My prayer list

I am not a man of faith, I am a sinful man, a broken man and a very cynical man but I do pray from time to time. Rarely for myself but others worthy of some love from the creator. Whatever your faith or belief is, we all could use a prayer from time to time for ourselves or our loved ones.

Because it is difficult to keep everything in your mind, I wanted to start a prayer list. If you or someone you know needs a little strength or just need to be kept in our thoughts, post a comment here or start your own prayer list.

2:09 PM - 4 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Shorter Paragraphs! A win-win for all!

People,

Its time for this discussion; many of you need a quick and helpful web writing tip from the master of grammatic disaster, me!

When you write and respond in a window, 1/3 the size of a normal writing area, it becomes increasingly important to separate your thoughts into smaller sections. You might max out with one, two or maybe three sentences. Short paragraphs are the key here.

Well, Tom, why is this so important to my writing on here? Its not the style of the writing that's in question here, it's the visual impact on the eye. When you write more than 8 or 9 lines in an online post, in a tiny window, without indentations the way you would in a book, the reader can easily become lost.

Now many of you will scoff, rebuke, and mock my post but I am not trying to critique your writing, spelling or grammar. I am simply suggesting that using the return key a few times, gives your words a little breathing room for the eye.

Regards,
The Worst Writer Ever- Tom

12:47 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

$100 Honest Challange, Missing Goat and Twins

This trip began last week on "Black Friday". As I raced up the 5 freeway too Disneyland for a family trip and pulled into the parking structure, I was greeted by a new response from the gatekeeper.

"This is no good." Snarkly (yes I like made up words) said the parking attendant. I was dismayed and shocked. My deluxe pass featured a parking add-on, a feature I paid extra for and had on many occasions used, even on black out days. Now perhaps I've skated this issue before, but upon brief discussion with several other deluxe and so-cal pass members this seemed to be a new issue for those who paid extra for parking.

I asked why and the response from the attendant was less than what you might consider "Disney-appropriate and friendly". This was not the way I wanted to start my trip.

Having paid my parking, I walked/ran to the park *I have begun to forgo the stupid tram over the last year*

**************************************************************

After upgrading my pass to a premium for the sake of ease, I called my family and made arrangements to meet them on Main St. In my attempt to cross the main quad between Disneyland and California Adventure, my glance happened downwards on what appeared to be a dollar bill.

Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a $100 dollar bill, neatly folded into a tiny square, no doubt dropped accidentally. This begins the moral question that could spark some debate. Without hesitating, I turned to a trip of nearby cast members and flagged them down.

I handed the $100 bill to them and watched as their faces dropped with shock and awe. Was it so strange to consider that I did not rightfully have any right to claim the money as my own? The decision was made so easy when I considered how a $100 bill might make or break someone's experience at Disneyland.

Before getting into the rest of my adventure, let's time travel 8 hours into the future. My honesty was not without curiosity. I returned to the "Lost and Found" to inquire to the $100 bill, as if it was my own. I figured, the person who lost the money would have surely checked by now and perhaps they had left a note, or perhaps it went unclaimed and might somehow return to me.

Now this part may not shock some of you but it did me a bit. The money was never turned into or catalogued by Lost and Found. Upon brief discussion, lost money is often turned in and re-claimed in smaller and greater amounts than this $100 bill. The cast member explained that it appeared that the trio of cast members I had handed the money to had most likely pocketed the money.

This has of course left me with a nagging feeling for several days, exposing a plethora of moral questions not specific to Disneyland but more so about honesty. I'll let you discuss.

***************************************************************

Returning to the trip, this is the part that I will remember, forgetting my previous less important side bar. This was my twin nephew's first trip to Disneyland. Now my little guys are only 13 months old but seeing Disneyland through their eyes was the most incredible experience I have ever had at the park.

We rode It's A Small World and I photographed the boys as they sat with their parents, taking in the impressive holiday splendor. I was able to hold my nephew Jakob during the Enchanted Tiki Room and learned a new appreciation for the lights, color and music.

Perhaps even more so, I learned to appreciate a parade for the first time ever. Sitting there with the boys and watching them as the holiday parade past us, was amazing.

Also the second morning I watched the better part of a full episode of the "Wiggles" with my nephews and I have to say that is one incredible show.

