Procrastinate now.

I think I may have a semi-finalised schedule, now that my late PSEO paperwork is done:

First hour: Physics
Second hour: AP Statistics (Pelkey)
Third hour: AP Spanish (Qualley)
(A lunch)
1:00-1:50PM Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays: World History Pre-1500 (PSEO)
Sixth hour: AP English Language (Devine)

Speaking of which, today was my first day of CLC studentship. It wasn't that different from a normal high school course: introductions, "why are we doing this?" &c; but I have a feeling it will get to be more APish as time progresses. They already have us writing a paragraph on one person--from before 1500--with whom we would like to dine--and what we would ask them. So, I need to find an interesting, sociable historical figure who wasn't known for poisoning. Any suggestion?

In other news, I saw my dad a couple of days ago. Suffice to say we haven't seen him for over a year--maybe two, we were with Mark at the time--by our own choice. So, it was a happy, albeit awkward event. He was looking as hippie-ish as ever, sporting a pair of braids--he said that everyone tells him he looks like Willie Nelson--a long, three pointed beard, and a headband. He said that he now can't work--due to his rheumatoid arthritis--and he's making too little to live in the US--but maybe in Mexico... Of course, I don't think that he could live off of the US government's disability pay in a foreign country.

Sukorambure Powa!

Well, I got my blog transferred to another site. This one's called "Gaia Online." It's really neat: it's sort of an online community where you can get a house and car and play mini-games like "fishing" while talking with your neighbours. You also get to make your own little chibi avatar for it. I really like how mine turned out. You but clothes for it with a sort of currency called "gold"--which I suppose makes it not currency, but actual money--which you earn for nearly everything. I think I'll improve my house next. Now I just need to set up and transfer my past entries to that Live Journal page I got.
Ivan's been having bladder control issues as of late. He's been pissing on the floor after only an hour inside--sometimes even less. I hope he doesn't have a bladder infection.
In other news, I'm almost done downloading トランスフォーマー Zンーン(Transformers: Zone) (I'm not sure how "Znnn" spells "Zone," or why they used a Latin "Z.". That was the last G1 (original storyline) cartoon, cancelled after the first episode. In it, from what I'm told, they take nine of the coolest Destrons (Decepticons) from the previous series and kill all but one of them in a matter of minutes. But, Dai Atlas looks cool. The sad thing is that I can't find a subtitled version: It's either a shitty fan dub or the original Japanese. This is the Japanese one (hopefully it will make sense without understanding the dialogue).

And so on...

We had a monster of a hailstorm today. What was shocking was not so much its intensity, but its speed. The clouds overtook us in about twenty minutes, the rain came in a visible sheet, and progressed from rain to pea-sized hail to half-dollar-sized hail in a couple of minutes. After a few more minutes, it was gone. Now it looks like a green Autumn outside, with a coating of hail mixed in. I'd noticed that the clouds were moving very quickly, but I never expected such a storm.
In other news, in that Pepsi "Transform your Summer" promotion, I won two sets of DVDs. There are only two problems: first, they're the same set; and second, I didn't enter for them. I entered for the Pepsi Optimus Prime, which had fewer people vying for it. Their good DVDs--School of Rock, Orange County, The Italian Job, Sahara, and Tomb Raider--but I really wanted that Pepsi Convoy. So, I'm selling the other set. It's unopened, and I'll even throw in the congratulation notice so that you can act like you won it. Big Bad Toy Store is offering Pepsi Prime for about $60 (including shipping), so it would be nice if I got at least that for these (and $10.20 for an good, unopened DVD isn't that bad, is it?).

Everything is finite in the end.

We have power! Somehow I've neglected to blog it, but we've had it for just over a week. Although it did go out for a few hours last night, but that seemed to affect the whole neighbourhood. Oh, the things I'd missed...
In other news, we gave Coco away. That means that we're down to the three dogs we're going to keep: Ivan, Bear, and Pepper Anne. And they have been moved from the kennel--which has been disassembled--to the house (for reasons which I will discuss later). We're keeping them in the kitchen so that they don't eat anything in the rest of the house (or do anything else, as they aren't fully house broken) and at night we take them into our rooms. This is kind of annoying because, even though he goes right to sleep (he loves the soft bed), Ivan gets up much sooner than I do, and seems to think that the best way to get me up is to scratch my face. Oh, well, at least he's not a cat.
So, on to why their inside. You see, one day they broke loose from their kennel and went into the neighbour's yard, supposedly wrecking her flower bed. I haven't seen the damage, so perhaps they went to some hidden, out of the way part, bypassing the obvious front. But, at any rate, she was pissed and our dogs were moved inside.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007: Overhaul

Well, I'm sick of my sites' themes. Time to revamp it all. It's too dark and obsessed with Atheism. And my profile just plain sounds immature. So, I'll be redoing it all, one site at a time. And the reason I haven't been blogging is that I haven't been getting more than, say, and hour of computer time a week (we moved out of mum's boyfriend's house, but the power's still out. His kids are scum).

And in case you enjoyed my old stuff, here it is:

Profile: "Excluding what is written elsewhere, I am rather critical and analytical. My dislikes are Christianity (though not Christians in general), intolerance, war, pop music, cover tracks, Jack T. Chick, Disney, deathbed conversion stories, fundamentalism, evangelists, bad remakes/movies from novels, unoriginality, anti-first amendment folks, anti-second amendment folks, pretty much anti-rights folks, Texas, idiots, profiles that mention "God/Jesus" under interests, american bastards, religious groups who masquerade as secular ones, people who don't know what "atheist" means but think they do, when people try to bless me after I sneeze, sexism, when people think that Catholics aren't Christian for some reason, hypocrisy, and more to come..."

Tagline: "Warning: this site contains some content deemed inappropriate for Christians"

Get down with the sickness.

Now, I've always despised chain messages and those who create them, but this one's just sick:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Repost as-"WHO DID YOU LIKE FIRST!
who did u like first?

don't stop reading you will regret it!
girl meets a boy on a messenger


crazy1 86: hey baby!!!


h0tNsPiCy91: who is this???


crazy1 86: ur secret admirer!!!!!


h0tNsPiCy91: oh really.... quit lyin! who is this???


crazy1 86: i loved u the first time a stared in your eyes...


crazy1 86: i think about u everyday... you are my dream come true.

"
crazy1 86: we met once! i dont think u remember tho.


crazy1 86: i cut myself because the pain takes away my feelings of u.


crazy1 86: u will see me sometime tonight....


h0tNsPiCy91: ..WHO IS THIS!?!?!?


crazy1 86:dont worry.... ill take very good care of you...


crazy1 86 had signed off.

The girl was so scared she locked all her doors and windows. She made sure her room was secured. She wasn't sure if it was a joke or for real. She didn't know when he was going to come. The girl was so frightened she decided to sleep with her little sister. The girl dozed off quickly.

Then she heard a knock on the window. The girl slowly walked to the window. It started knocking louder. The girl looked through the windows and saw nothing... just some of the tree branches. The girl went back to bed with her sister. The bed was wet and had a pretty horrid smell. Maybe her sister wet the bed... the girl checked and found blood everywhere. The girl panicked. She didn't know what to do. She ran and hid in the closet in case the killer was there for her. While looking through the cracks of the closet the girl saw a shadow. It was dark, so she couldn't figure out who it was. She started to get more frightened. The shadow crept closer to the closet. The girl closed her eyes as if it was a dream. Then suddenly he opened the closet door and pulled her out.

Her parents found her dead the next morning. She was completely skinned and hanging in her sister's closet. The younger sister was also found skinned and dead.

PART 2...

Two years after the Smith sisters deaths, the parents had a baby boy. The girl's room became a guest room and the little sister's room where the murder took place became the baby's room. The baby grew up to be a successful kid.

One night he was on the computer and received an instant message.


h0tNsPiCy91: Hey lil bro!!!


2seXay4u: Who the eff is this?


h0tNsPiCy91: It's your big sis.


2seXay4u: I never had a sister. I'm an only child.


2seXay4u: This is some kinda joke, huh?


h0tNsPiCy91: Mom and dad never told you?


h0tNsPiCy91: I died 15 years ago with your other older sister.


h0tNsPiCy91: We were murdered in your room which was once my little sister's room. She was killed in bed when I was sleeping. I was killed in the closet and skinned to death.


2seXay4u: Quit lying. I never had a sister. If I did my parents would have told me. Whatever. Your stupid.


h0tNsPiCy91: You don't believe me? Well if you wanna look in your closet floor.


h0tNsPiCy91: I carved my name and the time and date I was being murdered. Then I carved my little sister's name.


h0tNsPiCy91: If you don't believe me little brother check the internet. Google on '' Smith sisters murdered anonymously ''.


h0tNsPiCy91: I gtg little brother. I love you and mom and dad soo much. I can't believe they kept us a secret from you.




The boy checked the closet. He saw the carvings. Was it true? He surfed the internet and information was there about the anonymous murder in the house. The next morning the boy went downstairs. It was so quiet. Maybe his parents were sleeping. Hours later the boy found his parents in their closet skinned and hanged. Then he found more carvings on the ground. They said ''I TOLD YOU I WASN'T LYING LITTLE BROTHER, I LOVED MOM AND DAD.... BUT THEY KEPT ME A SECRET. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. WELL I'M FREE FROM THIS COLD WORLD, I WON'T HURT YOU LIKE I HURT THEM. I LOVE YOU!"

- LISA SMITH

This is a death chain letter. If you don't repost this in the next hour, the parents will kill you at night. They will kill you!

DON'T BELIEVE ME? LOOK IT UP IN GOOGLE!

Repost as-"who did you like first?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mum joked that she'd have to add that to her "to do" list. I just hope that this doesn't cause a new fad in chain mail. I've been though a few: first "they will donate a few cents to my sick child for every time this is passed on. IF YOU DON'T PASS THIS ON YOU HAVE NO HEART!!!!", then troop prayer wheels (three things I disagree with in one!), then "(IM company) is ending its free service. If you pass this on, your account won't be deleted," and now just quizzes that promise a few years of bad whatever they're about. But I can't imagine daily death threats.

Why not?

