Seven Deadly Sins

We are studying the Seven Deadly Sins in the Kemp Class. Thought I'd share this little quiz with you! If you know me, you can probably guess which sin I "rank highest" on. Oh well. Share you answers if you wish...or not.
Consider this post as my confession for the day/week/month/year/life.
Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

Greed:	Very Low
Gluttony:	Low
Wrath:	Medium
Sloth:	Very High
Envy:	Low
Lust:	Very Low
Pride:	Medium

A follow up about cable

We still have cable TV at our house. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. For example, I got sucked into Discovery Channel the other night and learned a lot from Mythbusters and Man vs. Wild and the Alaska Experiment. Maybe I learned something. Maybe I didn't. But I sat there for a LONG time.
Those tricky short people in the house know which numbers are Nick, Disney and Cartoon Network. What kid growing up around here with cable doesn't know that Nick is channel 33. It was channel 33 when I was a kid with cable!!! Anyway, we also have a Wii. In theory, if you are playing the Wii, you are also getting "exercise" because you have to move around to get it to work, or whatever.** Well, the children asked me the other night if they could play Wii before bed. Well, I was on the computer (of course) and it wasn't quite time for bed yet, so I said yes. Time passes. I hear nothing from them. Naturally I am distracted from the clock thanks to this nice machine that sucks my time away. When I finally finish whatever useless stuff I was doing, I realize exactly HOW MUCH time had past! Oh my! It is certainly time for them to stop playing Wii and go to bed. Well...I go upstairs to see what game has kept them quiet for so long. DISNEY CHANNEL!!! SINCE WHEN DOES DISNEY CHANNEL COUNT AS PLAYING WII????????
I think they came up with some reason like, "We couldn't get the Wii to work..." Whatever. The other day, when I got a spare moment: I grabbed my remote and learned how to block channels! (***see my TV philosophy at the bottom of this post) Disney, Nick and Cartoon Network no longer show up as choices. Hee hee. The kids were a little puzzled the next time they did channel flipping. Hee hee. I also put on stronger parental control locks. Who wants their 5 y/o running across some of that stuff?
Anyway, KIDS - obey your parents or your channels may disappear as well...


**You have to be a little bit active when using the Wii until a good friend loans you Game Cube stuff and you just sit around for many hours playing Mario Party or Super Smash Brothers. ;-)


***Jennifer's philosophy on watching TV -- TV = time vacuum. Goodness knows how much time you can waste in front of that thing...of course...the computer (for me) is just as bad.
When I was a kid, we watched TV. I remember some shows that we watched...mostly I remember watching KET (PBS), Saturday morning cartoons, and some Friday night comedy stuff. When I was in 6th grade, my mom cut us off. We could only watch TV on the weekends: 5pm Friday - 5pm Sunday. School grades came up. Hmm...could there be a correlation between these two facts?? Anyway- you know how new parents often say they won't use the TV as a babysitter? Well, I said that too...at first. It is just WAY too convenient to plop your kid in front of PBS for a while. They are learning something, right?? Hmm....as they got older though, that had to come to an end. Although watching Jay-Jay the Jet Plane with Rebekah will be remembered always. :-) Now, in my household, we have the weekend rule. Lately, as I've been homeschooling, I've remembered that I learned a lot of simple things one needs to learn for school from PBS shows. So if my kids ask to watch "Between the Lions" or "CyberChase" this summer, I'll probably say "ok." PBS did not vanish from our TV.
For the record, the only show I watch on a regular basis is Survivor. (I'm a Sunday afternoon NFL junkie during football season).
If someone in my family feels the need to watch SpongeBob or something Disney...pop in a movie. At least then you don't have to watch those horrid commercials!!!! Commercials are one of the biggest problems with TV. Wonder why kids are greedy or have a poor self-image or have ADD/ADHD? Let's blame commercials. Maybe that's another reason we watch PBS.

Another FAWM has come and gone...

