and this week the trend
was to borrow all the strength that you could lend
to keep my head above the water and not descend
back to where I said I’d never go again

The Juliana Theory – In Conversation

Conversation is amazing when we’re free to say things people often won’t because they hate themselves
These situations almost daily have a way of making people understand that all of us are one
But isolation and division will be our destruction, if we can’t communicate
So as I contradict myself, and forget all I’ve said, I am free

Thrice – Music Box

We are not alone, we feel an unseen love
We are sons and heirs of grace
We are children of a light that never dims
A love that never dies, keep your chin up child
And wipe the tears from your eyes

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I was eating nachos, sitting with my mother,talking about nothing, talking about nothing, talking about growing up in NJ, a state without a hero. Who could be our hero? Drive into the city!

The subject of the day is how can we repay this debt of all the money, money we aren’t making. Lately, lately, lately, lately I’ve been on my back. Move up to Seattle, not up to Alaska… my teeth won’t ever chatter, it doesn’t really matter. The subject of the day is how can we repay this debt of all the money, money we aren’t making. I was there, I know (x4).

Well, what do you know, where did you go, and what were you doing? When you got home, you smiled real big, tell me what were you feeling? Send in the troops, everyone hears you, but nobody’s listening! Lately, lately, lately, lately I’ve been on my back!

I just don’t belong in a town,
where no one listens,
even if I’m wrong,
I’ll find a way.

Gotta get away from here,
find a way to disappear,
say goodbye to everything and everyone I know.
Gotta go and leave this town,
all it does is bring me down,
I just wanna tell my friends no matter where I go,
I’ll see them down the road.

Lost myself again,
no one new I was missing,
said goodbye to dad,
and his new wife.

Stuck around this lawn,
now sick and tired of wishing,
even if I’m wrong,
I’ll still be right.

Gotta got away from here,
find a way to disappear,
say goodbye to everything and everyone I know.
Gotta go and leave this town,
all it does is bring me down,
I just wanna tell my friends no matter where I go,
I’ll see them down the road.

I’m sick of dreaming,
I would rather stay up all night,
live my own life.
Don’t worry about me!

Gotta got away from here,
find a way to disappear,
say goodbye to everything and everyone I know.
Gotta go and leave this town,
all it does is bring me down,
I just wanna tell my friends no matter where I go,
I’ll see them down the road
See ‘em down the road,
I’ll see ‘em down the road,
(Lost myself again, didn’t notice I was missin’)
I’ll seem ‘em down the road.

Plain White T’s on Last.fm
(Edited from source: Sing365)

Impatience hurts. The anger burns a whole through me. My agitation causes me to make suboptimal decisions which impact other people.

When it comes to questions of the heart — matters of love, patience becomes an even more difficult proposition.

Am I deceiving myself — are the emotions and the passion real? Or does my impatience perhaps trick me into wanting and believing in something that’s not there?

Self-deception is powerful and dangerous. I find myself struggling to make good decisions when I let myself get carried away and enflamed by emotions. How do I get back on track?

This runaway train will run over me.

Meh.

Ouch.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I highly recommend all three. Coldplay is melodic and soothing, Conor Oberst is angsty indie/alt-country passion, and Astronautalis has awesome beats and lyrical flow.

I’ve been practicing my guitar a lot lately. Songs I can (almost) play:
• Brandon Heath – Give Me Your Eyes
• The Proclaimers – 500 Miles
• Wreckless Eric – Whole Wide World

I caught onto Brandon Heath recently via Carolina who showed it to me on YouTube. The Proclaimers is an old favorite of mine I remember hearing and enjoying in sixth grade and subsequently hearing it played (an edited version) during Young Life in high school. “Whole Wide World” I first heard in the movie “Stranger Than Fiction” which is the first song Harold Crick learns to play on his guitar.

The next song I’d like to learn is Flight of the Conchords – The Humans are Dead. Unfortunately, I’m not sure this will be possible, as the humans will all be dead. (Plus, it takes two people to do it any kind of justice.) Watch below via YouTube:

Click here to view the embedded video.

My reasons for growing the beard in the first place included:
– look/feel older
– the experience of having a beard in my mid-twenties
– looking similar to old photos of my dad when he had a beard in the early 1980s
– seeing what it felt like to be Samson (shaggy!)

While I enjoyed having a beard for all of these reasons, I became hard-pressed by two primary reasons to make a change:

1. Summer comes soon. Long hair/beard in summer = hot, sweaty, yuck.

2. A woman asked me to cut it because she wanted to see what I looked like without a beard.

Results: “You look younger,” “you look like a different person,” “you look so much better,” and “you look great.”  I will not complain about these responses.  Photographic evidence below.

The Before Photo (upon awakening this morning)

The After Photo (upon shave and a haircut this afternoon)