DarrenConley.com

You can tell I'm having a busy week when all I do is post links to YouTube videos.  Nonetheless, I made a promise to several friends that I would deliver some of the best retro Christian rock music videos around, and far be it for me to break a promise.  

This first video is one of the best Holy Soldier songs from back in the day.  See No Evil is about abortion, and while I don't think the quality of the video does justice to the quality of the music, the hair styles definitely do justice to the early 90s era.

You can't talk about retro Christian music videos and not include something from Petra.  There was a time when these guys were the biggest band in Christian music, and had over 25 years of rock behind them.  I'm pretty sure that they're all working in Nashville mall food courts now, but here is a video for one of their songs from their glory days.

Stryper was a unique entity in the Christian music scene, in that they were not on a Christian record label, and they actually got MTV airplay from time to time.  They are also the band (along with Holy Soldier) that my friends Jed and Nate could cover almost perfectly on drums and guitar.  They've got the hair factor going on in a killer way too.

Deliverance was the first Christian speed metal band that I got into, and while this isn't their best song by a long shot, it is the only video that you can find by them on YouTube.  I remember thinking that this music was SO HEAVY back in the day.  Now it sounds a little comical.  But you have to admit, they know how to grind it.

There was a time when Guardian was my favourite band in the world.  The video quality of this particular video is a little pixely, but I gotta admit that I still think this song holds up.  Early 90s rock didn't get any better than this.

You might not recognize Michael Sweet from his days as Stryper's lead singer, but just as we were reaching the end of the "long hair phase" of the 90s, he put out some solo work.  All This and Heaven Too was heard way too much in our circles back in these days.  This is one of the only videos on this list that Larissa actually enjoys.

I was never a huge fan of Whiteheart, but this particular song I still find catchy.  Also, the lead singer has some crazy dance moves in this video – something like a controlled convulsion, with spinning.  

I would be remiss if I didn't include anything by Whitecross here.  When I first heard this guy's voice, it was like a buzzsaw in my ears, but over time, it grew on me.  Kinda like Christian rock in general, eh?  For those of my friends from back in the day who want a real trip down memory lane, check out this other video by Whitecross.  I completely forgot that this song existed.

BONUS MULTILINGUAL VIDEO 

Learn another language while listening to music!  Sixpence None the Richer singing their most overplayed song – Kiss Me – in Japanese!

I know that you're all busy people.  I know that usually, you jump onto this website only while you're killing time between downloading internet pornography and trying to relive your childhood via YouTube.  I know that most of you have never taken the time to explore (or care about) some of the wonderful features that make this particular blog a favored oasis in a barren online landscape full of poor spelling and grammar, and websites that have long been abandoned.

Yes, I know a lot, especially about my own site.  And that's why I've decided to use this post to enlighten my faithful readers about some features that you might not know about, so that you may never have to fumble-about in the darkness of ignorance again.  At least, not when it comes to this website.  You can be ignorant about other things (like, say, how a nuclear bomb works) all you like.

First, some tips in helping you find what you're looking for here.  On the right-hand side of the screen, you should see a list of Categories.  Every post made on this site is categorized in one of these groups.  So if you remember a hilarious post about my butt-wiping habits, you'd be very likely to find that post under the Bathroom category.  On the other hand, if you're planning on developing powers of flight sometime soon, and would like some helpful pointers, you could always click on the Advice category.

Another tip for finding content is using the search box on the right side of the title bar.  Just type in whatever you'd like to find, and hit the [enter] button.  For instance, if you find yourself thinking "Has Darren ever put up a post about terrorists and pom-poms?", you could simply type one (or both) of these words into the search box, and you'd find out.  Or if you're wondering "Has Darren ever written about Midland?", typing the word "midland" into the search box will yield the appropriate result.  Of course, this very post will now come up in both of those searches, since I've written about those things here.

