My thoughts on… Purevolume, Facebook, Myspace and Bebo

Purevolume - I joined 2006 – and is the first on the list because it is my favourite! This site is less for talking to people and more for listening to music and become “fans” of artist.  The layout looks clean and professional and it’s easy to use. The songs are good quatlity and streaming speeds are fast enough to ensure easy listening. After creating a listeners account you can add bands to your favourites and add songs to your Music Player and launch it by clicking on the music note symbol at the top right of the screen under the header banner. This site is for music fans who want to see bios, photos, latest news and latest show dates for their favourite bands. When you add a band to your favourites you will get updates on your listeners home page of their recent activity. You can add other listeners as friends, write comments and messages to them. You can write messages on artists profiles. Their are forums, community home and so much more.

Facebook - The biggest time waster EVER on the internet. With the 10 zillion applications 24hours and 7 days a week could be spent sending plants, building up your band, poking people, throwing sheep, listening to music and watching videos, checking and joining groups, adding pages, gambling, killing people and such things. The upside is that with the amount of people who have joined from around the world is it easier to stay in touch with friends who have moved to the far reaches of this planet. It’s a great online community as it is easy to find friends and stalk strangers. If you have a crush on someone you can poke them like a 10 year old showing their interest. Instead of having a conversation with someone you can just throw sheep at each other and pretend like you are good friends. Then their is the wall, which can be used for real conversations between friends. The layout is OK. I like the New Facebook layout as everything is tabbed and so it doesn’t all have to load at the same time.

Myspace - I joined 2005. This was once my favourite online community site. Mainly for its ability to handle html code in the profile sections which edits the whole page. From my observations, I haven noticed that more bands have Myspace profiles and therefore, it is easier to stay in the loop with updates from your favourite bands and listen to their music. The layout is not as nice as Purevolume but everything is still there. Including a blog section for all members, including the artists. Main downside of Myspace are the profile pages. Most contain so much large content that loading the whole page can take several minutes. There are photos, moving images, music players and videos. For someone, like me, who likes things to be more instant this is annoying and a problem. When it comes to talking to people this is where I prefer Facebook, and when it comes to listening to music this is where I prefer Purevolume. Myspace is great when it comes to the combination of them both. The layout is, in my opinion, shabby.

Bebo - I joined 2006. Is a favourite with mainly teenagers. I like that you can make your own skins which are easy to make and upload. I don’t, however, like that there is so much spam going around. People leaving comments and sending messages about webcams and videos. This is not cool and makes me want to delete my bebo account but I can’t at the moment because it’s how I keep in contact with a few of our Youth in Firebreed. It annoyed me when bebo started to become like Facebook and added applications. Bebo is easy to use and means you can keep in touch with people but they need to sort out the spam problem before I can think highly of it again.

YouTube – Bo Burnham

Even though the two previous posts were complaining about comments in YouTube and other sites I must inform you that I love YouTube and other sites. I enjoy YouTube at the moment more than the others sites including Facebook.

One person I have been watching lately on Youtube is Bo Burnham. He’s an amazing comedian musician and singer. He’s white and he can rap, sing, play keyboard and guitar. Some of his lyrics are very dirty and could be offensive to some groups of people, but in my opinion they are very clever and funny. Because I think they are good does not mean that you will and that you should watch his videos if you find such things hard to swollow. Below is some information about some of the songs to help you know if it’s for you or not, but first some info about Bo from his sites. (These are links to his different sites …. Website, YouTube, Myspace, Break)