After a bumpy start, our new homestay is now just fine. You see, for the first few days we were tormented by mum's boyfriend's son, who would have the TV or conversations at full--or possibly higher--volume blaring until at least midnight, allowing us in the next room only a few hours of sleep. That, compounded with some other things, made our stay a living Hell. But now, after we had a discussion, it is quite alright.
I now take my dog, Ivan, for daily walk lasting multiple hours. We have given away five of our original nine liveborn pups, leaving one, Coco, to give away--I often walk her as well. We will keep three: my Ivan, my brother's Pepper, and mum's Bear. All of these pups are living in a kennel in this house, along with their dog, Max.
In sad news, Blog City is ending its free service. At the end of the year, my account will be locked. That was one of my favourite blogs! Oh, well.

Thursday, May 31, 2007: Perfect.

Well, mum hasn't payed the electric bill. for the moment, we're staying at her boyfriend's house. She spends when she is depressed--and she's never been good at finances. So the pups are at home, and we're going to put them in a kennel here, once we get it cleaned out.

But, on the bright side, school is out. I've gotten a Spanish four book to study. Come autumn, I'll be ready for AP.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

School is winding down. I've had no homework as of late, the water is warming, and my classes are having me study for finals to which I already know all of the answers. And, furthermore, they are advertising graduation services. One pervasive one is a baccalaureate. A Christian prayer service for graduation. The annoying part is that along with simple posters, it has been in the morning update, and was a major announcement today over the intercom. And not in the secular language you would expect from a government institute--well, not expect, but rather what should be. At any rate, it was a large announcement about how this "reasserts the importance of the Lord." Now, I think that this shouldn't even be held at the school--let the student's churches take care of their religion, you know? But this is ridiculous.
But off of that dismal subject. An interesting anecdote from lunch: one of the people from my table was interviewing people for the German class paper. He asked the non-German-speaking members of our table questions in German, to which we responded in English. The funniest answers got in the paper. I had some interesting ones: Question:[I have lost my spirit. Where is it?] Answer: "I myself prefer chicken." Question:[What would you do if there were no air?] Answer: "Last Tuesday." I ended up understanding one completely, and another almost. For the most part, though, I couldn't understand them, no matter how many times I had him repeat it.

May 12, 2007: There is no vice so simple but assumes some mark of virtue on his outward parts.

Well, AP is over--for this year, at least. And, as of 11:40 this morning, I can discuss the Lit essays. But not the multiple choice. Never the multiple choice. And not the Euro essays until tomorrow, 4:05.
At any rate, they were okay. One regarded a very funny poem about a history teacher who changed events to protect his students' innocence:

The History Teacher

Trying to protect his students' innocence
he told them the Ice Age was really just
the Chilly Age, a period of a million years
when everyone had to wear sweaters.

And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,
named after the long driveways of the time.

The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more
than an outbreak of questions such as
"How far is it from here to Madrid?"
"What do you call the matador's hat?"

The War of the Roses took place in a garden,
and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom
on Japan.

The children would leave his classroom
for the playground to torment the weak
and the smart,
mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,

while he gathered up his notes and walked home
past flower beds and white picket fences,
wondering if they would believe that soldiers
in the Boer War told long, rambling stories
designed to make the enemy nod off.

Nice, eh? I couldn't agree more.
At any rate, one of my latest obsessions is a game on Seibertron.com called "Heavy Metal War." It's sort of a mission based quasi-MMORPG, in which you create a team of Transformers and have them battle others, in area battles or specific missions. Nearly no graphics, but very fun.
Now I must go on to my other blogs, which have been neglected even worse than this one.

Saturday, April 28, 2007: Well, well, well.

Opening night went pretty well. We had more people than seats, and they did laugh. Of course, they missed half of the best jokes, but that's their problem, not ours. Afterwards, we got flowers from the tech crew--I'm not sure why.
In other news, I caught a mouse! Not just any mouse, though: this mouse has been living in my room for a couple of weeks, and I have been trying to catch it for nearly as long. Although I didn't catch it per se: it more so caught itself. Alow me to explain: While I was in bed, I heard some rustling in the corner of my room, which worried me, as it was between my Transformers and my National Geographics, both of which I wanted not to be damaged. So, I got a chip canister which I had ready for the moment, and went over to the rustling, only to find out that the mouse had fallen into Lucia's old habitat and couldn't get out! I was overjoyed. Now I have to figure out what to do with it. I think that I'll end up keeping it, but I'm not sure. However, I definitely won't let it go: that would defeat the purpose of me catching it.
And now for another one of my sporadic English lessons: Lesson Nine: Pronunciation of the Letter "a" before the letter "g." This, like "borrow," I believe is a local problem, but one which must be addressed. You see, here people will, quite regularly and intentionally, make the letter "a" long before "g." Therefore you get "baig," "faig," "draigon," et cetera, to the point at which you either burst out laughing or roll your eyes as soon as they start talking. Honestly, Brainerd, there is nothing special about "a" being preceded by "g," and acting like there is sound about as bad as pronouncing "r" as "w."

Entry for March 18, 2007

Sadly, Lucy suffered a uteral infection. When the vet cut gave her an emergency hysterectomy, half of her uterus was dead. And afterwords, the rest of her went with it. Not only does that mean the loss of a great dog, but now we must take care of her week-old puppies. They must be bottle fed and made to excrete using warm water in a cotton ball. But, we won't let them die, too.

Entry for March 11, 2007

Well, I've found the camera, and am now finally doing a photo post.
Our dog, Lucy, had her pups! Twelve of them, though three were stillborn.
Ain't they cute?
I also got my World's Smallest Transformers. I was a bit disapointed, though: I thought that they came in randomly packaged boxes of six each, and got four. Apperantly, though, they came in randomly packaged boxes of one each, and I got two Thrusts.

Saturday, February 24, 2007: I return.

I really need to start this thing back up. I think it's a problem of focus: I'm certainly on the Internet enough, I just don't feel like blogging while I'm on it. But my longing is enough when I'm not on to warrant actually doing it.
Well, for starters, our dog is pregnant. At first, we thought that she was just not eating her treats because she's weird. Then, over night--literally--she plumped up, and we figured out that that was morning sickness. We figure that it was this husky that has been hanging around here. We don't know when the pups will come, but I'd like to see the black lab/huskies.
In other news, on a suggestion I have joined the spring play. It's a comedy called "You Can't Take it with You," and sounded pretty good during the script reading--even for my three lines. Well, first time in theatre, what did you expect?
I've also decided to restart my Transformer collection. I had, to this point, thirty-five from my childhood--in various conditions and states of completion. I am now getting the Beast Wars tenth anniversary figures--fitting, since Beast Wars was where my collection started. I have Dinobot and Rattrap so far--a fitting pair--and they're pretty good. They each come with a DVD and a piece of Transmutate--I can't believe that they made a show accurate version of her before G1 Arcee--which were larger than I expected the whole figure to be. Sadly, they had no movement, and connected to her with non-ball joints--to sum up, it's a simple, barely possible display piece. I was really hoping they would combine to form a fully-articulated toy. Later, I'll get the world's smallest line. That should arrive on the twenty-seventh. I believe they're roughly the size of capsule toys.
I need to divide my time more evenly. I'm meaning to read a couple of books and start a comic, but I end up just playing games--when I'm not doing my homework, that is.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

This is awesome: my Spanish teacher just offered to let me skip two years! This way, I get to go strait to AP Spanish from Spanish II. Of course, I'll have to learn all of the information, but my ability to learn quickly and self-teach were two major reasons for her offering. So exciting! I mean, I'm already bored stiff in that class--after all, we are still on chapter two, and really haven't done much to speak of (all review and vocabulay). It's a nice language, and the teacher is neat, if a bit eccentric, but during the endless review all I think is "man, I'd like to actually learn something!" That or "¿Jey? Es hay, ¿no? ¿Somos en el primer semestre de español uno? But, all of that may change!
In other news, I have been having bad luck with library books as of late. First, I wanted to get The Anarchist Cookbook, after reading Mr. W----'s copy's instructions for making plastic explosive from bleach. After all, who wouldn't want to know such things? Then I found out that not only is it reference, but also damaged! Damned anarchists. Then, I ordered a copy from Pine River, which said it was "availiable." And by "available," of course, they meant "reference." Then, upon W----'s suggestion, I ordered Œdipus Rex. Now, with a name like that it must be in Latin, Right? So now I'm sitting here with a Greek and English Ωιδιπους Τυραννος (Oidipous Tyrannos). Sure, it's still good reading, but I don't get to strengthen my Latin--which I'm going to need, seeing as I just opened up an account for my Latin blog.

Well, it's another birthday. This year it's seventeen. And I must say I had a wonderful time. Where to begin...
I got to start off the day alone, meaning I didn't have to wait for anyone to wake up before I left. This was about the best thing that happened to me all day. For shortly afterwards, I got a call from my mother stating that not only did I have to bring her shoes to her, but that my birthday party was to be held there. Where is "there?" Why, it's the house of my mother's boyfriend, a man whom I have known for roughly one week. Now, I consider my birthday to be a very special and familial event. Not enough to where he couldn't be invited, but certainly it shouldn't be held in a stranger's house. I said so, though not quite so eloquently, and she was adamant that I go and hold my party there. I'll get into that in more detail later.
Then after getting locked out of Spanish before school and listening to an anti-flippant speech--I, personally, have always been a great admirer of the form--I got to write a DBQ. Now, for those of you who don't remember, that is where you are handed a series of documents on a particular topic and must write and essay about them. Only this year there's a twist: you must draw all of your conclusions from the documents--for they choose something obscure, this time the extent to which women were encouraged to be educated between the 16th and 18 centuries. Last year's question in AP US History (I'm in AP European History this year) was on the changing role of women from the Colonial period to the Civil War, including the Mothers of the Republic and the Cult of Domesticity; which led to an interesting pair of quotes, though the second, in my opinion, didn't get enough credit: first, the good ol' Puritan-basher and nudism causer from the quote compendium, whom I sould give and alias, even though I already used her real name on my comment on the Xanga version of that post: "I don't like women anymore!" Followed by the course's instructor: "I thought that that was a genetic predisposition, and you didn't get a choice in it." Regardless of this, it was a miserable essay as I failed to prepare, and only ended up writing half of it by the time class finished.
Then in English 'twas a similar tale, though I ended up handing in nothing. And on to lunch, where they had Polish sausage on main line. So, of course, I had to take it. And with the main line trays being so small, I walked away from lunch hungry.
On the plus side, after getting my name on the local radio, though I didn't win--and I did last year, and so it makes sense--I had two people who heard the announcement wish me a happy birthday. Would that their wishes had been fulfilled...
So, after an all-right next few hours, I went to my mum's work in order to tell her that I wouldn't be at her boyfriend's place for my birthday, as it would be completely inapropriate. And she was going far to quickly with this one, which she promised she wouldn't. She insisted, as my sister was coming, and I begrudgingly accepted and left. Maybe on the way home I should have unbuckled and crashed: I mum's grieving is anthing like her love, she'd be over it in a fortnight. Anyway, at home I got a call saying that she would call it off if that's what I wanted. Yes, of course. If I don't want to hold my birthday celebration in the house of someone whom it would be a streach to call an acquaintance, someone who's name it takes me ten minutes to remember, someone whom I could not pick out of a croud, then I must want no party at all. So finally after some time she called back saying that her boyfriend was willing to take the party to me if that's what I want, but no-one else could make it to my house because this was all planned out already, and couldn't be changed. Great, so she organised a party in a strange house with people I don't know for my last birthday before eighteen, and didn't consider me in the equation untill it was too late to change it. She sounded somewhat teary, but like they say, sometimes you have to let them cry it out...
So I said, "okay, I'll have a meal--a nice, polite meal--there, and then we can have the cake and present-opening here." For my sister's sake, I let some cake be eaten there. So what happens? What should be and hour, hour-and-a-half ends up being three hours, during which, in more of mum's wonderful logic, they placed a candle atop the cake and sang "happy birthday." Then we went home and mum's boyfriend talked to me endlessly about unrelated things--I'm not trying to be your father, that kind of thing.
So, though it didn't turn out that way: Felicem diem natalem.

