BraiNuggets

Song of the Week (Trashcan - Delta Spirit)

2010-05-21T10:32:00.001-04:00

Song of the Week (Old Hat - Harvey Danger)

2010-05-14T09:02:00.002-04:00

If you haven't heard it, Where Have All The Merrmakers Gone is one of the best albums ever. Listen to the whole thing!

Song of the Week (Screwdriver - The White Stripes)

2010-05-07T10:55:00.002-04:00

This song is the epitome of The White Stripes.

Song of the Week (Short Skirt Long Jacket - Cake)

2010-04-30T11:00:00.001-04:00

Because Cake are (or is it is?) awesome and Chuck came back from hiatus this week.

Song of the Week

2010-04-23T10:37:00.002-04:00

This week's song is actually a short show put on for NPR's "Tiny Desk Concert" series by Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes. The set list is as follows:

Janglin
Home
40 Day Daydream

I suggest checking out the whole thing. It's absolutely amazing.

Peter Play The Blues

2010-04-16T15:55:00.000-04:00

Song of the Week (War Pigs - Black Sabbath)

2010-04-15T14:22:00.001-04:00

Song of the Week (Bulletproof - The Afghan Whigs)

2010-04-09T14:46:00.001-04:00

Song of the Week (Big Empty - Stone Temple Pilots)

2010-04-01T08:50:00.001-04:00

Song of the Week (The Package - A Perfect Circle)

2010-03-24T11:05:00.001-04:00

Song of the Week (Army - Ben Folds)

2010-03-16T10:28:00.000-04:00

Song of the Week (Space Oddity - David Bowie)

2010-03-15T10:57:00.003-04:00

Sorry, I thought I posted this last week.

Objective C - Categories

2010-03-15T09:59:00.003-04:00

If you follow my Twitter account you may have seen a recent posting where I gripe about Objective C. I've recently started working on an iPhone application (re: game) and am therefore learning Objective C in the process. My immediate impressions with Objective C aren't good but I'll save that for a much longer post to come later. One thing I would like to mention now, though, Objective C calls "Categories." You may already have experience with categories if you've done much JavaScript programming (where you modify an object's prototype), C#'s extension methods, or re-opening a class in Ruby. I had worked with object prototypes in JavaScript before but I guess I never really caught on to just what was happening.

Categories are a way of extending existing class implementations without having to create a whole new class that inherits from the original. This is such an amazingly powerful feature! It really opens up the door to amazing possibilities. I should warn you, however, that I am extremely new to this methodology and therefore I am sure there are all sorts of things that I have yet to realize about them.

I wrote up about half an example on how to do this and decided it's not worth it. There are plenty of other really good examples already out there. Try here. He has a really good example adding a shuffle method to the NSMutableArray. Have you ever been using a class from a library and said, "Wow, this is great but I really need it to do X?" Well with this you can add your own implementation to the class and use it freely throughout your code.

Sci-Fi Fantasy Cage Matches

2010-03-11T16:10:00.002-05:00

The guys over at Suvudu have created a cage match tournament between some of your favorite sci-fi/fantasy characters. The results are determined by our votes, however, so head over now and vote! Even if you don't vote the predicted battles are hilarious.

Song of the Week (Rocket - Goldfrapp)

2010-03-04T12:27:00.008-05:00

This song strikes a strong nostalgic chord somewhere deep inside me. Should I like it? Probably not. Would I be happy to listen to this instead of the normal pop on the radio? Absolutely. If I'm going to listen to the radio then I want it to make me feel like I did as a kid. Sometimes you just want something light and airy. The rest of the time I assume you have your personal media device full of songs with more substance to impress your friends with.

There aren't any videos on YouTube currently that are embeddable so click here for the video. I'll keep an eye out for an embeddable version to replace this eventually.

Rocket

GOLDFRAPP | MySpace Music Videos

Song of the Week (Mountain Man - Crash Kings)

2010-02-19T15:45:00.004-05:00

I heard this song on the radio this week; it was like a glistening diamond engagement ring stuck in a pile of dog poo. Sometimes you have to get shit on your hands if you want to find diamonds.

Song of the Week (A Song for the Deaf - Queens of the Stone Age)

2010-02-11T09:56:00.003-05:00

Song of the Week (Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups)

2010-02-04T15:47:00.002-05:00

Do you get all nostalgic listening to your old Smashing Pumpkins albums? Silversun Pickups takes everything that was great about the Smashing Pumpkins and keeps it going. I wanted to write more but I really can't; you'll just have to listen for yourself.