...and I didn't blog about it again until April?!?!? Wow. I really get behind on these things. Well, I finished with my 14 again this year. :-) Some of them turned out to be pretty decent songs, too! That's always a bonus. Now -- if my stupid computer would cooperate, I might be able to develop some good demos...however, it won't even connect to the internet at the moment. :-(
www.FAWM.org

That time of year again...

Yup. It's February. And that means it's FAWM time again. Yes, the wonderful time of the year when February Album Writing Month rolls around and people are challenged to write 14 songs in 28 days. This year, 14.5 in 29. ;-) There are over 1600 registered on the website. Only about 400 actually post songs though. Sounds like church membership... But that's not what my thought is.
My thought is about FAWM in general. Well, there are lots of things to be said. I think some of this will have to wait for my Ponderings blog. I'll get to that later.
What is FAWM all about? Well, as I mentioned it is a challenge for song writers to produce, as in put forth ideas for, an album during the shortest month of the year.
FAWM started with just 4 friends in 2004. I'm #6 on the list, joining in 2005. Wow. #6 out of 1600. Does that get me a prize? No? Oh well. So I have participated in this challenge for every year. And, every year, I have been a "Winner!" - making it to 14 songs. I have a confession. They aren't really all SONGS. A lot of it is just BS to get to 14. I've done "Sound Art" in the past. I've let my kids scream into the computer mic in the past. Last year, my last entry was a song title with a sentence about what my song MIGHT be. Um...just a title and a line from the song which never developed.
So far, this year, I have officially posted 9 song titles. Only one of which hasn't really been written. It's a challenge from another group of people within the challenge. I'm going to complete it, but haven't yet. The lyrics and chords were given, so it's just a matter of recording it my way. The thing is, if you don't post your titles in February, they don't count. If you come up with the idea, but can't make a demo or anything til March, post your idea. In March, everyone is supposed to keep spending their days and nights on the website commenting on other people's songs. So post your title, come back to it once you get the others of the 14 done. But other than that, I think I am doing pretty well.
Last year, my big stumbling block was that I didn't have a voice for the entire month of February! What a bummer! That is going around this year, but luckily, I did't get it...yet. THIS year, it's been a lack of privacy. Bill isn't currently working and not going to school all of the time. In other words, he's here a lot. I don't have the luxury of hiding in the cave of my basement to work on this stuff without bothering him. Of course, at the moment, he's upstairs, and I'm wasting valuable time on a blog when I should be writing songs...or a Sunday School lesson...
Hmm....good point....I'll go now...

What Cable Can Do to You...

We still have all of our extra channels. We didn't turn off the cable right after the Super Bowl. Although that may have been a good idea. Do I make the best use of these extra channels? You decide...
I want to check the weather. I flip on the Weather Channel. Well, they only have Locals on the 8s. It's currently the 9s and I missed it. I still want to know the weather so I might as well wait around another few minutes. While I'm here, let's flip channels... Price is Right with Drew Carey! Awesome! (humor me for a minute, some of these shows come on at totally different times of the day) American Gladiators!! It's Hulk Hogan! Cool! ... flip... House! I love House!! ...flip... Survivor! ...flip... Channel 13, Fayette County Public Schools channel has a wild bird assembly on, let's watch... Hmm... I wonder what the weather will be. Wow, 8 hours later...
*whew* That thing can wear you out! The TV, that is. It has quite a soporific effect on me. You probably didn't notice, but "Channel 13" is the only station I can't get with an antenna (except Weather Channel, of course). Our little TV is still in the dining room from the Super Bowl party. I just haven't taken it back downstairs yet. It has the super antenna on it and has a crystal clear picture on most of the channels...from the air waves. Heck, we get channels I didn't know were around with that now!!! I am certainly not paying for an extra cable outlet for that little guy. It shows the channels I actually watch, and looks great!! Having Channel 13 is helpful...kinda...when the weather wasn't looking too good last week, all Jill had to do was flip on Channel 13 and hear there was no school. Easier than waiting for the scrolling announcement at the bottom of a screen, or on the radio. So, thank you, Insight, for providing us with Channel 13.