Sick... can't think. Oh, Xanga has tags... that's interesting. Volo dormire... This is what a normal person's blog entry looks like , isn't it? Too bad I had to miss Cervantes... Who was playing him? My tonsils hurt. I hope I don't have to get them out... I like having them. I might be psychosomatically worsening my illness' affect on my mind. What's Norwegian like? I heard it was like drunken German. Xanga adds a lot of spaces. My linguophilia is getting out of hand--I'm downloading a Chinese Bible. Know any free programs to read other things? The bible one is pretty good, but I don't want to read the same thing all the time.

Challenge: what language did I translate this into and out of using an internet translator:

The sick one… cannot think. The OH, Xanga has modifications… that it is interesting. To sleep of Flight… That is the entrance of the blog of ché normal person is similar, is not? Equally Badly I have had sig.na Cervantes… Who was playing it? My tonsils have damaged. I hope that it does not have to obtain it outside… I appreciate to have it. I could psychosomatic get worse my diseases I interest on my mind. Which thing is Norwegian as? They are felt to me that it was like German drunken. Xanga adds to the spaces a lot. Mine linguophilia it is to exit of the hand--I am transferring a Bible from the system centers them towards the satellites Chinese. To know all the free programs in order to read other things? The Bible one is good graceful, but I do not wish to read to the same thing all the time.

Got it in the mail. Any critique would seem to be over-doing it at this point...

A week or two ago: tempus vomit

Steve…Irwin…dead? How the fuck did this happen. I mean, I know how it happened, but how could it happen? The man who taught us to poke deadly creatures with sticks… The man who taught us that it’s okay to wave infants in front of crocodiles… The invincible Steve Irwin. It’s a sign of the Apocalypse, I tell you.
Now all we’re left with Jeff Corwen. True, he’s the coolest wannabe ever…but he’s just that—a wannabe. But, maybe his career will skyrocket, now that he’s at the top…or maybe people who have never heard of him
Well, in lighter news, I heard “Stairway to Heaven” backwards. You see, that’s one of the few songs that actually have something to say. I was told it was a verse-long Satanic anthem, but when I reversed it all that I heard was an emphatic “Satan” twice and a shaky “666.” How boring. But, there is still hope: I recorded it off of the radio using a cheap microphone and the default sound recorder. I’m hoping to hear Queen’s “Another one bites the dust,” which is supposed to say “it’s fun to smoke marijuana.” And then there’s supposedly a Weird Al song that says “Satan eats cheese whiz.” No “Paul is dead,” but oh well.
Now that we’ve lost the sombreness, it’s time for that English lesson I promised: the use of profanity. Now, swear words are a very important thing in a language: they give teens a reason to learn foreign words, spark censorship debates, and everyone recognises them. I mean, what’s the most unchanging word in the Romance languages? Merda. Even in Romania, where a mater is a mama and a caballus a cal, merda is still merda. And even a French mère atop her cheval will concede that it’s merde. Why do I bring this up? Because our profanities are collapsing. Now, sure, certain words can be used as interjections, and colloquial expressions like “this shit is great” are perfectly fine—after all, swearing is largely colloquial. However, even profanities have their own, separate meanings and associated phrases. I have heard—I shit you not—“what the balls?” Are we really that pathetic? Admittedly, this is an extreme example—but we are rushing to the edge of a precipice. If this trend isn’t fixed, in a couple of generations we will hear, in common speech, “kiss my fuck.” If that were to happen, I think I would be too embarrassed to admit that I could speak English.

Blogs: Which is the best?

The reason that I haven’t updated in quite some is that I’ve been transferring my blog onto Gather. In light of this, I think I’ll start my blogs back up with a quick review of the sites that they’re on—more in-depth reviews may come later.

XANGA
Age Limit: Thirteen to join, eighteen to view entries rated highly.
Layout options: A few colour changes, background music. The real good thing is that you can add your own codes.
Profile: In-depth
Time coding: Automatic.
Titles: Ninety characters
And does it tell you when you’ve exceeded this limit: Of course not.
Ratings: Enforced—you select what you are comfortable viewing, as long as it’s not older than you are. Unfortunately, It’s very vague and American (e.g. if it’s inappropriate for a thirteen-year-old, it’s inappropriate for a seventeen-year-old), and others can rate your entry.
Groups: “Blogrings” (interests) and “Metros” (hometowns)
These are for: Finding similar blogs.
Limit: 6
Tags: None
Separate sections for: Reviews, events, memories (can be uploaded by others).
Foreign characters: Become ?’s in the blog (though not in the reviews). (“Æ” and “œ” are okay)
Comments: E-mailed to you. Happen every once-in-a-while.
Price: Free, but pushes for paying constantly. Many features are confined to Premium.
Pictures: For free, it’s something like two. Premium gets more, and Premium Plus gets infinite (though they can only upload a certain amount a month). Anyway, they’re only for display.

The first site my blog was on! As such, it has always held a special place in my heart. There are some problems. For example, I have never gotten a reply when I’ve e-mailed for help. And then there are “E-Props.” These are supposedly a way to tell someone you like their entry, however they are illogically defaulted to two—the highest rating available. This means that even if you have comments like this {link to “vile bigotry and hatred” comment}, you get two. And then there’s the Xanga Block. It’s not a problem, it’s just strange. It’s an option that lets you restrict viewing of your Xanga site to people logged in to Xanga. Everyone praised it as a wonderful addition, but I don’t see the point.
All in all, I give it four stars, along with one brown dwarf (almost a star—think Jupiter) for the prospect of premium.


YAHOO 360°
Age Limit: Must be eighteen.
Layout options: Pre-made themes.
Profile: Somewhat full.
Time coding: None—by default the date is your entries title.
Titles: One hundred characters
And does it tell you when you’ve exceeded this limit: Yes, after submission.
Ratings: None.
Groups: “Yahoo Groups”
These are for: Sending out newsletters and e-mailing 2000 people at once.
Limit: As many as you can handle.
Tags: None
Separate sections for: Reviews, RSS, Calendar.
Foreign characters: Accepted.
Comments: Supposedly e-mailed to you. Never gotten one, though my page has been viewed hundreds of times
Price: Free
Pictures: A few. For display.

Us too! Yahoo gets into blog world. What’s nice is that you only need one account for all of the Yahoo services. So, if you have their e-mail and listen to LaunchCast, why not get a blog? The interesting thing is, Yahoo groups are for, as I said, mass e-mails. So, even though they’re listed on your blog, they really have nothing to do with it. These are interesting, but you can get to where you’re getting five hundred e-mails a day. Really, I only go there when I have to (i.e. when I update).
I give this site one star, for effort.


MYSPACE
Age Limit: Must be thirteen to join, eighteen to do anything.
Layout options: Colour changes, background music.
Profile: Pervasive.
Time coding: Date and time can be changed. There is about a six year window on the past and a three year one on the future.
Titles: One hundred characters
And does it tell you when you’ve exceeded this limit: Yes, after submission.
Ratings: None.
Groups: “Groups” (How original)
These are for: Discussing topics on a message board and uploading photos.
Limit: As many as you can claim to be interested in (for the sake of spamming, of course).
Tags: None
Separate sections for: Videos, Friends, News, Calendar, Groups, Pictures (Blogging is really a small part of it).
Foreign characters: Disappear on the blog and become gibberish on the groups.
Comments: “Hey baby. Even though you don’t have a picture, I think you’re cute. Pay for an account at this site and you can see me naked: nonexistent.geocities.com/”.
Price: Free.
Pictures: No limit that I know of. Can be commented on.

MySpace is evil. It is an over-hyped, overly-pop-culture, ad-saturated, nauseating site where the pages randomly stop loading more often than not. The only reason I go there—aside from updating—is because one of the groups I belong to actually has something interesting to say.
I give this site two stars, one of which has collapsed into a soul-sucking black hole.


BLOGGER
Age Limit: None that I know of.
Layout options: Colour changes, pre-loaded themes.
Profile: Alright.
Time coding: Automatic.
Titles: No limit that I know of.
And does it tell you when you’ve exceeded this limit: …
Ratings: None.
Groups: None.
These are for: …
Limit: …
Tags: None
Separate sections for: Nothing—it’s only a blog.
Foreign characters: accepted.
Comments: E-mailed to you. Haven’t gotten any.
Price: Free.
Pictures: None.

A pure blog! No extra bells and whistles to sell it to the public. As such, it requires minimal advertising. It also shows what blogs have been updated recently on the homepage, allowing you to see many strange and interesting blogs. And you can have multiple ones per account, if you’re into that kind of thing.
I give it three, since it’s a good site, despite its lack of features.


