I was hoping to have this poem I’ve been working on done by now, but I’m still not finished…so here’s an older one I’ll post up in the mean time. Week #3 Photos will be posted later too!
Sunken still this night drags on.
Just like the last it’s come and gone.
Leaving me.
Deceiving me.
I sleep, but get no rest.
Under covers I try my best.
Put to bed my restless eyes.
Behind these lids they’re in disguise.
Wound tight; these ropes don’t hold.
My mind sets sail as my thoughts unfold.
Sunken still this life drags on.
Just like the rest I feel I’m a pawn.
I wish I knew more.
Wish I could do more.
I’m alive, but I’m a mess.
Afraid to dream I guess.
So I’ll let loose my fears.
It will bring me to tears
But it’s time I cried myself to sleep.
God knows I tire of counting sheep.
Can I really take a post from a Video of my Dog Barking to a discussion on God giving to you judging by what you give to others? We shall see!
I’ve owned a YouTube account since Dec. of 2006. I’ve put a number of videos on it since then…41 to be exact. Most of which consists of crappy live records of bands I’ve seen in concert and an array of video packages made for my Video I and Video II classes at Drury. A few short months after starting the account I posted a video of Jack Russell Terrier named Jackson. The video is 8 seconds in its entirety and shows my dog “singing” happy birthday while sitting on the lap of my step-grandpa. I still to this day get comments from both extremes. I get haters calling me an idiot for calling his barking singing and I get dog lovers telling me how he’s adorable.
Somewhere along the line I managed to find a good video to make it a response too and I now get over 5,000 hits a day on that video. If you’ve ever been on YouTube you’d see that two things are always popular: Sex and Animal…can only imagine the kind of YouTube fame Animal Sex would get you! Jokes…though I bet you could find that on YouTube. It was never my intention when posting this little clip of my dog for it to become so popular. I was just wanting to document our dog singing as the Happy Birthday song is his favorite.
Whether you post videos for your own enjoyment or the enjoyment of other’s you still want them to be seen. If you didn’t want them seen you’d leave them on your hard drive. So I was more than thrilled when I realized my video was approaching 500k views and Google contacted my email saying, “Hey, yo, we want to use you to make money and will even give you a little for helping us.” This Ad program Google runs is called GoogleAdsense and it allows you to post ads on your website, blog, or if you are lucky enough your YouTube videos.
At the time I didn’t think much of it. I agreed to the terms and they emailed me some registration stuff I didn’t bother filling out. Several months later I remembered about it and decided to log in and see if anything had happened. Low and behold I had over 100 bucks sitting in my account! I was shocked as I didn’t think this was actually going to be something that could make me money. Needless to say I immediately went through the necessary steps to have the check get mailed to me. I’ve had it setup since October of ’09 and I’m not bringing in ridiculous amounts of money or anything, but it’s usually enough to cover my auto insurance!
Rafe Quit Talking and SHOW ME THE VIDEO!!!
Now after watching that you’ll notice I’ve decided to start donating the money made off that video to a local Animal Shelter. I never expected to be making this money and after a chat with a friend one night she had mentioned donating the money and I thought it was a brilliant idea. The money has helped me the last few months, but I’m not making enough for it to be a huge impact on my income, so why not give it to someone in need. After an unlikely run in at a local event I met some people who had just started up an Autumn Winds Animal Rescue & Sanctuary that was taking in dogs and cats off of “Death Row” from local area Kill Shelters. This month is going to be my first month donating my check and I’ve chosen them.
After talking with my sister on Skype last about how I was donating I decided I would do a blog about the video and the nature of giving. In the Bible there are many parables and verses about giving.
Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
I mentioned in my first post that I believe the main thing Jesus came here for was to show us Love! And what better way to do so then to give to those in need. The Bible says to give a tithe to the church. I did this for awhile, but I’ve been traveling so much the last few years that I’ve been giving in a different way. On Valentine’s Day a few years ago I started donating to an organization called Christian Foundation for Children & Aging.
This post isn’t meant to be a way for me to brag about the things I’m doing, but to encourage others to do the same. As previously mentioned I believe that if you give, God will give to you in return. This isn’t just a Christian belief…some people may know of this ideal as Karma! Whatever you wanna call it I think only good things can come from donating your time, money, ideas, etc to a cause you care about.
And I’ll finish this ridiculously long post with a thought given to my sister by her pastor. “If your cup is already full then God has nowhere to put more…so give and there’s room to receive, and God might actually see that you have out grown your cup and need a new, bigger cup.” Our God is a Giving God. Give and you shall receive.
