Oh, wow, were do I start? I've been getting really into music lately. Listening a lot more to music that I've liked sorta in the back of my head and never really bothered to actively listen to. I"ve got a  playlist of such songs playing right now, and I think I'm going to post each new song as it comes on. :D (Hey, Soul Sister. Daniel's Song!) Ah, crap, my headphone's are wigging out... Rearranging the cords... Okay, that took longer then I would've liked, but oh well. (Now we're on to the next song... You Belong With Me. Athena's Song!) Okay, quick thing on this song, I LOVE the music video for this song... I was watching it... and I was like "YES! YES! YES! This is how it should be! I especially like that at the end they're at prom, and the girlfriend is in this bizzare dress that's like totally immodest, and Taylor walks in wearing this really pretty modest dress, and he chooses her over his girlfriend. :D :D :D

Okay, then... Guitar class! We had our school performance, which only had three songs, but I sung for "This Train". It was... interesting. (I sang it an octave too low.) (Best Days of Your Life) And I'm actually working on some homework while I do this... (Why? I should just do one... I dunno. Thanks for the Memories) I've been working on figuring out new things on my guitar, including trying to play some of my songs I wrote a while ago and could never figure out. I kinda want an Electric Guitar, just because there are some things that you can't do with an acoustic. Electrics make a very unique sound... (Apologize) (100 Years)

Wednesday we are having our Combined YM/YW Talent Show. I'm going to perform a song I wrote called "Sky" (I'll post the lyrics sometime...) Robby want's me to play the guitar for him while he sings "Fireflies", so I'm trying to create an arrangement of that for him... Thursday is our Guitar concert, and I tried out for a solo for that and got it, so I will be singing "Sky" there too. (Don't Stop Believing - Sam Tsui Version) Have you ever listened to Sam Tsui? He's really good. I really like him. For those of you who don't know, my new hero is Adam Young. Not only do I love his music (He's more commonly known as Owl City.) But with his first few albums, he did all the music himself. So he's good at singing, keyboard, guitar, and music editing. I so wish I had his talent.

Now on to Choir! Our Rock Concert is coming along. A week ago was Solos week, where we went through all the songs and whoever wanted a solo could try out. I tried out for almost all of them, just to try out and see what I could do. And I ended up getting the solo for "Here, There, and Everywhere" by the Beatles. Mr. Smith said I did amazing at that solo. It wasn't actually in my top three that I wanted, but it was the one I did the best according to him. I'm really excited for this concert. Today was our first combined rehearsal, because for the concert we'll be combined with mixed choir and Mount Jordan Middles' two choirs. (Time After Time - Quietdrive Version) And we'll be playing with a live band. Today's rehearsal was a bit of a... disaster. Our combined choir is HUGE. We couldn't all fit on the stage, our little group was actually right off the stage behind the curtains. And (Mr. Smith said this was just because the Mt. Jordan sound system sucks) none of the soloist could even hear themselves. I'm like I'm singing right into the mic, but I can't hear myself sing... The band was really loud. :P But they're really cool. I wish I had as much talent as them. (American Ride) Also, for a while me, Cory, Jason, and Brandon, would sit in the back, and at the end of "Hey Jude" wear they go "Na na na na" we were all singing background lines that we had made up. So Mr. Smith mentioned that he might like to have some people doing random solos during that part, so the four of us went to him and showed him what we'd put together, and he told us we could do that. So now I guess I'm doing two solos! That concert will be next Thursday, the 27th, at 7 at Midvale Middle School. (Crush)

Ha ha! Another Funny Story (Which might clear up some things if this ends up happening weird...)(If Today Was Your Last Day) So While Mount Jordan were doing the songs that only they are doing, we we're sitting in the audience, and I had Tesya sitting next to me, and Tyler on the other side of her. Tyler, being his normal self, was annoying Tesya to no end. I, also being my normal self, was attempting to defend her from him. (Hmm... I do that a lot with Ty...) (Savior - Adam Young Remix) So at this one point I reached around her to punch him in the arm, and right at that point Tesya turns to me and goes "Look! Smile!" And I turn and smile right in time for Mrs. Otto to take our picture... with my arm behind her reaching towards Ty... So it totally looks like I have my arm around her. :P Yeah... I think that yearbook pictures were already due though... So that picture's not going anywhere. (Crap, why do I feel like I just jinxed myself?) (February Air)

