Earth Day 2010

Today is EARTH DAY! Go outside and enjoy the beautiful if its available to you! Here where I am its incredible out and ill soon be enjoying a game of frisbee and then playing some music out under a tree by my dorm!

Since it is earth day I think that everyone should take some time to consider how absolutely incredible this world is. Its one of my biggest pet peeves when people us the phrase "small world."
I absolutely hate those words together! The world is just amazing from the people that inhabit it to the animals that roam it. From the sounds of music we create to the types of food we can conjure up to satisfy an evening meal with the family, the world is spectacular. Really take some time today to sit outside or somewhere comfortable and consider what makes you happy and how this planet has given it to you and then give something back to this wonderful world! Go help a person in need, or simply consider recycling your trash today.

Whether you want to believe that God or some other deity created the beautiful things on the planet, at least consider how amazing the world really is. The planet is like the parent of a child. Were the planets children and the planet gives us everything it has to offer for free and without complaints. Even though we complain about things, the earth doesn't fight or complain back. Think of it like that. Enjoy the day and take some time for yourself today and thank the planet for what it has to offer.

Air-a-"In-The-ZONE"-a

Oh yes, its that time of the year when young students attempt to allude the grasps of the already immature level of college and of parents and make their way down into Florida, or some other so called warm "party" spot for Spring Break! However unlike maybe most students I made my way out to beautiful and strangely green lands of Arizona. Since it is rather early in the year Arizona did have a lot of rainfall before I made my way out there, hence strange green land. I'm not saying it wasn't beautiful, because it was, it was just strange seeing green grass and plants in Arizona since I only seem to be out there when everything is brown.

By now you may be wondering what Air-a-"In-The-ZONE"-a means. Well while out in "the zone" as I like to refer to it, my dad and I did a lot of rock climbing and I have never felt more "in the zone" while climbing than I did being on real rock for my first time. Our main idea behind the trip was to first, like every person on spring break, catch some rays from the sun and warm up the skin, since everyone knows Indiana has the worst weather in the country! Overall though, we both went out to go rock climbing. Both of us have been climbing in a gym for a while but at some point, like a beast being caged up, you just have to get out sometime. So we split and headed for Arizona, which has the most exposed rock in all of the country.

Our first day out we went to Camelback Mountain and did what is called bouldering. Bouldering is a form of climbing where the climber climbs a rock or boulder up a low amount of feet to where if they fell they would not be seriously injured in worst case scenario. Bouldering is great for technique work and for warming a climber up for longer climbs. Bouldering can be very challenging but very fun. Camelback Mountain offers a great array of boulder climbs for beginners and advanced climbers. Most of the climbs proved rather challenging, however each climb I tried I did make it to the top except for one.

There is just something about climbing on a real rock that really hits a climber and makes you want more. I felt that at some points on a climb I was apart of the rock and it was challenging me to push myself and make it to the top. It also feels great to be on real rock because that is where it all started. It is almost the same as owning and LP album instead of a cd.

We also made our way out to the McDowell Mountain range where we took a day course to learn some new tricks and tips about rock climbing. The class was very beneficial for both my pops and I. It was a rather long day and some things were repeated to us that we had already known but it was good to have them put back into our heads. We climbed with two instructors and our new friend Jim. Our climbing shoes led us up a climb called headbanger and for good reason because we all hit our heads at least once. It was a beautiful day to climb and I thank whoever is out there making the skies blue for a great day with my father and day away from stress and the chaos this world has put itself into. The trip was fantastic and it is something that I will never forget and hope to enjoy more memories from Arizona in the future. For now I'm stuck back in Indiana climbing in my favorite gym, Climb Time Towers.

Enjoy your evening and week. Check back to read up on more bloggin. Ill leave you again with a quote, this one helped me climb. I hope it can help you climb to the top of goals as well:

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go."
-T.S. Eliot

A long awaited arrival

It has finally come to my attention that good people seem to finish last and they are completely all right with that fact. It seems to be just another part of life. For instance, for the 19 years or so that I have known and lived with my father I have seem him smile about few things. One being his wife and the other his kids. And of course he doesn't smile when it comes to his job, but hey only a handful of people in this world actually can right? However, the point of this post is not whether or not my father is happy or not it is about why he is happier now than I have ever seen him.

