I declared a major today at MTSU. 

I consulted with an
advisor that was trained to help me figure out what majors would suit
my interests last week.  I told him that I planned on being a music
minister and that I would like to major in something that would help
with a job that I could fall back on (I am minoring in music at MTSU). 
So when we put all of my interests into proven charts and things he
suggested to me the major of I/O Psychology

Not
only would a job like this pay me well, but I can also use many of the
techniques that I will learn here in counseling for a church or other
things like that.  That's one of the reasons I picked it. 

I
really would concentrate more on the HR part of it dealing with
people's motivation and job satisfaction.  It sounds like fun to me. 
This is very tentative however, and I'm gonna try the waters with an
introductory course next semester as I'm finishing up the last of my
core classes.  Wish me luck!

Oh.  And don't worry.  I'm still making Music Ministry my main goal. 

So I got an incredible gift for Valentine's Day from Steph.  She bought
me a web cam!  It's awesome!  I can sit and talk to Steph or whoever
else has one, as if they were sitting across the room from me.  I've
also been messing around with Windows Movie Maker.  I'm getting the
hang of it and I like it so far.  I might post up some stupid stuff
that I've been working on so far.  We'll see how that goes.  Just
having some fun with effects.  If anyone knows of any free legally
downloadable good video editing software, then let me know.  I'm kinda
having fun with it.  That's about all right now.  I just wanted to say
thanks to my beautiful girlfriend for the awesome gift.


On a more serious note however....my youth group has really been
pushing for revival, and I am lovin every minute of it.  Our youth
group has such a passion for God, and we have just had service after
service of the goodness of the Holy Spirit.  This past Wednesday was
another crazy service, and God did a lot in it.  People were shouting
and flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Lord moved.  It was
kinda weird though.  I felt like I was forcing it.  Like I was trying
to hard to do something that the Lord was supposed to build in me.  I
put myself in check and prayed off in a corner, and at first I thought
that I was just Spiritually flat at the moment and didn't have any more
praise in me, but I've been thinking about it a lot and maybe that's
not it.  The Bible is all about making a joyful noise, and raising your
voice and singing and shouting unto God, but there is also a verse that
I've heard a million times that I've never really thought about
seriously til now, because it's really never applied.  Psalms 46:10
says "Be still, and know that I am God."  Sometimes you don't have to
always be screaming at the top of your lungs to give God praise.  I'm
loud all of the time, so maybe my sacrifice of praise is to just be
quiet.  Correct me if I'm wrong...

So I'm starting to see that I need a different vehicle.  I am under the
impression that my vehicle will cost too much to repair for it's worth,
and that if I could just buy a used one it would end up being a better
situation.  This will probably take a while seeing as how saving enough
for a car is difficult when you are going to school and working at the
same time.  If anyone knows of a good deal let me know.


That's just a little heads up.  As for life....


Work:  I'm trying to work a lot more hours because of the above
mentioned dilemna.  This however hurts my other activities not in the
area of delving into their time slots, but just reducing the amount of
sleep that I get for them.  I am trying to work on those sleeping
habits though.


School:  School is just really...boring.  I'm not taking any classes
that really interest me right now, because I really need to start
getting rid of all my core classes.  I do enjoy learning about theory
though.  Learning fixed solfege is crazy though. 


Church:  I can honestly say that this is one aspect of my life that is
exciting at the moment.  We have been working on the new youth room and
things are really coming together.  Our first service in there was last
Sunday night and it went really well.  We're really trying to make it
our own and watching it take shape is exciting.  I'm believing we're
gonna start packing it out on Sunday nights...


Steph:  Steph and I are doing really good.  In a little more than a
month (March 8) we will be celebrating our 2nd year of dating.  I'm
still just as crazy about her as I was at the beginning. 


God:  I've been really trying to improve our relationship lately.  It's
actually been quite difficult with all of the things I've just
mentioned being in full swing, but that's what my earlier post was
talking about.  God has to have the #1 priority and everything else
should come second.  I'm working on it, and slowly but surely, I think
I'm improving. 


I'm definately learning that sleep doesn't really exist in the world of a working college student.  ;) 


Comments would be cool.

That's a word that I would use to describe...
My life
My priorities
My time management
My room ;)


I think it's time for me to advance, grow up, and get to straightening things up. Anyone else going through something similar?

I don't know if you've seen the movie The Mask, but at the beginning it
shows a guy who is just having a rough day.  He gets ripped off by the
car repair men for unnecessary repair, he gets kicked out of a club,
get's a puddle splashed on him, his rental car breaks down on a bridge,
and then it starts raining.....then he finds the mask.


Now that past couple of days have really not been that great for me.  I
won't go into details, because then this would just be a gloomy blog. 
Instead I want to share with you some blessings that God has done the
past couple of days.


