Interrupted

I used to live in a suburban city in Southern California. With the exception of an Uncle and Aunt and cousins dodging fires, after 19 years of life there, I have no reason to go back - not in any sort of permanent basis at least. The rest of my family and some friends live in the desert capitol of Arizona, and I was born there, but it's also not my home. No where and at no time will I return to the same high school friends up to the same old antics, and I'll probably never frequent the haunts of my childhood.

It seems romantic to be free with no ties, but it's also very strange.

Oh Snap

Get a Cash Advance

What, don't they teach you how to use a toaster oven in a Masters of English program?

These Are

Some pictures you've probably all seen, but they're just up here cause I'm trying to post them somewhere else so I need them to be hosted.

For Your Service

There was a flyer up at my work that was noticed by a few friends of mine. "Free tickets to the Nebraska - Kansas St. Game". We just had to go in uniform.
Two of my friends, Copp and Wing, saw it, and they being football fans, wanted to go. I said I'd go too, thinking it was in Omaha. It ended up being in Lincoln, 45 minutes away, but not horrible. We drove down there today and stood on the sidelines, just behind the fence where the players and media all go. I think we may have gotten on TV too. During half time we were all leaning on said fence and one of the cameras came over and we were put up on the big megatron thing, or whatever it's called - bunch of Air Force cats in flight suits.
The whole day people were going by, shaking our hands, saluting us, some 10 year old said "Thank you for your service." Why is it that when people say that I just want to say "Shut up, leave me alone."? I wonder if it's cause I joined for purely selfish reasons, or because I don't want to be in anymore. It's because I don't like the system, and don't like how I feel completely pointless where I am - going thru 2 years of language training to just be a warm body on a plane.
I'll never go to China, never really use Chinese again in my job, once I graduate from this class. I appreciate being able to learn chinese, and yeah I've had to deal with this shit, some of which the vast majority of the population can't really relate to at all and will never experience even to a small degree- but I didn't do it for anyone's service.
I did it for free credits, free college money, and free parking. It must be a kind of shame I feel. Like I should be more patriotic, should look at the kids and say, "I'm fighting for your freedom kid." Just leave me alone. I'm just another working stiff that hates his job, it's just cause I wear green and a dumb looking hat that you might think I'm special. But I never graduated from college, gave up on my dreams, took the structure over the freedom, god knows why. I'll probably never be shot at, and if I am, it's cause I'll go to jail if I refuse to run out into the line of fire - not because I believe in anything - any kind of cause. That's how most of "The Service" is, whether they admit it or not. There are the few gung ho master sergeants and wannabe pilots - but the rest of us just want to get our 20 year retirement, or 3 year GI Bill, or clearance, or alcohol, and then forget we ever -literally- signed our life away. We appreciate the appreciation, somewhere deep down, and some of us think we deserve it, but for most all of us it's a job with good benefits, crappy pay, bad hours, and low morale. So if it's a service to you to deal with that, you're welcome.
Your taxes pay my salary, but then, my own taxes do too.

Happy Anniversuree

Sis and Bro in law.



this is a deftones song called "Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event" which might sound harsh, but I like the song, and it has "Anniversary" in the title.

Baaaa

The Pen: Life after Death

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An Interesting Bit of Biology

Females have 2 X chromosomes and males have an X and a Y, right?

Well, those X and Y chromosomes produce "gene products." All that means is that the gene codes for something, that is, it tells the cell it's in to makes something, usually a protein.

Since females have 2 X chromosomes that are identical, their cells go thru a process called lyonization. All it does it makes one of the X chromosomes in each cell inactive, otherwise it would produce twice as much of the gene products - twice as much as males.

In placental animals (most mammals), the X gene that is inactivated is random, it can either be the one the father or the mother contributed. However, in marsupials, it's always the fraternal X chromosome.

I learned that while procrastinating in writing my paper for Biology.

So Delivered

Atop Mt. Evans
At the campsite at the dunes.

Madness
Retribution.
Assertion


The Journey


Some fools in a raft

To Keep the Hope Alive

I'm posting so that my blog doesn't hit some inactivity timer and delete everything.