BLOG-CITY
Age Limit: None that I know of.
Layout options: A disturbing amount. Really, customising can consume you.
Profile: Pretty detailed.
Time coding: Automatic.
Titles: No limit that I know of.
And does it tell you when you’ve exceeded this limit: …
Ratings: None.
Groups: None.
These are for: …
Limit: …
Tags: It saves your previous tags—allowing you to pull them up with a click—and lists your most used ones on the side of your page. There is also a feature that allows you to see recent blog entries with those tags.
Separate sections for: Management, Tags.
Foreign characters: Accepted.
Comments: Listed on management page, but when you click on them, it says that you have none.
Price: Free.
Pictures: One. For display.

Well, it’s another site…
Two and a half stars.


GATHER
Age Limit: None that I know of.
Layout options: None that I know of.
Profile: A few categories.
Time coding: Automatic.
Titles: No limit that I know of.
And does it tell you when you’ve exceeded this limit: …
Ratings: Five “adult” categories—language, nudity, violence, explicit sexual activity, and “other”—which you have to check if your article contains that. This is displayed in small red text at the top of your article.
Groups: “Groups” again
These are for: Publishing articles to select audiences.
Limit: None, and you only publish articles to the groups you want.
Tags: You enter them at the bottom of the entry, and then in another window it suggests other tags that are often used with those tags. Also, they are used on everything. In fact, that’s how you look for things.
Separate sections for: Groups, Friends, Tags, Recently published.
Foreign characters: Turned into long lines of gibberish.
Comments: E-mailed to you. Happen frequently.
Price: Free.
Pictures: More or less a form of entry—comments, tags, the works.

Xanga may still be my favourite, but Gather has to be the best. The interesting thing is that it isn’t really a blog. You post your articles into a sort of communal bulletin, where people view everyone’s at once. This always makes me feel like I have to change the title for Gather, so that it actually reflects the article. After all, I don’t want false advertising…
I give this site the full five bright, life supporting stars.


Well, there you have it. My report on the blogging community: an interesting collection of whiners, extremist nutjobs, and, worse still, both.
Seeing as this entry should really be geared toward all audiences, my English lesson—“the use of profanity”—will have to wait.

Thursday, June 29, 2006: Pædicabo ego vos, et irrumabo.

Well, once again the government are debating burning of the flag. You see, some in this country see the flag as a holy icon, something worthy of such deification, and allegiance pledging (under God, of course). And as such, they are saying “you can’t burn the Flag. If you let people do that, they won’t respect It, and people worldwide will hate us.” Of course, flag burners already don’t respect it, and people already hate us, but that’s beyond the point… Oh well, at least you don’t have to spend time thinking of a way to protest.

But, that’s not all of the news. They’re also debating allowing race to be considered when deciding if someone’s a terrorist. Hopefully I didn’t disturb the neighbours, yelling at the radio.

In light of these events, I’m open for country-shopping suggestions.

4//: Itchy. Tasty.

Well, as I said last entry, schola perficit. By now schola perfecerat, so in honour of scholæ perficientis, I have decided to do a compendium of humorous quotes that I have heard in ISD-181 in my five years here.

“Vegetarians can eat chicken as long as it’s organic.”

[In reference to the Puritans’ belief of “The Elect” doing well] “How could they believe that when the Bible says that the only way you can be saved is to give up everything you own?” [I’m not entirely certain of the wording of that one]

[In reference to the student quoted above] “Actually, she’s a lot better than she used to be.”

[In reference to her again] “If she gets valedictorian, I’ll walk across the stage naked.”

“In Hebrew there are five words for love. [Lists the four Greek words for ‘love’]”

[In reference to Jesus Dress-up] “You know, this could be considered sacrilegious.”

“Don’t go out with people. You know, you get emotionally involved, and then you just break up at the end, and then you’re crushed…
I have a friend who says ‘Well, I’m not going to get married, because you just pay for the wedding and then you have to pay for the divorce.’ Well, then, just don’t get divorced.” [Not sure I about that one, either]

[When hearing about pre-4000 BCE Egypt] “But the world is only 6000 years old. It says so in the Bible.”

“…the three major world religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. I guess Hinduism and Buddhism are getting up there, but for now we’ll call these the big ones.”

[In response to the question “When is Easter?”] “It’s whenever the Church says it is.”

[In response to “Who was Buddha?] “The god of Buddhism.”

“Voy al restaurante porque estoy hombre.”

[In response to the above quote] “You go to the restaurant because you’re temporarily a man?”

“He’s my friend. [Pets partially disemboweled pig fetus]”

[Dialogue] “[Half sarcastically] The correct pronunciation isn’t /a:nt/, it’s /ænt/.”
“Actually, it’s /a:nt/, look in the dictionary.”
“Actually, it’s either. They’re called dialects.”

[After hearing what evolution actually is] “Oh, so you can’t be looking at a monkey in a zoo and POOF it’s a human?”

“…one nation, under God, indivisible…”

[In reference to The Da Vinci Code] “It’s got Tom Hanks, and he trumps the Catholic faith any day.”

[While looking at a Latin dictionary] “This is the best book ever!”

[After being informed that religious harassment is a crime] “So? Being a nark is stupid. I mean, not as bad as being and Atheist, but still…”

[From the same person, after no mention of skill] “Because I’m better than you.”

[About the above quoted person] “…he said ‘it was probably my mom’s dick rubbing against you.’ I swear, that’s the best come-back I’ve ever heard that kid make!”

“Isn’t it true that classical music makes you grow lots of new paths in your brain, while rock actually kills off existing ones?”

[After giving an example of German] “I said that she likes to give head but isn’t any good at it.”

[After hearing about the Law of Conservation of Mass] “Then how did God create the Universe?”

[In response to “Why eat only plants?”] “Because it’s more natural.”

“Time flies. Or, as they say in the Marines, ‘tempus fugit.’ They don’t say ‘when you’re having fun’ in the Marines.”

“I’m aganotistic. I believe in a higher power, but I don’t think it’s God or Jesus or whatever.”

“I see all the horror movies that come out, even that really stupid one, Dawn of the Dead. Or no, not that, Land of the Dead. Yeah, that was the one. I mean, zombies aren’t that smart.”

[After hearing that Atheists have no religious obligations] “Oh, because my pastor told us about some Atheists going to church on Saturday.”

[After hearing the Latin meanings of “penis” and “vagina”] “Hey, you should ask Mrs. [name forgotten] if you can put your tail in her sheath.”

“It was just like Lade spaketh and knowledge did flow forth.”

There are a few quotes that I think were said, but I’m not entirely certain.

“Tengo bored.”

“Holland is the capital of the Netherlands.”

Ah, Brainerd. Any additional quotes would be highly appreciated. Until then, these will be my memories of school over the summer, if I ever care to think about it. Perhaps in my next two years before graduation I will hear more audible delights.

Quid Freemasons putavunt National Treasure?

Salve! Ut Latinum—sed non multum—mox scio, scribere legentem blogis Latine desidero. Ne Latinum meum ostentare possim—ut non mulum ostentetur—sed ut Latine scribam. Monitis ut Latino meo est merda, hic est:

Primus, meæ scholæ maledicam. Schola docere mihi Hispanola contatur. “Contatur” dico quod in uno mense scio multior Latinum quam Hispaniolam—ut nonum mensem dicebam. Certe, Hispaniola mihi venit facilior, sed in Latina loqui res iucundiores possum.

Illo faciente, mox ire ad rem aliam volo: blogem meam. Vel loqui “bloges meas omnes” debeo, ut quinctos teneo. Et hoc, tenebunt quadragesimos tres legentes. Sed erat bonum tenere quadragesimos duo... Bloges meæ sunt in Xanga, Myspace, Yahoo 360°, Blogspot, atque Blog-City. Dificilis est illæ hic facere. Sed, bloges amo meæ.

Schola perficit. Anni libros tenet populus. Unum non teneo. Et unum recentem et unum de MCMXXII vidi. Unus de MCMXXII melior. Unus de MCMXXIV fuit optimus. Nunc libri anni sunt merdosi—multæ mentulæ picturas ponent in libros et vendunt eos $LX. In MCMXXII atque MCMXXIV tenebant vaticinationes scholæ, fabulas scholæ, ceteraque. Væ, o tempora! Ut in libro anni legit, ‘caveat emptor libri anni.’

Nescio si hæc longitudo solitus est, quod lego hoc in pagina. Sed, puto tempus est ei perficere. Valete!

Monday, May 08, 2006: Είναι όλα Ελληνικά για μένα!--Eínai óla Ellēniká gia ména!

I have an idea for a study. I am a compulsive language learner. If I am puzzled by something foreign, I try to understand it. I am currently spread thin over four languages. I am using four different methods and have four different success rates. I will try and find which method works best. Currently, from best to worst, they are: Latin-independent study with a set program, Spanish-school class, Old English-independent study with no set course, Frisian-listening to internet radio in that language. The results so far are as follows:

I have been at Latina for a few weeks, and know a lot of grammar and have somewhat of a vocabulary—or at least too much to try and write down. I like that I can set my own schedule and learn at my own pace, but it’s easy to forget to do it for a while.

Español I have been at since the beginning of the school year, however it is so slow. It would be great to talk to others with it, if they picked up languages quickly. But they don’t, except for exchange students, who I am never partnered up with. But, it does have a wealth of information, if they ever get around to it.

I have tried Énglisc since sometime last year, and have the grammar down fairly well—it’s like Latin, but simpler. As for vocabulary…Er, let’s not talk about that. But, there’s always the time for more.

The last language is the reason that this article is so simple—it’s hard to concentrate on blogging with Frysk blaring in your ear. I’m starting to understand it a bit more, but don’t ask me to speak it. It’s supposed to be 80% similar to English, but that remaining 20% is more than you’d think.

An English lesson would be highly appropriate, but I need these last six minutes to post this on my blogs, and this Frisian radio is polluting my mind.

Friday, May 05, 2006: Is it correct to say "this individual..." in reference to a conformist?

Well, that AP test genuinely and royally sucked. Actually, it wasn’t that bad. It kind of sucked at the beginning, however. I was sick with an odd mix of nerves and under-cooked and under-washed old turkey that fell in disgusting water. Don’t ask me why I ate it. But in about ten or twenty minutes it was over, and I hadn’t missed anything.
Which brings me to the rules and ceremony of the Advanced Placement test: we started with a slow creep toward the main section—filling out the sacred name form. Our charismatic leader, the proctor, slowly led us through the process, giving us exact instructions and wasting a ridiculous amount of time. We were to do exactly what she said when she said it and not an instant sooner. Not to mention our gag rule—to reference the subject. The test, you see, consists of three parts: a multiple choice section of eighty questions, a document-based question (DBQ), and two free response questions. According to the AP gods, we may never speak of the multiple choice questions with anyone. The free response questions mayn’t be discussed until our history teacher gives them back to us, forty-eight hours after the test—which by my watch is on Sunday. The DBQ, to the best of my knowledge, is fair game. I, however, have not the time to mention it—save that it sucked—and will commence that task later.