***************************************************************

Lastly, a trip report would not be complete without a fun ride report. My brother and wife work very hard and employee a Brazilian woman to help take care of the boys and she came with us to the park. So Friday I dragged her on Pirates, Indiana Jones, Matterhorn, and finally Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Of course as we shot up the second lift, I began to explain the old goat trick and just as we shot down the hill I said ---

"Juuuuussssstttt keeeeeepppppp loooookkkkiiiinnnggg aaaaattttt ttthhhheeeeee...
WHAT THE HELL, WHERE IS THE GOAT?!?!?!?!?!?"

Needless to say, I shouted this so loud the entire train burst into laughter for much of the remainder of the ride.

So it would appear or lovable goat is missing and watching the rock where he sits is not nearly as fun.

***************************************************************

That's mostly it for now.

9:23 PM - 5 Comments - 5 Kudos - Add Comment

Running...

The sidewalk is still wet from the night before.
My sneakers hit the hard pavement, send shockwaves through my body.
Thoughts escape me as my imagination steps back and purity flows.

Music descends into my soul.
My eyes sting and my lips taste of acrid, salty pain.
My sneakers hit the pavement.

Breath comes faster.
Cars drive by, they look, I am sure I look strange.
My sneakers fly across the pavement.

The music ignites new passion.
Imagination is seized, the moment is forgotten
...and for a second I think I can fly, I know I can fly.

12:18 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Coffee and or Beer

Oh my gosh I am finding out I have all these friends who don't like beer and or coffee...in my mind you gotta like one or both or you're no friend of mine! Ha ha...

10:54 PM - 11 Comments - 15 Kudos - Add Comment

When did I become Tom "Disney"?

 

It occurs to me in this mildly amusing way- that I never wanted to become the official Disney guy. In fact what cracks me up is that of all my interests it just happens to be the one that MORE people gravitate towards.

Oddly I only own like a few Disney films and of the Disney catalog I was a bigger fan of all the live action films of the late 40's and 50's. I don't actually know a fraction as much about the movies as I do the park.

The thing is it doesn't bother me, its rather droll when I think about it. I worked there, had a brother that was into it and I got into the history and with the confluence of the 50th anniversary and access to a website- in one short year- life choose the one thing that I would become associated with.

Go ask my friends from high school, I wasn't really into Disney or comics or fantasy/sci-fi (sans Star Wars) or cartoons or stand up comedy---these things that I discovered in college and now suddenly they've become such an intergral part of who I am its rather strange in hindsight!

8:01 PM - 4 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Five Languages of Love

Gary Chapman author of the "Five Languages of Love" has created a very basic test, try it and read the results it might surprise you. If you are dating, I recommend asking your significant other to take the test. Understanding the needs of your friends, family and significant others can really help you understand a person and find mutual solutions to problems and improve your relationships.

http://www.selectsmart.com/FREE/select.php?client=5lovelanguages

My results

1.) Quality Time 2.) Physical Touch 3.) Acts of Service,
4.) Words of affirmation 5.) Receiving Gifts

10:38 AM - 4 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

My prayers

This blog is not intended to be some declaration of my efforts to preach to others or convert them to my beliefs, simply a blog about my own faith and my own prayers.

My journey into my faith has been a roller coaster and anyone that has known me has seen my transition from grade school where I had such an amazing faith and spirtuality to my years in high school where factual evidence shook me to the core and unnerved me to the point where I became a fanatical atheist bent on bringing everyone down with me (all this while at Catholic school.)

At some point a good professor of mine in high school took me aside and gave me a rather simple argument for believing. "If you live your whole life and lead it as a good person, as a Christian and you die and there is no God, you did good for your fellow man, but if you live a sinful life and die and it turns out there is a God you are screwed!" Simple yes but it did get me thinking beyond my selfish window.

Time passed and I searched for meaning and reason to my faith, an intellectual basis for my beliefs, something so solid that no person could shake the core of my faith. Eventually I found strength in the traditions of the Catholic Chruch and now at 23 nearly 24, I feel like it is time for me to share that. Not to say I will start evangelizing non-Catholics but I am looking for the strength to help those who are already Catholic find a deeper meaning. In the same sense I will continue to encourage people to believe in something that brings posistive influence into our world. Heck I've read a few books on Buddhism and suscribe to a few of the principles because it is such a posistive philosophy.

In regards to my own prayers I keep it real simple and I have kept this prayer for years. I simply ask God "For the strength to do the right thing and the wisdom to know what the right thing is." and for years God has granted me this serenity. Now I have added an addendium "The courage to act on my beliefs and encourage others to do the same."

10:38 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Aquarius is a good sign

Aquarius About Your Sign...

