Country Music Myths

Being a big country music fan, I get a little irritated when people start bad mouthing it and putting it down. While it’s not really a big deal, I thought I would write a little article for the fun of it on country music and why it’s not what a lot of people say it is. So here goes.

Common Myths About Country Music

Country Singers Can’t Sing-

The first thing to realize is that obviously someone who listens to rock or the like isn’t going to like how county artists sing, because for the most part, it’s a whole different style. It’s not that country singers can’t sing, it’s just a different style. If you listen to artists like Martina McBride, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton, George Strait, or Tim McGraw, you can’t say that they can’t sing. You may not like how they sing, but they can sing.

Country Songs Have Lame Lyrics-

I’ve heard people say that country songs are about things like stains on white t-shirts and trailer parks, and other weird things, but how many country songs have these people actually listened to? Country songs have a wide range of subjects, varying from the love, America, family, to cars, being a guy, God, and the little things in life. Some artists bring a good sense of humor into their songs, and others do better with a more serious outtake on life.

Country Music Does Take Any Musical Talent

If you think that country songs are simple musically, or they don’t require any skill to play, you need to get out more. Just listen to artists like Brad Paisley or Keith Urban, among others. Country songs are actually very diverse in their style, with the style varying from bluegrass to rock, although mostly in between those two.

Why I Prefer Country Music Over Other Musical Genres

I find country music the most enjoyable because of the diversity in style and lyrics, as mentioned above, and also in the wide variety of musical instruments employed. I love hearing the different sounds of the guitar, piano, violin, keyboard, banjo, ganjo, mandolin, bass, drums and the other instruments used. As for lyrics, while there are plenty of songs that I don’t listen to because of the lyrics, the variety of different songs compensates for that.

A Separate Quibble With Another Music Genre

Christian Contemporary. First, I have no problem with the lyrics (for the most part), praising God is wonderful, and I wish I could take the lyrics and put them to a country tune. But the musical part is where I have my problems with this genre. There just isn’t enough variety. The assortment of musical instruments used is normally small (guitar, keyboard, violin, drums), and I have yet to hear an instrumental solo that makes a song worth listening to in of itself. The song formula is like; A, B, A, B, C; and that just isn’t very creative. Granted, I haven’t listened to a ton of Christian Contemporary, and there are some artists that I like, I just don’t find that genre all that exciting musically.

So there you have it, my thoughts on country music and Christian Contemporary music. This little article wasn’t pointed at anyone specifically, and I’m not mad about the subject, I just wanted to get this out of my system. So now you know why I prefer country music.

Dear Job

I wrote a letter to Job for a school assignment recently…

Dear Job,

I have heard of the tribulations you have been experiencing, and was moved to write this letter to you. I know that some of your friends have been accusing you of having committed a great sin or considering yourself as great as God. Having considering these accusations, and studied the Bible on the subject of tribulation, I have decided to send you my thoughts on the subject, and hopefully encourage you with them. So here goes.

I think one thing you may not have considered in your reflections is the possibility of the involvement of Satan in your trials. The fallen angel is always looking for some way to bring humans down to Hell with him, and by bringing down all kinds of troubles down on you; he could be hoping to loosen your faith in God. In 1 Peter 5:8, it says, “…your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Your afflictions could be produced by Satan in his attempts to turn you from God. So don’t let your friends convince you that because terrible things are happening to you it is necessarily because you have sinned and God is punishing you.

But yet don’t get discouraged and think that now you’re in for the long haul, and you just have to survive until Satan or you gives up. The only reason that Satan can bring these things down on you is because God allows it. God sometimes uses trials like you are going through to strengthen and intensify your faith and character. After you have gone through suffering for a while, God will restore you, as stated in 1 Peter 5:10: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” God has a plan for you, which leads me into the last point I wanted to share with you.

God has planned your life before the beginning of time, and his plan is in your best interest in the long run. Your personal afflictions might also (and I would say most likely will) affect other people around you in some way, whether it is physically, mentally, or spiritually. By seeing you persevering in your faith while experiencing considerable afflictions, someone could be encouraged by your perseverance in your faith. Even people far away could be encouraged by hearing about your limitless faith. Just remember that God has a plan for you that will ultimately be in the best interests for you and others around you.

If you get anything from this letter, I hope it is that just because you are suffering it is not your fault, or because God is angered at you; and that God’s plan will work out. Also that your perseverance amidst afflictions could be influencing your friends and acquaintances, and faith in God’s plan is always the best strategy.

Sincerely,

Will Claybourne

New Year

Here’s to a happy and successful 2009! Here’s to Barack Obama not ruining our country in the his first year! Here’s to more people getting to know the Lord! Here’s to 2009!