Thursday, May 04, 2006: ΛTΛLNTIS, THE ISLΛND, what’s with all of the lambdas? When will people realise how moronic that looks?

Well, it is now upon us. AP US History test day. That would be part of the reason that I haven't posted in so long. Actually, that's a lie. It's because of the trouble I had posting the review of Όρνιθες. But, at any rate, here I am, about to take a four hour test on my least favourite subject. I feel decently confident, but still, it's rather unnerving.

Especially the essays. Now, I can write a mean essay, but there is the problem of time constraint and legibility. First of all, time. I take a while to write. A long while. I used to have to hand in half-essays on test days. This would be partially due to the second problem: my handwriting. No one likes my script: it confuses, it drives people to the edge, it makes them want to shoot themselves, and it may even have caused some minor wars. It is looping, full of flourishes, and all-in-all 1800’s-ish. Sans neatness. It runs together, it flies wild, it dances across the page—and I mean that in the worst possible way. So, if they can read it, I get it done on time, and I don’t get an essay on labour unions, I should be set.

But, enough about that. There are more important things than AP. I think… All right, I can’t think of anything at the moment, but I’m working on it…

Thursday, April 06, 2006: Why can I never remember the titles I think up?

You wouldn't believe the kind of people I have to put up with at my school. Listen to what happened in my Pre-AP (supposedly the more intelligent ones) English class: yesterday we had a discussion on the book The Sun Also Rises. Due to all of the people who left this country in it, we started by going into our pre-assigned groups and making a list of ten reasons we would or will leave the country. We came up with things like "if there were extreme prejudice against a group to which I belonged" (of course, I was referring to Atheists) and "if Jeb Bush were elected President." Then we had a discussion. Our group was asked, and we went with the prejudice one. Then our teacher casually changed what question he had asked, insisting that he had asked what would make great numbers of people leave, as opposed to just us, being what he had actually asked. So, we went with our first one: if the draft were re-instated. Apparently, we were the first ones to come up with it all day, even though we were the second-to-last class. So, the teacher read a quote from a congressman about his draft plan. He said that the everyone between the ages of 18 and 26 would be eligible--all classes, males and females. At "and females," the class went into uproar. I shit you not, they were ecstatic about how horrible the new draft would be if it included females. There arguments were fairly houmourous, though. They said "well, then you'd kill off an entire generation, instead of leaving the females" and "well, men are the stronger, tougher ones, so they should go and leave the women behind." And before I get a bunch of misandrists saying how horrible and typical those guys are, please note that no males argued against that idea. We had a bunch of women--in school and wearing pants--saying about how all of the seventeenth century misogynist ideas are, in their opinion, correct! I retorted: "What? So now that sexism is taken out of the equation, it's suddenly a horrible thing?" To which they responded with more sexist and misogynist talk, followed by discussion amongst themselves.

And this isn't the first case of bigotry in that class. Many were talking about how horrible Atheists are some time ago. They never discussed reasons for it, merely the idea. But, I don't remember enough about that incident to comment on it sufficiently.

At any rate, time for today's English lesson: number VII--mathematical operations. Fill in the blank: to order someone to do the following operation: 9+7, you tell them to _____ nine and seven. If you said "plus," then this is for you. "Plus," "minus," and "times" aren't mathematical operations--they are symbols. One times one is one, but if you multiply one and one, you get two. No exceptions. Good bye for now.

Monday, March 16, 2006: Since I always accidently use it, I switched to British English. Tell me if it looks too odd.

Well, I decided to write a blog entry at home on Microsoft Word, since over spring break I can’t reach a computer with internet access. Alright, so I just came back from the library, but that time was taken up with checking e-mails, comments, and updates on sites. Also with Anglo-Saxon—Old English for those of you who don’t think that that’s Shakespeare—lessons. I’m thinking of translating my blog once I get proficient enough, but I’ll probably become disillusioned with it soon after starting.


At any rate, to news: First, let’s talk about that checking of updates. Evidently, the library’s new content filter blocks Normal Bob Smith dot com as adult content! Why on earth would they do that? I mean, it’s just a humour site. But, then I went to their web site. Evidently, it includes “crude and tasteless” material. How do they define that? Well, it may include things insulting religion, if I know society. So, if they ever contact me, I’ll have to see if they block sites such as Chick Publications for the same reason, since it applies just as much to Christian sites as it does to Atheist ones—or at least it should. I wouldn’t want to do that, though. Some people would want to go to those. Of course, that isn’t the worst of their overdone censorship. The other ones I remember are:


Pornography/recreational nudity:

… [This] includes naturism, streaking, and other activities which include nudity/see-through clothing.


Bathing suits/underwear/lingerie

Sites which have pictures of models in bathing suits, lingerie, and other highly revealing attire.


Alternative lifestyles:

Non-pornographic sites with information about gay, lesbian, and bisexual lifestyles and activities.


News and information:

Sites with news topics and information. This is useful for business computers and other situations where time-wasting is undesired.


Games:

Sites which have games. This includes strategy, puzzle, and other single player, non-betting games.


Personal sites:

Sites such as Geocities, Xanga, and Angelfire, which offer free personal web pages.


Search sites:

Sites which search a catalog or part of the internet.


Translators:

Sites that offer electronic translation services.


Web-based e-mail

Sites which offer free web-based e-mail.


Religion:

Any site which advocates worship of a Supreme Being as the Creator of the Universe.


That last one really caught me off guard. You wouldn’t expect any company to offer a filter which blocks all information on monotheism, and even less to claim to block all religion. Luckily, you pick which ones you want, and according to the local teen librarian—who is against all internet filters—they only took pornography and adult content.


Anyways, next I would like to talk about the dumbing down of everyone. Let’s start with baby’s first words. Now, I like to imagine a time when people would actually try to have their infants say “mother” and “father,” but judging by how different the word “dad” is from “father,” that was quite some time ago. Still, I’d like to imagine some tenth-century peasant looking at his offspring and telling him to “cweð fæder.” At first he just looks at him and spits a little, but then his developing synapses begin to fire. “Ffdǽdderrr!” “Ná, Ná.” says the father: “Fæder. Cweð fæder.” “Dæder!” “Fæder, mín cild, fæder.” At any rate, this goes on for some time, and then he gets quite angry, seeing as his ass—the animal, you moron—just died, and yells “FÆDER! HIT IS FÆDER!” Then the infant starts crying. Being a caring fæder, he tries to calm his infant, saying “Sc, sc. Hit is dæder. Hit is dæder. Scscsc.” He gets the child to stop crying, but somehow forgets to tell his wife about their infant’s new word.


So the cild is raised with the word dæder as part of his vocabulary, and when his son is an infant he teaches him the word thinking nothing of it. This spreads over the years, until in 1066 England is invaded by the French. Now, the French didn’t like how the English spelled things, so they had them not write Englisc at all, and if they had to, not to use the letters þ, ð, or æ, along with no accent marks. That, along with the virtual silence of –er in French—and thus Anglo-French—resulted in the familiar word “dad.”


This was more or less stable for about nine centuries, with people even starting to talk about “dad,” a word they never would have admitted to back when it was “dæder”—which would explain why the dictionary doesn’t give a strait answer on the origins of word “dad.” The original dialogue was even imitated by a mother, who begrudgingly let her child think that she was a “mom,” as opposed to a mother.


But then came the gender wars. During those, the mother and father fought to see whether their children would say “mom” or “dad” first. Then came the worst assault on the English language yet—mama and dada. Judging by these atrocities, all we need is a kick up in gender wars or another dead ass, and parents will start counting “d-d-d-d” as a word.


Well, I can’t think of an English lesson for today. Perhaps you should be proud of yourself. But heed my warning: teach any children you might have in the future the words “father” and “mother.” Perhaps we can curtail this; just like that tenth-century peasant did with fæder. Farewell and have a good life.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Well, I was meaning to write a lengthy entry on Friday, but the server crashed. Then I had too many other activities yesterday and the day prior.

But, at any rate, I would like to discuss what began yesterday. Yesterday was the beginning of Lent, which normally wouldn't affect an atheist such as myself--in fact I hadn't even heard of it until a few years ago--were it not for the fact that our schools bend over backwards to accommodate it. You see, during Lent Catholics can't eat any meat that isn't fish on Fridays for some reason.They also have to give up something important to them for its duration--I'm not sure how long that is. I'd like to see one give up religion, but that's just me. Anyway, in elementary and middle school we only had one lunch line, which on Fridays during Lent had some fish meal which they never served at any other time in the year. Note that they didn't give kosher food during the rest of the year, and they sometime served beef, and they probably didn't follow the dietary constraints of many other religions that I don't know of.

At any rate, then I went to Forestview for a semester, due to remodelling in my old school--Mississippi. They had four lines: a main line, a grill, a pizza line, and a salad bar. Now, they allowed bag lunches in the previous schools, so it doesn't make any sense for them to change their meals specifically for Catholics anyway, but with a salad bar surely they wouldn't, would they? Yes, they would. All of these lines had odd, land-dwelling meat-less dishes which weren't served at any other time in the year. They weren't even being sneaky about it.

And so we come to Senior High. Now they finally have the courage to offer some alternatives. Yet they still have those odd dishes. Not the infamous veggie burger, or just saying to eat from the salad bar or bring your own lunch like Orthodox Jews, Hindus, Muslims, et cetera.

At any rate, time for English lesson number six--I fucked up on numbering that last one. "Gots" is not a word. Say "has" or "has got," you fucking moron. Is it really that hard to move the "s" to the noun?

Tuesday, February 28, 2006: Instant newsfead-Bush refuses to set timeline for return of movie rentals.

Can't remember what I was going to say, but it was important. So, without furthur adeux, here's English lesson the third: scissors. "Scissors" is a plural word. There is no such thing as "a scissors," though I have heard people refer to them as such. The item which is used is, in fact, a pair of scissors. I have yet to figure out what a scissor is, however I am leaning towards the handle and blade combination which hinges on the other one in one of these cutting devices.