BIO: Ever since his first temper tantrum, Bo knew he wanted to perform. After an awkward “athletic” phase, he started dedicating his time to school theatre. He continued to nurture his love for performance, receiving rave reviews from countless relatives. Bo chose to attend an all-boys catholic high school, thus giving his nickname “theatre queer” some additional validity. During the fall of his junior year in high school, Bo started teaching himself how to play piano and guitar. Soon after, he wrote and composed autobiographical songs, such as “My Whole Family Thinks I’m Gay,” as non-fictional jokes between him and his friends. On December 28th 2006, Bo recorded two of his songs as videos, and posted them on YouTube. Eight months and seven songs later, Bo’s videos have been seen over ten million times worldwide, generating literally hundreds of thousands of laughs. The songs, recorded in Bo’s bedroom with a camera resting on a stack of books (couldn’t afford a stand), have been remixed, rated, and reviewed thousands of times. Now amongst such an elites as “The Chocolate Rain” guy and Chris Crocker, Bo hopes to capitalize on his “success” and share his stories with the world. Oh, and he also likes to rap…awkward

One song he does is called “Rehab Center for Fictional Caracters“. Before you click on the link to the video I should warn some people that there is swearing in some of his videos. I say this because I know there are possibly people who may read this and not like swearing at all. So anyway, the video/song is performed fantastically. Bo does immitation voices for the 5 characters in his story which make the song that much more entertaining.

His song “My Whole Family…” is one of my favourites at the moment. It’s about his family and how they think that he is gay. It’s not a homophobic song. It’s entertaining and the lyrics are funny. Love the keyboard skills in this song. The part that always makes me laugh is
“Why doesn’t he get women, theres no other way,
Its cause I’m lanky, not cause i’m gay.”

“New Math” is a ‘play on words’ song. It pays to read the lyrics to help to know what he is saying but also so you know what he is meaning. This song has a lot of sex jokes in it (some of his other songs have sex jokes within them). One line that is well done goes “theres a metal train a mile long and at the very back end a lightning bolt struck her, how long til it reaches and kills the driver, provided that he’s a good conductor”. These lines are just clever, i think – “support the farmers with a pro-tractor, link kennedy and lincoln with a common factor (fact, or)”

I think the main thing to remember is that the songs are jokes. If you find them hard to swollow, it’s all good. I do cringe during some lines. The difference is, I see past all that and see how much talent Bo Burnham has. To be able to write songs that flow and have so much content in them is incredible. Plus in some of his videos he has a emo-type fringe.

I’m a big fan!

Bebo and Myspace Comments

My last post was about YouTube and the various comments that can be seen on peoples posted videos. This post is about Bebo and Myspace comments which are left mainly on peoples photos. (This can also be in reference to any other sites, such as facebook, friendster etc).

I have a friend who use to get heaps of comments on his photos. I remember one that made me laugh went something along the lines of “do your friends walk around with their eyes closed because you’re hot.” I have seen other comments similar to the YouTube video comments like “i love you” “you have an amazing smile” “you don’t know it now but you love me too” “do you have a bf/gf” “you have amazing eyes”. I dunno about you but it seems kinda stalkerish to me. Do these people think that by writting a comment along these lines they will score in some way? It fascinates me. Maybe it’s all about getting the attention or people think that if the other person thought that they too had nice eyes, they would some how feel accepted and loved?

Most things are about love. Everyone wants to be loved in one way or another. Thats why people have sex before they get married. Thats why people end up in crappy relationships. They want love and end up looking for it in the wrong places. If they would wait and keep searching, then they would find someone who is perfect for them. The person God made especially for them. As humans, we find it so hard to wait for the right time. Our hormones make us feel like we are in “love” and so end up doing stupid things, getting with the wrong person. Then later on we somehow “fall out of love”. Love isn’t just about feelings. It isn’t seeing someones photo or video and thinking that they are hot. That’s lust, not love. You don’t love them, you lust after them. It’s different. There’s a verse in the Bible, a very famous one, and part of it says “love is patient”. Love waits! It’s not about rushing into things. It’s about waiting for the right person and right time, and then waiting till you get married and for the right time for you to get married.

Back to comments – it’s so easy to write things like “i love you” etc but is their really a point. If you were to ask yourself “why am I writing this?” what would be the answer? Then ask yourself “is this a good reason to write this?” This post is really branching in to relationship and I could keep writing about relationships but that deserves a post on its own, thats how important it is.

So, goodbye for now. I have to get back to work =) bless you!