Aquarians basically possess strong and attractive personalities. They fall into two principle types: one shy, sensitive, gentle and patient; the other exuberant, lively and exhibitionist, sometimes hiding the considerable depths of their character under a cloak of frivolity. Both types are strong willed and forceful in their different ways and have strong convictions, though as they seek truth above all things, they are usually honest enough to change their opinions, however firmly held, if evidence comes to light which persuades them that they have been mistaken. They have a breadth of vision that brings diverse factors into a whole, and can see both sides of an argument without shilly-shallying as to which side to take. Consequently they are unprejudiced and tolerant of other points of view. This is because they can see the validity of the argument, even if they do not accept it themselves. They obey the Quaker exhortation to "Be open to truth, from whatever source it comes," and are prepared to learn from everyone.

Both types are humane, frank, serious minded, genial, refined, sometimes ethereal, and idealistic, though this last quality is tempered with a sensible practicality. They are quick, active and persevering without being self-assertive, and express themselves with reason, moderation and sometimes, a dry humor.

They are nearly always intelligent, concise, clear and logical. Many are strongly imaginative and psychically intuitive, so that the Age of Aquarius, which is about to begin, is much anticipated by psychic circles as an age in which mankind will experience a great spiritual awakening. The Aquarian philosophical and spiritual bent may be dangerous in that it can drive the subjects into an ivory-tower existence where they meditate on abstractions that bear little relevance to life. On the other hand it can help the many who have scientific leanings to combine these with the Aquarian yearning for the universal recognition of the brotherhood of man, and to embark on scientific research to fulfill their philanthropic ideals of benefiting mankind. When some cause or work of this nature inspires them, they are capable of such devotion to it that they may drive themselves to the point of exhaustion and even risk injuring their health.

Both types need to retire from the world at times and to become temporary loners. They appreciate opportunities for meditation or, if they are religious, of retreats. Even in company they are fiercely independent, refusing to follow the crowd. They dislike interference by others, however helpfully intended, and will accept it only on their own terms. Normally they have good taste in drama, music and art, and are also gifted in the arts, especially drama.

In spite of the often intensely magnetic, forthcoming and open personality of the more extrovert kind of Aquarian, and of their desire to help humanity, neither type makes friends easily. They sometimes appear to condescend to others and take too little trouble to cultivate the acquaintance of people who do not particularly appeal to them. They do not give themselves easily - perhaps their judgment of human nature is too good for that - and are sometimes accounted cold. But once they decide that someone is worthy of their friendship or love, they can exert an almost hypnotic and irresistible mental attraction on them and will themselves become tenacious friends or lovers, ready to sacrifice everything for their partners and be faithful to them for life. However, they are sometimes disappointed emotionally because their own high personal ideals cause them to demand more of others than is reasonable. And if they are deceived their anger is terrible. If disillusioned, they do not forgive.

Aquarians work best in group projects, provided that they are recognized as having a leading part in them. They have a feeling of unity with nature and a desire for knowledge and truth that makes them admirable scientists, especially astronomers and natural historians. They may excel in photography, radiography, electronics - anything connected with the electrical and radio industries - aviation and everything technical. On the arts and humanities side their progressive tendencies can be expressed in writing, especially poetry, and broadcasting, or as welfare workers and teachers. Some have gifts as entertainers and make good character actors (having an ability to mimic) and musicians. The more psychic among them possess healing gifts, especially in curing the mentally sick.

Among the faults to which they are liable are fanatical eccentricity, wayward egotism, excessive detachment and an inclination to retreat from life and society, and a tendency to be extremely dogmatic in their opinions. Aquarians can be a threat to all they survey or a great boon for humanity in general. Circumstances - for example, continuous opposition to a cause they hold dear - may cause the atrophy of the openness of mind that is one of the Aquarian's most attractive traits. They may express a lack of integrity in broken promises, secretiveness or cunning. Simmering anger and resentment, rudeness or, worse, a tense, threatening silence which may suddenly burst out in eruptions of extreme temper, these are all part of the negative side of the Aquarian. This can also reveal itself in a sustained hatred for enemies that is capable of enlarging itself into a misanthropy toward the whole of mankind.

Possible Health Concerns...
As Aquarius is said to govern the legs from knees to ankles and the circulation of blood, its natives are susceptible to ailments particularly in the legs and ankles, such as cramps, and are also liable to spasmodic and nervous complaints, as well as wind, catarrh, diarrhea, dropsy, goiter and delirium tremens - so that the avoidance of alcohol is important for those Aquarians who have a taste for it.

