100th Entry!

Not only do we get to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus on this Easter Sunday, we also get to celebrate the 100th blog entry!

I stopped taking Effexor.  So far it’s going terribly, I’m incredibly dizzy, nauseous, and unfriendly, which has left me unpopular with the misses.

 

Yesterday, my mom took us too a cat show.

We overheard, “If she doesn’t work out for the judging today, she’ll be for sale.”

But today, it’s Easter, we get candy!!!!

Hudson River Maricle

So many people (i.e. Bill O’Reily) are saying passengers of the Hudson River place crash, were saved as an act of god. What I don’t understand is why didn’t god skip a step and the loss of property, by using his power to keep the birds from flying into the engine into the first place? Most be one of the god-works-in-mysterious-ways things. I guess god allowed the plane to crash so he could then demonstrate his love by working through the pilot and cause him to act heroically and thus safe the passengers. I guess having a assuming that the pilot was simply a good pilot faced wasn’t a possible scenario.

The God Who Wasn’t There

The God Who Wasn’t There, this movie was very disappointing. Several reliable sources online gave it good reviews; Amazon, IMDB. The intention of the movie was to:
1. Compare the story of Jesus to other mythological characters
2. Discuss the violence of Christianity and how the religon scares people into belief

Richard Dawkins (a.k.a. Darwin’s Bulldog) is one of the most well respected evolutionary scientists. He recorded a commentary track for this movie. Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) made the statement: “If atheists had a pope it would be Richard Dawkins.” I can’t think of a higher quality endorsement for a movie challenging Jesus and Christianity. It’s so depressing that this movie can’t live up to its potential.

This movie reminded me of Internet conspiracy movies like Zeitgeist and Loose Change. It has the punching techno-rock music underneath some cheap looking graphics while a narrator debunks “The Greatest Story Ever Told” being ironically dead-pan. Religious belief is completely illogical, but the people who believe don’t see it that way. In their heads, they are doing what’s right, they’ve had a lifetime of training to think this way. This film maker came across completely arrogant downright bratty. I don’t mean to pander to the religious, I’m not concerned with offending them. What does upset me is the ‘I’m right, you’re wrong’ tone this movie takes on. It’s like the creator wasn’t mature enough to to the subject proper justice.

Atheists profess their devotion to logic and reason. It’s unfortunate that in this movie those rules were broken for shock and awe. To exemplify a few monsters that Christianity has created, the movie profiles Charles Manson, some mom that killed her baby for god, among others. This ad hominem attack makes no evidence for religion being dangerous. One could just as easily say that being a white person can lead to committing crimes (all of the provided examples were white people). It goes on to suggest that the blood and gore in The Passion of the Christ is evidence that modern day Christians get off on death and suffering. This is an example of post hoc reasoning;  just because a bloody movie has a Christian theme and does well commercially, does not in and of itself mean that Christians currently find pleasure in suffering.

I think it’s also fair to mention the pitiful camera set up. I realize that documentaries get somewhat of a free pass on camera work when in the field. However this movie had it’s camera problems during sit-down interviews. The exposure was either blown out or under exposed. The white balance seemed to be somewhat optional, some shots were extremely blue, or very red. Overall very unprofessional.

Manly Haircut

I went to The Temple Paul Mitchell school yesterday for a haircut. The students give you a classy salon experience for $15 and an enforced no tip policy, the only drawback is you’re being taken care of by students who might take forever and might mess you up. Usually you get really hot girls or some gay guy, well yesterday I was given Ken. Ken was neither attractive nor gay. He looked kind of like James Hetfield in his thirties and spoke with a very slow manly twang. He used to work on CAT equipment and diesel engines, but decided that now he wanted to get into hair. He was telling me about his he listens to the Christian music radio stations because the music is good. Never mind Jesus, the songs were catchy.

As he cut and styled me he slowly explained to me, “We’re going to give the punk rock, put a little Green Day in your hair,” which I thought was fantastic because I hadn’t told him of my Green Day pleasures. He asked me if I wanted him to take care of my wolf-man (the scraggly back-of-the-neck hair). I told him to take care of the wolf-man.

Afterward he thanked me repeatedly for coming in, giving him a man’s hair for a change. He gave me several business cards and asked me to pass along his name to other people. So if you’re in Frederick MD and need a good haircut, go see Ken at:

The Temple Paul Mitchell School
22-24 West Church Street
Frederick, MD 21701

I’m not sure if I got the “punk rock Green Day” hair style, but I like it.

Vote for President, and for fun!

In 2000, I proudly wore my “I Voted” sticker out of the polls. Being 18 all kinds of things were new. I could buy porn, I could smoke, I could join the army, I was a real man!  Both my Mom and I were excited to take full advantage of the novelty of my adulthood as a voter.  Sorry, I voted for Bush.  In 2004 Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke at the Republican Convention, that was enough to keep me happy with how things were. I didn’t vote for round 2, but if I did it would have been again for W.  At the time I was all into the Lord and in therefore in favor of any issues that Jesus would have liked.

I really had no business voting. At the time I worked part time, lived at home, the outcome wasn’t going to influence me very much either way. Is the “vote-cause-I-can” mentality OK?  Absolutely!  I had every right to make the worst decision ever and aid in wrecking peoples lives.  However, I do feel bad about it now.  I thought I was doing the right thing.  A responsible vote is very difficult thing to do. To make an intelligent unbiased vote you must; learn every issue, after making a decision- shield yourself from all campaigning, ignore the polls, don’t put a sign in your yard, don’t notice signs in other people’s yards. It’s not a very realistic expectation, so just do the best you can. The best anyone can do is be optimistic with your country and have fun voting.