Who the hell is Tim?

"Anyone...who does not keep to the sound teaching which is that of the Lord Jesus Christ...is simply ignorant and must be full of self-conceit, with a craze for questioning everything and arguing about words". 1 Tim 6:2

That's a quote from Rob's blog. I'll get to it a bit later in this post.

I only finished up doing 2 hours of violin practice yesterday because I had some slight trouble with my left hand. It seems to have come right, but I must be careful. However, I did spend quite a bit of time reorganising all the music for my twenty violin tunes. They are nice and tidy and in a folder now. I have most of them memorised, but I sometimes look back to check things. 

Okay, let's go back, who is Tim? Is he the same guy as Timothy? When I was young, we used to call our bottom our 'tim'. Okay, we did pronounce it a bit incorrectly.

It does appear that Robert is quoting Timothy.

I found this online:

1 Timothy 6:2 states: "And they that have believing masters must not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit."

To be honest, that didn't make a lot of sense to me. To be honest, Robert's quote was easier to understand.

I found this:

"Timothy is an important person in the Bible, known for his close relationship with the Apostle Paul. He appears in the New Testament, where he is featured in two letters Paul wrote to him, called First Timothy and Second Timothy."

Okay, let's read that quote again.

"Anyone...who does not keep to the sound teaching which is that of the Lord Jesus Christ...is simply ignorant and must be full of self-conceit, with a craze for questioning everything and arguing about words".

It appears that I'm ignorant and full of conceit. Yes, it is true that I do like to question things. I certainly am not a believer in taking things on faith. I like to check them out. I'm the same when I'm practising the violin.

I know I go on about the number of paedophiles who have 'served' in the Catholic church, but this church has a long history of violence. Remember the Spanish Inquisition? Witch hunts? The Crusades?

Pope Pius XII refused to publicly condemn the Nazi party.

In 1095, when Pope Urban II made a plea for war with Muslims, armies of Christians in Western Europe took up the charge. The pope promised serfs freedom if they went, galvanizing the masses. In the First Crusade, an army of peasants led by Peter the Hermit was massacred by the Turks. When an army of knights went after them and captured Jerusalem, it was said they slaughtered Muslims until the streets ran with blood.

Boniface VIII (1230-1303) was guilty of many horrible crimes that, sum total, make him seem like a sadistic Roman emperor. Among other things, he oversaw the complete destruction of Palestrina, a city that peacefully surrendered. Palestrina was completely razed, and Boniface ordered a plow driven over it to prove it had been reduced to nothing but earth and rubble.

"You know priests take a vow of celibacy, right? Apparently, Boniface VIII didn't take his too seriously. He once had a three-way with a married woman and her daughter but was even more well known for saying that having intercourse with young boys was as natural as rubbing one hand against the other. So, obviously, he was raping (or at least fornicating with) children."

And what of scholar William Tyndale? He was captured, tried for heresy for daring to translate the Bible, and burned at the stake. When church authorities decided that printing Bibles in English was okay, they borrowed a whole lot from Tyndale's translation. And never apologised.

Okay, the list of things goes on and on and on, but you probably get the idea.

Let's take a look at the ten commandments, evidently where morals came from.

Okay, the first four are all about toadying to this particular god. That leaves six commandments that are mainly just common sense. Though, I'm not too sure about number seven. That seems a bit tied into church rules.

Robert likes to talk about the importance of love. It is (or was) obviously often not in the church's plan. A god who threatens with places like Hell is not showing unconditional love. That's a fact! Think about it!

Okay, that's probably enough for this morning.

Don't waste your time thinking about sin. Think about what really makes you a good person. Is it all based on fear of a god? That's sad, if it is.

Sii gentile.

My 20 tune unaccompanied repertoire.

 

Don't worry about the red squiggly lines under 'Besame' and 'Bye'.
They mean nothing.

Okay, the idea is that something from each of these tunes has to be practised EVERY DAY and they all have to be thoroughly memorised - both the melody and the chord progression. Most are just about totally memorised, but there is always room for improvement. 

Four of the tunes are originals. Most of the rest are 'jazz standards', though there is also one Bluegrass tune, an Irish Medley and three Neapolitan tunes. It is good to have a bit of variety.

Will I get many gigs? Probably not. Will I make lots of money? No.  Do I care about those two outcomes? No. Do I believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the one true church? Definitely not. 

So why am I doing all this work on my solo repertoire? Purpose.

