Blog 150...... another excerpt from my new story
Category: Writing and Poetry

I need to know if this chapter is any good.  Someone told me that you could tell from my writing, I'm a beginner and need more practice.  Is this true?  Please read this fiction chapter and give me your ideas, good or bad.  Thanks. 
-----------------------

"What is taking him so (cough) long," William Stanley said to himself that Monday morning.
    It had been at least forty-five minutes since he had gotten back from the room across the hall to have his chest x-rayed.  While the old man sat there, he was dreading what the doctor was about to tell him, and feared even more what he wasn't telling him.  Every visit to the doctor seemed to bring him a little more heartache each time he heard the progress or lack thereof in his health.  
    Finally, there was a rustling at the door.
    "Good morning," the doctor stated as he walked through the door.
    Mr. Stanley popped his head up from looking at the floor ahead of him, and replied, "Dr. Whiteside."
    "How are you today?" the bald doctor asked.
    "Not too good, if I'm here.  So what did you find with the x-rays?"  The old man answered.
    "From the test we ran on you last time and the x-rays we took just a moment ago, I don't see any progress.  It appears your cancer is not getting any better, I am sure that isn't what you wanted me to tell you, but I remember when I first met you, you wanted me to always be truthful," Doctor Whiteside explained.
    "I don't see a need to withhold anything," Mr. Stanley replied.
    "It appears the medication you've been taking doesn't seem to be making much progress if any," the doctor explained.
    Mr. Stanley looked down at the floor.
    "Now we can give you the option of…" the doctor was interrupted.
    "If you say chemotherapy, I'll pass.  I can't take the chance of being seen in a hospital.  I've seen the negative affects of chemo on too many people, and all of them end up in the same place after it's all said and done.  For me, chemo is not an option.  I don't want to go out like that," he interjected.
    "The other option I was going to mention was to simply change your prescription to a more potent medicine and check your lungs in a week.  That may buy you some time, that is, if you're cooperative. Even though it won't stop the cancer, it will possibly stop all the congestion in your lungs, and potentially slow the growth and the spreading," he suggested.
    "I guess I can deal with that," Mr. Stanley snapped back.
    Dr. Whiteside wasn't exactly happy with Mr. Stanley's attitude.  The fact Mr. Stanley didn't even let him finish what he wanted to originally suggest, told the doctor he appeared to be giving up on living.  When Dr. Whiteside agreed to help Mr. Stanley a month ago, the doctor saw that the old man really needed help, but it was days like this one, it seemed he wasn't really focused on actually getting better.  While talking to Mr. Stanley, one would never get the impression that he had given up the will to live, yet when it came to talking about his health with the doctor, it seemed this wasn't his first priority.
    "In your three trips to see me over the last month, I told you that your cancer was worse than expected, and you didn't seem upset.  When I try to give you an option today, you don't even let me finish explaining what that option is.  I don't get the impression that you are depressed or even fear your own death, but may I be so bold as to ask you why you seem to just not care?"  Dr. Whiteside questioned the old man.
    Mr. Stanley solemnly stated, "Well, it's a simple explanation.  The best part of my life ended when I came to the realization that my wife was gone.  It took well after her passing to understand that she wasn't coming back.  She was my best friend, and someone I loved more than anyone else.  I spent the majority of my life with that woman and have tried to live the past few years without her.  It's been hard…really hard.  Doc, I know it's your job to do your best to keep people alive, but I don't fear death.  There is no pain in death.  There is no heartache in death.  I don't fear too much of anything at this point.  (Cough) I will do as you ask, but you know just as well as I do, that everyone's story ends the same.  I've come to terms with that well before I knew I had this cough, so that's why I'm not one of these folks who run around like a chicken with his head cut off wanting you to find a cure.  Even if you found a cure, (cough) I'd just die of something else later on."
     "I guess that is one way to look at it, but as a physician, I feel like you aren't letting me do my job when I offer the best solution to your ailments," the doctor replied.  
    "Dr. Whiteside, as far as I'm concerned, you have done your job.  I'm sick.  I know that and you know that.  You prescribe the treatment, and I take it.  I'm going to die one day.  We all are.  The doctors in New York explained to me before I went into remission four years ago that there is no cure, and it doesn't bother me. My heart is right with my maker and my mind is still sharp.  I've said my goodbyes long ago.  So, please don't feel like (cough) you are less of a doctor," Mr. Stanley explained.
    "I have to admit, you talk a good game.  The peace you seem to display is one that I wish to have myself.  It's a hard job having patients that have illnesses with no known cures, and they look to me to heal them.  I can't do that all the time, I'm just one man with a degree on the wall who will do all that I can to keep any of my patients alive, but we all know, death is inevitable," the doctor confessed.
Mr. Stanley smirked and said, "I've never heard a doctor say anything like that before, but I have peace because I want to have peace.  Once you realize the good Lord above is the one that calls the shots, you just have to play the hand you're dealt.  In my opinion, feeling depressed isn't worth the time.  I know now, more than ever, my time is more valuable to me than anything else.  Any given day may be the last time I see a sunset, eat a meal, or even wake up.  Valuing the things in this world that have not been tainted one way or another is what I hope to enjoy now, and I pray when my Lord calls me home, my wife will be waiting on me."
    The doctor was quite fascinated with Mr. Stanley's outlook when he replied, "I commend you, sir.  If only more people shared your view, maybe the world would be a little different.  I'm going to up your dosage, and schedule another appointment in a week.  Does that suit you?"
    "Oh yeah, that's fine," the old man answered.
    As the doctor wrote another prescription and some notes on Mr. Stanley's chart, he told the old man he could put his shirt back on and was free to go.  Mr. Stanley did as he requested after the doctor walked out of the examining room.     
    Mr. Stanley made his way to the front desk, paid for the office visit in cash and headed outside.  No sooner as he had got past the double glass doors to the building, he started coughing ferociously.  As he was in this coughing fit, he noticed a short white woman with blond hair who appeared in her mid forties was sitting at a bench smoking a cigarette.  After she exhaled, she asked the old man, "Are you going to be ok?"
    "Oh yeah, I'm fine.  Just a cold," Mr. Stanley replied as he took the half of pack of cigarettes from his left front pocket.  
    "If I were coughing like that, I would hold off on lighting one up," the woman stated as if she were concerned with Mr. Stanley's state of health.
    "A cough isn't going to stop me from smoking," he replied as he looked out at the parking lot.
    "It's a nasty habit, I know, but I just can't kick it either," the woman claimed.
    "Why quit if it makes you happy?" Mr. Stanley rhetorically asked.
    "Ain't that the truth?" she answered.
    No sooner as she made that statement a younger woman who resembled the blond haired smoker came out through the double glass doors.
    "What did they say?" the blond haired woman asked the younger lady as she stood up from the bench.
    The younger one mumbled something incoherent as the two women left, while Will stood there with his cigarette still lit.  Mr. Stanley watched the two women presumably mother and daughter get into a car, while an African American family of three walked towards him.  He nodded to acknowledge them as they passed, as did the man of the group.  
    Mr. Stanley knew in his mind the words he gave the doctor just minutes before were noble, but he couldn't no matter how hard he tried, actually live up to what he said.  As he saw the mother with her daughter as well as the family that just walked passed him, he couldn't help but feel sorry for these people as well as everyone he saw.  He was right in saying that death is inevitable, but preparing a mind for such an event was something no soul could ever do as fearlessly as he stated to the doctor.
    Mr. Stanley took one last drag and then dropped his cigarette to the ground.  He stepped on it making sure the fire was out as he had done thousands of times before, and walked to his car.  As he entered his vehicle, he was still trying to suppress the idea of death in his mind.  Just after starting his car, he said aloud, "Looks like I need to go get this prescription filled.  I guess I at least owe that to the doctor, if no one else."

