Things It Takes Most Of Us 50 years to learn:

1. The badness of a movie is directly proportional to the number of helicopters in it.

2. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight-saving time.

3. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

4. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers.

5. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is: age 11.

6. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

7. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

8. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

9. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.

10. If there really is a God who created the entire universe with all of its glories, and he decides to deliver a message to humanity, he will NOT use as his messenger a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle or in some cases, really bad make-up too.

11. You should not confuse your career with your life.

12. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter/janitor, is not a nice person.

13. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

14. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.

15. Your true friends love you, anyway.

16. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

8:07 PM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Summer Days

A - E -  D - -
Su-mer-days

Someday
Someday
I'll leave my worries behind.

There was an amazing spontaneous song that happened this weekend up at utaba, (a small camp somewhere in the mountains) which was some of my favorite moments there. Placing hope in the summer is always what seems to happen around this time. utaba is better than Disneyland, i can be a kid again.

Hope was restored in a place which first gave me hope. OSLC

Jason was singing and playing guitar one night, it made me feel soo sad and it reminded me of the good ol' days that everyone talks about.

5:33 PM - 2 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment

To musicians, performers, or audiences

"it is not priviledge for you to see me on stage but rather it is a priviledge to play for the people in the audience." Once you loose sight of that your headed for a serious down fall.

the power is in the hands of the people not the performers.

1:39 PM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

The Spider poem.

Oh, the dark o'ersized spider
Crawling through the murk and mire
Its lumbering faings do aspire
Slumbering lives soon retire

In the dark they do not know
Soon thier dreary fate will show
Octfold eyes with evil glow
Fangs dripping venom in the snow

Oh, the dark o'ersized caper
Rips through tent like silk and paper
Screaming starts but soon will taper
As they're sent to meet thier maker


cool huh?

comon... could you write a better poem about i giant spider?

thats what i thought.

3:38 PM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

The secret wars of men.

There is a battle that often wages in the bathrooms of homes with more than one man. there is something hardwired in the minds of men than makes them unable to or extremely opposed to the changing of the toilet paper roll when it is empty.

The first scenario is negligence.
a new roll will be placed in proximity of the toilet but not changed. such as on the back of the toilet on the counter, or in some extreme cases on top of the old roll itself.

The second is avoidance.
When the roll is nearly empty some will try to use as little paper as possible in order to leave some so that they will not have the burden of changing it. or visit a different bathroom if possible.

Why this happens is a mystery to me, i find no qualms in the changing of the roll, but have often experimented to see if anyone else would change it, when you share a bathroom with three other men, that does not seem likely.

12:33 AM - 5 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

A Questioning of Faith.

  
    What you see here is what you would see if you held a straw six feet in length at any particular dark spot in the sky at night. It is more than ten thousand galaxies, not stars, but galaxies containing hundreds of thousands of stars similar to the sun.

Some claim that this is the proof that God does not exist, on the basis that these galaxies are billions of light-years away and if light from them had reached us, the galaxy could not have been created 6000 years ago. And if the purpose of creation is man then why create a truly scopeless universe above our insignificant heads.

    This is a valid, scientific, and staggering point to Christians, and other people of faith. The bible breaks down like this in my eyes, its all or nothing, its all literally true and if that is the case everything will support all the other parts of it, or it is not true, and its just a good piece of literature. Its difficult to swallow when something like that is simply placed in front of you with no defense of your own. It makes me wonder how people would act if it was proven that there was no God, surely some formerly religious people with go crazy with no moral basis, that would be scary. But surely humanity would find something new to argue about incessantly, and fuel their own prejudices with.

My reply is this,

    I had a dream a few nights ago, i was standing in front of a kiosk in New York looking for a new bandana to buy. That is simply how the dream began, I was there, there was no epilogue or anything telling me the events leading up to this, or how i knew it was new York, or my desire for a new bandana, it just began and it was. If this God is soo great than surely he can do at the very least the same thing with creation. Right? He set things in motion to stimulate a past as well as a future, just like when we dream.
     He would not leave such a foolish trace of imperfection and lack of creativity. I would like to think that if we are created by God that we are not by any means smarter or more wise than he, it would be a crappy universe if this was true. Those who claim to understand the nature of something vastly superior to us are vastly arrogant, even if they don't believe in its existence. There is a little more credit due somewhere, even if  it was somebody who just played a practical joke and tricked the whole world into thinking Jesus came back to life, cuz that would be funny. Which comes to my next point, i don't know why there are billions of other galaxies out there, and whether or not theres life somewhere else the could be and there most likely is, but if God is good enough to make such a big universe I'm pretty sure he can take care of a little more than the crap we do on this tiny planet, even though i think its pretty bad.
    Science is a good thing and i wish there was more of it, and if there is proof of something out there i hope its found even if i am proven wrong. But be careful, because God or whoever made him up is probably smarter than you.

