And now,

Some Sacred music.

TEA.

I'm addicted to it. I've always had sort of a thing for tea, something that I inherited from my Anglophile older sister. But I went further than she did. I'm hardcore. I had, before coming here, at least 19 different kinds of tea at home. And I knew them all. I had favorite brands and favourite mixtures of favourite brands. For some, I even used whole leaves. (Which, by the way,really DOES taste better. Don't let the packaged tea lobby convince you otherwise.) I knew what was the best way to boil water for ea, how long to steep the different kinds, etc.

And then, High school. And like most high school kids, I had two options: 1) Soda 2) Energy drinks.
I tried a little of both. By brother went with energy drinks, I went with soda, specifically, I went with either ginger ale* or a mixture of lemonade and Sprite.

Of course, here are the monastery, we only have soda on rare occasions, so what am I to do? Withdrawal was too hard. I needed a fix. I went back to tea, and she received me with open arms.
I'm slowly building up my collection again. I was saddenned to find that two of my companies are no longer in business, and another no longr ships to the U.S. For another, I can still get it, but I'll have to make a trip to a Japanese foodmarket downtown.

But it's worth it. It's the BEST white tea I've ever had.

EPIC AWESOMENESS.

(Click for full size, In case you want to know why Thor should be muc better than Ironman, considering it has a better premise.)

Anyway, I saw a preview for this movie (The long awaited Thor movie) yesterday and I was so excited I wanted to hit someone, only my only options were my fellow postulant and an angry looking man and his girlfriend to the right, so I thought that that might not be a good idea. I kind of value being alive and all that. I did do my happy dance interiorly though. (Obviously, I wouldn't do it. It's against decorum for soon-to-be religious to dance.)

Well,anyway, I'll probably not get to see this movie, even though I was one of those weird fanboys that was circulating and discussing rumours about this online back when the second Ironman movie was still in prodution. Part of me wants there to be a Green Arrow movie too, but he's probably not considered popular enough to have his own.

Oh yes, for your entertainment, I have another image to share:
[Link]

Sometimes people are hard-headed.

Like me. I've been some form of practicing christian since 2005, and it was'nt until recent months that I relised a very simple lesson: That all of Christianity can be summed up in one word: Charity.The creation, the Passion, the resurrection and ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit, all the sacraments of the church given to us, the life which everyone should live, everything is charity.

And it took me this many years to understand something that I've read umpteen times in books and heard thousands of times in homiles.

How did this happen?

I not only got more than the 4 Llamas I already had and ended up getting my Super Llama, I ended up getting my ALBINO Llama, and am close to getting my Super Albino Llama badge. :D

Also, one of my works got double-digit favourites and views already, and I piked up two watchers.

DA finally does'nt hate me as much.

It's been a while,folks.

Sorry that I kind of dropped off of the earth again. Life is busy nowadays, what with the whole religious life/seminary thing. Slowly, I'm working my family through this, which is'nt easy. When you come from a family initially formed in Jack Chick's version of Christianity, going off to join a group of priests and friars consecrated to to the Blessed Virgin is probably the craziest thing possible to do. But God Wills what he wills.

And now, a Musical Interlude.

SNOW.

Wow, we already have two snowfalls before February. It's wonderful.

And now,

A musical interlude.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot.

According to some articles I found on Google, I'm dead. Yup, apparently, I shot myself about 90 years ago when poor health kept me from running my woodworking business properly.

Also, I have about 37 results for Facebookaccounts with my exact name.

Joey, Who Definitely did Not google his own name to see what results came up, because that would be something crazy people do, and I'm not That crazy yet.

New Band.

I've fallen in love with Parkway Drive.

Don't look them up if you're faint of heart. But it ought'nt be a surprise to anyone who knows me, since I don't make it a secret that the only non-sacred music I love is all heavy, heavy music. I honestly don't know how it came about that this is the music that I learned to love. Growing up as a little one, we (That is, my older brothers, sister and I ) were never allowed to listen to any type of secular music. If we liked a genre, we had to listen to it's gospel or Christian counterpart, not originals. (I think this is how I came to dislike Christian rock,among many other reasons.)

