It is finished

She is right.

A Religious "Discussion"

A few days ago, I would have been all over this. But more and more I've been coming to realize and have finally realized that this could and would not come to any good fruition. Long has it been since I've had a religious discussion with any of my religious friends that it has not ended up a hostile attempt to belittle the views of one another.
It is pointless.
Richard, as usual in most cases, is right. No one can change your beliefs but you. In the light of this one thought several others are rendered doubtful. What's the point of being open-minded in the case of religion? What does it mean to be open-minded in the case of religion? How can you except some of the views or beliefs of others without excepting all of them? Between those of a believer in God and those of an theist you cannot. I cannot except the idea that there is a Heaven but not a God. I cannot except Jesus Christ as my savior and not believe in his father. I cannot believe that Mary conceived of and gave birth to a son as a virgin and not believe in miracles. The opposites are all true for Christians, I'm certain.
So, to say that one is open minded about religion is to say that one is able to easily throw out all that he or she believes in and except an entirely new belief structure. I believe it is unlikely that such a person exists. If they do, then it would negate the idea of beliefs as a strong hook on which you hang your morals because if a person is easily shaken of them then there is no point in having them. They would be doomed to walk this Earth not having any bases for their moral and ethical decisions. What would they do if they were to come upon man holding a child sick with AIDS in one hand and a gun in the other. What would they say if that man asked them what to do? I'm sure that all of you wouldn't have to think for long before coming to a decision and neither would I. I'm also sure that our answers would not all be the same. And I'm fairly certain that the person with no strong belief structure and with nothing to base such an important question on would tell the man to do what he wants.
Back to the point at hand. So, if we were to gather and have a great palaver about religion, I don't think "discussion" would be a fitting description for long. Since I'm fairly sure that we all understand what each other believes, it would turn into a tag-team ring style wrestling match not dissimilar to Wrestlemania. Nothing would come of it except for all of us to be angry at each other, because the Christians among us would probably even find that they don't entirely agree with each other. In such situations, as I am apt to do, because it has happened before I would side with one of them and help defend their beliefs against the other. In any given situation, bad things would happen. Here is how I see it going down:

The Religious discussion


As you can see, It would cause a great schism and we would be fucked, including, for reasons I'm not yet sure of, poor little LJ.
So, I would like to courteously abstain from but would be willing to be witness to a religious discussion.

An Interesting Realization

I just found out something this evening that I honestly wasn't aware of. I mean, maybe I had some sort of idea or an inkling, but I never really thought about it in my conscious mind. Apparently, everyone-and that's a quote confirmed by two people- is afraid to have a religious discussion with me because I'm so blatantly atheist. That's surprising to me in a few ways. For one thing, I can't believe these people haven't experienced anyone more atheist than me. I certainly have. I mean, I know of atheists that have managed to offend me. I would hate to see them get into an argument with someone other than myself. Let's take Lori for an example. She's got no problem telling someone how stupid she thinks they are. She's my hero.
I try not to be so blatant about it. I think blatant is a better word than belligerent, but whatever. I'm not gonna sit here and say I've never questioned another individual's intelligence based on their system of beliefs, but most of that is far behind me from back when I was a fledgling and insecure secularist. Now, I try to be tolerant and open minded, but apparently I'm not being enough so. Some of you might misinterpret what I mean by open-mindedness. I don't mean that I give equal ground to all schools of thought and am malleable to any creed or philosophy. No one is like that. They may have been at one time, but not in this day and age. I'm just saying I'm willing to give anything with some solid, logical proof a chance. I don't think that's unreasonable. I don't owe anything more than that.
So, believe me folks, there are worse ones out there than me. I'm not even sure what the deal is. Why get so defensive? It makes you look insecure and unsure about your beliefs. Think about homophobics. All they are doing is putting their own sexuality in doubt by themselves and others. I'm not gonna get all hot under the collar if someone questions my beliefs. You shouldn't either. I mean, think about it, why shouldn't I take it as an attack on my beliefs every time one of you talks about God as if he/she/it were real? (Which, if you're a true God fearing type, should be every time, even when taking the name in vain) Because I know that's not what you mean to do. You should feel the same about me. Of course I'm gonna mention at some point in my life that I don't think God is real. That's my creed, or lack thereof. You shouldn't always take it personally. Anyway, it doesn't really matter what I say. It's not gonna change whether or not God is real, is it?

P.S. Those of you who have questioned my open-mindedness, by that I mean willingness to change one's views or accept the views of others, I believe I am one of a few around who has actually undergone a major change in belief structure and more than once. I am open-minded. It is unreasonable and slightly offensive to me to say that I am not. Whether you care about offending me or not is your prerogative, and of course it is my prerogative to be offended. 'Truth is the way'. I'm sure some of you have heard that quote or a variation of it. It's usually in reference to Jesus Christ being the savior of mankind. Well, I believe in that phrase as well. Not from a religious standpoint but from a life standpoint. I believe it is important to know the truth and to live the truth. At the moment, this just happens to be my truth.