Song of the Week (Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens)

2010-02-01T09:07:00.003-05:00

This week's song comes from Sufjan Stevens, an amazing musician. I first heard about him when his album "Illinois" came out. It was the second of a very ambitious plan to release an album themed for each of the 50 states. His first album in the series was Michigan. Since the release of "Illinois" there have been hints of the release of another state, perhaps New Jersey, but recently Sufjan has all but said that the idea was a gimmick from the beginning and not something he really intends to follow through on. Nevertheless, both albums have given us some hauntingly fantastic music. He has either provided windows to his very soul and made sure they were wiped squeaky clean or has done a very good job of fooling us into believing the stories behind these songs are true and personal.

I chose "Casimir Pulaski Day" because of the emotion involved. It's a story about he and a childhood love who is diagnosed with cancer. Sufjan Stevens often includes spirituality in his music but I think he tries to make it a point not to use it as an avenue of evangelism for or against his beliefs. In this song, though, you can see some of the raw emotion that every Christian must face when dealing with the death of a loved one.

Song of the Week (Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2)

2010-01-26T16:03:00.000-05:00

One of the best songs ever written.

Song of the Week (Bastards of Young - The Replacements)

2010-01-19T14:52:00.002-05:00

I've been wanting to make this the song of the week for a while but have had trouble finding an embeddable (is that even a word?) version.

The Replacements - New Music - More Music Videos

Song of the Week (Happiness Is a Warm Gun - The Beatles)

2010-01-13T14:51:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay. I was busy becoming a father :D

Song of the Week (Strange - Built to Spill)

2009-12-17T11:13:00.001-05:00

Song of the Week (1901 - Phoenix)

2009-12-09T10:36:00.002-05:00

You may have heard this on the commercial for the new Cadallac SRX. My wife really likes the car/truck/whatever...I really like the song :)

Song of the Week (Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa - Vampire Weekend)

2009-12-02T16:26:00.002-05:00

And since he was mentioned by name, Peter Gabriel did a cover:

Song of the Week (I Fought Piranhas - The White Stripes)

2009-11-20T13:36:00.000-05:00

Songs of the Year (2009)

2009-11-12T10:10:00.001-05:00

Today is the one year anniversary of the first ever Song of the Week. In celebration I have made a playlist with all the Songs of the Week from the previous year. Enjoy :)

Song of the Week (Silverfuck - Smashing Pumpkins)

2009-11-12T10:08:00.001-05:00

Song of the Week (Stellar - Incubus)

2009-11-04T14:14:00.001-05:00

Guilty pleasure band.

Song of the Week (Wagon Wheel - Old Crow Medicine Show)

2009-10-26T13:47:00.001-04:00

Song of the Week (Stereo - Pavement)

2009-10-23T14:39:00.003-04:00

And just because it was too awesome not to include:

Song of the Week (Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear)

2009-10-19T15:48:00.001-04:00

Kings of Leon @ Rupp Arena (Lexington, KY) Oct. 10, 2009 Concert Review

2009-10-12T09:02:00.003-04:00

First of all, a view from our seats.

It's a pretty blurry photo, taken from my phone but it still gives you a sense of just how good our seats were. We were 8 rows back from the stage with a very good view. They were definitely the best seats I've ever had at any concert.

Now, on to the opening act, White Lies. We arrived about 10 to 15 minutes late but I don't think we really missed more than one song. These guys are really good if you like their music. They sound a lot like Interpol, who in turn sounds a lot like Joy Division. It's not bad and I quite enjoy Interpol, but just not what I was in the mood for that night. They played for about an hour and then there was a brief intermission while their set was torn down and Kings of Leon was set up.

The set list for the night goes like this:

The breakdown per album goes like this:

Youth and Young Manhood - 1
Aha Shake Heartbreak - 4
Because of the Times - 5
Only By The Night - 10

I hate Only By The Night and only like Because of the Times slightly more. Needless to say I was disappointed by the set list. I really should have seen them 5 years ago. Besides that, the show was really good. They put on a hell of a show, full of energy. The fans were really into it and sang along to every song. Use Somebody and Sex on Fire were almost deafening. Only problem with the fans was that they kept throwing glow sticks onto the stage. That was extremely rude and disrespectful and we're lucky KoL didn't stop the show because of the idiots.

Song of the Week (Bucket - Kings of Leon)

2009-10-09T21:40:00.002-04:00

Going to Kings of Leon concert tomorrow night at Rupp Arena here in Lexington. I'll try to do a review early next week.

Song of the Week (Alfie - Lily Allen)

2009-09-30T09:08:00.003-04:00

Where to start? The song is very catchy and cute. Our little boy loves it and always starts kicking in his mommy's belly when he hears it. I came across this because Lily Allen's brother, Alfie, was mentioned by the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin, on his blog. Alfie will be playing a role from the series on the upcoming TV adaptation of the series on HBO.

