Influence

Music is a vital part of me as most of you would know. Music takes me to another world, another place. Music puts me in a trance quite literally, when its just me and my Ipod. Its quite hard to describe what I experience but I'll try my best here. Turn on Windows Media Player and put the visualizers on, that would be similar to what I see. In addition, I feel the music as well, weird and hard to grasp, but that is what I experience. Sometimes, I'm put in the shoes of the persona of the song. Sometimes I feel the emotions that inspired the song. Occasionally, I write songs in my sleep, or between my state of awake and asleep, when I'm 'drifting off'. I don't have a format, the music just flows out of my head, but as soon as I wake up, trying to scribble something meaningful from that dream/hallucination (or whatever you call it) and find that I don't remember anything but the feeling that I felt creating that melody.I am known for my wide and diverse musical taste, although I focus mostly and rock, I appreciate every other genre of music. I listen to material from blues, to contemporary, metal, progressive rock, sometimes even classical music.
Here is a list of some of the most inspiring and influential people of music that drive and inspire perseverance in my musical journey.

Mike Shinoda - a rapper and song writer who embodies meaning into his work, he (and his band Linkin Park) is one of the first to drag me out of the dark and exposed me to a whole new world of music.

Ray Taro - guitarist of My Chemical Romance.Matt Bellamy - of Muse. Incredible musical talent, and a unique voice.
Steve Vai - solo artist, guitar virtuoso. The elite of the guitar world, awe inspiring level of skill, musical knowledge and creative ability. His music made me realize that there was more to the melody than most people realize. How beats and tunes can evoke emotions of translate into emotions and feelings. I realized that music did not necessarily need lyrics to work, it is good as it is.

Steve Vai

Joe Satriani - Steve Vai's guitar teacher. Similar genre.

Jimmy Page - the one, the only, guitarist of Led Zeppelin. Pioneer of the blues rock genre and started musics movement towards metal.

Lincoln Brewster - strat wielding worship leader who plays a variety of guitars but is best known for playing his Fender Custom Shop Heavy Relic Road Worn 57' Stratocaster. He is one of the few who insist on using Multi-effects units to create his sound.

Lincoln Brewster : Today is the Day Album Cover

Eric Clapton - Rolling Stones #4 Best Guitarist of All Time. His softer and more delicate approach to rock adds a classy feeling to his sound, inspiring many including guitarist John Mayer.

John Mayer - a fusion of modern pop tunes and blues. Few have the skill and talent to produce work that is at par with his.

John Mayer

Jimi Hendrix - Rolling Stones #1 Best Guitarist of All Time, possibly the most influential guitarist of all time. His goal as a performer was to maker the audience feel the same thing he feels when he plays his music. He wanted to play the guitar so badly that he made one for himself with some string and a broom stick. He challenged the way many think of musicians as performers, and musicians as people of music.

Gary Moore - impeccable blues technique and soulful melodies. A tone to die for (figuratively speaking).

The Edge - introduces a different approach to creating his sound. Heavy effects instead of heavy distortion. His style and influence can be heard in many modern christian bands and churches.

Jack White - experimental and persistent. Creative in his approach to music, taking the seemingly impossible and conquering it.

Jack White's Eastwood Airline Guitar, made of plastic.

you only live once,
Artking.

Sun, Earth and Hair

First, the Earth is flat. Then it is round. Flat again. Round again. In the end? Round off course.

Ever since Ptolemy proposed that the Earth was the center of the Universe (Geocentric model) , Christian and Jewish astronomers alike could not part from that view, simple because we were created by the Almighty, right? It just seemed so right, it had to be! We are the special ones! The important ones! The center of attention! We were made in the IMAGE OF GOD!!

