So I was on Facebook just now. I am not normally on it and if I am it's because I received an email saying that someone wanted to add me or that I received a comment. Yesterday I was on for what could probably be the longest time I've spent on facebook, for A LOOOONG TIME! now I have a confession I was on for no real reason just now, but there is a purpose to this postage post. Here it is...
Facebook has now written at the bottom of your own profile a way to add more people to your list by pasting on an html link to your blog... that is ridiculous! I was shocked. How pathetic can people get that they want so many friends that they would get random people to post them as friends. I don't know. That doesn't really make sense, I don't think. but yeah. I don't know. it's crazy. you know Facebook is becoming part of many many lives when they start doing that craziness... CRAZY!!!!!! okay nap time and clean up room time...
l8s, latex, and all that love stuff
nathizz
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Contradiction
big and small
long and short
spacious and crammed
black and white
birth and death
clean and dirty
up and down
ceiling and floor
right and left
tired and awake
OUT OF ALL OF THOSE THINGS.... I'm tired and awake at the same time. I am attempting to sleep now...
l8s, latex, and all that love stuff
nathizz
long and short
spacious and crammed
black and white
birth and death
clean and dirty
up and down
ceiling and floor
right and left
tired and awake
OUT OF ALL OF THOSE THINGS.... I'm tired and awake at the same time. I am attempting to sleep now...
l8s, latex, and all that love stuff
nathizz
Monday, February 26, 2007
All Three for the Purpose of One!
So yesterday, was that BIG day I had talked about. The day where I lead worship for a huge congregation in three different services. Three different tones, three different times of mistakes, three different groups of people out there, three different reactions, but it was all there for one purpose. That purpose was the purpose of bringing praise to God and thanking him for all He has done for us.
As you know, the day before yesterday was a stressful one, but I learned how to just let God work through me and to take that fear and make it useful and to show His glory through it all. So let me quickly run you through yesterday morning... and maybe, if there is time, tell you about my night with the 79th Annual Academy Awards!!!
So I began the day with an early morning... 4:30 am. I got up got ready and got dressed. I just want to mention that I wore this awesome tie. I'll try and take a photo of it and post it. I think it's possibly one of the most awesomeness I've seen of a tie yet. Anywho, I ended up at Grandview Baptist at around 6:30 am... and was the first person there. All the lights were off and I waited for our bassist to come because the doors were locked and I was the one that had a key to the place. We walked to the Worship Centre and just chatted about stuff. After about ten or fifteen minutes, the other band and tech members began to arrive.
7 am and we began rehearsal with a prayer and got right into practicing our transitions for the worship songs. We had so many that it took us literally until 8 am or even past 8 am to finish practice. I was feeling a bit frustrated because it seemed as if I wasn't understanding when anything was going to happen and how things transitioned into others. But eventually I got a hang of it. We went to another room for prayer right before and start the first service at 8:15. I was nervous and anxious, but was trying to keep my cool. I don't fully enjoy public speaking in front of big crowds, eventhough I used to be good at it when I was younger.
I fumbled over my scripture verses, didn't talk loud enough, kept my eyes closed sometimes (so I wasn't engaging the audience) and didn't properly introduce myself while the offering was passed around. I wasn't too worried about it all surprisingly now that I look back. I was excited and thought it went quite well. There was just one problem with that service there was this subtle music playing on a CD and it was in our monitors. I feed off the others (as I believe many people do), but specifically off the band. When the band feels it, I give more. But with this sound coming through they weren't really into it as much and so I wasn't able to feed off of them more than I could have, but it was all good... I thought it still went well. The congregation was pretty much stoic the whole time, but I didn't care because I was happy praising God. Service ended with a BANG! and the worship pastor, the producer and I at a quick meeting to discuss what we can do to make it the better for the next service.
We fixed words, we fixed the sound and the band was engaged, as well as the crowd. I fumbled my scripture verses again, and skipped a section of the song, but it was great because I was beginning to get the hang of it. I was beginning to not need my piece of paper that had all the words that was going to say. I was being able to relax and become more confident and just be myself. A little jumping and a little crazy (black singing) vocals, which I was SWEET! and yeah we ended that on a definite positive note. It went phenomenally. People came up to me and said that they loved the worship set and that I did an amazing job. Great encouragement and as much as I don't like hearing it, I have to admit it definitely boosted the confidence in myself and knew that I could relax more.
