Blessing the Lord

There's this song, you may have heard it, it's called "10,000 Reasons".

I can't remember the first time I heard it, but I remember thinking, "Oh, I should go download this when I get home" because it was a good song and I liked it. 

Well, I forgot to download it.

Naturally.

Well, the next time (of note) that I heard it was at a funeral for a baby.

I was so emotional that I couldn't even sing it.

But I was thinking.

We can't just bless the Lord when we have everything. When everything's nice and sunny. When we have everything we need.

We need to bless Him when He takes gifts away. When He teaches us lessons. When He allows pain in our lives.

Because whoever said "God will never give you more than you can handle" was wrong.

God will never allow you to be tempted beyond what He gives you an escape.

And God gives us more than we can handle to teach us to depend on Him for everything.

And that tender, nurturing love is truly blessable.

Confessions: I can't sing

I've previously written a post about American Idol, where I poke fun at the fact that the gal I wanted to win didn't. 

And I think I mentioned something about how I'd love to be a judge there, if only to take Simon's spot. 

I overheard something on the radio this morning about the ridiculous amount of money Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey are being paid to be judges.

My response?

"I'll do it for $25 an hour!"

But really, I'd love to be a judge for a singing contest.

There's only one kinda huge drawback:

. . . I can't sing.

Now let me qualify that.

I have the ability to sing, but I can't sing well, can't carry a tune.

I sing in the car when I'm alone because I don't want to inflict my tone-deafness on other people.

I love them too much to do that to them.

However, Candice Glover -- WHO IS FROM BEAUFORT -- can sing!

So yes, vote for Candice Wednesday night!

21 Before 21

So today at 4 AM, I turned 21.

You didn't get up for my birthday?

Oh, it's totes cool; I didn't get up for that, either.

Anyhoo, I've heard of these "[things done] Before [Age of the same numerical value]" things before, and I figured I'd do one for my birthday.

These are in no particular order, save for the first one.

1. met Jesus as my Savior

2. graduated high school

3. published a book

4. been to Mile Zero, where I . . .

5. . . . inadvertently swam with tarpons

6. visited the Statue of Liberty

7. voted in a Presidential election

8. drank pigeon milk (my dad's cologne)

9. performed an amateur amputation 

10. made sushi

11. got a job (and still have the job)

12. got a full ride through college

13. went to the midnight showing of a movie

14. zip-lined

15. whitewater rafted

16. member of two honors societies

17. ran a 5K

18. changed a tire (yes, on the side of the road)

19. melted a plastic container on a stove by accident

20. had a pen-pal in another country

21. been to the Kennedy Space Center

So yeah, Happy Birthday to me! :)

21 certainly makes me no less clumsy . . .

. . . but oh well, nobody saw that.

And this is what I'd like to leave you with:

I know 21 isn't that old in the grand scheme of things, but thinking about it makes me feel kind of old.

I mean, I saw Y2K.

I saw 9/11.

I've seen Mad Cow disease, Avian Bird flu, and Swine flu.

I saw the capture and death of Saddam Hussein and the death of Osama bin Laden.

I've seen the funerals of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

I've seen the advent of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

I've seen the earthquake in Japan and the tsunami in Indonesia.

I've seen a lot, I think.

But this is really all that matters:

Why Pandora is awesome . . . and slightly awkward.

I gotta say, I love Pandora.

It’s free.

It’s got a TON of stuff there.

And it tries to understand what you do and do not like.

Heck, that’s pretty impressive.

But it can be sort of awkward.

For instance, you don’t know what’s going to be played next.

The wild card factor doesn’t really bother me, but if an objectionable song comes on, that’s always the moment a younger sibling or a parent comes into your room to ask you something.

And that’s probably when you’ve hit your skip limit too, so you have to switch stations entirely.

Ahhh, modern technology.

But really, I do love Pandora.

I have entirely too many stations, but oh well.

I really like that they’ve upped the number of songs played per artist – it used to be two per hour. Now I guess it’s like five. That’s always nice.

If I could suggest just one feature, though, it’d be an automatic list builder of songs you’ve given a thumbs up.

So much better than taking a picture of the song info. . .

UPDATE: A friend hath introduced me to Slacker Radio.
ME GUSTA.
Slacker Radio keeps track of the songs you've liked, which is very, very, very helpful to people like me who are prone to forget things like their names and trivial things like that.
Only downside is that they don't have as many artists as Pandora has, but I'm content to use both -- Pandora for my more obscure tastes, and Slacker Radio for the more popular ones.

Subjects of Songs

I just gotta say . . . I feel really sorry for the people other people write songs about.

Like, basically for pretty much every guy Taylor Swift or Adele has ever dated or crushed on.

Take "Teardrops on my Guitar", for example.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love that song. It's part of the reason I respect Taylor: it's not a catty song about her liking a guy and trying to steal him. It's about her liking a guy and wanting him to be treated right and loved, even if it's not her being loved back. If fact, she tries her best not to interfere.

I really respect that.

But I hope she went by the whole "the names have been changed to protect the innocent" thing, because if she really liked some guy named Drew . . . somebody really felt awful when that was released.

Or say, Christina Perri's "Jar of Hearts".

I love that song, too. Actually, it seems like I've been living some of the songs from "Lovestrong" lately, but that's slightly irrelevant. 

If you watch the music video, it's heartbreaking, but beautiful in a bitter, sad sort of way.

It's like she hates him for what he did to her . . . but knows he's going to end up hurt in the end, too.

That guy must feel pretty bad too.

I guess I just feel like I'd have to walk on eggshells around my friend if they were a songwriter - I wouldn't want to end up the butt of a song.

Though, in a way, I guess it's sort of a nod: they meant enough to them that they wrote a song about them.

Anyway, it's just interesting.

And sad.

And sweet, sometimes.