It did take time for someone with enough brains and guts to tell all these people that they were wrong. The sun, not the Earth, is the center of a Solar System (Heliocentric model). Man, did those people get into trouble or what! Further revelations showed that the Solar System is in fact a minority in the major event, the Milky Way. But that's not the whole story, billions upon billions of galaxies, all shapes, sizes, temperatures, compositions, etc. in the known universe, thousands of light years apart. The universe sure is a big place. Life on this blue globe seems so insignificant, like a grain, upon a grain, upon a grain, upon a grain, upon a grain of sand. Microscopic in the whole play of events.

With this big light show going on out there, are we too insignificant for God? No! The Bible says that our very hairs are numbered, meaning that even the very strands of hair on your head are numbered by God, a testament to his attention to the details of your life. God created the beauty of space to show us his power, that what he can do and what we can do are worlds apart. He created the galaxies to show us how small we really are. But, he is here with everyone of you, despite how small you are. No matter how small or how complex your situation, He is here with everyone of you, individually, personally, ready to help. You may not be the center of the Universe, but you are, the center of His world. As proof, there is the Cross, the seemingly unimportant event in history, about 2000 years ago. God almighty has appeared to us, fully God, fully man (if you are confused about this, don't worry, nobody can get it, because no one can), accepted death on the cross despite multiple opportunities for him to give up. God has lived through a human life, he knows your struggles because he has experienced them personally. We have been given the opportunity of a life time, because of his death and resurrection, because death has died with him and he came back to bring us life, all we need to do is ask, nothing fancy, not rituals, just ask. "Dear Jesus, I want to accept you as my personal Lord and Savior, from this day on my life is yours, may your Holy Spirit live in me." Its done! Welcome to your new life in Christ.

you only live once,
Artking

Concept

The beast is lurking,
beneath the deepest oceans,
the highest mountains,
the thickest forests.

The slumbering beast will be awaken,
its mask removed,
its true face revealed,
its voice heard crystal clear.

The day will come.
The day is near,
I know it!

Its limbs will fail
But its sight will sharpen,
to see its guts spilled before the Earth.
Its flesh feasted upon by the vultures of death.

Meet the nation built on the stilts of lies,
founded on the sand of deception,
surrounded by walls of hypocrisy,
topped with a roof of lust.

Meet the nation of first world infrastructure,
sculptured by the blood of third world swines.

In this world, there are no heroes,
because none can be.
So save your Hollywood fantasies for the Afterlife.

What Good?

What good is a flame that dies on a match?
What good is ice that melts in the sun?
What good is rain that falls on the seas?
What good is a seed in desert sand?
A flightless eagle?
A fish out of water?
A claw-less lion?
Airless earth?
What good is the shed blood, the broken flesh?
If the blind see not the light;
If the deaf hear not the news;
If the mute praise not His name?

God Only Helps Those Who Help Themselves

Someone said that to me when i was a really young kid, young and naive I must add. Whoever it is wanted me to do extremely well in my exams, I said I would pray, but "God only helps those who help themselves", as if I did not study...

Does God really do that? How can you say that a God who healed the blind, cured the lame, rose Lazarus dead, only helps you if you help yourself. It represents a view that is incredibly self centered, or rather, the "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul" and "I am the Sun, God is a planet" perspective of life.

Did Lazarus try to undo his burial wrappings when he realized that he was dead? There was nothing Lazarus or the people in mourning could have done, yet God helped him.

So, should we just kick back and relax, let the exam papers write themselves? Absolutely not. God promised miracles, for those in need. Sitting for an exam is a privilege, you are not needy. Besides, he gave you the One miracle you absolutely needed. All you needed to do was ask, and you received, simple. God also promised that he would not allow burdens on you that are heavier than what you can handle. Therefore, seek first his wisdom and guidance, praying in faith, then encounter the challenges of your life with his full blessing.

Remember that God is not "watching from a distance", he is right here, right now. He should be the center of your life and you should be a planet, simply because he is bigger and stronger. Not that I'm discouraging you, life is no Hollywood film, no special effects, the blood, the sweat, the tears are all real. This broken world is too much for you, the more you fight it the more you'll fall, he is your only solution.

you only live once,
Artking

The Theory of the Universal Language

Language, something we use to communicate as a social species.