And here’s to me writing more posts this year…

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

Accompanying

One of the things I do with  my musical skills, is accompanying choirs. Actually, I just recently started doing that, but I’ve had some interesting challenges anyway. Like having the choir forget to come in, and having to go back and pretend like nothing happened. Or more recently, having my sheet music in the wrong order and having to ad lib as I try to find the right page. Accompanying is one of those things thats low pressure and easy, but yet high pressure and hard. I know, it sounds contradictory, but it’s true. But I enjoy it, it’s fun and good practice.

Oh My Gosh!

Oh my gosh, new wordpress dashboard style! Oh my gosh, they changed it again! Oh my gosh, I like it! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh, don’t they have anything better to do, like make new blog themes! Oh my gosh, what is the deal with this post!

Things I’m Thankful For

With Thanksgiving upon us, I thought it would be appropriate to write a list of things I’m thankful for( in no particular order). So…

My God
Being one of Gods chosen
Jesus dying on the cross for me
My Family
My Home
My Country
My Piano (humble though it be)
My Health (besides my broken leg)
Music
My Violin
My Freedom
Any talent I have
Baseball
My Job
My Friends
Nature
My Life
My Computer
My Baseball Glove
My Common Sense
My Reputation
…and many, many, many, more things!

Wanting An Opinion…

Ok, so one of my identities is as a writer. I’ve started a few books, written a short story, and composed quite a few theological/editorial articles. But right now I’m trying to come to a decision. Do I start a mystery story, and come up with a intense plot and a culprit that you never expected? Do I write a humorous story about a man that is followed home by a friendly ghost? Or do I take a historical fiction that I’ve been working on, and start it over and revise it? Well, I thought it would be interesting to see what you guys think sounds appealing, so do me a favor and vote on the poll below. Thanks!

Broken Leg

Ok, this is an old post, I’m just relocating it from a page to the main blog.

Written by Jacob DeRu, a short account on how Bryce broke his leg.

Bryce: “I was playing ultimate Frisbee with a bunch of kids. Well, more actually.” More meaning, more then just a bunch of kids, there were a lot of people there. “ I jumped up to catch the Frisbee, along with another guy, and when we came down he landed on my lower left leg. ummm. And so I fell on the ground, and was in a pain kind of a mixture. A mixture between a twisted ankle and loosing your breath. And I couldn’t talk for a minute or two. I didn’t know what had happened at first, it was like, painful but I didn’t know if it was broken or anything. so then all the people from Frisbee were all standing around, trying to figure out if I had actually broken something or what. So I tried to movie my legg, but it felt like jello so I decided not to move it too much. Then I borrowed, well, someone gave me a cell phone and I called my mom while another lady called 9-11. A cop came and took control of the situation, and an ambulance and a fire truck came. I don’t know why they needed a fire truck but … so they took me to the Skagit valley hospital, in an ambulance. The most painful part when they were putting me into the ambulance was umm, when they took off my shoe on the broken leg. It was easier when I was holding someone’s hand, because then I could have something to squeeze.”

Mrs. Atilano: “I was squeezing Bryce’s hand back, and I found that when I was squeezing, I squeezed it really hard, and I caught myself and was like, I hope I didn’t hurt him!”

Bryce: “It was the longest drive to Mount Vernon I’ve ever had. While I was in an ambulance, the doctor asked me how I would rate my pain, on a scale of 1 to 10. I said I was either 5 or 6. Then I asked him if he had ever heard of Brian Regan, who did a comedy show about the emergency room and had been asked the same question. The doctor did not though. When I got there they took me to the emergency room, they hooked me up to an IV for pain medication and took off my splint that they had put me into earlier. Then eventually they took some x-rays, and they took me to a different room, a more comfortable one. I couldn’t have anything to eat or drink after Thursday midnight in preparation for surgery the next day. So around one o’clock they prepared me for surgery, and I went into surgery at 2:00. They put me out and when I woke up it was about 6:15. in the surgery they put a rod up my main bone to connect the two bones together, and left the small bone because it would heal by itself. Then they hooked me up to another devise and slept the rest of the night, falling asleep, and waking up, and falling asleep, and so on. They also “checked my vitals”… that’s what they call it. You know, it’s where they checked my blood pressure and all that. So I just spent Saturday morning lying in bed, eventually the physical therapist came in and helped me practice with crutches. I did watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3 while I was here, off and on all weekend.”

A note from Jacob: on the power bed that Bryce is resting on, there is a warning sign that reads, “Only operate bed with persons clear of powered bed mechanisms to prevent serious injury” … so how does Bryce sit up?

Jacob: “So what happened to your jeans?”

Bryce: “The nurses and the, yeah, they cut them off with scissors. They had to cut this pant leg” [his left], “so they could put the splint on, and at the emergency room they cut it all off.”

