IT is amazing sometimes how your life can change in a second!

First .... in a few hours we leave for Ujung Pandang ... don't know if I will have internet access or not ... so, if you don't hear from me until Wednesday, don't get worried.  I have my handphone in case of emergency.

Its 1147am ... guy to install broadband (385 kbs +/-) was supposed to be here at 900am .. we're leaving for the airport no matter what.

Guys are still working on the alarm system ... its huge (and not wireless) ... don't know how many sensors, panic buttons, and control panels they are installing ... but its a bunch.  Hopefully we don't get a bunch of false alarms.  Don't know how the my company expected a house owner (any house owner) to install such a sophisticated system ....

AMSOUTH STILL SUCKS !!!!  And they are doing a doubly sucky on Grandma Suzy !!!

yeah...so a lot has happened since my last post

Summer was great although I worked during most of it

My life is going extremely well although...

I totalled my car about a week ago. So I'm without wheels for a little while....but it's for the best really because I actually needed a different car so I can haul more stuff...including ass....which my little Toyota (RIP) couldn't really handle.

but that's that......and this is a website and it's late at night and I'm tired

goodnight

no practice

MCI in 2 days

9 days of marching left

i dont want it to end

ever

marching band is my love

She never slows down
She doesn't know why but,
She knows that when
Shes all alone, it feels
Like its all, coming down
She won't turn around
The shadows are long
And she fears if she cries
That first tear
The tears will not stop
Raining down

So stand in the rain
Stand your ground
Stand up when its all crashing down
You stand through the pain
You won't drown
And one day whats lost can be found
You stand in the rain

She won't make a sound
Alone in this fight with herself
And the fears whispering
If she stands, she'll fall down
She wants to be found
The only way out is through
Everything she's running from
Wants to give up and lie down

So stand in the rain
Stand your ground
Stand up when its all crashing down
You stand through the pain
You won't drown
And one day whats lost can be found
You stand in the rain

So stand in the rain
Stand your ground
Stand up when its all crashing down
You stand through the pain
You won't drown
And one day whats lost can be found
You stand in the rain

I can take this, really I can. But sometimes it feels like I'm going to break. I know it's normal. Everyone gets this way. My world just doesn't seem to fit. So tell me, what profession could you see me in? If you had to think of one thing that I was made to do, what is it? I hope someone out there has an idea, because I've got nothing.

so ok tonight was my homecoming dance and though it wasn't anything special it was still fun............well until afterwards they made us stand outside in the sleet and freeze our butts off just cause they had to clean up or something. and on top of that the traffic was terrible litterally!!!!!!it was backed up to my neighborhood and i finally decided to walk in the sleet to my dads car and it wasn't too far of a walk but in the sleet it was forever!!!!!BURRRRRRRR!!!!!

So life since Fall Break...

I found out yesterday that I did not totally bomb my last astronomy test! YAY! It wasn't as good as I wanted (ok... it wasn't an A... but it wasn't a HIGH B either) but it was definitely an improvement over the first test.

Then today in EMC...
My professor, Dr. Bratten, began showing the photo/video projects that she liked the best... and she showed mine! Well... she almost did... tried to anyways... ha ha... the stupid PC didn't like my DVD! She didn't try the Mac or the DVD player (don't ask why...) but I suggested to her to try the latter next time (because she said she would try mine again along with other projects) so hopefully it will actually be shown... and with sound would be especially great. She showed one guy's video on the PC and the sound didn't work, which I thought was a bummer because, even though it's a story visually told, music can still add a very nice touch.

I also got my haircut today. And I like it! I like it today and don't have to wait two weeks to like it... ha ha... but of course it'll probably go into shock the next couple of days just to spite me. But what can you do?

Darn computers.
Darn hair.

*Quote of the week*
"Do you recognize me? I'm a friend of that witch you dated."
"I haven't dated any witches.You must have me confused with someone else."
"No, I'm quite sure it was you."
"By witch do you mean like, a Wiccan person?"
"No, I mean like a mean, horrible person..."
-a conversation between two random people as they were walking out of the business office

P.S. "Don't vote CROOKED, vote CORKER!"
Yeah, that's the campaign slogan I created for Bob Corker. I think he should use it.

But seriously, if you are able to vote, please vote for a man who is actually from our state and knows it, and didn't come from a family of crooks! He also has good ideas and has done great things for the city of Chattanooga! Just something to think about!

So.....I'm sitting in English class today.....trying to pay attention to my teacher.....and all of a sudden she stops lecturing and approaches me and tells me in front of the class that I look exhausted. And then asks me if I've been getting any sleep and if I'm okay. She then goes on and tells me that if she could she would let me leave class and go take a nap. Her homework for me is to get some rest. When someone tells you you look tired its like another expression for...."You look terrible today. haha. So evidently I looked terrible today. Yeah....

And then.....Alicia and I went to Wendy's for lunch and I burnt my tongue on some very very hot nasty chili. :-( Owwwy....

My husband is a dead beat.  He is cheating on me and he didn't show up for class. 

Guess my pretend relationship will end up like the rest of them.  I am starting to get a complex.  :(

This year started out stormy but skys are a'clearing.  I'm finally to a point where I feel secure about the way things are going right now and where my life is heading.  I've always struggled with doubt and worry about my friends and my future, but I feel like I've finally found my niche.  I've found something I'm passionate about pursuing in college and beyond - my latest career goal is to get a BA and PhD in linguistics and teach at a university.  And I've settled in with more friends (and better friends) than I think I've had since the third grade.  I still have insecurities, but I feel like my problems right now are more about me and less about what's going on around me.  I'm in an all-around good situation, and I'm looking for the positives in everything so that when I hit the bad times, I can do so with unblemished memories of the good times and the hope that all suffering passes. 

I don't update on here nearly as often as I used to.  That's because I'm writing college essays and I've reached the point where I analyze my words to such an extent that I want no one to see them until they are immaculate.

I like the word immaculate.

Just tryed a new flavor of skittles and they are awosome ICE Cream flavored..

Check This Link

well, i'm doing a paper on predestination, and i want to know your opinion. go for it.

Anyone who goes my siegel, please spred the news to some of my teachers if yall know. i got into a major accident this weekend (sunday morning). i dodged a deer and hit 4 trees in the process. i lived, all the damage was mainly in the back of the car, by the grace of God, if it had hit in the front i would have had to go to vanderbuilt because of my knees. (like a bozo i got up and walked around with my back hurting they said if it had of been cracked lower i could have paralized (sp) myself)  i went to MTMC in an ambulance, i was in the ER for over 3 1/2 hours. i ended up only jamming my thiumb, and cracking 4 verdibre's in my back, i'm in some major pain and probably wont be able to go back to school till Monday.  please pray for me... i'm on some MAJOR pain pills, vicadin i think it's called

I hate Chuck Norris jokes.  However, I just read an article about them, and they quote Norris telling his two favorites that he has read, so I will post them here, lest he kill me with a roundhouse kick to the face:

"They wanted to put Chuck Norris on Mt.
Rushmore, but the granite wasn't tough enough for his beard."
"When Chuck
Norris does pushups, he doesn't push up. He pushes the earth down."

except that i'm er... not a monkey...

I will be allowed to come home for a VERY SHORT period of time this weekend.  By short I mean tomorrow I will leave Chattanooga around 5 and have to leave Murfreesboro again at 2 on Saturday afternoon.  If you want to hang out please let me know and I will hope to see all of you.  I love you!

give it up, that ship has sailed
i'm not the first to know
that it's a quarter past three
but my thoughts keep flowing
like blood through my veins
and i feel i shall not dream again
til' the end of all suffering
is pouring from our hearts
like rain..

until dawn, i shall sit
contemplating all attempts
i shall undertake to make
all of our greatest dreams
become real.. i say, together,
our worst fears will become ash
to toss into the sea..
we'll watch them drift out,
as one, now and forever..

eeeekkkkk!  my 18th birthday's coming up!!!

guess who's an idiot?



Current mood: embarrassed

yep, that's me!

so
pretty sure that tonight's praise and worship in youth group was
AMAZING (good job russ and david)...well, of course i was the one to
ruin it for everyone!

so, we were in the middle of a song and i
heard a phone ringing...and it sounded like mine, but i knew for sure
that i had put it on vibrate for that reason right before church
started..like when russ starting playing guitar..i swear i did! and i
was talking to myself and saying "holy crap, if someone doesn't pick up
that freakin phone i'm gonna hurt someone...it's definitely hindering
me from worshipping fully" hahahaha...yeah, well. it never stopped. so
i reached down and pushed the button that makes it stop ringing like if
you get a phone call, and it didn't go off, so i was like..."okay, it's
not my phone after all...whew.."

well....BJ just out of
nowhere starts laughing at me and i didn't know why. i mean, i must
have seriously picked up a blonde gene somewhere tonight. ughhhh...so
after praise and worship was over, it was still ringing, and by this
point i was soooo aggrivated. i actually thought it was david cause
when it started to ring, he kinda chuckled and went on. dang it. i was
sooo flipping blonde.

so, after i figured out everyone was
staring at me (it took me a while..ugh) i pulled out my phone and
somehow it was on driving mode and there was a reminder for allie's
18th birthday party and it was going off..and for schedule reminders,
you have to manually open up the phone, go through the menu, and then
turn it off.

so yeah, there's my interesting moment of the day.
i felt like a complete idiot! hahaha..
i turned like a shade of bright fire-engine red. i could feel it.
i hate being embarrassed. ughhhhhh!!!!
oh well. at least everyone else got a kick of it.
maybe they'll forgive me? lol.