I'm also enjoying putting lots of time and thought into practising. I've told you about Atomic Habits. Well, I'm doing that. I practised for 2 1/2 hours yesterday, as well as teaching violin. That's not my best effort but it is certainly 'not too bad'.

Often, when I ask people how they are, they reply, "Not too bad." I reply, "Is it possible to get that up to 'pretty good' or 'reasonably good?'"

Having a strong purpose, especially when we are older and have more spare time, gives new meaning to your life, in my opinion. Peter must be feeling motivated by the probable selling of his house up in the wop wops. He could be a Moera resident soon! Well done, Peter. Robert is busy trying to keep his fictional god happy so that he can be rewarded and really get to know Mr. Linford.* Good luck with that, Rob.

Did Mr. Linford and Brother Benedict
really get to walk up these steps?

The first tune I intend to work on today is Saint Thomas (named after a place, not a saint). 

Saint Thomas

I know the tune very well, but I want to improve how I play over the chords.

As you can see, it's not the hardest chord progression to play over, but there is actually lots of room for taking a more interesting approach. 

There you go, that's it from me this morning.

If you sin, you may be able to avoid an eternity with Mr. Linford.

Sii gentile.

* That's the guy of whom my mother once said, "If Mr. Linford is going to be in Heaven, I don't think I want to go there."

I'm increasing my unaccompanied solo repertoire to 15.

Here are the tunes:

1) The Accordion Lady

2) Besame Mucho

3) Billie's Bounce

4) Bye Bye Blackbird

5) The Immigrants

6) Irish Medley

7) La Spagnola

8) Manha de Carnaval

9) Nature Boy

10) Oh, Lady Be Good

11) Orange Blossom Special

12) Romance

13) Se Solo 

14) Somewhere over the Rainbow

15) Sweet Georgia Brown

So, I have an Irish Medley, a Bluegrass tune, 4 Bossa Nova style tunes, 4 swing tunes, 3 ballad style tunes, 1 Bebop blues tune and 1 Neapolitan tune. 

I strive (as per my Atomic Habits) to practise a part of each of these tunes every day. I could be checking the melody for tone, practising voicings for the chords, playing arpeggios, trying ideas for a solo, or even using my 'piccolo bass'. NB. the piccolo bass is really a different form of pizzicato on my violin. 

There you go.

Have fun and stay away from silly religions.

Sii gentile.

Choose Day.

 I awoke and read Robert's post on my phone.

This guy evidently brought
someone back to life.
It's good that Jesus didn't get
sunburnt in Nein (or Nain).
Maybe that was the better miracle 
for such a fair guy?

It all supposedly happened a very long time ago, but Rob is absolutely convinced.

He tells us in no uncertain terms, "So really there is no reason to disbelieve this account. You are forced to either believe Jesus is God and give him the respect and honour he deserves, or choose to walk apart from God. You can not just say 'it was made up'. That would indicate you are mentally unstable."

You choose.* 

I know what I will choose. Hey, I will be called mentally unstable for my decision, but I'm happy to go with that. I mean, look at the institution that supports all this stuff. The church of paedophiles. Go read their history - it is pretty brutal.

I'm off to Wellington College today to play 3rd violin in a school orchestra. I'll be sitting beside my little mates who haven't played violin (or viola) for very long but who are doing great to get through some pretty tough music. I'm proud of them!

I must get some practice done before I go, so this post will have to be short. 

Sorry, I usually try to avoid the fence post analogy.

Peter would probably call it a pun. But really there is no reason to disbelieve this analogy. Both things, the blog post and the fence post, simply choose to go with the same word.  You cannot just say, "It was made up." That would indicate you are mentally unstable.

Is this stable stable or unstable?

Whoops! There I go again!

Time to go.

Sii Gentile.

*That's why I've decided to call today Choose Day.

Monday Morning.

 

I went to the Bluegrass jam at the Alicetown community house yesterday afternoon. There were a nice group of people there. I stayed for about two hours. I didn't get to play the Orange Blossom Special. Bluegrass tunes are generally pretty simple with simple chord progressions. It did get a little bit predictable after a while. Quite a few of the jammers were using chord charts. I can't understand why they needed those - you just listen. Still, it was nice that everyone was friendly. 

I have a bit of schoolwork to do today - charts for the string orchestra at one of my Upper Hutt colleges. Tomorrow I'm off to Wellington College with the orchestra from the other school. There will be a few other schools there and it'll largely be a day of listening, plus our orchestra will play. Should be an interesting day as it's good to hear what other schools are up to musically. 