So, I think that's all I've got right now... I love music. I've been feeling more and more involved in my music. It's definately something I want to do. I want to be better at guitar and piano and learn to sing better. (Vanilla Twilight)

As I am becoming more and more of a music lover in all (well, most) forms, I thought it appropriate to use a song title as my blog post. Plus it fits really well, because, well, I have many days that have gone by which I must now cover. Because of AP, I have not been allowing myself to get on. (So I wasn't being lazy, I just was in Lockdown Mode and wouldn't allow myself to post.) But now that AP is over, I find myself facing the massive task of covering everything I missed. Are you ready for this?

... I just realized my posts don't have dates on them... Daggett. This code that I'm using is actually a lot harder to edit then I thought. Despite my ability to edit many of the things involved, I still cannot fix some things... But I can see that my last posts were the ones I posted during that day in the Computer Lab. It was right after the last region dance, so that would make it... April 23rd. Are you kidding me? Geez... (For the record, today's date is May 17th.)

... Yeah, I can't think of how the heck I'm going to cover everything... Maybe if I had PICTURES! Stupid Camera. Let's start with the first thing that came to mind, the most prevelant thing in my recent life, AP Human Geography. After much stress and everything, the test is finally over. And that means, AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY IS FINALLY OVER! I NEVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THIS CLASS AGAIN! (Sudden impending doom feeling... Why do I feel like saying that is going to jinx me?) The test went well, some of the questions were easy, some were... interesting (The wording was kind of confusing...) For the first time ever, my brain almost went into a panic mode during a test, because I looked up at the clock and had 10 minutes left, and still had like 20 questions... (That may not sound like a problem, but do the math... It had taken me 50 minutes to do 55 questions...) Time ran out with four questions left to go. Hmm... Then the essay part, it was like as soon as she said go, everyone opened the questions, and you felt the room relax. "We know these! We know what these questions are talking about!" Everyone thinks. :D

Poor Jonathan, though... (I hope he doesn't mind me saying this...) We got back to class, and he was like "They didn't talk about the Demographic Transition Model at all on the test!"
I, confused, ask "... Did you do the essay part?"
"Yeah. Did they talk about it on that?" (As if trying to see if he just couldn't remember it...)
"Yeah, the third question was all about it."
"... There was a third question?"
At this point a look of horror crosses my face.... Ah, crap....

Let's go check my grade in that class... Hmm... Okay, he hasn't put in any of the assignments I've turned in. The good news is, I don't think my grade can actually go down from the D that it's at. (That's good news?!?) So I'm going to pass... but probably with a B if I'm really really lucky. :(

Finishing up my Qs, I was thinking about the poetic lyric thing I mentioned a while back. I thought I might do it again. This is one of my favorite songs- More, by Kenneth Cope. I basically took his words, and alligned them, adding punctuation, all to maximize the meaning of the words. Enjoy.

More Steady, More Sure.
More Trusted, More Pure.
Some say it doesn't matter.

More trained and more aware,
More aim to get me there.
I climb this far,
You raise the bar!
You want my heart.

More Fierce Desire
To Stand against the wind!
More Blazing Fire
When Dark is closing in!
A more love-inspired change within,
So there's more and more of me to give.

More words to learn and know,
More etched upon my soul.
Some say it doesn't matter.

More Trite,
More True.
Less me,
And much more You.
I stretch this Tall!
You sound the Call!
You want my All.

More Fierce Desire
To stand against the wind!
More Blazing Fire
When Dark is closing in!
A more love-inspired change within.
You keep
Reaching out, you're calling out to me!

For more strength in shoulders,
To Face the War with sin!
More wise and bolder,
To Save the Souls of men!
A more Faithful Soldier to the end!
You want more and more of me to give.

More and more of me to give.
More, More,
More and more of me to give!

More Love!
More Light!
More Purpose!
More Serve with all my Might!
I need more Hope!
More Faith!
More Patience,
Each day I Pray for More,
More and more of me to give!

