Mile High City.

Ahoy, mateys!

I just got back from Denver, CO. Here was my extended Memorial Day weekend in review.

Thursday:

We left Nebraska at 10am, Central Time. We made one stop in Ogallala for some food at the Denny's there... And it just so happened that the only two people I know from Ogallala were working there! It was a magical happenstance, since I haven't seen them since I met them at All-State Jazz Choir last summer, so it was really cool to catch up. There's a picture on Facebook.

We arrived in beautiful Denver at 5:30, Mountain Time, to 68 degrees and sunny weather. We made reservations at Maggiano's (which I'm now finding out Omaha has, too) in Englewood, and had a lovely dinner around 7:30. And by lovely, I mean gorging on fantastic Italian food. It was delicious. We came back to our hotel and enjoyed our fantastic lodgings.

A word about said lodgings, my mom managed to get us a hotel room with a living room, 2 bedrooms, 2 bath, a full size fridge, and a kitchen. For 50 dollars. Total. For four days. Needless to say, it was nice to stay in such luxury for so stinkin' cheap.

After that, we were all pretty tired from driving and full bellies, so we went to bed.

Friday:

We woke up around 9 and went to a golf store with my brother and dad, where we also bought dad's birthday gifts. Then, we went back to the hotel, and tried to decide what to do... Then came up with Six Flags and shopping! I got to fall from about 200 feet in a harness which was pretty cool. Then we went downtown and did some shopping, so now I'm even more broke after a trip to H&M, my favorite clothing store. Oh well, it was very worth it. After a long day, we went back to the hotel, watched TV, and spent a relaxing night bumming around. It was fantastic.

Saturday:

This was May 26th, my Dad's 54th birthday. So another belated happy birthday, Dad! We went whitewater rafting, and my mom almost sunk the boat after we hit this huge rock in the river... Whoops. It was pretty funny though. After that, my dad, brother, and I went ziplining. Seriously one of the most awesome experiences of my life, and, to have a dad who goes ziplining when he turns 54 is pretty awesome. He was the oldest guy in our group, but that's ok.

After that, we went to a sushi place (his, my mom's, and my favorite food) called Sushi Den. We pigged out on some of the best sushi any of us have ever eaten, with great service from a waiter named Joe who looked like my uncle Joe, which was pretty funny.

We dropped the boys off at the hotel and my mom and I made a quick hour-long trip to the HUGE Ikea next to our hotel, where I got a coffee table for my dorm, a floor lamp, etc etc...

That night, we played a competitive but friendly game of pitch, our favorite card game. We played 7 and 10 point until past midnight, then went to bed. This was probably my favorite day of the whole trip.

Sunday:
Our last day in the Mile High City. We slept in and saw Dark Shadows around 2, which I really enjoyed (mostly because I love Tim Burton), then dropped my dad off at the hotel since he wanted a nap. My brother, mom, and I returned to Ikea (making it my second time ever being there), and I got more room/college stuff, which was awesome. We had Bdubs for dinner, and watched a Criminal Minds marathon until we fell asleep.

Monday:
Got up at 10am Mountain time, had an uneventful drive home, and arrived in Columbus around 6pm Central time. We were all family-ed out, so I spent the night out with some of my best friends. We were all pretty tired though, and threw in the towel around 1am instead of staying out at all hours like we usually do when we're together.

So there you have it! The chronicles of our family vacation to Denver. I'd go again in a heartbeat, it was a great time.

Song of the day:
And it Spread by The Avett Brothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj54C_CWx5w

Thanks for reading!
With love,
Gilmore

"And the living is easy."

Hey there, readers!

Summertime is here for UNL students. I've been out of school for awhile now, and it feels pretty fantastic. I already miss a lot of my school friends, but it's been really nice to be home in Columbus and catch up with all the people here. I'm pretty sure I've slept more in the past few weeks than I did for the entire month of November, and it feels really good. It's been refreshing being at home, and I'm not quite ready for that time to end yet.

As far as how school ended this past semester, it ended really really well. I got all A's (and an A- in my class worth the most credit, Music Theory -_-), so I had a semester GPA of a 3.9. This means my overall GPA is a 3.78 right now, which feels pretty good. Yay for keeping my Regents Scholarship!

I've been taking a short break from composing, which will actually probably end right after this blog post is sent to the world wide web, so I wouldn't get burned out and so I could give myself time to miss it. And I have been missing it, so, mission accomplished.

I've still been keeping busy doing music stuff, I'm starting a band for gigging and for fun with my buddies Michael Nguyen and Mitch Benson, and we've got a sample CD in the works. We're also working on a band name, and I'll let you all know as soon as that happens.

For those of you who haven't heard, I managed to get hired for two counseling positions this summer, one for the UNL high school jazz camp, and also for the UNL middle school band camp. This is a super huge blessing, especially since I'm Music Education now, and I'm really excited to work with these kids!

Oh, AND I got hired to work the night desk at The Village next year, and my future roommate, Sarah Ebner, got hired at the day desk, so it'll be a really fun time. I figure since I'm always awake, I might as well get paid to stay up and do homework. Plus, I actually live in The Village next year so I can just walk downstairs to my job, which is super convenient.