1:47 AM - 10 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

A narrative on the American dream.

    This is a long read, but you should read it and critique it. it would make me happy.



    You said 75% of our lives are unimportant. Why though? Is that just the way it is, or do we have some sort of say in this? What is the point of this American dream we discussed if nothing or little of anything of importance is accomplished. What is important? Do we change the world or change with it?

    Who is Kyle Gray? Most will pass him off as a long hair hippie who listens to weird old music, a poser in all respects only good at pretending to be cool.  Does that matter? Maybe. Some think that the only thing important is how you are remembered. Others people believe in being true to themselves and being whom they really are inside, but that matter is quite complicated and often leaves little extra time for others. Some find the path to be in serving others and changing lives, but truly that will drain you completely. It seems in order to achieve anything worth anything, you must give 100% to others and still have 10% left over for yourself, impossibility. But it happens, it appears there is some external source to these people who can achieve this 110%.

    What is worthy of being called important though? I have traveled the world, I have seen the face of physical poverty in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Africa, the people who rejoice over a bowl of rice. Clearly these people are in desperate need of help.  As you are more and more exposed to them though, your perspective begins to change. Who is in more need when these people sing at the top of their lungs with no shame or prejudice, and happiness is brought with every little sip of water, and game played in soccer fields of dirt and prickly grass on their bare feet. You turn back to your own people, and they are apathetic and hollow most of the time and if there is any emotion at all it is anger that they can't find the remote to the television. Who is the richer when we cover ourselves in shells of nothingness and apathy, and they are free to run unburdened by superficial things. Are our priorities wrong when we think of what is important? Can we find anything at all of significance in the lifestyles we live, or do we surround ourselves with a mediocre and miniature illusion of this world.

    What makes myself better than the people I scrutinize without mercy, nothing. I too am a victim of all I criticize, with only awareness I hope to improve myself and others. The way we live our lives brings to my mind a picture of two galaxies colliding together. This is a magnificent event that spans millions of years, yet it is incredibly rare to have two stars collide although there are billions of them dancing sporadically together. This is tangible to the campus and the city, we stand on the pinnacle of education, and yet there is so much nothingness between everyone that something so much as eye contact, or answering a question in class is thought to be risky. We constantly squelch our potential or even friendliness with a fear, but what is it exactly that we fear? Failure, of not being great. or far greater than we could imagine, what is the driving force that is bringing us down?

    This struggle is just as difficult to confront as poverty, but it is harder to even realize that we hunger for things other than food, but is evident that our cars aren't making us happy anymore. I do not want in any way to undermine the challenges of poverty though. The true American success story is someone who is a working family man/woman and still finds real flavor in this world and is not lost in a mediocre routine. The true American success story is someone who rises to the top but does not forget where he came from and fights for them too. The true American success story is the kid on the college campus who sits next to the kid who sits alone at the table in the HC, with no prior knowledge to whom he is and is just a genuine friend to a stranger.

    Maybe this is just a silly poetic view of some utopian society, but the best change that can be made is always awareness of the problem. Whether you agree with me or not my goal is just to make you think, and question yourself and your surroundings if only just slightly. That is the building blocks of change, because as we all know Rome, was not destroyed in a day, maybe then we can truly declare that we did something important, and say we spent more than twenty to twenty-five percent of our lives on something worthwhile.

9:58 PM - 10 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

A Tribute to the Fellas.

This world is a sad place, people all around us give into drinking, smoking, and other useless crap, some to have fun, some to forget, some just to simply talk about doing it to impress others.

I dont think you guys understand that you truly are, examples, heroes, and legends, to those younger, and yet those much older than you. You are pure kids, you keep eachother strong, and you are uncompromising. You guys have made me laugh soo hard, and i have really had some of the best times of my life with you guys there.

You guys are one of the many things that give me faith in this world. And as the seemingly relentless pressures (which are actually stupid and superficial) of highschool bear down on you as they have on the rest of us, i urge you to continue living for God, hold tightly to eachother, dont let your friends slip away, it is difficult to confront them, but dont let them slip away.