Thursday, February 23, 2006: My hovercraft is full of eels.

A warning for all of you who go to Brainerd Senior High: do not try the "veggie burger." Today I attempted tackling this item for, though I am an avid carnivore, I wished for a change from my typical spicy chicken or cheeseburger. It was most certainly a mistake. I informed everyone of my expirement, and they saw my finding on my face as soon as I bit into it. I decided to see if I could eat the rest, and the flavor was unlike anything I had ever tasted before. About halfway through, when I was starting to get used to it, I decided to take off the bun and see what I could identify in it. Try to imagine the flavor of this: I saw onions, red peppers, mushrooms, and what I'm fairly certain were carrots, placed in a base which I couldn't identify if my life depended on it. Now, the others at my table were speaking their concerns already, but now their volume rose greatly. But, I got a combined total of $1.28 out of it, so it wasn't quite all bad. Other than that nothing that interesting happened today.

But, now time for English lesson number four: the word lend. This time it's not a word that people use where they shouldn't. This one they don't use at all. At least around here. They honestly think that it is proper to say that they will borrow something to someone. Now, just like the "jift" thing with Celtic, I shall apply similar grammar to another sentance for this: "if you don't return that, I'll have to give it from you by force." It's just as proper and sounds just as intelligent.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006: A Proverb is the Chisel for the marble of the foolish Mind.

Hello my wonderful readers. Today I think I'll talk about vending machines. I was walking around the school on Monday (the library was closed for President's day, however the school didn't give a shit about that any more than they did on Martin Luther King Jr. day) with my friend Mr. W---- and one of his friends, Mr. W------, who I shall call "Zack" for no apparent reason. So, the three of us were talking about hacking with Liz(who was wondering about the school as well), when Zack got a call on his cell phone. Whilst talking, he began pushing random buttons, the machine displaying the names and prices of various products. After the fourth button, however, it said "sales data." We got this figured out after a while, and though we can't do anything other than display things, it's still rather fun and quite addictive.

So, here's the process: first, the kind of machine. It's the V540 by Vendco. These look identical to another Vendco machine, so check the little side plate thingy. They have 12 large buttons with images of the products on them, arranged in three rows of four with a divider in the middle which contains the display area. Know what I'm talking about? Alright, now what you do is press the first, then third, then second, then fourth button in the first row. After words, the first row is cycle through options, the second select, and the third is back. Your options are "sales data," "diagnostic," and "return." Under sales data, you can cycle through statistics for the different selections.

And now for English lesson number three: the word "stealer." This is not an independant, functioning word. You can not be a "stealer," only a thief. You may be a scene stealer, or something like that, however you should rather use the verb with and adjective, i.e. scene stealing basterd.

Friday, February 17, 2006: Insanity is fun!

I bring you salutations and news: February 28th is "Spay Day USA." The ads for it go something like this:

Spay or neuter your children-

It helps them live longer lives

They will have fewer behavioral problems

Orphanages and families spend thousands of dollars on unwanted children

Do it for love-

Unaltered children are more likely to run off

An unaltered female can theoretically produce 9 children in a single gestation

An unaltered male can theoretically produce 78840 offspring in a single year

Or maybe it was pets. I don't know, it makes about as much sense either way. And I love how they use the word "unaltered." I usually use "intact" for unsterilised and or uncircumcised (don't get me started on that...).

But at any rate, any salutation is incmplete without a little bit of abuse. So it's time for English lesson number two! Today's lesson: the word "Celtic." Say this word aloud. How did you pronounce that initial "C"? If you pronounced it like the c in "crop," then find one of those elementary school star stickers and put it on your tongue. If you pronounced it like the "c" in "cinema," punch yourself in the teeth. Then point out this article to whoever you heard that pronunciation from. If you pronounced it like the "C" in Cnidaria, then I don't know what to do with you. It always amazes me that people say they got a "Seltic" cross, yet they don't say that they got it as a "jift." But, that's just my personal irritance. Good bye for now.

Thursday, February 16, 2006: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

I've figured it out. Xanga's spell check is plotting against public honesty and intelligence. I have already spoken of its aversion to swearing and the word "nigger," but that's not the least of its problems. Listen to what it gives as alternates: for "nigger"-snigger, sniggers, nagger, jigger, niggard... for "fuck"-fu ck, fu... get the point? Not only does it not recognize swearing, it does recognize moronic little things people use to get around swear blockers.

In light of such events, I think it's time for an English lesson. Yes, it's a bit unorthodox for a blog, but I'm really sick of people who have lived in an English-speaking nation their entire life not being able to speak the language properly and not even noticing what idiots they're making of themselves.

All right, lesson one: typing words. If you are typing on an instant message program and must reply quickly because your friend may die within the hour, then abbreviations are fine. If your friend is fine, then they are quite a nuisance. If you are talking to me, I will expect you to be beyond that, and may respond to you saying "ic" with "Sorry, I don't speak much Anglo-Saxon. Why did you blurt out 'I'?" But now for the important part: if you are doing a formal writing (and I use the term liberally) such as an e-mail, a blog entry, or anything that will appear on the Internet, they are completely unacceptable. Completely. I am far less likely to take an e-mail, blog entry response, et cetera, seriously if it uses such things (lol included).

Well, I'm out of time. Join me again tomorrow for lesson two!

Monday, February 13, 2006: At the local theatre-for three days only: The Royal Nonesuch!

Introductions first: If you are a returning visitor to my site, you know me, my blog, and whatnot. If, as I doubt would be the case, you are new, I am Tomen. Hello.

Now then, I have a wrong to be righted. On the Internet there is a Brainerd-based web site. Not the problem. It it advertised often on the radio. Not quite the problem, though it draws it to my attention every day. It lists deals on various products and services: tanning, mechanics, and a whole variety of thing for you to use. Therein lies the problem. Because it's not necessarily for you. It's main selling point is that it's only for those whose genitalia reside within their bodies. Yep. And, as I more or less said earlier, it's not as if it deals merely in feminine hygiene, or something confined merely to that gender. It gives deals for an assortment of useful products. Ah, yes this site is called "Stellaslist.com." So, let's recap: white's only drinking fountains: bad -- women's only financial information: good. I don't get what she's trying to do, reverting us to such primitive sexism. I generally try to push us forward, or not at all. Ah, and this is a killer: Stella once confronted men using her site on the radio. Well, she didn't directly. That would have been too non-sexist. She talked to the women who saw them on there, saying to just "look the other way," meaning that most likely her site gets some sort of kickback for high visitor numbers, causing her to resort to such extremes. I really can't stand that bitch.

While we're on that topic, I have a little test for you. Let's see our standards of slurs. Say "heathen." Go ahead, just blurt it out. All right, now say "nigger." Go on... You had far more people threaten you this time, didn't you? All we fucking care about is anti-black racism, anti-female sexism, and anti-Christian prejudice. Anything else is fair game. Xanga's spell check even recognizes "heathen." It doesn't recognize "nigger," or any swear word, as I have mentioned before. Fucking moronic nation.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006: What can I say in no more than ninety characters?

Hello, and good whatever time it is over there. I don't really have much to say, however I still feel that I have some sort of obligation to write something, seeing as I haven't for a while. So, let us see what I can waste time with. Ah... Here's a thought: anything you can possibly do will offend someone. I'm serious. If you say that everyone deserves basic rights, it will offend someone. If you say murder is wrong, it will offend someone. I generally try to keep my offending within reason, but that's another problem: everyone has there own opinion of what is reasonable. Which pisses me off, seeing as we have (here, at least) many rules in places and even laws which make reference to that which is reasonable. For example, Minnesota's basic speed law: you may drive no faster than is reasonable for existing conditions. Then again, if this site is to be trusted, then we technically also prohibit oral sex, bathtubs without feet, and nude sleeping. But at any rate, the basic speed law makes no clear distinction as to what is being made illegal. Well, I guess this is what happens when you have the most popular, rather than qualified, write laws (but then, they're so much easier to find...). I guess it's also since I live in the Bible Belt's matching earring. Well, I guess I'll leave you with that thought. Fare thee well.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006: ???

Well, surprise, surprise! The writing prompt was "Name one influential leader in your life and explain why they are a good leader." Something like that, any way. Well, I have no leaders. None. I rely on myself, and only take advice from others. So, I decided that since it would sound realistic, I would build up my mother to be a good leader. I used up all but the last line of the allotted space. And now I have used up all but two minutes of the allotted time. Damn, I hate these half-hour computers.

Monday, January 30, 2006: T-shirt idea: "Life's too short to worship ugly gods".

Hello. First I would like to say: "fuck that list I started a while back. It's nothing but old, stale news and anecdotes." That being out of the way, the new news:

Hmm. I got in my first accident. It was just a little trip to the ditch, but it still sucked. Luckily, I got us neatly between the mailbox and the telephone pole. I may elaborate on that later.

Next, we have a two hour test tomorrow! And it writing! Damn, that's depressing. We're going to have those shitty prompts like "who's you're hero" or "who was your best friend as a child" and I have to take an hour or so to figure out who to exaggerate enough to make it look like I'm not self-motivated or didn't like to be alone as a child or that I didn't do some other horrible, unnatural sin like that. But, I'd say I'm good enough at writing, so if we somehow get an easy prompt of some common activity or idea which I actually did or have, I should do well.

In other news, my brother's cat died. He'll have to tell you about that, since I'm out of time.

Monday, January 30, 2006: T-shirt idea: "Life's too short to worship ugly gods".

Hello. First I would like to say: "fuck that list I started a while back. It's nothing but old, stale news and anecdotes." That being out of the way, the new news:

Hmm. I got in my first accident. It was just a little trip to the ditch, but it still sucked. Luckily, I got us neatly between the mailbox and the telephone pole. I may elaborate on that later.

Next, we have a two hour test tomorrow! And it writing! Damn, that's depressing. We're going to have those shitty prompts like "who's you're hero" or "who was your best friend as a child" and I have to take an hour or so to figure out who to exaggerate enough to make it look like I'm not self-motivated or didn't like to be alone as a child or that I didn't do some other horrible, unnatural sin like that. But, I'd say I'm good enough at writing, so if we somehow get an easy prompt of some common activity or idea which I actually did or have, I should do well.