7:24 PM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Bucket List
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

I've seen plenty of movies in my day, and many times I get carried away into lives of the characters.  In certain movies, they hit me in spots that I can easily relate to.  
    I recently watched The Bucket List, and maybe it's time I make a bucket list of my own.  I write this not expose my own thoughts and feelings, but for this to be a reference that I can look back on, and for any of the three people who comment on this blog to remind me every so often to somehow accomplish the items on this list.  
    But before I list these items, which I am sure I will update as time goes on, I would like to reiterate something I heard in that movie.
    Morgan Freeman's character told Jack Nicholson's character that the Egyptian's were asked two questions before they entered heaven.  The first was have you found joy in your life.  The second was have you brought joy to the life of others.  We can only answer these questions honestly to ourselves, and when we do, it causes us to reflect on all we have done, and all of those we have encountered.  And regardless of who you are, you want to honestly say the right answer, but as long as there is a breath in us, there is always a chance to change what we've done and the way people see us.
    So with further explanation, here's my bucket list.

    - make strangers laugh
    - meet another woman that makes my heart beat just by her presence
    - see as much of the world as I can
    - maybe become a father
    - wake up one day and go somewhere I've never been and come back home when I want to, no matter how long that may take
    - be on television or in a movie, or write a screen play that becomes a movie
    - preach a sermon
    - do stand up comedy on stage at least once
    - grow a beard  ( only say this because every job I have had, prohibits beards)


I know this may be lame, but it's just part of the things I'd like one maybe do one day.  These things may bring me joy, but more importantly maybe I may bring joy to someone else one day. 
   

