pending Perfection officially out

So, after 6+ months of working on it, my CD pending Perfection is recorded, mastered, packaged, and as of today, available to the masses and YOU. Yeah, that's a cheesy line, but whatever...


This music isn't for me to make a profit. Even if I had the worst music ever since the band Complete, I would still be doin CDs. I've made these CDs I make my personal ministry, my way of telling my testimony to people. I don't believe that I'm very good at talking publicly, but I know that I have a talent for music, and I believe that telling people my story to music is the best way possible :). This CD is, in every way better than my last CD, not that it sucked, but I've matured and gotten better in every way since a year ago.


As far as paying for it, I've not put a solid price tag on it. Honestly, you pay however much you want to support my music and ministry, if you just can't decide what to give, something like $5 or $6 would be fine. Truly, I want this music to get to everyone I can that wants to hear it.


All the info on the CD and future shows are on my Facebook page, which the link is below. Have a good week :)


http://www.facebook.com/theredheadmusic

Stream of thought

I have something to say, that's gonna make me sound silly and immature. What the heck...




im gonna share my life with a woman that God has put in my life and said this is good and that ive fallen in love with and that is amazingly beautiful that can put up with me and all my weird habits and absurdities and immaturities and awkwardness. how is this possible. i don't know but OMG I'M SO FREAKIN EXCITED FOR THISSSSSS






that is all

Right, so that whole fancy proposal thing...

First of all, NOBODY KNEW WHEN I WAS GONNA PROPOSE. I only knew 5 minutes before. So all of you that are bummed that I didn't tell you before, too bad :). So this is how it went down...




I am not good at keeping surprises, and Jessica loves them. So obviously I had to plan this whole extravagant sequence of events that would culminate into us being somewhere absolutely beautiful and memorable, and that would be the point I would get on one knee and ask her to marry me. And that's exactly what I did NOT do. Why? Because she would be expecting that. Duh. So basically here's the whole story:


I got the ring Sunday around 3, then after church we went to go get some coffee at Starbucks. It was then that I felt the winds of destiny blow through my fingers, and as we walked in the parking lot I got down on one knee in that Starbucks parking lot, and asked her to marry me. She was completely thrown off guard and asked if I was serious, to which I replied yes. She asked me again, and I reminded her that I was sitting on one knee with a ring held up to her. She finally realized that she wasn't dreaming and this was in fact reality, and she said yes. Upon further examining the shiny object I had just put on her finger, she realized that the ring was exactly what she wanted, nothing missing or lacking.




I would like to add one more trivial fact to this blog: when me and Jessica first started our relationship, we wanted to make sure that we would be above reproach and temptation, unless we ever did get engaged. Lippu bet me $30 that I would kiss her before I pulled out a ring, and last night he was proven wrong, and I was vindicated. 


For the record, waiting that long was totally worth it.

Faces are like fingerprints

I'm taking a minute out of recording to write. I have a sudden urge to write.


The following will either sound really self-centered, selfish, or funny: I looked at my resume yesterday and impressed myself. I don't really know if that's okay to say, but I kinda did. I forget sometimes the magnitude of what I've done in the last three years alone. I kinda just do it and when I'm done with that, go off in the other direction. Not necessarily a motivational booster but a reflection on the past.


This CD is going to be my soul on a platter. I even have a song called my soul be all that's left! Geez. The whole concept of this CD is that it's telling a story, and I'm not really hiding anything between the listener and the message. Pretty crazy. Though I would love if I were more skilled at what I do, I'm having to re-record stuff over and over because what I think sounded good, doesn't cut it two days later. Maybe I'm really overanalyzing this.


Smelling vanilla candles is like letting cotton candy melt in your mouth.


I miss Fresno. It's much colder there than here in Sacramento. 


Faces are the most expressive things in the world. It's so uniform, yet the emotions we put in them make them completely unique. Almost like a fingerprint.




