Well, now the same nostalgic, insomniac, and somewhat poetic basement composer has caught my ear again with his side project, Skysailing. It appears as if Skysailing is even more of a chilled out sound than the laid back music of Owl City. I’m not complaining .

An Airplane Carried Me To Bed is the first album by Skysailing, and features some of the early recordings of Adam Young before he toured as Owl City.

I’ve kept these recordings secret for a long time and they’ve never seen the light of day until now. Long before Owl City was ever a spark of a flame, a lot of blue-collared working days were spent absentmindedly daydreaming about what would ultimately become this collection of songs. From the perfectionist musician’s perspective, a song is never truly “finished” but rather “abandoned” and thus, after a lot of inspiration and reckless experimentation, I emerged from the basement with a 11 song record which I affectionately entitled, An Airplane Carried Me To Bed. -Adam Young

Check out the clip below. Skysailing – Brielle

The designs are both inspired by the non-profit organisations Hope Rwanda and World Vision. Both of which do such an incredible job in serving the poorest of the poor, and bringing hope to a world desperate for love. It is a huge comfort to me knowing that their are Christian organisations like these out there, making a difference in the lives of so many people who would probably be lost to starvation otherwise.

Available garments and their various sizes will be posted once they arrive, sometime in the next week or two. And no this isn’t a marketing ploy–stocks are actually very limited. (Unless there’s enough request for a reprint).

Any proceeds from this project will go to World Vision.

The Astronaut

Floating out here, isolation my closest
friend of nothing, the reputation of no one
Not that it matters out here, anyway
Thoughts come in drips and splashes; I
can feel something, some kind of significant
presence, thick in the air

Floating out here, isolation my closest
friend or foe, the floating turquoise and jade sphere, impeding
my precarious emotions like a monster
Floating out here, isolation my closest
friend, I look down and spy you there on that
insignificant ball, spinning lonesome like a star in the night
sky, your thoughts and intents a pinprick on the grand plan

I can’t see the sparkle of whitewash, or hear the
ambience of crickets chirping, or smell
the exotic, cultural nuances of the oriental markets, or taste
the exquisite cuisine at my favourite restaurant
It all seems so superfluous up here, anyway

Spinning out in isolation, my closest friend
and nearest companion the stillness in this pale, colourless cabin
Filled with awe, because I could trace this as the most
defining moment in my life
I’ve heard talk of a God who made the world in my
sojourns back on the surface of that distant place
Never would I have believed He was true till
now, seeing home so small, so fragile, so distant
I can put my finger to my eye and blot
it from ever breathing

Floating out here, isolation my closest
friend, I’m lost in the deepest resonances of thought,
my soul is stilled
Every moment sees me feeling smaller and
smaller, because I know someone sees
and He loves
How He loves
those
little
tiny
people

So, while discovering and listening to music at the coolest site ever–Grooveshark.com, go check it out, it rocks!–I’ve been overhauling this site. A long and tedious process, I’ll have you know.

So now that everything is that much simpler and less cluttered, I’m going to try blog a little more frequently, run a few kilometres every morning, and buy that healthy living magazine at the supermarket.

It’s OK, I’m kidding .

It’s not often that you stumble on a new artist that instantly clicks with you, but that’s how it was when I came across Jonathan David Helser linked to on a friends’ page. Beautiful voice, creative lyrics and a burning heart for God–not to mention the first acoustic-electric grand I’ve ever seen. What more could you ask for?

It was like trying to find
a haystack inside a needle
I stretched a strand of string
to the moon
and back a dozen times

It was like trying to find
a key inside a locked chest
I sailed to the ends
of the earth
and back a dozen times

It was like trying to find
hay and stubble inside gold
I ran to the end
of the rainbow
and back a dozen times

It was like trying to watch
the sun set in the dawn
I swam to the depths
of the sea
and back a dozen times

It was like trying to pour
fire over water
So your love
could not be measured

Its mysterious end
could not be found

The first reason is that my pre-release Windows 7 RC suddenly informed me that it will crash and burn in exactly 12 days. A bit of Windows melodrama there as I was under the impression it would last till August. Turns out it does last till then, but starts self-destructing in just over a week. I am now accepting any donations of fully licensed Windows 7 copies which can be mailed to me in Northland, New Zealand.

The other reason is that my time has been well spent (read: sucked dry) setting up a new on-line magazine of which I am very excited. I’ve owned the domain for quite a long time, but kept it under wraps as websites can go through some pretty ugly stages (to say the least) in the setup days.

The site is called Delve Deeper and can be found at www.delvedeeper.org.

The aim is to publish around one or two articles a week which share transparently about the host of things affecting culture and people’s lives today. And, while there may only be one article up right now, hopefully that will expound and grow substantially as the site gets out of its childhood.

Feel free to promote it if you wish, become a fan on Facebook, or follow it on Twitter.

As the site is first and foremost a place where people can visit and read articles, there is not an area for commenting as a comment section can often distract from the content. Any commenting or discussion can be had over on the Facebook page where all the articles will be linked to.

If you want to be my hero forever and ever, feel free to use the nifty banner ads below on your site.

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Then perhaps you should consider music lessons.

Or wearing a head-up display on your eyeball.

For those of us unfamiliar with the term “head-up display”, it is basically as the name hints:

A head-up display, or HUD, is any transparent display that presents data without requiring the user to look away from his or her usual viewpoint.

So what are Engineers at the University of Washington up to now? Well, essentially they have managed to create a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

Because everything nerdy needs lights. Lots of lights.

There are thousands of possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers could see the location of upcoming speed cameras (heh heh). Video-game companies could use the contact lenses for displaying many things in front of gamers’ eyes. People could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display that only they would be able to see.

So basically, it’s a little creepy. Imagine watching someone staring straight ahead for twenty minutes doing absolutely nothing (I’m not sure how the Internet thing would work for clicking on different pages). So far only rabbits have worn the prototype, with no adverse effects for up to twenty minutes (I hate to wonder what happened to the rabbit after those twenty minutes), but with the speed technology seems to develop these days, they may soon be the next Facebook. (Seriously, is anyone over that site yet?)