NJHSA Choir Performance at Pascack Bible Church
Friday the NJSHA Choir performed at Pascack Bible Church (PBC) in Hillsdale, NJ. They recently returned from a European tour. I heard them give a Christmas performance to raise money for their trip. I remember they were good but I had forgotten how good until I heard them again Friday night.
The performance was excellent, the young men and women were exceptionally talented. To say the performance was priceless would be and understatement. They sang with superb harmony, melody, and all the other musical terms that a critic can use to rate a performance. Most of all they sang with a joy and exuberance that made me smile.
Several of the songs really stood out to me. “Paru parong Bukid” was a song about a young girl in a new dress who was having trouble paying attention in church. The emphasis put into the music made me think about the conflict in her mind as she fought to not think about the dress but to focus on the church service. It brought to mind memories and thoughts that made me smile from ear to ear. Sort of like being at the office at 4PM on beautiful friday afternoon.
“I Sing the Mighty Power of God” is a favorite song of mine and the vigor and technical skill it was sung with added power and meaing to the words. It was a marvelous opening to the line up of songs.
The YouTube videos don’t do the songs justice but they are an excellent reminder of a wonderful performance and the emotions that they stirred up by hearing them. Thanks to jgreendyk for posting them. You can find the rest of the videos of the performance as PBC (Pascack Bible Church) on this YouTube channel
Protected: Life Caught In Time
There are lives caught in time. My life progresses when the life of those who have died are stopped in time. There are no memories to be added to their life and there are only memories to forget.
Friday evening was the performance of the New Jersey Home School Association choir performance at Pascack Bible Church. It wasn’t my plan to go but for some strange reason I put it into my phone calendar the week before after it was announced. Friday arrived and I was surprised to see it on the calendar. Without any better plans, I went.
The performance was excellent, the young men and women were exceptionally talented. To say the performance was priceless would be and understatement. They sang with superb harmony, melody, and all the other musical terms that rate a performance. Most of all they sang with a joy and exuberance that made me smile.
Several of the songs really stood out to me. “Paru parong Bukid” was about a young girl in a new dress who was having trouble paying attention in church. The emphasis put into the music made me think about the conflict in her mind as she fought to not think about the dress but to focus on the church service. It brought to mind memories and thoughts that made me smile from ear to ear. The YouTube video doesn’t do the song justice but it is a good reminder of the thoughts and emotions the song stirred up.
“I Sing the Mighty Power of God” was a favorite song. It was sung with vocal skill and excellence. It was a marvelous opening to the line up of songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=PUE4tWrEscE
What does this have to do with Steve Lauzon? As I sat looking into the smiling faces of the young people performing I remembered how skilled and bright he was. He was about the age as most of those young performers before he cut short his own life. A life that remains in my mind but will never be any longer and will only fade as memories tend to fade.
(Real) Stargate built in backyard
Hack A Day had this wonderful link filed under “misc hacks” that shows a home made stargate along with an amateur action video. Check out the page for more details.
If you happen to think this is pretty cool then check out this Stargate themed merchandise from Cafe Press.
Kinda wish my birthday was coming up soon because the geek is sexy shirt and the stargate shirt are awesome. I wonder if I can get this as a shirt instead?
Running With The Fireflies
Through the dark,
under lofty tree tops,
across the night shadows
cast by the moon and the stars,
I ran.
The temperature,
wasn’t hot or even all that cold.
Invigorating, it spurred me on.
I ran.
Everywhere,
and yet nowhere.
The fireflies teased me with light,
Left, right, no… straight ahead,
Keep up, run faster if you can.
I run…
…. as fast as I can.
Running With The Fireflies by Jared Bratu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Thoughts of a Gmail Convert
Recently I converted my mail client from Lotus Notes to Gmail. Sure, I had a Gmail address but only so I could enjoy the benefits of Google Wave and Google Voice.
Lotus Notes has always had a soft spot in my geek heart because it pioneered mail file replication and provided advanced search queries. Unfortunately it lacked in a streamlined client and to run a Domino server for myself just wasn’t feasible.
Google Apps promised a solution to cover my email, scheduling, and more for only $50/yr. Considering an Exchange account from 1and1 is almost $84/yr the trade up to Google Apps seemed attractive considering all of the features available.
My initial evaluation of the Gmail interface have been surprising, negatively surprising. This isn’t a gripe session and overall I’m impressed with Gmail and Google Apps but I’m shocked at the lack of certain features.
Notably, how to keep labeled items out of the inbox. Thanks to David Tan for demonstrating the magical setup of filters to arrange the inbox.
Gmail supports Active Sync for connecting my outlook data to Windows Mobile phones but the connector won’t sync my phone tasks with the Gmail tasks.
Oh, and no HTML embedded signatures? Gesh.
One of the advantages to Gmail is the numerous and widely used methods of checking email, POP, IMAP, Webmail, Exchange, Active Sync, etc so in the long run the lack of features in the Gmail interface shouldn’t be a stumbling block.
More to follow as I probe the depths of the Google Apps world.