For those of you who don't know, I move back to Lincoln on June 1st because I'm taking summer classes (I actually want to try and be done in less than 5 years). Unfortunately, I've been having problems finding a part-time summer job, but this might be a blessing in disguise since my summer keeps looking busier and busier. Plus, the counseling jobs will get me a bit of money and be great for resumé boosting and whatnot, and my job during the school year will also aid in making me less broke. In other words, Columbus people, if you'd like to hang out with me, now is the time. We don't have all summer, unfortunately. Lincoln people, be excited! A lot of my summer will be spent with you.

I'm not gonna lie, these last few weeks have been really really lazy for me in comparison to the normal flurry of activity that seems to surround me, and I think it's just the thing I needed after this crazy school year. Summer has been really fantastic so far, I'm not ready for it to end at all. :)

Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Today's song of the day is a great one by a folk-duo called The Civil Wars. The song is entitled "Barton Hollow," and it's a good listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrOUwbsy12E

Cheers,
Gilmore

Let it Be.

Hey everyone!

So yeah, here's that post I promised on my religious beliefs, for those of you who were curious after the last one. I'm definitely not trying to convert people or anything, because I know everybody is going to be as set in their ways as I am. I'm just explaining my position here, since people were curious. So without further ado...

 John Lennon said it a lot better than I ever could:

"I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong." 

I mean, for me, religion itself is a flawed concept. I'm still sticking with my concept of God that I was raised with, and I still pray to the big man upstairs and still have belief, but I just have a really hard time with religion. The main problem that I have with organized religion is that it is created by man. Not God. It's inspired by God, sure, but not created by Him. And since religion is created by man, who is flawed, there are flaws in religion. I have no problem with people who go to church and follow the bible (a book people forget is written by man, inspired by God), but I'm just not one of them. I'd rather take my faith directly to whatever divine entity there is, and let it be flawed in my own way instead of someone else's.

My reasoning for not basing my personal belief system on organized religion or religious texts is what I said earlier, they're inspired by God, not created by him. I have a hard time thinking that the men writing these things down didn't put some of their own opinions in the text, like the whole gay marriage thing, but I digress. Also, religious texts can be perverted to be an excuse for a lot of wrongs and evils in the world, so you could find examples to justify most bad things. I mean, in the bible, the 10 commandments were created by God. Ok, I'm alright with those. I'm not exactly following the one about the sabbath, but I think the rest of them definitely make a lot of sense. I see it as a more specific version of the commanding right and forbidding wrong doctrine in the Qur'ran. The translation goes something like this:

"And the faithful men, and the faithful women are friends one to another: They command that which is just, and they forbid that which is evil; and they are constant at prayer, and pay their appointed alms; and they obey God, and his apostle: Unto these will God be Merciful; for He is Mighty and Wise."--Sura 9.71

Huh, funny that people think that Islam and Christianity aren't all that similar. I think the core tenets are basically the same. What is right and wrong is pretty much agreed upon (Killing people is bad. Stealing is bad. etc etc etc.), except Islam requires a lot more devotion and praying than a lot of the different versions of Christianity do.

Another thing that makes me pretty unhappy is when people like to think their religion is the most correct, when really, they don't take the time to find out about what else is out there. And the reason I'm pointing out the differences and similarities between those two religions is that Muslims seem to be getting a lot of flack in the U.S. for a certain group of crazies (let's call them Al Qaeda) who decided to go and ruin the reputation for all the peaceable, awesome, hard-working Muslim citizens in our country. It really saddens me to see how many people just stereotype them as a whole nowadays, and how some of my friends get ridiculous extra "attention" at airport security, even though they've been citizens here their whole lives and are just as patriotic as the next guy. Just because of the way they dress, their last names, their freaking skin color. Aren't we supposed to be past stereotyping and flat-out racism? It's ridiculous.

There it is, my reasoning for not practicing organized religion. It causes a lot of tension and arguments when really, people just have to learn to accept each other's beliefs and customs so we can get along better.

As for why I still believe in God or whoever is actually up there? I guess I can't imagine not believing there isn't something waiting on the other side. I mean, life is just too short here, we're bound to have other plans made for us after this. I personally think my form of heaven would be getting to see all those I love, and getting to meet a bunch of people I admire. Like Ella Fitzgerald. In my version of heaven, I'd be jammin' with the jazz greats every day. I'd meet composers like Beethoven and Mozart and see if ALL composers throughout the ages have a bunch of weird ones among them, too (they probably do, I mean, look at me. I happily admit that we composers are an odd bunch.). And not only that, but there are just too many good, beautiful, wonderful things in this world for there to not be a higher power. Music. Rain in the summertime. Sunsets and sunrises. Laughter. Family. Friends. Love.

Yes, I'm aware there are a lot of bad things in the world too, but, really, if you look around, it's pretty easy to see that the good really does outweigh the bad in most cases.

And hey, you know what? If there IS a God and you lived your life believing, congrats, extra kharma points in the afterlife or whatever to you! If there ISN'T a God? Well, hey, what did it hurt for you to believe if this is really just it? I mean, if there's nothing after this, you don't really have consequences for NOT believing, so it's kind of a win-neutral situation if you do believe, because believing probably isn't going to hurt anything.

Well, there you have it, my crazy little belief system that I'm not really sure falls into any category. I'd say deism mixed with optimism, maybe?


Song of the day:
Let it Be. Originally by the Beatles, but this cover from Across the Universe is pretty dang powerful, and since I used a John Lennon quote earlier, I thought it would be fitting. Watch this video with a kleenex box nearby...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4bib4PBqGA

Cheers.

With love,
Gilmore