In other news, my brother's cat died. He'll have to tell you about that, since I'm out of time.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006: 60659

I was going to talk about the US's odd perception of prejudice, but this is just too interesting: The Vatican has declared that Purgatory doesn't exist! Now, this isn't exactly bad, considering that it doesn't, but holy fucking shit! And do you know why? So that Africans and Asians will join them! One of us... One of us... This just goes to prove that the Catholic hierarchy isn't in this for religion, but rather world domination. Of course, this is obvious and always has been, but this is over the top even for them. I mean, first round Earth, then heliocentricity, then the big bang, then evolution, and now no purgatory. In a few centuries, they might just come to their senses!

Kind of funny, though. I mean here we have insane fundies trying to warp our country to their will, and the fucking Vatican, the one with some actual power over more than say, twenty people in a congregation, is warping just so that everyone will agree with them. Which reminds me of when ol' Ratzinger got in. Everywhere ablaze with what this ex-Nazi was going to do. "We want to convert more Jews!" he said. "We want to reach out and turn the Middle East into Catholicland!" he bellowed, causing Catholic missionaries to start writing up their last wills and testaments. And all the while us vile heretics were shaking our heads. But, at least some good seems to have come out of it. One silly superstition down, innumerable more until they're gone. I say it's saints next. I mean, after this, they might just do that in order to get monotheists and Christians. You never know...

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Well, on to part two of the talk in Fundie's class. You see, the interesting thing about this (and a major reason for the word "Christian" in the title) is that she was absolutely adamant in her idea that it must be marriage which allows you to have sex. Now, I seem to be one of the few people who realizes what marriage is. Now let me break it down for you, like I did with segregation. Okay, maybe I'll do it a bit more normally.

Marriage, you see, is a process where you and another person (in most states, another person of the opposite gender only) go down to the courthouse and get a marriage licence. This is a fucking contract. Nothing more, nothing less. It will not improve your partner's fidelity, and it most certainly does nothing for trust. And that was a major point of her speech: in a relationship, you need trust, respect, et cetera. And yet you need to sign a contract saying that you will be monogamous. You can't trust your partner, or anything like that. You must sign a contract saying such. Now, even if my significant other wished to get married, I simply couldn't, with that realization. That is, I couldn't have a marriage license and a clear conscience.

Ah, but I must speak of the comment card at the end. Now, I had a lengthy list of grievances for my comment sheet last year, so this year I lightened up. Here's what I could remember of it:

How would you rate this presentation:
[ ]Great [ ]Good [ ]Okay [X]Poor

Was there anything you disagreed with in this presentation? [ ]No [X]Yes
Explain: ¡Uf! Where do I start? Your speech made me pay less attention every sentence or two. Unconditional love requiring marriage? Sex being "made" for... sounds a bit too religious.

Before this presentation, will you have sex before marriage?
[ ]No decision
[ ]Will have sex with anyone
[X]Will have sex with someone before you're married
[ ]Will wait to have sex until your married

After this presentation, will you have sex before marriage?
[ ]No decision
[ ]Will have sex with anyone
[X]Will have sex with someone before you're married
[ ]Will wait to have sex until your married
[ ]Need more information about abstinence

Explain: Well, I already mentioned some things above, and I mentioned the rest last year, but given your presentation, you didn't care.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006: ROMANES EUNT DOMUS

I am back once more! And I am pissed. This you simply must hear about. In health class, we had a talk. Now, even disregarding the fact that I heard this same talk last year, it was still horrible. It was on abstinence. Now, abstinence is a quite vague word, meaning merely to make yourself not engage in something which satisfies hunger or thirst or gives you physical pleasure (though the speaker doesn't know that), so allow me to clarify: this was on what I like to call "Christian sexual abstinence". That is where you abstain from having sex until marriage. This pisses me off because of not only the message, but the way the speaker presented it. She used the words "made" and "meant" more than you would believe. "Sex was made to be with one person," and "it's meant for marriage," and so forth. Has she even considered the possibility of atheism? I mean, Brainerd High School is a public school, right? It sounds like it, and I don't remember having to pay anything. Yet here she is, preaching about sex's "purpose". Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to read the rest, seeing as I am out of time.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006: This entry has a title.

Hello! Before finally resuming that list of old, stale news and anecdotes, I thought I'd say about my winter break. It was excellent, seeing as all I did was lounge about the house. I also celebrated Christmas with my sister and watched her kids on New Year's Eve. With all that's happening (the U.S. trying to secularize and getting yelled at by the fundies who want Christianity to always be held in special regard for some reason), I finally realized that out of my entire immediate and extended family I only know the theological beliefs of three (all Freethinkers): my Atheist brother, my secularist mother, and my, er, well I'm not sure what to call my dad's beliefs. Oh, well. It hasn't exactly been a problem before, so why worry about it now? Wow, that was a short entry.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

The Gregorian Calander reset to January first! Yay!

Wednesday, December 21, 2005: If it ain't fixed don't break it.

Well, yesterday I added quite a bit of that conversation, however it was all deleted due to a malfunction. Well, any way, I think I'm going to type it up over the winter break and just transfer it to the Internet when I return. At any rate, I think I'll make this a short entry, as I can't remember what I was going to write. So bye and a happy impending holiday, if there is one in your immediate future.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005: If it ain't fixed don't break it.

Well, yesterday I added quite a bit of that conversation, however it was all deleted due to a malfunction. Well, any way, I think I'm going to type it up over the winter break and just transfer it to the Internet when I return. At any rate, I think I'll make this a short entry, as I can't remember what I was going to write. So bye and a happy impending holiday, if there is one in your immediate future.

Thursday, December 15, 2005: Untitled

Alright, time to depart from the list for a second in order to relay a conversation which I had with Mr. Fundie two or three hours ago. The direct transcript is as follows:

I: I have a major disagreement I have to get off my chest.

Mr. Fundie: Alright. Do that.

I: Yesterday, I didn't say it yesterday because I had to catch a bus after school, but um, when you were on the topic of sexual identity and homosexuality, you said "You take a Christian and they will except them." (pause) And I...

F: Well, bu-but-but remember now I qualified that, right? Eighty per cent of our country says they're Christian, they're not. You might get two out of ten who are. But anyway so I'm not saying 80% us are reallyisticly[sic] buying in to that. 'Kay so...

I: Like, what? You're saying they're just saying their Christian to fit in.

F: Yes, right. And if it can, it's convenient of them to be a Christian.

I: Hm.

F: But I don't think they're conservative and probably [unintelligible].

I: 'Cause it seems like, you know, most of the people who disagree with homosexuality or are non-acceptant of homosexuals use argument like, you know, um, "God doesn't like this way" blah, blah, blah, blah blah. You know, mostly Christian arguments for not accepting homosexua...

F: Well, yeah, n, homosexual marriage, not homo, see now, these, you got to make sure you sh, well, you know.

I: Oh, well ,k...

F: No, you, because,

I: You know, lots of thing like, you know, um...

F: Oh, [unintelligible], some of them, ultra rights, I don't buy any of that either. Yeah. No.

I was saying something at that time, but it's hard to hear over his voice.

I: ...hardly the, you know, "Christians will accept homosexuals".

F: B, er, well you don't think they do?

(pause)

I: Sometimes, sometimes not.

F: Right. And that...

I: ...Yeah...

F: ...to me puts it to that 80%...

I: ...Ah...

F: ...who claim they're, they're Christians they're not. So, yeah.

I: Yeah, 'cause it's, yeah, it just sounded to me like you were doing a generalization.

F: Oh, I do that a lot in here, so I wish you'd have caught me in class so we could have said it in class.

More unintelligible simulspeach on my behalf.

I: (Unintelligible)

F:(laughing) (odd noise), what? We had to speak about it?

I: Yeah, usually, like, you know [I should quit doing that], um, when I disagree with anyone about anything religious it takes like an hour or so to (laughing).

F: Okay, well maybe they should settle down, too. Because that, I-I, they're, there're times when I'll through out because I want an argument, I want a response.

I: Ah.

F: 'N' people won't see [possibly a poor pronunciation of "say"] anything. Or the[y] will go off in the wrong direction, like they started to do with the homosexual deal, but I don't want to talk about that.

I:Yeah.

F: I want to, you know, just, I want to talk about (pause) you know, genetics as compared to, um, choice, or whatever, 'n', you know, I don't know if that will ever be solved.

I: Yeah, um, I think the current scientific thought is, like, genetics.

F: Well, again, 'n' it's, you know, just, you go to the Christian conservative, 'n' I don't classify myself in the ultra-conservative right wing. But, like I said yesterday, I-I-I, what I don't understand is that, where were all the homosexuals [35 years ago, when he was in the army, for nothingness's sake], 'n' I know what my friend will say, 'n' I have, mmmmmmmmm, four friends who are gay. 'N' I will, 'n' they will say to me, "they just didn't dare," (unintelligible) I just can't believe that, you know. Maybe.

I: Well, varying times like, um, earlier times there were, um, like you were saying at an earlier point, with the Roman Empire...

F: ...Ah...

I: ...with like, the, yeah, the more homosexuals then, because it was more acceptable. You know, like, um...

F: Well, the guys were neutered. You know, so they, they couldn't, er, have sex with the king's wife, or whatever, they were, nymph [a kind of ancient Greek goddess, who was highly attractive and playful], or whatever they called them.

I: Er, eunuch.

F: Munichs, right.

I: Yeah. Um, I thought that was just their bodyguards, like...

F: Well, yeah, (unintelligible), and house servants, and maidservants, and things like that. Right, yes, but they wanted them safe.

I: Yeah.

F: But the thing is, that's what brought the Roman Empire down, too, that they had no rules. Whatever you wanted to do, you could do it.

I: I always thought it was the Vandals.

F(at "it was"): And I'm not saying that if you legalize homosexuals that's what'll happen. But (long pause) I (pause) wanted an argument I didn't get one except it went the wrong way[lack of punctuation intentional]. So, um, I do generalize, yeah, I will generalize with marijuana, too. Um, I will generalize with (unintelligible). Um, and I'll look for the kind of argument I want. You know? So, don't 'esitate to-to-to, even come back a day later and it would've been fine if you'd have questioned me today about that.

I: Yeah.

F: During class (unintelligible). I-I know it's tough to get this group (pause).

I: Yeah.

F: Serious enough to ever discuss anything like that, because you will have a couple just gay-bashing, an'-an' I'm not going to tolerate that.

