Jaa, Mataa

Well, off to the land of the rising sun tomorrow. It's been a slice, guys.

mei shan

I normally don't post other people's stuff, but I had to post these. They are photos my friend Junjun took in the Huang-shan mountain range. He gave me permission to show them. It is proof to me that mountains and trees like the ones in the silk paintings actually do exist.

He's got a bunch more:
http://photo.163.com/photos/pioneer537/75217384/

This is it

I just realized what my favorite song of all time is. There actually has been a lot of thought put behind this. Here it is:

O come O come Emmanuel.

No particular version or rendition, just the song. I wish I had all the verbal skills that luckier people were blessed with, to explain why I think this song is so incredible. There is something about it that is so perfect. Can't place what it is though. I love the name Emmanuel. It is a perfect name, and it means "God with us." I love the chorus "rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee O Israel." God shall come to us and "ransome captive Israel." The image this puts in my head is so... good. In the strong sense of the word. I wish I could paint this image for you all but I can't. And the chorus, the ironic thing about it is, it is telling you to rejoice but the music still has this tension in it. And it is because the action in the song is future tense, i.e. "Christ shall come thee." But Christ has come to us. So why does it still move me, if the song is looking forward to an event that happened in the past? I think it is because my salvation is not complete yet, in a sense. It is complete in the sense that I am an adopted and loved Child of God by grace through the work of Christ on the cross. But it is not complete in the sense that I still sin. I still screw up my life. Things still suck down here and they suck hard. And the song shows that God is going to rescue us from every thing, and I can't friggin' wait. Sometime in the future, everything will become clear, and only the good will remain:

"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Team SoundSpeed (341 m/s @ 20degrees C)

From the top:
Megan (team captain and organizer. Also, the only one of us really in shape.)
Jason (officially voted "worst bad@$$" of SoundSpeed)
Esther (support crew/driver/Jason's girlfriend: blasted music and shouted for us)
Chris (a real workhorse, ran 3 of the 12 legs in the race)
Michelle (in addition to running 2 excellent legs, her scarf doubled as a finishline for Megan)
...some guy who kept making dumb acoustics jokes the whole time

For more photos of the race go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28844456@N00/

good times

While I'm still on this trip-hoppy shoegazer synth binge...

Try the following:
http://www.myspace.com/asobiseksu
"Strawberries CWL remix"

Gwen & Gary's album (This link was kindly suggested by Myron)
http://www.studiogomusic.com/letsgo/
I liked tracks 3&4, he liked 1 & 5.