Just moved from South Africa to start a new life in the Palm Springs, CA area! (how often do you get guys like that on this forum?)

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Jun 26, 2020
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Hi brothers and sisters-in-Christ,

I've got millions of things to share with you guys, and so many text chats to go through. But with such a good Christian community like yours, should that be a bad thing? I don't think so! I'm actually looking forward to it! You'll probably notice how active I am on this website all day, every day. I'm probably going to stay logged into this website all day; I'm tired of bouncing all over Internet looking for Christian friends. I think I'll stick with you guys.

Wow, where do I start? Born in Zimbabwe (I have Africa in my blood), moved to South Africa with my elder brother Garth and my parents when I was just 5 (I'm now 44). Arrived about 5 weeks ago in California after a traumatizing 8 years, 3 months living apart from my Mother who now has me back. So much to do to get my new life up-and-running, but COVID-19 has closed everybody up and I flipped with frustration this week, admitting myself to RI International in Palm Springs, CA but they did very little for me. I'm still looking for a job. But it was refreshing doing text chats on this website last night, and God threw not one, but TWO friends my way! So I'd like to keep that up every day.

I was diagnosed in October 2007 with high-functioning autism, and this has caused heaps of damage to my love-life. Been through hundreds of break-ups. More break-ups, more trauma, more desperate to get married a second time (I lost my bipolar wife to suicide after just 5 months of marriage. I was in a psychiatric clinic at the time, unable to get to my wife where she was living alone, and unable to talk her out of suicide). I've been despairing that I'll ever get married again, and even Christian dating websites have disappointed me because they're full of scammers and con-artists. I've met too many "ladies" who hide behind their fake profiles and profile photos that most probably are of somebody else. Because the moment I request a video chat with them, they run away and I've never heard from them again! I love having video chats and joining in Zoom sessions, and I hope I can do those right here on this website.

I want to meet as many guys and girls as I can, and form a circle of Christian friends that I haven't had for 5 solid weeks. If I meet my second wife on this website, all the better! I'm ready to dive into everything on this website. It would be great to have somebody in daily contact with me to walk a journey with me. I have issues of severe impatience, selfishness and my "my way or the highway and I'll throw one massive adult tantrum and sulk all day" kind of attitude. I also seem to be very touchy these days. These issues need attention before I move into any kind of intimate relationship with a lady. They will cause lots of damage, and probably cost me my first marriage.

That's all for now! I'll be logged in all day and probably avail myself for text chats in the main room as well. I'm unemployed and ready for anything in my new life. Please, let's chat! I want to make friends. If you're reading this, please drop me a text in the chat room.

God Bless you all, Roy.
 

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TabinRivCA

Well-known member
Oct 23, 2018
12,360
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#2
Welcome to CC and glad to have you join in the fellowship here. The best way to make friends is to participate in the Forums here and get to know others and vice-versa. You also might want to list some positive things about yourself, esp if you're looking for a potential wife, just sayin. God bless you!
 
Jun 26, 2020
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Thank you TabinRivCA, for the warm welcome! I've already made some friends here; God literally threw them at me, like He was saying "Shut up and stop complaining that you're so lonely! Here are some good friends for you and they know about high-functioning autism as well!" haha God is good!

And yes, I do hope to meet my future wife through this website. I'm just working on some personal issues at the moment, with your website's help and that of the reading plans found on Youversion Bible App. It's a wonderful resource to get you through life with God! I'm dealing with a lot of the following, but found plans for these issues: Jealousy, envy, insecurity, doubt and some other good reading plans.

So, in light of the fact that I want to work my way towards a second marriage (I'm now 44 years old), my slogan for life is now: "Lean on Christ, so that others can lean on you. For if you don't lean on Christ, and others are leaning on you, you'll go crashing down and bring others down with you." And I hope everybody visiting this website reads that!

God Bless you all for creating and maintaining this website! I pray God gives me the resources to take out a lifetime membership with your website, and gives me a steady job, for which I am still looking.
 