LIKES

• Fighting for Causes
• Dreaming and Planning for the Future
• Thinking of the Past
• Good Companions
• Having Fun

DISLIKES

• Full of Air Promises
• Excessive Loneliness
• The Ordinary
• Imitations /Idealistic

10:37 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Loving a bunch of barenaked ladies...

Everything I need to know about love...

I learned from a bunch of
Barenaked Ladies

If I Had $1000000 I'd buy your love.
*
If there's someone you can live without, then do so.
And if there's someone you can just shove out;do so.

You can be my Yoko Ono You can follow me wherever I go
Be my, be my,Be my Yoko Ono
*
It's been one week since you looked at me
Dropped your arms to your sides and said "I'm sorry"
Five days since I laughed at you and said
"You just did just what I thought you were gonna do"
Three days since the living room
We realized we're both to blame, but what could we do?
Yesterday you just smiled at me
Cause it'll still be two days till we say we're sorry

It'll still be two days till we say we're sorry
It'll still be two days till we say we're sorry
Birchmount Stadium, home of the Robbie
*
so if you call, I will answerand if you fall, I'll pick you up
and if you court this disasterI'll point you home

But I'm warning you, don't ever do
those crazy, messed-up things that you do
If you ever do, I promise you I'll be the first to crucify you
Now it's time to prove that you've come back here to rebuild
Rebuild...
*
What's so maybe about What's so maybe about What's so maybe about Katie?

What's the use in hesitating?
Can't you see that Katie's waiting?
Just because her youth is fading
Doesn't mean that she's not worth dating
*
Broke into the old apartment Forty-two stairs from the street
Crooked landing, crooked landlord Narrow laneway filled with crooks
This is where we used to live

Why did they pave the lawn? why did they change the locks?
Why did I have to break it, I only came here to talk
This is where we used to live

How is the neighbour downstairs? How is her temper this year?
I turned up your TV and stomped on the floor just for fun
I know we don't live here anymore
We bought an old house on the Danforth
She loves me and her body keeps me warm
I'm happy here
But this is where we used to live
*
Well let me tell you if you're feeling alone,
Instead of whining and moaning,
Just get on the phone, tell her you're coming home
If you need, you should be there
If you scream in your sleep, or collapse in a heap
And spontaneously weep, then you know you're in deep
If you need her, you should be there
Go Home

There's nothing better than affairs of the heart
To make you feel so good then tear you apart
Make up your mind and stick it out or start again
*

If I Had $1000000 (If I Had $1000000)

I'd buy you a house (I would buy you a house)
If I Had $1000000 (If I Had $1000000)
I'd buy you furniture for your house
(Maybe a nice chesterfield or an ottoman)
If I Had $1000000 (If I Had $1000000)
I'd buy you a K-Car (a nice Reliant automobile)
If I Had $1000000 I'd buy your love.

If I Had $1000000 I'd build a tree fort in our yard.
If I Had $1000000 You could help, it wouldn't be that hard.
If I Had $1000000 (Maybe we could put a little tiny fridge in there somwhere.)
We could just go up and hang out. (Open the fridge and stuff. There would be
food laid out for us, little pre-wrapped sausages and things.) Mmmm. (They have
pre-wrapped sausages but they don't have pre-wrapped bacon.) Can you blame
them? (Well, yeah!)

If I Had $1000000 (If I Had $1000000)
I'd buy you a fur coat (but not a real fur coat that's cruel)
If I Had $1000000 (If I Had $1000000)
I'd buy you an exotic pet (Like a llama or an emu)
If I Had $1000000 (If I Had $1000000)
I'd buy you John Merrick's remains (ooh all them crazy elephant bones)
If I Had $1000000 I'd buy your love

If I Had $1000000 We wouldn't have to walk to the store
If I Had $1000000 We'd take a limousine 'cause it costs more
If I Had $1000000 We wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner.
But we would eat Kraft Dinner. Well of course we would we'd just eat more. And
buy all the fanciest ketchups for it...dijon ketchup! Mmmm..

If I Had $1000000 (If I Had $1000000)
I'd buy you a green dress (but not a real green dress that's cruel)
If I Had $1000000 (If I Had $1000000)
I'd buy you some art (a Picasso or a Garfunkel)
If I Had $1000000 (If I Had $1000000)
I'd buy you a monkey (haven't you always wanted a monkey?)
If I Had $1000000 I'd buy your love

If I Had $1000000, If I Had $1000000
 

10:36 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment