And the site is DOWN....... :-) Upgrades in progress. You know it's been two years since my website saw any significant improvements. Hopefully in a week or two, there will be some BRAND NEW FUNNESS on the web!!
In the meantime! Why don't you check out the newest contenders for the Inner Circle!
Howdy, howdy, howdy! Can you believe it? Christmas is already here again! Wow, this year has gone by quickly. Well, relatively so. Maybe not quickly enough at some points. Boo for school. :-) So, I am sitting here in the living room watching the Muppet Christmas Caol (one of my ALL TIME favorite movies) because I am a little under the weather today.
Where did we get that phrase? I mean, really. Random. Under the weather? What does weather have to do with my health? Anyway, I digress.
I have had a cold for the past few days and though I am feeling much better today, I am still not back at my best. Normally, I wouldn't mind since it isn't a big deal to have a cold, but it means that we had to postpone recording our fake Christmas album. THAT bums me out because I was really looking forward to singing "Silent Night." Grady's version is so good!! Oh well. That's life. Maybe we'll do a fake spring album or something. :-) Or maybe we'll have Christmas in February! YEAH!!!
Have any of you ever been over to NORAD's Santa tracking website? If you have kids at home, this is a GREAT one to watch as a family. NORAD tracks Santa's progress around the globe as he delivers his presents so that your kids know exactly when to go to bed. :-)
That was random, but it was on my mind today. Enjoy!!
I hope that you each have a WONDERFUL Christmas!!! I was trying to think of a Christmas gift to get for all of my faithful blog readers, but I was at a complete loss. I am afraid that you'll just have to make do with LOADS more Christmas music! If your browser doesn't load the music, clear your cache and sing along to some Christmas jams!!!!
The music player has been updated! You know, just in case you didn't get that from the title. :-) First off, a whole BUNCH of new songs have been added, so turn your speakers up and have a listen! Secondly, the new version should force your browser to download the new player, but if it doesn't, you will need to clear your browser cache. And if you are using Internet Explorer and it is still not working, PLEASE consider downloading a new browser. Firefox and Opera are both excellent alternatives and completely free. Finally, I have included a playlist on the left so that you can see what is in the player. Have fun!
Well, I am now officially on vacation!!! Is my apartment clean? No. Did I even finish all of my laundry before I left? No. Is it better than it was? Well, yes. But I choose not to dwell upon it! I will just have to head down the day before Truett moves in and REALLY clean it all up. I started with the best intentions yesterday; really I did. I was going to get the whole place cleaned up and rearranged so that my new roommate, Truett, could move in unhindered in January, but I am afraid that tragedy struck.
I found "The Office" online. Suddenly I was sucked into some kind of weird parallel universe where co-workers have arguments with fake artificially intelligent computer systems and others have dueling Christmas parties and others turn into vampires...
So, I didn't get much done. :-) TODAY, I actually DID get a lot accomplished. I mean, you can see the carpet now. What. That's a good thing. Of course, you can no longer see the countertops or the tables since everything from the floor is now on them, but that's just an insignificant detail. Stop dwelling on it. Sheesh, some people can NOT let stuff go!
I am now sitting at my parents house relishing the fact that Christmas is ALMOST here and I am officially out of school, away from Waco, and enjoying those two facts immensely. Tonight, we all played a little Texas Hold'em. And by all, I mean my mom, dad, sister, and Truett. It was Truett's first time and he might have won if we hadn't gotten bored and given up. But it got down to just the two of us and that's notsomuch with the fun. Oh, who am I kidding? HE WOUlD NEVER HAVE TAKEN ME! ;-) I am a sucker for a poker game, did you know? I don't gamble, so I won't play for real money, but I LOVE to see all those brightly colored chips sitting in front of me - especially when they came from someone else. Hee hee hee.
I did, however, have one downer moment in my day. I am putting it here after all that funness so that maybe no one will actually read this paragraph. Remember the two languages I am taking? Latin and Greek? Otherwise known as the languages spoken by torturers, demons, and the IRS? Well, I knew early on last semester that they were going to be a problem. As finals drew near, I knew that it was going to take an absolute miracle to pass these classes. I did have one ray of light when I found out that I only needed to pass the classes (D) to move on to the second level and didn't need a C like most progressive courses. Anyway, the finals definitely did NOT go very well, so I am sure you can see where this is going.....
I passed both classes. I can't believe you thought I failed. :-) I wasn't going to look until after New Year's so that I wouldn't have anything to dampen the holidays or my birthday, but, on a whim, I decided to take a gander tonight. And there you go!! Woo hoo! Go me!! I am TOTALLY multi-lingual. Hahahaha.
So, there you go. I have a worry free month ahead of me during which I hope to accomplish lots of things I've wanted to do for a while. Merry Christmas, all!