In other news, Lily Allen recently announced that she was quitting the music business after she started a blog to fight piracy on the internet. It was found that she had plagiarized on the blog and also found that she had uploaded mix tapes to her website of music that she didn't have the rights to. So, she herself is a pirate. It was quite a funny story.

Without further adieu, the video.

Song of the Week (Pale Blue Eyes - The Velvet Underground)

2009-09-23T10:25:00.000-04:00

Song of the Week (We Used to Vacation - Cold War Kids)

2009-09-16T13:30:00.002-04:00

Song of the Week (From the Hips - Cursive)

2009-09-09T10:32:00.002-04:00

Every once in a while there is a band that comes along that just gets it right. These guys have been around for 14 years. How is it that I am just now finding them? This song is absolutely amazing and this performance is as well.

Song of the Week (Rooster - Alice in Chains)

2009-09-04T12:15:00.000-04:00

Song of the Week (Island in the Sun - Weezer)

2009-08-26T15:19:00.002-04:00

Leaving for vacation tonight. Going to Myrtle Beach.

Song of the Week (Twilight Galaxy - Metric)

2009-08-19T13:27:00.000-04:00

Shakira - She Wolf or MGMT - Electric Feel?

2009-08-19T10:38:00.004-04:00

So, I was surfing around on YouTube and came across Shakira's new single "She Wolf". You can listen below:

Ok, I immediately liked this. I thought I had heard it before but couldn't place where. It's extremely catchy, gets you dancing and grooving. It's everything a pop song should be. However, the whole time it went further than that, I just couldn't shake this familiarity I felt for it. So, I started searching trying to find out if she had sampled the music from another song. I didn't find any trace or her crediting anyone else or anything. Then, it hit me. I do know this tune and the reason I didn't recognize it right away was because I've only listened to the song 4 or 5 times. It's MGMT's "Electric Feel". Take a listen and decide for yourself.

P.S. After listening to "Electric Feel" again I can't help but feel like I've heard this same tune somewhere else lol. Maybe an Outkast song?

Song of the Week (First breath after coma - Explosions in the Sky)

2009-08-05T15:10:00.003-04:00

Legend of Neil

2009-07-30T09:38:00.004-04:00

I just found this series today and watched the whole thing. The second season just started back this week so I suggest everyone go watch the first season and catch up. It is by far one of the best things to come out of the internet so far.

Synopsis:

A young man is enjoying the original Legend of Zelda on NES when suddenly he finds himself aroused by the fairy. So, he starts masturbating and asphyxiating himself with the controller cord. The next thing he knows, he's in Hyrule, playing the part of Link.

Hilarity ensues.

Watch Legend of Neil at atom.com

Song of the Week (Hard to Explain - The Strokes)

2009-07-29T12:57:00.001-04:00

Old 97's @ Headliners in Louisville

2009-07-27T09:12:00.005-04:00

It had been over five years since I had last seen the Old 97's live at the Southgate House in Newport, KY. The experience then was amazing and that's why going in to Friday Night's show at Headliners in Louisville I was pretty excited. Mary, Kelly, and I drove from Lexington after work on Friday. We did a drive by of the concert hall on our way to get something to eat beforehand. From the outside the building looks like an old church and may very well be.

After eating we decided we should go ahead and try to get a parking place since it looked like there was going to be very limited parking. We arrived about 15 to 20 minutes before the show started and there were already a few hundred people there. The show was called "An Evening with the Old 97's" and started with Murray playing a solo set. He got started right on time and played quite a few hauntingly beautiful songs.

After a 30 minute set, Murray said goodbye and Rhett took the stage. He looked pretty messed up, a lot more so than I had ever seen him. He commented on the heat in the club pretty much immediately. He wasn't the only one noticing the heat, however. By this time it was probably reaching the upper 80s in the club. Despite the heat and his apparent intoxication, he put on one hell of a show playing songs from his solo albums, Singular Girl from the Old 97's, and the Pixies' Wave of Mutilations. One of the nice surprises of the night for me was a song off his new album called "Another Girlfriend." It sounded much more like an Old 97's song than a Rhett Miller song and live it kicked all sorts of ass. The crowd was laughing and cheering the whole time.

Rhett played for about 30 to 45 minutes before saying goodbye. He thanked the crowd and talked about getting to open for the Old 97's and what a wonderful experience it was. The crowd laughed and cheered at this. After a short break Murray and Rhett returned to the stage with Ken and Philip. Rhett was pretty sweaty from his solo show. The heat was mentioned quite a few times throughout the night and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that temperatures reached 110 degrees by the end of the night. I've never been so miserable and sweaty. The show, however, was awesome. I wish I had a set list but I was having too much fun to keep track of it. They played just about every song I wanted to hear (with the exception of Stoned, Desperate Times, Wish the Worst, and Niteclub) including a version of Question that included the whole band. They did a Rolling Stones cover that I didn't recognize (I'm not much of a Stones fan) and mentioned a covers album coming out soon.