Post

I still live. Lots of math and biology and getting up early now. It's an existence of a quiet chipping away.

Renaissance Soul

I think this article is talking about me. I especially reverberate with the part about being jealous of people that have only on passion. I think I can jump into things and be really into them for just a bit, and then I quickly move on to something else.

The trick is just to make whatever I'm doing productive and creative. It seems like Leonardo DaVinci might have been this kind of person - painting, anatomy, inventing. I need to be independently wealthy so I can pursue whatever I want whenever I want.

2 Funny Videos

Scar

Well, I finally finished it. I'm a slow reader I guess. It's taken me most of 2 days to actually finish it, but I of course enjoyed it immensely.

It was not nearly as light hearted as the rest of the books, probably due to the subject matter - and it's quite a bit different from the other books too.

I thought it had been ruined for me by some stuff I overheard but nothing of it was significant, though when one of the things I had overheard was confirmed I was kind of stressed the other stuff would be too. But I was right in some of my predictions too - namely, which of the main characters would die. I thought that one of their deaths would be in a different manner than it was though, but oh well.

I wonder what JK Rowling's gonna do now...

Urrrghhh

Piece of crap Amazon. Guaranteed deliver on Saturday my ass. Unless they come in the next 7 minutes I get a free book...I'd rather just get the book today though. I coulda gotten one for the same price at a grocery store last night and had it in my hand.

Birthday Surprises

If you'll take out your copy of Half Blood Prince and turn to page 389, you'll find that Ron Weasley and I have the same birthday. Odd I never noticed before.

Crunch Time

New book out next saturday.

Half way thru book 5.

Still have to do college class homework.

Plan tonight...sleep less, wake up early, get things done.

Holy Crap

Hazing is out of regs in the military. So all that blood pinning and stuff you hear about - technically illegal.

I don't know how it is in other jobs, but I work in a place where it's technically also illegal to talk about what happens at work. I also work in a place that shreds a lot of paper.


My car.

This picture doesn't do it justice. I wasn't about to drive home on that pile of sh*t that, if I took a picture of it, WOULD do it justice.
I'm a pretty trusting guy. I leave my car doors unlocked when I'm on base, I leave my window cracked. Well...I was a pretty trusting guy.

I walk out of work, some people are standing around their cars, whatever, I walk to mine. There's a little pile of stuff on top. What IS this pile? I say to myself. Someone put a little pile of crap on my car. Okay. I open my door.

What the...? It's like the pictures but literally piled halfway to the ceiling. Laughter breaks out all across the parking lot.

I'm not sure what I was saying as people were gathering around my car to watch my reaction. I had been talking about Harry Potter a lot lately,
and my Harry Potter book was set on to of the pile of refuse. I really didn't know what was going on... Had someone shredded a bunch of harry potter books and put it in my car? Was it just a ton of confetti?

I figured out, I think, after several minutes, that it was all the shredded documents from the SCIF. Probably a trashbag or two full of em.

"I had that done to me." Says Newcomer, my supervisor. "Just drive down the street with you windows down and most of that sh*t will come out."

I drive down the street at 30. Not coming out. Leave the base, drive at around 45...also not coming out. I get on the highway and am pushing 70. A few loose pieces swirl around my head, but for the most part...I'm sitting on a pile of shredded classified documents, and my copilot IS a pile of shredded classified documents.

I start throwing out handfuls, but it's not really doing much, so I get off the freeway, find some back alley, and just scoop piles of the crap out onto the street. It looks like snow. These pictures are what's left after I got home. On the way in I realized I'm still covered in the stuff, so I shake out on the grass. I get inside, and take off the flight suit, and copious amounts of it come tumbling out of the pant legs.

I'll be washing this crap out from between my toes for a few more days at least...and maybe I should just try and sell the car, cause that crap aint never coming out of the carpet.

'arry

Just got back from the midnight show.


Freakin Awesome.

I'm gonna say it, best one yet. They've just each gotten progressively better. I especially noticed the music in this one was very cool. The girl that played Luna was spot on, and we get to see Dumbledore lay the smack down.

Also

This was at Offutt earlier this week. Security everywhere.