I love you guys, and God be with you all.
Kage.



I wish everyone was in this picture. sorry to those who aren't

9:46 PM - 10 Comments - 14 Kudos - Add Comment

Like a child.(Bono verison)

I wrote like a child before i read this, but it basically says the same thing, its just alot longer, but if you can keep paitence to read all of this, i promise you, you will be a better person. Bono's best sermon yet: Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast If you're wondering what I'm doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I'm certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. It's certainly not because I'm a rock star. Which leaves one possible explanation: I'm here because I've got a messianic complex. Yes, it's true. And for anyone who knows me, it's hardly a revelation. Well, I'm the first to admit that there's something unnatural...something unseemly...about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in the south of France. Talk about a fish out of water. It was weird enough when Jesse Helms showed up at a U2 concert...but this is really weird, isn't it? You know, one of the things I love about this country is its separation of church and state. Although I have to say: in inviting me here, both church and state have been separated from something else completely: their mind. Mr. President, are you sure about this? It's very humbling and I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned - I'm Irish. I'd like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those laws are written. And I'd like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that the one serves the other; that the laws of man serve these higher laws...but of course, they don't always. And I presume that, in a sense, is why you're here. I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us here - Muslims, Jews, Christians - all are searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God. I know I am. Searching, I mean. And that, I suppose, is what led me here, too. Yes, it's odd, having a rock star here - but maybe it's odder for me than for you. You see, I avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church and state was...well, a little blurry, and hard to see. I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays... and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God. For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land...and in this country, seeing God's second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash...in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment... I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV. Even though I was a believer. Perhaps because I was a believer. I was cynical...not about God, but about God's politics. (There you are, Jim.) Then, in 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian British Christians went and ruined my shtick - my reproachfulness. They did it by describing the millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, as an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world's poorest people. They had the audacity to renew the Lord's call - and were joined by Pope John Paul II, who, from an Irish half-Catholic's point of view, may have had a more direct line to the Almighty. 'Jubilee' - why 'Jubilee'? What was this year of Jubilee, this year of our Lord's favor? I'd always read the scriptures, even the obscure stuff. There it was in Leviticus (25:35)... 'If your brother becomes poor,' the scriptures say, 'and cannot maintain himself...you shall maintain him.... You shall not lend him your money at interest, not give him your food for profit.' It is such an important idea, Jubilee, that Jesus begins his ministry with this. Jesus is a young man, he's met with the rabbis, impressed everyone, people are talking. The elders say, he's a clever guy, this Jesus, but he hasn't done much...yet. He hasn't spoken in public before... When he does, is first words are from Isaiah: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,' he says, 'because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.' And Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord's favour, the year of Jubilee (Luke 4:18). What he was really talking about was an era of grace - and we're still in it. So fast-forward 2,000 years. That same thought, grace, was made incarnate - in a movement of all kinds of people. It wasn't a bless-me club... it wasn't a holy huddle. These religious guys were willing to get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions...making it really hard for people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost started to like these church people. But then my cynicism got another helping hand. It was what Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called AIDS. And the religious community, in large part, missed it. The ones that didn't miss it could only see it as divine retribution for bad behaviour. Even on children...even [though the] fastest growing group of HIV infections were married, faithful women. Aha, there they go again! I thought to myself judgmentalism is back! But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age. Love was on the move. Mercy was on the move. God was on the move. Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet...conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS...soccer moms and quarterbacks...hip-hop stars and country stars. This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens! Popes were seen wearing sunglasses! Jesse Helms was seen with a ghetto blaster! Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit. It was breathtaking. Literally. It stopped the world in its tracks. When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments listened - and acted. When churches starting organising, petitioning, and even - that most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying...on AIDS and global health, governments listened - and acted. I'm here today in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed policy; you changed the world. Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives. Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone. I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill. I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff. Maybe, maybe not. But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. "If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places." It's not a coincidence that in the scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. (You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.) 'As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me' (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor. Here's some good news for the president. After 9/11 we were told America would have no time for the world's poor. America would be taken up with its own problems of safety. And it's true these are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and double-locked the doors. In fact, you have doubled aid to Africa. You have tripled funding for global health. Mr. President, your emergency plan for AIDS relief and support for the Global Fund - you and Congress - have put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided 8 million bed nets to protect children from malaria. Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive. Historic. Be very, very proud. But here's the bad news. From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There is much more to do. There's a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response. And finally, it's not about charity after all, is it? It's about justice. Let me repeat that: It's not about charity, it's about justice. And that's too bad. Because you're good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford it. But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment. Sixty-five hundred Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about justice and equality. Because there's no way we can look at what's happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn't accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the tsunami. 150,000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, "mother nature." In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it's a completely avoidable catastrophe. It's annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain. You know, think of those Jewish sheep-herders going to meet the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh says, "Equal?" A preposterous idea: rich and poor are equal? And they say, "Yeah, 'equal,' that's what it says here in this book. We're all made in the image of God." And eventually the Pharaoh says, "OK, I can accept that. I can accept the Jews - but not the blacks." "Not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way, man." So on we go with our journey of equality. On we go in the pursuit of justice. We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than 2 million Americans...Left and Right together... united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live. We hear that call even more powerfully today, as we mourn the loss of Coretta Scott King - mother of a movement for equality, one that changed the world but is only just getting started. These issues are as alive as they ever were; they just change shape and cross the seas. Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market...that's a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents...that's a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents...that's a justice issue. And while the law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the subject. That's why I say there's the law of the land. And then there is a higher standard. There's the law of the land, and we can hire experts to write them so they benefit us, so the laws say it's OK to protect our agriculture but it's not OK for African farmers to do the same, to earn a living? As the laws of man are written, that's what they say. God will not accept that. Mine won't, at least. Will yours? [ pause] I close this morning on...very...thin...ice. This is a dangerous idea I've put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God...vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity. And this is a town - Washington - that knows something of division. But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the scriptures call the least of these. This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith. 'Do to others as you would have them do to you' (Luke 6:30). Jesus says that. 'Righteousness is this: that one should...give away wealth out of love for him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives.' The Koran says that (2.177). Thus sayeth the Lord: 'Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard.' The Jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again. That is a powerful incentive: 'The Lord will watch your back.' Sounds like a good deal to me, right now. A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it. I have a family, please look after them. I have this crazy idea... And this wise man said: stop. He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing. Get involved in what God is doing - because it's already blessed. Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing. And that is what he's calling us to do. I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to 10% of the family budget. Well, how does that compare with the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less than 1%. Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America: I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing.... Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional 1% of the federal budget tithed to the poor. What is 1%? 1% is not merely a number on a balance sheet. 1% is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. 1% is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. 1% is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. 1% is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This 1% is digging waterholes to provide clean water. 1% is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism toward Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and white elephants of every description. America gives less than 1% now. We're asking for an extra 1% to change the world. to transform millions of lives - but not just that and I say this to the military men now - to transform the way that they see us. 1% is national security, enlightened economic self-interest, and a better, safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, 1% is the best bargain around. These goals - clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty - these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a globalised world. Now, I'm very lucky. I don't have to sit on any budget committees. And I certainly don't have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don't have to make the tough choices. But I can tell you this: To give 1% more is right. It's smart. And it's blessed. There is a continent - Africa - being consumed by flames. I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did - or did not to - to put the fire out in Africa. History, like God, is watching what we do. Thank you. Thank you, America, and God bless you all.

10:13 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Like a child.(My version)

So heres another banter i put up to make myself look smart.


I was at the delta center, after finishing concessions, but that’s a different story. After finishing that i waited on a street corner for Adam to pick me up, there was a man playing accordion with a top hat out for money. i placed a dollar in the hat and sat on the street corner and watched him and the crowd leaving the jazz game. He was not very good at the accordion, but i don’t really think that matters in the big picture.

I began to observe the people who did and didn’t put money in the hat, and I noticed that almost every young kid who walked by put some money in. Now what compelled these kids to put money in the hat? Because they obviously don’t get their hands on very much, very often (neither do I) nevertheless, kids were giving whatever they had left from buying snacks from the game.

at first I thought "well they don’t truly appreciate the value of money since it was just given to them" and the adults obviously worked hard to earn their money, so they aren’t just going to toss it away to some bum on the corner.

Then I began to admire the children's point of view, because after all.... isn’t everything we have a gift in some way? is it not a gift to be simply alive? time is money, and the time we have is unknown so since it was given to us soo freely, should we not share the same spirit of giving as a kid?

so if you're lucky enough to be alive after this boring drawn out thought and survived the horrible typing, just make sure to put a dollar in the next hat to see.

6:20 PM - 4 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment