After my short time on WordPress.com, I have enjoyed the WordPress software so much that I have decided to shut down this blog, go all out and get my own domain and separately host my blog using the WordPress.org software.

So here’s the new site:

codylthomas.com

Go check it out!

In the next 24 hours, there will be a big blogging announcement made on here! Check back later today or tonight. You won’t want to miss it!

Here’s a bunch of thoughts and life stuff:

• Getting up at 5:30am was horrible! I got into bed after midnight and couldn’t sleep well all night. Then, I had to drive up to Bessemer City, NC for early morning worship practice. I can’t wait to go to sleep tonight!
• Practice and worship up at First Wesleyan Church in Bessemer City went great this morning. The band is awesome! They are some great guys and really talented musicians! Ward, thanks for the opportunity to lead worship up there! It was fun!
• It’s been a good week overall! I had 5 different people offer to put my name in for open church positions. Some were people who were leaving their current position and wanted to recommend me to replace them; a couple were senior pastors who wanted me to put in my resumé for a position at their own church; and another was someone who wanted to recommend me for a position he heard about. Good things might be happening!
• Speaking of those positions, there is one position in particular that Kindel and I are leaning more towards. It would be a great opportunity for serving and seeing life change (in us and others).
• I’m beginning to really enjoy twitter. HOWEVER, it would be REALLY awesome if more people would give it a shot! If you’re still curious about twitter, check out this video explaining twitter in plain English.
• The SWU ministry teams started heading out to camps this weekend. I spent one night doing a Q&A time with a bunch of them. Hanging out with them made me want to jump in a van and go with them. I definitely miss traveling! Those were some of the best times of my life!
• I’m working on building my own blog through WordPress.org and getting my own domain. Stay tuned for more details!
• Practice for camp is on Tuesday! All week will be spent preparing for two straight weeks of camp! SWEET!
• I’ve been sick all night. Stomach sick too. Not fun. I think it’s over though. I’m going to attempt to eat now.

Well, after weighing in this morning, I am officially changing the title of my weigh in posts to “Sick & Tired Of It”. I am SICK and TIRED of weighing this much. It’s awful. I WILL lose weight by next weigh in!

Goal: 175 lbs

Last week: 241.5 lbs

This week:

242 lbs!

I’m sick and tired of this! It’s time for war! Here’s the link back to the Ragamuffin Top Challenge.

Check out this CNN article:  Unemployment in biggest jump in 22 years

That’s definitely the truth!

This article was on Digg today.  I’m glad I’m finally #1 at something!

Did you make the list?

There’s too much stuff rolling through my mind right now.  I can’t sleep.  Here’s the sneak peak.

