Revision

I revised my post about my argument of whether or not music should be free today in case you wanted to go check it out. 

Spirituality

            In Wellness today we had an assignment to share our spirituality with the class. We had to bring a phrase, poem, passage, verse, song or anything that has special spiritual meaning to us. It was really cool to hear everyone’s responses to this question, because it feels like you’re getting to know what drives them to live their lives the way that they do and what they think about each day. Not many people seem to know each other in my Wellness class or make an effort to socialize, but just hearing them tell the class what has spiritual meaning to them seemed to bring everyone closer. Standing in front of the class and sharing your inner most thoughts brings about a kind of vulnerability that people do not usually show. About half the class had nice bible verses, some that I hadn’t put half as much thought into as they did. A few actually stuck in my head, which was the best thing about this assignment because it made me see things in a new perspective. I hope that the verses that I brought in will stick with people because they are very uplifting and special to me. These were my versus: 

 

Verse #1:

I Thessalonians 5:18 says, "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

 

Verse #2:

Psalm 56:3 says, “When I am afraid, I will trust in you.”

 

            These two verses have a similar message and in my opinion, as a faithful Christian, these are the two most spiritually inspirational things I have ever read. The first one was a caption to a painting that was in the dining room of my grandparent’s house. My grandfather on my dad’s side of the family was a preacher, and my grandmother and him passed away when I was twelve, but unknowingly left me with one of the most valuable lessons. I have no idea why I remember this verse to this day, but it always seems to come to mind exactly when I need it the most. It is not only a daily reminder of how thankful we should be for the things that we are blessed with in life that make us happy, but also those choices that God makes that are a bit more disguised. For example, something that is happening to us currently that may not feel like it is best for us now, but in reality, God is doing what is best for us in the long run and we should be thankful that we have him to look after us like that.

 

            The next verse I found at a later time from a service called “The Daily Bible Verse”. And I have found countless versus that have helped me through some hard times, but I found this one to be most beneficial. It reminds me that having confidence in the Lord is a purposeful life decision. And replacing my emotional reactions to circumstances with the faith that I have in the Lord is one of the best ways to calm down and have a better outlook on life. Once you realize that if you are living your life for God, than he will take care of you, things become easier and your life feels as if it has more purpose and sustenance. 

Another Comment

I posted a comment on Kee's blog called "Are We Really Stealing Music?" today:

I wrote a blog about this topic too and researched it a little bit. I found out that there are a few repercussions from our small choices we make everyday about obtaining free music. So I do feel against it, but I also forgot how much of an offender I am of what you were writing about. If I am riding in a car with a friend and they're playing a great CD I don't think hey I am going to go to the store and pay like $20, I just ask to borrow it and upload it onto my laptop or something. This was a good point that I never thought of and I am sure that many people do this and it really adds up. However, I really am not sure of the statistics and am really curious as to how big of a problem this really is.

Comment

I posted a comment on Kee's blog called "Facebook Addiction" today:

I have noticed that the number of adults on my friend list on Facebook is going up, and I agree with "iheartquestionmark", it is mostly because even though I find it odd to be accepting friend requests from old teachers and friends of my parents, I would feel bad not to. 

My best friend's mom recently got a Facebook and she also texts constantly. I notice my friend texting her mom frequently even in college. I always found this to be weird because my parents do not even know how to work the text messaging feature on their phones, much less do they even know what Facebook is (to my knowledge). However, I have also noticed much more connected my friend and her mom are. They are always sending each other jokes and telling each other about their day, but I on the other hand, find it difficult to even set aside the time it takes to call my family on the phone and have a decent conversation.

I think this would be an interesting topic to write about, because I know that I personally value my constant contact with my closest friends, but I always wonder if many others share the same kind of contact with their parents as my friend does.

Argument- Should music be free?

            Almost everybody listens to music and has their own personal collection of what they listen to. Whether it is a physical collection of music (CDs, cassette tapes, etc.) or a device that it is all stored on (MP3 player, IPod, etc.) all of these listeners have made their choice of how they want to keep their music organized and also how they obtained their music. I am not sure if everyone else has put as much thought into this subject as I have, but I personally have done it all. I have purchased cassettes, CDs, an IPod, an MP3, I have downloaded music (legally now and also used Nabster for free before the complaints from the artists were highly publicized), I have also bought music from ITunes, I have created online Radio Stations and playlists, and much more. But the question has always been, should music be free?