Jun 26, 2020
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Fantastic art, Magenta! Did you do that yourself? If you're into the graphical arts, I'm into the musical arts. I write piano solos with Christian, humorous and romantic lyrics. I can also read and play notated sheet music, not just chords.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
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#6
Fantastic art, Magenta! Did you do that yourself? If you're into the graphical arts, I'm into the musical arts. I write piano solos with Christian, humorous and romantic lyrics. I can also read and play notated sheet music, not just chords.
Thank you, Roy :) I design them like a collage, using multiple individual pieces that I have collected over many forays, layering them together, making adjustments/alterations and edits to each layer as I size and position them, and move the pieces around. I love music too, and used to play the guitar :D

I designed this one today:



So sorry to hear about your wife...

 
Jun 26, 2020
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Wow, that's incredible! What graphics software do you use for this? Adobe? I'm quite au fait when it comes to learning Windows 10 software in general, and enjoy doing software support. I've used Paint on Windows myself, and can resize, rotate and insert text etc.

Thank you so much for your condolences for my late wife, whom I lost to suicide.

I have a Sound Cloud account if you want to hear my music at all?
 

SoulWeaver

Senior Member
Oct 25, 2014
4,889
2,534
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#8
You're awesome, dude. Just saw your massive list of skills, you can mix and write lyrics and you use LMMS and do all that...
MeanHWILE, I am sitting here with my little bowl of Fruit Loop studio and can't mix or master to save my life... lol
Hope you enjoy your stay.
 
Jun 26, 2020
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You're awesome, dude. Just saw your massive list of skills, you can mix and write lyrics and you use LMMS and do all that...
MeanHWILE, I am sitting here with my little bowl of Fruit Loop studio and can't mix or master to save my life... lol
Hope you enjoy your stay.
Thanks, SoulWeaver! God gave those skills to me and He's given you skills as well! They might even compliment mine or somebody else's. I can help you get a good mix on your sound on FruityLoops Studio if you like.....

I'm off to bed now; it's jolly late. But please send another e-mail if you like; I'll reply in the morning.

God Bless!
 

SoulWeaver

Senior Member
Oct 25, 2014
4,889
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#10
Not working on music projects right now, I was joking, but seriously kind of you to offer help. I will just add that it's a great decision that you want to get yourself in order and heal properly before looking for another relationship. That's the right course of action bro. Looking forward to seeing you post in the Christian music subforum... :)
 
Jun 26, 2020
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Thanks man! God Bless you. I'll be posting on the music subforum for sure. I feel like dedicating a song to this website (and to God as well of course!). I'll get busy today and drop you an e-mail when it's done.

ROCK ON LIKE A SCONE!!! And have some fun dancing on a hamburger bun!
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
55,891
26,054
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#12
Wow, that's incredible! What graphics software do you use for this? Adobe? I'm quite au fait when it comes to learning Windows 10 software in general, and enjoy doing software support. I've used Paint on Windows myself, and can resize, rotate and insert text etc.

Thank you so much for your condolences for my late wife, whom I lost to suicide.

I have a Sound Cloud account if you want to hear my music at all?
Good morning, Roy, I would love to hear some of your music! Perhaps you could create a new thread for it in the music forum, posting there as SoulWeaver (a woman ;)) suggested?

I have used Paint in the past, but find it very limited, and have not opened it for so long I cannot even say LOL. I used to design web pages on a gaming site my daughter signed me up to shortly after I first got a home computer twenty years ago. Starting with an editable template that I could customize with my own color preferences and content, I did play with images in Paint back then (we're talking more than fifteen years ago); I remember working on one image adding one pixel at a time :oops::giggle: When I became a member here close to five years ago, I would find simple images and add borders and text to them, as you have done also :) I was using Pixlr by then, which was a free online editing program much like Photoshop, which is what I use now. My daughter got Photoshop CC 2015 for me when Pixlr went offline for a time, and then returned after dumbing down the program so much it became useless to me.