• I’m driving up to Bessemer City later today to practice with the worship band at First Wesleyan Church for Sunday morning.  On Sunday, I’m filling in for Jon Ward as the worship leader for the contemporary service.  I’m excited about the opportunity!  I’m a little nervous about working with musicians that I’ve never met or played with before, but I’m sure it will be fun.
• In the last two days, I’ve had three people tell me about open (or soon-to-be open) positions at churches that they are leaving or know the person leaving and said they would put in my name as a highly recommended candidate for the position.  That’s a lot to pray about as I’m searching for mine (and Kindel’s) next step in life and ministry.
• Even with those positions being somewhat open to me, I am still seeking God to see about the possible church planting opportunities.
• Discerning God’s will is hard when all the options in front of you are good options and all of them have the possibility of amazing ministry things happening (lives changing, people meeting Jesus, etc.).  Sometimes I wonder if I should be so worried about picking the “right one” when God is not (at least so far) narrowing the scope to only one.  Maybe that means that God will be with me and allow me the opportunity to minister in His name no matter which path I take in job selection.  Just some thoughts.
• Kindel is under a lot of emotional stress right now because of some hard situations.  It is even adding stress to our own relationship.  It makes things more difficult for both of us.  I’m praying that the situation will continue to get better.  She can’t continue to deal with this major emotional stress, hurt and frustration.  It’s wearing her out.  Please keep her in your prayers.  Pray for me as well.  Pray that I will be there for her whenever she needs it.  Pray that I will comfort her, encourage her, and hold her up when she has nothing left.
• I’ve had some struggles with the worship situation for camps.  Tanner, who plays electric guitar, had to recently back out of playing at SC high school camp (which was horrible news because he is amazing!).  So, now I’m begging a guy to come down and play guitar in his place during that camp.  I REALLY hope this guy can do it!
• I ate like a pig today.  I just munched on food all day.  I definitely can’t do that again anytime soon!
• I sold my old Dell laptop on eBay today.  It doesn’t work anymore, so I sold it for $150 to someone for parts.  All I could do with it is make it into an expensive doorstop, so I’m glad I sold it!  I also have another nine listings on eBay right now.  I hope to make a little more money from those too.  I’ve got to pay the bills.
• I’m really glad Kindel is blogging now!  It’s neat to see her thoughts written out.  Most of the time, I have already heard her say most of the stuff she writes about, but it’s nice to see it written too.  You can check out her link on my sidebar.
• I wish more people would give twitter a shot.  It’s good for keeping up with people’s daily lives without all the other junk that facebook and myspace get cluttered with.  You can even change your twitter status or direct message other people through texting on your cell phone.
• I really hate waiting on life!  I wish I knew what our next step was going to be.  I really wish I knew where I would be working after camps are over.  I wish I knew where I would be living in a couple months.  Right now, I have camps coming up soon and then I have no clue what I’ll be doing or where I’ll be living in a couple months.  I hate that.  I want to have some stability in work and where I’m living.  I want to know I plan to be there more than a few months.  I want to know I have a paycheck coming in.  I want to have a routine.  I want to be a part of a strong ministry and church.
• Maybe I’m starting to get tired.  Now that I’ve sorted out my thoughts through writing, my mind will stop spinning.

Goodnight readers!

Tyrome has hit the blog world! I’m very excited to see what amazing thoughts and stories are to come as he travels on a SWU ministry team this summer!

Also, I joined in the “Ragamuffin Top” weight loss accountability/challenge. As part of this, I have to make a long-term measurable goal (like “run a marathon in 26 weeks” or “lose 40 pounds”) and I have to post a picture or video of my weigh-in each Saturday. Well, I was gone this weekend. So I took the picture this morning.

Unfortunately, I gained from last week. 241.5. Boo.

Starting Weight: 240

Long-term Goal: 175 (by May 2009)

Here’s the short version:

Standing on a ladder on an ever-moving, floating boat dock for 8-9 hours makes me really sick…like, seasick.  Needless to say, that causes problems for working on a lake shore five days a week.

Well, at least I made one day’s pay this week.

Off to find a new job.

Speaking of jobs:

• I’m filling in as worship leader for Jon at Bessemer City this Sunday while he’s off speaking at a camp.  I’ll go up Wednesday for practice and Sunday for service.  I’m excited!
• SC camps are less than two weeks away!  I’m stoked about worship!  It’s sort of hard to find a job when you need to ask off for two weeks…and those weeks are two weeks away!
• NC West camp starts a week after SC camps are done!
• Kindel and I are still praying over a couple possible openings with joining a church plant team.  We are praying for God’s direction in it all.  If He leads us that way, that could mean some major decisions being made in the next couple months!

At 7:30am, I will show up to start my new job of being a carpenter!  I have lots of mixed feelings.

Why I Am Excited:

• PAYCHECK!!!
• Get to work with my hands and build stuff
• Get to learn a new skill that will be useful for life
• Lose some weight doing manual labor in the sun 40-50 hours a week
• Get to work on the shore of a lake everyday

Why I Am Anxious:

• It’s going to be HARD labor
• I’ll have less time to do other things (spend time with Kindel, plan worship for camps, etc.)
• I’ve never done construction before
• I’m going to be BEYOND exhausted every night for the first couple weeks until I get used to it
• The language barrier with a couple of the guys will be hard.  I hope to pick up a lot of Spanish.

How I Plan to Grow Through This:

• Interacting with different people–these guys aren’t the usual guys I would hang with
• Learn Spanish
• Learn valuable carpentry skills
• Lose a ton of weight

Pray for me!  I’ll let you know how it went!

