Visualize Your Life

Everyone knows iTunes. Well, I hope everyone knows iTunes. There's so much magic in iTunes. Not only do they have totally sweet commercials. Those dancer people make me so envious because I'll never have moves like them. HOWEVER, I totally rock out to music like they do. But anyway, back to magic. iTunes brings music first and foremost, which of course I think is quite magical. But what's perhaps even more magical than that is a little thing called iTunes Visualizer. Heard of it? Play a song on your iTunes, then hit ctrl (or command if you're a mac) T. Step 2 - ctrl F.

WOW! It's like shooting stars all over your computer screen!!!!!!! The best is when you can put it on a big screen. That's freakin' cool. I could seriously stare at that thing for hours. It is so calming and just captures your mind. I think it's because the pretty lights usually match the beat to the music, so you just can't look away. "Cosmic Love" by Florence + The Machine is insanely cool and totally matches the song and the lyrics too because she talks about the stars and moon and stuff. Listen to it at the bottom and then go see for your self....LITERALLY.

picture via www.imamuseum.org

I don't really even know why I decided to blog about this. I just felt like I hadn't blogged in a while and my visualizer was going and I was like, "WOWWW. I'm still soooo intrigued. I gotta let someone know."

The lights remind me of lots of things. I mean you got the star and space thing going. And you got the whole silent fireworks idea (except they're not really silent because you have music playing, but you know what I mean).

For me, it's really cool how I can finally associate an image with my favorite songs, especially since I'm a visual person. I think sometimes that songs are just to great for images or videos and lots of times their music videos just do not live up to what the song means or represents, but with the visualizer, it's totally up to interpretation. Just like songs are and the lyrics to that song. So really it's a perfect match. They really are a great pair together. Some philosophical moments could definitely come from watching the visualizer for just 2 minutes.

So I guess the "bigger picture" to this totally random post would be that you should visualize your life. And everything it in. Start making images to go with everything. And when I say images, I don't mean drop everything and become an artist. I mean, like, to start associating concepts with other concepts, ideas, or beliefs. Start connecting them to the bigger things in life. Visualize them so they can be interpreted by you or others.

And then when YOUR head starts spinning from all this, just turn the visualizer back on. It'll calm you back down and chill you out for a good while.

I'll Be Seein' You, Summer

Summer. It came and now it's gone. And as usual, it felt way too fast. Don't know about you, but I had an amazing summer. One of the best so far. Probably why I never bothered to sit down and blog about it. I was either to busy watching the sunrise at "Pretty Place" . . .


. . . Or maybe I was too busy being a camp counselor for four weeks, learning many, many important and valuable life lessons. And oh yeah, washing the dishes for the whole camp. We only ran into a few problems...like the Hobart exploding with soap.



The majority of my summer was spent in North Carolina, which has always been one of my favorite states. But now, I realize that it's probably the most underrated state out of all fifty. During one of my backpacking trips this summer (up in the Smoky Mountains), we summited Mt. Sterling. At the top, there was an old fire tower that my cousin and I climbed up to. We actually played cards up there and witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen.



From that sunset, our group backpacked for a few more days to our family reunion, also in the Smoky Mountains. We felt very proud to say that we arrived to the ranch where we were staying "via foot". Once again, I was surrounded by North Carolina's natural beauty. Something that I miss and really long for, living in the city.


Summer seems to be a time when lessons shower down. Sometimes we don't really feel that rain. But I know I did this year. For sure. And I am so happy and so blessed that I learned the lessons I did and made the realizations I did. God really put me in a cool place this summer and I just feel so fortunate.
It's also really important that after this rain has fallen, we look for the rainbow. And never associate rain to be a negative thing either. I mean, come on, have you ever danced in the rain? Or just stood there and felt the drops pour down on your skin? Cool feeling. Woah, getting off track. Rainbows. So, they are a pretty cool thing. To me, it's like that think in the sky that sometimes you see, if you're lucky. They don't last long, only a few minutes. This completely relates to summer and the growth that happens, at least in my past experiences. Whenever I have a summer that was . . . let's say, eye-opening or showed me a different perspective, or maybe I went on a retreat and had a really great ah-ha moment, right after I get back or soon after, those feelings and what I learned disappear, just like the rainbow.

That all being said, keeping the rainbow is one of my biggest goals for this year. Because believe me, what I learned this summer are things that I really do not want to forget.

The Sound of Summer

Ahhh, summer. Although I've been out of school for a few weeks, it's just now beginning to truly feel like summer. First, there's the heat...it's getting pretty toasty where I am. And then there's the really green grass that follows me wherever I go. The summer rain. And the smell of the hot, summer asphalt after it's stopped. The summer sunsets. The lightning bugs. It's all so wonderful!

And for some reason, sounds really remind me of summer. Especially music. There's just those songs that you can only listen to in the summer. Like for me, country is wayyyy better in the summer than...let's say, the winter. Agreed? Passion Pit is awesome to listen to while you're driving around in the summer with your friends going who knows where. I mean, everyone knows that if you looked on people's iPod's, the majority would have a playlist with some form of a name like, sUmMeR '10, school's out!...you get the drift.

The sound of summer really is music. All types. I find that I'm so much more open to different genres during the summer months which is kinda strange. Not gonna lie, I really don't usually like country or rap, but during the summer - it's awesome! Maybe I'm more open because I have a lot less stress and the only big worry I have is what bathing suit I should wear to the pool.

Summer is so much more carefree. Summer is riding in the car with all your windows down, your hair blowing in the wind, sunglasses on, music blaring.

photo: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoeAIdMm7NENqCnHJZUwT11nt0CJ85pEYBO56pidThupoflBS15KKG5wDwxxbePVcSe2EdeGglvOsbxQqkNJK3kjD9pTU2e2ot0wovChldwlSOKY994y4_6VP27KNxhu-IBU4njhn9SFA/s1600/rwe+summer.jpg