6:46 PM - 8 Comments - 16 Kudos - Add Comment

July 4th
Category: News and Politics

This July fourth of 2008 marks the 232nd anniversary of the final approval of the resolution of independence and the believed signing of our country's most famous document&183;  Most of the signers placed their signatures August 2nd, 1776.  Now in the days ahead just like the days before us, there are few that really understand the severity of the condition of the state of our federal government.  In the past seven years the executive orders pushed through by our commander in chief have been more heinous than any other president. The amount of taxes we pay, are far more than the British imposed on us in the days of the American colonies.  Our freedoms have been limited in ways that many have yet to understand in this era of pro war neo-conservatives and the republicrats. 
    Every four years empty promises are made, and people are fooled into thinking they have a say in matters of this once great nation.  In reality, their say will fall on deaf ears.  The ideas and sentiments of our forefathers were just as those who care about liberty in this day and age.  The revolution that took place in the late seventeen seventies and eighties was fought by men of all ages, all walks of life, and all of one mindset to fight against the tyranny that was being enforced by the King's men in red coats.  These men fought to one day have a nation connected by a kindred spirit of one day flying a flag for one republic, one nation that would stand the test of time, a country that could stand alone that did not need a monarch or leader that came from blood.  They envisioned a leader that would be elected by the people.  Never did they intend for the elite to one day undo what many had fought to the death to never see happen.  This country was founded by people who sought out a new land, a new place to live, and freedoms to worship any way they saw fit.  They believed in a system that every man was guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  No throne would dictate how much of the fruit of their labor would be taken.  Taxes paid to the crown were not doing the colonial American any justice. 
    Today our tax system and corporate controlled economy is making the divide between rich and poor more vast than any time in our short history as a nation. 
    Instead of saying, "Give me liberty or give me death," I say give me back what's mine.  I want the money back that I paid in taxes that have funded wars that have not directly put me or anyone I know in direct danger.  I want the money back that I paid that has been but a fraction of the money given out to private and corporate welfare.  I want back what was taken before I received it.  I want to be able to say that what I type in an email or what I say to friend on the phone won't be heard, but by anyone but him or her.  I want to live in a land that has not been raped of it's pursuit of happiness or demoralized by the rise in costs of gasoline and everything that has to be transported.
    In an era that is the downside of the phrase, "Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither," I for one would never sacrifice the ability to do and to speak and move about freely just because of an idle threat from unknown source.     
This country was great.  This country was the epitome of the promise land.  This country was the land that the world wanted to be like.  Now, our plan is make the rest of the world just as the elite envisions, one war at a time.  Is this the idea of Independence I share with my fellow Americans?  Is that our forefather vision of liberty and one nation under God indivisible for liberty and justice for all?

I think not.

It is a shame that the state of our federal government has become the oligarchy that has been pushing the idea of jingoism with the help of the corporate controlled media.  I have said before, oppression is the father of revolution and as time goes on, I am afraid my words will ring true.  The true shame is that abuse of power has brought about an depressive economic state and a oppressive 'big brother' state much like that of a George Orwell novel. 
    For their to be a modern day revolution, people have to quit sitting idly by waiting for a better day when that day could be now.  Ironically, in this information age, we are living in, more people are misinformed about the state of our government.  Acquiring a questioning attitude when things are questionable is not being un-American, it is simply declaring that you opt not to be the footstool of your oppressors. 

God bless you all, and may the revolution begin by embracing the ideas that motivated our forefathers.

Currently reading : The Revolution: A Manifesto By Ron Paul

2:07 AM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Excerpt from my untitled story
Category: Writing and Poetry

Is this any good?  Let me know.  40 views and no comments tells me nothing.  So give me your thoughts.

Thanks.