This week has been the busiest week ever of my high school life. I just want this week to be over. Stress is just taking over my body. I'm in a lot of pain and I still have a rest of the week of practice left, and a game to top this week off. We are so ready for the game, but it's going to be hard because I'm hurt. It is really hard to focus on one goal when pain is in control of your body. Life is just a bummer. I'm finally learning that. TTYL.  

somebody pray for me, im on the verge of just loosing self control and tell whoever to just shutup and get over it, i know its not the right thing to do but i hate being around people who say one thing then do the opposite, somebody just pray for me in that peace will settle upon my heart because i seriously am trying to give a good witness while using tact with my words. So please just pray for me because i feel like i have been let down by everyone i have put time and effort to get to knowing.

and if you have a problem with me or wanna confront me about something please feel free to because i wanna give the best testimony i can possible be simply by actions

I'm going to MTSU.

screw term papers...

I have nothing to say, nor anyone to say it to.  End of Blog.

Who can picture D'Rae as a chaperone?  Definately not me.  Well, Fri. night Zach Campbell & I & maybe one or two other teenagers will be chaperoning a Corn Maze trip & a lock-in for the 1st-6th graders @ church.  Zach & I are the only ones who ever volenteer to actually do anything, and this time we really weren't given the option of not coming.  When we were younger we were spoiled @ church.  We always had lock-ins and trips and Bible studies.  The kids now only have VBS which has recently been shortened from 5 days to 4 days.  I will get absolutely NO sleep Fri. because I must stay awake to watch the lil devils (by the way I'm related to like half of them which makes it 10x's worse.)  Then Sat. morning I will go to help Land Nav. @ Cedars of Lebanon the rest of the weekend.  This weekend will be exhausting!

People have to be retarded because everyone keeps telling me that I am a great guy. Well, except for Sarah, but she loves me anyways so she is retarded in general (hehe I love you!). Honestly, I am a mean, stick up his ass kind of guy who just does the right thing, and if that makes me a good guy then damn it I will try harder to be a jerk. All these touchy feely freshmen and their gushy lovey dovey feelings. Good thing it is not contagious. Jeeze, people today and thinking I am a good guy. What has the world come to? That is the fifth level of retardation right there.

Well, its not at good as the Marty Robbins song ... but we did have water this morning.  Issues with the water:  Last week - none in the house ... so they had to dig the well 45 ft deeper. Tuesday - none upstairs, because the upstairs water pump failed to work (perhaps due to lack of use over the last few months).  Wednesday - none anywhere because the main pump kicked out.  However, there is a 65 gallon holding tank on top of the house ... so don't know why that water wasn't available via gravity flow ....

Yesterday Decy had a long meeting with the Owner, Mr. Wiharga. He is a very nice man and very much wants to do the right thing.  His biggest challenge is that this is Ramadan month and tomorrow begins Idul Fitri weekend ... so verybody is tired from fasting and nobody wants to work until after Idul Fitri.  Nevertheless, Pak (that's bahasa for "Mr") Wiharga spent much the day at the house waiting on workers to arrive and working through the water system issues. Today (Thursday) ... I have water ... wonder how long that will last?

Decy and Pak Wiharga also went through the punchlist of start up items.  He was very pleased with the gazebo and that its "quality" matched the overall quality of the house.

Pak Wiharga pretty much went ballistic when he saw what was being done on the alarm system (and I can't blame him).  Apparently the installers (without talking to him) decided to rip out all the wiring for the smoke detectors.  Then when they installed wiring for the alarms they didn't match it with the house (white on white and brown on brown).  So what was a very "discrete" wiring arrangement is now "blaring".  Pak Wiharga is having the workers undo everything and redo the installation correctly.

Another big issue is that the office in the house is quite warm.  The A/C unit works but doesn't cool ... but then it did once.  Upon inspection, it was found that the outside condensor (or is that the compressor?, I can never remember) is in an enclosed area ... and in a corner that is incredibly hot ... bottom line ... no circulation ... no cooling.  The outdoor unit will have to be moved.

Regarding work, arrived at home last night at 7pm.  Had a very quick snack as I hadn't eaten all day.  Brought work home and was going to begin ... 720pm ... phone rings ... its a test of the emergency warden system .... I have to do my part ... so I pull out my list of 30 people and being trying to reach all of them.  At 830pm I stop testing .... result was I successfully reached all but 3 (90%) ... and found some areas for improvement in our process.  Of course, didn't get any of my other work done ... so now it slides to today ... which will make today tough ... as I have to get certain things done before I take my long holiday weekend (starting tomorrow).

ciao ciao

Tomorrow is the first day of our Fall Break...well, we really get a half day, but still...then I get to sleep in on Friday, Saturday, and Monday! YES! Oh, it makes me so happy...::sigh of contentment:: I'll probably clean up in the house...Go Riding! read some books, clean my room really well, work, and chill. I'm so excited! Finally...a break. It makes me so happy. We get our report cards in the mail sometime soon...dad had a parent/teacher meeting yesterday and he said that all the teachers liked us. That's pretty cool. So anyway...I'm happy. The Judgment's coming up really soon! I'm looking forward to it. 

So now I'm married with a child on the way.  Alot can change in a class period. 

So apparently I need alittle more information.  My husband is a bank teller/artist and doesn't make much money.  I am a 5th grade science teacher and my passion is the lake and I want a boat.

… it’s unique how the Spirit directs and how God positions… so I am sitting in church this morning (10.01.06) and Bro. Dean Sisk is speaking in John. His intention was to speak on “Jesus is Light.” I think my ears heard what he was speaking on; but based on the last “note,” I saw something a little differently. Dean was spoke on 1 Peter 2:9 for a brief moment and mentioned that this is apart of a letter Peter has written and it’s directing to their rejection of the Light…

1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you (Israel) are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own purchases, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of the darkness and into His light.”

With this in mind, I think it rings a bell directly with Exodus 19:5-6. Here we have Peter telling the people of Israel (gentiles included), and he is saying, “HELLO! (Can you imagine him yelling the Shalom at the people? I just found that funny to think about and a crazy flashback to VBS 4 yrs. Ago) anyway… HELLO! God has called us out. Do you not remember (t’shuva)? Do you not remember the commandments God gave us that are the basis of the 613 commandments in the Torah (first five books of the Bible aka Law of Moses or Pentateuch)? (Jewish belief is that the Ten Commandments do not hold a higher view than the rest of the 613 commandments in the Torah, but they believe that they are based from the 10 commandments God gave Moses and Aaron on Mt. Sinai; and yes I am confident they hiked 7498ft. of Sinai again) Do you not remember the first time God called unto us and said, ‘if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’” So I think this is much more than the rejection of Jesus’ teachings. This is the rejection of their purpose and identity by God.

I love how 1 Peter 2:9 supports the consistency of God. Peter, a fishermen who took up the family trade probably because he wasn’t good enough to further learn past the Torah, recognizes the calling of the people. So he certainly remembered Exodus 19:6 from, I assume, when he was kid learning the Torah (as all Jewish kids are taught). I think this is something we Christian living in America need to see the importance of… We are not taught to love the Word. In the church today, we are expected to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, read our bible when we have free time, and Go… I think it’s sad that we (as a body) are not being still/silent, rooting ourselves, and allowing fruit to bear (just my opinion); but
Jewish culture teaches their kids to love the Word. And this passage (Exodus 19:5-6) has HUGE implications (I would imagine) because it was the first time God tells the people of Israel they will be HIS possession and treasure. Wouldn’t any person tell their children, generation after generation, their purpose and name if God spoke to them? And so, because of this, we have Peter reminding the people that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own purchases, special people. And he goes even further to remind them that they are “to set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him” BECAUSE God said they would be a “kingdom of priests.”

Isn’t God sovereign?

To be continued… asap

    So life in general is pretty good.  I have survived my first quarter at Webb without to much pain.  But soccers over now, which is kinda bittersweet. I mean I can now focus on academics and worry less about having to study after games and junk like that. But I realized last night how lucky I am to be here at Webb.  I mean I have made friendships that I think will last a long time and I know will be beneficial to me in the long run. 

    Before I came to Webb all I could worry about was not fitting in because I wasn't rich and snotty like everyone believes people at Webb are, but then as I got to know people I realized very few peoplw at Webb are snotty, in fact most are pretty cool.

