The useful and the not-so-useful

Useful...

90 second flash animation showing which empire controlled the Middle East from 3000BC onwards...I found it especially interesting to watch during the 'Biblical' eras...

http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/imperial-history.html



Not so useful (but very, very funny)...

"Things you can't do when you're not in a pool"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw4bQKiLkQ4



...And just plain addictive (you have been warned)

Weboggle
http://weboggle.shackworks.com/game.html

Hymns

Here's another project for you! =)

http://savefile.com/projects/1049638


This is a medley of a reharmonized "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah" and "God is Our Strength and Refuge" (which I didn't bother to reharmonize much, as it already had some pretty interesting chords...good ol' hymns...)

Speaking of which...I think hymns deserve more exposure than they get these days, especially in younger congregations...I guess the words are harder to understand and sometimes the melodies are more difficult to sing, or aren't as catchy; but a lot of old hymns are really quite well written. I guess it's good that some have had new music written for them, to make them more accessible to the younger generations (e.g. May the Mind of Christ, God is Our Strength and Refuge, etc).

Anyway, the two hymns here go together quite well, and I mean not just musically, but lyrically (though I know the style of playing here doesn't really lend itself to singing =P). The words of these hymns remind us of God's ever-present strength and guidance throughout whatever we may face...so 'we therefore will not fear, though the earth should change!'


Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
Words by William Williams (I know, what were his parents thinking?) and music by John Hughes

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty,
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
Feed me now and evermore.
Feed me now and evermore!

Open now the crystal fountain
Whence the living waters flow.
Let the fiery, cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.
Strong deliverer, strong deliverer,
Be Thou still my strength and shield.
Be Thou still my strength and shield!

When I tread the verge of Jordan
Bid my anxious fears subside.
Death of death and hell’s destruction;
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to Thee.
I will ever give to Thee!


God is Our Strength and Refuge
Words by Richard Bewes (from Psalm 46) and music by Eric Coates

God is our strength and refuge
Our present help in trouble;
And we therefore will not fear,
Though the earth should change!
Though mountains shake and tremble,
Though swirling floods are raging,
God the Lord of hosts is with us evermore!

There is a flowing river,
Within God’s holy city;
God is in the midst of her,
She shall not be moved.
God’s help is swiftly given,
Thrones vanish at His presence
God the Lord of hosts is with us evermore!

Come see the works of our Maker,
Learn of His deeds all powerful;
Wars will cease across the world
When He shatters the spear!
Be still and know your Creator,
Uplift Him in the nations,
God the Lord of hosts is with us evermore!



P.S. I can't actually play the whole thing through in real life, it was all edited together (lots of editing, in fact...but you didn't need to know that...=P)

For those of you still interested...

http://savefile.com/files/294135

Consider Christ again, but with the ambient noise removed! (yay, noise removal worked!...not sure what I did wrong last time)

(and hopefully the piano still sounds the same...

[EDIT]:
....actually, it doesn't!...the quality of the piano sound is totally different if compared to the original...but then again the noise was pretty loud in the original too! But you can make it less obvious with different equalizer settings =P)

Knock knock. Who's there? Me. Me who? Me again...

To the committed readers of this humble blog, (lol this is sounding a bit formal isn't it?)

So I realise that I haven't written a proper blog post in aaaaaaaages (you know, like one of my really long ones where I write about lots of stuff). At least it feels that way. And maybe that's not such a bad thing, since I usually write those really long posts when I'm feeling depressed over something.

This post might turn out to be really long as well, but don't worry, it's not because I'm feeling depressed at the moment, this is more just because I haven't written about this yet, and I feel like I should. I'm meant to be in bed, but I started thinking about it, and then I felt compelled to get up and write something. Well, what's the point of holidays if you aren't allowed to get up in the middle of the night and write a blog post because you suddenly feel like it.

For those who I haven't talked to all that much this year, this might not all make sense, but that's ok, you don't have to understand it.

*****

So on Friday, it will be exactly six months since the day I came close to doing something very stupid. Or at least was thinking about it....or maybe more accurately, I wasn't really thinking. Not clearly anyway.

When I think about the events of that day leading up to those few hours and then everything else that happened afterwards.....it was only six months ago but it feels like it's been so much longer. More like two years. Maybe it has something to do with the mind trying not to remember bad memories, trying to protect itself from constantly reliving it.

Part of me now understands why it got to the point that it did, it's all stupidly simple, in fact (I probably knew it before but just didn't want to admit it to myself); but for the other part it still feels like this big, confusing, muddle of stuff that I have no idea about, and have no idea why it happened.

To most people, it probably looked like nothing had been different that week, after all, everything just went on the same afterwards...the only major difference being that I'd dropped a few subjects at uni for the rest of the year...

Looking back now I am glad that things turned out the way they did, in terms of uni anyway, there's no point beating myself up about not being able to finish my degree in four years; given the circumstances I don't think I could have even if I'd tried, and now I'm pretty glad that I had the extra time on my hands during this past semester, and will have another part-time year at uni next year. It's not all rosy yet but it's funny how things work out.

Sometimes I wonder what my relationship with God was like at that time, and what it's like now; have I grown from the experience...how do you know if you've grown anyway? I guess only God knows how well you really know Him and what your heart is really like...it kinda scares me that He can see right through me. Well, He is my creator.

I'm glad that since finishing exams I've had more time and energy to read His Word and feel like praying again...I'd been worried that for ages I'd barely talked to Him except at church and Bible study groups...I guess I still struggle with it but hopefully this good phase will last for a while...

What I've slowly come to realise in these past few years is that things that defined me when I was younger...while they're still part of who I am, they're in the past now and not relevant any longer...and this stage of "growing up" or whatever it is....it can be difficult to not have that clear sense of identity or purpose...

I don't if any of this makes sense or if anyone else can relate to it...But anyway...

I read somewhere that you shouldn't judge how you're going on a day to day, week to week, or even a monthy basis, because your feelings fluctuate a lot and you may go through good patches and rough patches, so you really should only compare yourself to how far you've come in the past six months...

So anyway, I'd just like to say, maybe just for myself, that six months on, I am feeling a lot better about things and think that I am headed in the right direction. Hopefully my evaluation isn't too premature. I think I'm still going to need a few more years to get over this fully, but I'm sure God has good plans for me and will look after me through all the things that may come in the future =) (The Psalms are a good read...)

I think in the process I might also try to be less cynical and more loving.

*****

That is all for now. Definitely time to go to bed, but I don't really feel like it...

Oh well, signing out anyway...

[ME!]

=)


P.S. Thanks for listening, if you've made it this far!

This bad quality track is brought to you by...

...um, I don't know.

http://savefile.com/files/242184


More piano playing, but something recognisable this time (and it's not backwards!) - A reharmonised version of Consider Christ....trying to put the stuff I learnt at jazz classes into practice, hehe...yeah, I need to work on it...