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  • New Phone

    I got a new phone. I went from iPhone, to old school, rotary dial, free-with-two-year-activiation, slider phone. Why? Because the iPhone plan is $90 a month, that's why. Hopefully this phone will save me at least $40 a month. I still have my 450 minutes a month, and my unlimited texting, and that's all I really need. Plus I got $100 for my iPhone, which is a huge plus. This post is short, but that's the way most like it.

  • I am Demon Hunter. (Now with audio)

     Many of you know that Demon Hunter is (to say the least) my favorite band. A long while ago, I started a post entitled "My Favorite Demon Hunter Songs" but never finished or published it. Well, tonight I looked through Demon Hunter's albums on iTunes, and found the iTunes review (by the people at apple) to be quite puzzling. It's supposed to be a description of the CD that will make people buy the album, but for every DH album reviewed there was something more of a negative listener review posted there instead. Obviously the reviewer is not into good music, because s/he basically talked about how mainstream death metal bands are way better, and how hardcore music is supposed to make depressed and/or angry people feel all the worse. They also went so far as to say that Stryper is the "only well-liked Christian metal band." Really? What an idiot! Anyway, I'm going to attempt to select five Demon Hunter songs that I will call my "favorites" (in no particular order, I assure you) and some reasons behind my love for them. Here goes!
     
    1. A Broken Upper Hand (Demon Hunter): This song is a straight forward letter to Satan and how he'll never take control of me, no matter how hard he tries or how close he gets. The bible says that sin starts in the mind, and that Satan tricks us into sinning by introducing thoughts into our minds that make sense to us, but are really justification for sin. The song begins "Trapped behind my state of mind, I took your words and now I'm blind." The more we believe the thoughts and ideas that Satan puts into our heads, the more we put ourselves in his 'state of mind' and the more likely we are to feel less guilt when we sin. My favorite lyric in this song states "I can't pull away my blank stare, a thousand times should prove I don't care. But hands can't steal the light that makes me, or bring me to the fate that breaks me." The pull of sin is embedded within us as human beings, and in our lifetimes we will give into sin countless times, which should prove to God that we don't care, but because of his graceful forgiveness and our faithful dedication to Jesus, no one, not even Satan himself, can take our salvation away from us.
     
    2. Anihilate The Corrupt (Summer of Darkness): This song is rather depressing, but for a good cause. It opens with the words "Behind the eyes of my compassion lies a suffering soul, and in my blood a bitter darkness slowly taking it's toll. I feel the death of our connection and the fading of light between the shards of sudden panic from choking on my life." Wow. This is a clear statement of how every "outwardly Christian" person is. No matter how happy we appear, no matter how in tune with God we profess to be, we all have our own personal issues to deal with. Yes, being a Christian is intensely fulfilling, and knowing that God forgives our every sin does leave us joyfully fullfilled, but as human beings we tend to hold grudges against ourselves. In Matthew it says that it would be hypocritical to ask God to forgive our sins if we hadn't forgiven those who've sinned against us. This includes ourselves. Satan knows us very well, and he uses the guilt caused by our sins against us in a way that keeps us from asking forgiveness (or makes us beg for it when all we have to do is ask) which either keeps us from forgiving ourselves, or makes us think that we cannot be forgiven. The song continues with the prayer "I can't breathe alone. You can guide me home." This is a statement of complete surrender. To me it says, "God, without you I can't so much as breathe. Guide me towards you." Amen?
     
    3. Fire to My Soul (The Triptych): Not only is this one of Demon Hunter's best sounding songs, it also holds a deep meaning. The instrumentals are brutal, rythmic, melodic, and harmonic all at the same time, and the vocals are done in classic DH fashion ranging from hard and heavy to slow and poetic. The song is about how we shut God out of our lives by completely ignoring him and going with the flow of our world-taught instinct instead, only to realize in hindsight of our poor decisions that God was telling us not to go through the door that we're now trapped on the wrong side of. This song is one of my favorites because if I'm listening to it, I'm totally moshing out from start to finish. Awesome.
     
     
    4. One Thousand Apologies (The Triptych): It's the lyrics of this song that make it a favorite of mine. It's almost as if this song was written by me! I'm sure I've posted the lyrics to this one before, but I'm gonna put 'em here for good measure.
     