Please, comment, elaborate, argue…this doesn’t have to end here…though it probably should, I apologize for such a long post. When I write I ramble!
I’ve chosen this title for my blog as I hope to post on the many reasons Life is good and I think we should share our joys of being Alive. Exclaim, shout, share your joys of life for everyone to…well, Enjoy!
In this blog I’ll be focusing on a few things that really put a smile on my face.
Art: I’ve always had a love for art in any fashion. I don’t practice any Fine Arts very often these days, but will do some sketching occasionally. If I blog about Art it will most likely be about another Artist I find interesting. I’ve got a lot of my photography on a great artist site called Bluecanvas. If you are an artist I highly recommend you setting up an account on this site. Here’s my profile. http://www.bluecanvas.com/rafe
Music: There are so many flavors of music and I find myself enjoying quite an eclectic mix of tunes. There is nothing that makes me feel the emotion more than the simplicity of a passionate singer strumming with a guitar. I’m a big supporter of local music and tend to stay away from the Radio. Not that I don’t enjoy some of the music found there…I just find a particular joy in discovering music that’s not just handed to me via mainstream outlets. I might end up doing a Song of the week or Band of the week thing at some point. You can also expect a review of any new music I acquire. If you are curious as to what music I’m into you can check out my Last.fm profile. If you are a music lover like myself then look into getting a Last.fm account if you don’t already have one. It posts (they call this scrobble – you download a program that shows what songs you listen to) all the songs you listen to onto your profile and gives you stats like: Most Listened to Bands/Songs etc. I’ve had an account since Sept. 2006 and have scrobbled over 30,000 songs. Another cool feature is the Musical Compatibility. Go to any user’s profile and it will tell you how compatible your two music tastes are…fun to see how you compare with your friends. Here’s my Last.fm profile. http://www.last.fm/Prafeston
Photography: Maybe it’s the easy way out, but my love of Art shifted at some point around the time I graduated high school to Photography. I’ve always thought I’m a creative dude, but in some instances I’ve had trouble expressing my ideas on paper or other forms. I have always had an eye for beauty, form, positive & negative space, and the unique aspects of life seen through our eyes. Photography has given me an easy way to capture these things. I recently started a Photo A Day Challenge and will post an update on a weekly basis with photos from the week. I’ll probably have a random post here and there about photo related topics and/or ideas.
Film: In college I was suggested by a friend to try out a Video class and I have thoroughly enjoyed making and editing anything and everything. I’ve posted many of these videos on my YouTube Channels. I’m hoping to start doing a bit more Video Blogging so you can expect to see those show up here as well. Who doesn’t love a good Movie? If I watch one I find particularly interesting or worth talking about I’ll give it a review. http://www.youtube.com/Prafeston – Mostly Live Band Videos and College Projects http://www.youtube.com/IamRafe – My new Blogging Channel
Poetry: Being a big music fan I have grown to love poetry and lyric writing. It’s not something I do A LOT, but I do like to write occasionally. I don’t have any formal training in the area so I feel like my poems lack structure at times, but I have found I have a way with words and rhythm that it seems to just come naturally to me. You can look forward to me posting old poems occasionally and new ones here and there.
Spirituality: I grew up in a Christian (Presbyterian) home and God has always been a part of my life. I’ve gone on quite the Spiritual jounrey since I was in high school. I’m very open minded about Christianity and Spirituality in general. As with all aspects of my life I’m a big monkey see monkey do or learn by example kind of guy and this has carried over into my spiritual life. I believe Jesus’ main messages were Love. I don’t push religion on anyone and I don’t think I have the biblical knowledge to even do so, but I do believe I can be an example of Christ by showing his love in all that I do…at least I try. I have fallen away from God some in the past few years. I’m a little unsure of where I am in life and where I want to go. I travel a lot and haven’t gone to church on a regular basis. It would be nice to find some time to do some reading of the Bible and get in the habit of praying again. Should I read something worth writing about or think of something spiritually related it might make it’s way into a blog.
Conclusion: I hope to keep this blog going as I’ve tried many times in the past to write on a regular basis and it just hasn’t happened. If you like what you read please subscribe and help me feel like I’m writing for a reason. Look forward to lots of posts on all aspects of my life, but in particular the ones which I have mentioned above. Art, Music, Photography, Film, Poetry, and Spirituality. Feel free to suggest a topic for me to write about as well. I’m open to any ideas. Get used to lots of Exclamation points! Lots of Randomly capitalized Words! And Lots of Ellipsis… 🙂
Exclaim: You're Alive! 