Yesterday I had had a long day, and it was about time for work to
start.  Now recently, because of school and other circumstances, I am
extremely low on cash causing a need for me to make my dinner for
work.  I made a sack lunch, and it honestly just looked terrible.  I
made it quickly, and it really wouldn't have satisfied me.  Well, when
I showed up to work that night, I ended up getting to train someone! 
This means that I not only get a higher hourly pay, but I also get a
free meal!  That was totally a God thing. 


Now today hasn't been the best day either, but one thing that really
had me worried was my theory class.  Today was our first lesson, and
already we are told to begin memorizing fixed solfage where every note
on the piano has it's own syllable (sharps and flats are different). 
This can be done, but since we are required to obtain the textbook by
tomorrow, I was in a real jam, because of the above mentioned pickle. 
I didn't have much money at all, and I was sure the book was
expensive.  Well, I ended up going to the bookstore to see what the
damage would be, and how much money I would need to acquire, and the
book ended up being surprising inexpensive, and I could afford it right
there.


It's funny how we don't notice the little things like that unless it's
in the middle of a bad day.  I want to start counting my blessings a
little more closely now. 

So today a friend of mine and I decided that the only way we would get
motivated enough to work out is to work out with a buddy (maybe that's
just me, but you can't deny that a spotter makes things a lot easier),
and we also came to the conclusion that with our schedules, the best
time to do this would be at 6:30 am at the rec center at MTSU.  We
would shower afterward and head straight for our 8 o clock classes
(that's what I get for signing up late....nevermore).  So we've decided
to start the first day of school and that happens next Tuesday. 
So.....somehow between now and Tuesday, I need to become a morning
person.  I have a feeling day time naps will save me from narcolepsy. 
Anyways....I'm still excited about this.  Waking up early takes
self-discipline which will come in handy in a lot more areas in my
life.  Plus when you get to working out, it actually wakes you up and
gets the blood flowin.  We'll see how it goes.  Wish me luck.....

So I got a new recording program set up, and I thought that that would fix the problems I've been having with sort of a delay in the recording.  I will play the next track along with the other recorded track, but it seems as though the computer takes too long to send through the signal, and it gets frustrating when recording.  Does this mean my computer is slow or does anyone know of a way I can fix it?  I've heard of others having problems with this also.

I love the feeling of getting things done.  I was worried about signing up for classes today, and I had a couple of other things I wanted to do.  It was actually fun going and accomplishing them.  I.....

Got up and ran (I've tried to get up for it and will hopefully keep it going)
Took care of a hold I had on my school account (a paper I needed)
Seeing an advisor about the classes I needed to take
Declaring a music minor
Working on my room, and straightening it up

All in all I feel really accomplished.  Tomorrow I plan on

Finishing up my room
Signing up for classes
Hanging some posters up in my room
Finishing a song I've been working on.

I think I like this whole accomplishing small goals thing.  Anyone else agree?

P.S.  The office folk at MTSU are a lot nicer than I originally thought.  I had no problems with them today.  Woo hoo!

Besides anything musical, what is something else you could see me doing with the rest of my life?  For instance, could you see me being a lawyer, an accountant, etc.....and why?

Alright.  Someone asked me so I thought this was interesting.  If you were told that you had one year left to live, and you loved someone and they loved you and you were in a relationship.  Would you marry that person? Everyone wants to get married before they die right? 

So I've been really thinking about how I'd like to start recording songs that I've been writing for something constructive to do.  This way I can put it on the internet, get it out there, and also just put it on CD's and such.  I think it would be a fun project anyways.  So all of the sudden I get this email from Music123, an online music store that I have purchased from before, and they were advertising for this home recording software.  They showed three different generations of a project.  The alpha, being the smallest, looked a little too small for my needs, but the omega looks to be a little out of my price range.  I'm thinking that thelambda might be more up my ally.  I've checked out the reviews and it seems to be a good buy to me, but does anyone else see anything wrong that I'm missing?  Here's a pic for those who are too lazy to go to the link I put up.

So I finally got my GHS Silk and Steel guitar strings after about three
months of waiting.  I thought they just wouldn't come.  I had ordered
them online and the store that I had got them from was struggling in
their stock department, but they finally got them to me. 