More Fire!
More Zeal!
More Spirit,
To know what's real!
More courage!
More joy!
More!
More and more of me, to give!

More Grateful!
More True!
More Humble
To trust,
And do you call?
I hear!
I walk the path that's set in stone,
My heart is fixed on getting home!
And what on earth could ever matter more?

More and more of me, to give.
More.

IT'S OFFICIAL!

The music created by Jeremiah Pena has now been put on my Amazing List!!!!

It's a bit differant then the others, because it didn't literally make my jaw drop. But I just couldn't let that get in the way of it, especially after his newest song, "Overtaken". I listened to this song, and it just filled me with emotion. Tragedy, Anguish, it was absolutely amazing. I ended up writing a peom to it, just thoughts that came as I listened to the song, and I think it's pretty good. You can find it on my poems page, under the name Overtaken.

The list so far:

1. McKayla Whitehead's dance.
2. Aerin Loizos's singing.
3. Rachel Kirkland's spelling. (It's wierd, but true)
4. Rachel Davis's drawing.
5. Jeremiah Pena's music.

ALWAYS BE AMAZING! That's one of my mottos. And Jeremiah definately has achieved it. Good work with everything, and continue to create your wonderful music!

I sent the tune of Sometimes I Wonder to Jeremiah, and he created this arrangement. For those of you who don't know, I wrote the basic tune (And lyrics, but you can hear those) And Jeremiah wrote the acompaniment and created this sound file. Isn't it beautiful? If that doesn't work... go here... http://www.archive.org/details/SometimesIWonder

Here's to Jeremiah!

This is my own picture from seventh grade...

And this is one he sent me... but it's a little too dark. Not the best picture. (No offence, of course.)

You are TOTAL AWESOMENESS. (Despite what Sam says about some girl in Morgan.) Thanks for being such an awesome friend! You're always great, funny, random, and someone I can trust. I hope you know you can trust me.

Have you ever stopped to think, really think, about the words to these Christmas songs? Have you ever taken away the pretty music and just thought about the pure poetry of the lyrics? I've been doing it lately, and the words just keep hitting me, impacting me. Why is it that I find these poetic words more meaningful then others? I'm not quite sure. But here's a few Christmas songs to think about. Read the poems, and forget the music for a moment.

O Come, all ye faithful!
Joyful, and Triumphant!
O Come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and behold him
Born the king of angels!
O come let us adore him,
Christ, the Lord!

God rest ye, Merry Gentlemen.
Let nothing you dismay.
Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day!
To save us all from Satan's Power
When we had gone astray
O, tidings of comfort and joy!

Christmas Bells!
Those Christmas Bells!
Ringing through the land!
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to man!

What child is this
Who, laid to rest on Mary's lap, is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet
And shepherd watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ, the King!
Whom shepherds watch and angels sing:
Haste, Haste to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary!

Hark! how the bells, Sweet silver bells,
All seem to say, "Throw cares away!"
Christmas is here, Bringing good cheer
To young and old, Meek and the bold!
Oh how they pound, Raising the sound,
O'er hill and dale, Telling their tale!
Gaily they ring, While people sing
Songs of good cheer, "Christmas is here!"

As you can see, my blog is now new and improved. Jeremiah thought that my old template was ugly. And I decided it needed to be changed anyways. So It is.

We'll see how this works. I'm in somewhat unfamiliar waters with this one, and it's all wierd. But I've worked the HTML a little to how I like it. Almost....

So for English class we have to find a picture and a song and write poems about them. I'm currently listening to some of Jeremiah's songs to write a poem about.

I am grateful for poetry, and for writing in general. I like writing, and people tell me I'm really good at it.

When I finish this, I might post it.

Today's been a rather musical day (Wait a minute... side thought, I'm listening to Christmas Music... We must be getting close to December.) Why? I'm not sure. I've had this one song stuck in my head all day, and been humming it to myself. I keep taking out my MP3 player to listen to it. (Between classes, that is)

So I decided to do that I'm grateful for Music! Music is such a great thing, isn't it? It's very enjoyable, and it's a good form of expression, an art, a culmination of rhythmic flow, aesthetic sound, and meaningful poetry.

Plus, I write songs. I gotta at least appreciate it for that, right?

Teaser: I'm actually in the middle of a few songs. He he. Be looking for those.

I had an AWESOME weekend!!!! It's Monday now, and I am still happy and elated from it!!!

Friday night was my big Birthday Party. A bunch of friends came (I wanted to invite more, but I decided 20 was chaotic enough. And lo and behold, I was right. Except "chaotic" was an understatement.) It was lots of fun. We played big group games like Murderer and stuff, and we had lots of fun! It was kinda funny to see the clash between my Nerd Friends and my church friends (Or as they call them, "The Girls" because the two guys that came from my ward fit right in with the others, meanwhile the girls sorta made their own group at one end of the circle.)

He he... One of the games we played was where you had to close your eyes and find someone and guess who it was based on their head. I thought this picture was pretty funny. That's Roscoe trying to guess Rachel.

This picture made me laugh. John is standing there looking like an idiot (he's not, but he looks like one) and Brielle's look just screams "Who the heck is this loser?"

This is Brielle trying to get Jaden to smile. We played "Honey, I love you, but I just can't smile!" Which was basically where you tried to get another person to smile for you. Of course, all the guys took the title literally and ended up actually acting as if they did love the person, which made everybody laugh! Brielle, of course, didn't actually want to try to do that with one of the nerds, so she settled for her sister.

So then Saturday night I went with Evan to Region Dance at the Oquirrh Stake Center. This is the first dance I've gone to willingly. "Big Steps." As my friend would say. *Laugh* Anyway, I had TONS of fun. It was way awesome. I can't believe I haven't wanted to go to one of these until now! We danced and ran and laughed with all our friends for 3 hours!! I got to dance with Tori, Rylee, Brielle, and Lexi C. I also saw Kyrstin, who I haven't seen in at least 2 years!

Something I thought was kinda cool, was that I got to dance with Tori to one of my new favorite songs! It's called "Fireflies", and it's by the band Owl City. I hadn't heard of either of them until last week, when my friend Cailey told me I should listen to it on YouTube. I did, and I loved it.

All right. Well, that's my awesome weekend. I hope you guys had some fun, too!

Hey guys! I was reading Garrett's Blog, and he said he was learning a new instrument. He said he wasn't going to tell, but it was the instrument I played. So I got permission to post the answer here. I play the Guitar, and I can't wait to see how well Garrett can play once he starts learning.

I've been writing some songs, too. I can only play two of them on my guitar, but I've written 3 others. The first one is called Today. It's about living every day to the fullest and seeing every day as a great day and finding happiness in small things. The second one (I can play the first and second ones) Is called You're the One. I wrote this one as sort of a religious song, so it's written to my Heavenly Father. It's about how I am willing to dedicate myself to him. (And Aerin, if you read this, there's your answer.) The third one is called The Perfect One. I was trying to think of what to write about, and I kept thinking "It seems like most songs these days are written about a special boy or girl... but I'm only 14, so I have no one to do that about." Or something to that effect. Our minds don't usually think in words, so when I try to write what I was thinking, it always sounds funny. Anyway, then I had this genius Idea- I could write about my dream girl! So I did, and I left descriptions vague enough so that it could be almost anyone. (Aerin is the only one who's seen these songs, and when she read that one she's like "Who is this about?")

I wrote two last night. The first, I'm on Your Side, is a song I've actually had the chorus to in my head for a long time. I just finally wrote the rest of the song and put it all together. The other... well, I haven't actually chosen a title for it. It's about my Grandpa Hall, who died when I was 1 or 2. It's about how I would imagine a visit to his house, and I wrote it from the eyes of a six to eight year old. I'm trying to decide whether to call it "So Much Love" or "I couldn't wait" or something else.

Well, thanks to you guys who come and are interested in my ramblings.

P.S. Here's links to the songs. Please know that all the songs are still being worked on.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgmjgp3z_7f28bz5hj- I Can't Wait
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgmjgp3z_7f28bz5hj- I'm On Your Side
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgmjgp3z_55q2vq79q- The Perfect One
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgmjgp3z_3gp8d8tgp - Today
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgmjgp3z_4d7wx97f7- You're the One