Simply put, my father has done nothing in his life for himself, but he only helps others. Ok, not entirely true, he has done things for himself, but you know what I mean. Overall within his lifetime I have only seen him strive to be better and work harder to make others happy because in return that makes him happy. It's a strange feeling to be the one that he pushes to make happier and not see him do something for himself. However, after all of these years, a long awaited arrival has come knocking at my fathers doorstep...his smile. Ironically enough he is a pediatric dentist although that is irrelevant at the time being. What I am saying is that his hard work and selflessness throughout the years have finally paid off. Our family is moving into our new house soon, one my parents said they could finally stay in until they are laid to rest. The new house is incredible and I have yet to see my dad so happy because he is finally doing this for himself. Not to mention he is on the verge of retiring, which we all know is a great thing because honestly who wants to work when you can retire and still get money? Now if he would only have the courage to buy his dream car, which happens to be my dream car as well. Regardless, the new house is amazing, and next week my father and I are going on a spring break trip to Arizona. This trip was a spur of the moment decision by my mom and me and I told my dad this and without hesitation he decided we should go. Now we are going to Sedona, Flagstaff, Phoenix and the Grand Canyon to ride atvs, rock climb, ski and just enjoy the peace of being away from all our cares in the world.

I have seen my dads hard work pay off for him. Although it has taken him years to finally get to this point I know that deep down inside if him his heart is beating faster than it ever has. I know now that good people finish last. So, in the end, are you the person that wants to look back on your life and know you helped as many as you could and paid off for you or do you want to be the one that only helped yourself and ended up wishing you could have helped more. It's a simple answer. Why not help others and just be rewarded in the end. It's to bad most people think the other way. If only we all would help each other and be rewarded in the end, this world would know peace.

"One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure its worth watching."

I won't ever let you down

“Its is physically, emotionally, and psychologically impossible for any one man to change the world, yet ironically, that one man is the only that thinks they can.”

This is a quote I thought about and actually came up with on my own. It makes a lot of sense to me because for some reason I feel as though I am that one person. Don't think either that I hate being this person, because in reality I enjoy it. It makes me the better person in the end, ironically, unlike everyone else.

Listen to what your heart and your mind tell you.
"To deny your impulses, is to the deny the very thing that makes us human."
Don't ever stray away from your own understanding of life and yourself. Everyone is unique and special in their own way, whether you know it or believe it or not.

Learn to love yourself before you can learn to love anyone else...

Just a short post for tonight but this is what was on mind. Enjoy your day everyone!

College Immaturity? How unheard of!

So its come to my attention that once you are in college you either become mature and grow up or you become more immature than before. I thought that once you got there everyone grew up and had an understanding of a solid level of maturity. It has come to my attention that this was a very false assumption. How naive of me to think.

Over the course of my first and second semester I have noticed that my closest friends were not who I thought they were. Its rather strange to have such a strong feeling and trust within someone and then come to realize that they lie and take advantage of what a good friend I have been to them. Luckily, for them I am a good friend so I hold no hard feelings but its still hard to move on.

Asking young and older adults their presumptions, although they have no need to presume anything about college because they have been there, they seem to say the same thing. Most people lose their maturity levels and can not handle being in college without getting fucked up on alcohol or some kind of drug every other day. Another drug must students come into contact with is drama. Unfortunately, yes that has turned into a drug for many. Too many people in school, at least here where I am at Ball State, seem to not be able to get enough drama and most have turned into hypocritical pathological liars. Its unfortunate to see peoples real sides come out after knowing them for so long and especially after they claim to be your best friend.

So, keep your true friends close. Use your mind and listen to your heart. True friends don't come by often and when they do snatch 'um up!

Until next time, enjoy your days.

The Sounds I Hear

So, if you read my last post I would have noticed I was talking about a documentary I want to start. Well it is going to start very soon. This is just a little update for anyone that is interested. Last week my little team, if you will, and I sat down and discussed the direction we want to take the film and what we are looking to put into it. Its looking like it is going to turn out to be very cool. It will be shot very artistically, or as best we can do and will reflect different musical personalities in the world. Hopefully, I can keep you all interested by only talking about it. It is going to be a fun and cool project.