All in all, the show was awesome. There was probably close to a thousand people packed in this tiny old church and it was more than hot. By the end of the night Rhett looked like he had jumped in a pool. We forced our way outside and spent the next 15 minutes just sitting on the pavement cooling off before starting our trip back to Lexington. The show lasted 3 hours. Definitely worth 15 bucks.

Doreen from Friday's show. We were about 10 feet to the left of the camera.

Song of the Week (Daylight - Matt and Kim)

2009-07-23T08:47:00.002-04:00

Song of the Week (When the Lights Go Out - Black Keys)

2009-07-15T09:47:00.001-04:00

P.S. If you haven't seen Black Snake Moan then please go out and rent it tonight.

Song of the Week (Next Exit - Interpol)

2009-07-02T10:28:00.001-04:00

Song of the Week (Idioteque (Live) - Radiohead)

2009-06-25T15:04:00.001-04:00

Baby Ticker

2009-06-22T14:14:00.001-04:00

Song of the Week...well, last week (Reunited - Faith No More)

2009-06-22T09:37:00.003-04:00

Ok, so somehow I forgot to post a "Song of the Week" last week. Whoops. So, lets just say that I posted this last week hehe. It's Faith No More's first public played song in quite some time. I'm not a big fan but I thought it was a really good cover.

Warbreaker Released

2009-06-10T08:30:00.001-04:00

Brandon Sanderson's new book, "Warbreaker", has been released today. He has it up as a pdf on his website for free download. I've read the pdf version and it's a great read. I suggest fans of fantasy go out and pick this one up.

Song of the Week (Message In A Bottle - The Police)

2009-06-09T11:00:00.001-04:00

Song of the Week (Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt 1 - The Flaming Lips)

2009-06-03T10:31:00.001-04:00

Song of the Week (I Like Birds - Eels)

2009-05-27T16:53:00.000-04:00

Song of the Week (Baba O'riley - The Who)

2009-05-20T11:14:00.000-04:00

Song of the Week (Son et Lumiere + Inertiatic esp - The Mars Volta)

2009-05-13T12:34:00.003-04:00

I've been wanting to do a TMV song for a while now but it's been hard trying to decide what to use. It's very hard to illustrate the greatness of The Mars Volta in just one song (and I still couldn't ended up giving you two together) or even one album.

Wilco (The Leak)

2009-05-13T11:17:00.003-04:00

The new Wilco album, titled Wilco (The Album), has just leaked about 10 hours ago. I'm just a few songs in so far but I'm diggin it. You can search for the leak on your own or listen to a stream from the official Wilco website at WilcoWorld.net.

Song of the Week (Death Letter - Son House)

2009-05-06T16:09:00.001-04:00

Song(s) of the Week (World At Large & Float On - Modest Mouse)

2009-04-28T10:53:00.002-04:00

First time ever than an artist makes it on the list twice and MM do it in a big way. The first time I ever heard Modest Mouse or this record was when Joey and I first made a road trip to Lexington to try and find a place to live. The music set the mood, it was time for a change. Since then I always think of this album when I'm moving and since this week is moving week, that makes these two songs together the song of the week.

P.S. It's time for a change in more than one way. Mary's pregnant!

Song of the Week (1979 - Smashing Pumpkins)

2009-04-24T14:57:00.002-04:00

There was an easier time... we'll get there again some day.

Safety Video

2009-04-17T13:54:00.001-04:00

Check out this awesome work place safety video.

Song of the Week (Guerilla Radio - The Nightwatchman)

2009-04-16T13:36:00.001-04:00

Song of the Week (Time to Pretend - MGMT)

2009-04-08T12:14:00.001-04:00

mmmmm.... drugs.

Edit: The Letterman performance was removed by the user so I had to change the video.

Song of the Week (Big Brown Eyes - Old 97's)

2009-04-01T08:46:00.002-04:00

You may listen to this band and immediately write them off. You may think to yourself, "This is too country for my tastes." Or you may say, "This is way too poppy." That's fine, do it. But file this band away in the back of your mind. One day, somewhere in your life you will be dealing with something that is too much for you. You'll feel like you are dead and the world is pressing in around you trying to crush you like the ocean. When this happens, remember this band. Go out, buy "Too Far to Care", "Hitchhike to Rhome" and a fifth of bourbon. Let Rhett and the boys take care of you.

P.S. You will never, and I mean NEVER, see a better live show. If you ever get the chance you should absolutely take it!