    There you stood in disbelief, trying all you could to see through these lies.
    And every word that I could breathe would find you more inclined to leave, but I tried.
    And knowing what I've done to you, with every thought you suffer through
    My heart as black as evil can.
    And everything I could have been, erased by what I wanted then.
    I couldn't think of a lesser man.
     
    Oh, the delicate ways that I deepened our graves; My apology pales.
    Oh, the pain in your eyes! My regrets have never known such sorrow!
    Oh, the shame that you hide! Resolutions are the same tomorrow.
     
    So now I reap what I have sewn, and any rapture I had shown has bled dry.
    And I walked the streets alone, accepting pain I'd never known, as you died.
    Then I hurt myself to see it too, to feel the knife I put in you;
    My heart as broken as my ways.
    I never should've let it pass! This fall was never meant to last!
    The reason's gone, the damage stays.
     
    Wow. That's so deep, and so close to home, I can't help but love it.
     
    5. Thorns (Storm The Gates Of Hell): Most deffinately one of my favorites, this song is sung slowly, leaving it's meaning in plain view for every listener to hear. I love singing along to this song, and my favorite lyric is "Sister, don't you sleep through your own eulogy. Don't sever what you are for what you couldn't be." Think about that. What is a eulogy? it's what a pastor, priest, or perhaps close friend or relative says about the person you were at your funeral. It provokes the thought of what your eulogist will say at your funeral. A eulogy contains all the high points, the good memories, and the positive aspects of one's lifetime. The times in one's life that positively affected the speaker, and perhaps the audience. Are you going to "sleep through your own eulogy" or are you going to make something of yourself and your faith that will reverberate through the lives of the people around you? "Don't sever what you are for what you couldn't be." Don't try and be something your not, because the people who truely care about you care about the real you, not the person you wish you were.
     
    Well, there you have it. It was extremely difficult to choose a mere five DH songs that hold special meaning to me, and for the record, this post took me three days to complete. Every one of their songs is absolutly amazing, both in sound and in meaning, and I highly recommend all of their work to anyone looking to mosh for Jesus. Perhaps later I'll post a "top ten" list of my favorite Christian songs of all time. It'll be a difficult ten, but I think any readers I may have might get to know me better through it. Until then, thanks for reading.

  • Food Science!

    image1250098458.jpgWe just made "jello shots" with clear, unflavored gelatin and peppermint shnopps! I'm excited! They're so fun to jiggle, and they're shaped like ice cubes (we put the mixture into ice cube trays). They taste alright, not as good as I'd hoped, but they're clear and minty. Like edible mint ballistics gel!
     
    Recipie:
     

    1 1oz package Knox® unflavored gelatin

    1 cup boiling water

    6 Tbsp. cold water

    5 oz peppermint schnapps


    Mix all ingredients together in a pitcher, pour into cups, refrigerate.
     
    I was kind of hoping they'd turn out a little clearer, and a with a stronger mint flavor, but they turned out slightly opaque and the mint flavor wasn't as intense as I'd hoped. The cool thing was that they set in about 15 minutes (maybe less). I had a few of them last night, and one this morning (to check the difference in taste and consistancy over time) and they were much stiffer and less minty after sitting in the fridge overnight. I bought two packages of Knox Gelatine (after a serious mishap occured with the first) so next time I might change it up a little. Maybe I'll use Aftershock, or maybe substitute fruit juice for the water and use regular vodka (or maybe 190 proof Everclear, if I can get some). I'd really like to try using champagne or maybe ginger ale to see if it comes out with a sort of carbonated, bubbly look/texture.

  • The Art and the Artist

    The Art:

    sean winter

     sean award

     sean fish

     Sean flowers

     sean leaves

    The Artist:

    IMG_0521

    Sean (he’s 8)

  • "When you say you're having a hard time finding a church your comfortable with, I absolutely know what you mean. I've been to many churches all over the country, and the differences between the denominations of Christianity are often as simple as the color of the pews! All this banter between Catholics and Protestants and Lutherans, etc, like they're backing their favorite football team is ridiculous, and finding a church that doesn't participate in such petty arguments can be difficult. I, however, have been blessed to be a part of the congregation at my church for about 15 years now. It's a "community" church that calls itself "non-denominational" and focuses on studying the bible, worshiping God, and representing Him in all that you do. The pastor teaches us about what the bible says rather than preaching the doctrines of a specific denomination. I couldn't be more pleased with my church because no matter how you choose to go about worshiping God, it's all about what your doing, not how your doing it."
     
