Recording Draws Nigh

Dear friends and relations,

The Anonymous Somebodies will spend tomorrow, (Friday), and the day after tomorrow, (Saturday), plus the next Friday, at Cornerstone Studios in Wichita, KS, recording our album entitled “Wayfaring Stranger”. I am feeling so many things that I don’t know what to say. (insert long pause here) The thought of recording excites me. We know that it’ll be hard work, yet we know that we are ready musically. But then again, any effort on our part is useless without God’s blessing and protection. Without Him, life is a journey through a desert; hot, difficult, and bothersome.

It’s with this realization that we recognize our need of your prayers that God would sing through us and use the album powerfully for his glory. Of a lesser yet important concern, please pray for our physical, emotional, and spiritual health as we spend long days in the studio. Pray that God would recieve any and all glory from this work.

Lest I give you any incorrect impressions, let me close by saying that we have so much fun when we sing together. Singing is a joy. Together we enjoy singing. It is a good time!!!!!!

Many thanks for your thoughts and prayers,

thesinger

A Good Time.

Yada, Yada, why would I need words to convey this event?

FUN FUN FUN

The Anonymous Somebodies sang at my brother Floyd’s reception here in KS today. It was fun to get together with my singing homies and jam-out/lead-in-worship again. We got together on Saturday night to practice the three songs (Shout to the Lord, Sounding Joy, and Peter Lutkin’s The Lord Bless You and Keep You.) that Florcas wanted us to sing.

Sounding Joy was a new one for us before Saturday night, but we gleefully tackled it, and “mastered it” with approx. 1.5 hours of practice. (“Mastered it” in this case means that we could sing through the entire song w/out messing up drastically, and that we could have lots of fun doing it.) In an ideal situation, we would have approx. a month of regular practices to fine-tune/clean-up some loose ends in the song, but we didn’t, so we made the best of it.

Shout to the Lord was perhaps an average performance; fun, but not that amazing.

Lutkin’s The Lord Bless You and Keep You was perhaps our technically best performance as well as our most fun performance of that song. I.e. GOOD TIMES!

The acoustics were INCREDIBLE. We were standing just inside the sanctuary in the back with one mike. The best part was that we could actually hear ourselves come over the PA system. I thought that maybe if we were hearing ourselves the sound man had turned us up too high. But nope, my bro Loyal, may he rest in pieces, said that it was amped just about right. I heard another question from an aunt of mine that went like this, “Did you use a mike?” GOOD TIMES!

Ok, so enough ramblings about a rockin’ “concert”.

thesinger

ps. Heidi is leaving for the fair land of Hillcrest for 6 months. 😦 Sadness. Weeping. Gnashing of teeth. All will be fine in the end. . . A six month break won’t hurt us. . . (maybe)

ICanHasCheesburger does it again.

HAHAHAHA LOL ROFL etc., etc.

I love it.

thesinger

Party all day and all night. . .

Yup, on Friday night, I attended a Youth Group Volleyball game at Abbyville. It was actually some pretty decent stuff for KS volleyball. There was a small turnout with about 15 to 20 people there most of the evening. (The average youth activity has about 35 kids.)

Afterwards, ryannisly.com/blog and kevinnisly.com/blog and wannabemexican.wordpress.com came to my house where we ate food, talked, partied, etc., I got about 5 to 6 hours of sleep, then went to Arlington, KS, and purchased a dozen donuts and four hulking cinnamon rolls from Carolyn’s Essenhaus. Yup, you guessed it. I was providing the baked goods for another coffee party, this time to be held at Jac and Matt’s house. Kevin, of course, brought his dear friend Edna. For this we were all very grateful. (Weeeelll, maybe Matt wasn’t. . .) So, we devoured all the goods, except one roll, and one pot of coffee and several shots of espresso. It was good times! 🙂

After the goods and the coffee were devoured, we were very bored and very undecided about an appropriate activity for all. This led, somehow, to the question: What kind of games can you play at Wal-Mart? We found a game online called “10-In-10”. We decided that this would be a good way to party randomly in town doing something that most people don’t do regularly, if you see what I mean.

Oh, the prize for the winning team was a free meal at a cheap fast food joint paid by the losers. Unfortunately, ryannisly.com/blog and thesingerman.wordpress.com lost to kevinnisly.com and jacobnisly.com/blog. Too bad, how sad. . . It was random though, and very much fun. 🙂

That evening then I invited myself to jacobnisly.com/blog and wannabemexican.wordpress.com’s house for pizza. Kudos to Rosa for the excellent pizza.

It was a day full of partying and fun. I would most certainly do a repeat of the day if given the opportunity. . . 🙂

thesinger

Another coffee party!!!