Restringing a guitar is sort of both a pain and a joy.  You poke
yourself with the small strings, you get frustrated and freaked out
when the string stretches and makes a pop noise, and it takes forever
for the strings to stay in tune....but once that is done, you love the
new sound.  Plus it just gives you a refreshed feeling.  That's one of
the only exciting things going on right now.  ;)

Yes, I am yelling that because it is exciting.  Jonathan had suggested Google Calendar on his webpage, and in checking it out I found this really neat application called Google Desktop with all sorts of cool bells and whistles.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

I might have the best eyes ever cuz I rocked this games face off.  I found all three.  Can you?

confuse me.  I mean I know that  I  (as a male) am not supposed to
totally understand them, but I at least thought simple tasks would be
easier.  I think that an unwritten curse branching from the original
sin was that man would never fully understand women.  Either then or
during the tower of  Babel disaster.  I in no way am or am trying to be
sexist.  I just wish that we could get a deeper look at the opposite
sex's mind processes.  Maybe then I could understand their motivation
or intentions for certain things.  In the same way, I wish that girls
could see my reasoning for telling them or thinking certain things. 
Even this post may be misconstrued.  I can't win.  ;)  Well that's
what's on my mind right now.   

I hate the sinking feeling that you get when you find out that one of
your Christian friends or maybe just someone that you looked up to, has
secretly been doing things that they were openly against (or so I
thought).  I'm not judging.  I just wasn't in the mood to get that
feeling tonight, but it happens......particularly right after high
school ends.  I don't hate the person, just the feeling that I get. 
Usually just utter disappointment. 


Well, I won't let that get me down.  Tomorrow night I get to see
Steph!  Plus I get to go camping with lots of neat people.  I can't
wait to set up a tent, build a fire to sing and talk around, and just
have that good outdoorsy feeling.  It's a good feeling.  I hope
everyone enjoys their fall break! 

I am super excited about CCCF this weekend.  You guys should
definately ask me about it if you are in college or a senior in high
school.  We are planning to go camping this weekend at Cedars of
Lebanon State Park.  There will be adults there just in case your
parents are wondering.  Some things that you need to bring if you are
going:

Sleeping bag and pillow
Warm clothes
A lawn chair
$7 (to cover the cost of food and site rental)
Bible (we'll be having a devotion at night)
A tent would be nice if you have one.

Hey.  Let me know who all is interested in going camping on the 15th
and 16th.  It would be cool to know soon.  You have to be a senior in
high school or be college aged.  Give me a call or text me or my
brother.

Apparently, my parents had been planning this for a while.  Friday night the 14th we are taking CCCF (the college aged and high school seniors group) to Cedars of Lebanon State Park and camping overnight there.  Definately some campfireage, smoreage, and funage.  It would be AWESOME if you could come.  Interested?  That's MTSU's fall break by the way.

You are laying down in a tent with fresh warm socks on.  You are
underneath the sleeping bag and you can hear the thumping of a slow
rain on your water proof tent.  You slowly watch the water drain off of
the top and follow it to about mid way down where you can see the glow
of the campfire that is slowly getting put out by the falling water
droplets.  You just lay there almost in a trance as you let the
rainfall lull you to sleep.


So I was sitting in my van and it was raining and I just sat there for
a while listening.  Now I really want to go camping bad.  Anyone else
for some fall camping?

So this weekend is gonna rock!  Steph and her friend B are visiting the
Boro, and we'll hang out, but I definately got off work at the last
minute which is awesome!  I can't wait to see that girl (Steph).


In other news, I saw a sweet mandolin on Wednesday night.  I have to
get me one of those.  It's money saving time.  Let me know if you know
of any good deals on them or no someone wanting to get rid of theirs.

I just got done writing a 1200 word essay about Attila the Hun. 
I waited til the last minute to finish it up.  Now I will not get much
sleep before I must wake up early to conquer the fierce traffic
surrounding MTSU's campus. 

Procrastination, thou name........ art Russell.

To all those who's parents have divorced:  I can't sympathize, but I am sorry.  It hurts.  It's not fair.  I hate it. 


In happier news.....my girlfriend is better than yours. 

So I'm seriously contemplating getting rid of the roomtaking
couch in my room that is never used, and putting a hammock up.  I've
always wanted a hammock in my room cuz I thought it looked cool.  It
would most likely be expensive, so it might take a while, but I think
it'd be cool.  First I gotta clean my room though.  ;)

Just so everyone is aware, if anyone has tried to reach me recently, I
have not been able to answer, because once again, my phone has been
broken.  This time was a little different though.  I put my phone in a
locker during work time so that it's just out of my way and so that i
don't mess it up or anything.  Well during my break I went to get it,
and found it on a cardboard box full of things that was on the floor
next to the lockers.  Well I picked it up and found that it would not
work at all.  I've tried everything.  The keypad lights come on, but
the screen is blank.  I'm guessing someone knocked it off and didn't
wanna confess it.  I asked everyone.  Oh well.  Needless to say it will
be a while before that gets fixed, because I have many more things to
worry about financially.  I already miss Steph.  She's only be gone
half a day.  I'll live.   Anyone wanna donate to the Russell fund for
college?  Just thought I'd throw that out there.  ;)