It is kind of funny in a way because in some ways it seems so random in how it all came about, and yet I can see at the same time that all things work together for the good just as God's Word says. My previous laptop lost reliable internet connection after falling off my desk at work a couple of times, and I had gone looking for fonts, not knowing they were still on my computer, and just needed re-installing, after doing a number of factory resets. It was while I was looking for fonts, that I started seeing other things, simple images and individual pieces that could be used in the construction of my own designs... as I did not want to just add borders and text to found images any more, but make my own. Here is a sample of my earlier work here:



Yeah, I used to make everything purple :giggle:

You seem very high functioning for someone "on the spectrum." I am somewhat OCD, not in the washing hands kind of way, but in a dogged persistence that works well with my creative drive and transcendence/escape from self I find while immersed in the creative process :)
 
Jun 26, 2020
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Hi Magenta!

Thank you ever so much for your lovely reply. I'll reply to your question at the bottom of your latest e-mail and comment on your graphical projects as well. Sorry if this sounds rather gushy, but I'm so grateful for friends like you and some others I met on this website. A true answer to prayer from God! And yes, I am very high-functioning on the autistic spectrum. I do have high-functioning autism, which used to be called Asperger's Syndrome.

I fully understand how limiting Paint must be. It's really just a basic little “thingy-thingy” for odds and sods. Photoshop is much more advanced, and I'm not surprised at the beautiful art you're able to create with it. Do you have a graphics tablet? If not, that would be an excellent investment! One pixel at a time??!! Wow, wish I had YOUR patience haha!

It sounds like you needed my tech support a number of times with laptops falling off desks and losing a reliable Internet connection. Was it a wireless connection or a network cable plugged into the laptop? In my PC Technician 'geek' language, that cable would terminate in an RJ-45 plug on your laptop side. If it was a wired connection, then either the cable/plug/RJ-45 socket on your laptop is severed and you need to find somebody who's handy with a soldering iron and/or fixing electronics to do the necessary repairs to the damaged hardware. If it was wireless, and lost reliable connection, then I'd say it's more serious and there's internal damage to the laptop. Is that laptop still working? I doubt it, but you say you don't have it anymore.

Finally, this e-mail wouldn't be complete without me commenting on something you said in your 'Good morning' paragraph. I will post some of my music shortly in a new thread on the music forum. Assuming you know a thing or two about high-functioning autism (one would be reading real deep into things that I hear or read and picking up signals – wrong signals at that – thinking somebody is saying something to me, while in actual fact they're saying something else. I'm unable to pick up 'hidden meanings'.) The moment you said SoulWeaver was a women in brackets, and then put a winking face there as well, got my mind and adrenalin running at 5000 mph! LOL. I started to think things like “Oh, is Magenta hinting at the fact that SoulWeaver is single and available to date? I did tell Magenta that I'd like to meet somebody who'll be my second wife, so maybe that's why she told me SoulWeaver is a woman and put a winking face next to that?”

Yip, I can get pretty analytical and read into things, especially when I think there's a possibility of pursuing marriage with somebody! So, I'm still trying to figure out why you put that winking face there, assuming that you're hinting that I must keep up communications with SoulWeaver to see where our friendship goes. Of course, I'm also asking questions about SoulWeaver (which I'm too afraid to ask at this point) like does she live close enough to me, is she too old or too young for me or just the right age (I'm 44), do we have enough things in common to make a go of this etc etc.? E-mailing her, it does sound like she has a touch of music in her and can't do sound mixing to save her life so there's common ground there. God has revealed that I have issues with insecurity and looking to the women in this world for happiness, so I'm busy with a Youversion Bible reading plan to address my insecurity, and look to God as my first source of happiness, with a wife second. Insecurity can really make the ladies run away and I think that's why I've been through so many break-ups. But now I have friends like SoulWeaver and yourself, and things are going to be different from now on!

God Bless, I'll look forward to your next e-mail! Check the music forum tonight; I might have some songs posted there. I'm considering writing a song dedicated to this website and its registered members soon! I have what I think is an exciting prospect for you, but I think I'll leave it for when I reply to your next e-mail! I want to leave you in suspense ;) !!!

Take a look at the piano sheet music I've attached. It's a computer game soundtrack from the game "Myth" on the Commodore 64 computer, composed by Jeroen Tel of Maniacs Of Noise in Helmond, The Netherlands and I listen to his music a lot. You seem to be a perfectionist in your art, and I was a near-perfectionist getting every note perfect in pitch and duration with notating this tune. I spent A SOLID 13 hours on it, getting to sleep at 3 am the next morning! How's that for dedication and perfection? I'll post the actual MP3 on CC's music thread; it was about 95% accurate to the original tune. It's encouraged and motivated me to pursue music as a career. I hope I can get paid to do this kind of thing; sound mixing at the very least.

Your brother-in-Christ, Roy.
 

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Jun 26, 2020
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Good morning, Roy, I would love to hear some of your music! Perhaps you could create a new thread for it in the music forum, posting there as SoulWeaver (a woman ;)) suggested?

I have used Paint in the past, but find it very limited, and have not opened it for so long I cannot even say LOL. I used to design web pages on a gaming site my daughter signed me up to shortly after I first got a home computer twenty years ago. Starting with an editable template that I could customize with my own color preferences and content, I did play with images in Paint back then (we're talking more than fifteen years ago); I remember working on one image adding one pixel at a time :oops::giggle: When I became a member here close to five years ago, I would find simple images and add borders and text to them, as you have done also :) I was using Pixlr by then, which was a free online editing program much like Photoshop, which is what I use now. My daughter got Photoshop CC 2015 for me when Pixlr went offline for a time, and then returned after dumbing down the program so much it became useless to me.

It is kind of funny in a way because in some ways it seems so random in how it all came about, and yet I can see at the same time that all things work together for the good just as God's Word says. My previous laptop lost reliable internet connection after falling off my desk at work a couple of times, and I had gone looking for fonts, not knowing they were still on my computer, and just needed re-installing, after doing a number of factory resets. It was while I was looking for fonts, that I started seeing other things, simple images and individual pieces that could be used in the construction of my own designs... as I did not want to just add borders and text to found images any more, but make my own. Here is a sample of my earlier work here:



Yeah, I used to make everything purple :giggle:

You seem very high functioning for someone "on the spectrum." I am somewhat OCD, not in the washing hands kind of way, but in a dogged persistence that works well with my creative drive and transcendence/escape from self I find while immersed in the creative process :)
Hi Magenta,

I've just put a fresh post on the music forum with a link to my Sound Cloud music archive. It's awaiting approval from admin so hop on over there when you think it's been approved. Enjoy! There are lyrics too.
 
Jun 26, 2020
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#15
Not working on music projects right now, I was joking, but seriously kind of you to offer help. I will just add that it's a great decision that you want to get yourself in order and heal properly before looking for another relationship. That's the right course of action bro. Looking forward to seeing you post in the Christian music subforum... :)
Hi SoulWeaver!

I've just put a fresh post on the music forum with a link to my Sound Cloud music archive. It's awaiting approval from admin so hop on over there when you think it's been approved. Enjoy! There are lyrics too.
 

SoulWeaver

Senior Member
Oct 25, 2014
4,889
2,534
113
#16
Hi SoulWeaver!

I've just put a fresh post on the music forum with a link to my Sound Cloud music archive. It's awaiting approval from admin so hop on over there when you think it's been approved. Enjoy! There are lyrics too.
I'll be a bit on and off today so I'll post there later when I check it out (I am just skimming over the forum right now, but I wanted to set apart time to really look at it) :)
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
55,891
26,054
113
#17
Hi Magenta!

Thank you ever so much for your lovely reply. I'll reply to your question at the bottom of your latest e-mail and comment on your graphical projects as well. Sorry if this sounds rather gushy, but I'm so grateful for friends like you and some others I met on this website. A true answer to prayer from God! And yes, I am very high-functioning on the autistic spectrum. I do have high-functioning autism, which used to be called Asperger's Syndrome.