The location was different, but the people were same. Matt, Jacob, Ryan, Kevin, and myself were the lucky participants. The location was Kevin’s house. It seemed to be the logical place to have the party, since Kevin recently bought a espresso machine.

I had a cup of straight espresso, a cup of real cappuccino (it was, of course, made with a shot of espresso and a shot of steamed milk) and another cup of regular drip brew. I am highly caffeinated right now, if anybody is wondering.

Matt and Jacob left the party, so Kev, Ryan, and myself are sitting downstairs, either surfing randomly, or posting, or working on a mysterious website that has not been revealed to the public yet. Yes, we are all on separate laptops. Yes, it is a good male bonding experience.

Oh, and getting slightly high on caffeine together is also a very good male bonding experience. Oh, we made some wild/exciting plans for Tuesday lunch at school where we plan to be very cliquish. “But who cares?!” Says Ryan from behind his laptop. I would tend to agree. 🙂

On discussing internet connection speeds, Ryan said, “It doesn’t matter how fast your internet is, it is still not fast enough.”

I think I shall do something else now. Peace out!!!

thesinger

THIS IS A PIG

And this is a Cow. Yeah, today I attended our biannual Midwinter Teacher’s Gathering. The game we played for recess was called “This is a Pig.” Very intellectually stimulating as well as challenging. 🙂 (weeelll, maybe)

What else should I say. Maybe I should say that I came away from the day with a feeling of ALERT ALERT ALERT!!!!!! INFORMATION OVERLOAD!!!!!!!!!!! I think you understand the kind of shock I was in.

The parents are gone for the weekend. They left for Perkins, OK this afternoon and will be gone through tomorrow evening. Dad was assigned to preach there, so he is. Funny how that works.

I got home from some semi-aggressive volleyball. It wasn’t all peaceful, or all nice, neat, and orderly, but it was ok. I think I show a very different side of myself and my emotions when I play volleyball than when I am just “hanging out” with the homies. I think the hyper/screamingish side of me is brought forth in all it’s “glory” and sometimes I overdo it. Pain. I am, however, a big fan of lots of enthusiasm during games and feel that properly channeled, the enthusiasm is very “catching”. For instance, tonight, I was playing on an average team. We were playing against a fairly strong team. They called “game point,” but very few (if any) people on our team heard it. The play was contested, and they did a redo on the game point. The score at that point was 5-11. (We were playing games to 11 since we had a lot of people and only one net.) My team was then able to not allow them to score on their game point. We also kept them from making any more points. So, we managed to make a point here, and a point there. (All the while, of course, I was expressing myself and my somewhat ecstatic emotions very freely.) So, the time comes when we tie with them at 10s. We made another point. I was serving at this time, and called out that we had game point. Then, we scored again!!!! And the game was ours!!!!! I very nearly lost it at this point due to my excited jumping, my aggressive hand slapping, and my violent shouting. It was VICTORY over a team that was clearly our superior.

We played the winners of the next game. Peat and Repeat went up the hill. Peat fell down and who was left. Repeat. Correct. So, at the point when they had way more points, and we had not so many points, we made another violent comeback and won that game too. Trust me, there was plenty of emotion going around. I was PUMPED. With the same five man team, we pulled out of another bad point-slump to win the second game. Yes, I got VERY EXCITED! More so than average. (understatement of the day)

I must run. I think I have aptly conveyed to you the amount of excitement I feel when I play a good game of volleyball. 🙂

thesinger

ps. Most of the information here about my emotions are forms of mild understatement.

Ah, coffee, (Uummmm. . .) and parties. . .

Ah, yes, those go together very well. I/we discovered that after we (Jacob, Ryan, Kevin, Matt, and myself) got together yesterday morning at 9:00 to drink coffee. Yeah, that was the reason to get together. Very shocking? Maybe. But as we are “all” coffee freaks, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to you.

Perhaps, we don’t “all” like coffee as well as the rest. Our dear brother in the Lord, Matthew, is not as fond of coffee as we would like to think he should be, but perhaps with some time and some encouragement, he can learn to like it. I certainly think so.

Ok, I have time to post 5 pictures. So I will. A pic of the party and of the good times:

Ryan, coffee mug in hand, having a grand old time.

Jac, laughing his head off during the ingestion of a bite of donut.

Matt with Kevin cheesing in the background because he placed a coffee mug in front of Matt for the pictures sake. (Btw, thanks Kev for providing the donuts and rolls. They went over very well.)