By the way, I heard lots of nice things from people who listened to the Candlelight Carol I put up in my last post. Everybody seems to like it lots and to be really surprised to hear me sing...which makes me a little hurt, now that I think about it. Come on? How could I NOT be a singer?? I look just like Pavoratti! Hahahaha. Okay, no. No, I don't. Anyway, thank you for all of the delightful e-mails you have been sending! For those of you who have not sent an e-mail...I'm just assuming you think I stink and that's fine but you can keep your e-mail!! :-D Anyway, if you are interested, I have one more song from the Christmas program that you may download. The song is one of my favorites, "One Small Child," but I do not like this recording as much. I don't really start to sound good until the last verse. So maybe you just listen to that verse, okay? Thanks, you're a doll. hahahahaha.
Hello, everybody!! Sorry for my prolonged absence, but let me make it up to you! Let's begin by telling you about my weekend...
The weekend actually began on Thursday as I hightailed it out of Waco to rehearse for the Christmas program on Sunday. Choir rehearsals are the highlight of my week. There were a great many sorry school weeks instantly remedied by a choir rehearsal. My fellow choir members are HYSTERICAL! And not to mention completely nuts. I mean, some of these people put ME to shame in the psycho department. I don't know why I don't share more stories with you...[insert introspective look here]
Did you get my introspective look? 'Cuz it was a good one.
ANYWAY, after rehearsal I headed over to the Saylaks and hanged (hahahha) out with Suzy and her parents for a while. The next day, I did a whole bunch of nothing but answer e-mail, watch television, and shop a bit with Suzy. Diana came in that night and we got ready for our Movie/Chocolate marathon. Our menu included chocolate pretzels, Whitman chocolates, chocolate-covered cherries, chocolate haystacks, chocolate pastries with Snickers and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Goobers, Ferrero Rocher chocolates, and loads of chocolate candies. MMMmmMmmMmmMmmmm.....so good!! We made it through Elf and half of the Polar Express before Diana realized that Sophie had gotten out and, well, you all know how that ended. Diana had to go home Sunday evening and face a house full of Sophie's toys and things - not a pretty prospect. Thankfully, one of her friends from school had already broken into her house and boxed it all up for her.
I've officially changed my mind. I know longer hate people. I love people.
Saturday, I had two Christmas parties to attend. The first was at the home of five of my FAVORITE people EVER!! Tracy, Bill, Chris, Brianna, and Angel. We had a gift exchange that awarded me a snazzy portable grinder thing...which I just realized sounds dorky, but I don't care! It's cool! I ground a hole straight through the walls from my room to Richard and Nick's room so we can tie a string to two cans and play the telephone game.
Okay, I made that up.
After we did the gift exchange bit, the guys headed outside to play laser tag. Yes, I know, we are all grown adults, but you know what? Turns out that laser tag is transcendent. It is fun at any age. :-)
Then we headed over to Victoria's house for the second party. This one was populated by Diana's closest group of friends from high school and was a blast as well! We made pizzas and had a few drinks then headed back to the Saylak's so that Diana and I could butcher the rest of the room in Guitar Hero. :-) Those in attendance who had their butts whooped were Lisa, Mark, Gje, Vic, Clint, Preston, Dianna, Eva, and Nathan Gay Day. Fun times.
Now, that brings us to Sunday morning. HELLO, FUN! Thank you for coming! Sunday morning was our Christmas program at Zion and it went really well! This is the first year in a while that we haven't done a Christmas cantata, but the a la carte approach worked really well. We sang through a bunch of old Christmas Carols that rarely see the light of day. Christmas Day. WOO HOOOOOO!!!!!
So, funny story... Last week, I mentioned to Annette that Diana's Divas and a Dude were singing and she asked if we recorded it. Wellllll, we DID record it, but the solo mics came through with wayyyy too much distortion. So, I sent her the recording of Candlelight Carol from the Christmas program because I have a solo in it. I am pretty sure she liked it because she put it up on the Haygoods message board.
And MySpace.
And in an e-mail.
Hahahahaha. So, Zion, meet Internet. Internet, meet Zion.
Now, for the funny stuff...In addition to the link at the top, you should check out these videos...
Hey, everybody! I had originally planned to tell you all about me amazing Christmas weekend, but I we had a sad day instead. Tonight, our movie marathon was cut short because my best friend's dog disappeared. It's a long story that I'll get into later but the short version is that she was hit by a car and did not make it. That said, I just am not feeling festive tonight. Please keep Diana in your prayers and I'll talk to you all tomorrow.
SHINE is the third in the prestigious line of Blogs committed to the intelligent ramblings on one Jim Hawkins. This one takes a slightly different (and definitely more mature) approach to the world of Blogging. Because Jim is a grown up now.
