The Light Meets the Dark

Above: the cover of Tenth Avenue North's new album: The Light Meets the Dark.

The album is coming out on May 11, and I seriously cannot wait. Tenth Avenue North is PHENOMENAL. In their last cd, Over and Underneath, they produced three of my all-time favorite songs: Love Is Here, By Your Side, and Hold My Heart. And, I think they've just created another one: Healing Begins. The song, a sneak-preview of the album, has been played on Air1 a couple times already and is GREAT. If my Mixpod is working correctly (it's been malfunctioning a lot lately), you're listening to it right now. But it isn't just a "great" song- it's meaning does deeper. This is what the band said about Healing Begins:

"This is a call to let your walls fall down, let your masks fall down, let your pretense fall down, because guess what? Your walls are glass anyway. We can see through them. You are fighting a losing battle and this is where the healing begins, when you let the light expose the darkness." - Mike Donehey (Lead Vocalist/Acoustic Guitar).

Isn't that AWESOME?! I don't know about you, but I am exhilarated. This is going to be one, amazing album- one that I won't hesitate to purchase on iTunes the minute it comes out. :D

Jake

A480

I GOT A CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a Canon PowerShot A480, and it is SO awesome. I mean, it can't compare to the caliber of a camera like Bekah's Nikon D3000, but I don't plan on creating a photo blog with it or anything- I just really enjoy taking pictures, and I've been DYING to obtain my own for so long! So far, I've taken a multitude of random pics of whatever I come across, just to get the feel of the camera, but nothing yet that I'm going to post. I'll make an entry filled with pictures later when the pics are of something actually interesting or absorbing. Well, I actually have taken one good pic. My brother Alex despises my camera because he dislikes me constantly flashing pictures of everything around me- including shots of him. Since over the past day it's become increasingly harder to snap a picture of him before he evades me, I concealed myself on my bed in the room we share and waited as he used our family's boy bathroom which is in our room. And then, straining my ears, I listened and waited for him to emerge. Training the camera on the place where his head would materialize, I focused the camera and... FLASH- I caught Alex just as he came out, and he was looking straight at the A480 with undisguised irritation. *grins* It was AWESOME. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the shot. *groans*

Last night, I celebrated my real birthday for the day I actually turned thirteen with my family, and it was blast. I received the A480 (obviously), a capo for my guitar, (really needed one for a couple of songs I recently received), and a pre-ordering of Rick Riordan's (the author of the Percy Jackson series) new book. All in all, it was the best family birthday I've ever had. It's strange though cause I thought I'd feel... different when I turned thirteen. But- I feel exactly the same. No sudden, magic transformation into an older, taller person- no sudden outbreak of acne or anything- no inward feeling of teenager-ness. *shrugs* Oh well.

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Also, on my birthday yesterday, I had to present a speech for a writing class I take- in front of 20 to 30 people (I'm not sure precisely). *shudders* I was really freaked out. At one point, I even slipped out of class and entered the bathroom where I just prayed that God would calm me down- and he did. When I gave my presentation, It was so... easy. The second I got up in front of everyone, things just seemed to go along smoothly and effortlessly. I'm just hoping I get a good grade now, cause the presentation was one of the must crucial assignments in the writing class. But I'm just glad I finished with the speech, cause now- I have no more "school" writing for the rest of the school year!!! My schedule just got a LOT less busy. :D

Jake

13!

Well, not quite- I'm still 12 *sighs heavily*, but I will be 13 on Wednesday. :D Although it was early, I celebrated my birthday with my friends two days ago since it was a Friday, and it was the only way I could do a sleepover. It ROCKED! Okay, first of all, we had this "mystery dinner" thing in my family's garage. It was crazy. All of us received these menus with these nonsensical names on them standing for anonymous foods. Then, we each selected three names on the menus and then "waiters" (my dad, mom, brother Matthew and his friend Ben) took them and went inside our house to get our orders. There were all sorts of wacky foods. For example- "Yard" on the menu turned out to stand for a handful of spinach *grimaces* and "Little Poopies" (I know, crude, but I didn't make up the names!) stood for these milk duds that literally sealed your mouth shut when you chewed while "No Moo Moo" stood for cheese pizza with no pepperoni or sausage while "Dotted Moo Moo" stood for pizza with those toppings. Oh, and all the while, we were in the garage with the garage door open all wearing these cone birthday hats- y'know, the ones four and five year old's wear at their parties. We had to cause it was the "restaurants" so called policy. So while we laughed our heads off ordering stuff off the mystery menus, random neighbors and pedestrians (some that I knew, embarrassingly) were walking by on the street casting us scornful, mocking glances at our "childishness". I mean, I would too if I walked by someones garage and inside were a bunch of teenagers with those cones on. *laughs* Afterwards, we all walked up to a store about one third of a mile away to purchase toppings for ice cream- while still wearing the cones. :D Just for the fun of it, we waved and smiled stupidly at passing cars, and people actually waved back.*grins* What was really funny though was that my brother Alex and friend Josh were deliberately distancing themselves from us, trying to avoid being singled out as friends of the rest of us "cone-wearers". So we arrived at the store, and the employees managing the cash registers could hardly keep a straight face while we purchased the sugar and junk food we needed. Then we jogged back home, took off our beloved cones, devoured ice cream and cake, and then hastened outside for two hours while it was still light out to play two games of intense basketball. Afterwards, we headed out into my backyard and rested in chairs around a blazing bonfire to play Mafia (the best unphysical game in the word). Luckily, I was never Mafia so I didn't ruin the game with laughing and giving myself away. We played a couple games, then went inside, drank root beer, snacked on sour gummy worms and popcorn, and then watched I Walked on the Moon, a film where the comedian Brian Reagen displays his comedy, (he's hilarious! Even, in my opinion, funnier than Tim Hawkins) and also Remember the Titans. Once we were finished with those, it was 3:00 a.m., and we settled down for the night and just talked. Then: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
All in all, it was an awesome party. I have incredible friends. :D
Oh, one more thing: Thank you SO much Josh for the Fray cd! If you haven't listened to them yet, you've gotta hear Never Say Never and Say When by them- especially Say When. They're amazing.

Well, I've gotta go- Little House on the Prairie!

Jake