Controversial Stuff

Music is controversial. In Islam, I mean. Everyone who isn't Muslim pretty much listens to music a whole lot. But my problem is I'm not sure whether we're allowed to listen to music or not. My parents aren't stopping me, so I guess it's not, but there is a saying that we have.
One time, the Prophet SAS was walking down the road and a man was sitting outside playing a flute. The Prophet walked by, and he put his fingers in his ears, so he obviously didn't approve of it, but he didn't tell the man to stop playing, so it must not be forbidden.
When I was in Africa, one of the new girls there brought a radio and cards to the school. Well, once the 'principal' found out that she had those, he tore up each individual card, which was kind of funny, and I think he confiscated the radio. But of course, nobody would break it.
See, the thing about Islam is that there are several major things in this world that are forbidden, and one of them is gambling. I guess because you're not supposed to be able to get money without working, and also because it is addictive, and you will probably end up going broke. Anything bad for you, and some addictive things are forbidden, mainly alcohol.
I'm also unsure about cigarettes. I mean, it's not like I'm gonna go out and smoke or anything like that. I don't want cancer, and I don't want bad breath 24/7, but I see people outside the masjid smoking all the time. And I always wonder whether they're doing a forbidden thing. I don't think that anyone should smoke anyway because it is so bad for you. I just don't understand why people like stuff that is so bad for them. It may be addicting, but if you really wanted to stop, then you would try really hard. At least start decreasing your intake. It's not like I have any experience in stopping anything like that, but I know that's what I would do if I had a problem like that.
I think people in this world are weird. I'm absolutely sure that the people who own the beer and cigarette companies have every idea about how bad their products are for people. I'll even bet that they don't use their own products!! That's just stupid. All people care about these days is money money money. Even when they're unofficially killing thousands of people a year!!! Cancer, drunk driving accidents, second-hand smoking, etc. Where do people get the idea that all this is okay? Maybe all those founders and owners should go out and try their own products, and then see what happens. And why does nobody pay attention to the Surgeon Health Warnings on the boxes of cigarettes? I mean, really. People are so stubborn, and sometimes it's a good thing, but most of the time, it isn't.
I truly wish tobacco had never existed. Maybe God created it to test us with the temptation of a cigarette, and see what we would do. I'm not quite fond of the idea of black lungs. I definitely don't want tar in my lungs like a road. I'm not something to be driven on. Tar, ash, tobacco, smoke, nicotine, carbon monoxide. If you want carbon monoxide in your body, go stick your face in front of the exhaust pipe of a running car, just don't smoke this stuff. In all these densely populated countries, kids have to walk across crowded streets to get to school, and they unwillingly breathe in all this bad stuff every time. And you willingly take it in. WHY?!!! God, there's nothing I despise more than the smell of a cigarette. How do you breathe that stuff in without choking to death? It must taste horrible. Did you know that everyone in this world, even the non-smokers, has a bit of black in their lungs? Thanks to all those smokers.
Now, don't get me wrong. It's not like I totally despise smokers. A lot of really nice people smoke. I just think that they were led by their so-called friends to do something totally gross. I think they should've founded the DARE program a long time ago. It might've saved a lot of people from starting all this stuff.
Time to go. I hope at least somebody learned something from this post. Have fun today! Bye!