Man has been able to count almost since he was able to talk. Anything from rough estimations value when barter trading, to counting the sticks on the ground, counting is an incredibly abstract task which is not easily performed. The number four for example, you can't touch it, it is not a physical object, you can't hear it, nor can you see it, you can however associate it with a quantity of physical objects present in front you.

Over time, mathematicians began to experiment with the numbers, resulting in a colossal library of relationships between multitudes of abstracts. Algebra, Pythagoras's Theorem, Calculus, Trigonometry, Pie... the list goes on. Its application in Physics in particular, Chemistry and all the other classes of science its vital to their reasoning and logic. Logic may very well be determined by the numbers, numbers may very well determine our logic. The finite, the comprehendable.

Generally, maths and science work hand in hand, a splendid combination. However, why the errors? The unexplained? The unpredictable? Black-holes for example, a distortion of the space-time continuum, The big-bang, the theory that some say started with a "super-atom, infinitely small, infinitely energetic", how all of this ties with the enormity of the universe, yet, the universe is still expanding? How small is infinitely small? Are we still infinitely small? How much energy can there be? Dark matter? Anti-matter? Are we a dimension within a dimension within a dimension existing within our own dimension? ERR0RS!

Scientists believe that mathematics is the language of the Universe, explaining the logic and the predictable, attempting to calm the storm of unpredictability, even with irrational values. So much so, Pythagoras's Theorem is a communication tool to identify us with the Alien.

What I propose is entirely out of most of your paradigms, something so ridiculous, you probably never wanted to consider, as all of mankind is afraid of weakness, afraid to admit he is wrong.

An analogy I would use to explain this idea, ironically enough, is something from Maths, as I am a student of Science and Maths. Have you ever done questions in an examination that are so long, you needed a whole page to solve it? Those of you doing Mathematics in your Senior years in High School or University should understand this. Now imagine if you had made a silly mistake early on in the question, say if 3+7 equaled 12 instead of 10. The whole working out, the answer you finally achieved, all done in vain, its wrong! The error carries forward and affects your subsequent solution. (Thank God for c.f.m.). Yet sometimes, if another mistake is made along the way, which then puts the correct value back into the working, then the correct answer can be achieved even though the working was wrong. Lets say if i was to substitute the 12 into a formula, but wrote 10 in by accident, the answer will still be correct, but somewhere up there was the mistake.

Assume mankind made that first mistake, if 3+7 equaled 12. If mathematics was not the language of the Universe, the key to its secrets, the definition of logic. HEADACHE! No! It can't be! It all makes SO MUCH SENSE! Assume that man made another mistake by placing 10 in the formula instead of 12, the working out was wrong although a similar result is obtained. Mathematics explains many phenomenons in the world, but not ALL.

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce the weakness of mankind. He can comprehend the theory of evolution, of the big-bang, of millions of years of time passing with nothing,. He filters out the lies and only listens to the bits he wants, what he considers the truth. But he cannot comprehend that a God made him in his own image, of something beyond infinity, of existence without space or time. Here is his weakness. The singles paradigmatic mind. The limited. How a universe so big is small to a God bigger still, who breath it into existence, just as it is. How a God so big, cared for man so small, counted his every hair and died for him.

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to so introduce to you, mankind. As long as he dwells in his earthly thoughts and presumptions and assumptions of the world, he will be nothing more than the earth that made him be.

you only live once,
Artking

Curse

I started school on the 28th of January, and today is the 25th of February. I believe having my maths teacher as my maths teacher is both a curse and a blessing.

A blessing? I believe I am doing better this year than I was doing last year.

A curse? View the picture below for an idea.


A close up on my maths workbook. the pages on left are the pages used, and the pages on the right are those not used. Its a 160 page book and I predict it will only last me until mid-late March. The work load is UNBELIEVABLE. I have since dedicated all if not most of my recess and lunch times to maths work whilst working on my other assignments at home.

you only live once,
Artking