I think it started in seventh grade, when I was still in my not-so-religious stage, and I was drawn by the lyrics which kind of resonated with how I was feeling back then. Then, after my initial conversion, I kind of put it away. Not only because some of the lyrics and the artists probably weren't appropriate. I think It was my brother and a good friend I had in ninth grade that convinced me that it was okay. That, and I fell in love with two Christian punk bands.

And now... I have Ben Van Oosten and Black Flag on the same playlist,and Linkin Park follows Langlais. Funny, innit?

See, see, the word is incarnate!

Orlando Gibbons.

Happy Epiphany.

(Though we here in the U.S. observed it on Sunday. At Lourdes, (At the Latin mass) we had the Victoria O magnum Mysterium that was'nt sung on Christmas, Something by Rheinberger at the offertory (Venite Populi for soprano and alto chorus) the proper chants and: 1) The First Nowell (Descant on the last verse) 2) What Child is This? (One harmonised verse) We missed out on the toccata from Widor's 4th symphony, and got the In Dulci Iubilo from Bach's Orgelbuchleine.

And now,

Some Christmas music.

<3

Four days late,

But I finally have my collection of new years Te Deums:

Stanford in B Flat

Stanford in C

Tallis

Charpentier

And, the Best Version EVAR, showcasing Boiseau's reeds before they were ruined after Couchereau's tenure;

Pierre Couchereau and the Choristers of Notre Dame de Paris.

And now, as a treat,

Photos from liturgies at my parish, Our Lady of Lourdes, Philadelphia.

Midnight mass form this year is in there.

And now,

Some Festal Music.

Usually, we get this in Epiphany as our postlude, but this year we just got something from Bach's Orgelbuchliene

Can I just add that, despite it's popularity, my favourite movement from this symphony is neither the Toccata nor the equally popular Allegro Vivace, but the much more interesting Allegro Cantabile.

Mind Changing events.

(The Cross as the Tree of Life, something I did last month)

Without gloating, I think I'm starting to think like a religious. That does'nt mean that I act like one, of course. It just means that I've learned some basic things, and those things will have to chanhe my actions.

The biggest thing is that I realise now that I'll have to give up on art, probably entirely, or at least restrict myself to religious subjects. I've realised that there is no point in me drawing secular subjects. Many of the subjects don't glorify God, and there's the simple fact that I cannot draw without refrence photos. To find reference photos, I have to trawl through pages of photos on stock photo sites or Deviant art. If you don't understand what I'm getting at, just go to your average stock photo site, like istockphoto or Getty images and search any term and see what type of things you get.

That, and some of the pictures I draw don't make sense without lenghty explanation. While me and me friends understand why I drew a pictures, for example, like This One, others won't. People who don't know that Annoh is my friend, who I talk to on Gaia Online, and that on Gaia, there is this thing called avatar art , or 'avi art' for short, where you draw someone's virtual avatar and they pay you in virtual currency, people who don't know that will just thing that I drew a random violent picture of a criminal. Or, if they don't know about the Double Rainbow video, and how Gaia made an Item for it that you can equipt on your avatar, they'll see somthing like This and think that it's an approval for alternative lifestyles.

So yes, as it is a vehicle for scandal, and possibly a near occassion of sin for others, I ought to stop. I think I'll just finish the 10 or 11 comissions that I have in progress and then take a break while I decide what to do with all the avi art and secular comissions that I have in my portfolio.

And also, the importance of cultivating a spirit of poverty, Which means, I probably can't draw anyway since markers are expensive, and drawing requires the use of expensive digital editing programs, and letting other people know that I have any of that stuff can be a cause for scandal ,and it's probably just not right for me to own expensive things like sets of copic markers of multiples copies of photoshop*


Of course, this could all just be me going to the extreme and I could end up changing my mind anyway. But like I said, 10 or 11 comissions and then I'll see where I'm going with this.
*Which, by the way, I don't own.

Happy Feast day!

Today, of course, is the feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus,

"Lo, a maiden hath bourne the Monarch whose name is Everlasting: she hath both the joy of a mother and the honour of a virgin: before her hath none been seen like her ,nor shall there be thereafter, alleluia."

-Third antiphon of lauds.

I sing of a Maiden.