It seems as if there’s only one song people know to refer to when they are going to fly: “Leaving on a Jetplane”. Here are some other suggestions, some from my own playlist: “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing - Aerosmith”. “Square One - Coldplay”. Ok… I just scrolled through my mp3’s and I don’t really have that much for airplane-related music. But I do have good music for flying. I still think it’s lame you can’t use your mp3 player upon take-off or landing.

Maybe anything Zero 7 would be appropriate… almost like the music you hear in the background during the emergency landing procedure video.

I have no idea when I’ll be able to post next. So I figured I’d leave with some photos from my most recent roll of film. Talk to me if you wanna know more about my flight specifics. It’s going to be exciting.

Here are songs that are getting me through each day:

• What Can I Do - Paul Baloche
• Your Name - Paul Baloche
• Hosanna - Hillsong United
• Blessed Be Your Name (Live) - Matt Redman

I can’t believe that Paul Baloche is so nice as to release free mp3 downloads at his site, Leadworship.com .  His music is quickly becoming my favourite.

Oh, and today I was over at Carter and Mandy’s place and we played this game on the PS3 called SingStar.  It is essentially singing pop karaoke in competition (like Rock Band with only the vocals).  It was a lot of fun and there were some really close rounds where Ashley, Mandy’s sister (and Turnbull’s girlfriend) and I battled it out and one of us would beat the other by a couple of points.  It was pretty intense… and then when I got in the car I popped the iPod shuffle on and kept singing all the drive home.  Carter and Mandy will be staying in Ottawa!  Mandy got into Teacher’s College at uOttawa… I’m happy they’ll still be in town.

Today it was warm enough and dry enough to go biking!  I took my road bike out and rode along the canal.  I loved it so much!  Here are my shoes after the ride.

Guess what, I’m totally out of shape.  I only did exercise twice during the winter.  Not including skating on the canal.  Biking is probably my primary form of exercise and everything follows.  If I’m not biking, I’m usually not doing anything else, it seems.

Other key changes today: the building across from my house is now open.  It is a Rogers store for cell phones, home service, and a few other things.  No movie rentals, unfortunately.  The construction was friggin’ fast, I must say.  That place was fixed up in a mad hurry.  I’m glad because for a short few weeks it was really loud.  And it was also really crappy looking before.  Now it is much prettier and there is no longer any construction noise.

Today I also managed to change my WordPress software and update to the new 2.5 release.  It is a lot cleaner and easier to use.  It doesn’t show up on my blog, but I feel it whenever I make a post now.  And apparently there are gallery features built in as well.

School is almost over!  That means more of my work will be prep for project and next year on campus.

I found out that my eMusic free 30-song trial has expired and now they have billed me for my first month of “Basic” membership for $9.99.  This is lame.  And I can’t get a refund.  So I spent a bit of time tonight trying to download another 30 songs before cancelling my membership asap.  But I found a whole bunch of good bands and discs again, probably worth more than ten bucks.  eMusic has a really lame and skimpy portfolio of music.  It’s not worth joining.  But this restrictiveness forced me to find some good music I haven’t listened to before…  Or thought was worth purchasing in the past.  Groups like Thievery Corporation, Zero 7, Reuben Morgan, Arcade Fire, and Watermark.

I thought that this article about Great Silence was interesting.  I found it after looking at another article on Boundless.  I was thinking that it might be an intriguing read for Lydia (whose iPod just died for some reason) and Beth (who fasted from portable/computer music during Lent).  Maybe you have some thoughts about this issue.

As I was making dinner tonight I had a Radiohead song “All I Need” from In Rainbows kind of playing in my head.  So I went to play it in iTunes.  It’s remarkable to think that our minds are so trained to remember music.  And also to think that nowadays we are able to immediately play some music that we think of.  That’s the whole idea of MP3 players.  There is no waiting, no fast forwarding or rewinding.  Your music, right now.

When in second year, my housemate Dennis remarked about how annoyed he was to find everyone on the bus with their own headphones on.  It bothered him that no one talked to anyone on the bus, everyone was in their own world.  After about 3 years now, I think I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not that people are avoiding conversation — if a friend boarded the bus they would likely talk to them.  It’s actually the opposite: people are avoiding silence.

Are we increasingly running away from silence?  Is it a problem that many of us cannot sleep through silence and instead prefer to fall asleep to music or static or white noise?  Is it a problem if we sit in a coffee shop and there is no music playing… and we feel awkward?

The Bible speaks about how we are to make a joyful noise, and to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  God spoke creation into existence.  The angels sang songs of proclamation at Christ’s arrival on Earth.  It’s clear that God isn’t against music or noise.  He is the author of it all.

But here’s a consideration: it is not until we are silent and comfortable with silence that we are capable of speaking the words God asks of us. What a tough thing to grasp!

It’s news like this that amaze me, for their global yet subtle influence.  The world is changing and I am glad to be alive at a time like this.

Check out the news of the event of the NYC Philharmonic in Pyongyang North Korea, and a video of the final touching song linked below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-OUt3IFlzk