For those of you who are growing in your internet savvy-ness, and just starting to figure out what all this podcasting business is about, you can have your first taste of podcasting by clicking on the Podcast link in the title bar.  I almost always remember to update it with the latest podcast that I have participated in, and you can listen to it right here on this blog.  Just make sure you read the disclaimer first, and never play it in front of your father-in-law when the third word spoken by the host is an F-bomb.

For those of you who like to throw your two-cents' worth into the topics discussed on this website, not only can you make use of the comments feature (included FREE on every post!), but you can follow the conversation and keep track of follow-up responses to your comments with the extremely handy "Subscribe to comments" feature, found at the bottom of the comment form.  By checking the little box, future comments left for that post will be emailed to you directly, allowing you instant updates on who thought your comment was a brilliant display of deductive genius, or a nausea-inducing illustration of ignorant misunderstanding.

Finally, and most-entertainingly, almost every link and picture that appears on this site has been tagged with witty and informative text messages, which will appear if you allow your mouse to "hover" over the link or picture itself.  Sometimes the message will simply tell you where the link will take you, sometimes you will be informed that a larger picture is available by clicking on the thumbnail, and sometimes you will be given an extra (and often very entertaining) insight into the topic at hand.  I work hard to make sure that you get the most for your money out of my pictures and links, and I don't want to think that you're missing out on all of this premium content.

So there you have it – Hopefully whole new worlds of experience have now been opened up to you as you navigate through the adventure that is DarrenConley.com.  Now go practice those mouse-hovering skills!

Some hilarious clips from The Office to help you all get through your week.  Jim and Dwight are endless sources of hilarity.  Enjoy!

It's been crazy times at the Conley house, my friends.  In fact, the times are still crazy, and thus this post will be short, in order to leave more time for dealing with the crazy.

First, this has been one of the worst school workloads I've ever had to shoulder so far.  This past week alone, I've had to put together two 75 minute seminars (one on teaching pronunciation, and one on preparing literature reviews for research studies), I have an annotated bibliography that's due in 3 hours which I haven't started writing yet, and I have another annotated bibliography due on Monday for a paper which I haven't picked the topic for yet.

Larissa has been home sick from work for the past 3 weeks.  It's some sort of flu bug, but it seems to come and go in intensity.  Some days she feels completely fine, and other days she can't stand up for more than 10 seconds at a time.  Since Larissa is the sole breadwinner of our family right now, this situation is cutting into our finances a bit, and my trying to take care of her is only adding to the stress load.

Just to make matters interesting, the alternator died on our car when I was on my way home to St. Catharines after recording the Audio Edition last Monday night.  I had to call the auto club and get our car towed 60 km to our apartment, only to have to towed again the next day to a local service garage.  The garage had to wait another day to get the parts in, and that meant that I was restricted to bus travel exclusively for two days, and Larissa was completely stranded at home.  

Larissa's parents stayed over at our place last night.  They brought us a whole bunch of groceries, which was awesome, but having your in-laws over is not necessarily conducive to getting your schoolwork finished.   We had another grocery delivery earlier this week courtesy of Tara from our small group, who is chock full of amazingness.  Our friend Becky, also from our small group, sent us an email offering to pick up more groceries for us if we need it.  It's great to be loved.

Now if I can only find someone to do all my research for me.

Tonight, while I should be working on my school stuff, we're instead going to drop in on one of my best friends from my younger days who is visiting from Peru.  He's never met Larissa, so we felt like we couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit him while he's still around.  It's going to be a reunion of sorts for a group of us who grew up together, and my assignment is going to be late either way, so I'm re-adjusting my priorities.

So much for this being a short post, eh?!

In an effort to up the entertainment factor of this message, I offer you the following video, which was discovered and forwarded to me by the cyber-savvy Hardcore Joel.  Seems like the power of Jesus is available online for only $10 US per month!  And here I was enjoying it for free all these years.  I guess I wasn't actually getting the Premium Content.