Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to one and all :-D Though Christ probably wasn't born today its still a joyous occasion in any event.

Right now I'm looking at my "adopted" family here in Trinidad as we go through the final preps for Christmas dinner. Hulk (the potung (read pot hound/mixed breed dog) is outside the screen door waiting for a chance to buss inside, ..and oh mi gosh so said so done. Excuse while I remove the little varmint.

Anyway, so Hulk is AGAIN outside, the noise of the electric knife cutting the turkey is not so much competing as beating down the Christmas carols on the radio, and the christmas tree lights are winking behind me. It's been an extremely blessed season and I look forward to conquering even bigger challenges and seeing myself grow even more. I wish the same for you and your family at this time and in the year coming.

Instructions on Love (The 3 step process)

Three steps for maintaining that glow of love:

Step 1) Love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind (Dat mean yuh gwine talk an walk wid 'Im everyday an' doh mek 'Im jealous a si yuh ah fren up wid no fake god).

Step 2) Love your neighbour as yourself (no dis don' mean seh yuh mus' buy 'im a pair of evryting whe yuh have) .

Step 3) Love your enemies and bless those who curse you (God bless yuh Mr bad drivah, ah will invest in some driving lessons fi yuh so me an you will get wi legal license ah di same time).

There you have it, three steps on the use of love for the modern human. Please tune in later for tips on how to gain it, keep it and the benefits of it.


*All steps original property and copyright of God made available for unlimited P2P sharing and downloading free of charge.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Elaine from Simmysed. While she may have come offline it was only to make her dreams and writings reality. May you and your new husband be blessed and continue to grow in God's love.

Food for life

I was reminded of the promises and benefits as well as all the curses that would fall on the believer if he/she was obedient /disobedient in keeping the laws of God as given to Moses. (Deuteronomy 28) Some of the least of the promises include blessings for the fruit of our body (children), a surplus of prosperity and the defeat of our enemies in front of our very faces.

The curses I should have realized would be on an equally large scale. Even after death we would not be safe. From confusion and rebuke in every enterprise that we set our hands, consumption and boils, our dead bodies eaten by birds, to being oppressed and robbed continually. The land too would suffer considerably.

Trust me, a very sobering read.

Thankfully we know that Christ came to free us from this law by being a living sacrifice for us(Romans 8), for all the things we had, could and would do against God and each other. Freedom not to go do more of the same but freedom from the things we would and could do. Many times we forget that we are already free from that burden and try to pick it up again. Bad idea. The devil already knows God's word doesn't change and is only too happy to remind us of the curses while obscuring Christ's sacrifice.

The thing to remember is that the curses and promises will remain. They won't go away. But once we believe and move in accordance with Christ we have even more grace, power and healing than was ever detailed by the law. There is hope!

So much to say

I have so much to say and yet so little of it bears relevance to anything worthwhile that you might want to know.

The main thing is that I am born again and re accepted Christ in my life several months ago. The changes to date have been nothing short of amazing on every level.

I try to remember if there was this level of gladness in me when I first made that decision long ago but I don't think so. At the least I don't see where I had gone through as many storms as now to make the transition so marked.

The only other point of great note is that this change has no impact on the frequency on my posts. Sorry, can't win them all.

Point of view

On the upside this semester's exam results look a whole lot better than last semester.

On the downside I haven't swum since October last year .

Yes I have strange way of seeing the world.

update 2

yow dat last exam breed me. Nah lie. Score writing for SATB parts bites. Oh well. No way to know for sure until end of May. Only one left hooray!!

Happier news, summer job has been secured starting friday. Yes I'll be staying in di ppl dem country. I am sooooooooooooo looking forward to beach now.

Update

Quick update,

1)Two exams down , two to go
2)Hoping to get a call back later this week on a summer job
3)Beach trip and general country outing this weekend

Recession

Its official, I am a victim of recession. My hairline has moved so far back in my head I'm wondering if I shouldn't do an automatic lean forward just so people can see that I'm not some kind of alien.

Does it ever grow back on it's own? Hey I bet you sales of Rogaine have not been affected by this recession. They probably have increased sales if anything.

A big part of the problem is my hairstyle. I interlock my hair and the roots don't like that. At least the people who just palm roll their locks don't seem to be affected by the recession. Let me try that option first before I go full out and chop it all off. Be warned however, if that doesn't work, Mel shall be going back to her roots, and only her roots so help her God.

Update

Okay, so I've calmed down now. I'll go back to them next year. It was a great experience overall and I made some new friends and contacts.

In the meantime, where does the semester fly?I have a concert this weekend to perform in. (Marimbas, rainsticks, castanets and claves) then presentation the next week and assessment who knows when.Then I hear the department has a mandatory performance at the end of the semester. Thank goodness for teachers who actually realize that students need schedules IN ADVANCE so they can plan their activities. I can't even say that the three holidays help since school will be closed and I won't get to practice on actual instruments. Yes I said three, Trinidad has Shouter Baptist Liberation Day on the 30th of this month plus Good Friday and Easter Monday.