As of this afternoon, I finally have my first full-time job! And what will I be doing 40 hours a week??? Carpentry. Yes, I will be a carpenter. Hey…I’m just doing my best to follow Jesus. Ha.

Yes, I will be starting Monday morning working for Harding Waterfront. I will be on a crew building boat docks, ramps, stairs, etc. Each day I will work on the shores of Lake Keowee and Lake Hartwell. If I’ll be doing manual labor, I might as well have good scenery while I’m doing it! From Monday through Friday, I’ll be spending all morning and afternoon on the lake shore!

I’ve never done construction before, nor have I done carpentry. So, I’ll have to learn fast. I’ll be working alongside three guys who have been doing this stuff for a long time. If I decide to stick with this for at least a couple months, Pete (the owner) wants me to be the on-site leader. I guess that all depends if God calls me elsewhere or not. I’m just following Him one step at a time.

Well, Kindel and I are leaving tomorrow for Paul’s wedding and rehearsal. It should be a good weekend of seeing lots of friends.

A couple months ago, I wrote a post with tips and good etiquette of blogging. I thought it might be time for the second installment of the tips. Blogging 201. This one will be more focused on other web services that can help you in the blogging process.

• ScribeFire - This is an add-on for Firefox that allows you to write on your blog without going to the website. This is very helpful when you are copying text from a web page or copying links.

• Photobucket - Free image hosting. This site allows you to upload any pictures you want to use on your site. You can also edit the pictures on the site (cropping, coloring, resizing, etc.). You can easily copy the link to your picture and import it into your blog. For me, I’ve found using Photobucket to be easier than using WordPress for my image hosting.
• FeedBurner - This site will help you with your subscribers and RSS feed. FeedBurner provides you with links for people to subscribe to your blog through a reader (such as Google Reader or Bloglines) as well as subscribe through email updates. The site also shows you stats about your subscribers (how many, what they are using, etc.)
• Google Reader - This is the RSS feed reader that I use. You can subscribe to as many blogs and other RSS feeds that you want to. It will show you all new posts from all your subscriptions. This saves you a lot of time from visiting every blog you like to read. This way, it is all in one spot and you can read them only when they update (instead of visiting the blogs regularly just to find that they haven’t even updated!) You can also use iGoogle as your homepage and add Google Reader to that page!
• Site Meter - This site will give you the most in-depth stats about your blog viewers than you could ever imagine. Visitor stats, page view stats, location of viewers, etc.
• Technorati - This site is the site which deals with everything going on in the whole blogosphere. What I have found to be good about Technorati is it allows me to see how many people are linking to my blog and who they are. Those links are what give you your “authority” number and your authority number gives you your Technorati rank. They explain it here. You can click here to claim your blog on Technorati.

• Spent the weekend in NC with my parents and Kindel. We had a great time! I am so glad that Kindel likes my parents. They love her so much too. They are so excited when she comes up with me.
• For the past week, I have been filling out TONS of job applications, writing cover letters and sending them out with my resume to tons of places. I thought that after doing this stuff for the last couple months I would have a job by now. I just have to say that our economy and job market blows! I really hope we have something to look forward to with new presidential leadership in this country. Looking at the candidates, I’m doubting it.
• I can’t wait for camps! SC camps will be awesome! I get to spend two weeks out at Table Rock, lead a ton of crazy teens in worship, hang out with them all day, and get paid to do it! Then, I get to do it again with NC West camp in July!
• Right now, Kindel and I are praying through a possible ministry/church opportunity that God might have for us. Please pray for us as we seek God and His direction. It could be an amazing opportunity, but it would certainly be hard too. If God wants us to go there, then I really would like to have strong evidence from the Spirit that it’s our next step. If I know God is taking us there, I will go through whatever struggles might happen to do it! I believe God has a mighty work to do there!
• Going back to NC on Friday for Paul Haithcock and Heather Clifton’s wedding. I’m one of the groomsmen. It should be a good time. I’m excited about seeing a lot of friends that I haven’t seen in a long time (from a few weeks to almost a year).
• I was talking to someone today about Dustin Ahkuoi. I miss some good Dustin time! I wish gas wasn’t so outrageous so I could drive to ATL to see him! Dustin, we’ve got to work something out so we can hang out! Maybe I can put together enough money to come down soon!
• That’s about it for now.

Thanks to everyone who read my last post and provided some encouragement, prayers, and affirmation for me and Kindel. You’ll probably never know how powerful your love and care was for us. We are still dealing with the situation (and will be for a long time probably), but we are now doing it knowing that our friends and our parents are supporting us, affirming us, and fighting for us. That has made a world of difference to know we are not doing this alone.

I wish I could post something lighthearted, funny, or the like. However, I can’t right now. Over the past week, my heart has been ripped apart by someone. “Sticks and stones…” and all that mess is a load of junk.

Words hurt.
Accusations hurt.
FALSE accusations hurt.

Over the past week, someone has made some harsh accusations without even knowing me. Calling me lazy. Saying I will be a horrible husband. Saying I won’t provide for Kindel the way I need to. Assuming we don’t keep a pure relationship (CERTAINLY without ANY evidence).

Because of who this came from (and how much I have attempted to gain their respect), this has hurt…deeply. In my head, I know without a doubt that this person’s accusations have no basis, no evidence, and they barely know me. However, despite knowing that… it still hurts.

Because of some people’s life experience, their worldview changes. They have been hurt and they are jaded with life and love. So, they just assume that others will be doomed for the same. These are just some other related thoughts going through my head (as filtered as I can be):

• Just because your marriage sucked doesn’t mean ours (Kindel and I) will.
• Just because your spouse was lazy or horrible doesn’t mean I will be.
• Just because some people can’t go through a relationship without taking their pants off doesn’t mean we are like that. I have too much respect for her
• Just because every one else has left you and hates you doesn’t mean we will, even if we live miles apart.

I’m really trying to not get too angry or cry too many tears through this, but I can’t help it right now. I have been deeply hurt this week multiple times. I have been talked to like a 10 year old kid. I have not been shown an ounce of trust or respect from them and I have given them no reason to not trust or respect me. Even worse, I don’t see an end to this.

I’m a deeply wounded soul this week. I wish it would have been someone who didn’t matter that did this. Then, at least the wounds wouldn’t run so deep. I’m wounded and don’t know what to do. I don’t know what I need. Maybe affirmation. Maybe some love and care. Definitely prayer. I don’t want to wound the other person just to get back at them. That’s not how I need to handle it. However, I feel that this person will still be offended by my (and Kindel’s) decisions no matter what.

Why is it that the most selfish people are the same ones who claim to know God’s will for MY life… just so they can justify their opinions? If God wills that for me (and my soon-to-be-wife), then God will make that clear to us. We are adults.

I’m ranting and in tears. God, mend my wounds and speak to each of our hearts.

This is what Brady and I woke up to this morning.

Maybe UPS is better…

Update on the rat: We left the two traps out last night and checked them this morning.  Both of them are still set…and not a drop of peanut butter on EITHER of them!!!  We have ourselves a crafty rat!

Next attempt: tying licorice through the hole on it.  He can’t get that off without setting it off!

We found tons of rat poop all over our kitchen counter.  Let’s see if he goes for the peanut butter.

Finally, I convinced my babe, Kindel, to join the blogging realm!!!  I am very excited!  Although she thinks she’s boring and has nothing good to say, I think she’ll have a great blog.  Check it out here and continue to come back for some upcoming interesting reads!

Recently, Jarred and Brady bought new airsoft guns.  Now, we have a new group of airsoft players!  It’s awesome!  Tonight, we all (the 7 of us) watched an episode of “Band of Brothers” and then went outside to start shooting each other.  That was awesome.  An AK-47, M4, a couple pump shotguns, and more!  I’m excited that some guys are wanting to play again.  The last time I played was in college… but, of course, we never had airsoft guns on campus…

We played three rounds tonight.  I shot a couple people and was shot out in two rounds.  I have a nice welt on my stomach.  How sweet!