************  


    After he started the car, he saw a tour bus heading back into Washington.  
    "I guess I could follow that bus.  Sometimes following the crowd isn't always bad," he said to himself as he pulled onto the highway and followed the bus.
    The bus eventually stopped almost exactly to where he dropped Elizabeth off just minutes before.  Except this time the scenery was a tad different.  Out of nowhere there seemed to be a sea of people gathered along the streets holding signs, posters, and banners of all shapes and sizes.  Each of these items stating a different slogan, but all gathered seemed to be there for one idea.  As he pulled over to the nearest parking spot, he got out, simply watched the crowd and read the various signs, each personalized and with a meaning near to each of the protesters.
    "No more war!" is what one sign said.  "Bring back my son right now!" stated another.  "No blood for oil," on another and, "Mr. Senator is your child fighting beside mine?"
    While he stood and watched the protesters, he heard a voice behind him say, "Strange how history repeats itself, isn't it?"
    "Is that right?" Johnson rhetorically asked as he looked around to see to an older white haired potbellied man.
    "Sure is.  Just like it was forty years ago.  An unpopular war with an unpopular president, the nation is divided and no one will take the blame for the mess we're in.  Except this time, it's a new batch of kids getting shipped off only to come home scarred for life or perhaps not coming home at all," the voice stated.
    While standing about five and a half feet tall wearing a light blue, button down shirt and khaki colored short pants, Johnson could see this man could very well know what he was talking about. This man seemed to be in his sixties, about the age of a man who could have fought in Vietnam. When he looked back to reply to the gentleman, he saw the man was holding a cane and he seemed to have a metal rod in the place of his lower right leg.
    "Sounds like you're speaking from experience," Johnson replied after noticing the older man's leg.
    "Well, when I came back from overseas, I saw a couple protests like you're seeing here.  When you see so many people protesting a war you just fought in, it brings about a disgust and hatred in you that you wish you could have left with you in the battlefield.  Things weren't like they were now.  These people want the soldiers to come home.  No one is blaming the soldiers.  The blame is on the stuffed shirts who have seriously lost sight of what really makes up America.  When I came back, a hero's welcome wasn't what I received. I was called a baby killer by protesters in groups like you see over there.  I was berated with their comments, and those hippy bastards actually threw stuff at us.  To some of those people, veterans like me, were no better than the bastards we were fighting.  When I came home, the greatest moment of my life, seeing my wife and baby girl for the first time was totally decimated by those sons of bitches," he explained.
    "I can't imagine anything that… that awful," Johnson replied.
    "I lost too many friends and my right leg in that God forsaken country.  But to come home and have some damn hippy call me names and ruin what could have been the best moment of my life… is unforgivable.  That's the worst kind of thanks for serving your country.  War is hell in itself, but to fight and to come home to that…it really makes you envious of my friends who died," the stranger carried on.
    Johnson was silent.
    "You in the military, son?" the stranger asked.
    "Oh no, with my luck I know I wouldn't have made it out of boot camp," he answered.
    The stranger briefly smiled and then responded, "Well, I didn't have a choice.  I was drafted.  It's like I was destined to fight.  My family didn't have the pull to keep me home, and I was too poor to go to college.  I was given a bum rap, but things do get better.  When you get a family of your own, you'll see things different and realize what life is really all about.  You probably have a wife and children yourself, so you know what I mean," the old man assumed.
    "Actually, I'm not married, nor do I have any kids," Johnson answered.
    "Well, there's plenty of time for that," the stranger replied.
    Johnson and the white haired stranger looked on as the crowd began growing larger and more boisterous.  
    "What are they protesting, exactly?" he asked the man.
    "Obviously the war and they want to impeach the president and vice-president," the man replied.
    "What do you make of that?" the younger of the two questioned.
    "Just this generations hippies, if you ask me.  People always have to have something to complain about," he answered.  
    "Maybe so," Johnson mumbled as he shook his head in agreement.
    "Nice talking to you, son," the stranger said as he walked away.
    "You too," he called as the old man limped down the sidewalk.
    Johnson watched the older man walk away and could imagine a man a generation younger and the events that were described to him.  He couldn't help but feel truly sorry for the old potbellied man.  It never ceased to amaze him just how cruel humans can be to one another.  To Johnson, this man's story, as described in their brief conversation, was the embodiment of the phrase, 'adding insult to injury'.  

5:39 AM - 5 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

Some of my complaints
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Sometimes I need to take my own advice.   Many times I choose the option that others may not opt to take.  Anymore, I have been praying that I bridle my tongue, and it has been working.  Today, I didn't.  I had enough.  Sometimes we all have a breaking point, and sometimes when things go bad, no one wants to side with us, but for the most part no one wants to side with me.  
    Sometimes everyone needs an encouraging word, and someone to listen to.  Many times people, me included, just don't have anyone to be consoled by, and to be honest, it hurts.  Sometimes there is no one to turn to.  That's when I, like many, look elsewhere.  I bow my head so that I can look up to the One that may hear my situation.  I ask forgiveness, and I ask that He watch over those that have made life as dreadful as it is sometimes.  If I choose to curse my enemies, what reward should I receive after it's all over.  
    Sometimes, we have to look at the bigger picture.  If it's a job, which is our sole provider for funds, we have to suck it up, and get through the bad times.  For those with wives, husbands, or children to watch over, walking out on things on the job that cause a burden is much harder, and we are nothing more than slaves in a system not set up to do anything but keep the corporate machine going.  
    And then there's me.  No wife, no children, but the faint hope that one day by God's grace, I may have people I love that I would to go to work to provide for.  We are all slaves for the better portion of our lives working to make another rich.  Is this fair?  That's not a relevant question.  The question should be, is it necessary?
    When we are born, no matter who you are, or where you are, we have certain things we have to do.  Sleep, eat, and drink, and potentially procreate, and then we die after our generation has expired.  What we do in between is what we are known for.  Passion and conviction are the things that make a person worth knowing.  When people sell their own passions and ideals to appease others, are they really worth the breath they breathe?  
    Hope for a better day is what keeps us going, but it's up to us, as to when that day will dawn.  