P.P.S. Remember, I love you all, even you. I only argue with you because I love you and wished you understood or would try to understand my views. If I didn't give a crap about you then I wouldn't try. If I'm blatant or belligerent, it's because I care. I hope you believe that.

P.P.P.S. Disclaimer: Sometimes there are other less important or silly things I'm belligerent about. That's because sometimes I'm an ass or I'm being silly or sarcastic.

Cynicism of the Day, Vol. 1: Reminiscence

I used to have friends and a life. Man, those were the days.
This is going to be the worst summer ever. Hooray.

I just realized that this is what the next forty or so years will be like. I might as well kill myself now and not waste all that time and all that oxygen that someone else could be using.

My....Brain

I'm unhealthy, mentally, I've decided.

Or maybe just lonely.

Probably both.


P.S. cheese

Meh

Sorry to any loyal readers who have been disappointed by my lack of postage lately. For one thing I haven't had much time to post, me having a full time job and all. And second, I haven't had that much to post about, me having a full time job and all. Cutting a nine hour chunk out of every day has really made time accelerate lately. I'm hoping I get used to this soon. I don't know how much longer I can take it. I'm going to need replacement feet soon, I think. It's killing my social life, too. I don't have much trouble seeing Shawn since he's pretty much available 24/7 but he's going back to Texas soon, so that sucks. Seeing anyone else is a rarity. If I try I can catch the back of Richards head as he's heading out or in the door, but that's about it. It's about the same with Meagan, since her and Richard have had that hip attachment surgery. But of course, that's to be expected. You can't blame young people in love to for wanting to spend time together.
Wow, this has gone on longer than I expected. I meant to just post that I had nothing to post. Heh, crazy.
Well, I suppose that's it. You people keep on keepin' on.


P.S. pepper

Freakin' Star Wars, baby!!!

*faints*

Round And Round We Go

Alright, this little game seems to be going nicely so I'm gonna go ahead and kick it on around again. Since Rodney followed my word instead of Meagan's, I'm going to cross reference them to yield a randomly associated word. And I'm going to steal Rodney's formatting.

voice + Meatloaf -> rock

Now that's some clever shit...er..I mean random. That's some random shit.

I should definitely be in bed by now. I have to go to work at 8 AM.

As in, The pots and pans fell to the ground with a tumultuous clatter.

I can't think of anything worth posting, so we're going to play some blog word association.
I'll go first. My word is tulmultuous. Now you other bloggers out there, in your next post as a post script or something, include a word that you randomly associate with this one . You should make it a hyperlink back to the post with the word you were associating it with so that no one gets too mixed up. We'll play this round and round for a bit until we get tired of it. Sounds like fun to me. So, get on with it.

P.S. If you must be clever instead of random, then you damn well better be clever.

Ill

I'm sick. It's Richard's fault.

Plans: Week-end and Summer

First off, week number one at Wal-mart finished. My feet hurt, I'm exhausted, and I want to have some fun. I really like it there though. It's a good job, being a cashier. You all should try it sometime. alright, now let's see. I think that's the forth or fifth job related post. I'm done with for a while. I'll update again when I either get fire, quit, or die.

This weekend it's definately time for some recreational activities.

This summer. Here's a list:

• Work my ass off
• Use said booty to purchase a laptop
• Hang out with Lori
• Fly in a single engine airplane
• ride a roller coaster (for good measure)
• buy a forest worth of books
• buy a bookshelf to house said books
• Kill and eat my roommate
• sleep more than 12 hours a week
• sleep during the night time
• wrestle an alogator
• Finish writing The Book
• read
• work my ass off

Yup that's about it. Some of those might be subject to change.

P.S.
note to those who commented on my last entry:

Richard, You're welcome man.
Rodney, it's just random crap that fell outa my head.
Meagan, I have no idea what you're talking about. That's my story, I'm sticking to it.

Suppressing the Gag Reflex

Do any of you people have one of those things that just makes you sick whenever you see it? You know, just makes you wanna blow chunks. It doesn't necessarily have to be something gross either. In fact the only problem with it could be the fact that it's utterly nauseating. A perfectly fine, natural thing. You might not even know what exactly about it bothers you so much. (or you might and don't want to admit it to yourself) Don't you hate that? Gosh, I sure do.

Anywho, I wish a happy happy birthday to Richard, my favorite roommate. Hey Richard, for your birthday I give you.... Me! TA DA! I'll be your sex slave for today only. You may do with me anything you ever want to do sexually to a man. So that pretty much means it will be like any other day we've spent together.

First Real Day of Work

My feet hurt, but that's ok. Income is worth it. I actually did some cashier work today. It was very exciting. I also got my blue smock. It's cool, too.

I payed a 1.90 for gas today. That's the best price I've gotten in months.

Funny tidbit. The Wal-mart gas station was really busy so I had to wait for a few minutes to get a pump. When one openned Some jerk in a little car scooted in and cut me off. When The woman got out to pump her gas I saw that it was the lady I had just finished checking out before the end of my shift who had told me to have a wonderful evening!

Btw, happy birthday, Mom! even though you don't read this...

Job!

I'm now an associate the Moore(a.k.a. Armpit Universal in Spanish) Wal-mart Supercenter! I have a cool name badge and everything! Now, for the next three months or so I'm gonna work five days a week! Man, that really cuts down on the social time. What a drag. Oh well, I like new computers and paid rent and food. Tomorrow I get to learn how to do my job. It's gonna be great. Wish me luck. Peace out.

Pariah

It rocks my world. It's a new first-person shooter out by the guys who made Unreal. It's got the best map editor I've seen on a platform game. Everyone must play it. That's not a suggestion, it's mandatory.

Tomorrow I go in to Wal-mart for orientation. That pretty much makes it official that I am now a working man! w00t!!

Poo

I felt it necessary to take this time to make a blog entry that included the word poo in case I never got the chance to in another post. There you go. It needed to be said. We will now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

The May-o de Cinco Special-o

Yey for Cinco de mayo. To celebrate this fun Mexican holiday we went to eat fun Mexican food at my favorite fun Mexican restaurante, Los Dos Amigos. Such awesome food they have. Yummy. Shawn was upset that they weren't offering a Mayo de cinco specialo. Oh well. He seemed to enjoy himself none the less.

In other news, thy friendly people of Bishop's Landing, that's the near-five-star quality apartment complex Richard and I call home,gave us today a cinco de mayo surprise by turning off the hot water. It will be turned-off until six PM tomorrow, says the note they left on the door. Something about a gas leak. Yippee. That means no showers or clean clothes until tomorrow. Since I haven't showered since yesterday, that means TWO whole days of living au naturelle.

I'm sure I'll live. I'm not so sure about Richard though.

Lori's comments about the day, although tragic, were also very comical.

Friends are crazy

Well, I don't really know about everybody elses friends, but mine sure are. Tonight, they were especially crazy. So crazy I had to run away. Sorry friends, you were scaring the hell out of me and I had to escape and think. I think it's all good now though. It seems to be quiet around here and I didn't find any foreign objects or parts of Shawn protruding from any walls. Although, I don't think it would hurt him too much. I've seen him do some crazy shit and come out alright. I think he's made of liquid metal like the Terminator 2000. All his dismembered parts just sort of re-congeal and join the whole. Cool but creepy, I don't want any of your liquid metal cooties, Shawn.
I think I'm going to sleep now. I hope I wake up tomorrow. That would be swell. Some cool dreams would be nice, too.

Interview Number Three

Yahoo! Today I was made a contingent job offer. That means if they like my pee and my crime conviction history, I will be an employee at Wal-mart in Moore-The Armpit of The Universe, OK, starting at an hourly wage of 6 dollars and 40 cents. Yipee.
This is all kind of ironic because I never actually applied at this Wal-mart. I applied at the Wal-marts in Norman and at every other place in Norman but never ventured outside its borders seeking employment. They just accidentally pulled up my application from their database and gave me a call. They didn't even realize that I'd never been in that Wal-mart before Saturday until I off-handedly mention that I was lucky they asked me in for an interview. The lady was completely surprised. Oh well. I like income and it likes me. Oh happy day.

I'm an idiot

My interview today was at 11 AM, not PM. It's been rescheduled for tomorrow. More about it then.

Moe's southwest grill is really good.

There's a giant pink bunny at the top of the dark tower.

I call truce

I'm sorry. The second part of my last post was mean and harsh. There's a quote from a movie or some such, maybe a book. I can't remember though I wish I could. It goes something like this, "Don't truth me and I won't truth you." It's about how when these two characters have an argument or something and the other brings up some shaky stuff. Oh shit, I remember. It's from The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Awesome book. All of you must read it and all his other books. They have great moral and philosophical quandaries that are presented in a sarcastic and/or sardonic way. I love it. Anyway, back to the serious subject at hand. When you use the truth to try and hurt someone or effect someone in some way, they can usually do the same. So, about the things I said about my good friend Meagan in the last post, I'm sorry for truthing you, or trying to. It is low, and not cool. Meagan is an awesome person and she is my favorite. I'm sorry.

P.S. I hate sunburns and Baseball is kind of neat, I guess. Go Rangers.