    I just thought about how GOD has blessed me in so many inconspicuous ways.  In ways that I often thought were stupid or bad at the times they happened, but now I realize that everything happens for a reason and sometimes that reason is unvisible at the time, but often is a blessing in disguise.

so over the past few months nathan and i have been watching the previous seasons of 24. we are currently on the 5th season, which nathan has already seen. over the time i have watched it i developed my favorites, david palmer, chloe, tony, and of course jack. if you don't watch this show i know you don't know who i am talking about... you you should watch it. seriously. anyway, last night we were watching an episode... and it was terribly sad. tony died. i am not going to lie... i cried. a lot. i felt so ridiculous, but he was my favorite character. i still feel so silly... just like i did last week on grey's anatomy when mcdreamy walked away....

ah tv... how silly am i?

anyway... last year sometime i posted about some things i would like to do before i die... and recently i have been thinking about some more things to add. i was able to do some of the things on my list such as, get married and go out west and see the pacific! fun fun!

so here are some more:
-live in nyc
-see a bear and moose in the wild (still weird, i know)
-pet a penguin (i actually found a place that allows you do to this!!!!!!!)
-go to italy, london, and paris
-take pictures of things in other countries most people won't get the chance to ever see
-go to the san diego zoo
-swim in the pacific
-get a job i love!
-have something published (book or photograph)
-learn to like new types of food
-drive on the pacific coast highway
-drive on route 66

i am real serious about petting the penguin. if i ever see one in the wild somebody better hold me back because i might just take it. i could keep it... and walk it on a leash. picture it. you know it is cool.

well, i have to get back to work. i hope every one has a great day! 

I am so over myself! What do i mean by that? Well i am sick of serving myself and caring so much about myself that I miss out on serving God and serving others! So therefor I am over myself. I wish time and time again that I would deny all of who I am but instead I continue to wallow in my own selfish desires. it is making me sick to be completely honest. I am tierd of it but I seem to be stuck in this... I know that I want to serve God... But how many times is that put into action? That is my problem, I have the desire and passion to serve God with all I have but I never seem to loose myself in my pursuit no matter how bad I want to....

For those of you that neglected to read the user manual:

5:30 AM, or any other time before sunrise, is too early for Sarah Vermillion to be active.  Allowing Sarah to be active at this time, especially behind the wheel of a car, may be hazardous to your health.  If, in the event of an emergency, Sarah must be active at this early an hour, keep a steady flow of caffiene pumping into her bloodstream until she can function at her normal level.

Thank you.  This has been a public service announcement brought to you by the letter R and the number 7.5.

In other news, I think I passed my calculus test today. (Sweet!)

I am, however, displeased that one of the questions I left blank because I could not find my mistake... I relized EXACTLY what I did wrong and how I could have fixed it.  The only problem is that I came to this realization about four hours after I turned my test in.

Oops.

Tomorrow begins my first big rush of orders as S-1!  Woooohoooo!  Wish me luck.

I was in Kroger tonight getting some stuff for dinner and... well... I came rather close to tackling a guy I thought was someone I knew. OK to be honest I almost tackled this guy because I thought he was Kenny. I totally forgot that Kenny is in VA and not here. First let me say that I had reasons that make sense to a slight degree. I was in the chip aisle, and I suddenly smelled Kilo, like the way he smells when he wears Kilo. Jenna will so tell you how I am about Kilo. Anyway that smell caused me to start looking around to find where it was coming from. The I spotted this guy who from the back looked a lot like Kenny, I mean he was wearing this awful green Vols hat that looked like the one I hate that Kenny wears. Again ask Jenna about how much I hate that ugly hat. This was compounded by the fact I was in Kroger. So being the goofy idiot I am I decide I'll tackle him and see what happens. Needless to say it was a good thing something reminded me that Kenny is in VA at the moment and that the guy started to talk, I knew immediately without looking he wasn't Kenny when he opened his mouth. And so I walked away feeling really dumb and wondering just what is wrong with me sometimes.

The Destruction of the Wicked
Seriously, it talks about what I'm talking about.

You know, I'm all for delegating tasks.  As long as other people are doing them.  I myself like to do my own things.  I tend not to screw up, and when I do, I at least know where my mistake is and can usually fix it with some assistance.  However....

The "Future of Honors" committee wanted to see the 18 pages of paperwork generated by the Honors Council Director Search subcommittee from last year.  I have it all in paper form, but not electronic (which was how they wanted it).

I thought I would spread some knowledge around (as in, how to do things with the publishing programs on the computer), give an office worker a task with a little bit of meaning (as opposed to copying applications), and save myself from having to do it.  Therefore, I showed Office Worker X how to scan everthing in, put it into Photoshop, shrink the file size, stick it into InDesign, and merge it all into one big PDF (as opposed to 18 small ones).

He did so, sent me the file, and I forwarded it on (I don't know why I didn't look at it) to Dr. Dennis George, the chair of the Future of Honors committee, two weeks ago, so he could send it on to everyone else, as agreed.  This morning, he sends out a message to remind us of our meeting tomorrow and said he trusted everyone had a chance to read the file I had sent.  Which only went to him, since he was supposed to forward it on.

I frantically sent the 12-MB file out to everyone (from my grandfather's dial-up connection) with a quasi-sarky note stating that I thought someone else was supposed to send it to the committee.  Three minutes later, Dr. Pardue responds, saying that pages seem to be missing from the document.  I try to open it on my computer, but the download won't finish. 

I'm going in at 6:30 in the morning to try and rectify this.  I hope I can just send one page as a quick "sorry I left this one out" addendum.  But I'm thinking that I'm probably going to have to re-scan the whole thing.  And I'm not happy.  This committee is comprised of eight faculty members and me.  I would rather they not think I'm completely incompetent before our second meeting even begins.

To add clarity to this discussion, check this out...

10And the devil that
deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the
beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night
for ever and ever.

 11And
I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the
earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

 12And
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were
opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books,
according to their works.

 13And
the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man
according to their works.

 14And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

 15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Now, here's the question: is the "second death" everlasting for the unsaved, or is it the simply the end to their existence?

I am almost certain that some of you might have a response to this, but I have a question. I have not gone into diligent study about this, so help me out, please.

With the exception of Job, who was "tested" by God, where in the Bible was anyone "punished" by God or His people for any reason except that they either turned their backs on God, or persecuted His people?

.... decided to make a blog....so i'll talk about my past Lana`i trip... so i went to Lana`i for Papa Beefs funeral and saw all the family... i love them soo much... once my boat landed they were all right there to give me hugs and kisses.... so the day went by and Papa Beefs viewing was all day and i guess everyone got bored and decided to take pictures...

(eft to right: RJ... Aunty Lorna.. Uncle Rocky... and Reese....)

and of course i wasn't there because i was at the baldwin (whom we tied with this past weekend) vs. Lana`i volleyball game which Lana`i won of course.... so i went after the game which was lyk 9 o clock... and hung out with my brother then he left and i was stuck with all the uncles because of course i was the youngest cousin there and all of my cousins were old enough to drink... so my cousin guys start to make trouble to me and we just play around and stuff and my brother goes up on stage to sing... he sings all the HAwaiian classics of course and Crystal Chandaleir by Ka`au Crater Boys because its Papa Beefs fave song.... i like that song too... and the night went on and it was like one in the morning and my brother was still singing so my uncle Randy guys start singing shoo bob soo bob.. and of course i was buss laughing and so was Uncle RIcky... and an hour later evreyone decides to leave... and i say bye to everyone and my cousin who i never see for lyk 3-4 years... and went home... my brother stayed over night to keep Papa Beef company and to stay and spend time with him... so the next day they cleaned up Union Hall and my brother and cousins decided to take the mule's down to Manele and left me with my mom and aunties... and the day went by and i went home... the next day my brother Ricky, my cousins Reese and RJ and Uncle Rocky take Papa Beef on Uncle Rockys boat and take him to Maui to get cremated.. and they fished on the way back... after this weekend i learned some very good lessons... first you shouldn't take life for granted and you should live it to the fullest because you never know when it's going to be over.. and second... never say that you hate your siblings, because once you lose them... you'll regret it... my brother left for college and i didn't see him for almost two years... and i love my brothers now because i realized that i do love them and they do love me....

from the time we were little

they watched over me...

and still to todae....

i'll love them forever and ever... and i'll never regret it... and third it's important to treat everyone like family... no matter what... you just might change someones life.. you never know....

i still  can't get over this too funny nothing knew of course except my few little things that i tell people well love ya bye

jennifer

I am so tired of running it's not even fun anymore, and I love to run. Because of the obscene language used on the field Friday night against Wilson Central, we ran the equivalent to 7.5 miles. Cussing is just not attractive or smart. I don't get why people have to use that language to look big. "Disrespect is a weak man's immitation of strengh", as coach Williams always says. If you want strengh, get to a gym and work out. That's all I've got to say. So watch your mouth. 

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Christian Motorcyclists Association are presenting a motocross training event in November.

Thanks Jessica!! And anybody else not sitting on a cushion!!

  If no one got that last part I will hunt you down and educate you!!!!!!!