YouTube – Comments and Videos

I love YouTube. I think it’s great and enjoy watching some peoples videos, subscribing to different peoples channels and commenting on the videos that “wow” me.

Some videos inspire and amaze me. After watching some of this Mac guys videos it made me want to make more videos and use my camcorder more often. It’s hard when you left your charger on a different island (the North Island of NZ) from where you currently live and don’t own a Laptop or computer (I want a Mac). One of my three top spiritual gifts is Craftsmanship. This involves everything artistic, creative and visual. I love it and want to make it!

So, my point in this post is not to tell everyone how much I want to make really, really, really awesome videos, but to talk about comments that people leave on youtube videos and peoples channels. People leave comments like “i hate u” “u r so HOT!!!!” “I love u. <3″ “that guy needs to f***** die” “u r so gay” “u r way more gay thn him” “u r way better lookin than Zac Efron” — are these people serious? these are the comments they have about videos? It has nothing to do with the video, the skill involved with filming and editing it. The time and effort. I’m not saying all comments are pointless. I’m saying the ones that tell the person who is in the video that they love them or hate them are pointless. If it was aimed at the skill then I think I would be able to understand, but when it’s comments like “ur HOT”, I don’t get it. People with usernames like personsnameluvsmac… wow! talk about obsession. I guess its because I don’t watch videos and think “oh my gosh, you are so hot I’m now totally in love with you!” I love the video for either its funniness or it’s special effects, or both =) The comments that really annoy me are the ones that attack the person themselves – the hate comments. I think they are pointless. If you don’t like the video, give it a low rating, write a short “this video isn’t very funny” or whatever and don’t watch their videos. End of story. Don’t continue to watch their videos and write hate comments and attack the person. Telling someone you hate them is kinda odd. especially when you are only seeing the “on camera” side of them.

Well that’s enough of ranting about YouTube comments for now. If I find more and need to blow off steam I’ll be back to edit this post.

peace

Hospital Visit

Today (technically yesterday since it’s 1.23am) I went with our Senior Pastor and one of the other interns to see an elderly woman from our church who is in the hospital at the moment. I generally don’t like hospitals. When i was younger I got lost in one while we were visiting my nana who had breast cancer. She died not too long after that visit but i still remember seeing her lying in the bed. I think the last time i saw her she was sleeping…but I can’t be too sure as I was only about 8. The last time I was in the hospital (not including the time I was in A&E) was when we took patients down to the chapel, which was fun but the worse thing for me was walking down the corridors. The feelings were the same as we walked down the corridors this time. I get kind of claustrophobic.

When we got to the lady’s room Mike talked to her and we stood and listened. She made me think of my great-nana. She died 3years ago and was 90-something years old. Even tho she was so old she still acted like she was young. She walked around and I remember the last time I saw her was just before I moved down to Dunedin and she was in a Op Shop shopping. If you were to look at her face you would see how old she is but if you looked in her eyes you could see that she was young inside and still going strong. When I’m that old I want to be strong like that! She still remembered all of us and she use to keep the newspaper articles that I was in. I wish I’d known her better. I didn’t find out that she was Christian until after she had past away. It was at her tangi that I found out. I wish I could’ve asked her questions while she was here, not just about her faith but also about her past. They say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. How many different opportunities have we let slip away? Things we should have said or wish we had said but now can’t? Things we should have done of wish we had done but now can’t? Lost possibilities.

This hospital visit made me realise that life IS short. We can’t just think that we will always have the same opportunities open to us. One day we will be gone…one day our loved ones will die. I’ve realised that God has put me in a place of great influence. I lead a group of young people and I can choose to let them slip into the cracks of this world…get lost in the crowd and end up like every other teenager – broken. Or I can take responsibility. I can step up as a leader and I can lead. I can lead them closer to God and help them to build their lives up with God as their “foundation”. If my young people’s faith was like the elderly woman who lay in bed praising God with a broken hip, gallstones and arthritis then when they
are going through tough times and the world around them is falling apart they would cry out to God and continue to praise Him. The rains will always fall. Persecution will always come.