Third service hit and we were on. I read the scriptures fine and I lead the congregation much better. I had a blast and I know others did too. Besides one tiny fault, the lead guitarist forgot the beginning of Mighty to Save. It went awesome. I also did more "black singing" vocals. and I was happy.
It ended and I was poopeded... so I went home and took a nap. I'm not going to talk about the OSCARS because 24 just started and I'm missing the first 2 minutes ending this blog so yeah!
L8s, latex and all that love stuff
nathizz
As you know, the day before yesterday was a stressful one, but I learned how to just let God work through me and to take that fear and make it useful and to show His glory through it all. So let me quickly run you through yesterday morning... and maybe, if there is time, tell you about my night with the 79th Annual Academy Awards!!!
So I began the day with an early morning... 4:30 am. I got up got ready and got dressed. I just want to mention that I wore this awesome tie. I'll try and take a photo of it and post it. I think it's possibly one of the most awesomeness I've seen of a tie yet. Anywho, I ended up at Grandview Baptist at around 6:30 am... and was the first person there. All the lights were off and I waited for our bassist to come because the doors were locked and I was the one that had a key to the place. We walked to the Worship Centre and just chatted about stuff. After about ten or fifteen minutes, the other band and tech members began to arrive.
7 am and we began rehearsal with a prayer and got right into practicing our transitions for the worship songs. We had so many that it took us literally until 8 am or even past 8 am to finish practice. I was feeling a bit frustrated because it seemed as if I wasn't understanding when anything was going to happen and how things transitioned into others. But eventually I got a hang of it. We went to another room for prayer right before and start the first service at 8:15. I was nervous and anxious, but was trying to keep my cool. I don't fully enjoy public speaking in front of big crowds, eventhough I used to be good at it when I was younger.
I fumbled over my scripture verses, didn't talk loud enough, kept my eyes closed sometimes (so I wasn't engaging the audience) and didn't properly introduce myself while the offering was passed around. I wasn't too worried about it all surprisingly now that I look back. I was excited and thought it went quite well. There was just one problem with that service there was this subtle music playing on a CD and it was in our monitors. I feed off the others (as I believe many people do), but specifically off the band. When the band feels it, I give more. But with this sound coming through they weren't really into it as much and so I wasn't able to feed off of them more than I could have, but it was all good... I thought it still went well. The congregation was pretty much stoic the whole time, but I didn't care because I was happy praising God. Service ended with a BANG! and the worship pastor, the producer and I at a quick meeting to discuss what we can do to make it the better for the next service.
We fixed words, we fixed the sound and the band was engaged, as well as the crowd. I fumbled my scripture verses again, and skipped a section of the song, but it was great because I was beginning to get the hang of it. I was beginning to not need my piece of paper that had all the words that was going to say. I was being able to relax and become more confident and just be myself. A little jumping and a little crazy (black singing) vocals, which I was SWEET! and yeah we ended that on a definite positive note. It went phenomenally. People came up to me and said that they loved the worship set and that I did an amazing job. Great encouragement and as much as I don't like hearing it, I have to admit it definitely boosted the confidence in myself and knew that I could relax more.
Third service hit and we were on. I read the scriptures fine and I lead the congregation much better. I had a blast and I know others did too. Besides one tiny fault, the lead guitarist forgot the beginning of Mighty to Save. It went awesome. I also did more "black singing" vocals. and I was happy.
It ended and I was poopeded... so I went home and took a nap. I'm not going to talk about the OSCARS because 24 just started and I'm missing the first 2 minutes ending this blog so yeah!
L8s, latex and all that love stuff
nathizz
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Nineteenish hours from now...
The countdown begins... In roughly nineteen hours from now, as I type this out, I will have accomplished one of my dreams. At the second largest baptist church in Canada, sitting at 1636 people who consider themselves part of the Grandview family (as of October 18, 2006), I have been given the privilege to lead worship for them. I've led worship at other places before, but nothing of this caliber. After joining the church and interning there since September, I have been given quite a few responsibilities. I've learned so many things and even as a student at Heritage College I'm able to apply the textbook knowledge to this church.