Ahahaha

One man's brave struggle against bees.

The 4th

Took place at the base lake, near Offutt, from 1 pm till about 10. Then it took me a good 45 or an hour to get home, shower, and over to Dom's house. I didn't actually meet Dom, but I've heard good things about him. People like to go over to his house - was a nice place. Drank some nasty drinks, jammed a bit, went home.

The Reason I Only Talk About My Cat...

Is because I have no life.

That said. I went out Friday night with people from my class to a bar called Double Down. It's sorta like a sports bar I guess...there's a deck outside and sand volleyball courts...but that's kinda it. Everything else is just sorta thrown in to make it sporty, it seemed to me. Wednesday was Tucker's birthday, so that's why we went. Redbull and vodka is a decent drink - cause I gotta not drink smirnoff ice - I am getting REEEMed for it.

Then yesterday I slept till about noon, woke up...took my laundry to the korean lady, went grocery shopping (it's been a good...month and a half), picked up my laundry...went home...fell asleep till 9 pm. Got up, played some video games, read some harry potter, fell asleep at about 3 am. Then I just woke up at about 2 pm cause the Professor came in, making a weird meow. It's cause his mouth had a big cricket in it he had found somewhere. I encouraged him so he'd keep killing the bastards.

The other day my friend Jason Copp came over and brought his new puppy. They're naming him Rudy, but I thought he should have been named Gyro.

Swindlers, Crooks, and Liars

Check it out.

The Promised

So I'm going to write a bit about my life right now. I just read andrew's blog where he gets to talk about what he learns at work/school. I can't really do that generally, which makes it difficult. But rest assured that this rockin classified stuff I'm learning is generally the kind of stuff you'd look at and say, "That's IT!?" You know, psychic brain probes and remote viewing.

What is the government not telling you? I know, and it's not that exciting. And no, it doesn't make Bush a better President, or make a Cheney or more honest man if you knew what was going on behind closed doors.

So now, where am I? I've started the class I'll probably be in till about Christmas time. I like the people in my class a lot - between séances we find time for sudoku and general merry-making. I had my first graded sim today and passed. I think I can say that and not be saying anything illegal. Yes, it was playing the sims and being graded. I had to add a third story to my family's house and make the husband and wife make woopee in the hot tub. I was nervous, but it was no big deal, as things tend to be when you start actually doing them.

On tuesdays, thursdays, and fridays we play ultimate frisbee for pc (physical conditioning). I'm usually picked pretty early on despite often throwing bad passes and elbowing people in the face (unintentionally of course (not really)). It's getting humid and hot here, and the base is near an Iams or Friskies or something factory where they make dog food. So sometimes you walk outside in 90+ degree weather, 70%+ humidity, and it smells like horse carcass and you just wanna puke all over the ground. You get out of the shower and feel like you wanna get right back in, but it's not that bad. I like how it feels at 5:30 in the morning when I go to work (on the 6am to 12pm shift right now). But the gym we're in for ultimate (we play in an indoor soccer field) has no exhaust and...I don't think has any air conditioning...so it's gotta be like 3000% humidity. You set your car keys down on the bench and you start pouring sweat.

I come home and I read books and read stuff online mostly, occasionally watch a movie, man vs. wild, the daily show, or the colbert report. That's about what encompasses my weekdays. I avoid loading/unloading the dishwasher as long as I can, as well as going grocery shopping. So I usually have clean dishes sitting in the dishwasher, nothing but tuna and boxed rice in the cupboard, and dried cheese/whatever I mixed it with (chips, eggs) stuck on the plates in the sink. Then I end up just drinking the last bit of the big 2 gallon jug of water straight from the container in the fridge before caving and spending my $200 on my sex-weekly (okay that sounds scandalous - what would it be? bi weekly, tri, quad...what's six?) grocery shopping trip.