1:36 AM - 6 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

What I’ve learned this week.
Category: Religion and Philosophy

What I have learned this week is much more than what I learned last week.  I finished reading two books.  One I finished on Wednesday.  Bought another one on Thursday, and got one in the mail on Saturday I purchased last weekend.  The one I received yesterday is called Old World Secrets The Omega Project Codes.  I read it from cover to cover based on the hype I was lead to believe it was jammed packed with stuff I hadn't ever seen before.  I WAS WRONG.  Here is the site that promotes the book.  :

http://www.oldworldsecretcodes.zoomshare.com/

It was packed with lots of information, but nothing that I have not seen before.  In fact, everything I read in that book, was the exact same things I have seen in bulletins by all of the 'conspiracy theory' friends I have on here.  From Sacred Geometry to Jesus being made up to the Sumerian tablet to the alternate story of the Garden of Eden to the Banking system we have today to 9/11 being an inside job and finally to December 21, 2012, it was all there.  Nothing new, nothing I had not seen before.  There were so many mistakes.  The author did not know that there was a possessive form of the word 'their'.  He never spelled it correctly.  Also he made some other blunders as well.  The author of the book of Mark in the New Testament of the Bible, Mark, was not one of the twelve disciples as the author so claimed.  Obviously he never ran spell check, or grammar check on the entire 216 page book.  Paste and copy from the internet was his specialty.

Was it worth the 18 bucks?  No.  However, if I ever need a reference to a conspiracy theory I can grab that book and show someone that someone out there believes some wild stuff.  

    Which brings me to something else… As most of you know a great journalist in Tim Russert died this week.  I asked my dad, without knowing how Mr. Russert passed away, if he thought foul play was involved.  My dad said I was paranoid and thought everything was a conspiracy. Actually I don't.  I just question everything.  I believe in God, I believe in Jesus, I believe in science, I believe in math.  I believe certain things and regurgitate random information all the time, whether or not I agree with all I know is debatable.  If you are around me enough, you'll know I can remember lots of random information and have heard lots of things that don't surprise me, but just because it doesn't surprise me, does not mean that I actually believe it.  

    In my last blog, I was not very clear and had lots of ideas going through my mind, much like I do now, but after all the information is said, I have come to a realization every time I am bombarded with lots of questionable information.  That realization is simple.  We only believe what our heart or our inherent bias, or what out conscience inclines us to believe.  If we hear equal sides to a story that are differing in many ways, we can only rely on our personal inclinations as to which is the more believable.  We judge all the time, but we should not condemn others for their beliefs, because if it is one thing that perpetually sticks out in my mind after reading of secretive evil or covert operations used on all people, I realize that just as God made Eve for Adam, we are made for each other.  

Man is not meant to be alone, and scare tactics, true or not should not make man live in fear.  Love and companionship is not only what makes the world go around it is what makes it keep on going.  

And in the famous words of Forrest Gump, "And that's all I got to say about that."


    
 

4:00 AM - 15 Comments - 16 Kudos - Add Comment

The G stands for Gnosis
Category: News and Politics

There have been a few times in my life that have made me review the way I see things.  Sometimes I learn something and it makes me fearful.  Fearful of what you may ask?   My answer would be everything.  Everything, I know or perceive as knowing can be called into question when I hear things that are logically sound, but skewed to the point that my inherent bias will not question what I hear, but go along with the information given.  The days that make me question everything I see are few, but today was one of those days.  

    The ideas that I read and heard about today came from a man who is no longer with us.  William Cooper was his name and exposing the truth was his livelihood.  It's because of this this man, his documented life, and the ideas that he has presented that has shaped my view of the world and the underlying ideas that connect everything.  
    To tell you the ideas that sprang forth from my mind because of what I have heard from this man's written words and audio clips would fill volumes.  His information is questionable at best when you first hear what he has to say.  Research sometimes clears up any questions I have about what he has said and what others have reiterated, but with anything questionable, there is always room for error and more questions.
    
    Here is the two transcripts I am referring to.

Hermetic marriage

The Lion King exposed

The videos are available here on myspace as well.

   

You see the long and short of it is that everything we know, is not as it seems.  The ones who tell the story, is in control of how the story goes.  And we know how the story ends because the story we know is what they use as their playbook.  Hidden in plain view is what I am talking about.  Everything hidden is seen.  And everything seen has hidden meaning. 
    I may be nuts, and may be too far gone, but to me William Cooper has helped me see things in a different light (pun intended….Illuminati) .  To me he is the epitome of the Mark twain quote below.

"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man and brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." 


Special thanks to Matrix Exposed
---------------------------

Gnosis means knowledge. 

Knowledge is the antithesis of faith.  With faith, knowledge is not needed.  With knowledge, faith is not needed.  Yet, I have learned that with both, nothing shall be called impossible, because with both God is in all things. 

Bless you all.

   
 

Currently reading : Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel By Michio Kaku Release date: 2008-03-11

8:01 AM - 9 Comments - 16 Kudos - Add Comment

2 sentence blog
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Life itself is not that bad, what goes on around you that you cannot control is what makes it sometimes intolerable.  However, with wise actions coupled with fitly spoken words can make things better without having to stoop to the level of those that make life so dreadful.  

9:39 AM - 14 Comments - 34 Kudos - Add Comment

Blog post 142
Category: Religion and Philosophy

    Every week or so, I post what's on my mind.  And after scanning quite a few profiles here on myspace. I have seen just what I used to see out in the real world when I'd go out to different bars and such.  Lots of people who just don't have any clue to what's going on around them and no thought for the future.  Now to clarify that statement and to analyze what says about me is two fold.  I have just been observing not judging per se.  Now I haven't condemned anyone for what they put their page, what you see on their page is either an extension of themselves or what they want others to see them as.  And from that I can gather that the future of this country is probably not in good hands.  
    I'm not saying that we are in good hands now, that would be a lie.  As time goes on, things change and society evolves.  More often than not, the morals change and the fine lines between what's and what's wrong is widened and no one seems to notice.  
    I'm not trying to sound judgmental, just trying to find my own place to get away from all that may not appear to be what's good for me.  You see, when I try to stop doing something that I have grown fond of doing, like drinking for example, it starts with a change of mindset.  And soon, everything around me has changed as well.  The number of friends I've had over the past couple years have dwindled, some by my choosing and some not.  But my point is that everything changes and everything looks different when we change the way we see things.
    I have basically quit posting the political blogs and rarely will I post a series of political ideas in my bulletins.  Why you may ask?  By now, you either know what's going on, refuse to believe it, or wouldn't know what is what if I even asked.  It's like preaching to the choir, or being asked to become berated by naysayers.  As I stated before, perception is not an exact science and neither is history, but everything depends on the way we view it.  
    And sometimes if can't look at life with a objective eye, can we really learn from our mistakes or anyone else's?  The one difference we have with animals is the ability to reason.  How come many of us opt not to use this natural ability?  You see, over the past couple of years, I've become a hermit.  A sleep deprived hermit.  And strangely my want to not be sleep deprived has lead me to find some sort of solace and refuge that can keep my mind sober and thinking clearly.  This sober mindedness has helped me to see things the way I see them.  
    Sometimes, I think we all need to step back and think about what's going on around us, because if we don't know where we're going, the future does seem grim.  

7:31 PM - 6 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

Scars of life....................a quick blog
Category: Religion and Philosophy

I usually don't post more than one blog a week, but here's an idea I wanted to put to paper so to speak. 

There are certain things that happen that are brief, but make an impact for a long time.  Just like a scar on someone's body, the tear of the skin is almost always something that's brief, and more than likely painful.  The healing process may heal the wound but if the tear is big enough it will leave a scar that can be seen for a long time. 

How often are people like that?  You meet them, they make an impression on you and they leave, but the effects of you knowing them will last for a long time, just like a scar after a healed wound.  It's strange how things may not seem like much, but everything always leaves a mark.  Whether it be good or bad, the effects are always felt or at least seen well after the fact. 

    So, my point is simple.  We may not feel like we have a place in the world sometimes, but when a person leaves, their absence may not be always felt, but if we look hard enough, we can see that they left their mark, just like a scar leaves it's mark after the wound is healed.

1:00 AM - 6 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

The Movie of Life......I give this blog two thumbs DOWN!
Category: Religion and Philosophy

How often does art imitate life?  Chances are the better the book, movie, or play, the more realistic it may be.  The more we can identify with the characters, the better a story may be, or maybe we may like the story itself more than originally thought.  
    Now given this information, I realized that the story I am writing is more like real life.  Given the idea that no two days are alike, nor do the people you interact with today will be the same you interact with tomorrow, that's the same way parts of my story is written.  My story doesn't exactly follow a set formula for a conventional movie or book, and that may not be the norm, but my goal is to keep the reader guessing while he or she is entertained and/or informed.  In my story, I want the reader to be entertained and wonder what all of the things and informations that is given to these 5 characters have to do with each other.  
    Some of the better movies of the past twenty years don't follow the norm.  Movies like Pulp Fiction, and No Country for Old Men are two that are highly acclaimed, lots of people liked, but didn't go the traditional route when you look at the entire scope of the movie.  
    See, life is always going to be different, at least if your living it, it is.  What do I mean?  You see in the past couple of years, I have gradually become the hermit I am today.  Giving up drinking, and not going out to bars, clubs and places I have no business being at are things that sound boring to the average drinker or partier, but to me, I have seen that these things are fruitless.  By giving up these things over the past year or so, I have lost touch with people.  I hardly talk to anyone I used to and every day is different.  I never know what's going to happen next, and in when you have a clean sober mind, not knowing what's going to happen next should not ever have jail time as a viable option.  
    It's been said, 'why gain the whole world and lose your own soul?'.  After going through the motions of drinking, partying, and spending too much money on frivolous items, I've seen that keeping your soul, or keeping your sanity is what's important.  After the cheap or expensive thrills, the most valuable things are the virtues that cannot be bought.  I have prayed for wisdom and knowledge years ago, and I know that my class in these subjects in the school known as Life is not done.  I am a perpetual student as we all are.  Every day is different, every new situation is just that, new.  We have to deal with it when we get there, and that's why I like movies, and writing my own stories.  
    A movie is like a snippet of a life caught on film.  If we knew how the movie ended as soon as we understood the plot would we continue to watch the movie?  Or if you didn't know the plot, wouldn't you want to watch more until you figured out how everything fit together.  Life doesn't follow a formula, and sometimes the better stories don't either.  It's true that some stories are awful, and with some there is no helping in making them better, but sometimes lives are the same way.  For every person out there, someone has you pegged for someone you're not, some good and some bad.  And when you come across a walking stereotype, you deal with them accordingly.  It's a shame we treat people like movies.  We either stay away from them because we think we have seen them before, or run to them thinking they are different when in reality, we are actually watching a rerun.  
    So, as I bring this ambiguously written blog to a close, I want to say that whenever life seems to be going one way, just watch for the twist, because sometimes you can't differentiate between the heroes and villains until after the story has been told, and many times stories don't end the way you think they should. 
------------------
I won't delete this blog as I did the last one.

9:36 PM - 5 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

Science, logic, robots, and why?
Category: Religion and Philosophy

    In the past couple of weeks I have been reading a book called Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku.  It contains a fascinating look at ideas from science fiction that could be plausible in our time and ideas that may never be attainable.  Each chapter gives a detailed and scientific account of how certain things that are usually considered impossible could one day be created.
    I have always been fascinated by physics, math, and time travel (which this book talks about in a later chapter).  Yet the one thing that I have come to think about a good bit is the chapter on robots.  Also, the most popular blog here on myspace for the past few days has been one that is claiming that Christians are delusional.  Now I understand that many of you who might read this may think that these two subjects have no correlation whatsoever, but they do.  
    You see the chapter in this book I'm reading explains as I have already known from working as an industrial electrician for the past 9 years is that robots operate on logic.  Simple on's and off's, and if/then statements.  All the movements of a robot or any automated device runs on switches, optical devices, weight indicating resistance devices and other electrical equipment.  Each piece of equipment is run on relay logic or programmable logic that connects the devices electrically through wires so that the piece of equipment or 'robot' can perform the functions it is programmed to do.  
    This may sound like mumbo jumbo to you who don't deal with the technical workings of industrial, commercial or everyday electronic devices, but my point is simple.  For a robot to perform any sort of menial task that a human or even an animal can do that requires little to no thought, takes lots of programming and lots of different devices connected so that a machine can perform a task that a living creature can do.  
    My point is that for one day robots like the boy in the Spielberg movie AI or any robot that may act or appear human would take no less than a series of lifetimes to complete.  Chances are a robot that would perform many functions that may even simulate emotions or reasoning may never come into fruition.  Now, even a gnat or a fly or even an microscopic creature can discern between an immovable object and can move around it without thinking.  A robot who cannot think would require countless if/then statements or series of movements before it could navigate around a stationary object.  
    Now given all of this.  How is it that animal life, humans, and even microscopic entities be made with the same elements as nonliving creatures yet have the capabilities to think or think beyond simple logic?  Could the breath of life be the thought that we all possess.  Can science explain the beginning of life, beyond the creation of proteins from amino acids that can be created from certain elements that have had electricity applied to them?  Can science logically bridge the idea of acids to life to eventual beings with thought through an experiment?  
    I believe in science. I am amazed at life.  From seeing my friends that I have had since I was 5, now become parents to the beauty in nature I see every day can be explained scientifically. But how I can reason and how I can know what is beauty and what is not is something that I can't explain.  My thought process as well as everyone else's is different, but for the billions of synapses in each of our minds cannot be the product of molecules taking on a life on their own.  Just as a machine is made up of inorganic compounds, the compounds themselves don't have the breath of life that we all share.  
    To say that life of all shapes, sizes and longevities was a haphazard event and by chance is unfounded.  The missing piece of every science book is not 'the what', or 'the how', but 'the why'.
    Why is there life and order in the composition among living creatures?  And why is there not infinite molecules around this universe that are without form and void?  Quite simply stated, "You will have to ask the Creator when you meet Him."
*****
Now that I have stated my piece, you write the rest of the blog...