I fully understand how limiting Paint must be. It's really just a basic little “thingy-thingy” for odds and sods. Photoshop is much more advanced, and I'm not surprised at the beautiful art you're able to create with it. Do you have a graphics tablet? If not, that would be an excellent investment! One pixel at a time??!! Wow, wish I had YOUR patience haha!

It sounds like you needed my tech support a number of times with laptops falling off desks and losing a reliable Internet connection. Was it a wireless connection or a network cable plugged into the laptop? In my PC Technician 'geek' language, that cable would terminate in an RJ-45 plug on your laptop side. If it was a wired connection, then either the cable/plug/RJ-45 socket on your laptop is severed and you need to find somebody who's handy with a soldering iron and/or fixing electronics to do the necessary repairs to the damaged hardware. If it was wireless, and lost reliable connection, then I'd say it's more serious and there's internal damage to the laptop. Is that laptop still working? I doubt it, but you say you don't have it anymore.

Finally, this e-mail wouldn't be complete without me commenting on something you said in your 'Good morning' paragraph. I will post some of my music shortly in a new thread on the music forum. Assuming you know a thing or two about high-functioning autism (one would be reading real deep into things that I hear or read and picking up signals – wrong signals at that – thinking somebody is saying something to me, while in actual fact they're saying something else. I'm unable to pick up 'hidden meanings'.) The moment you said SoulWeaver was a women in brackets, and then put a winking face there as well, got my mind and adrenalin running at 5000 mph! LOL. I started to think things like “Oh, is Magenta hinting at the fact that SoulWeaver is single and available to date? I did tell Magenta that I'd like to meet somebody who'll be my second wife, so maybe that's why she told me SoulWeaver is a woman and put a winking face next to that?”

Yip, I can get pretty analytical and read into things, especially when I think there's a possibility of pursuing marriage with somebody! So, I'm still trying to figure out why you put that winking face there, assuming that you're hinting that I must keep up communications with SoulWeaver to see where our friendship goes. Of course, I'm also asking questions about SoulWeaver (which I'm too afraid to ask at this point) like does she live close enough to me, is she too old or too young for me or just the right age (I'm 44), do we have enough things in common to make a go of this etc etc.? E-mailing her, it does sound like she has a touch of music in her and can't do sound mixing to save her life so there's common ground there. God has revealed that I have issues with insecurity and looking to the women in this world for happiness, so I'm busy with a Youversion Bible reading plan to address my insecurity, and look to God as my first source of happiness, with a wife second. Insecurity can really make the ladies run away and I think that's why I've been through so many break-ups. But now I have friends like SoulWeaver and yourself, and things are going to be different from now on!

God Bless, I'll look forward to your next e-mail! Check the music forum tonight; I might have some songs posted there. I'm considering writing a song dedicated to this website and its registered members soon! I have what I think is an exciting prospect for you, but I think I'll leave it for when I reply to your next e-mail! I want to leave you in suspense ;) !!!

Take a look at the piano sheet music I've attached. It's a computer game soundtrack from the game "Myth" on the Commodore 64 computer, composed by Jeroen Tel of Maniacs Of Noise in Helmond, The Netherlands and I listen to his music a lot. You seem to be a perfectionist in your art, and I was a near-perfectionist getting every note perfect in pitch and duration with notating this tune. I spent A SOLID 13 hours on it, getting to sleep at 3 am the next morning! How's that for dedication and perfection? I'll post the actual MP3 on CC's music thread; it was about 95% accurate to the original tune. It's encouraged and motivated me to pursue music as a career. I hope I can get paid to do this kind of thing; sound mixing at the very least.