My Album (43 years - Bjarne Mork Eidem)

2009-03-30T09:01:00.004-04:00

Ok, so I did this after reading about it on BG's blog. I'm pretty happy with the title and the cover art but the name is kinda lame :D

Song of the Week (Forty-Six & 2 - Tool)

2009-03-25T10:08:00.002-04:00

Anyone that knows me knows just how much of an exercise in self restraint it has been for me to wait this long to post a Tool song. Here it is.

Song of the Week (7/4 Shoreline - Broken Social Scene)

2009-03-18T08:55:00.002-04:00

Song of the Week (Hope Rides Alone - The Protomen)

2009-03-10T14:55:00.002-04:00

This is the first song in a rock opera about Mega Man. Check out the whole album, it kicks so much ass. BTW, since we are talking about Mega Man go get excited about the fan made live action film here.

William Shatner within 2 miles of my house.

2009-03-06T11:11:00.002-05:00

It was announced on Thursday evening that William Shatner had been within 2 miles of where I live. You can read about the story here. I had this whole thing worked out with Google maps showing where he was and where my house is and the path that would need to be taken to get from point A to point B but then I remembered that it's not a good idea to post your address on the internet...oh well. Trust me, it was funny.

Haha

2009-03-04T14:10:00.001-05:00

Song of the Week (The Funeral - Band of Horses)

2009-03-04T08:58:00.000-05:00

Firefox takes the lead!

2009-03-02T17:21:00.003-05:00

I just realized that Firefox has taken the lead for the first time in browser market share per w3schools.com. It may not be the leading authority on browser share reporting but it seems pretty accurate when I compared it to some other sites. However, some sites like hitslink.com seem to have a definite bias towards IE. I can't believe that Firefox is that low on the list and IE still that high when all the other sites are reporting much more equal numbers and my own experience is saying the gap is closing.

Words of Wisdom

2009-02-27T10:47:00.001-05:00

If you have a stuffy nose, for the love of God wait until you are finished pooping and have evacuated the bathroom before blowing it.

Song of the Week (Gideon - My Morning Jacket with Boston Pops Orchestra)

2009-02-25T10:10:00.001-05:00

These guys are from Louisville. Yay, Kentucky!

Song(s) of the Week (March of the Pigs - NIN and Three Days - Jane's Addiction)

2009-02-17T09:23:00.001-05:00

Trent Reznor announced that Nine Inch Nails are taking a break for a while. They are doing a going away tour with Janes Addiction (how fucking cool is that?). In honor of the newly announced tour I decided that this week would be the first week ever that we have not one but two songs of the week.

Song of the Week (Garden Grove - Sublime)

2009-02-11T09:40:00.001-05:00

Song of the Week (Date with the Night - Yeah Yeah Yeah's)

2009-02-05T09:07:00.000-05:00

Song of the Week (Doin' the Cockroach - Modest Mouse)

2009-01-28T15:34:00.000-05:00

My favorite Modest Mouse song.

Song of the Week (Downtown - Petula Clark)

2009-01-21T10:17:00.000-05:00

Get ready!

Hillarious

2009-01-20T10:09:00.002-05:00

This guy had a friend that hadn't ever watched a complete Star Wars movie but had seen bits and parts of all three in the original trilogy. So, she said that she had watched enough of them to put together the storyline. He pulled out a tape recorder and hilarity ensues.
Watch and listen here.

Song of the Week (Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd)

2009-01-14T14:59:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I know this one is kind of a break from the norm around here but it is a great song. Lynyrd Skynyrd have been pigeon holed into this Southern Rock, white trash band but I say it's time we take them back. They have a lot of really good songs and in my opinion there is one thing that is common to all good music and that is emotion. This song is full of emotion.

A Comfortable Familiarity

2009-01-12T13:00:00.000-05:00

So, I recently decided to write a novel. Well, I say recently but I actually started the novel well over a year ago and just decided to pick it back up. I'm at about 10k words right now. I read somewhere that most publishing companies won't publish new authors with a novel more than 150k so a little less than that will probably be my goal. So far I think I'm probably just about on track. I'm probably about half way through with the first part of the novel (it will be split into at least two distinct parts possibly even three). The first part is really sort of just a long introduction though so I expected it to be short. I'll post the first part for everyone to read and give feedback on once I get it wrote and do just a little bit of revising for continuity and there have been some parts that I have sped through that I need to go back and be more descriptive.

Anyway, all this leads to the topic of my post, "A Comfortable Familiarity." I decided to go back and start reading through the Wheel of Time series again. It's been a while since I finished the last book and I wanted to get an idea how a master of storytelling does it for my novel. Also, Brandon Sanderson (the author chosen to complete the series according to the notes left by Robert Jordan and under the careful eye of Jordan's wife and editor, Harriet) has been hard at work for half a year now completing the final book. He says we should expect something on shelves by the end of 2009. The way I read this should put me right at it's release finishing up the first 11 in the series.