This past week has been quite a week for insights. My friend Mark is having relationship problems (some of you met him on Wednesday when he came) with his girlfriend. He's usually the one giving the advice, but for the past few days it's been me saying all the deep profound stuff. I enjoyed it, it gave him something to think about and me a chance to tell him about the test she gave him.

 Yes, she gave him a test. She loves the movie "The Labyrinth" and she made him watch it and then gave him a test over it. She thought about dumping him because he missed most of the questions. Don't panic, I was the one that called her a dolt and tore the test up.

  So yeah, fun week thus far.

  Oh, I finished the first volume of a manga (if you don't know what it is go look it up). Josh just has to draw it out, I have to ink it in and make a few copies and we are in business. YAY!!!

well...yeah!!!!im like soooOoOoooooo idk...???im like just here!!!well how yall been???how has yalls day ben? tell me bout you're lives...mines like soOoOoOo boreing so ill hear sumbodies whose is interesting!!!

As you can see, I got my Glasses on Monday. What do you think?

I need your help, I'm looking up verses with the "Second Death" and "Lake of Fire" using Bible gateway, but so far, I've only found where the devil and his minions burn forever in it, not the unsaved.  So I was wondering: will the unsaved burn forever in the lake of fire?  I'm trying to address a question put forth by Karissa.

(Note: I'm using the KJV exclusively for now.)

Strange things happened today:

1. Even though I was stuck in Nashville for a good 20 minutes, I still made  a record Memphis/Cookeville trip at 3:12, logging 267 miles.

2. As I arrived in Cookeville, I turned on the radio to the line "walking in Memphis" from the song "Walking in Memphis."  That was weird.

3. I got all of my stuff out of my car, into my room, unpacked, put away, hooked up, etc. in 13 minutes.  That's about 50 lbs. of clothes, 40 lbs. of books, 5 lbs. of DVDs, and 50+ lbs. of computer stuff.

It seems to be a good day thus far.

ALRIGHT !!! .... we've had enough ... we are going public.  How wonderful it must be to be a big corporate bank with an account agreement that says "either party can close the account for any reason at any time".

Now, for you and me, if we close a bank account ... what's the big deal to the bank ... nothing really ... yeah they lose the account ... but other than a few minutes time ... it costs them nothing.

BUT, when a bank closes an account ... without notice ... and "for any reason" that is a disaster for you and me ... John Q. Public (especially when you are 12,000 miles away and you can't exactly walk over to the bank across the stree) ..... Amsouth is just such a bank ... DO NOT TRUST THEM ... DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY ... DO NOT GO NEAR THEM ... they will destroy your finances .. your lives ... costs you hundreds of hours of trying to "rebuild/re-establish".

Amsouth Bank has closed my sister's account, my account, and now my mother's account.  I am still trying to understand why they closed my mother's account ... its a new development.

So, why did Amsouth close my account and my sister's?  For over 6 years Amsouth has been accepting my paychecks ... handling large amounts of money ... numerous and large wire transfers ... including transfers to Indonesia.  NOW SUDDENLY, AMSOUTH DOESN'T WANT MY ACCOUNT BECAUSE I DO BUSINESS WITH INDONESIA.  Of course, I do ... I live here ... I lived here in 2000-2001 when Amsouth had my account .. I've transferred money here regularly since, while living in Angola ... and I am living here now ... because my company moved me here .... just like thousands and thousands of other US Expats living/working here.

So, without notice, without warning, without explanation ... they closed my sister's account and my account.  Then, they started bouncing checks that arrived after closing the account (and charged me $36 for "insufficient funds").  Now, they have closed my mother's account ... probably (I'm speculating here) because she cashed a $220 from the HORRIBLE HORRIBLE MAN THAT IS DOING BUSINESS WITH INDONESIA.

No doubt this has to do with HOMELAND SECURITY ... but it sucks ... more on this later !!!

Today is Wednesday - 518am ... I have been up since 350am .... expectation:  shave, brush my teeth, use toilet, take shower, get dressed, get on internet, have coffee ... leave for work about 610am ...

Reality .... dry shave, dry toothbrushing, interrupted use of toilet, no shower, got dressed, 1 hr to log on to SLOW internet ... no coffee yet ....

I don't understand the water system in this house ... first, apparently a pump froze up yesterday morning, which prevented the girls from showering (but I could at 4am). This morning there is zero water ... but then I heard the pumps come on at 430am ... after I am already dressed and dry shaved ... ouch ouch ouch ... too little too late.

As for internet access ... after two weeks of getting the run-around ... seems the internet company won't install access without a letter from the owner granting permission ... more delays .... costs for access ... are US$70+++/mo to US$200/mo depending on if you want to pay by the bytes or have unlimited access. It will probably be the end of next week (earliest) until we have broadband .... This weekend begins the Idul Fitri holiday ... and everything slows down even more.

As for TVs, apparently the guy came and hooked up the outside, then the next day the inside ... but then Decy tried using the TV and there was no sound ... so back he came ... don't know if we have TV or not ... didn't get home until after 8pm last night.

The Owner delivered some of the patio furniture Tuesday ... 4 chairs and two little tables.  I really hadn't expected the Owner to supply hand carved chairs and tables with marble tops.  This guy is trying very hard to do everything right ... there just seems to be the basic start up issues.

That's enough whining for now .... ciao ciao

I JUST WANTED EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT SWIFTY ON MEMORIAL BLVD. HAS GAS FOR $1.99 AND $1.96 IF YOU PAY WITH CASH. 

JUST WANTED TO SHARE THE LOVE!!  I AM ALL ON SOME CHEAP GAS!!

found this on someones elses so i thought id post a description of....me

JULY=ATTITUDE
outgoing personality. takes risks. feeds on
attention. no self control. kind hearted. self
confident. loud and boisterous. VERY revengeful.
easy to get along with and talk to. has an "every
thing's peachy" attitude. likes talking and singing.
loves music. daydreamer. easily distracted. Hates
not being trusted. BIG imagination. loves to be
loved. hates studying. in need of "that someone".
longs for freedom. rebellious when withheld or
restricted. lives by "no pain no gain" caring.
always a suspect. playful. mysterious. "charming"
or "beautiful" to everyone. stubborn. curious.
independent. strong willed. a fighter. repost in 5
mins and you will meet the love of your life
sometime next month.

yeah i thought it was pretty durn sweet...some of that stuff is right on!!!

i hope everyone had an AMAZINGLY TERRIFFIC day!!!!

I found an entry at this website:

It makes some VERY interesting points.  Points that I never thought of as a Christian or an Atheist.  It is worth reading the entire thing because it has a good message that is about more than just abortion.  Please take the time to read it.  And as the person below wrote when they posted it on their site, I would like your opinions ON THE ARTICLE- not on me like "your dumb" or "your logic is flawed".  This isn't my logic.  I just think this writer has a good point.

Why Abortion is Biblical

Don't
hate me for this one, I'm just a messenger.  Although I wish I was
brilliant and scholarly enough to be able to figure this out on my own,
I have copied the entire article from an article by Byron Elroy
McKinley.  http://www.elroy.net/  Enjoy.  Please comment and tell me what you think.

---

 
One sided. That's the abortion stance of most Christians -- one
sided. We hear the Christian Coalition speak against abortion. We hear
Focus on the Family tell Republican candidates it will not support them
unless they state their opposition to abortion. We hear Operation
Rescue's Christian members praying God will turn back the clock and
make abortion illegal again. Over and over we are bombarded with the
"Christian" perspective that abortion is outright wrong, no exceptions.

With all these groups chanting the same mantra, there must be some
pretty overwhelming biblical evidence of abortion's evil, right?

Wrong. In reality there is merely overwhelming evidence that
most people don't take time to read their own Bibles. People will
listen to their pastors and to Christian radio broadcasters. They will
skim through easy-to-read pamphlets and perhaps look up the one or two
verses printed therein, but they don't actually read their Bibles and
make up their own minds on issues such as abortion. They merely listen
to others who quote a verse to support a view they heard from someone
else. By definition, most Christians, rather than reading for
themselves, follow the beliefs of a Culture of Christianity -- and many
of the Culture's beliefs are based on one or two verses of the Bible,
often taken out of context.

This is most definitely the case when it comes to abortion.
Ask most anti-abortion Christians to support their view, and they'll
give you a couple of verses. One, quite obviously, is the Commandment
against murder. But that begs the question of whether or not abortion
is murder, which begs the question of whether or not a fetus is the
same as a full-term human person. To support their beliefs, these
Christians point to one of three bible verses that refer to God working
in the womb. The first is found in Psalms:

"For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my
mother's womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for Thou art fearfully
wonderful (later texts were changed to read "for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made"); wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very
well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, and
skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my
unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days
that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them."

Psalm 139:13-16

Although this
passage does make the point that God was involved in the creation of
this particular human being, it does not state that during the creation
the fetus is indeed a person. According to Genesis, God was involved in
the creation of every living thing, and yet that doesn't make every
living thing a full human person. In other words, just because God was
involved in its creation, it does not mean terminating it is the same
as murder. It's only murder if a full human person is destroyed.