The Sounds We Hear

So after attending my Music History 100 class today I really had this strange movement to make a documentary about how music brings people together. I also want to show people, in particular adults, how music affects teens and what it means to us. It is going to be a pretty lengthy film but it will be good hopefully. Its been my dream to direct my own documentary. I will try to keep you all posted on what we are doing and how it is going. Hopefully, soon to we will have a little website up and available to look at. I will be working with my friend and fraternity brother on this film, Mitch Jacki. If anyone wants to know more about it now, sorry don't ask because I probably wont tell you about it. You will just have to wait until we are done filming it or check back on my blog to see if I have anything else written about it. For now its just a big great idea that I have and that will take some time to start but I am really excited and serious about it. So look forward to seeing it and checking the website out. Later everyone.

I'll leave you with a music quote again this time:
"One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain."

The 5 Browns? Who knew kids could do so well with no caffeine?

Check out this video as well as any others concerning The 5 Browns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52AwgDRtOEA&feature=PlayList&p=61907A355ED6EC69&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=3

This group of kids is all family members. They were raised as Mormons in Utah. At very young ages each of them became very intrigued and close with the piano. At first their mother just wanted them to learn more about music and understand the piano and they all happened to be child prodigies. This, however, is not what I want to talk about. Yes, each of these children are amazingly gifted and their music is flawless and brilliant but I want to address how these kids were raised and why I think its somewhat wrong what the parents did with them.

At first there was only one piano in the house and after discovering the kids talent their parents bought four more so that each of the Brown children could play on their own at any time they wanted. In a 60 minutes story, by Scott Pelley, he sits and talks with the mother of the family, Lisa. She talks about some things that really set me off while I was watching the interview. At first Lisa Brown said she used to wake her children up at 4:30 am so that they could practice piano before breakfast and heading off to school. What is wrong with that picture? I know grown adults and college students that are not ever up that early! Thats wrong for a child to have to be up so early. After so long Mrs. Brown also chose to take the kids out of public schooling. She said to Pelley that school was a waste of time when they kids could come home for school for three hours instead of seven. That way they could have more time to practice piano. I am not going to bash anyone that has been home schooled but in my opinion kids should be in school whether it be private or public. School is more than just learning for kids. You meet friends, learn about yourself and ideas that you can't get from being at home all the time. Secondly, being brought up Mormon, the kids never got video games, television or caffeine. This was said to Pelley as well by the parents. Again, I don't want to bash on home schooling nor to a want to try to prove being Mormon is wrong or anything of that nature. However, I still feel wrong that these kids got no television, video games or caffeine. Those are three main parts to a kids life, except maybe caffeine, and almost every adult as well, at least the category of television. Third of all, the two oldest girls in the family went to Juilliard to audition and made it in. After a few years when the other youngest girl and two brothers were old enough to try out they did and they all got in. To me this is to much of a publicity stunt. I feel as though after the school knew these kids were a big deal in the media world they chose to allow all of them to make it into their school. That seems unfair to me.

Overall, I do love that the children are astounding pianists, I just think their upbringing could have been a little better. I don't think its right for any child to be somewhat deprived of certain things like the five browns were. Again, this is all just an opinion of mine. If you're wondering they do have their own album out. You can find it here, http://www.the5browns.com/, along with many other photos, merchandise, events and things of that nature.

Like always enjoy your days and check back when you can.

Ink...on the body?! Yeah its called a tattoo mom...