Tomorrow is so nerve-racking. I'm feeling the stress and people have continually told me "Just give it up to God and don't worry about it!" or "You'll be fine, you were given the chance because we trust you will be amazing!" It is encouraging and concurrently feels like there is more pressure because they are assuming that I will be great. It's a lot to live up to, at least for me. My other problem is the first comment people have made. "Just give it up to God!" Easier said than done, right? When you are so used to dealing with things on your own, like studying and making sure you know it all for a mid term or like making sure that you have everything is appropriately lined up for work proposal or a meeting that you are in charge of. There is a lot of time and work put in, so how do you just give it up? I don't know. I'm sure I'll figure that out soon enough. Tomorrow seems like it will be the day to fully comprehend that.
There is a lot to consider going into creating a service and after a lot of debating of what and where things should be, it was all finalized monday morning. There are two worship sets, with the offering, a baptism, prayer focus, and the teaching in between. I'm doing all the transitional talks and prayers and I'm scared about how it will flow. (ASIDE: I don't like to think of the prayers as a transitional tool, but for flow of the service it does help. It provides the band with a way for getting off or on stage without much notification to the congregation or time being wasted.) As I was going through the song lists I was continually doubting what I wanted, but I knew I wanted one song, Mighty to Save, and thankfully Grandview had just added that as one of the new songs on their repertoire list for 2007. I'll explain my love for this song after the worship sets that are in the following list:
Set 1:
All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises by Paul Baloche
Mighty to Save by Hillsong United (the new one)
Mighty to Save (reprise during offering)
Set 2:
Offering by Paul Baloche
How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin
Holy is the Lord by Chris Tomlin
You are Holy by Michael W. Smith
So let me talk about this new song, Mighty to Save, by Hillsong United. If you haven't heard it yet, you are definitely missing out. look at the lyrics under "song of the month" and if you want I'll totally send you the song. It has this sweet A/B/C# guitar riff right at the start of the song. After 4 bars of the drummer giving a one-two-three-four beat on the high hat, he jumps in with some awesome drumming of 16ths on the high hat and snare. This has started me down the road of truly appreciating the talent that drummers have even more. Two bars later the band slowly enters in. At this point, listen to the second guitar that comes in and its effect pedals. The song begins to sound so SWEET!
After a few more bars the lyrics begin, but the song still remains quite soft. The chorus approaches and the instrumentalists crescendo and quickly decrescendo keeping the essence of a quiet praise song. Head through verse two and then the chorus. This is when the band begins to hit it hard. The song now has gone from the quiet subtlety of a prayer inside to aloud worship and praise making you feel His mightiness. The bridge then begins powerfully with lyrics of "Shine your light and let the whole world see/ We're singing for the glory of the Risen King/ Jesus." And then we go through a chorus a few more times and then the bridge a few more times until the end of the of the song.
This song has become one of my favourites, as I am sure it as and will for many others. It is strong lyrically with a feeling of how mighty our God truly is. Hillsongs has been so influential in the way praise and worship is done nowadays. They continually reinvent themselves and create such amazing songs. Now I'm not saying that every song is a big hit like Mighty to Save, but I think they have put the talents God has given them to great use. Starting out as a small band who just made music to bring praise to God and from that love for God evolving us into this new generation of music, where we can be relevant to the secular world of music around us. To be relevant for the non-Christians around us, is what I want to be part of. We cannot reach others if we cannot relate to them.
How ended up talking about how Hillsongs has revolutionized Christian worship songs for the new generation I will never know. Although, I'm glad I did because it has made me realize that no matter how scared I am and nervous about a situation like this I am still thinking of how much God can do and remove our fears if we just bring the praise back to Him. I guess me spending this time writing all of this out has just made me relax more. I've brought the thinking process out on "paper" and I've realized that it is in His hands. I want tomorrow to be amazing not to show myself off or say "what a good job I've done," but to be a tool for God to show others how awesome He is. That in everything I do I can try my hardest so I can give him true praise. And so that he can use me, a scared, nervous kid who loves praising Him, to help let His light shine to the world.
L8s, latex, and all that love stuff
nathizz
Tomorrow is so nerve-racking. I'm feeling the stress and people have continually told me "Just give it up to God and don't worry about it!" or "You'll be fine, you were given the chance because we trust you will be amazing!" It is encouraging and concurrently feels like there is more pressure because they are assuming that I will be great. It's a lot to live up to, at least for me. My other problem is the first comment people have made. "Just give it up to God!" Easier said than done, right? When you are so used to dealing with things on your own, like studying and making sure you know it all for a mid term or like making sure that you have everything is appropriately lined up for work proposal or a meeting that you are in charge of. There is a lot of time and work put in, so how do you just give it up? I don't know. I'm sure I'll figure that out soon enough. Tomorrow seems like it will be the day to fully comprehend that.
