Late Night Ponderings

I haven't posted in a couple days, so I might as well go ahead and do that now.  I'm quite happy at the moment...my stomach is full of steak and coffee, two of the greatest substances on earth...at least in my opinion.  Eh...I have to renege on that.  Cheesecake.  And banana pudding.  I'd better stop listing things while I'm ahead!

At the moment I'm listening to the soundtrack from O Brother, Where Art Thou?...quite good stuff. I especially enjoy the a capella arrangement of Down To The River To Pray that's included, along with the multiple versions of Man Of Constant Sorrows.

Between that and upgrading my laptop to the newest version of Linux Ubuntu, 10.04 "Lucid Lynx", which came out a few hours ago, my evening is going quite well.  I am working on a first installment of a blog series on Daniel's Seventy Sevens, but alas, forgot my copy of J. Dwight Pentecost's Things To Come at home, which has some research that I feel is essential for pointing out the sheer accuracy of the prophecy.  Yes, I could just hop on Google Books and probably find the excerpt from the book I need, but another "rambling time" seems more appealing than switching from tab to tab in Chrome to write on Daniel 9:24-27.  Besides, it is already 11:00pm, and I'm sure you've already seen how I can stray from topic at this time of night.  So, thus, a fun, random rambling post.

But "ponderings" sounds more professional.  Maybe not professional, but intelligent.  That's the word I'm looking for.  Somehow that reminds me of Booth Brother's concerts...even though I hear the same jokes at the concerts over and over again, they always are entertaining.  Such is the case whenever Michael will bring up a song, but "not remember the name".  Jim or Ronnie will inquire what the song is, or what it is about, and Michael will reply, "That...that song...the song about God."  "Well, that narrows it down!"

See how I strayed from topic there?  The topic didn't even stay consistent through a single paragraph.  I might as well keep on typing...my update won't be done for another hour and forty minutes, but I am quite excited about it.

Anyway, I mentioned the Booth Brothers in that previous paragraph...I have already fallen in love with one of the songs from their upcoming album, Declaration.  The song, I See Grace, features a very powerful lyric with music that somewhat strays from the typical chord patterns.  It is in the key of G, thus will definitely contain G, C, and D, but the song also includes A minor, B minor, E minor, and some suspended form of F.  It boggles my mind, but it is such a beautiful score to back up the lyrics.

Here in these walls, here in these rows, there are those who regret the roads they once chose.  But more than the sorrow, more than the pain, there is joy for the way, and through Christ they've been changed.

There are  lives free from bondage, of since once concealed.  There are bodies and minds, and spirits now healed.  But those who found freedom, and shook off the chains from the long years of guilt, anger, and shame:

I see grace, I see grace!  In every life, on every face.  Of the faithful who gather each week in this place, I see grace.

There are those in this life who've been dealt a poor hand.  They've overcome and by God's strength they stand.  Those who have come through unbearable loss, not defined by the past, but defined by the Cross!

I see grace, I see grace! In every life, on every face.  Of the faithful who gather each week in this place, I see grace.

Story after story, one common theme:  God's power and glory in those He's redeemed.  Such tender mercy, time after time.  In so many ways in this story that's mine,

I see grace!  Grace, I see grace!  In every life, on every face.  Of the faithful who gather each week in this place, I see -- Of the faithful who gather each week in this place, I see grace!  I see grace!




With that I will end this post.  I hope you enjoyed it through all the randomness.

Until next time,

Timothy

The Perrys - If You Knew Him

I'm sure you will discover as time goes on how emotional I can get about songs.  Not "crying my eyes out" emotional, but a well written, anointed Gospel song can touch me as deep in four minutes as a full sermon can.  A couple weeks ago, it was Greater Vision's You're Not Forsaken.  Yesterday my best friend let me borrow her new Perrys album, Almost Morning.  I was so excited to get to listen to it.  I love their arrangement of This Old Sinner Testifies, and Tracy Stuffle really shows how much of a powerhouse bass singer he is on that track. However, the song that touches my heart very deeply at the moment is If You Knew Him, penned by Rodney Griffin and the Perrys' own Joseph Habedank.

I walked by the tomb of Buddha
Looked inside, and saw his bones.
Traveled on to see Mohammed,
Still wrapped up in his grave clothes.
Then I journeyed to a garden
Where old Joseph left Him lay.
The precious Lamb, God's own begotten,
Was no longer in that grave.

If you knew Him like I know Him
You would know that He's alive.
If you felt Him like I feel Him
Resurrection, deep inside!
You'd know He's living,
And death has died.

If you're wandering in the darkness
Come and step into the light.
Nail scarred hands reach out to help you,
To pull you safe from death to life.
Friend, I, too, have stood where you stand.
Couldn't trust in things unseen,
Just one step in His direction,
Then in Love, He ran to me!

