Is Life unfair?

Do you find life to be a struggle sometimes?  Does it sometimes seem like you got dealt a bad hand?  For some people, everything seems to be handed to them on a silver platter.  Meanwhile, the rest of us have to figure out how to make do with all the chips stacked against us.

Is God to blame?

Why do some people have so much while others have so little?  Did God design the world this way?

And what if He did?  Can we do anything about it?  Isn’t it a sin to question God and His ultimate wisdom?

If you’ve ever asked these questions then this song is for you.

I think holding a grudge inside and never talking about it is one of the surest ways to stress and depression.  Some people get mad at someone and hold it in because they just want to.  Some people do it because they feel they have no choice.

I know children who are angry with their parents but are too intimidated by their authority to ever confront them. In fact, I know a 30 year old man who has been holding grudge with his dad for over 20 years. And he has never ever spoken to his father about it!

I don’t blame him.  For some people, parents can be very intimidating.

And for many more people, God is the most intimidating figure of all.  Have you ever been taught that it’s a sin to question God?  Have you ever felt like you would be struck by lightning if you said “the wrong thing” or spoke about God “the wrong way”?

You are not the only one!

One way or another, we’ve all been taught to be very “careful” when it comes to the way we speak to God.  We have learned it in church, or we received the message from parents or friends or television. Even though we call Him Father, most of us do not feel comfortable approaching him like a dad… especially if we are angry or confused or feel that we have been treated unfairly.

Seriously, this makes me sad.

I hate to see people get a bum rap.  Even God.  And, it bothers me that so many people think of God as unapproachable when, for me, he’s been always accessible, always gentle, and always willing to accept me for who I am… flaws and all.

So, I wrote this song.  Hoping it would help someone.

If anything in this post has touched you in some way.  Or if you can relate at all, then please listen to the song.  If you find it helpful then download it (it’s free).  Just click on “Download” in the player. You can go here to read the lyrics.

If you know someone else who’s been having a hard time of things and may be having a hard time praying about it, please share the song by passing this blog along to them. Click on the “Share/Send” button below to email or post this blog to your Facebook page or any other site you’re on.

So, once again…

Listen, Download (for free), and pass it along.

And please, be sure to comment.  I live for comments! I need to know what you think. Just click on the ‘Comments’ button below the post.

Again, Lyrics are at this post.

Speak Your Mind

Written & Produced by Eric Campbell

Verse 1
Talk to me
Tell me how you feel
Don’t hold it in
With me you can be real
I’m your Father
You can say it
Even if it seems unkind
With me you can
Freely speak your mind

Verse 2
Let it out
You won’t make me mad
And truthfully, it’s your silence
That makes me sad
You’re my child, my heart, my love
For you endures throughout all time
So with me you can
Freely speak your mind
Yes with me you can
Freely speak your mind

Bridge
Tell me if you’re angry
Or confused
If you don’t understand my plans for you
If you think that I’m being much too cruel or unfair
I’d rather that you scream and shout at me
That’s better than not saying a thing
At all, Oh No

Verse 3
Talk to me
My love won’t go away
No matter what
you do or what you say
I have called you by my name
And gave my light for you to shine
So with me you can
Freely speak your mind
Yes with me you can
Freely speak your mind

Vamp
If its bottling up and you’re bout to explode
And you feel like your cross is too heavy to hold
If you feel like the wicked are winning the war
And you wonder what all of the suffering is for
If it feels like heaven has closed its eyes
You can say what you feel don’t ya hold it inside
If you’re carrying more than you think you can bear
And you’re starting to wonder if I’m even there
Cuz lately it’s looking like I’ve left you alone
And you no longer feel that you know that you know
(You can speak your mind)

I used to be totally against platonic friendships.

I never thought they worked. I mean you can’t deny chemistry, can you? Put a man and a woman in a room and if there’s any attraction there at all, somethings going to happen. I mean, it’s unavoidable right?

But then I got some cool female friends.

Never thought that would happen but it did. And they were great. And a couple of them became closer than my male friends were.

And then things got weird.

I don’t know how to explain it exactly. Each case is different but in every case, the vibe just started changing at some point. And we’re all still friends but it’s not really the same.

What makes it hard with women specifically is…

You can never ever be sure what a woman is really thinking

• Do they really like you and are just acting like friends to get close to you?
• Or, maybe they suspect you’re the one acting like a friend and think you might really like them so they decide to back away.
• Or maybe they’re just crazy!!!

Two guys would never have this problem.

You know why? Because we do this thing called Talking! When we have a problem with someone or suspect an issue, we actually open up our mouths and express it (Ladies you should try it sometime, it actually works).

So anyway, I’m back to being not so sure if platonic relationships work.

