Jolene

Cocaine flame in my bloodstream
Sold my coat when I hit Spokane
Bought myself a hard pack of cigarettes in the early morning rain
Lately my hands they don't feel like mine
My eyes been stung with dust, I'm blind
Held you in my arms one time
Lost you just the same
Jolene
I ain't about to go straight
It's too late
I found myself face down in the ditch
Booze on my hair
Blood on my lips
A picture of you, holding a picture of me
in the pocket of my blue jeans
Still don't know what love means
Still don't know what love means
Jolene
Ah, La, La, La, La, La
Jolene
Been so long since I seen your face
or felt a part of this human race
I've been living out of this here suitcase for way too long
A man needs something he can hold onto
A nine pound hammer or a woman like you
Either one of them things will do
Jolene
I ain't about to go straight
It's too late
I found myself face down in the ditch
Booze in my hair
Blood on my lips
A picture of you, holding a picture of me
In the pocket of my blue jeans
Still don't know what love means
Still don't know what love means
Jolene
La, La, La, La, La, La, La
Jolene
La, La, La, La, La, La, La
Jolene

-Ray Lamontagne from "Trouble"

Photo Blog

Heres some more SLR shots of spring.

Yesterday I felt more in the south than I ever had before. Some old son house blues played on the college radio station as I left the our new landlady's house, a copy of the signed lease in hand. Saturday sun beat down on my arm as I hung it out the window feeling the warm air with my hand. I am now officially on my way to being a SC resident. I will be staying in this house over the summer by myself to be joined by Mac, James, and Jonny come the fall. Expect cookouts, movie nights, and good conversations.
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Books and Movies

It looks like I might have a nice quiet house this summer. I plan on using my time to catch up on some reading, do some long intended recording, and learn some classical pieces on Guitar.
Heres a list of books I intend to read over the summer (an idealistic endeavor):

The Brothers Karamazov-Dostoevsky
The Idiot-Dostoevsky
A book of short stories by Kafka I've been wanting to finish
Flannery O' Conner's Short Stories, another compilation to finish.
John Keats, Complete Works
A collection of Emily Dickinson's Poetry (TBD)
Sex God-Rob Bell
Adventures in missing the point-Mclaren
Orthodoxy-Chesterton
Anthropology of music-Merriam

Now to copy Stu Cone's fantastic Idea...Any suggestions?

Movies I intend to watch (off the top of my head, there are more):

Children of Men
Eternal Sunshine of the spotless Mind
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan's Labyrinth
The Host


suggestions?

Breif Update

Schools almost done, heres an update.

A few blogs back I mentioned that I was going to pull out my 35mm SLR and snap some pictures of the beauty that is springtime. Now 30 dollars poorer for developing, I present a sampling of the results. These are a few of my favorites.












































































Other Events in my life? I went tothe formal (stag) and had great time, a few pictures from that: It was really fun .








































Theres so much more to write, but I don't have time. I am well, ready for summer. More on that later.

Fun With Film Processing

From Film:

    

Means, ends, and finally breathing

    A half empty bottle of Adderall lies somewhere around my room.  It gathers dust as evidence that no one is scrambling to find it in a half awake attempt to medicate their Attention Deficit Disorders.  ADD is a funny issue, some people claim it doesn't exist, other people claim to be totally debilitated by it.   For me, it does exist as not as a disorder of the way I think but rather an outcome.  I just think differently.  Which is okay, however, it only becomes a problem when I don't have the discipline to accomplish what I need to accomplish.  Discipline is not moving past my ADD but working within it.  Adderall for ADD is only effective longterm if used in order to help build patterns of discipline so that when off the ADD medicine a person finds themselves able to focus.
It is a problem in society today that rather than treating ADD with therapy and counseling in order to build discipline we simply medicate it.  The medication acts like a noise gate, cutting off all noise above and below a certain level so you only have a smaller range of frequencies coming out of the speakers. Because it cuts off the distracted effects of ADD often people just stop there.  But this does nothing to help you.  If you don't actively seek out discipline to help you focus and live more efficiently then in the long term you accomplish nothign but a break from your ADD.

    This is using what is intended as a means as an end.  The medicine is supposed to be used not as the final solution but in order to help you build discipline. 

    Sometimes in the church we use worship as an an end.  Singing becomes worship instead of the vehicle for worship.  An organized theology becomes the end goal rather than greater knowledge and intimacy with God.  We use standards as the end of spiritual development rather than the the means to spiritual development.
Rules are essential to discipline.  If we struggle with pornography it may be best to unhook from the internet for a while to keep from temptation.  This is a fence that you build to keep yourself safe so you can become stronger.   However if you don't struggle with pornography but you unhook he computer to keep yourself from temptation than whats the point?  It quickly becomes legalism as you are no longer keeping the rules for the glory of God but rather for the sake of the rules.  iN this way we use standards as the end rather than the means.  The image that following standards presents is a false image of godliness as it does not accurately represent the spiritual maturity of a person.
   
Can standards grow a person spiritually, yes.  But only if the spiritual maturity is there first in order to use the Standards as a vehicle to discipline and glorifying God. 

I apologize for typos, I didn't edit :)

I should be working but...

Man, I really should be working but blogging seems like so much more fun. Actually just about everything seems like more fun.  I would rather be:

Reading, writing something other than papers, taking pictures, drawing, painting, doing laundry, playing guitar, longboarding, .....

To make it worse I just got three netflix movies that are tempting me from the bookshelf.  Citizen Kane, Throne of Blood (Kurosawa's setting of Macbeth in feudal Japan, and The Battle of Algiers.  Anyone interested in seeing these movies let me know, because every movie is more enjoyable in good company!   I must resist the urge to watch them, I must!

Despite the young hooligans roaming the halls and liberally dousing themselves in Axe body spray, I managed to have a great weekend. I introduced Battlestar Galactica (the new one of course!) to a friend of mine.  Yeah, I think hes hooked.  After that I went to the Slates where we shared good conversation, laughter, and of course, coffee.  The best way to start the weekend is with good friends in my humble opinion. 

Saturday was a blur.  Literally just one big blob of guitar and attempted homework until I played a short set with Matt Rey.  We sang Nothing but the blood, I saw the light, and I had my vocal debut on The House Carpenter.  It was incredibly fun, Matt picked his Banjo and I strummed the guitar, it was invigorating to say the least. 

To cap off my weekend I attended the Poetry Meeting put on in clusters by Gina.  We all read something either our own verse, lyrics, music, our favorites by other authors contemporary and classic.  I shared some of my poetry (just one) and also read some Keats, Frost, and Gibran. It was a lovely three hours.  From there I wandered over to catch Joel  and Rachelle  watching the end of Monty Python's Search for the holy grail.  Some others wandered over for fellowship and we shared in a community for a while.  I left with a heart full of warmth and love.

The weekend was dripping with sepia