Well that's all the random thoughts that I had for now, thanks for reading

I have accomplished something.

So, basically since I've had my own internet connection, I've been addicted to blogging. I had to get everything written out, it was one of my creative outlets. If I didn't blog within a week I felt empty and lonely. When I didn't blog for over a week I would cry myself to sleep. And when nobody commented my blogs I pouted and sulked and plotted to seek revenge and create the best blog in the world.


But now, I do believe that I've broken the hardcoreness of blogging, that is to say, I don't babble about my life. When I post something it's usually with a real focus, or a small update on life.If you care, I hope you're happy. If you don't, then neither do I.


Next goal for life: go to bed at a decent time.

In 1909...

1909 FORD Model R

THE YEAR 1909

This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine! 

The year is 1909. One hundred years ago 

What a difference a century makes! 

Here are some statistics for the Year 1909:

------------------------------------------------------------------

The average life expectancy was 47 years

Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone

There were only 8,000 cars and only

144 miles of paved roads

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower

The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour

The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year

A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME

Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!

Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard'

Sugar cost four cents a pound

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound

Most women only washed their hair  once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

Five leading causes of death were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza 

2. Tuberculosis

3. Diarrhea

4. Heart disease 

5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day

Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind,regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."

(Shocking? DUH!)

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!

So not the glamour

I think I've found myself to be an anomaly. Someone that *possibly*, *genuinely* stands out from the crowd and does something completely different. And for the right intentions. Really, how many people have come up to you and said I don't want to be famous?

I'm in the mastering part of my 4th CD (putting the finishing touches on it EQ and effects wise), I'm listening to my music, and so are other people and they're saying that I have talent. Not just like as a compliment; people are wanting to put me on iTunes. They're wanting to pay for my CD, instead of me asking them. This is really weird for me. I'm actually good. I mean I didn't think I sucked, I know that I can play music well. But, there's a difference between playing music, and playing music you wrote, even writing good music! And I'm slightly uncomfortable about that.

This is my music, to me: my own story, with a soundtrack and creatively crafted words, in a hope to tell you my passions, my struggles, and the things that inspire me with hope, joy, love, strength, perseverance, and faith in what I believe in. Each song, and each album, is a picture of my heart, a summary of my life at that moment in time. To have you listen to a song or the whole thing means more than I probably could hope for. Writing these songs into a comprehensive format, and then going through the steps to recording them, is enough for me. I kind of feel like it's turning into this drug now, I've planned out in my head that I'll release a CD every year, as a sort of balance to my life. My main reason why I will demand to make a recording studio in my house when I get one.

I also consider these CDs I make to be my own personal ministry. This CD I'm making has the first real songs that I've written to/about God before. Not that all my songs have been secular, but on some of these tracks I am very clear about what I'm singing about. So on my music, I've done my best to keep it accessible as possible.

If you take all that into account, you may be able to see why I give this music out for free. The purpose of my music is to share and inspire, not to make a career out of what I create or to market this. That comes into conflict with people, because the response I get from that is, "Well if you spend so much time and effort on it then why don't you get some money for it too?"

Questions like that have found relevancy in my brain. So I am adopting a 'donation' price on this CD: if you want to give $5, awesome. If you want to give $15, even better. If you wanna give a quarter, that's cool too! Basically anybody that wants the CD pays whatever they want for it. My goal for this idea is to get it to people who really want it, as accessible as possible. I won't be giving it away for free, but I'm pretty certain that this pricing system comes off honest. If not, let me know, seriously, I don't know how much more lower I can go :).

So, these are my general thoughts on what's going on with my music. Like my music, my process of recording and distributing and such is constantly evolving. 

Whine, Complain, Repeat

I am a huge Google supporter. And I have a bone to pick with the tech community.

The past couple months, Google has been having a outage problem for different reasons, specifically Gmail, and people have been complaining about it, calling it Gfail. The various reasons are that the Google cloud is showing signs of strain, hackers are being jerks, Google isn't using enough of its resources to keep things afloat. Here's my huge, indignant complaint: why are you complaining so much?!?!

