I haven't blogged in a while... in fact i haven't really used myspace at all... and yet i get quite a few visitors on a weekly basis... so i figure i'll post something that has interested me of late... this snippet is from a devotional that i'm going through... i found it really interesting... the author quotes this from a Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

"I say that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing 'ourselves' to talk to us!  Do you realize that this means?  I suggest  that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self.  Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical?  Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?  Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning.  You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.  Somebody is talking.  Who is talking to you?  Your self is talking to you.  Now [the psalmist's] treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself.  'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' he asks.  His soul had been depressing him, crushin him.  So he stands up and says: 'Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you... Why art thou cast down? - What business have you to be disquieted?' ...And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who He is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God pledged Himself to do.  Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: 'I shall prain Him for the help of His countenance.'"
"What a powerful concept!  Speak to yourself instead of allowing your condemning and worrying self to speak to you."

so i was at the Hillsong United concert in toronto this evening up in the balcony to avoid the chaos of being squished in with 5000 other people... and low and behold i see tim and casey jo from the much vj search there... very strange... that's my story... back to paper writing.... adios.

so today marks the one year anniversary of my relationship with amanda lammers!!

.adios.

i was checking my blog views today and i see that i've had quite a bit of views this week... i'm surprised that people are still looking at my blogs considering that i haven't posted one in a long time... a lot of has transpired in the last 5 or 6 months... needless to say i've been down and around and now find myself doing quite well despite the craziness of everyday life's stresses and troubles... well up to current events i find myself sitting down in the studio just finishing up my drum takes for Good Evening Empire... i must say that i am quite happy with my takes... at the moment Dyk is laying down his tracks... they are sounding quite well also... the more exciting event that is to come this evening is our very anticipated trip to the Mongolian Grill... i had my first experience at the mongolian grill last week as i was in kitchener recording with another band that i am apart of Almost the Answer... and i must say that it has become my favourite restaurant of all the places i've eaten in my short lifetime... speaking of lifetime... next sunday i turn a meager 23 years old... how time flies... i have to say looking back over 23 years... minus the first 4 or so that are a mystery... my life has been good... had it's ups and downs... but i don't have any regrets... and i have great anticipations for the years to come... i've met some cool people... and made some great friends... i've help create some beautiful music and continue to do so... i'm in a great relationship and i have an awsome caring family... i guess this blog is somewhat of a extremely brief look back as i turn another year older... anyway... back to the studio... adios.

things are... o.k. ... actually... things are good. adios.

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so my quest to get some food was foiled by tornado warnings and flooding... boo-urns... but that's kinda exciting... apparently parts of brampton were flooded about up to the knees... oh brampton... there's still some excitement in you yet!... couple weeks till school! adios.

there's a crazy ass storm going on outside... it's exciting... well... kinda... i'm hungry... maybe i'll go out and get some food... that's an exciting thought... adios.

well right now i'm at work and it's pretty slow... we're doing a trade show at the moment... and it's not too shabby... there's lots of nice stuff in all the other booths... it's the CGTA Gift show... (canadian gifts and tableware association?)... anyway it's only for businesses so you can't buy personal things there... but of course some under the table deals go on anyway... right now i'm in the warehouse... the plan is to do some shipping today... but i'm done at 12... which is in 1 and a half hours... not too many hours there... which kind of sucks... but there's not much work to be done and i don't really know the inventory well enough to sell stuff at the trade show... so my plan is to brush up on my knowledge of product and sell... this is not the purpose of my blog... i'm just expressing my current thoughts... basically... i have a lot of free time right now... and seeing as my last blog talked about blogging more frequently i figured this would be a good place to start... what i've been thinking about lately is "goals" and their importance... i was having coffee with a friend of mine the other day and she expressed her concern that she didn't want to be stuck in her place of employment ten years down the road, fearing that she would be just like some of her co workers who are 40 and have been working fast food for the past 12 years... so naturally i asked her... "well where do you want to be in ten years?" and she responded with a pause... a puzzled look... and an i don't know... in highschool and even now... i've always had a hard time with "big questions" more so about myself... a few of my friends last year took a philosophy class where they were required to answer big questions... and i remeber thinking how hard it would be for me to answer some of those questions... like... who are my heroes? i don't know... in truth... and sure maybe it's cliche... jesus and my parents... they've left great legacies for me to follow... but back to the point... why is it that you find people who are stuck in one place and never move years down the road... yes i believe that sometimes we are in uncontrollable circumstances... but i believe that part of it has to do with goals... getting back to my friend... i told her that she needs to have a goal in mind... a destination to reach... cause then how will she know where she's going or how to get there... it sounds pretty common sense... yet so many people can't do that... i know it's been a hard thing for me... i am content with life... but in some areas i fail to set concrete goals... or rather reach them... which means that just having goals is not enough... motivation and encouragement are needed to move forward in your goals... this makes me think of a topic of slight controversy that i've had with a few friends... and that's the issue of homeless people... victims of society and uncontrollable situations... or... people with no goal or purpose... i'm reminded of a friend kara dee's post on people coasting through life... that sometimes comes out of complacincy, not caring... and hopelessness... these cause us to just stay where we are... to "coast" through life with no purpose... a homeless person asks for a dollar... do we just give him it and feed his hopelessness... or do we speak an encouraging word to him... find out where he sees himself in ten years... and make that thought excite him... perhaps even telling him where he can be in ten years... i don't know if i'm running off on a tangent... but i'm gonna end it here... cause my slow work day has suddenly picked up... just some thoughts... adios.