Jacob: “so, how did the people at the hospital treat you?”

Bryce: “Awful! No I‘m just kidding! They treated me really well. The food is ok. Nothing gourmet.”

Jacob: “how did you sleep?”

Bryce: “I would dose off a little later” [after surgery], “waking up an hour later. The longest I had was about 3 hours. Sometimes it’s kind of a “half way” sleep. I usually sleep on my stomach, so sleeping on my back was awkward.”

Jacob: “so when do you think you’ll be let out?”

Bryce: “If all goes well, in an hour or two.”

(It’s about 12:52)

Jacob: “would you go play Frisbee again?”

Bryce: “Yeah, as soon as I’m healed I’ll probably play again, though I’ll probably lay off the jumping near people trying to catch the Frisbee.”

The Impossiblity of Choosing God

One of the most common believes in today’s evangelical churches is the idea that man choose whether or not to follow God and become a Christian. It is believed that:

1. When Jesus died on the cross, he saved everyone, opening up the path to Heaven and eternal life with God.

2. After that, it is up to the human being to decide for themselves whether or not to follow Christ.

I believe this is a faulty belief, and I’ll explain why.

It is should only be necessary to look at one point to see that this first statement, that Jesus’ death and resurrection saved everyone, is impossible. To start with, what do we know about God (who is also the Son and the Holy Spirit)? We know that he is perfect, without mistake, powerful, wise, and has many other good qualities. Knowing this, we can safely assume that God never messes up. So if you say that Jesus died to save everyone’s sins, but yet we know that people still go to Hell, then we are saying that Jesus’ death didn’t work, or he was inadequate for the task. This would make God not God, because he messed up. Therefore he must have died for people that he had already chosen (Eph. 1:4-5).

The second point needs the understanding of the nature of man. When Adam disobeyed God and brought sin into the world, man became utterly sinful and separated from God. As it says in Romans 3:10-12, “As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even on.” If that is the case, then how could natural man ever decide to choose God? His natural tendency is evilness, thus he would have no desire to choose good. This is why we need Gods help entirely.

The Ups and Downs of Having a Broken Leg

I broke my leg playing Ultimate Frisbee (yes, a no contact sport) a couple weeks ago, and since then I have ridden in an ambulance, spent three days in a hospital, had surgery, been on morphine, and spent a lot of time laying or sitting with my leg up.

Saturday the 6th I left the hospital and came home. My living space has been the living room, and I’ve slept on the couch. Thankfully I’ve had means of keeping myself occupied, as we hooked up the computer in the living room. Plus I’ve done a good amount of reading. I’ve left the house only to go down to my grandparents (5 minutes away), and then once to visit the doctor.

There are some good things about having a broken leg. For one, I get to spend a lot of time just laying around (which is also one of the bad things). I can spend a lot of time reading, playing computer, being on the internet, watching movies, and just hanging out. Everybody else in the family has to wait on me most of the time, and I don’t have to do any work.

But the negatives make me wish that I didn’t have a broken leg. I have to lay around all the time with my leg propped up, which can get rather boring. I normally sleep on my stomach, but with my leg broken I have to sleep on my back. I have to wake up in the middle of the night to take my painkillers, and I’m pretty hampered in my movements. I’m a rather athletic sort of guy, and I enjoy playing baseball and doing all sorts of active things, but now I can’t do any of that for a while. Worst of all, its hard for me to play my instruments.

So I would rather have not broken my leg. But hey, at least I’ll have a good story to tell.

Band Wrap-Up

Thursday the 15th was the last band practice of this years semester/round/whatever, and Friday we performed out Spring Concert. It was a lot of fun, and everybody perfomed well. It got rather warm in the hall during the concert, but a few fans and some “cool” music hopefully kept the audience comfortable.

Over all, I really enjoyed being in the band and playing and performing our music. And it was especially fun in the percussion section. In the percussion section, I played the bells, the timpani, the piano, the crash cymbals, the xylophone, the chimes, and a garbage can lid (yes, a real one). I had the most fun playing the timpani. There’s just something fun about pounding something to make a sound similiar to thunder.

I met a lot of nice people, and had lots of fun traveling around on a bus to Band Festival. Did I talk about that in a different post? I don’t think I did. It was a lot of fun, we had to meet at 5:30AM to load on to 2 charter buses, and then drive for about 2 hours until we arrived at our destination. The Festival lasted the whole day, and our groups ranked pretty well, for the most part. And then we had to load back into the bus and drive back to our cars. We finally got back at around 8:00PM. Looong day.

I’m definetly glad I did it, and I really hope to do it next year if possible. It’s always fun to play music in a group. And we played a lot of fun and exciting songs (The Incredibles, John Williams in Concert, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc.). One thing I learned during the band year; counting is important!