Being a huge Google supporter (Gmail, Gdocs, Google Sites, everything else...), I use all of their services without repaying by any monetary way; I allow them to display ads on the pages I use and view. In essence, whenever I have an internet connection, I use what they provide with absolutely no loss to myself, only gain. I am incredibly thankful for what Google provides. To top that off, Google is an amazingly effective and efficient product. Knowing and realizing that, I am slightly inconvenienced but understanding if Google has a couple outages that last an hour or two every once in awhile, barring permanent loss of my data and anything in the future I might pay Google for.

This complaint reaches out to people who not only complain about Google, but anybody who complains about free things on the internet that suffer outages that aren't common. Show a little gratefulness! Fortunately a lot of things on the internet are free since online services operate on ads. And if you weren't aware, it takes a lot of work to get anything running that's free. If you want to complain about something, then support it by paying for it. It's a matter of respect.

There is a certain etiquette to interacting with people and services online, and we need to make sure that we're being fair when we complain. Now I'm not saying at all that we shouldn't voice our complaints about Google or Facebook not working for a couple hours (suppressing frustration is never a good thing), but if you're not able to connect for two hours that doesn't qualify as a fail. This is something I'm guilty of in a lot of things when it comes to technology and the internet, but it still needs to be followed, so that we all achieve a balanced ecosystem in digital reality. So let's be nice to each other and supportive to the companies that give us free things that we eventually find ourselves addicted to :)

Worship

I believe worship is a lifestyle that is cultivated out of a true, authentic surrendering to God. To no one's surprise I love to worship Him most by praising Him in music, it's my passion. Let me define to you what exactly that is.


When I worship, I push the world away from me. Before I sing or pick up my guitar to play, I pray to God to inspire me. I come Him, as transparent as I possibly can, and I begin to sing. It doesn't matter what my face or body language says, it doesn't matter what's around me, because in that moment I have surrendered fully to my God, my Redeemer, and my Savior. There is no room for pride or shame in my time of worship.

I call to my God, asking Him to hear me, to shine His face on my feeble act of worship. I call to my God, asking Him to ignore my imperfection as I give my best offering I possibly can to Him. I call to my God, wanting to please Him who made the Heavens and the Earth, not understanding how my act of worship means more than anything to my God.

I praise my God by acknowledging me before I even called His name. I praise Him for the grace that I don't comprehend even though I misuse it every day. I praise Him for every moment of my sinful life, and how He takes the outcast and broken of this world and uses it and makes it new again.

I thank my God for the world I live in, though it is saturated in sin and heading every day toward Armageddon; I thank Him because He found me in this world. thank God for the second chance, the third chance, the unlimited, ever forgiving, unbiased love He has given to me freely when I didn't even know that I needed it. I thank God for the gifts He's given me...music, freedom, my heart's desires...all things that I never could deserve, but He gives as freely as Christ's sacrifice.

I give my God silence, in reverence to His holiness, to His glory, to the mighty and powerful being that He is. I give my God silence, I still my tongue, so that I could hear His voice instead, so that He can enact His will on me, so that His love can change me, so that He can continue to guide me down the path He has prepared for me. I give my God silence, because I have no right to speak in the first place.

This is what I do when I worship, and if it were not for the Great Commission, I would leave the world behind and worship Him every moment I'm alive.

Jesus is Peanut Butter

Alright kids gather round, got a story for you...

So me and my lady Jessica were havin ice cream, I got reeces ice cream, and she got chocolate peanut butter. I looked at our ice cream and I thought, yknow kinda like this ice cream, we're both different, I'm a guy she's a girl, I got vanilla she got chocolate.. But just like the peanut butter, WE BOTH GOT JESUS!

yeah. that's my overtly cheezy inspiration for the day. i'll take my bow now.