There is a lot to consider going into creating a service and after a lot of debating of what and where things should be, it was all finalized monday morning. There are two worship sets, with the offering, a baptism, prayer focus, and the teaching in between. I'm doing all the transitional talks and prayers and I'm scared about how it will flow. (ASIDE: I don't like to think of the prayers as a transitional tool, but for flow of the service it does help. It provides the band with a way for getting off or on stage without much notification to the congregation or time being wasted.) As I was going through the song lists I was continually doubting what I wanted, but I knew I wanted one song, Mighty to Save, and thankfully Grandview had just added that as one of the new songs on their repertoire list for 2007. I'll explain my love for this song after the worship sets that are in the following list:
Set 1:
All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises by Paul Baloche
Mighty to Save by Hillsong United (the new one)
Mighty to Save (reprise during offering)
Set 2:
Offering by Paul Baloche
How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin
Holy is the Lord by Chris Tomlin
You are Holy by Michael W. Smith
So let me talk about this new song, Mighty to Save, by Hillsong United. If you haven't heard it yet, you are definitely missing out. look at the lyrics under "song of the month" and if you want I'll totally send you the song. It has this sweet A/B/C# guitar riff right at the start of the song. After 4 bars of the drummer giving a one-two-three-four beat on the high hat, he jumps in with some awesome drumming of 16ths on the high hat and snare. This has started me down the road of truly appreciating the talent that drummers have even more. Two bars later the band slowly enters in. At this point, listen to the second guitar that comes in and its effect pedals. The song begins to sound so SWEET!
After a few more bars the lyrics begin, but the song still remains quite soft. The chorus approaches and the instrumentalists crescendo and quickly decrescendo keeping the essence of a quiet praise song. Head through verse two and then the chorus. This is when the band begins to hit it hard. The song now has gone from the quiet subtlety of a prayer inside to aloud worship and praise making you feel His mightiness. The bridge then begins powerfully with lyrics of "Shine your light and let the whole world see/ We're singing for the glory of the Risen King/ Jesus." And then we go through a chorus a few more times and then the bridge a few more times until the end of the of the song.
This song has become one of my favourites, as I am sure it as and will for many others. It is strong lyrically with a feeling of how mighty our God truly is. Hillsongs has been so influential in the way praise and worship is done nowadays. They continually reinvent themselves and create such amazing songs. Now I'm not saying that every song is a big hit like Mighty to Save, but I think they have put the talents God has given them to great use. Starting out as a small band who just made music to bring praise to God and from that love for God evolving us into this new generation of music, where we can be relevant to the secular world of music around us. To be relevant for the non-Christians around us, is what I want to be part of. We cannot reach others if we cannot relate to them.
How ended up talking about how Hillsongs has revolutionized Christian worship songs for the new generation I will never know. Although, I'm glad I did because it has made me realize that no matter how scared I am and nervous about a situation like this I am still thinking of how much God can do and remove our fears if we just bring the praise back to Him. I guess me spending this time writing all of this out has just made me relax more. I've brought the thinking process out on "paper" and I've realized that it is in His hands. I want tomorrow to be amazing not to show myself off or say "what a good job I've done," but to be a tool for God to show others how awesome He is. That in everything I do I can try my hardest so I can give him true praise. And so that he can use me, a scared, nervous kid who loves praising Him, to help let His light shine to the world.
L8s, latex, and all that love stuff
nathizz
Saturday, February 10, 2007
My Pick of Pics
He's a photographer by the name of Stoffel De Roover. He was experimenting with smoke and how freely it moves. I love these shots... that are just so WOWing.
This one is called "Smoke Creature - Black".
This is titled "Smoke-induced Hallucination"
This one is called "Smoke Creature - Black".
This is titled "Smoke-induced Hallucination"
Those are just two of the few I have seen.... WOW... I think they are incredible I want to be able to get a sharp shot like that one day of smoke... but we'll just have to wait and see!