The Professor's still pretty cool, but I think he's been gaining weight just sitting around all day, so I've started putting his food up while I leave. I'd love to let him out but there are 2 problems:
1) When I put a collar on him he just jacks with it till he can get it off.
2) The door to my apartment is in a hall that has another door to the outside, so when he'd want back in I don't know how I'd know unless I could train him to come to the window he escaped out of.
I'd also like to let him out cause he's starting doing this obnoxious meow, and sitting by the door - obviously trying to tell me he wants to go out. But he does it at like 2 am and wakes me up. I don't know why he keeps it up cause I haven't once actually let him out while he does it. I've started saying "Quiet!" and chasing him around a little.

Let's see...anything else to add? Taking a computer class online thru Metro Community College to fulfill what I need to get my associates degree thru DLI. I'm signed up for a biology class and a college algebra class next semester. I felt pretty proud of myself and I'll tell you why: Sophomore year in high school I took Algebra 2/Trig. After that year I took a math placement test at the comm college in So Cal and I tested into college math/statistics...like the math 140 range. Didn't actually take any classes until 2 years later after I graduated. I had to take the math placement test again and I tested into the math 070 range! Which is basically Algebra 2/Trig again. So in 2002 I took that class again. It has hence been 5 years. I had to take a math placement test again, so I bought an Algebra book and studied on my own before taking it. I got thru the book and tested into statistics...so like the math 140 range. So after 5 years of no math I managed to test into the same level as I did right after I finished the highest math I've taken. So I felt pretty good about that.

I actually like math now. I like figuring stuff out just thru logic - stuff that I don't necessarily know the real formula for. I always liked the humanities esk subjects more...but on the standardized tests in high school I always did better on the math parts.

I think that's quite long enough for now. Maybe more later. I'm sure there's more.

More: I work here.

On An Unrelated Note

I have a man crush on Andy Serkis.


I think that brings it to three:
Eddie Izzard:
Paul Bettany:
Andy Serkis:
Not Gay:

The Vampire Within

Over this weekend, myself and my whole class has to make the transition from 6pm to 12am class to 6am to 12pm. I can never go to bed early, I just end up laying awake in bed until I usually go to sleep (which right now is 4 am). So this is what I did:

Yesterday I woke up about noon. Instead of going to sleep at 4 am, sleeping till noon today, and then trying to go to sleep at like 9 pm today...I stayed up till about 11 am this morning, then went to bed, and I just got up, and it's about 9 pm now. So now I'm going to stay up and go to class and then probably end up falling asleep like afternoon on monday. So this way...yeah I sort of lost a night of sleep...but I'm not tired and I'm just using my tendency to stay up late to adjust my sleep schedule in a way that feels more natural. Before, half my waking free time was in the middle of the night anyway.

So we'll see how it works out.

Some Say We'll See Armageddon Soon...

The Palestinian President has dissolved the government and is now ruling by presidential decree to hope to control the situation between them and Hamas...

And the crickets outside MY window won't shut up!

The First...

<-- I've seen in years went ambling down the path to my apartment. I think that's the right verb for them...amble.

Let's Get Rediculous

Most of this is taken from the pastor of the biggest church by where I grew up and apparently"Dr." Dobson agrees with his crackpot ideas, that not only make up statutes he implies are in his religion, which are not (It's not that part though, that's a big deal, as with the vagueries it's possible to make the texts say pretty much anything you want and be right), but he claims to "beyond a doubt" know what the Judeo Christian god thinks about people and countries today. It's such incredible nonsense that reminds me of Herbal Essences coming out with racey new commercials to keep people interested in the product, but the sad thing is, some people's faith will be bolstered by this - including, I'm sure, many people I grew up with that know John Macarthur personally.

Any HP fans out there

The full artwork of the book. Dragon.

Beyond

An interesting article about the limits of our knowledge and the possible limits of the knowledge of our successors, if there are any.

You Are Aware

Turning

Randy's response (In the comments section).

Hydrate

My Gatorade Ad

Conclusion:

Forget what you thought you knew.

At First

A benefit to the Air Force is the time you get off. You're "on duty" 24/7, but you get out early some, and usually when there's a three day weekend, it turns into a four day weekend. The downside is getting shot at.

This past weekend was a four dayer and Eric Sward, a friend of mine from back in DLI days, invited/recruited me to drive him (and, sort of unavoidably, myself) to Minnesota and ultimately to an undisclosed location in upper Wisconsin for four days of ski, scrumptiousness, and scruples (nothing starts with "sk").