Animal Pictures

Here are some pictures of some of the animals we have.

That’s two of our baby goats, and here’s the third…

 

A Quick Note: Life on the Farm

Yeah, the latest news on the farm here is the unexpected birth of three white baby goats. We wanted to breed out one goat, a Saanen, but we didn’t think anything had happened once we we had, you know, got the two goats together. But this last week we thought that she looked pregnant. And sure enough, this morning I went out to take care of the goats, and there were 3 baby goats. So we had to take care of them before we headed off to a conference, which I’ll tell you about when I get a chance.

2008 Baseball Season Is Here!

Yes, finally! I’m not going to go into the specifics, but I think the Seattle Mariners have a pretty good team, and a shot at the playoffs, if everything works out (of course). They have their weak spots, namely their corner outfield defense. But their starting staff is a lot better than last seasons. And while they don’t have any new bats of any consequence, the ones they have now are progressing nicely. And the left side of the infield has great defense.

Of course they’ll have to beat the reigning AL West Champs, the Los Angeles Angels. But fortunately for the Mariners the Angels have had a couple of crucial injuries in their rotation. But even if they do get to the playoffs, the going will be tough. They will most likely have to play tough teams like Boston and Detroit.

But I’m hoping that they make it to the World “Serious”. Go Mariners!

“How Did You Die?”

Did you tackle that trouble that came your way
With a resolute heart and cheerful?
Or hide your face from the light of day
With a craven soul and fearful?
Oh, a trouble’s a ton, or a trouble’s an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it,
And it isn’t the fact that you’re hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it?

You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what’s that?
Come up with a smiling face.
It’s nothing against you to fall down flat,
But to lie there-that’s disgrace.
The harder you’re thrown, why the higher you bounce;
Be proud of your blackened eye!
It isn’t the fact that you’re licked that counts,
It’s how did you fight-and why?

And though you be done to the death, what then?
If you battled the best you could,
If you played your part in the world of men,
Why, the Critic will call it good.
Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce,
And whether he’s slow or spry,
It isn’t the fact that you’re dead that counts,
But only how did you die?

-Edmund Vance Cooke

Another Selection from my Scottish Tale

You might understand this section better if you first read this one, which preceeds the selection below. Let me know what you think.

-That night it was a gloomy and discouraged bunch of Scots that assembled wearily at the Barrie McLaif croft. Barrie had opened his house to the remaining Scots, deciding it would be better to be cautious and not reside where the enemy would know where they were. This way the foe had to at least look for them. As for Captain Dunstan and his soldiers, Barrie figured they could take care of themselves.
The small croft was not quite large enough for even the few remaining Scots, 18 left of the previous 31, so the patriotic Scotsmen that were not as badly wounded as the others found places to rest outside the croft. Most of them took shelter from the drizzling rain that had just begun underneath the roof of the McLaif’s sheep shed. Ian also holed up inside the shed, but after a few minutes returned to the croft to fetch some sort of nourishment for his fellows.
He closed the door promptly behind him after entering, and paused to survey the situation inside the crowded building. Those that had been badly injured during the earlier fracas were lying, or sitting, in various locations around the room. Ian’s mother, sister and Joanne were going around the room tending to the injured men. Joanne looked up from gathering some bandages, and saw Ian standing at the door. She stood up and walked over to him.
“Your arm.” she exclaimed, pointing to his left arm.
“Eh, what about it?” questioned Ian, looking down at it. He saw then that he had received a rather small cut upon it. “Och, it’s just a small cut, nothing to worry about.”
Joanne nonetheless insisted on wrapping a bandage around it. She cut a strip of cloth from the roll she had, and carefully wrapped it around the damaged arm.
When she was finished, Ian thanked her and then inquired as to whether there was any food to be found for his fellows outside. She shrugged, but went and looked around for some nourishment. Ian’s eyes followed here as she walked across around the room. She stopped every now and then to pick up a morsel of food, until she had collected all that there was available. Returning to Ian, she handed the food to him, and he thanked her before returning to the outside air.
After rushing hastily through the rain to the cover of the rough shed, Ian passed out the small amount of food as evenly as he could.
 “Thank ye much,” exclaimed one of the men gratefully.
 Ian nodded solemnly, sorry that he couldn’t bring more to these men that had fought so hard for so much. Looking around at the tired, weary men sitting under that pathetic shed, he thanked God that only a few comrades had been killed in the fight. Sitting there, with the rain drumming rapidly on the ground and roof, Ian was inspired to pray aloud with his comrades.
 “Shall we pray?” he exclaimed, glancing around at everybody. Some nodded, some shrugged, so Ian began, bowing his head and clasping his hand together on his knees.
“Heavenly Father, we thank you for delivering us today and…and…bless those that didn’t make it…”-