    --Josh Peterson--

  • Word of the day:

    Diindolylmethane (pronounciation: Who the hec knows?). It's some sort of chemical that I've heard has some potent anti cancer properties, and is found in broccoli. But who cares what it is? That word is AWESOME.

  • My Brother

    IMG_0206

    This my brother Ryan. Awesome.

  • Saint Paul!

    Adam and I are in downtown Saint Paul for tonight's Wild matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets, and seeing as our arrival time was all of four hours before the game's scheduled start time, we parked a ways from the Xcel Center and began taking in the beautiful sights and sounds of our state's capital city. We decided to stop by Chipotle for a quick bite before the game, knowing full well the food at the game would be out-of-the-question expensive. It was my first time eating at Chipotle (at least in a long, long while) and I made note of my inexperience as a Chipotle customer to the barista, and she served us up for free! After a good helping of delecious tacos (and a brisk walk towards the nearest bathroom to forcefully expell them out the other side) we walked back to where we parked to visit Golden Leaf Tobacco in hopes of finding a quick, cheap smoke and perhaps some conversation. What we found was a catered event slash Rocky Patel sale! After getting a Budweiser American Ale, and a Rocky Patel Edge maduro for cheap, Adam and I headed for the lounge to smoke and found ourselves in the presence of two guys dressed in high-life casual clothing, smoking premium cigars, sipping burbon and discussing sports, the stock market, yahting and sailing (hardly a conversation either of us could chime in on, but it was fun to listen). Once we finished our cigars, we walked over to the Xcel, and here we sit, near the very top in the corner (the best seats in the house if you ask me) waiting for the game to commence. Go Wild!!!


    [Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

    The game was awesome. Lots of great hits, some fantastic puck work, and one guy was carried out on a stretcher as the ice cleaning crew scraped up the pool of frozen blood off the ice. I hope he's alright! We won 2-0, and Josh Harding (who's way better than Niklas Backstrom) was in for the second half of the game. Afterward, we headed back to the cigar lounge to celebrate. What an awesome day!

    [Posted with Xanga editor from my computer]

  • Todays Agenda

    8:30am: Wake up
    9:30am: Pick up Adam and drive out to Saint Paul
    10:30am-11:00am: Wait in line at the Xcel Energy Center
    11:15am-12:15pm: Watch the Wild practice
    12:30pm-4:30pm: Tear the catalytic converter out of my car and attempt to salvage it
    5:00pm-6:15pm: Church
    6:30pm-7:45pm: Birthday Dinner at the Olive Garden!!!
    8:30pm: Crash out

  • An Update

    Hey guys. Not a whole lot going on here. The kids went back to school today. Heather started 10th grade, Taylor started 4th grade, and Sean started 2nd grade. Finally, peace on a week-daily basis! Last night Chris, our landlord, came over and said we had been given a second citation (I didn't know there was a first!) from the management company. Apparently these apartments are only allowed four people each, and we've been written up for housing five. The second was a neighbor complaint. Evidently Sean, in an extroverted state of pre-pubescence, was making too much noise while playing outside (reiteration: outside) for some ignoramus in one of the other buildings. Chris said he explained to the man how "boys will be boys", and told him to quit with the bitching, but he apparently contacted the management company with his complaint, so there was no way around the citation. He's going to attempt to convince the owners that one of us is just visiting, but if they don't buy it we may have a bit of a situation on our hands. I'm not too worried though. Over the past couple of years I've proven myself to be a master of flying by the seat of my pants, and remaining apathetic to any mishaps may come up as a result. At any rate, Titanic is still a terrible movie, Velveeta is still among my favorite foods, and the one thing that depresses me the most is that my road trip timer is going off and I can't afford to hit the snooze. Until next time, peace.