An Introduction to "A Messenger's Journey

The promised introduction!

Introduction

     This is the story of a messenger for King Naurond. The messenger’s journal was found in the vaults of Nauronds’ castle during the reconstruction of the castle’s foundations. This messenger was sent on many daring and dangerous missions, as will soon be told. The lands which this messenger passed through contained many different kinds of peoples. Many contained half animal-half person creatures: fauns, centaurs, wer-wolves and satyrs. Other lands were composed of ‘regular’ people, both good and bad. There were also the elven lands, though very few had ever traveled there. A few lands even had talking animals for their inhabitants! This talking animal land was very far away, and very few knew where it lay. Only the very wise knew anything about it, and the messenger. But now, on with the story!

Good Heavens!

Oh my, it has been quite a while since I have posted. I am very sorry for the delay as I have been busy, especially with choir which takes place when I normally post.
I decided to do a story in installments, like in a magazine. I have had the first couple parts ready for years, not know that I was going to do this. Hopefully I will be able to write more as the need arises. If you absolutely hate the story, let me know and I will find something else to write about! (grin) Of course, because I am a little absent minded, I forgot that the story is on another computer, doh! So this post is just to get your hopes up in anticipation of the great things to come! I will probably have the first part ready by this Saturday.
See you then!

-Andre

Tearjerker

Right now, my favorite things to look up on Youtube are videos of the X Factor and Britain's got talent. Some performances are shoddy, bringing tears of frustration to your eyes. Others, like the one I am about to show you will bring real tears to your eyes. Tears of happiness and unselfishness. This video is one such tearjerker. I present to you: Emmanuel Kelly, auditioning at the X Factor, 2011:

Not only is his voice great, but his story shows that good is still in the world. I do not know if his mum is a Christian, but the very fact that she is willing to take these two boys in is great. Hope you enjoyed the video. I am rather brain-dead right now as a result of a long test and a long English class. Hopefully next week I will have something better to give you! Maybe even something original, for a change.

-Andre

PS: Check out the tabs at the top of my blog! If you remember seeing a certain post, but now that it was a movie "review," or something original of mine, you can (probably) find it in one of the tabs. Not only that, but the newest links will be towards the bottom.

The Recital

Following is a poem I wrote about two years ago. I found it while looking through stuff I had written over the past couple years and thought, "this is pretty good." Good enough that I thought I would put it up on my blog!


The Recital
There are few people
and yet enough. 
I want people to listen to our music, 
But still, the fewer, the better. 
We are next to last
and our turn finally comes. 
With throbbing heart and shaking fingers,
We make our way towards the front. 
I set my fingers on the piano, 
Forcing, hoping, that they would settle. 
Our fingers ripple over the keys, 
Happy to have something to do. 
I think that I will calm down after I get into it, 
but,
as the applause starts
I'm still shaking.

Hope you enjoyed!

-Andre

Phantom... from Youtube

First, you must understand that I am a huge fan of Phantom of the Opera. As I trawled through Youtube, finding something to listen to, I hit upon the great idea of listening to string quartets playing the theme from Phantom. I found one that I especially liked. When I first watched it, it had about 80 views. I thought that it would be cool to feature this quartet on my blog in the hope of generating more views for them. Unfortunately, since I watched the video about five days ago, they have gotten about 200 more views. And so, for the sake of my little promise, I give you: Quartet Moderne- Phantom of the Opera, by Youtube user kimjoven!

The video is not great quality, but the music is!

There are many other videos that do the Phantom of the Opera, but this is one that I really feel has the passion to play it well. I love this quartet because even though there are only four instruments, but they play them so well that it does not matter that the original score was meant for a whole orchestra. The fire with which they play is beautiful. Call me strange, but when a musician smiles as she plays a difficult piece, I feel like she is a real musician. Watch the young woman on the right and you will see what I mean.

Sincerly,

-Andre

Faith like Braces

On Monday I had a dentist appointment. It was not supposed to be. The Friday before, a basketball bounced off the court and smack into my mouth. Dazed, I walked to the bathroom to check the damage, hoping repairs on my “grill” would not be expensive. Fortunately only two braces had become unglued. These two teeth hurt quite a bit. I worried over the weekend about those two braces, not biting anything, not only because they hurt, but so that the braces would not come off. When I went to the dentist, he scraped away on my teeth to get the old glue off. The pain was almost more than I could bear; I shut my eyes and tried not to think about the cold, sharp, icicles of pain pushing their way into my gums. Soon it was over, but with the braces stuck on again, my teeth continued to hurt. Hurt so much, in fact, that I could not eat my lunch sandwich without a fork.

For some funny reason, I associated this whole braces episode to my faith. I know that on my journey following Christ there will be hurtful and rough times. Friends will die, I will loose a job, problems in the family, will plague me. But I know that God will give me the strength to endure, even when I think I can not bear the pain and tears any longer. My braces will take quite a while to have any effect on my teeth, just as I will have problems coming to terms with my faith, or my faith will be stagnant for a time. But even with all the pain my braces cause me, I know that my teeth will come through it fine, and will look great at the end of the treatment. So also my faith. It may look like I am not doing anything with my faith or that I have fallen away. Not so, for I have Christ and He will hold me through it all. He will take me to a better place, a perfect place. As an old book says, “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (NIV)

-Andre

PS: There is a new poll to go along with this post! Check it out at the right.
PPS: Proofread and better than ever!