Your brother-in-Christ, Roy.
Hello again Roy :) These posts we make are called posts, not emails :) If you say email, it suggests something completely different :geek: <- that's the geek face :D Geek as in nerdy for yes, my perfectionism, which spills over into other areas besides my art panels for Scripture and prayers. That was very insightful of you to pick up on that, and I have noticed your tendency to gushing, also. I don't say that/this to be unkind, but you may want to rein it in a bit, especially the tendency to overthink and/or jumping to conclusions as to why someone may have said something, or used an emoticon, as with the wink I gave in letting you know SoulWeaver is a woman, which I did simply because you said "thanks man" to her. I know she is perfectly capable of speaking for herself, but I do want you to know that she is a very happily married woman, and that there was no other hidden message or meaning in my attempt to correct your seeming to think she was a guy :)

To answer some of your questions, hmmm, no, I do not have a graphics tablet... just a 15" HD laptop with touchscreen capabiliies. My other one does still work and even connects to the internet when this one goes mysteriously awol, which has been quite handy at times, and though I do not have Photoshop on it, I could at least transfer images from one device to the other if it came down to that :) After the older one fell on the floor twice, it did something to the hard drive wifi, and since it was no longer under warranty, I tried other work-arounds rather than sending it in to be fixed, which would/could have taken many weeks (leaving me with no device), and cost too much - like getting some USB thingy to connect, but it sill kept trying to go through the machine set-up, and when my boss found out what I had been dealing with for months, he immediately went and bought me a new laptop (which of course I did pay for). He did that because we had just been through an upset at work, and he wanted to do something nice for me. He is also an IT guy and knew how frustrating and crazy making it would have been for him to deal with that type of issue over a long period of time. He also knows how much time I spend on my computer :giggle: I am quite fortunate, also, because when it was not busy at work, I was allowed to do as I wished on my laptop :D I am laid off now due to the whole COVID thing, but during more normal times, our work is somewhat seasonal, so there were times when I would spend the majority of my day at my desk on my laptop, getting paid LOL.

I work in a photo lab :D Or did ;) And have, for over forty four years, at three different places of employment :D


I do not really know much about autism, but it does get represented through character developments in certain shows, especially more so now that it has been on the rise. Years ago I watched a documentary type show on it, that related autism to diet and the workings of the digestive tract. Have you looked into it from that angle?

i hope your musical aspirations work out for you! I did listen to a couple of your compositions earlier today, and enjoyed them :)
 
Jun 26, 2020
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Hi Magenta,

Thanks for your reply. I think there was a bit of confusion over the "thanks man" bit. Remember I come from South Africa so I was not making any reference to SoulWeaver's gender at all. I didn't even know her gender! I was just being jovial; it was a kind of exclamation "THANKS MAN!!" It's even something I would say to a lady's face. It's something I would say to my future girlfriend! Just a saying.

Am I correct in saying that you are now working from home? Your post gives me that impression. Well, I certainly hope you DO have an income right now of any amount. If you could help me find a work-from-home job please, that would be great. Thanks.

Thanks for your compliments on the songs you listened to. Which songs in particular did you listen to? "Colonel Von Sting (with his left prosthetic wing)" became a big hit with Sound Cloud users who heard it!

God just popped a new song into my head about insecurity, so stay tuned to Christian Chat's music forum. I'll also advertise the new song on this thread and provide the link.

God Bless, I'll look forward to your next post!

I'm passionate about songwriting, piano-playing and sheet music notation!.jpg
 

Isny

Senior Member
Jan 15, 2017
2,305
2,418
113
#19
Hello Roy, by now I believe you have realized that you have found a gold mine here at Christian Chat: there are many talented people here like Magenta. And we in turn can learn from your talents and experiences.

Roy, we are so glad to have you with us and may God bless you richly. Welcome! :)
 
Jun 26, 2020
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#20
Hello Roy, by now I believe you have realized that you have found a gold mine here at Christian Chat: there are many talented people here like Magenta. And we in turn can learn from your talents and experiences.

Roy, we are so glad to have you with us and may God bless you richly. Welcome! :)
Thank you Isny, for the warm welcome! I'll be making a lot of posts in the music forum because I'm a songwriter, writing Christian, humorous and romantic lyrics. I have a new song about insecurity that I still want to write, so I'll be providing links on here to my Sound Cloud account.

Stay tuned and God Bless you!