I: Yeah, I know.

F: N-n, It's not polite, it's not, mature.

I: That's very common in this region.

F: (pause) Y-well, it is. Um. (pause) People are getting really polarized in our country I mean I don't know, (unintelligible), you start looking at things like, "well, I'm a black American," 'n', "I'm a Hispanic American," 'nd, "I'm a Chicano American," 'n', "I'm a Spanish American," and, "I'm an Irish American," 'n' I'm still from a generation who said: "all of you guys: black, white, red, yellow, you all fought in a wars to preserve our freedom. We're Americans, we're not (pause) we're not individuals. We don't need five languages here. You know, we need one, where we can all communicate and love each other. We don't, we don't need to be (long pause) you know, individuals. (unintelligible). We're, France is seeing that, I think. France thought they could just let the Muslim, two or three billion Muslims, come in. And continue with their language and their own religion. And, not to provide them with anything, just land. 'N' the next thing you know, we've got riots. Why do the riots happen if they had (pause) complete (pause) autonomy. You know.

I: Huh.

F: What? (pause) My daughter would love to discuss with you, she-she loves debate.

I: Yeah.

F: I-see I got practice on her. I will make some outrageous statements 'n' then she'll...

I: ...Yeah...

F: ...jump all over me.

I: You see, I get jumped on a lot, because, um, I'm an Atheist, and this is a heavily religious area, so, like...

F: They claim to be. There's what, four churches per block everywhere in this town You know I've left three churches because they were anything but religious, we've got so many (pause) so many (long pause) churches (pause) that, um, profess to be Christian. But in our country you do surveys, our country says 80% of our, our country, er, is Christian. But if that was the case, why would we be anti-gay? [Because God hates fags.] Why would we be anti-black? [Because it's the mark of Cain.] Why would we be, er, what else do we (unintelligible) rich? [Because God wants His people to be successful.] Why do we (pause) we attack? [Because God is jealous and Christians are His servants on Earth.] (unintelligible) Christians (unintelligible).



I: Well, you know, um, to varying degrees, you know, like, um, a lot of (unintelligible), again (unintelligible) the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and things like that. Whereas pro-gays, (pause) um, focus on, um [I couldn't think of anything], I think I once heard a line, um, "You can use The Bible to back up anything." Um, "except homosexuality," was actually the line, but, um, I don't know.



F: Er (pause) But-but in order for it to justify anything, you'd have to believe it's the true spoken word of God, 'n' if you don't believe that, then you can't be Christian anyway. You can profess to be one...



I: ...Yes...



F: But you're not going to be, yeah.[Wow. So if someone uses The Bible to back up their stance (which most, if not all, Christians do) then they are true Christians. He just wrecked his entire argument. I guess he's just so Christian that contradictions just come naturally to him.]



I: (unintelligible)



F: Well, I-I, you know, a Muslim can have his beliefs, an' believe that, er, Mohammad, you know, received direct, um, information from God. You can be, er, an Atheist, who believes in, what? No higher power?



I: Er, yeah.



F: Okay. Um, and then (unintelligible). You know, 'n' then I have a friend who's 84 years old, he's a college professor out in [town name omitted]. He taught his last class last spring, 'n' (untypable stuttering) he was finally going one class a year. And, said, my friend sent this book to his wife, and him, and he started to question life, and is this all there is? And when I visit with him I say "no, I've got forever to live." [That's awfully arrogant of you.] And you have 70 years if you, 76 years if you follow national average. And then what's left for you, nothing.



I: Yeah.



F: Emptiness. A black hole.



I: Mhm.



F: I said, "at least even if The Bible isn't true, I've lived my life, where I've tried to be good to other people, and I know that I will live an eternity." [The arrogance is astounding.] So, I can believe that, I don't care if you do. I, I wish you would. [That means you care.]



I: Well, I generally, you know, am nice to others, but I don't see the sense in eternal life, but, that's that.



F: Right. And, I-I, my daughter's boyfriend, er, ex-boyfriend, now, um, 's family, said: "I don't know why you need The Bible, I don't know why you need church." He says: "We're great to people. We love people, we're kind to people, we give money to people." (pause) That's good.



I: Yeah.



F: But, are you going to have eternal life? Why wouldn't they? [Same reason they don't have trolls and færies in their yard.] Wouldn't you, wouldn't that, kind of, if thought you could have an answer wouldn't you want to know that answer? [It's 42]



I: Errr. Yeah. But, you know, I can't seem to find anything that like, you know, except for mythology [And science. Forgot to mention that.] and that's all The Bible is to me.



F: You know what I'm going to do for you? I'll bring you a book tomorrow. [That book never came.] Er, I had a class, an archeologist came in and talked about the archeology of The Bible. The Bible has 26000 proofs that it's authentic. [I've heard them. "This prophecy about a whore dieing is exactly what happened at the world trade center," or "if it weren't true people wouldn't die for it's principles," and other such nonsensical rubbish.] But then they went to the next biggest one was manuscripts of, some of the great writers, um, I can't even think of it now. (unintelligible) er, let's see, Horatio, it's not Horatio, well some of the great, er, scientists of their time. [Remember: back then a scientist was really just a philosopher.] And they have, like, 200 manuscripts, 500 manuscripts, these are all things that are personal eyewitnessed, eye accounts [Or are they just assuming that because it agrees with their precious book, which is based upon the old myths which the writers of that time liked to relay. Oh, wait, these are fundies. They're most likely saying that since they saw someone swim it was Jesus walking on water, and so forth.] of the miracles that Jesus performed, blah, blah, blah. So, (unintelligible) that it kind of opened my daughter's eyes, because she's not, she believes in a higher power. Er, but she's not around,'n' she's not calling Him "God". But I asked her, "well, what is your god? 'N' who's your god?" Then she gets angry with me. (unintelligible) you have a higher power, she said: "yeah," I said: "okay. But that big book that you read out of," I said, "what does that believe?" Then she got angry 'n' I said: "okay, that's fine. You know that whatever you have is fine. Um, for you, it's not for me. So it's okay for you. I don't need to force anything. 'Cause it won't matter. You know, you can't force things on people. People will just, this 84 year old guy is, now, he says: "you know, I've lived a good life, but if this is all there is to it, it really hasn't been much." (long pause) I've loved every day I've lived.



I: Well, my life's been pretty good.



F: But I guess that's, that's my only thing. Um, 80% of our country professes to be Christian, and if they're Christian, the way they treat (pause) each other, is horrible. I wouldn't even want to be a Christian if I had to do (unintelligible).



I: Yeah.



F: That-that these people do and that they say. You know. (long pause) Well, I wish you would have, er, I hope though that. You-y-y-you (unintelligible) if you, er, I hate to say this, (unintelligible) make some exaggerated statements, if you would, er, come back the next day and say: "you know, [Fundie], you were talking yesterday and I thought: 'hey, I disagree with you'"



I: Alright.



F: I'd love that. (Rest is unintelligible)



So, there you have it. All of the intelligible portions of my conversation with Mr. Fundie, in which he got off topic like a madman, tried to convert me, used one of those moronic "not a true Christian" arguments to say that anyone who doesn't get the same thing out of the parts of The Bible which he's read or heard as he did isn't a Christian, an contradicted himself in more areas that I mentioned.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005: The elipsis and the brackets. Two tools that let you make a quote say whatever you want

Hmmm... Where was I? Ah, yes: the list. Well, first item on the addendum is... Mr. Fundie's fundie paranoia! How exciting. Well you see, Mr. Fundie is, as has been made obvious, a fundie. And with such fundamentalism comes paranoia. You know, the Atheist are out to destroy religion, the gays want to destroy families, et cetera. However, Mr. Fundie hasn't verbally stated any of these particular complaints. He seems to express it by being concerned with strawman arguments against the school. Now true, I do that as well, but even with me being so cynical, pessimistic, and exaggerative as I am, his strawmen make me quite nervous. Here are some: CPR is a required course, which he admits to, yet he believes that it will stop being taught when he retires at the end of this year (which, in my opinion, is a little too late, considering that he's either 75 or 78 [I remember that it was most definitely one of those two]); he is also constantly saying about how everybody has case managers and councilors which will get them through any class other than his (for some reason), taking the test for them (he actually said that) and what not; along with that, he thinks that all of the other teachers not only let students walk all over them, but that the students do just that. I think he lives in some sort of parallel universe, perhaps due to senility. And, over the course of typing this, I just realised how arrogant he is. I think that the teaching community will be greatly improved through the overdue retirement of this one teacher.

At any rate, next topic: Street Scene. It was the play that God was in. It was great! God was the humorous Italian ice cream salesman. It was awesome! And, other people I kow were in it. Like Mackenzie, and Smarl, and... You know, that might have been it. But, at any rate, God is most certainly going to be the star of Necropolis (as we have entitled our movie. Well, I don't think I have enough time to touch on the rest of my notes. At this rate, I just might finish that posted list before I'm finished with life! Well, here's hoping!

Thursday, December 08, 2005

What is Russian for "comrade"?
Greetings to one and to all! Seeing as I haven't posted for a while, I have a downright list from which to work. This may be odd. Why don't I just give you the list to start it out. First, though, I must warn you of two things: firstly, that it is written in a runic alphabet, and the transliteration is literal. Therefore, some words will have odd spellings, due to the addition of certain letters (namely "þ" and "ŋ") and lack of others (namely "k" and "v"). Secondly, the list is minorly edited, seeing as I don't use aliases on it. The list is as follows:

Notes for blog.

[Mr. Fundie]'s fundie paranoia.
Street Scene.
Adopted student.
New monarchy.
[Name omitted]'s mastery of þ­e English Language.
CPR.
[Mr. Fundie]'s brain falacy.
Dreams of history and flim.
Principalities.
["]Yes[,] Hester?["]
Poll of critter names.
Morons' ["]t["] pronunciation.
Racism[,] sexism[,] and whateuer it's called for religion.
Healþ­ class name yelli?.
Agiŋ uideo.
What is Russian for ["]Comrade["]
House lice a political cartoon.
Poem about þ­e loŋ s.
Þat test.
Looc at metros for old liuiŋ places.
Walciŋ into þ­at fire hydrant.
[Mr. Fundie] beiŋ an asshole about disfunctional families.
Ciuil war flippant.

Yep. That how I do without time, a spell checker, "k", or "u". And here's how I do when I'm running out of time!