But even if we agreed to interpret these verses the same way that
anti-abortion Christians do, we still have a hard time arguing that the
Bible supports an anti-abortion point of view. If anything, as we will
soon see, abortion is biblical.

Anytime we take one or two verses out of their context and
quote them as doctrine, we place ourselves in jeopardy of being
contradicted by other verses. Similarly, some verses that make perfect
sense while standing alone take on a different feel when seen in the
greater context in which they were written. And we can do some rather
bizarre things to the Scriptures when we take disparate verses from the
same context and use them as stand-alone doctrinal statements. Some
prime examples of this come from the same book of the Bible as our last
quote. Consider these verses that claim that God has abandoned us:

"Why dost Thou stand afar off, O Lord? Why dost Thou hide Thyself in times of trouble?"

Psalm 10:1

"How long, O Lord? Wilt Thou forget me forever? How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?"

Psalm 13:1

"O God, Thou hast rejected us. Thou hast broken us; Thou hast been angry; O, restore us.

Psalm 60:1

Not only can we use
out-of-context verses to support that God doesn't care for us anymore,
we can even use them to show how we can ask God to do horrible and vile
things to people we consider our enemies. In this example, King David
even wanted God to cause harm to the innocent children of his enemy:

"Let his days be few; let another take his office. Let his children
be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children wander about and
beg; and let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes. Let the
creditor seize all that he has; and let strangers plunder the product
of his labor. Let there be none to extend lovingkindness to him, nor
any to be gracious to his fatherless children."

Psalm 109:8-12

Are we indeed to
interpret that God, speaking through David in these Psalms, is saying
we have been abandoned by God and that when wronged we can ask God to
cause our enemies to die and cause our enemies' children to wander
hungry and homeless? Indeed, it would seem the case.

But rather than interpret that God is with us as a fetus, but
forgets us as adults, and yet will allow us to plead for the death of
our enemies, we need to look at the greater context in which all these
verses are found: songs.

Called Psalms, these are the songs of King David, a man of
great faith who was also greatly tormented. He was a man of passions.
He loved God, lusted for another man's wife, and murdered him to get
her. He marveled at nature and at his own existence. All his great
swings in emotion are recorded in the songs he wrote, and we can read
them today in the Book of Psalms. What we cannot do is take one song,
or one stanza of a song, and proclaim that it is indeed to be taken
literally while taking other stanzas from David's songs and claim they
should not be taken literally.

Yet that is exactly what anti-abortion Christians are asking
us to do. They use those few verses from the Psalms to support their
dogma that abortion is wrong. They proclaim those verses as holy writ
and the other verses as poetry that we should not be following.
Clearly, this is a perfect example of taking verses out of context. And
it leads us to only one conclusion: if we cannot trust that God wants
to kill our enemies and abandon us, we must also conclude that we
cannot trust that God has defined the fetus as being a person.

For indeed, if we allow that kind of thinking we could also
make an argument that God is willing to maul children to death if they
make fun of a bald guy who just happens to be in God's favor. You think
I'm joking, but I'm not. In the book of Second Kings, our hero, the
Prophet Elisha, who was quite bald, so it seems, was taunted by a group
of young boys. Elisha's response was bitter and cruel:

"...as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the
city and mocked him and said to him, 'Go up, you baldhead; go up you
baldhead!' When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in
the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and
tore up forty-two lads of their number."

2 Kings 2:22-24

Did God kill
those forty-two kids for making fun of a bald prophet? We can certainly
make an argument for that if we use the anti-abortionists' kind of
thinking.

Likewise we can also use the anti-abortionists' methods to
establish that God approves of pornography, as seen in these following
verses by Solomon as he pondered the female body:

"How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O prince's daughter! The
curves of your hips are like jewels, the work of the hands of an
artist. Your navel is like a round goblet which never lacks for mixed
wine; your belly is like a heap of wheat fenced about with lilies. Your
two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle."

"Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its
clusters. I said 'I will climb the palm tree, I will take hold of its
fruit stalks.' Oh, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and
the fragrance of your breath like apples, and your mouth like the best
wine."

Song of Solomon 7:1-3,7-9

Pretty
steamy stuff. Taken by itself, it would appear God is indeed promoting
a written form of pornography. But just like Psalm 139:13-16, we cannot
take it by itself. Instead we must take it within the context it was
written.

The same is true with the other two verses used by anti-abortion
Christians to defend their cause. From the book of Jeremiah, these
Crusaders are fond of quoting the phrase, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee," from the first chapter. But they never quote the entire passage, which changes the meaning considerably:

"Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed
thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the
womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to
all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt
speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver
thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my
mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy
mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the
kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw
down, to build, and to plant."

Jeremiah 1:4-10

This is a
special event -- the birth of a prophet. God brought the prophet
Jeremiah into the world for a divine purpose, and because of that, God
was planning Jeremiah's life "before" he was even conceived. God was
preparing him to do miraculous things, such as speak on behalf of God
while still a child and setting him up as an overseer of nations and
kingdoms. But the anti-abortionists simply overlook this on their way
to claiming that the one phrase they quote proves God sees us as
individual people while still in the womb. God saw Jeremiah in that
way, but to claim it applies to all of us is akin to saying that we
were all prepared as children to speak for God, and that God has placed
all of us "over the nations and over the kingdoms" of the world. In
essence, to claim this verse applies to anyone other than Jeremiah is
to claim that we are all God's divine prophets. We are not; therefore,
we cannot apply these verses to our own lives.

Another problem in this passage is the phrase, "Before I formed
thee in the belly I knew thee." In Psalm 139:13-16 the
anti-abortionists claim that because God was active in the creation of
King David in his mother's womb that we must conclude the fetus is
recognized by God as being a person. But here we see God stating that
he knew Jeremiah "before" he was formed in the womb. By
anti-abortionist logic, we would have to conclude that we are a human
person even before conception. Since this is a ridiculous notion, we
must, therefore, conclude that the anti-abortionist is interpreting
these verses incorrectly.

The last verse most often quoted by anti-abortion Christians
relates the story of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, and
Mary, the mother of Jesus, while both were pregnant. When they meet,
the pre-born John the Baptist leaps in his mother's womb at Mary's
salutation. Let's read the original:

"And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with
haste, into a city of Juda; And entered into the house of Zacharias,
and saluted Elisabeth. And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard
the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was
filled with the Holy Ghost:"

Luke 1:39-41

As much as the
anti-abortion lobby would like this to mean that all fetuses are
sentient persons because one is recorded as knowing Mary's words and
then leapt inside the womb, the logic is as flawed as the Isaiah
misquote. Again we have a miraculous event. Again we have a divine
prophet whom God had ordained since before he was conceived. And this
time it's even more miraculous, because the gestating John the Baptist
is reacting to the approach of Mary, who at the time was pregnant with
Jesus. Unless we believe all of us are chosen before birth to be the
divine prophet ordained by God to herald the arrival of Christ on
earth, then we cannot claim this passage refers to us. And indeed, it
does not. While gestating fetuses are known to move and kick as their
nervous systems and muscles are under construction, only
divinely-inspired babies understand the spoken words of the mother of
Jesus and can leap in recognition.

The point to all this is simple: we cannot take the verses we like
and interpret them to support what we want to support. And, more to the
point, we cannot simply accept what some Christian leaders proclaim as
being God's word on a given subject without carefully reading the full
text of the book and taking into consideration the entire context. We
cannot, as we have shown, simply interpret those few verses from
Psalms, Isaiah, and Luke as a reason to be against abortion. And, as we
will see in a moment, there are still other verses -- if interpreted in
the sloppy manner demonstrated by anti-abortion Christians -- in the
Bible that could easily lead us to argue that indeed God, at times,
supports abortion. Let's take a look.

In the full context of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon makes the
point that much of life is futile. Over and over he writes that if life
is good then we should be thankful. But when life is not good, Solomon
makes some interesting statements:

"If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however
many they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things, and he
does not even have a proper burial, then I say, `Better the miscarriage
than he, for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name
is covered in obscurity. It never sees the sun and it never knows
anything; it is better off than he.'"

Ecclesiastes 6:3-5

Clearly there
is a quality of life issue being put forth in the Scriptures. And in
this case, Solomon makes the point that it is sometimes better to end a
pregnancy prematurely than to allow it to continue into a miserable
life. This is made even more clear in these following verses:

"Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being
done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and
that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their
oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them. So I
congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who
are still living. But better off than both of them is the one who has
never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under
the sun."

Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

Here we have
an argument for both euthanasia and abortion. When quality of life is
at stake, Solomon seems to make the argument that ending a painful life
or ending what will be a painful existence is preferable. Now remember,
we're not talking about David's songs here. We're reading the words of
the man to whom God gave the world's greatest wisdom.

And Solomon was not alone in this argument. Consider the words of
Job, a man of great faith and wealth, when his life fell upon the
hardest of times:

"And Job said, 'Let the day perish on which I was to be born, and
the night which said, "a boy is conceived." May that day be darkness;
let not God above care for it, nor light shine on it.'"

