On My Piano Music

My grandmother was the one to guess the titles for my piano music. I showed pics in a post below, which you can look at here.

Here are the pictures of the titles of the pieces that I've been working on:

1) Bach's Prelude 1 in C Major

2) Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", first movement

I'm almost done with both pieces, actually. I have all of the notes down pat.Now I'm just working on the dynamics, especially for the Beethoven piece.

Learning from Wrecking My Grandmother's Car

Last Sunday I crashed my grandmother's car into a pole at a convenience store near my church. Obviously, you can see the damage from the above picture. The car is being fixed, and everything should be okay, although I caused about $3800 in damages.

What Happened: I pulled into the parking space and stepped on the gas instead of the brake by accident.

What I Learned:

1) Accidents happen incredibly quickly. It was over pretty much before I realized what had happened.

2) I'm not as good a driver as I thought I was.

Good Aspects:

1) My first wreck didn't involve any other vehicles.

2) I know what it feels like to wreck the car now, so I don't have to wonder anymore.

3) My grandmother is in Kenya, and thus didn't have to find out right away.

I'm just grateful that my dad and I were okay, and that we didn't have any injuries, except for the big bruise that I have on my right knee from smashing it under the dash.

I think that they are still going to let me drive the car after it is fixed. This is good, since the car that I crashed is only a year old. I told my dad that I'm just happy that I wrecked it where there was a pole in front of me and not, say, our house or a concrete wall.

A New Look for the Blog....and my current piano pieces.

I was getting a little sick of the bright pink and black look on my page, so I've redone the whole thing with a background and header from shabbyblogs.com. Hope you enjoy it!

Now my current piano pieces that I'm working on.

The first one:

And the second one:

I want to see who can identify them. Please comment if you know what they are, as long as you are not one of the following people: my mother, my father, my sister, or my brother.

Hints)

1. They are both classical.

2. They are not by the same composers.

I'll post the titles and composers for you later.

Joe Biden's Postmodern View on Abortion (and Ultimately Religion)

Here is an interesting video of Joe Biden, the vice-president, trying to explain his view on abortion on Meet the Press. He ends up saying that his personal view is that life begins at conception, but that he should not force his beliefs on anyone else, because it is between that individual, their doctor and "their God." What he is saying, therefore, is that all religions are equal, and each religion's beliefs are equal, without actually verbalizing it. Watch the video to see what I mean:

National Novel Writing Month

November is National Novel Writing Month. I've signed up on the website nanowrimo.org to write novel during the month of November. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and 30th. I don't really think that it will happen in my case, but I'm going to have fun trying. The main site is for people 13 and over. There is also a site for younger people (ages 17 and down) at ywp.nanowrimo.org. So theoretically, if you are between the ages of 13 and 17, you can sign up on both sites.

The best part is that if you reach 50,000 words, you become a winner, and if you don't reach the goal, nothing happens to you. (On the Young Writer's site you can set your word count goal to be lower than 50,000.) People that reach the word count goal and become winners are also eligible to receive a free proof copy of their novel from createspace.com which is a self-publishing site. Also, to clarify, the people who run these websites won't read your novel. They simply count your words to see if you have reached the goal.

I am a official participant this year. I'm not totally sure what my novel is going to be, but it is in the fantasy genre. I'll post more details as I write.

***I am noting that the forums sometimes contain somewhat inappropriate things, as these are not Christian websites. However, very inappropriate content can be reported.

I think this will be a fun experience. Please check out these websites if you are interested in writing novels.

Photography Website

I've set up a photography website, here, called Photographs of God's Creation. Please visit to see my current portfolio. I'll be updating it quite frequently, so check back for new pictures! Above is one of my newest pictures in my portfolio. It is a sunflower in my grandparent's garden.

Niagara Falls

Yesterday my family journeyed to Niagara Falls, on the U.S./Canadian border in northern New York. It was amazing to see such an awesome piece of God's creation. Hope you like the pictures!

Grandpa, Are You a Winebibber?

Today in family Bible Study, we read out of Proverbs 23, which contains this statement:

"Do not mix with winebibbers," (Prov. 23:20a)

Tonight we had dinner with my grandparents at their house. I went into the kitchen and saw my brother getting orange juice out of the fridge. This is how the conversation went:

Bobby: Caroline, what is that back there?

Me: I think it's wine.

Bobby: WHAT??

Me: I said, I think it's wine.

Bobby: GRANDPA, are you a winebibber???

At A Pilgrim's Progress: Thinking About PG-13

Over a A Pilgrim's Progress, my dad has written a great post about movie ratings. So many PG-13 movies are completely unacceptable for Christian viewers today. I'd encourage you to take a look at his post. Click here.

Secular Music and Lies from Satan

In this post I want to discuss how secular music affects Christian people today. Before I begin, I want to define "secular" music because one time a girl asked me what secular music was. I define secular music as any music that isn't Christian. However, I have to be careful with this because sometimes even so-called Christian songs are, in my opinion, secular because of their worldview and/or lyrical content. (An example of this would be the song Kiss Me by the group Sixpence None the Richer.)

Secular music greatly affects today's Christian population simply because that for some of them, it is all that they listen to. So many Christians will tell me that they listen exclusively to secular music because it is better musically. (While sometimes true, irrelevant if the song is foul.) I know some people who try to justify listening to music with bad lyrics because they say that the song just sounds so cool, and that they love the beat of the song. For these people, I guess I would have a couple of questions:

1. Would you still like the song so much if the music was the same, but with Christian lyrics, and if it wasn't by an artist like Britney Spears, Katy Perry, or Lady GaGa?

2. Why is it exactly that you like the song so much? Is it truly because it is that great musically, or is it because it is by a morally corrupt artist?

I think that that particular argument for secular music is just a lie from Satan worming its way into a lot of Christian's lives.

In Philippians 4:8-9 we read: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you."

If we are truly trying to follow the Bible, especially these verses, how can we if we listen to most secular music? Because if we face it, most songs on the radio today are about sex, drugs, drunkenness, and other un-Godly practices, not to mention songs filled with terrible curse words. How can we expect to abide by the verses in Philippians, if we are filling our minds with foul lyrics?

I am not trying to say that I think that all secular music is bad or that it is a sin to listen to some of it. However, since most secular music is corrupt, I think that it is sinful to listen to most of the secular music that is out now.

I believe that there is some Christian freedom in this area, however, we do have Biblical guidelines and rules that we need to abide by. Also, while some people try to argue that secular music is the only thing to listen to, most areas in the USA have Christian stations like HisRadio, Air 1, or K-Love that we can listen to.