If you knew Him like I know Him

You would know that He's alive.

If you felt Him like I feel Him

Resurrection, deep inside!

You'd know He's living,

And death has died.

You ask me how I know He lives,

He lives within my heart!

If you felt Him like I feel Him

Resurrection, deep inside!

You'd know He's living,

And death has died.

Death has died!

Enjoy the message in this powerful song.

Until next time,

Timothy

Ray Dean Reese - Getting Better With Age!

Well, I am currently listening to the Kingsmen's newest album, Missing People.  Aside from the lyrical content, I am finding Ray Dean Reese's bass vocals more and more fascinating.  To me, Ray is known not necessarily for being a 'deep' bass singer, but having a very rich and smooth voice.  I just love that country accent in addition to those other qualities, but on the latest two albums, Ray has exhibited some Gold City-style bass singing.  For instance, on the old favorite Beautiful Home, Ray would touch the G1 after the second run through the chorus, but only "touch" it.  It was a solid note, but nothing sustained.  On When God Ran, Ray ends tracks one and five with solid, sustained A1s, features an Ab1 on track ten, and finishes off track eight, Sound From The Other Side with a full, sustained G1 for nearly six seconds.  When I heard that note, I had to take a second, third, and even fourth listen.  When I heard that the first time, I thought, "Wow...that's deep for Ray!  Must be around A or so..."  When I played the song out on the keyboard, and realized it was a G1, I was shocked.

I am shocked again by the power and depth of Ray's vocals on Missing People.  I haven't gone through the songs on this album and "mapped out" Ray's ending notes, but he surpasses the G1 from the last album.  On track number two, Someday, Ray cuts loose on a full, powerful Gb1 lasting a full nine seconds.  WOW.  I look forward to what Ray has in store in the future.





After a fun bit of scanning the source code on Amazon's page for the song Missing People (ALL of the tracks for the Missing People album are messed up...the track listing for the song Missing People is actually the forty-seven second reprise of Someday), I have gotten this preview embedded for Someday featuring the Gb1 on the end.  Enjoy!

Timothy

EDIT:  Seems the clip through Amazon is no longer present.  Oh well...  I'll have to learn a new way to post audio clips.

Rambling Time

Well, after a few posts on specific topics, I figured it might as well be time to let my mind wander a little bit.  Yesterday I was working on a post, but strayed so far the post could only be considered a "senseless ramble", and I finally just closed the tab around ten at night.  I had started at around two or so that afternoon.  From about six o'clock on, I worked on a few creations for Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006.

Now mind you, since I have upgraded to Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, I haven't been able to get Trainz to run at all.  Perhaps once after each time I install it.  My copy was one of the earlier copies, and I purchased it way back when it was first released, and the Trainz Forums still were using a TRS2004 scheme.  Since riding the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad in the summer of '06, and finding a DEM (digital elevation model) based map of the C&TS for Trainz, I started working on a prototypical model of the route, even creating my own Google Sites website for it, Missouri Trainz Works.  Do feel free to visit...I have quite a few screenshots of my content for the route.  I was even building a full set of coaches, to exact specifications of the ones built by the C&TS in the 1970's, thanks to a friend who's father actually aided in the building of those coaches.

Then Windows 7 happened.  Now mind you, I love Windows 7.  It has the stability of XP, and a fresh, clean design that innovates some wonderful new features, such as self updates, automatic driver download, and other features.  However, Trainz 2006 doesn't love Windows 7.  From what I have read, some of the later versions of TRS2006 work perfectly fine, but remember how I got one of the earlier versions?  Yeah.  No more Trainzing for me, at least until I can afford TRS2010.

Add to that the fact that in Windows 7, gMax, the free cousin of 3DStudio Max, has some nasty visual artifacts with Windows 7, my modelling days were pretty well finished.  I even downloaded a trial of the $3,500 3DS Max 10...same exact problem.  After trying that, I turned to the Linux-based 3D modelling program, Blender.  It has a much steeper learning curve, especially since I was used to gMax and very proficient with it, but quite a few beautiful models for Trainz had come straight from Blender, so I decided to give it a whirl, even downloading about fifty Flash tutorial videos for it.

WOW.

I had been building things like this 9600-class gondola with gMax.  After a while in Blender, I'm now working on things such as this section of 3 foot gauge track based on track on the C&TS.  I have to say, I've come a long way with Blender, and after using it for a while, I don't think I'll ever go back to gMax.

So hopefully, as time goes on, I'll be able to afford a copy of TRS2010 and begin work on my rendition of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad again.  Perhaps someday soon I'll even be able to visit the railroad once again, and appreciate the beauty of the line in a whole new manner.

Feel free to check out some of my photos from that 2006 trip on the Cumbres & Toltec.




Until next time,

Timothy