"Why did I not die at birth, come forth from my womb and expire?
Why did the knees receive me, and why the breasts, that I should suck?
For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then,
I would have been at rest, with kings and with counselors of the earth,
who rebuilt ruins for themselves; or with princes who had gold, who
were filling their houses with silver,. Or like the miscarriage which
is discarded, I would not be, as infants that never saw light. There
the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary are at rest. The
prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the voice of the
taskmaster. The small and the great are there, and the slave is free
from his master."

Job 3:2-4,11-19

And again a few chapters later Job reiterates the greater grace he would have known if his life had been terminated as a fetus:

"Why then hast Thou brought me out of the womb? Would that I had
died and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though I had not
been, carried from womb to tomb."

Job 10:18-19

Clearly there is a
strong argument here that the quality of a life is as important if not
more important than the act of being born. Indeed, we could claim that
the Bible supports ending a pregnancy in the face of a life without
quality. And, if I wanted to be bold, I could claim that this
interpretation is in fact a biblical mandate to support the use of
abortion as a way to improve our quality of life. And taking these
verses to their extreme, I could claim that abortion is not just a good
idea, it is a sacrament.

Actually, I will stop short of making that claim. In fact, I will
stop short of making the claim that the Bible condemns or supports
abortion at all. It does neither. The condemning and supporting comes
not from the words of the Bible but from leaders within our Culture of
Christianity who use verses out of context -- the same way I just did
to support abortion -- to support their views against abortion. The
condemning and the supporting comes not from the Scriptures but from
average Christians who take the easy way out, accepting one or two
verses of the Bible as proof that their leaders are speaking the gospel
truth. The condemning and supporting comes not from God but from those
who do not take the time to read the Bible, in its own context, and
decide for themselves the meanings therein.

For indeed, there is one passage in the Bible that deals
specifically with the act of causing a woman to abort a pregnancy. And
the penalty for causing the abortion is not what many would lead us to
believe:

"And if men struggle and strike a woman with child so that she has
a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall be fined as the
woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges
decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a
penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand,
foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."

Exodus 21:22-25

This is a very illuminating passage. In it we find a woman losing
her child by being stuck by men who are fighting. Rather than it being
a capital offense, however, it is relegated to a civil matter, with the
father-to-be taking the participants to court for a settlement. But, as
we read on, if the woman is killed, a "life for a life," then the men
who killed her shall be killed. Some have claimed that the life for a
life part is talking about the baby. But from reading the context we
can see this is not true. It also states a tooth for a tooth and a burn
for a burn. Babies don't have teeth when they are born, and it is
highly unlikely a baby will be burned during birth. It is pretty clear
that this part refers to the mother. Thus we can see that if the baby
is lost, it does not require a death sentence -- it is not considered
murder. But if the woman is lost, it is considered murder and is
punished by death.

It's important to note that some anti-abortion lobbyists want
to convince us the baby in this passage survived the miscarriage. They
point to the more "politically-correct" translation they find in the
New International Version of the Bible. There it translates the term
"miscarriage" into "gives birth prematurely" (the actual words in
Hebrew translate "she lose her offspring"). While this may give them
the warm and fuzzy notion that this verse might actually support their
cause if maybe the child survived, it is wishful thinking at best. In
our modern era of miracle medicine only 60% of all premature births
survive. Three thousand years ago, when this passage was written, they
did not have modern technology to keep a preemie alive. In fact, at
that time, more than half of all live births died before their first
birthday. In a world like that, a premature birth was a death sentence.

Others have looked to the actual Hebrew words, themselves, to try and refute these verses. They note that the word "yalad" is used in verse 22 to describe the untimely birth, and that yalad is also used in other places to describe a live birth. They then go on to say other places in the Bible use the words "nefel" and "shakol"
to describe a miscarriage. Therefore, the argument goes, the baby in
Exodus 21:22 must have been born alive. It's easy to see how a novice
might make this mistake, but a closer look at the words in question
reveal the flaw in this argument.

The word yalad is a verb that describes the process of
something coming out - the departing of the fetus. Since it is
describing the process, and not the result, it could be used to
describe either a live birth or a miscarriage. Shakol which
shows up in Hosea 9:14, is also a verb, but its meaning is to make a
woman barren. Now a barren woman certainly might miscarry, but with
this understanding of the word, it's clear why the writer of Exodus
would not have used it since this miscarriage was caused by an
accident, not by barrenness. And the word nefel is not even a
verb. It's a noun. True, as a noun it is the term for a miscarried
fetus, but the writer wasn't using a noun. He was using a verb to
describe the coming out of the fetus. Thus, if I were describing a man
falling to his death, I would use the verb "to fall" which can be used
for both those who die and those who survive a fall, but to describe
the man himself I would use the word the "fatality." So we can see that
while a novice might mistake a verb for a noun and come to the wrong
conclusions about the original Hebrew words used in the Exodus passage,
a more careful look proves that the words only describe the action of
losing the fetus, not the fetus itself. And that being the case, we
can't use the Hebrew translations to determine if the fetus was alive
or not when it came out - so we are forced to accept that in all
certainly, considering the medical knowledge at the time, the preemie
died. This makes it even more clear that the "tooth for a tooth"
passage refers only to the mother, not to the miscarried fetus.

What has been so clearly demonstrated by the passage in Exodus
- the fact that God does not consider a fetus a human person - can also
be seen in a variety of other Bible verses. In Leviticus 27:6 a
monetary value was placed on children, but not until they reached one
month old (any younger had no value). Likewise, in Numbers 3:15 a
census was commanded, but the Jews were told only to count those one
month old and above - anything less, particularly a fetus, was not
counted as a human person. In Ezekiel 37:8-10 we watch as God
re-animates dead bones into living soldiers, but the passage makes the
interesting note that they were not alive as persons until their first
breath. Likewise, in Genesis 2:7, Adam had a human form and a vibrant
new body but he only becomes a fully-alive human person after God makes
him breathe. And in the same book, in Genesis 38:24, we read about a
pregnant woman condemned to death by burning. Though the leaders of
Israel knew the woman was carrying a fetus, this was not taken into
consideration. If indeed the Jews, and the God who instructed them,
believed the fetus to be an equal human person to the mother, then why
would they let the fetus die for the mother's crimes? The truth is
simple. A fetus is not a human person, and its destruction is not a
murder. Period.

It is time to stop the one-sided view of abortion being
proclaimed by Christian leaders. These leaders do not -- despite their
claims -- have a biblical mandate for their theologies. It is time to
stop preaching that the Bible contain an undeniable doctrine against
abortion. It is time to stop the anger and hatred being heaped on
abortion doctors and upon women who have abortions, especially when
it's done in the name of a God who has not written such condemnations
in his Bible. It is time to stop, because the act of making a judgment
against people in God's name, when God is not behind the judging, is
nothing short of claiming that our own beliefs are more important than
God's. We must stop, because if we don't, then indeed the very type of
theological argument being used against abortion can be turned around
and used to proclaim that abortion is biblical.

So I think I already remarked about why I really brought up the verses in the Pro-Abortion post.  It was mainly to bring up the fact that god of the Bible commanded violence and that this is dangerous (you can read the remarks for an explanation of why).  Anyway, the following is writing on the issue of atheists being moral.  Often times when people find I am an atheist, they think me and my "kind" are the ones causing problems in society.  In fact, religion is most often the cause of death.  Usually, Atheists do not kill other people because they believe in god or because atheists are without morals.   I do have high morality and respect for humanity.  That is why I wanted to say something about the dangerous beliefs in Christianity- mainly in fundamentalism.  They are dangerous in all religions that say god is the ultimate authority for good, bad, whatever and that he can command whatever he wants and it will be right.  The writing below addresses the problem of good and god.  Please feel free to tell me what you think.

http://www.reverendatheistar.com/euthyphro_dilemma.htm

The Euthyphro Dilemma


What is Atheism?


by Douglas E. Krueger

How Can Atheists Have Morals?


p.26 - 30

1. The Euthyphro Dilemma is effective against the view that god is the source of morality.


The Euthyphro dilemma, named after some insightful points taken from
Plato's dialogue Euthyphro, shows the failing of the divine command
theory of ethics, which is the view that god is the source of morality.
In the dialogue, the character Socrates, speaking for Plato, meets the
character Euthyphro, who is on his way to court to prosecute his own
father for the murder of a field laborer. For the Greeks, loyalty to
one's relatives was a matter of great importance, so Socrates asks
Euthyphro whether he is certain this act will not be offensive to the
gods; i.e., whether it is immoral. Euthyphro assures Socrates that he
is an expert in matters pertaining to the wishes of the gods, and in
the course of the discussion Euthyphro attempts to defend the divine
theory of ethics. According to this view, we know what is good only
because god tells what is good. However, as Plato asked 2,000 years
ago, does god command what is good because god recognizes what is good,
or is it good because god commands it? That is the dilemma, and each of
the options turns out to be undesirable to the theist.

a. One horn of the dilemma is that what is good is defined by the fact that it's god's will.


On the one hand, if something god commands is to be defined as good on
the grounds that it is god's will, then the divine command theorist
must admit that anything can be considered good as long as god commands
it. It would make no sense to ask whether god's commands are good. God
could command someone to bash infants to death, to commit genocide, to
stone people to death (and other atrocities such as we find in the
bible), and such things would by definition be good acts, since god
commanded them.


Would a Christian want to commit to such as system of ethics where anything goes? The philosopher Bertrand Russell notes:


If the only basis of morality is God's decrees, it follows that they
might just as well have been the opposite of what they are; no reason
except caprice could have prevented the omission of all the "nots" from
the Decalogue.


In other words, the ten commandments (the Decalogue) could have been
just the opposite of what they are and they would, on this view, still
be good because they would still be the will of god and that is the
definition of good. Theists who take this horn of the Euthyphro dilemma
must admit that they really don't have a standard of ethics. What they
have is a standard of obedience -- they will do whatever god commands.
Slavery, however, is not ethics.


It would also make no sense to say that god is good if god is the
standard of goodness. After all, if god is good, in the sense that god
is identical with standard of goodness, then to say "God is good" is
merely to say "God is god," which is an uninformative statement. A
devil worshiper could say the same thing about the being he or she
worships -- "Satan is what he is." The subject and the predicate are
the same object, so the sentence is uninformative. The relationship
between goodness and god loses its meaning if god is the standard of
goodness, so "god is good" would say nothing.


Further, if one would like to know whether a given being is god, there
would be no set of standards with which one could compare that being in
order to identify it as god. For example, if one wants to know how to
recognize a generous person, one could have a list of actions which one
might expect a generous person to perform. The list could include such
things as giving a certain percentage of one's income to the poor,
handing out money when approached by beggars, volunteering at a local
food bank, and other such activities. Similarly, the list could exclude
activities such as obsessively hoarding money, refusing to share any
part of an inheritance with one's siblings, and so on. The list of
criteria is compiled using the concept of generosity. If the person
measures up to the standard, then we can declare that person generous.
In the case of god, however, there can be no such moral standard for
theists who insist who insist that god is the standard. There can be no
list of criteria to identify whether a being is the good god. If god
can can perform or command any act because he sets the standard, what
kinds of acts could possibly be put on an identification list? One
could never say, "An evil being might command this, but god never
would." No action could be required or ruled out with regard to god
since that being could always decide to perform or command the opposite
of any given criterion. After all, god sets the standard, doesn't he?
Without an independent standard of moral or immoral acts against which
to measure god, god could never be identified by his moral standing.
Thus, morally speaking, there would be no way to distinguish being a
slave to an evil demon as opposed to being a slave to god. In both
cases the one doing the commanding could command anything whatsoever
and carrying out that command would be, by definition, a good act. No
act would be considered immoral in and of itself, or good in and of
itself, apart from the issue of whether it has been commanded or
forbidden. Anything from rape to murder would be considered good if it
were commanded by the being who serves as the standard.


No act could be taboo for the being giving commands because that being
who defines goodness would not have any independent standard of
morality by which it could be limited to a certain set of acts. The
being could not be bound by any moral code.


The only immoral act, on this view, is disobedience. The follower would
be committed to a system of blind obedience to a being who cannot be
meaningfully called good. Clearly, this option is undesirable for the
theist.

b. The other horn of dilemma is that god recognizes what is good and then wills what is good.


On the other hand, if the theist chooses the other horn of the dilemma,
that god commands that which god recognizes as good, then the theist is
admitting that there is a standard of goodness independent of god, and
is, in fact, admitting that god is not the source of morality. In other
words, if the view is that god in some way "sees" what is good and then
tells us what to do on the basis of that, then god is not the source of
morality, since the act god commands was observed to be good by god,
not made good by god. God becomes, at best, merely an intermediary or a
reporter about ethics, but he is not the source. This option, too, is
undesirable for the theist, since it admits that god is not the source
of ethics, and if god is not the source of ethics then there is nothing
in principle which could show that the atheist cannot have an ethical
system also.


Thus, the theist must choose between admitting that he or she has no
standard of ethics but merely a principle of slavery, or admitting that
god is not the source of morality. Neither option allows for the
possibility that god is the source of a system of ethics. The Euthyphro
dilemma has been conclusive in showing that the divine command theory
of ethics cannot work, and no theist has ever been able to overcome
this strong objection to the view that god is the source of ethics.

I think I'm starting to get sick...unfortunately.  I woke up today with a sore throat and just feeling kind of icky.  It's not too fun.  I'm hoping that taking some vitamins and taking larger doses of vitamin c will help combat what I'm feeling right now.  Who knows if it actually will.

Right now I can't actually afford to get sick.  I have a conference I am presenting at next weekend and I need to be prepared and feeling awesome to make it work. 

So, I'm hoping to start feeling better soon!

I'm not out to prove anything to anyone.  I love the way Paul
puts it in corinthians.  He essentially says "I could care less what
you think, GOd is my judge."
Every day I seek to please God, solely
for the reason, of pleasing God.  And I pray I can always have that
mentality.  Not to be a good evangelist.  Not to be a good floor leader.
Not to be "good enough" for some godly woman God wants for me.
But the man of God He wants me to be, and nothing else.
There's just something so good about just seeking God, for God, and just Him, without the concern of what anyone else thinks.
I'm
not saying that's what consumes me, or any of us, but sometimes the
pressures of the world around us, of the church, or whatever else, at
least in my life, begin to press on me sometimes.  Sometimes it's  hard
to just seek God for God alone, and nothing else.
But when I find
myself, in that alone time with Him, knowing that if it's only me and
Him, for the rest of time, I'd be totally content, that I know what I'm
made for.
Until that time, I'm here to help other people come to that understanding.

I might have the best eyes ever cuz I rocked this games face off.  I found all three.  Can you?

Imagine, you're in Heaven in the beginning as an angel.  Heaven is a glorious place and God has just unveiled a new plan, Creation.  In charge of you, besides God, is Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer, all of which are great.  But Lucifer, despite his greatness and beauty, has a problem.  He has become corrupt and jealous of God.  He is poisoned by selfishness and desires to overthrow God.  So, he begins to gather an army of angels, creatures once friends with God deceived by Lucifer's lies and hatred for God.  God sees all of this and is saddened, for He loves all His angels.  But then, enough is enough; Lucifer attacks with those he has deceived to claim the throne of God, but fails.  Bitter from his failure, Lucifer sulks before an Almighty God, and God asks him, "What do you think I should do with you?"  Lucifer, in his hatred for God, responds, "I never want to see you, hear you, or feel you ever again!"  So God gives it to Him.  He gives him his own place, to Lucifer's surprise, but God is sad the entire time.  Then finally, once Satan and his posse are used to this, God says, "Goodbye," to which Satan replies, "Good riddens."  But then, something strange happens.  Satan begins to realize that light is dimming ever so slightly, making him curse God even more.  He feels that existence is slowly being stripped away from him: he feels nothing but darkness.  His mind races around for thoughts other than his failures.  He can not live, and he can not die.  He's burning, from the inside.  It's everything he's ever wanted, but worse.  The darkness is like a parasite, a fire.  He is separated from God's love.  Life has no meaning; death has no meaning.  This is an abyss, a chasm where nothing good ever happens.  It's like dying without an end: to exist without life (which only the Almighty can create) is to burn in a thousand fires.  He is on fire, but not by a temperature: it's a fire that endlessly whittles down his atoms.  It's like being entombed: his paranoia dilutes what his personality once was.  He knows nothing more than what he knew.  There is no perception, simply some meagre form of existence off of which to feed, a pain that lasts forever.  Hell, in my opinion, is giving the fallen exactly what they think they want: no God.  You have a choice: to be with God, or to be without.  But if He sustains life, I'd be careful about my choice.

This video's been circulating around the web.

If you have a spare 30 seconds, it's worth watching.

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/home_films_evolution_v2.swf

I FOUND MY PROMISE RING IN MY WATER BOTTLE FROM DANCE =)... YAY!... THANKYOU JESUS .. i LOVE YOU!

But still I cant like stop having random breakdowns of crying, its like an everyother hour thing, bc I think of it, of her not being her... and it saddens me so much to the point were I have to like leave the room or something , and be alone to cry and then come back... but I will be ok ,I just miss taylor .

hey there
thought you should know
I'vefalleninlove

he says he wants to marry me in three years
but he'll wait
I say he's sweet
perfect
and I am most definately beyond in love

Gentle readers,

It has been a long time since I last wrote you.  I have been VERY busy.  I've been running around the house, playing a lot at daycare, celebrating my first birthday, and generally having a wonderful time.

