Target Practice

One activity I enjoy while visiting the farm family is archery.  I got my first bow when I was about 10.  Not one of those plastic toy bow-and-arrow kits, mind you. This thing is legit. I've got a couple I primarily use out of the family's bow collection now. I prefer the longbow style anyway. Possibly something to do with my great love of Robin Hood.

I'm not sure why I love this sport so much. Maybe it's because I'm naturally talented at most hand-eye coordination tasks.  Or because I grew up with it as a family-bonding hobby. I'll never be a hard-core deer hunter like my father (of course), but target practice is fun.

(video to come)

Or at least it is until you have to scour the thicket and the woods for lost arrows. Oops. Can't hit the target every time.

Battle Wounds from Christmas Vacation

I've got quite a few little adventures I'm hoping to post here from the holidays.  Here's the first one. Christmas afternoon brought rough-housing around with the little brothers - an event that was once accident free, at least on my end. Recently though, the little brothers have all grown big and strong. ALL of them are bigger than me!

After a delicious dinner with the extended family, and a half-hour spent unwrapping presents, little brother wanted to give me a piggy back ride to prove just how strong he is (earlier he had lifted me several feet off the ground).  Well, piggy back ride didn't go nearly as well as it could have. Perhaps it was partly my fault, wearing a skirt and just being to short to jump up on there. Well the story ends in more of a leap-frog way, with little brother standing up and throwing me down in front of him. On. My. Face.

Battle Wounds from Christmas Vacation:

Christmas Lights by Coldplay

Christmas is such a special time of the year.  It makes you feel all warm inside - even when it's cold outside!  I've said several times that music is one of my favorite things about the season. Here's yet another reason why that is so:

Winter by The Workday Release

Do you hear what I hear?

Why am I so in love with this band?!  His voice is a bit like melted chocolate. And they're awesome on stage. I know, cause I saw.

AND THEY COVER CHRISTMAS SONGS!

enjoy.

Christmas comes before December

My favorite part of Black Friday is not the super crazed shopping sprees - though I did experience a little of that at 1 am. Oh my goodness, not doing that again! - but it's that I can finally listen to Christmas music without feeling that I'm taking away from other holidays.  I love Christmas. I hate the cold, and snow, and wintery stuff, but I love that everybody is so happy. And excited. And families pretend they all love each other again. 

This year I'm on the hunt to find some more non-traditional Christmas music. I love the classics, of course, but sometimes you want something a little different. For instance, I just love it when awesome rock bands release rock-n-roll versions of Christmas songs.  Observe. 

A love/hate relationship: music videos

I wonder if I'm the only one that feels this way. I have a complicated love/hate relationship with music videos. Most of the time I won't even go watch them for new songs for fear I'll hate the song afterwards. Music means a lot to me and I love it.  I love new pop songs that I hear on the radio and songs that friends recommend to me.

Sometimes I'll make playlists on YouTube of songs I like, and inevitably the "official music video" will show up, so I'll watch it.  Sometimes, not always, I'll love it. Other times I'll hate it.

For instance, I love this song and I love it EVEN MORE after watching this video:



On the other hand, I used to love this song. I loved the message portrayed when I heard it on the radio. Then one day I saw the video, and now it's not the same. I mean, really? Why? This doesn't even make sense.



And then there's this song, which is just pretty much awesome... when you don't watch the video. It's a catchy tune, and the whole message behind music videos is really how I feel about them. But it's really annoying when you just want to watch the video to hear the song. See what I mean below.



What are your favorite music videos? How do you feel about them? Do they ever ruin the song for you?

30 Day Song Challenge: Day 8

30-day Song Challenge Day 8: A song that makes you feel like dancing.

30 Day Song Challenge: Day 7

30-day Song Challenge Day 7: A song that reminds you of somebody you miss.

Don't look now but this is probably the same person featured in Day 2. The song title is a complete coincidence. :)

30 Day Song Challenge: Day 6

30-day Song Challenge Day 6: The theme song for your life

Well hey, look at that. My blog title seems to be somewhere in this song. I guess that makes it my theme song. :)

30 Day Song Challenge: Day 5

30-day Song Challenge Day 5: The theme song of your favorite TV show

I wonder how many other people used this one. I'm excited I found the 3-minute version!

30 Day Song Challenge: Day 4

30-day Song Challenge Day 4: A song you absolutely have to listen to everyday

Well, I don't have to listen to this everyday, I just usually do.

30 Day Song Challenge: Day 3

30-day Song Challenge Day 3: A song that can instantly change your mood

I love this song! I think it's SO cheesy that it's funny, and it really does make me happy.

30 Day Song Challenge: Day 2

30-day Song Challenge Day 2:
A song that reminds you of the one you love

30 Day Song Challenge: Day 1

I've decided I really need to do more with my personal blog. So to get myself used to it I'm going to start simple with topics already given to me.

30-day Song Challenge: Day 1
What song did you listen to at work?

This song came up on my Pandora today and I really liked it. It's just my type of music by a band I've never heard before. Gotta love Pandora.

This Providence, My Beautiful Rescue

Feeling overwhelmed? Read a book.

Have you ever felt like your attention has too many demands to keep up with? Apparently, this has developed into a pretty bid deal. Big enough that there's a new name for it. Divided Attention Disorder (DAD) is taking over the nation. I stumbled across this article while reading the news this morning.  And I AGREE. Yes, I did both bold and caps that word because I agree so strongly.

I've been trying to find a balance between my ultra-long to-do list at work, my significantly-long to-do list for school, and my infinite personal to-do list. I've left a couple out of there as well.  I always know exactly where my internet-friendly smart-phone and my iTouch are. Most of the same information is scribbled in my Franklin Covey planner as well.

I haven't even talked about how many windows I have open on my computer all day.  So many that when I get home from work in the evening I dread booting up my laptop to attack my online grad school homework.

BBC says that all of this constant online communication could be changing the way our brains think. I'm not sure if it is for me or not, since I was raised in the Google generation.

I'm sure I'm misplacing bits and pieces of my life with so many demands rushing through my mind all at once. So how does one overcome this overwhelming need to do everything? Well, I agree with Colm O'Regan's advice to exercise your ability to focus your concentration for more than 10 minutes. He says go read a book. I say, go read this book.

I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling like this. How have you all been handling the pressure?