These are two pictures I took. I'll post more when I go back up there and take more pictures. I took my camera up there, then we'd go out on the boat or drive somewhere and I'd think, I should have brought my camera. These two are from backwoods tour given by the Sward grandpappy that the Sward children often fight over for their turn to go on. I doubt that sentence was grammatically correct. Nevertheless, I thought it was interesting. We checked grandpa's minnow traps, saw that big damn beaver dam in the left one, and learned about the history of the old rail lines that used to haul lumber out of there. I was also scoping out the place for where the holy grail was buried, as it was the Knights Templar Club and you know how those people are with their grails.

In the meantime, between when we got there and left, we did some hot tubbing, some tubing behind the boat, others skied and I oft considered skiing, saw pirates 3, played loads of games, and did all sorts of other things I promised not to disclose (in exchange for which I get treasure). It was much fun. The cast was myself and Eric, Stevo and Carla (the parents, we called them the fantastic 4, which doesn't really make sense), Sarah, Kristen, and Jenna (the girls, who we called the Lone Ranger(s)). It was a time of music and odd nicknames, and I didn't want to go home.

Vs.

Man, that guy on Man Vs. Wild is such a freakin MAN! It's like all the crap I did at survival school, just way more badass.

I need to get those DVDs.

The Mediocre Escape

One: The Professor, caught in this photograph in wicked contemplation of his next devilish plot.

Two: Sunday morning, May the 20th.

Three: A streak of some-to-very hot days finds the home of The Professor often with windows ajar as to let the cool night air calm the teeming innards of the apartment. The Professor could often be found next to these unsuspecting windows, apparently making aggressive noises at birds and children - alledgedy contemplating eating one. In reality, his intentions were far more sinister.

Four: The exit. On said morning in said location at one of said windows the owner of the ne'er do weller cat awoke to find exibit B - a screen cunningly dislodged from its place of...rest. Knowing that the cat would most likely seek to return to his gang - The Jets - with whom he used to "prowl," and not knowing how long The Professor had been at large, due to said owner sleeping a lot, said owner took to the streets.

Five: Several frantic minutes pass as said owner wanders said streets in search of said transient Professor. Finally, when all hope seemed lost, said owner steps back into the hallways of his apartment building, wondering if maybe, just maybe, through the months of a cush life in said apartment, the alley had gone out of the cat.

Six: Tentative meows come from the stairs next to door to said apartment. Indeed, it is the Professor. Lost and alone, he has returned to the hallway in front of said owners door which he frequents frequently. Mystery solved.

Breaking News: Professor apprehended again attempting another buggardly escape attempt during the writing of this very blog. Perhaps we've not yet heard the last of this...Mediocre Escape!!

Superman

I think I go through spells of what I'm interested in, but these last for months at a time. I'm thinking, though, that if I could identify the order of my interests, I could somehow harness that power, like a bolt of lighting and frankenstein.

It seems to, at least sometimes, go - that I just play a ton of video games cause I just want to be entertained - then I feel as though I'm wasting my life on the video games, so I stop them, and get really productive. During those times I'll try to write a lot, read a lot of books, research things...etc. At some point I start to see the inadequacy of these pursuits and I get kind of wistful and musical, and like to plan trips and write fiction. Then I think that degrades back into just being entertained and the cycle starts again.

I just came up with this a couple weeks ago and I might just be creating it in my own mind - but if it's true it could explain why I, for instance, want to change my proposed major every few months (it's still philosophy, for the time), or why I'll have spells of weeks when I am very social and entertaining, and spells where I just like to go home and do whatever it is I do. Maybe everyone has these kinds of things, but I just wonder if the ebb and flow doesn't have a logic to it.

Right now I'm productive. That's lasted me a while - maybe I can form that into a habit so it'll just become me. I'm reading a lot of books (Neitzsche, right now), studying math, cleaning my apartment. It's during these times that I'm most optimistic about what mankind, and I, specifically, could accomplish with focus. It's during these times that Benjamin Franklin's attempts to perfect himself seem like something to consider, rather than laugh at. Maybe what takes me out of these times, though, is getting lonely. Not many of these kinds of pursuits are conducive to a crowd, with any honesty at least, though their worth it.

I guess a balance would be what the psychologist would prescribe, Chuck Palahnuik wrote, "trust me, you won't look back and savor the moments you spent alone."

But Neitzsche apparently did, as he wrote, "All great things occur away from glory and the market-place...Flee, my friend, into your solitude."

HBO FOTC

Check it out. They're getting an HBO series...it's a little weird...napoleon dynamiteish I think.

Tool

Went and saw Tool tonight. My ears are still ringing of course.

Their drummer, who's amazing, wore a shawn marion jersey.

The Bell

Another response in the comments of this post.

Backlash

I wrote a response to Randy's statements, but I won't frighten the rest of you with it here, or it's length. I'm posting it in the comments of this entry, if you'd like to read it.

Nothing Quite Like

A new stack of books.










Or the professor next to some licorice tea.

Just a Hilight

From the bbq yesterday

The rest aren't appropriate for display in public.

Slaves to Laws

I think that we, as Americans especially (maybe it's true for all of humanity, I don't know), have to be really careful that, in the wake of something that makes us feel insecure or unsafe - like a tragedy - we don't see our mistakes as more than they are, and push too far the other way.

After 9/11 we said, "never again," and then came the patriot act.

Now, after the VATech shooting, some people are looking at creative writing as indicative of potential violence. But if stuff is happening like what's in the link up there, it needs to stop. Good god, if violent writing meant violent behavior the writers of Saw, Fight Club, and Braveheart should be mass murderers - we need a little perspective.

Bear With Me

Okay this is long and pretty out of place in the "comments" section. But it's still a response to the comments in the post previous this:

I know this discussion feels like beating a dead horse, but there's a true disagreement between us, isn't there? So either I'm just not getting something or you're not getting something, or maybe we're both not getting something. But conversation is the best way to sort this out, where we're both able to give our sides in hopes of establishing our position as true. Because only one of our sides can be true, and learning truth is very important isn't it? So allowme, please, to beat this dead horse a little longer (longer with big red).

Regarding the issue of "falling in love." I agree with you that "falling in love" with another person may be a perfectly understandable, legitimate act. Science is still in the process of understanding the mind, but maybe there really is, say, a pattern of chemicals in our own brain that somehow matches with the other persons or something like that, something that's very real and can catalogue this emotional act we call, "falling in love." When you extend this to the spiritual realm, there's a couple problems though. The first I see is this: when was the last time you heard a chemist say, "You need to respect my beliefs about chemistry. They were revealed to me through something like falling in love." Or a doctor say, "Please respect my beliefs about how I practice medicine. They aren't verified by experiment, but if you'd gone thru what I've gone thru, you'd see what I mean." We don't respect conclusions people come to just by sitting in their own mind, we evaluate reasons.

The second problem I see springboards off this: These "spiritual," if I may lump them into that category, experiences may be useful in describing the human experience - how we observe the world - but they are not useful in explaining the true nature of the world, if not coupled with empirical evidence. Our sensory perception is fallible, and our emotional perception is exponentially more fallible. Take a look at this for a demonstration on the fallibility of just our eyes. People have imaginary friends that they think are to more or less a degree real, depending on their particular mental state - but make no mistake, many people's mental and emotional experience is just as authentic as your "falling in love," yet it's toward Allah or Sathya Sai Baba. Let me here quote Sam Harris again (in speaking about spiritual experiences): "What atheists don’t tend to do is make unjustified (and unjustifiable) claims about the nature of reality on the basis of such experiences. There is no question that some Christians have transformed their lives for the better by reading the Bible and praying to Jesus. What does this prove? It proves that certain disciplines of attention and codes of conduct can have a profound effect upon the human mind. Do the positive experiences of Christians suggest that Jesus is the sole savior of humanity? Not even remotely — because Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and even atheists regularly have similar experiences.

There is, in fact, not a Christian on this Earth who can be certain that Jesus even wore a beard, much less that he was born of a virgin or rose from the dead. These are just not the sort of claims that spiritual experience can authenticate."