Music

Is probably one of the more soothing things in life. It helps me concentrate, although my mom thinks differently. She says that you can't concentrate with music playing. But I can. The only time I can't is when I'm reading, especially if it is a song that I like. Like right now. Luckily, I can write while I listen. It's just hard to sing along to a song and read words at the same time. Actually, I think it's impossible. Or maybe just extremely hard. But I like music. A lot. It's so wonderful to just sit around with your iPod and block out the world. Especially when you're depressed. I get like that a lot. And there's a little nook in the corner of my closet that I hide in. Way up high on the shelf. But I think I need to stop doing that, because I'm getting too heavy for that. I'm so scared that one day I'll fall off and break my neck or something.
Music is something that doesn't have a certain way that it has to be. It can be in so many different styles, and played on so many different instruments. I like pop and country. And I like guitars. They can be used to play a bunch of different styles of music. You just have to know how to do it.
You know what my favorite part about my family is? It's not that we all know how to yell, but the fact that we can sit down and watch a movie together, and it always seems like somebody is missing. I don't know why I like that, but I do. It's so funny how we're always trying to figure out who's missing, and we can never do it because everybody is there. It's a laughable situation.
On the other hand, I hate it when everyone always has to act like they hate each other. Like after some really tense moment, we all go and do our own thing and don't talk to each other until dinner. I mean, I know that I usually start whatever it was, but I don't honestly mean to get everyone mad at each other.
I also hate it when my parents embarrass me. They must enjoy doing it. Otherwise they wouldn't do it ALL THE TIME! And they're always trying to figure out what I'm doing. I'm not doing anything illegal!!! I don't like it when they always try to get into my business. Especially when they do it only because I wouldn't let my siblings see what I was doing. That's really annoying.
I want to go back and live in Charlottesville. Badly. I wanna live up in the mountains with my uncle or my grandma. There are big stretches of woods up there. I love nature. It's so beautiful, and I would give anything to be able to go spend a whole day sitting in the woods playing my guitar. And writing. I like it here too, but I wish we lived in a house with a gigantic backyard that had a million trees in it. That I could hide in whenever I felt moody and didn't want to talk to anybody.
Time to go. Wow. It's been 30 minutes? This went by fast. I guess when I'm actually writing about stuff that I like, the time goes by faster.
Bye!

Finally!!!

Do you have any idea how long I've needed a guitar book? I can't get anywhere without it! It's so hard to watch a DVD that isn't even the whole thing, and actually expect to learn something!!! At least now I have sheet music, songs to play, and fingering charts. Okay, so I haven't played a lot yet, but that's only because I don't really have much time.
I've always wanted to play an instrument, and when I got my flute, I was really happy. I always liked the sound of the flute. What I didn't realize was that there are two different kinds of flutes. One of them has holes in the keys, the other doesn't. The one with holes in the keys is the real and true flute. The other one is just for beginners.
So I got good at the flute, the best in the class actually. Then I went to Africa where I couldn't play at all, and when I came back, my school wouldn't let me back in. So I started homeschooling. But let me tell you, it's hard to teach yourself how to play the flute well. Especially because I hadn't played in almost a year. I was also getting kind of bored. And my flute was kinda messed up and I wasn't allowed to go get it fixed, mostly because it would cost a lot of money. The flute had dents, scratches, and some of the keys were kind of messed up. And let's just say that some necessary pieces were falling off. Not pieces that couldn't be put back, but it's kind of tedious when you have to keep replacing things.
So then we went and bought the guitar. Like I said in my other post, it came with an almost useless DVD, so I couldn't learn a lot from that. And the DVD was for electric guitar, not acoustic, although most of the notes are the same. But it didn't teach me notes or songs, only chords. Ugh.
This book was given to me by my mom's German friend. It originally came with a disk, but I don't care, just so long as I have the book. It starts out, like all instrumental books, with finger placements, starter tips, and in a guitar's case, tuning. Then it moves on into first string notes. So you play a bit with those, and once you can switch between them all with ease, then you go to second string notes, and so on. After the first couple strings you get songs to play. One of them is Ode to Joy. I never realized that you can play almost every note on only the first, second, and third frets. Wow.
The thing about guitars is that they are so easy to take care of. All you need to do is wipe them down with a dry cloth every now and then, and when the strings break, get new ones. And I'm pretty sure that the strings are quite cheap. You need almost nothing to play a guitar except your hands and a place to put it when you're done, and a good guitar doesn't cost all that much. And when you're trying to play a song on hearing alone, at least you can sing the song while you play it, unlike woodwinds.
Music is a wonderful thing. There are so many variations of it, you can use simple household objects to play it, and best of all, when you learn how to play it, you can do many things with what you know. I like being able to play notes that express how I feel. I think everyone should at least know what beautiful music sounds like.