Again, to get back to my point; I can't believe how much I love the first book in the series and how familiar and at home I feel while reading it. Since finishing the eleventh book I've started other series. I've read all currently released books in the Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin and read the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Both were great reads and very entertaining. I believe the last few books in Martin's series will be exquisite and Mistborn was really a fun read. However, neither are the Wheel of Time. Neither author has the mastery of wordsmithery (obviously I'm don't either lol) that Jordan had. His attention to detail, foreshadowing, and patience amaze me. I think most of his fans started to complain about this towards the end, saying he was artificially inflating the series. I don't believe he was. The man had more patience than any of us. He had this story in his head to tell and he wasn't going to cheapen the experience for us or himself by cutting it short just because people were getting impatient. He vowed to finish the series in book twelve and Sanderson has said he will keep that vow but that he has no control over how the publisher publishes it. He says it is getting so large (currently 424k words expected to be over 700k) that it will be hard to actually sell it in one cover. I think Sanderson will do a great job with the book but I would be lying if I said I wasn't just a little worried. I like his original work well enough. They were very entertaining but he isn't nearly as descriptive as Jordan. I enjoyed, while reading Mistborn, that the chapters were very small (normally about 4-6 pages in length) and the action went very fast but that isn't the Wheel of Time series and would make it seem out of place.

Song of the Week (Where Is My Mind - Pixies)

2009-01-09T11:07:00.000-05:00

I would say these guys were ahead of their time but I believe it was the rest of us who were behind and just trying to play catch up.

Song of the Week (Trani - Kings of Leon

2008-12-30T15:26:00.000-05:00

Saddest Movie Ever.

2008-12-26T22:42:00.000-05:00

So, Mary and I just watched "Marley and Me." It was alright. There was comedy, drama, a love story, and enough tugging at your heart strings to make a grown man cry like a little baby. If you've ever had a dog that you cared a lot about you will be able to relate with this movie. If not then you'll probably hate it. I won't go into any details so as to not ruin it for anyone. Overall I give it 7.5/10

Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/marleyandme/

Song of the Week (Time - Pink Floyd)

2008-12-26T22:41:00.001-05:00

Song of the Week (Staring at the Sun - TV on the Radio)

2008-12-19T10:21:00.000-05:00

Song of the Week (At Least That's What You Said - Wilco)

2008-12-09T14:47:00.000-05:00

I really wanted this week's song to be from Wilco but I had a lot of trouble deciding on just which one to choose. Wilco is an amazing band and there are an extraordinary number of great songs I could've chosen. I ended up with this one. It's one of my favorites. Sorry if you don't like live music, I couldn't find the album version on YouTube. I suggest going out right now and buying Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born if you haven't heard them yet.

Song of the Week (Country Death Song - Violent Femmes)

2008-12-03T11:35:00.000-05:00

This one is a little older than the other stuff I've been putting up but it's still one of my favorites. The video is pretty awesome as well. Some kid made it for an animations class.

10 Dimesions Explained (Kind of)

2008-12-02T10:08:00.000-05:00

Ok, this is a topic I've spent a lot of time thinking about and this guy does a pretty good job trying to describe how to imagine different dimensions. All of this relates back to my views on God but I'll spare you for now.

Song of the Week (Glósóli - Sigur Ros)

2008-11-26T13:44:00.000-05:00

Haha

2008-11-18T10:01:00.001-05:00

Song of the Week (Wake Up - Arcade Fire w/ David Bowie)

2008-11-18T09:43:00.000-05:00

Weekly Song (How to Disappear Completely - Radiohead)

2008-11-12T15:18:00.000-05:00

Appropriate Quote

2008-11-05T09:37:00.000-05:00

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."
- Winston Chirchill

It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.

2008-11-04T20:56:00.000-05:00

RIP MOLLY

Join the Lemmings!

2008-11-04T08:36:00.000-05:00

Seriously, go out and vote. Write in someone if you don't like any who are running.

The Nature of Man

2008-11-03T00:31:00.001-05:00

The Nature of Man

Ok, so I'm having trouble sleeping because I feel like I've got something I have to get out before I forget. I really feel like God has been pushing me in a certain direction over the course of the last week. First, let me give you a little history of the last week and then I'll get on with some the connections I've made.

Firstly, I get a bible verse emailed to me every day. A lot of times I don't take the time to study scripture like I should or I just forget. Having a verse waiting for me every day when I check my email gives me a chance to study the scripture and I feel helps me to start my day off right. Occasionally I'll get a verse that I hadn't really taken note of before and it'll pique my interest. This week I got one such verse. It is from the fourth chapter of Hebrews, verse 12.