So just to reiterate what he's saying: yes those "falling in love" experiences are useful in telling us things about our own mind - but are not useful in telling us things about the world. So however great your reasons for falling in love are, and however big your emotions are - they are slightly more than useless in telling us whether a statement like "God exists" or "Jesus ascended bodily into heaven" are true.

And Julie, I apologize if I was unclear. My question wasn't "why would someone choose to seek out God." I think I understand that to some degree, as I did it myself for about 20 years. My question, instead was HOW is it possible to determine which God or "religion" is true, if you've forsaken reason in your "leap of faith." As long as we're defining leap of faith in the Kierkegaardian way as a deciding to believe something without empircal evidence that it's true. My question, really, is this: In looking at all these religions, as you did, when it comes down to it, you're looking at a set of propositions which, basically, are not convincing in their own right. All of these are religions that REQUIRE you to stop thinking about logic and reason, and just DECIDE that one of them is true, right? That's what I understand when someone says "faith comes first." Obviously they're not convincing from a logical point of view, or you wouldn't NEED faith to come first - it would be just as convincing as 2+2=4 or believing there's really a chair underneath you. So, if there is a road of logic that leads to a chasm. On the other side of the chasm you see Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Jehovahs witnesses, and leading away from all of those is their own road of "logic (the logic of the Bible that God reveals to you AFTER your leap of faith)," how do you decide which one to jump to?, if you "logic" map likewise has a blank spot there?

I think it's also important to point out is the false dilemma I think people push themselves into during these encounters. As you said, "I became knowledgable on J.W., Mormons, evolution, Christianity and New Age." As though, if you found all but New Age to not make sense, you would default to New Age...or none of them make sense except evolution, so you default to evolution. We have to give ourselves the license to say "I don't know." There is so much confusion, I think, in people thinking that poking holes in evolution makes the doctrine of creationism and christianity on iota more likely. It doesn't. If evolution is false (which the evidence points heavily to it not being false, but that's not this argument), it is a perfectly respectable position for an atheist to simply be an atheist - not knowing how the life around us came to be. We need not believe ANYTHING on insufficient evidence. We would, in most cases do well to side with the position that is most likely - has the most evidence on its side - but if I, for some strange reason, had to say I'd die rather than say that the big bang theory may be overturned in the future, I'd plead ignorance rather than arrogance.

And just one more thing, Julie, regarding yours. I don't understand why you would, at the same time both attempt to undermine the foundation of science, in saying that it requires faith, while using science to try and legitimize the Bible. You've admonished me twice now on how much the bible and science have in common. In fact, right now, with the uncertainty principle in quantum theory as well as more "recent" discoveries like "action at a distance," if science bolsters any one faith system it's new age or eastern philosophy, hands down. You can point to some things in the Bible like the the water cycle in Job or the circulation of the atmosphere in Ecclesiasties, but when we come to parts like Leviticus 11:6 "And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you." (hares don't chew the cud) Or Job 9:6, "Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble." (the earth does not stand on pillars, though many ancient cultures said similar things) Or 1 Kings 7:23 - "He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it." (Notice anything wrong? In this verse, pi=3), people will say that many of these verses in the bible are "figurative" or "the bible isn't a science book" or that there was somehow a miracle that made the animals bred in front of the striped sticks turn out all stripey. This makes the argument very convenient - either it's science, or a miracle, and therefore everything, both benign and strange, in the Bible, is easily accounted for. I'd just like to point out that Harry Potter is a true story as well, as long as everything in it is science, a miracle, figurative language, or just "rounding off." You can choose a few a FEW verses in the bible that support science. This website catalogues some. Many of them literally made me laugh out loud in how far they're stretching. "Jeremiah 33:22 “As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.” Yes, the bible says there are a lot of stars. I don't think it's surprising that a culture that hadn't discovered Zero yet couldn't count them all. Is this really a convincing argument that it was inspired by God?