But, I wrote a song about how I feel. And since my lady friends have left me totally clueless as to what happened between us, I, like any guy, have to make the assumption that I did something wrong. And, as every guy has done at some point, I’m apologizing even though I’m not really sure what happened.

Ladies, maybe you can help me…

Listen to the song and tell what you think I should do. Or do you agree that we should all stay away from platonic relationships? If you need to listen to it a few times to understand what’s going on, you can click the “Download” link in the player to download a copy for your hard drive or mp3 player (the download is free).

Maybe you can pass this on to some of your other relationship gurus to see if they can help solve this dilemma. Just click the “Share/Send” button below to forward the post or add it to your own profile. You can also pass the song along. Really, the more help I get the better

Just click the “Comment” button below to add a comment. I can’t wait to hear what you think!

Oh yeah… here are the lyrics.

the simple foolishness of ignorance
written & produced by Eric Campbell

key - G Major; 67 bpm

verse 1

If I ever made you cry I’m truly sorry
Sometimes tears are something I don’t understand
And it wasn’t till the time
I saw them filling up your eyes.
That I realized I’d hurt my closest friend

I’m not really sure just what you were expecting
But I think it might be more than I can give
All those words you never say
I think I hear them anyway
But its a language I don’t really understand

chorus
They say love overcomes a multitude of sins (flaws, offenses)
So I hope that you can forgive me once again

For the cluelessness of men
for the lack of common sense
And for the simple foolishness of ignorance

verse 2

Didn’t we silently agree to keep our friendship
and never ever speak about this chemistry we feel
And now I’m really not sure
when you decided you wanted more
but now we’ve got this awkwardness between us
that refuses to yield

chorus
(repeat 2nd half)

bridge
And maybe it’s true, these friendships never work
And maybe it’s true, someday someone will be hurt
And if I knew this all back then
Would I still let us begin along this road
I don’t know

But they say (chorus)

Haven’t you always been attracted to thugs?

I know.  There’s just something about them, right?  You can’t help yourself.  DMX, 50, Lil Wayne, it doesn’t matter. A muscled up brother walks up in a wife beater covered in tats and you just lose it. Right?

So then you start dating some.

And, oh what an adventure right?  He’s fun, spontaneous.  He’s a rebel. He just don’t give a ….

Very sexy right?

But then, you start seeing the other side.

• Mr. Thug ain’t got no job
• Mr. Thug always needs to borrow some money.
• Mr. Thug’s car broke down and he needs to borrow yours
• Mr. Thug got three baby mama’s and they all wanna cut You!
• Mr. Thug loses his temper sometime and you wonder where that’s gonna lead.

Hmm… maybe it’s time for a change

Maybe it’s time to leave 50 and Lil Wayne on youtube and find you a real responsible brother who knows how to treat a woman.

If you’ve ever wondered, where are the good brothers?  This song is for you!

Download it (it’s free).  Put it in your mp3 player.  And the next time that dude beeps at you while he’s driving by, turn up the volume and rock out.

Remixes anyone?

This is just a demo mix.  I still may make some changes to it. I might have it mixed by some higher end studios to see what it brings out. I’m also up for having some remixes done so if you feel you have something to add to it, let me know.

Warning.. Explicit Lyrics

It’s a fairly positive song but there’s still a couple of grown up words so parents keep that in mind. If you want to see the lyrics, they’re at this post

Bullsh!t
Written & Produced by Eric Campbell

Verse 1

Baby, I don’t wanna get all in your business
Cuz I know you been feeling this thug shit
Since 1999 or 95 or something

Baby, now don’t you go and get mad at me
But how come you ain’t been happy
In a really long time

I’ll never call you out your name
And I won’t put you on display
And I won’t ignore your mind

Cuz I’m the kind of man that knows what he wants
Won’t let a good thing go to waste
And I know a good thing when I see it
Cuz a good things hard to find

Hook
Baby you can call me if you’re looking for a change
If you’re tired of the bullshit
If you’re sick of all the games

Baby, call me if you want a real man in your life
Ain’t you ready for some satisfaction
We can make it happen alright

Verse 2
Baby, come on tell me what you ‘fraid of
Don’t you know what you made of?
Ain’t you ready for the light

I know, you ain’t never been a queen
You ain’t never seen a man
Treat another woman right

But deep in your heart you always knew
There’s a real love somewhere for you
Never ever seen it but you hoping that it’s true

Okay, now’s the time
Take another look girl, see my shine
Why don’t you let me show you how I do

[Hook]

[Break]

[Hook]

What is RSS?

[DISCLAIMER] I copied this post in it’s entirety from Problogger.com.

Problogger is a great site and I recommend it if you’re for information on ways to create and market your blogs.

What is RSS? I’m regularly asked this question and thought it might be worth putting together a page to define RSS and hopefully shed some light on the topic.