 

            I remember back when file sharing on websites such as Nabster were completely legal and I personally did not see anything wrong with it. And now that it is illegal I still know MANY people that still continue this trend. There are apparently severe consequences, but I do not know anyone who has suffered any. The people that continue to share files and burn CDS without paying for them argue things like: I should not have to spend money on something that I listen to, what if I spend $20 on some CD I do not even like, or what if I only like one song. However, there are many ways to get demos of songs and ITunes even has a feature that makes this possible. And I found out from doing a little bit of research in this topic that websites like LimeWire are completely legal. However, the purpose many people use it for is not. “Downloading copyrighted music, videos, or programs without the permission of the author is illegal. This is called copyright infringement or piracy.” So the government is not typically going to bust everyday people that just take a couple of songs for their iPod.

 

            I am sure people do not think through and take into account what exactly would happen if all music were free and it were legal to download all music though. Would the artist still be successful at all, would there still be all the same music out there, and what about the CD manufacturing companies? Those are just a few problems with this idea of free music. But a writer from another source online did bring up the point that the companies are still making a profit from selling expensive tickets to shows and band merchandise. However, I still feel like we are cheating them in a way.

 

            There is no way that the government can catch all of the offenders involved in this process of free music so theft of music will continue to be a problem and will continue to have some negative consequences. It is sort of like recycling, it would be perfect if everyone would help out, but that will never happen with our quick moving lifestyles of today.

 

1) http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/alumni/dm31/napster.html

2) http://taskboy.com/writing/fictional/napster.html

Another Comment:

I posted a comment on Almost Famous' blog called "Friends for the Rest of College?" today:

This is a great topic to post about, because for most students our age, the change to college meant the biggest change of best friends you've ever experienced (because of the locational change of course). I still keep in contact with a lot of my old friends and hung out with them over Thanksgiving, but for the most part the set of people that know most about what's going on with me and the ones I spend my weekends with right now are my new SMU friends. And I never really considered until I read your post that these new friends of mine are totally not set in stone either. 

And I know everyone wants to have the perfect situations like the television shows (Friends, Sex and the City, etc.) but the truth is that you can't always be with your "besties" forever because life might take you somewhere else. However, I think it's important to value the friends that you make along the way and just enjoy the people you're around in the present and not worry too much about the future.

"God will help you overcome any hardship."

So after practicing my trumpet, piano, and singing ALL of my Thanksgiving break in preparation for my semester juries I returned to school feeling so responsible and great for having kept my work ethic up. However, the first day back I came to the realization that I am TOTALLY swamped with other things to do: papers to write, music to write, a debate to prepare for, workbook pages to do, chapters to read, and a fire safety class to attend. Geez this week was really stacking up in my planner more than it usually does! And I found out that I have 2 finals on the day of my birthday and then 2 more after that, which was disappointing because I just got through telling my parents that I'll be home again soon on my birthday. 

The Saturday I came back to campus I had a football that I had to play at for marching band and I also had to continue to prepare for a very physically and mentally taxing trumpet playing test for Monday's Masterclass and finish up some music theory homework. On Monday my day lasted from 8AM (my first class) until 9PM (the end of Masterclass) with only 2 hours of break in there. And of course there was lots of homework to keep me up for a while after that. Tuesday was a little bit better only lasting from 8AM to 6PM, with 1 hour of break (my other 1 hour was used to attend a mandatory fire safety class) and of course lots more homework at the end of that day. Today lasted from 8AM to 6PM, with a 2 hour break (1 hour was used for a trumpet lesson) and a terrible scheduling error sent me running across campus all the way from where I work to McFarlin Auditorium in the middle of my day, because I wrote down an incorrect time for my conference and missed it entirely! UGH! 

However at the end of today I got a chance to squeeze in a second to sit down and have a nice dinner with some friends. And the thing I do everyday is get a fortune cookie and today my fortune read:

"God will help you overcome any hardship."

This usually lame or funny fortune cookie gave me the best advice I could hear at the time. It is something I always know to be true, but need to be reminded from time to time. I taped it to the front of my over-booked planner where it is needed most ha ha :) 

Hopefully I can remember this while running around like a crazy person tomorrow as you all should too!! Good luck with finals, juries, recitals, debates, papers, and whatever else you are taking on everyone :)