Don't Lose Your Way

Ever feel like quitting life?

Don't Lose Your Way

Don't lose your way with each passing day
You've come so far, don't throw it away
Live believing, dreams are for weaving
Wonders are waiting to start
Live your story, Faith hope and glory
Hold to the truth in your heart

If we hold on together
I know our dreams will never die
Dreams see us through to forever
Where clouds roll by, for you and I

Souls in the wind must learn how to bend
Seek out a star, hold on 'til the end
Valley, mountain, there is a fountain
Washes our tears all away
Worlds are swaying, someone is praying
Please let them come home to stay

If we hold on together
I know our dreams will never die
Dreams see us through to forever
Where clouds roll by, for you and I

When we are out there in the dark
We'll dream about the sun
In the dark, we'll feel the light
Warm our hearts … Everyone

If we hold on together
I know our dreams will never die
Dreams see us through to forever
As high as souls can fly
The clouds roll by, for you and I

Words and Music: James Horner and Will Jennings
From the animated film "The Land Before Time"

Good Music

Lately at work I've been doing my job mostly by myself. Our cleaning crew use to have 14 people, and now we're down to 4. Because of this we don't work in pairs very often anymore. This means four hours of isolation at four o' clock in the morning. If it weren't for my music, I would go crazy.

When I was working with Jenny (she transferred to a later shift), I would sometimes sing out loud. She told me that she missed my singing after her transfer. That made me happy. Anyway, I continue to sing out loud at work. It's one of those random things that help to keep me sane at work.

The other day at work, everyone else clocked out at 8:00, but I was staying until 10:00. People had already come into the building for their classes, but the halls remained fairly empty. I was singing along with my ipod while I pushed a mop bucket down the hall. An older lady turned the corner and started smiling. It wasn't a laughing smile, just a happy smile. She had already heard my singing and I figured it wouldn't embarrass me anymore to keep at it. So I sang until I was within talking distance of her. Before I could wish her a good morning she told me, "You just made my day. Thank you so much." And she continued smiling as she walked down the hall. Good music: keeping people happy, and sane.

*This is just a side note on a few of my favorite songs. Lately I've been enjoying Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas and Leave Out All The Rest by Linkin Park (thanks for that one, Jenny). But my absolute, unchanging favorite song that I will never skip over is If Everyone Cared by Nickelback. That was the song I was singing when I passed the lady in the hall. Nothing can beat good music.

The Double Negative

My Professor for my English Language Usage class shared this story with us. I thought it was funny enough to share with all of you.

A professor for a Language Usage class was teaching his class about double negatives. He explained that in some languages, like Spanish, using more than one negative does not change the meaning; it is still a negative. In English, the double negative can either be used to emphasize the negative, or to create a weak affirmative.

"However, in no language do two positives make a negative."

That's when a student in the back of the room piped up,
"Yeah, right."

Slightly Morbid for Children

This was found on Kids.Woot for 2/25/10
It's referring to a "Pikachu Critter Kite" for children.

Man, if only Ben Franklin had one of these!

Imagine how quickly he could’ve discovered electricity!

No, silly, I don’t think a Jakks Pikachu Critter Kite would have helped ol’ Ben Franklin out. He would’ve been baffled at its design, coloring, and fiberglass/nylon construction materials. No, I’m saying it would’ve been great if Ben Franklin had an actual Pikachu.

Just imagine one of our greatest founding fathers screaming “I CHOOSE YOU!” and hurling his old-timey wooden Pokeball at the British. Yes sir, that little electric rat would’ve fried every last Redcoat he encountered.

Remember that last scene in The Lost World: Jurassic Park? When the boat pulls up to San Diego and there’s nobody on board? Just like a hand holding a controller or something, right? And then they open the boat and the Tyrannosaurus comes rampaging out?

Imagine if Ben Franklin could’ve sent his Pikachu on a boat over to England.

They would fill the cargo hold with captive British soldiers, since I assume electric rats can eat meat. Maybe they’d just fill it with grain, I don’t know. Anyway, that ghost ship would silently pull into port and no one would have a clue until they opened the hold and BLAM! It’d look a lot like that kite up there.

And, y’know, it would’ve helped him discover electricity sooner too.

I Blame the Sleep

I know I have been really bad at this lately, but I'm determined to have at least one post a month. There's so many things that I could write about, I just don't have time. Rather, when I do have time I prefer to spend it catching up on much needed sleep. Waking up at 3:20 every morning for work is getting to be a bit harsh. But I do love my job. My coworkers are great and, even that early in the morning, we still have fun.

My days usually run for about 19 hours, leaving only 5 to sleep. That's my average, but quite frequently I don't even get that much sleep. So I'll nap whenever I can: in between classes, between classes and homework, between homework for different classes, after exercise and a shower. I know that sounds like a lot, but unfortunately those naps are short and few. That's why weekends are so nice. Most Saturdays I don't set any alarm and just sleep, but I'm usually awake by 9 am anyway. Still, that's sleeping in for 5 hours.

I know most of you don't care about my sleeping habits, but I needed something short and sweet to write before my nap ;) Next time I'll write about nicknames, and hopefully it will be better. And hopefully I write more often. We'll see....

Blackberry Bread

I've always really liked cooking and trying out new recipes or trying to invent/modify some of my own (this doesn't always work out too great). I think it's because both of my parents like to cook. I remember being in the kitchen a lot when Mom would cook, usually I would sit on the counter. I don't know if I was in her way, but more often than not I would get to eat some of the batter or dough, or sometimes she would give me a slice of raw potato (I know that sounds weird, but I thought it was good).

I'm discovering different things to make in my crock-pot and, thanks to Dad, I'm also figuring out some really good recipes for rabbit, elk, and venison. Just recently I tried something new, but not by myself, and it turned out to be really good.

Aaron likes to cook, too. And in fact he is a really good cook. Really good. We cook together a lot, or he'll cook and I'll just sit on the sideboard watching him. Either way, it's fun. Friday night we got together with his sister, Heather, and her husband, Jonathan, to play games and bake some bread. Blackberry bread. It was a recipe that none of us had ever tried before. Originally the recipe was for Cherry bread, so we had to change it a little. The recipe called for cherry juice, so we also had to figure out how to make blackberry juice. Like I said, it turned out really well, so I thought I would share the recipe.

Just substitute blackberries for cherries if you want. (I figured this would be easier than typing it all in.)

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cherry-Bread/Detail.aspx

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1079902

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

For those of you who have seen Charlie Brown's Christmas, you will enjoy this post. If you remember when he finds a Christmas tree and picks it up, the pine needles fall off. Of course, because that's just how Charlie Brown is. Well, this year we had a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

We got our tree right after Thanksgiving. We think it was because of that and because we had such a dry summer, it started to die quickly and lose it's pine needles. So we switched it out for our artificial tree. In the process of moving it out, it left a trail of needles covering our floor. It looked like we had a carpet of pine needles.