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any
double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit,
joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 (New International Version)

By the way, for those interested you can sign up to receive this email at http:/www.christnotes.org.

What grabbed my attention here was the distinction made between the soul and the spirit. I have grown up in church my whole life but I've never heard this talked about. I mentioned it to my wife, Mary, and she said that it is something she had heard her dad's church talk about before.

The next part to this is something that was being talked about at church this morning. Mary and I visited St. Luke's United Methodist Church here in Lexington this morning for the first time. The pastor had us do an exercise. She had us close our eyes and envision all the people that had been pillars of faith in our life. I did and the list was pretty large. She then had us imagine all the people that we felt we were pillars of faith for (an embarrassingly small list for me). I realized at the time that this formed a triangle. The base is always larger than the top so that it can support the top.

The last piece that fits here is that I've been watching quite a bit of Ghost Hunters on Sci-Fi. I suggest you check it out if you haven't seen it yet. They go and investigate reports of hauntings and try to debunk it. A lot of stuff they never find any evidence for or they find a logical, scientific explanation for it. However, occasionally they gather evidence that can't readily be explained. One of the episodes I was watching today they were invited by a priest to come investigate her house and church. There had been multiple reports of activity in both places. The team commented on how it was nice to find someone from the religious community being open to the paranormal and possibly opening doors that had previously been closed. This got me thinking. I've always been intrigued by the paranormal but I've been reluctant to come to a concrete decision on just what I believe. I know that most Christian denominations teach that ghosts cannot exist. They say that most reports of hauntings are either hoaxes, psychological issues, or the result of an evil entity such as a demon. I think I, and most of you reading this, am unique in that I grew up in eastern Kentucky. The culture and heritage of the area is very rich and extremely superstitious. I think if you were to ask most people from the area if they believed in ghosts most would say yes, most of those would go on to tell you a "true story" they had heard, and even some of those would claim to be eye witnesses. I have had some experiences in my life that could be construed as paranormal experiences but most of those can be explained away by my eyes playing tricks on me.

So, I decided I needed to do some research of my own and try to find out just what the bible had to say about these things. I tried to think just what could ghosts and hauntings be if they weren't all demons and some in fact were related in some way to people that were once among the living. The first thing I thought of was the bible verse that I had received this week in email. The nature of man is not just body and spirit but is in fact body, spirit, and soul. I believe this to be a biblical principal. It can be seen in Hebrews 4:12 and 1 Thess. 5:23. Also, it is said that God created us in His own image. It is commonly accepted amongst a large number of Christian denominations that God is tribunal (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit or Ghost). If you wish to find the biblical support for this then I suggest searching for it in Google or Wikipedia. If we were created in God's image then it would only make sense that He created us as a trinity as well (body, spirit, and soul).

This got me thinking about two different ideas. One being what is the distinction between Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost. Two being that the Holy Trinity does indeed form a triangle like the triangle of pillars of support from the pastor's sermon today.

Distinction between Spirit and Ghost. So I decided to do some research and find out why exactly we have two different terms for the same thing and to see which is the most accurate in the original language. This led me to a verse from Matthew where Jesus tells the disciples to go out to the nations of the earth and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I decided to find out what word is used in the original texts for Holy Spirit. The original Greek seems to be agiou pneumatos, with agiou meaning "Holy" and the root of pneumatos, pneuma, literally meaning "breath." (Please note that I couldn't find any literal translations of agiou and so for now I'm guessing it literally means holy. Also, I found some transliterations of the Greek spelling pneumatos as pneumatov. I am not a student of Greek and therefore do not know what the distinctions, if any, this may make. I'm guessing it is probably gender related.) The Latin translation of this is Spiritus Sancti. It is obvious where we get the English word, spirit. I find it interesting that spirit and breath use the same term in Greek. I started thinking about this and it reminded me of the story of creation. God formed a body for Adam out of the Earth. However, this was just a body and did not come to life until God "breathed" into it (Genesis 2:7). So, it seems that at least biblical it is supported that breath and spirit are related or one and the same. Without breath or spirit, there is no life. This led me to conclude that spirit is the part of us allows us to live and exist. It gives life to our body and allows us to live on without the body. Who we are is our soul. This is our character, our memories, our experiences, our thoughts, etc. The things that make us an individual. Those things alone do not make us alive. The body has allowed us to become who we are, to develop our soul. The spirit is what gives life to our body and allows our soul to live on after the body has perished. I am now starting to move into the next topic so lets just go ahead and start it.