Anybody else want in on our games this summer?

• Tom Harding nailed another amazing message this morning at church. I need to learn to live like what he preached more often.
• I’m beginning to like twitter some. However, it would be better if some others would give it a try. No commitments. Just giving it a chance. Come on…
• “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die.” As much as I know that to be true, I still struggle letting things go every now and then…especially when I have been falsely accused and disrespected with no valid reason behind it. It’s hard to forgive sometimes. I hate that it’s hard sometimes. It shouldn’t be. I’m just being transparent.
• Despite everyone saying that “Iron Man” was good, I still don’t want to see it. I mean…it’s Robert Downey Jr.?!?!
• I get to go home and see my parents this coming weekend. I haven’t seen them since the first week of February. They’re going to show me the new house they’re moving into soon.
• Jarred and Brady bought airsoft guns on Saturday. We had some rounds. Good times. I missed playing. I’m glad they are getting back into it!
• One more week until I’m finished with my online Asbury class.
• Kindel and I have been running more regularly now. I’m actually enjoying running again. Maybe I’ll stick with it again like I did sophomore year.
• I’m thinking about posting some sort of favorites list of either worship albums or modern worship songs. I might not. Who knows.
• Isn’t it time for camps yet? Less than a month until SC camps!
• That’s all I’ve got floating through my head right now.

10. Jon Foreman - Fall EP - go to original post

9. Emery - The Question - go to original post

8. Angels & Airwaves - We Don’t Need to Whisper - go to original post

7. Switchfoot - The Beautiful Letdown -go to original post

6. Deas Vail - All the Houses Look the Same - go to original post

5. Incubus - Morning View - go to original post

4. Derek Webb - She Must and Shall Go Free - go to original post

3. Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething - go to original post

2. Thrice - Vheissu - go to original post

1. Mute Math - Mute Math - go to original post

Make sure to check the other 40:

50-41
40-31
30-21
20-11

I have been using iGoogle as my homepage.  I love it!  It is my one-stop to check almost everything.  (Click the picture to see it full size).

All on one page.  I can check everything!  Email (Gmail), Google Reader (blogs I read), Twitter, Facebook, my Jott, what’s hot on Digg, and more!  Does anyone else do something different for an effective all-in-one way to check everything?  I’m always looking for something more efficient!

I finally broke down and joined twitter a couple days ago. Already, I’m weighing the pros and cons of it and forming my opinion. Here’s my thoughts so far.

Why It’s Good:

• Short, to-the-point updates about life. You have 140 characters (and ONLY 140 characters) to describe your current life situation. You can use your 140 characters however you wish. Tell the world about your amazing Starbucks creation or what’s weighing on your mind and keeping you up at 2am.
• Keep up on long distance friends between the “catch-up-on-life” phone calls. I don’t always have time for a half hour or hour long phone call to college buddies who I like to keep up with. If they all used twitter, it would be the easiest way to keep up with them on a day-to-day basis between those “catch-up-on-life” phone calls.
• It’s all on one page! By logging in to twitter, I can see everybody’s recent updates…all on one page.  I don’t have to look through different people’s profiles.  I just log in and I can see all the recent updates from everybody that I follow on twitter.
• Can update it quickly, even by texting or Jott on my cell phone.
• No stupid profile junk or applications (like facebook). For my friends that I want to keep in touch with, I don’t need to read a list of their favorite movies and who has “bitten them” in the last week on SuperPoke. I probably know their favorite movies and the other is just lame. All I want is to know what is new in their life…what’s new today.
• Cuts out all the junk…only what’s new in your life…TODAY.

Why It’s Bad:

• Just another social network to get addicted to.  Like I need another one…  Although I think that if most of my friends were on twitter (especially long-distance friends), it would replace the other social networking sites instead of add to them.
• A lot of the stuff I see on other people’s twitter feeds is pointless.  Should I care that you had a good latte this morning?
• It is useful ONLY if a ton of friends are using it.  This means it is pointless right now.  I need friends to join this social experiment to see if it is worthwhile.