And, to celebrate our coffee/party spirit on early Saturday mornings, we took a group picture. You will want to notice the heart mug seated in front of Matthew. The hearts symbolize precisely how deeply he feels about coffee: Very! at least, against it. . .

I’ll end with a quote by Kevin regarding (You fill in the space here). “Nothing’s like a hot one on a cold day.”

thesinger

A long time ago. . .

away back when me, myself, and I (plus some other people) was on the Youth committee, we were responsible to organize, plan, and execute an all day Youth Picnic. This was all fine and good. Most of the day went very well and it was not a bad time. After we got home, however, was when the work began. We used hay bales to sit on in the back of a grain-truck. This is fine and good, but there is a fair bit of work involved to get the straw bales and then to take them back to their place of residence. So, having that background, the story can now continue in full force.

We took the truck (and straw bales) to their owner and nicely placed them in the loft of his barn. This process was not without it’s own pains, but overall it went ok and the good feelings were spread around with abandon because we had finished the last and hardest part of the picnic!!!!!!!

As we drove into the lane to Cedar Crest–the place where the youth had met for the picnic–the lights of our car illuminated five straw bales that were in hiding behind the waist-high brick wall that surrounds the front door of the church. Yes, it was dark. Yes, we were very tired after playing hard all day. Yes, we had very little energy left to invest in hauling those bales to their proper home. At this junction in the story, you may want to ask, “But couldn’t you just have put the bales on the grain truck and taken them home?” The answer to this question is not very complicated. It was just that the truck went home directly instead of going back to Cedar Crest.

Well, what do you do? Do you sing songs? Shout angrily? Become extremely irate? Laugh at our stupidity? Rail? Rant? Rave?

The answer: Yes.

Next, you sit back, relax, and enjoy some Mt. Dew.

Next, you make bad faces at the camera, because you really are very tired and NOT EXCITED about those bales. . .

Next, you load the straw bales on to the back of Big Joshes Volvo.

Next you cheese real big for the camera because you really have accomplished a real feat of power/energy/force/beef/brawn/dynamism/force/horsepower/intensity/might/muscle/potency/strength/vigor/vim/virtue, or something like that.

Next you see lots of straw on the sidewalk and because tomorrow is Sunday, you decide that you must sweep it up.

Next you pose with your newly-made band, and take an inspiring picture.

Next you think, “Oh, but I wouldn’t want to remember the evening with a stupid picture like that!!” So we commence to shoot another “more decent” one.

And then we’re done. At least, I had a curfew and had to go home. I heard reports that said that the party continued for quite some time.

So, thanks for allowing me to tell you this story. It has blessed my heart to retell it and I hope it has blessed your heart to hear it.

thesinger

I AM A MILLER!!!!

And I can has eat FAST! Last night at our new years eve party (for the youth), we were to required to join in a ice cream speed eating contest. I was ok with it, but had no idea that I would place like I did. The rules stated that your hands had to be behind your back at all times and that you had to lick your plate as clean as possible.

First, a before picture.

Then a picture in the middle of the battle.

And a proud winner of the first round.

The committee for the evening made the youngest ten go first, the next oldest ten go in the second round, and the “oldest set” in the last round. Jdeany won the second round, and I’m proud that my dear brother Craig, (also a trueblooded Miller), won the last round.

(In case you haven’t caught on yet, the Miller family that lives in this area is well known for our voluminous intake of ice cream.)

Ok, so up to that point, I was fairly ok with winning. You know, what can come of this except good? Then when they told us three finalists to sit down at the table to “receive our prizes”, then I started smelling the fish. . .

As you can see, they gave us three guys all a dish of cold, slimey, disgusting, abominable, awful, beastly, cloying, creepy, detestable, distasteful, foul, frightful, ghastly, gross, gruesome, hateful, hideous, horrid, horrific, icky, loathsome, lousy, nasty, nauseating, objectionable, obnoxious, odious, offensive, outrageous, repellent, repugnant, repulsive, and revolting spaghetti. You get the idea?
Before:

During:

And after:

Yes, even though “it” (I can’t bear to say that gross word) almost stuck in my throat many times in the course of those x amount of seconds, I did overcome and won that contest hands down. The actual prize was actually very appetizing; two Dove bars of chocolate. One was “Rich Dark Chocolate” and the other was “Sweet Milk Chocolate with Almonds.” (Craig and Jdeany each received one bar.) I was very happy to prove my “Millerness” in this way.

Yes, the evening was just filled with good times. Yes, we were singing We’ve Got the Power in the Name of Jesus as the clock struck 12:00 AM. Yes, I enjoyed the evening immensely.

Peace be da journey,

thesinger

ps. I AM A MILLER!!!!!