L8s, latex and all that love stuff
nathizz
Friday, February 02, 2007
Triple the Groping of Mus Musculus
Translation: 3 Blind Mice
Description: Like the old nursery rhyme, but with a huge twist. dum dum dum!!!! It's also a story not a poem... I am not feeling creative currently! (an attempt at using random words to make me intelligent or appear so)
Story: A day that started out non-quixotically actually stayed quite temperate. The morning was pretty standard. I woke up, got ready, went to school, and came home. When I arrived at home my housemate was sitting at his computer. He had his left leg on his chair and then other touching the floor, the usual position he sits in. The difference about today, though, was that he turned and said something that I was not expecting. With his twangy country tone, and fast speech, he said "We have mice, eh?" I froze still and was not sure what to think. After a second or two or, okay fine probably, 5 seconds, I took two steps back (no not 5 steps) and asked him what happened and how he knew that? He replied that they had just killed three of them. Two in the basement and one on the first floor. Tres interesante. Who would have thunk? Not I. We then decided that we would set up a bunch of mousetraps everywhere around the house... and just make sure that they are all dead. No dead mice in my walls... that's for sure. I went to my room.
After doing homework, I went back to school to go to English class. One word for this class... STUPID, but we had an exercise that I thoroughly enjoyed. We had to spend 10 minutes just writing... creatively on what the snow outside reminded us of. I like it. After english I made my way to the weekly thursday afternoon 'get-a-way'.
Grandview the place I spend my thursday afternoons to evenings. What joy it is, well sometimes. I stayed I used moviemaker, I wrote out plans for youth, and then headed to Waterloo. Once in Waterloo, I picked the Nit up and we went to McD's. Got my Combo 6 and we headed to his place. Once I was done eating dinner I headed back to Grandview for vocal practice. Eeekers, my voice was not up to the task of singing those tenor notes and so, apparently, I began singing alto. I had no clue and was quite excited when one of my fellow vocalists articulated it to me. WOOT WOOT! It was done I was out of there 1 hr before I had scheduled.
I got home and the 4th mouse was just killed. I missed it... DANG! I talked to friends, picked and dropped a friend and their female buddy off at their respective homes and was going to get my caffienated beverage, but then I forgot so i went home and struggled with homework. I ended the day with 24. It has become my "midnight snack" if you will. I LOVE IT! Okay, C4C time...
L8s, Latex, and all that love stuff
n8 da gr8
Description: Like the old nursery rhyme, but with a huge twist. dum dum dum!!!! It's also a story not a poem... I am not feeling creative currently! (an attempt at using random words to make me intelligent or appear so)
Story: A day that started out non-quixotically actually stayed quite temperate. The morning was pretty standard. I woke up, got ready, went to school, and came home. When I arrived at home my housemate was sitting at his computer. He had his left leg on his chair and then other touching the floor, the usual position he sits in. The difference about today, though, was that he turned and said something that I was not expecting. With his twangy country tone, and fast speech, he said "We have mice, eh?" I froze still and was not sure what to think. After a second or two or, okay fine probably, 5 seconds, I took two steps back (no not 5 steps) and asked him what happened and how he knew that? He replied that they had just killed three of them. Two in the basement and one on the first floor. Tres interesante. Who would have thunk? Not I. We then decided that we would set up a bunch of mousetraps everywhere around the house... and just make sure that they are all dead. No dead mice in my walls... that's for sure. I went to my room.
After doing homework, I went back to school to go to English class. One word for this class... STUPID, but we had an exercise that I thoroughly enjoyed. We had to spend 10 minutes just writing... creatively on what the snow outside reminded us of. I like it. After english I made my way to the weekly thursday afternoon 'get-a-way'.
Grandview the place I spend my thursday afternoons to evenings. What joy it is, well sometimes. I stayed I used moviemaker, I wrote out plans for youth, and then headed to Waterloo. Once in Waterloo, I picked the Nit up and we went to McD's. Got my Combo 6 and we headed to his place. Once I was done eating dinner I headed back to Grandview for vocal practice. Eeekers, my voice was not up to the task of singing those tenor notes and so, apparently, I began singing alto. I had no clue and was quite excited when one of my fellow vocalists articulated it to me. WOOT WOOT! It was done I was out of there 1 hr before I had scheduled.
I got home and the 4th mouse was just killed. I missed it... DANG! I talked to friends, picked and dropped a friend and their female buddy off at their respective homes and was going to get my caffienated beverage, but then I forgot so i went home and struggled with homework. I ended the day with 24. It has become my "midnight snack" if you will. I LOVE IT! Okay, C4C time...
L8s, Latex, and all that love stuff
n8 da gr8
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