They have been around for over five thousand years and were first used to only mark your rank in society or for healing purposes. Now tattoos are everywhere on the body and around the world. There are plenty of statistics coming from people with tattoos and without that can be found here on this site. http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoo_facts.htm
I challenge you to look at it and read the statistics and learn that 83% of people do not regret having their tattoo on their body. I feel that many people, mainly adults or parents, think that all tattoos are bad, which they are not. An example I can give to you is my first tattoo as well as my moms first experience. My father has never been one for piercings or tattoos and at the time neither was my mother. I never knew why and I am still not 100% sure on why he doesn't like them so much. I think it may be because he thinks they ruin the body image or give off the wrong idea or possibly because he thinks you will regret it in the future. I may never know, but that's not the point im trying to make. Over time he finally gave in or possibly tried his best to understand that getting a tattoo actually meant something to some people. My mother also felt somewhat the same way as my father did but she was more lenient and understanding of them. In February of 2008 my mother and myself both got our first tattoos. My is on the inside of my left bicep and reads: -Vivere- -Ridere- -Amore- which in Italian means Live, Laugh, Love. To me this is the way I try and live my life. My family is also Italian so there is some meaning behind getting the quote in that language. I can wake up every morning and see those three words and they remind me that I will strive to live my best, laugh the most and love the deepest every waking moment of my life. I feel now that my father understands that this tattoo is not bad but really has meaning for me. My mothers tattoo is significant to her as well. It is on right wrist and has four colored hearts, representing her children, a cross for her religious beliefs and a big heart for her husband, the love of her life. To this day still I know my mom feels that she made a good choice by getting a tattoo. She loves people asking her about it and what it means and seeing it everyday knowing what is most important to her in life.

For many who are against tattoos I think it may be because they have seen the wrong side of them, unfortunately. It is the same for many who hate religion for example. People that claim to be christian, etc. and go and do the wrong thing give real christians a bad name. Same goes for tattoos. When Johnny Snakebite goes to the tattoo parlor and throws on a cobra around his neck while he is drunk doesnt give people with meaningful tattoos a good name. My chellenge for everyone is to learn to respect tattoos and try to have a better understanding of them. If I can go find someone with one and ask them about it. You may be surprised what you learn about them.

If you feel the need to ever ask me a question or dont want to comment on these posts feel free to email me at tpthompson@bsu.edu. I would love to hear and answers and questions. I do know alot about tattoos as well if you have questions in that area. I did a big study and presentation on them last year. Thanks again for stopping by and checking the posts. Everyone enjoy their day.

Oh and yes mom, dad, this is my binding resolution for you to allow me to get my next tattoo. Which I may post something about why parents let their kids get one tattoo then make them stop? I'm just kidding.

My First post, maybe not the best, but the first

Seeing as this is my first post on here maybe I will start with what I want to do on here. So either you can read these or not its your choice in the end not mine. The only things I am planning on talking about in all of these posts are my feelings about things I see everyday or a song I just heard or possibly about a movie I saw. I may also talk about a book I read or some new gadget on the market. Essentially, this blog is my personal feeling about stuff in life. Maybe it can help you in some way.

So, as of right now me as well as plenty of others are completely immersed into the new album that was just released by La Roux. The album is entitled La Roux. She is rather young but I so far have really enjoyed her music. At one point I found a free download on itunes for her single hit Bulletproof, which I may add is my favorite song by her. After so long I gave in and finally just purchased the whole album. It has not let me down yet. If your into the new age of pop and old age rock and synth stuff you will for sure enjoy La Roux's album. If not you should check it out and see if you like anything she has produced.
Her website and tour can be found here http://www.laroux.co.uk/

Lastly, for today right now I will leave you with a little bit about a new movie I have seen. Unfortunately, it took me way to long to see this movie but never the less I finally did. Inglorious Bastards may be one of the best movies I have seen in the past year. The characters are perfectly played and thought out. The script was phenomenal and the humor kept me smiling the whole movie. Yet at the same time I was on edge waiting to see what was going to happen next. Of course like every Tarantino movie, the end of the film brought everything together in a mass connection of chaos and overwhelming laughter as I watched Hitler get shot and Nazi leaders burn in a movie theater. Overall though I really enjoyed this movie. I would recommend it to anyone unless your to young to understand the humor or to young to handle the violence and language.
All info, pictures, trailers and etc for the movie can be found on http://www.everythingtarantino.com/inglorious_bastards/

Well that's it for me today. Everyone enjoy their day and come back and check out my next post! Thanks all. I leave you with a little quote today as well.

Music is a safe kind of high
-Jimmy Hendrix