9:22 AM - 25 Comments - 28 Kudos - Add Comment

How to alienate your internet friends or how to make plenty of strangers hate you
Category: Religion and Philosophy

I post some things on here like in my status line on the home page usually just to get a rise out of people or to what I like to call it, fish for comments or messages.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  

But this is going to be a different kind of blog.  Usually I write what is on my mind and what has been heavy on my heart.  Today I'm not doing anything like that.  I'm going to tell you what I don't like.  This will be a simple list.

Stuff  I hate

1.  The human foot- feet disgust me.  No more explanation.    
2.  Smacking - If you smack while eating you are a dumbass.  You are too stupid to keep your mouth closed while eating.  My only hope is that a bumble bee flies   into your mouth before you finish your sandwich.
3.  Idiots who say Barack Obama is Muslim.
4.  People who think Osama bin Laden is still alive.    
5.  People who vote Republican because they think Democrats are for "blacks and Fags"   (Actual words from most people that I know who think this way)
6.  People who can't pop their kids when they need it.  
7.  People with cell phones….everywhere.
8.  Text messages.   
9.  Girls with wet looking hair.
10.  People who have to tell you how drunk they got….it doesn't matter when or where. I get the point you were drunk.
11.  People who are obsessed with current affairs involving celebrities.
12.  New country music- because it's usually crap
13.  Rap - because it's usually crap.
14.  Grocery Store Music- because it's old crap
15.  Porn - nah just playin'  
16.  Emo kids - because they need a good ass whooping
17.  Congress - they need a good ass whooping
18.  People who can't spell.
19.  Bloggers who think I care what they think about their love life.  (Think S. Farris)
20.  Atheist who more narrow minded than the redneck who saw the tornado pass on the local news.
21.  Bush and Cheney - their best bet is that they could be the new poster boys for nationwide abortion clinics.  
22.  Parody movies - ripping off a series of popular movies is never funny.  I had better jokes when I was in high school. I could write a better comedy movie in 20 minutes on any given day.
23.  Paying for gas.
24.  Insurance of any kind
25. Policemen/State troopers - it's their mentality that I hate.  Reducing my points and my fine is NEVER doing me a favor.  Getting back in that POS you call a cruiser and going on your merry way is doing me a favor.  
26.  Wiggers - no explanation needed on that.  That is something we can agree on... except for wiggers.

6:23 PM - 14 Comments - 28 Kudos - Add Comment

Politics and religion
Category: Religion and Philosophy

All day long my mind has been in perpetual motion.  From the eight hour day at my place of employment to watching a movie (Resurrecting the Champ) , my mind has been on overdrive.  Now I can honestly say that many of you don't know me, but as you may infer from the words I've typed on computers at home and computers at work, I do have certain things that will get my blood flowing more so than others.
    Also as many of you know the subjects I write about often flip flop between the News and Politics category and the Religion and Philosophy section.  Many of you shy away from these subjects in fear of leading to an argument or a differing of opinions between you and your treasured blog subscribers.  I on the other hand simply don't care….what I say at the moment but do regret sometimes that I have such strong opinions.  My only published book being one of these.
    I only say that about my book, for the simple fact certain people I care about were offended by the content of what I wrote.  That's not my dwelling point in this blog.
    My point is this:  my passion for certain things is what drives me, and that is what I am afraid of.
    Now the rest of what I am about to say will be controversial to some and harmless to others, while being obviously confusing to all.  

    I dislike humanity as a whole but individually they are ok.  

    I'm unaware if anyone has every said something like that before.  I am sure they have.  But what I mean by this is that, collectively, people when grouped together bother me, but one on one I can see that I relate to them.  Like atheist, in general, I don't like them, but personally you can reason with them on certain things a little easier.  But what has me going in this direction is an online discussion I had with a man who is 45 years older than me.  This man is the epitome of the devout atheist, if such a thing exists.  
    Many people who consider themselves Christians would never speak to or communicate through email with a man of such strong opinions, but I do.  I have a shared dislike in the government just as this man of 74 years that I am talking about. 
     Not many self proclaiming Christians are going to go along with the idea that September eleventh was not what it seemed. Many are not going to berate our 43rd President here online or in a local newspaper like I do as well, but that is where my strong opinions may alienate me.  
    You see, I hate getting personal especially online when words don't show the inflections of my voice and the emotion in my words, but I fear that my strong opinions may alienate me at age 29 until I am an old lonely, man who has no hope(like the 74 year old I am referring to).

    I told him through an email about the state of government affairs… hope or faith in a better day or a better place will bring some sort of ease to those of us who realize it isn't going to get any better.

    He went off on a hard core atheist rant that sounded as though he was Satan himself after being doused with Holy water.  Instead of arguing or even responding I didn't.  Because every time I am tempted to do something like that I remember this politically incorrect image:


    But back to the matter at hand.  I want to say that from