So here’s the deal.  I would like to see all my friends (especially those of you who are long-distance friends) to join the experiment on twitter and try it out.  I really do think it could be worth our time.  It cuts out all the junk (like on facebook and myspace) that we really don’t care about and gets down to what we really want to know:  what’s new in your life TODAY?

Anybody ready to jump on board and give a shot?  It’s worth a try!  If you join, click here for my twitter page.

Could the universe be a gigantic brain cell for some unknown being? Interesting thought at least. Check it out.

Steven Furtick had a great post here about exploring your personal daily rhythms to become as effective as possible. It’s a good read! I will definitely be doing this whenever I get into a full-time job, especially if I end up in a more creative work environment (worship arts stuff).

Diet Coke and Mentos.  I know it’s old news, but have you ever seen it in super slow-motion from a 1200 fps camera?  You can now.

Would you rather lick your toilet seat or your computer keyboard?  Read this before making your decision.

Click here to find over 100 tips on how to increase gas mileage.

Perry Noble writes about his sermon preparation process.  Interesting read for pastors and speakers.

Tony Morgan wrote about his 7 filters for leadership decisions.

Check out this blog where they used many of Mahatma Gandhi quotes to form Gandhi’s top 10 fundamentals for changing the world.  Powerful!

Perry recently wrote his reflections on not living a life of regrets.

Friday Night:

• Awesome is the Lord Most High - Chris Tomlin
• Our God is Love - Lee McDerment
• All - Hillsong United
• Center - Charlie Hall

Saturday Morning:

• Free - Hillsong United
• Marvelous Light - Charlie Hall
• Mighty to Save / The Stand - Hillsong / Hillsong United

Saturday Night:

• I Am Free - Desperation Band
• Our God is Love - Lee McDerment
• Saviour King - Hillsong
• Center - Charlie Hall

What an awesome weekend!  I had an awesome time getting to hang out with all the teens at the weekend retreat, worshiping God and rocking out, of course!  I can’t wait to get to do it for two solid weeks in June for the South Carolina youth camps!  If you are coming to camp this summer and have a song request for camp, comment it on here or send me an email!

Recently, I joined a site called Jott.  Jott is a free voice-into-text site.  You sign up, save the phone number to Jott, call it, and record a message.  If you ask it to send the “jott” to yourself, it will email you a transcript of your voice message.  This is good for remembering things to do, making “to-do” lists, adding events to your Google Calendar, etc.

However, you can connect your Jott account with other sites and have it send the “jott” to other sites.  So, I decided to connect my Jott account to WordPress and my blog.  So here’s the experiment:  when I am away from my computer, and would like to post something short, I’m going to call Jott.  It will ask me who I want to jott.  I’ll say, “WordPress.”  Then it will beep…and I will speak my next post into existence!

When it posts, it will use the first few words of my message as the title.  It will also be under the category of “Jotting.”  So you will know if the post is from a jott.

I’m not sure how well this will work.  I haven’t used Jott a whole lot yet, so I don’t know how good its transcripts are.  I guess we will find out.  If the transcripts aren’t accurate enough, I’ll stop using it to blog.  I’ll just stick to using it for to-do lists.

Album: Mute Math

Artist: Mute Math

Genre: Post-Rock/Experimental Rock

Year: 2006

Label: Teleprompt/Warner Bros.

Website: http://www.mutemath.com/

Track list: (Warner Bros. version)

1. Collapse
2. Typical
3. After We Have Left Our Homes
4. Chaos
5. Noticed
6. Plan B
7. Stare at the Sun
8. Obsolete
9. Break the Same
10. You are Mine
11. Control
12. Picture
13. Stall Out
14. Reset

Why It Belongs in My Top 10:

• Paul Meany’s voice!
• Beautiful melodies
• Creative & experimental sounds
• Rhodes Stage Piano…there’s nothing like it!
• Best stage presence & live performance EVER
• Thought-provoking spiritual lyrics
• Amazingly poetic lyrics
• Darren King is a sweet drummer!
• Variety of uses of instruments (yarn mallet on electric guitar, extra sub-sonic kick drum for percussive interludes, orchestral bass on an instrumental, AxeSynth on an instrumental, etc.)
• An amazingly creative backwards music video (yes, they had to learn how to look like they were playing it backwards)!

Check out my previous review of the album.

In about an hour, I’m leaving for a weekend up at Table Rock Wesleyan Camp.  The South Carolina Wesleyan Youth are doing a weekend retreat up there and I get the chance to worship with them!  It’s going to be awesome!  We spent most of yesterday setting up the sound system and running through a second practice.  Later this weekend, I’ll post the set lists from each service.

When we pulled up to the worship center, I just felt like I was at home.  This will be my fourth year that I have played for camps in that worship center.  I love it!  For those who haven’t seen it, it’s a GINORMOUS metal building with open air sides.  That translates to… CRANK IT UP!!!  We can blast the system like crazy in there!  I think the subwoofer cabs might just throw some kid who gets the bright idea to stand right in front of it right off his feet.

The band is awesome too!  Tanner and BG are solid musicians (electric guitar and bass respectively) and are stinkin’ hilarious.  Megan is a great singer, but she’ll only be there Friday night.  Hannah should be able to jump in on Saturday.  Since Steve can’t come this weekend because he has “more important” things to do… like go to his own graduation… we’ve got an awesome replacement.  Lauryl.  Yes, she’s a girl drummer.  And she’s rocking it out!

I just want to drive up there right now and get this party started!  I hope to post again while I’m up there.  They have wireless in the worship center.  Maybe I can get some free time late tonight.  By the way… be on the look out for my NUMBER 1 ALBUM!  It’s coming… maybe late tonight!

Album: Vheissu

Artist: Thrice

Genre: Post-Hardcore/Experimental Rock

Year: 2005

Label: Island

Website: http://www.thrice.net/

Track list:

1. Image of the Invisible
2. Between the End and Where We Lie
3. The Earth Will Shake
4. Atlantic
5. For Miles
6. Hold Fast Hope
7. Music Box
8. Like Moths to Flame
9. Of Dust and Nations
10. Stand and Feel Your Worth
11. Red Sky

Why It Belongs in My Top 10:

• Amazingly poetic lyrics
• Some of the most spiritual lyrics about life EVER across one album
• Experimental and eclectic sounds across the album
• Phenomenal rhythms and drum parts
• Did I mention poetic lyrics like none other!
• The ability to paint pictures just with their music

Album: Twentysomething

Artist: Jamie Cullum

Genre: Jazz/Pop

Year: 2003 in UK; 2004 in US

Label: Verve Forecast

Website: http://www.jamiecullum.com/

Track list: (US Version)

1. These Are the Days
2. Twentysomething
3. Wind Cries Mary
4. All at Sea
5. Lover, You Should’ve Come Over
6. Singin’ in the Rain
7. I Get a Kick Out of You
8. Blame It on My Youth
9. High and Dry
10. It’s About Time
11. But for Now
12. I Could Have Danced All Night
13. Next Year, Baby
14. What a Difference a Day Made
15. Frontin’

Why It Belongs in My Top 10:

• PHENOMENAL jazz pianist
• Sweet arrangements of old songs
• Variety of covers (Jimi Hendrix, Radiohead, and tons of early/mid 1900s jazz)
• Amazing originals written by Jamie Cullum
• Sweet piano solos where Cullum “shreds” a piano… is that possible?

Album: She Must and Shall Go Free

Artist: Derek Webb

Genre: Acoustic/Folk

Year: 2003

Label: INO Records

Website: http://derekwebb.musiccitynetworks.com/

Track list:

1. Nobody Loves Me
2. She Must and Shall Go Free
3. Take to the World
4. Nothing (Without You)
5. Lover
6. Wedding Dress
7. Awake My Soul
8. Saint and Sinner
9. Beloved
10. Crooked Deep Down
11. The Church

Why It Belongs in My Top 10:

• Controversial yet powerfully true lyrics
• Great acoustic sound and voice
• Beautiful songwriting by Webb
• Variety of sounds within this “folk” album
• Theme of Christ’s passionate love for His bride, the Church