So, I’m going to make a stand. I’m going to do something. It wont seem like much at first but I need to make sure these girls are walking right. In my late teens I was depressed. Not too long after I turned 18 I thought I’d lost everything and started slitting my wrists. Being a teenager is hard. The pressure. The hormones. Trying to figure out who you are and where you’re going. No wonder there are so many teen suicides.

What have we been doing wrong? Have we been oblivious as they scream for our attention? Have we been sleeping silently while they’ve been crying themselves to sleep? Inside have they been dying as they smile on the outside? Do they wear a mask so people wont see that they are falling apart?

I want to be the ear that chooses to listen, I want to be that shoulder to cry on, but most importantly, I want to be that hand that leads them…

God use me.

I’m Old Fashioned too =)

My favourite clip on YouTube has Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth performing “I’m Old Fashioned”, which is from “You Were Never Lovelier” (1942). I watch it over and over wishing that life was like a 40s romance movie. My sister thinks I’m nuts the way I talk about it…

See the way Fred Astaire looks at Rita Hayworth, it’s breath-taking. The way he holds her hand and touches her, so delicately, as if she’s so precious that she needs to be treated with the utmost care. And when she sings, “But sighing sighs, holding hands. These my heart understands” and holds his arms the way she does, it makes my heart melt. And when they start dancing, they move smoothly across the floor, moving together, inseparable. As if they were made to move together, as one. Even when they don’t touch they move together as if physical space couldn’t keep them apart.

Is it every girls dream to be swept off her feet, gazed upon with adoration and treated like the most precious thing in the world? Is it wrong to want these things?
I’m friends with many families since I’m a Youth Leader and a previous Kids Leader at the church I’m a member of. One of the dads I know was talking to me and made a joke about how he asked a girl if she was going out with this guy. The girl laughed and said “no we’re just mates (friends)” and he said to me “it’s crazy how girls think that some guy is going to come and sweep them off their feet.” I didn’t think anything of it at the time because I was only half listening, but later I thought “why can’t we expect to be swept off our feet? Are we meant to just settle for some guy who is going to treat us “averagely”?” I want a guy who loves me and treats me better than average. Is that selfish and wrong?

I want someone to treat me like Fred Astaire’s character treats Rita Hayworth’s character in the “I’m Old Fashioned” segment of “You Were Never Lovelier”. I realise that it’s just a movie with characters but I’m sick of settling for what’s available. I’ve been doing it my whole life and it sucks. I’ve seen girls treated well by their boyfriends/husbands, and I’ve seen girls treated badly by their boyfriends/husbands. I’d prefer to be treated well. I know it’s possible.

So, call me old fashioned. I don’t care. I am old fashioned and I want to stay that way.

Link to video on YouTube

Flyleaf – All Around Me

Flyleaf is a band a friend of mine introduced me too. He’s not usually into this sort of music but had a listen to them and liked them instantly. He told me that they were on Die Hard and I was hooked.

One of the songs I love of theirs is called “All Around Me” and this is the meaning I get out of it.

The first verse is all about how she is searching for “you” who is God. So, it’s a song sung to God. At the end of the first verse it’s like she’s found him and she feels him as a “burning” and she says how she’s not use to seeing God, which would be because she’s never searched for him before and so never found him.

Then she moves into the bridge which repeats “I’m alive” and it’s like now that she’s finally found God she is finally alive. It’s like when we become Christians we are “reborn” in God and we find true life. We are alive.

The chorus is about how she’s found God and what he’s doing in her life and ends with “savoring this heart that’s healing”

Next verse is about the personal relationship with God as she continues to search for him and He whispers that He loves her and the way she fades into their “secret place” is like when you pray and seek God and press into him and in that place it’s like it’s just you and Him.

The next verse is talking about handing her life over to God and handing over ownership and believing that He would never leave her, like it says in the Bible. She believes.

Then the last verse ends with “savoring this heart that’s healed”…God heals the broken hearted!