You’ve heard my whispers— in the dark confiding, but that’s not the place I want my heart residing. I want to hear you clear for once. To walk with a destination in my mind. I know— I know the path may not be kind, but I can’t stay here and close my eyes. I can’t see clear. And I can’t hear. And all those whispers— they were lies. So break me. Please, Just break me. Out of simplicity, out of complacency, out monotony, out of pride. Break me. I can take it. Stir me up inside. The distant rolling thunder beckons, and suddenly I’m running, running towards those heavens. "If any man comes after me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me."

For all Time

This is a crazy time in my life, the whole "figuring out the future" part. You know the one. It's been simultaneously terrifying, painful, and absolutely, ravishingly beautiful. It's crazy. I've been praying for God to lead me, take me down that path he's got carved out with my name on it, whatever it is, I want to walk it. Man I want to walk it so badly, I don't want to just sit still. I don't want to just be. I want to live fully, for God, for all time. Always forever. Till the end of my road.

*sigh*

Anyway, here's something beautiful:

I'm baacccckkkkk!

Oh my gosh. It's been a billion years since I've been on here! Due to crazy amounts of computer problems, followed by computer problems, followed by no computer, I've had to leave the more "luxurious" uses of the internet (such as posting blogs and obsessing over Lost and Harry Potter via fan forums) in exchange for checking my email a couple of times a day on my mom's computer. But, I'm back now, with my own laptop, my very first purchase ever with my own money as an adult! Whooooh! That's right, I'm no 18 and 100% LEGAL. Yeah. Actually turning 18 was kind lame, I really wasn't that excited, I'd so much rather be 11 or 12 again. Those were the good days. I don't want to keep growing old.

Ah well, I'm here, and I'm back online for the time being, although the time off from my tech-addictions allowed me to realize how much more my family, my friends, my health (hehe) and my God mean to me than the internet, Lost, Harry Potter and watching movies online do. Seriously though, I may be back, but I hope and pray that I have a better perspective now. I don't want to grow old, but the fact of the matter is, time doesn't have a switch to turn on and off or to slow down or rewind and even more than just growing old, I don't want to grow old and miss life while I'm at it. I've always been a dreamer, I want to be a reveler too.

It's hot

It's really hot today.
I'm just looking forward to feeling the cold ocean waves on Sunday--there's nothing in the world like it. :)

That was random.

Heroes, Meteors and Islands--oh my!

Just started watching Heroes...it's like Lost all over again, although I definitely think Lost is wayyy better. I watched five seasons of Lost in a month...I'm gonna try and see if I can get through three seasons of Heroes in a week and a half. I'm pretty confident I can do it. We'll see.

In other news: there's a meteor shower tonight. How does one go about meteor watching? Well, I'm about to find that out too...maybe I'll get super powers!! (Yes, Heroes has gone to my head already and I'm just two days in. I'm pathetic.)

I need a vacation from vacation.

I've got nothing.

I'm really bored and my friends area all busy, my mom's out and my dad's falling asleep in front of the TV. I NEED ADVENTURE.

Right now I'm dreaming of going exploring in the hills behind my house...even though I know if I actually did that, my mom would kill me, I might get eaten by a mountain lion and the guy who owns the private property would probably call the cops. But in a perfect world, I'd be so there!

I want to explore, to walk through big fields of grass or flowers with a walking stick. :) Or build a fort or a treehouse or something...I never did that as a kid. I'm going to be 18 soon. Ugh. I think I've already hit the mid-life crisis. Or would this just be called the "Pre-life Crisis"? Maybe. I don't know.

I was reading the amazing book "The Giver" by Louis Lowry last Saturday morning (well actually I read the whole thing--it's a wee little booklet)--LOVE IT. I must have read that book at least 20 times by now. It's been one of my favorites for a long time...I don't really even know when I read it the first time...I must have been really little though because I know we read it in 8th grade and it had already been years since I'd first gone through my Giver-binge cycle, so. Anyway, I re-read it, loved it again, almost cried several times and have since been devoted to making Giver-related fan-art. =P Ha. I'm such a geek.

Right now I've got a few ideas and one actually piece in process. I forgot how much I suck at drawing people's body's. But otherwise it looks pretty cool. I'll upload a picture when I'm done with it...or at least when I've gotten a little farther. It's a picture of Jonas and Gabriel sitting all exhausted and starved on the red sled at the top of the hill, about to slide their way into Elsewhere. The background has, of course, lots of snow and trees, but there's also patches of vivid green grass that crops up amidst ths snow and a river that winds from the horizon off the side of the page and a path that leads way back into the distance until you can't see it anymore. The idea behind the background was that the part nearest the foreground, where Jonas and Gabriel are, would be vividly colorful, vivid green grasses and trees, bright reds and yellows and violets for flowers and brilliantly blue water but as it moves back into the distance towards "The City" the colors all fade slowly into grey tones just like Jonas' old world.

I know I'm going to screw it up, but it's better than sitting around playing Sims or lying on my back and watching the fan spin. *rolleyes*

Here's to another day!