Triangle of the Holy Trinity. Its not a far jump to see that the Trinity forms a triangle. A triangle can be formed out of any three points. Therefore, it should not surprise us to see that the triangle is very fundamental to existence. I started envisioning the Trinity as a triangle in my mind. This led me to think about how we also form a triangle. This led me to think about how we relate to God and what the two triangles together would look like. I'm betting that you've already guessed where I'm going with this.

That's right, the Star of David. I was pretty excited when my wanderings led me to this. It seemed to be some sort of vindication. However, I should note that wanderings are not always completely fruitful and could even lead to some negative things. I will get to that in a minute. For now, we have the Star of David as a symbol of the relationship between man and God. The trinity of each being represented. So, now lets try to label the points and see how if this leads us to any insights. Let's label the top point as Father, the left point as Son, and the right point as Holy Spirit. Now, we need to label the inverted triangle with the three parts of man. If you look at the image you will notice that one point is always half way between two others. I believe this is because, while we are made in God's image, we are obviously not exactly the same as God. I think the easiest place to start labeling here is with body. What two parts of the Trinity does the body align with most. Obviously, Son is one of those as He was God manifesting Himself into the body. So, that means we will be labeling either the left point or the bottom point as body. I believe the correct choice here is the top left point. I believe this because the Father is also our Father, our creator. Ok, so what about the spirit? Well, our spirit is the life that God breathed into us. It is also directly related to the Holy Spirit in both name and function. The Holy Spirit is the life force of the Church. It is what grants us our gifts and keeps us in tune with God. That puts spirit as the top right point. That leaves soul being the bottom point. However, don't think that we are sticking soul here just because it is the only place left. The soul is situated between the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our soul is what defines us as an individual. Jesus is by far the greatest example of an individual in the history of the world and therefore stands as a model for what we should want to be as individuals. He is closer to God than us and this places who we are as being the furthest from God the Father. I believe many holistic teachings would call this part of us the ego. Many religions teach that we must destroy the ego in order to achieve enlightenment or become one with God. I'm not sure that I agree with this though. I don't believe that it is in our nature to be able to destroy our ego and so, God did what He must to bridge the gap between us and Himself through incarnation of Jesus and the arrival and the Holy Spirit. Our soul is also close to the Holy Spirit. This, too, is no coincidence. The Holy Spirit, or Holy Breath, is God's messenger here on Earth. It is what stays in constant contact with us. It is that voice that tells you right from wrong. It is the goose bumps that raise up on your arms when you feel particularly close to God. God bridged the gap between Himself and us through Jesus Christ and retains that connection to us through the Holy Spirit.

I mentioned earlier that my wanderings are not always productive and I promised to give an example. I questioned whether or not to even include this but I think it may help if some of you reading this happen to come across the same thoughts. I started thinking about numbers and the number of points and the number of triangles formed and the number of sides. So, we have six points. Six smaller triangles are formed. Also, we have a hexagon in the center, which has six sides. This bothered me. I really thought I was on to something here but I couldn't get past why something that worked out so well would end up with something like that attached to it. Then, I realized I was missing six other points. The hexagon has six points which it's six sides connect to. That makes four sixes and not three or two sixes and one 12. I still think their may be something I'm missing here. Not something anti-semitic or evil in nature but I think that the six individual triangles may have some importance. The Jewish people believe the star of David to be holy not because of it's relation to the number six but it's relation to the number 7. In Judaism, 7 is considered a holy number. The six points plus the central hexagon make seven.

I did some research on the Star of David (not intensive mind you) and found that no one is really sure of it's origin. There are multiple theories but none that really tie the Star of David directly to God in such a divine way as this. If my thoughts are true then does this mean that the Jews may have forgotten the true meaning behind the Star of David? That it is so important and holy not because it represents David, or his shield, but because it is a representation of the true relationship between man and God.

Now for the disclaimer. This is the result of about 5 hours worth of thought. Most of it is speculation and I have supported what I can with scripture. The things I have spoken about here are pretty deep theological topics and are by no means necessary to be a Christian or for salvation. They are not the spoken word of God (except where cited) and I don't want this to be a hindrance in anyone's spiritual walk. If this doesn't interest you then I say forget you ever read it and don't let it trouble you. These things have interested me and if they do you too then I would love some feedback. Perhaps you have some more supporting scripture or you have some conflicting scriptures. Perhaps you think I messed up labeling the Star of David. I would love to hear anything you have to say. There are some more things that I didn't go into yet like the relationship of Jesus being the Word of God and the relationship of the word and the breath and the verse above stating that the word can separate the soul and the spirit. We know the soul and spirit can exist outside the body but what would happen if they too were separated? How does all this tie back in with my original questions of ghosts and hauntings? I'll probably edit this document in the future to expand upon some of those ideas.

Josh Potter
11/2/08