The question comes down to, what is more likely? Is it more likely that this book is the literal truth which the only true God revealed to people 2-6 thousand years ago in which he developed a system where he would forever after reveal himself to people only in a falling in love type experience and those peoples acceptance of that experience, and the acceptance of several empirical truth statements (jesus was born of a virgin, enoch went into heaven in a fiery chariot) that are joined to it, would determine the salvation or damnation of these people for eternity? - or, is it more likely that this book is the mythology of a group or "race" of people, similar to the mythologies of the people around them, joined with turn of the millenium writings on doctrine, similar to philosophy written by others around that time, about a cult with a central figure that performed miracles and made claims, similar to claims and miracles made before that time, during that time, and all throughout history? Is it more likely that Christianity is unique in its non-empirically supported claims, or like every other group that has developed non-empirically supported religious claims? Should we accept any of these claims because of ancient mythology and mountain top experience? I think you know my answer.

'arry Pot'ah agin

The american version of the trailer, a little bit different.

And most of the links I put on here come from here.

Fascism

Take a look at this.

I think it was probably more controversial when it was made 2 years ago, when what it says wasn't so close to what a lot of americans themselves are saying. So do you think it's true? Or what parts of it do you think are false?

Another question I guess would be, if it's accusations against America are correct, is America's position on this matter morally wrong? When it says that the war on terror is the war on anyone that opposes American domination, should American leaders feel remorse about anything except that that's not a very sensitive way of putting it? Is it wrong for a country to go to war against people that oppose their own global domination? Or is that what all countries do, and America just currently has the power to make their war the most far reaching?

Give me your thoughts, if you have any on this subject.

'arry Pot'ah

To any that haven't seen it.

Quietly into the Dark

Andrew Sullivan is a homosexual Roman Catholic that is a regular blogger for TIME, a regular guest on political commentary type shows, and lecturer at universities.

Sam Harris is a graduate with a degree in philosophy from Stanford, and also a contributor to all the mediums above, as well as being the author of The End of Faith, and Letter to a Christian Nation.

This is a very good debate between them.

I am 98% sure nobody reading this will read that, but if you do, I'd love to talk about it with you.

These are 2 pictures of me at applebees last night, in 2 similar poses.

Something More Sober

Since my job right now has me in a building that has no windows and no television, from 7am till 1pm every day, and because I was setting up my drums this afternoon, I didn't even realize anything had happened until I read some other blogs.

This might be a worthy idea to refocus on. You can read the caption on there, but it's about, back in 2004, thousands of filmmakers captured the same moment on the same day, each on their corner of the earth. It "speaks to what it is to be a human alive on this earth today."

Some Pikchores (including the drums)

The professor's SO into the drums. Or maybe just his can of tuna.



Barragan is thoroughly unimpressed, and perhaps ready to vomit.
Hammer (who was my roommate while I was in Texas)...was inspired by the drums to play cards. Okay, it's just from a poker night. And so is the one of Barragan.After just playing them tonight I can tell I eventually want to upgrade the toms to all be mesh heads like the snare is. Cause for all the toms, depending on the "kit" you're using, the head has a sound, and the rim has another, but with those rubber toms it seems really hard to be precise on hitting the rims. Otherwise it's the bomb diggity. Any drummers have any pointers on setting it up? I messed with it for a while and this felt the best to me so far.

Da Bears

I've been watching the Travel Channel all day. I think I'm quite a conservationalist. I get really excited when they talk about how back in '95 they introduced 30 wolves back into Yellowstone, after they had been hunted to the point of extinction, and now their numbers are over 300. Maybe I should go study forestry or something else useful only to become a park ranger (and make no money the rest of my life).

I'm never gonna decide what I want to do when I grow up.

Bah

I have nothing to report. My new class is boooooring and we waste LOADS of time. Otherwise, waiting for my drums to get here, should be here tuesday.



Until then, this is an article about tissue they found in T-Rex bones.

Happy Birthday to Amelia

She had a bunch of pictures of me for my birthday, and I don't have much. This is one of her looking gangstah. She's one of the most interesting people I know, and it's been cool getting to know her as "adults," or...whatever, you know? Anyway, she turns 25 today so if you read this and you somehow don't know her, throw her a shoutout. She's big into laser tag.

Great Balls of...

Me in the old bag.I just wanted you guys to see my versatile posing ability.