CHRONICLES OF STARR
Words of wisdom by those now past (some of my favourite quotes)
27.04.2012
"An adventure is, by its nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose." G.K. Chesterton
"To ridicule philosophy is really to philosophize." - Blaise Pascal
"'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver...'Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. but he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'" - C.S. Lewis
'We have only to see a few letters of the alphabet spelling our name in the sand to recognize at once the work of an intelligent agent. How much more likely, then is the existence of an intelligent Creator behind human DNA, the colossal biological database that contains no fewer than 3.5 billion "letters" - the longest "word" yet discovered?' - John Lennox
"Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, skeptically of skepticism." - Blaise Pascal
"Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them." - Blaise Pascal
"Kind words don't cost much. Yet they accomplish much." - Blaise Pascal
"You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life, without the assistance afforded by religion; you having a clear perception of the advantages of virtue, and the disadvantages of vice, and possessing a strength of resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common temptations. But think how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in the practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great point for its security. And perhaps you are indebted to her originally, that is, to your religious education, for the habits of virtue upon which you now justly value yourself." - Benjamin Franklin
"When I consider what marvelous things men have understood, what he has inquired into and contrived, I know only too clearly that the human mind is a work of God, and one of the most excellent.” Yet the potential of the human mind “… is separated from the Divine knowledge by an infinite interval.”" - Galileo Galilei
"Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul. Pessimism is at best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labour by which all things live. Yet, according to the apparent estate of man as seen by the pagan or the agnostic, this primary need of human nature can never be fulfilled. Joy ought to be expansive; but for the agnostic it must be contracted, it must cling to one corner of the world. Grief ought to be a concentration; but for the agnostic its desolation is spread through an unthinkable eternity. This is what I call being born upside down. The sceptic may truly be said to be topsy-turvy; for his feet are dancing upwards in idle ecstacies, while his brain is in the abyss. To the modern man the heavens are actually below the earth. The explanation is simple; he is standing on his head; which is a very weak pedestal to stand on. But when he has found his feet again he knows it. Christianity satisfies suddenly and perfectly man’s ancestral instinct for being the right way up; satisfies it supremely in this; that by its creed joy becomes something gigantic and sadness something special and small. The vault above us is not deaf because the universe is an idiot; the silence is not the heartless silence of an endless and aimless world. Rather the silence around us is a small and pitiful stillness like the prompt stillness in a sick-room. We are perhaps permitted tragedy as a sort of merciful comedy: because the frantic energy of divine things would knock us down like a drunken farce. We can take our own tears more lightly than we could take the tremendous levities of the angels. So we sit perhaps in a starry chamber of silence, while the laughter of the heavens is too loud for us to hear." - G. K. Chesterton
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt
"Don't ask what the world needs; rather ask what makes you come alive and go do that because the world needs men and women who have come alive." - Howard Thurman
"The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to, because His call is to be in comradeship with Himself for His own purposes, and the test is to believe that God knows what He is after." - Oswald Chambers
"It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly away as a small apprentice under God's heaven." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"It is not right human thoughts about God that make up the content of the Bible, but rather right divine thoughts about human beings." - Karl Barth
"For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a love we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited." - C.S. Lewis
The Liberation
07.01.2012
The Liberation has been going on for a long time now. Hard to say how long really. But what is known for sure is that there is a battle for our souls and victory over darkness and despair is certain, for we have the Hero on our side.
So that there is a little introduction to The X-Structure's latest album called Liberation.
You are most welcome to download it and share it with your friends.
If you would like to support my musical endeavours financially and also get your hands on my new album, which is being released on Airborne, then head on over there and give the first track, Prepare the way, a listen. The album, called Wild Places, will be released track by track over the next few months.
p.s. I am planning on releasing my first story, probably Tempest City, chapter by chapter on Chronicles, so stay tuned!
x
Announcing 'The Future' before it's too late
22.11.2011
Yes, I have not written a Chronicle entry for a while now but that does not mean I have not been busy.
As you may know I have actively been crafting and shaping my virtual band The X-Structure. Things are starting to come together nicely now and although I have not yet acquired the skills and services of a regular visual artist for the band's visual side I have been tinkering around with what resources I do have and created a few of my own imagery. Check below to see what I have been up to. I've also been experimenting with poster designs for the band and will post them shortly, or longly which ever comes first.
So besides exploring my visually creative side I have also released another album for/by/through The X-Structure. This one is called The Future and is our biggest and longest album to date. It really delves into my exploration of always trying something else, something new, and not just sticking with what is known and expected. I have fused quite a few musical ideas and am happy with the result. As for the direction and meaning behind the album I am still amazed at how unsaid things can be communicated on a musical level and I hope that the intended message behind the songs and album gets through the intellectual walls we put up around us and is planted safely into the souls of the listeners, where it can grow and bring forth good fruits.
As for the title of this entry, I am almost ready to release yet another album by The X-Structure, called Liberation, and therefore thought it good time to annouce the other one before it was too late to be called my latest album. You know what I mean, right?
So, that's all folks. Get ready for Liberation, the epic futuristic western space opera. Pretty intriguing eh?
p.s. I am also really contemplating on contining writting my stories/novels and getting them out of my head on to paper. I have most recently been inspired by the game Skyrim and the show Game of Thrones to go at it with renewed vigor to complete my epic fantasy saga called Saga of South (don't use that name now ;))
Peace be with you.
x