And for all those who thought I was mad, playing on air pans is in fact excellent practice. I've also been introduced to beating a pillow by my drumkit teacher. The logic behind that one is that you will develop wrist strength from being forced to play correctly on something that has absolutely no bounce.

TCCCCHHHHHH!!!!

Soooooo..... I am not impressed by the attitude I saw displayed at Panorama.

Essentially after all the big lead up with the full white suits (hat/jacket/pants/shoes) and fireworks and months of practice we lost bad bad bad. Shameful bad.

The losing is not the problem, is how we lost and the way that the loss was dealt with that leave me shaking my head.

Simply put we came 6th out of 8 bands. We were the second band to perform on stage for finals and after semi finals we were ranked number 2 so we were in a good position. The rules stated there should be no more than 100 players. In order to avoid total disqualification the manager had to go (on stage) and remove sticks from players. An entire rack was told not to play in addition to players at the back. Obviously, there was an overabundance of players. A total flaunting of the rules.

When yuh get ketch wid yuh pants down , don' blame di person who ketch yuh fuh having eyes in dem head. Is you mek di mistake. Why then do you want to blame the organising body and say that they have it in for you? Why screw up yuh face and mutter about how you hope they check this band an dat band?

(Shakes head) "Tief nevah like fi si tief wid long bag" . The mood was very sour that night. The only consolation was that an underdog took the title. Congratulations to Silver Stars. I still enjoyed the experience and am thankful that I actually got a chance to play, but I am reconsidering who I play with next year.

Las' Lap

Tonight is the final practice before Panorama Finals tomorrow evening. We drew playing position numero dos so I'll get an opportunity to hear some of the other bands this time.

Hopefully there will not be a repeat of Panorama semis. Why you may wonder? Well lets see, the engine room was jamming so hard that the baffle (plastic sound reflecting board) above them, fell on top of the congos and the scratcher player and me. In doing so it cut the string on my left pan so I was playing a single double tenor. Yeah, just a regular day for super chick.

I am definitely looking forward to the competition.
http://www.panonthenet.com/tnt/2009/tunes/festival.htm You can check the link for the song that we're playing. Honestly the pan version is incredibly better.

Right, so I'm leaving. Keep your ears tuned to the web and your eyes to the blogosphere.

Results

We came second. Two points separate us from the leader of the pack.

At this stage every little thing seems crucial.

Panorama Semis

As of this moment I am still waiting to hear the results.

If you follow the man on the street or the commentators on the radio then Exodus took it by storm.

No one can really prepare you for the experience of participating in a panorama. I can safely say though that it is an AWESOME experience!

If you have ever participated in a major street jam say an Independence Day parade or a carnival street parade then you can start to get a feel of the vibe. Hundreds of persons beside/in front/behind/near to each other and you on a rack jumping up and down like a jumbie , a little raised creature on a pedestal.

Its very easy to see why artistes get high of their own egos cause trus' mi. I ain't reach nowhere an all me getting nuff love an hype from fanatics. LOLOL, an dese pan ppl have some diehard supporters. We joke about our little "groupies" but when yuh see ppl man woman child in your jerseys an who have on di batty ridah shorts and who have on di muscle shirt an all dem waan kno seh yuh play wid Exodus?? Craziness. These ppl are there only becuase THE BAND deh deh. Dem doan waan nuttn more dan dat. An dem doh hf to be drunk neida. Dem doan care bout no music from nobaddy else, dem doan care bout where dem live, or which a dem fambly playing where from how long. Dey is X.O fanatics an dem blood run black an white (Exodus colours)

Part of the fun for me was having to push the racks (think trolleys) around the Savannah to reach the judging stage. I have passed there numerous times by car and I am still flabbergasted to realize how far I was walking, and to a judging point no less!! Anyways, it was fun cause intermittently we would stop and the drill master would beat the tock tock/cowbell/pans and we'd all climb back on and start to practise again. An everytime yuh play, is more ppl dat jumping up to yuh song. An more, an more . An den yuh reach near the stage (An by dis time it well dark eh) and yuh hear the radio version of your song being played over and over on the loudspeakers an yuh realize.. "wait, it have more ppl out dere?"

And then, the last push up the stage and you finally see... grandstands front and behind and its a stadium full of ppl welcoming you home.

(Finals are the 21st of this month. I will try an post more highlights as we go along but the best thing really is just buy a ticket an reach)

Seh Wah?

So we supposed to start learning the actual Panorama chune Monday, great!!

and den di arranger drop di bomb. He fine dat we going too slow. All dis learning from score an ting tekkin too long. Dis one tek half hour, an dat one tek 45mins an den we ain't learn di chune yet.

Nah!! He going bak to di ole time days. He coming an teach each section by heself...

All yuh... when mi drap down ded inna di panyard from drilling please fi tell mi breddah seh mi did ded wid a smile pan mi face.

Nice too bad.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year all!!

So far I've passed all my courses and I started practice with Exodus on Monday. Seeker I got the confirmation, we're actually learning bomb tunes for the road on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

It's a GREAT start to the new year. :-D