Do you want to keep up to date with the latest posts on EricMakesMusic?

We have a number of ways that you can subscribe to this site and receive updates. The main one that our readers use is our RSS feed. But what is RSS?

What is RSS?

RSS is a technology that is being used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of their favorite websites.

In the ‘old days’ of the web to keep track of updates on a website you had to ‘bookmark’ websites in your browser and manually return to them on a regular basis to see what had been added.

The problems with bookmarking

• You as the web surfer had to do all the work
• It can get complicated when you are trying to track many websites at once
• You miss information when you forget to check your bookmarks
• You end up seeing the same information over and over again on sites that don’t update very often

RSS Changes Everything

What if you could tell a website to let you know every time that they update? In a sense, this is what RSS does for you.

RSS flips things around a little and is a technology that provides you with a method of getting relevant and up to date information sent to you for you to read in your own time. It saves you time and helps you to get the information you want quickly after it was published.

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. Many people describe it as a ‘news feed’ that you subscribe to.

I find the ’subscription’ description helpful. It’s like subscribing to a magazine that is delivered to you periodically but instead of it coming in your physical mail box each month when the magazine is published it is delivered to your ‘RSS Reader’ every time your favorite website updates.

How RSS actually technically works is probably a lesson for another day but the key today is for you to understand why it’s good and how to use it.

Let me say right up front that I’m not the most technically savvy guy going around - but even I can use RSS. At first I found it a little strange to make the change from bookmarking to RSS but I found that when I started that I just couldn’t stop.

How to Use RSS

Get an RSS Reader - The first thing you’ll want to do if you’re getting into reading sites via RSS is to hook yourself up with an RSS Feed Reader.

There are many feed readers going around with a variety of approaches and features - however a good place to start is with a couple of free and easy to use web based ones like Google Reader and Bloglines. Either one will do if you’re starting out (I use Google’s Reader) - as I say there are many others to choose from but to get started either of these are fairly easy to use and will help you work out the basics of RSS.

Both of these feed readers work a little like email. As you subscribe to feeds you’ll see that unread entries from the sites you’re tracking will be marked as bold. As you click on them you’ll see the latest update and can read it right there in the feed reader. You are given the option to click through to the actual site or move onto the next unread item - marking the last one as ‘read’.

The best way to learn how to use either Google Reader or Bloglines is to simply subscribe to some feeds and give it a go. Both have helpful help sections to get you up and running.

Note: other options to tracking websites that you might already be familiar with include using pages like MyYahoo, MyGoogle and MyMSN.

Find Some Feeds to Subscribe to - there are two places to look for a site’s feed:

1. On the Site
2. In Your Browser

On Site Subscription
Over the last few years you may have noticed a lot of little buttons and widgets appearing on your favorite sites and blogs. Little orange buttons, ‘counters’ with how many ‘readers a blog has, links called RSS, XML, ATOM and many more.

They come in all shapes and sizes. Here are a few you might have seen:

There are plenty more - but any time you see any of these buttons or anything like them it means that the site you are viewing almost certainly has a feed that you can subscribe to. In most cases it’s as simple as either copying and pasting the link associated with the button into your RSS Reader or clicking the button and following the instructions to subscribe using the feed reader of your choice.

Browser Subscription

Many internet browsers now have the ability to find and subscribe to RSS feeds built right into them.

When you surf to a site you can usually tell if it has an RSS feed by looking in the right hand side of address bar where you type in the site’s URL.

Here’s how it looks for ProBlogger when you’re using Firefox:

See the little orange icon on the right hand side? Click that and you’ll be locating ProBlogger’s RSS feed.

Using Safari Browser it is a blue RSS icon:

Other modern browsers will have similar icons.

To quickly and easily subscribe by clicking these icons you’ll want to set up your browser to do it with your feed reader of choice as by default they will probably subscribe you using the in-browser reader. You can do this by going to the ‘preferences’ to your browser and choosing ‘Google Reader’ or ‘Bloglines’ etc as your feed reader.

Once you’ve done this and have subscribed to a few feeds you’ll begin to see unread items in your Feed Reader and you can start reading.

Don’t want to Use an RSS Reader? Email is an Option

If the above explanation all just seems a little too complicated for you then please don’t worry. Many sites also enable you to subscribe to RSS feeds via a more familiar medium - Email.

Here at EricMakesMusic we know that not everyone is into the RSS thing so at the top of our right hand sidebar there is a field where you can enter your email address and get a daily email with a summary of our latest posts. You can unsubscribe at any time and your email will be kept private and not used for any other purposes than to send these daily updates.

Further Reading on What RSS is

• How to Explain RSS the Oprah Way
• Getting Started with RSS

VideoJug: RSS In Plain English

Hopefully this answers your question of ‘what is RSS‘!