Robert is back from his travels and gives us advice from a guy called Timothy.

"...live religious and reverant lives in peace and quiet."

Evidently Timothy died from stoning around 97AD. Not exactly a peaceful way to go. I wonder what was said before that bit that Rob quoted?

"Don't play loud music, live religious and reverant lives in peace and quiet."

"Don't get sucked into working in a church shop. That's just about making money. Live religious and reverant lives in peace and quiet."

"I had a bad tummy when I was alive. That made it hard to live a religious and reverant life in peace and quiet."

By the way, Timothy spelt reverent incorrectly. R E V E R E N T, not reverant.

I wonder what else Timothy got wrong? Maybe Tim meant to say, "Live a rigorous and relevant life, sometimes with peace and quiet."

"Tanks for the memory."
What is Robert up to here?

I don't know what Peter will be up to today. Hey, maybe he might take a trailer load to the tip!

Has he still got his trailer?

Maybe he might have to use something like this.

That would fill in the day for him, if he has to push one of these all the way to the tip.

I told you earlier in the post that I'm playing with a school orchestra tomorrow. Some instruments in the orchestra play quite loudly. This made me practise playing my violin near the bridge. Boy! That really gives you more volume. I'll keep working on that. That's for damn sure!

My daughter has been in Ireland, Iceland, France and England. She is due back early next Saturday morning. I will pick her and her cousin up from the airport. Gosh, she turns 41 later this month. It's great having a daughter. It's great having a son too, AND grandsons. 

Okay, okay, I know you want to hear more about my practice schedule. I should really fit in some double bass practice today. Over the weekend I only managed 3 hours of violin practice, so I'll have to step things up a bit today. Don't forget though that there's still that schoolwork to do. I'm doing an arrangement of Nature Boy. They also need an arrangement for God Defend NZ. I'll have to get onto that too.

I'll leave you there for today.

Sii gentile.

Surprise call up by coach after record loss to the Springboks.

A former St. Patrick's College wing, P. J. McDonald, has been called up by the All Blacks coach after a very heavy loss to the Springboks in Wellington yesterday evening.

Scott Robertson was asked to explain his decision.

"Okay, he's not the youngest wing around but I did read a post on his blog where he was very successful at St. Patrick's College. He received quite a few mentions in a post titled, "SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND." Look at this list he gets a mention in! Read the list and you'll see that he is the only guy who gets three mentions. Picking him was not rocket science."

"Okay, P. J. is a little older than we'd prefer but he obviously has the goods and we're getting desperate."

* * *

I'm thinking of going to an open mic concert this evening. It's in Newtown, so I'll have to be careful to stay out of the bus lanes. I'm planning to play Manha De Carnival and The Orange Blossom Special. I'll have Nature Boy up my sleeve, just in case another tune is needed. Obviously, I'll be running them through quite a bit today. Well, there's nothing new there. 

[A little later Richard (of RBB) said...] Actually, Shelley's feeling a little bit off colour so we'll give the open mic night a miss. I'll probably do some recording instead.

No big deal.

* * *

It seems that Robert is in Tokeroa (I think he means Tokoroa). I guess he'll go to church there this morning. I hope they have a church shop.

It's good to see that he is eating healthy food.

* * *

I had a banana toasted sandwich for breakfast, along with a coffee.

Oops, hang on, I need the bathroom!

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

I'm back. Back and a little lighter.

I think it's the coffee. I need something in my tummy so that I can take my pills. I'm assuming that there is still something left in my tummy. Though, I know it's not all there. At least I didn't drop my phone in the bath.

I guess that'll do for this morning. Hey, good to see that the women's rugby team won their match. I think I'll just follow them now. Though, I don't like their chances against England, if that's the final match up.

Don't get hung up on sin. Just go and do some practice. Hey, and I certainly won't be going to mass.

Sii gentile.

MOST POINTLESS POST EVER WRITTEN AWARD.

 Okay this is a new award category. We, at Richard's Bass Bag*, have spent weeks going through blog posts that have been posted over many years but couldn't quite make up our minds. Then, surprise, surprise, a clear winner showed up this morning! We couldn't believe our eyes!

 It gives us great pleasure to be able to present this award with total knowledge that we have found exactly the right candidate for this particular 'honour'. 

Here we go...

* the original bass bagging site