Today, however, something terrible happened.  They conspired against me, I tell you!  I was running around the room at daycare when suddenly the floor jumped up and twisted, visciously knocking me over.  Then the wall leapt out and attacked me, violently banging my right cheek and eye.  Luckily, despite their evil plots, they didn't manage to harm me too much, but I yelled enough to let them know my displeasure.  I have a couple of battle scars, but Mommy and Daddy assure me that they'll fade.

i changed my profile picture.
it's back when i had dark hair.
i liked it that way.

when you think tim mcgraw.
i hope you think my favorite song.
the one we danced to all night long.
when you think happiness
think of my head on your chest.
and my old faded blue jeans.

it's funny how people just.
show up in your life again.


or.

step forward in your life.
either way.



both have happened to me
within the past two weeks.


and i don't know what to think about it.
i guess we'll see.





i'm back for the first time since then.
i'm standing on your street.
and there's a letter left on your doorstep.
and the first thing that you'll read.

when you think happiness.
think of my head on your chest.
i hope it takes you back to that place.




i miss him.


but at the same time.



i think i love him.
i don't know.

confused.<3

Anytime
you
feel like giving
others
a piece of your mind
make sure
you have
enough to spare.

       



This picture was taken by the Hubble telescope.  They called it "God's eye"   I think it looks pretty neat :-)

Why do bad things happen to good people, and at such a young age?

Then why don't we kill all the poor?  Or all the incompetent?  Or all those who might suffer?  Instead of donating money to third-world countries, why don't we get them out of the way of progress?  Don't you see what you're saying?  You couldn't possibly because you're fixated on being thought of as "progressive" or "modern".  We don't know what people in poor situations will do because they've done great things and terrible things.  Just as many people who are rich, like celebrities, do bad things, like kill, steal, and destroy--such is the nature of man, I'm afraid.  If we arbitrarily decide who is good enough and who's not before they're even born, what is the limit?  I say that limit is to let the individual decide whether he or she (themselves) wants to live, not someone else.

Let me give you an example: let's say I went back in time, say around 1925.  If I were to tell all the Jews in Austria that they were going to suffer immensely at the hands of a cruel dictator, what would they say?  That may not be.  They wouldn't all go kill themselves!

You keep stating that abortion is a bad solution but that prohibiting abortion is no better because of the problems it would cause.  In essence, you cite that abortion is a solution to a lack of responsibility, but I contend that that irresponsibility was exacerbated by the same "logic" that created abortion in the first place.  Do you claim that the world before abortion was a messy place where children only saw suffering?  I don't see that, and quite frankly, I don't think most reasonable people see that either, except to justify their argument.  Children will be abused regardless of
abortion: any decrease of which I doubt the existence does not justify our destroying life.  But back to my example, that's like saying to
the Jews before the Holocaust, "Well, you're gonna suffer anyway, so how about we shoot you now and get it over with?"  Would the Jews agree with such a demand?  No! 

If we arbitrarily decide who can and cannot live, then we set ourselves up for society run on some idea of perfection, by a fallible creature, mankind.  Everyone, when created, should have the right to experience life before someone else decides for them, even if that someone else decided that they live, because by nature all man is created by someone or something else, depending on what you believe.  If I can
arbitrarily decide what lives and dies while in the womb, why not outside the womb?  Why can I not kill someone I don't believe deserves to live, even if they are a "parasite" to society?  That's because each of us depends on that society, so that destroying life would only serve to condemn ourselves.

I don't believe in abortion, and I don't believe in the death penalty, because things change.  Life is not static suffering, unless we let it become just that.  Many of those children in third-world countries have far better outlooks on life than children in the United States.  We have gotten too familiar with some sort of "bed of roses" mentality, where the statistics dictate who will do what and when, and anyone not in the certian margins will have terrible lives exclusively.

As I said, life is not suffering, unless you're Buddhist, in which case, whatever; but it's not.  Take it from someone who has had everything from birth handed to him yet wanted to kill himself.  You can't predict what struggles people will have, and claiming that you have some sort of system to predict either way what will happen is, quite frankly, blowing hot air into your argument.

You actually surprised me with your first remark in this debate, and for that, I thank you.  I need a surprise every now and then.  But as for this debate, this post is the last in this argument for my side.  If I cannot convince you that an absolute standard of upholding life no matter what might happen, I don't feel I've lost because I've made a declaration as to where I stand.  Ask the Jensens.  Ask them if they thought, had their mother known she would have cancer twice and experience tremendous suffering, that she would take her own life.  I'm fairly sure she wouldn't have.  I'm sure her family alone was enough to compel to keep on living.

Life will never be ideal, but that doesn't mean we should avoid it.

as i watched the stars

i dreamt that two collide

to form a new world

and what was before died

leaving behind all traces

of their glowing flame

to form a new aura

all one, and the same

and from that vision

came my sign of hope

with passion reigning

it began to develope

and it said:

what does it take to save the world?

i wish to rid us of lies and greed

of blood and violence

and all that planted the seed

i wish to rid us of our prejudice

and the roots of our hate

by spreading pure hearts

and cleaning the slate..

i wish to bring joy

to all nights of sorrow

to end all suffering

with a bright tomorrow

can we all join hands

to hold up the fight

stand as one and with
a dream, unite..

So can you figure it out??....Well right now I am in a hotel in Cleveland Tn....I decided to come down and finally check out Lee, because I am majoring in Psychology and Lee is said to have a better Psychology program then MTSU.....I'll figure it out soon enough......anyways.....I am going to enjoy a bit of time in my hotel room and then tomorrow I am taking the tour of Lee.....beyond that I am going to try to hang out with the various people I know that already attend Lee.....well anyways peace out bye bye

Been Hell

Ummm so friday I was like yay its friday!!!

And so that day was ok , and then saturday came... I went to my highschool and helped work on the scenery for our play . And then I left I like at like 8:30 Then I went and hungout with one of my best friends for life, nick... and then I got home , and yeh just sat there. And then Sunday came... the day starting of fire and hell..hah sry that was just kinda worded funny ... ok so anyway that day I had planned to go with nick to the mcwane center to get extra points for my science class... but then that didnt happen bc I got a voicemail of Elizabeth crying telling me that our best friend Taylor is moving to  FRIGGIN COLAFRIGGINRADO... RANDOM FRIGGIN STATE. Yeh what made it more upsetting is she I had to find that out from liz who didnt even find out from Taylor, and the worst part is I found out that day and she would be leaving the next day which is today which sucked also bc we had a day off from school... haahh WELL I DIDNT BC  I had to be at my school for our show from 8:30 in the morning to 3:00... and in all of that one more horrible thing just had to happen ... I lost my promise ring when we were practicing , and I have had it since I was in 7th grade... which is forever ago.. I know that its an outer thing that just represents it , and that it doesnt matter if I wear one bc I know in myself that I am keeping my promise, it was just an add on to everything. And I came home and just had a breakdown... hahah and its raining.. and rain is depressing especially when ur driving...yuk. But I am just upset about the future too, like I dont want to grow up... I dont want to say goodbye to people, it hurts like someone just stabbed my heart and threw it away ... liz is here right now , and she is making me feel better, I just want my best friend Taylor to live here, I just dont understand why all of this has to happen , why I have to be in pain , and not stop crying... Im in an emotional roller coaster right now... please pray for me .

Sarah

So I should totally be working on my 10-15 page research paper right now, but alas...I am not.  My brain is just about fried after spending 4 hours searching online for research articles and getting...you guessed it...no results.  My eyes are blurry.  My back hurts.  So I said to myself...what do I never do?  I never write a blog.  So what am I going to do?  Write a blog, of course.  My life has never been as crazy as it is right now.  From family crap to working at the hospital with a ridiculous amount of responsibility to studying my freakin' butt off...it just doesn't get much crazier than this.  I guess I shouldn't say that or I will have more thrown my way.  All in all, my life is pretty excellent.  Even though I just made it sound like total crap.  I really feel good about where I am right now.  I'll feel a little better when I'm walking across the stage receiving my degree at graduation.  My one beef for the day?  Thinking about the friends that I used to have that don't care to talk to me anymore...and for what reason?  Quick survey...how many people find it incredibly rude when someone replies to your email...that you sent personally to them...in a blog entry.  Well, I find it incredibly rude.  Nothing screams "why would I want to talk to you?!" more clearly.  That's my one vent for the day.  So, I guess I better get back to this research junk that I've got going on.  We are at t-minus 40 hours to deadline, folks.  Later gaters.

In the beginning, God created the earth and rested. Then God created Woman. Since then, neither God nor Man has rested.

I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED!I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED! I'M GETTING MARRIED!

I'M GETTING MARRIED!

*****P.S. I'm Getting Married!*****

I'M GETTING MARRIED!

*****P.S. I'm Getting Married!*****

...according to the Bible anyway....check it out:

1 Samuel 15:1-3 (NIV) - "Samuel said to Saul, "I am
the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so
listen now to the message from the LORD.
This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for
what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from
Egypt.  Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men
and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'
""


Isaiah 13:13-16 (NIV) - "Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
       and the earth will shake from its place
       at the wrath of the LORD Almighty,
       in the day of his burning anger.

 14 Like a hunted gazelle,
       like sheep without a shepherd,
       each will return to his own people,
       each will flee to his native land.

 15 Whoever is captured will be thrust through;
       all who are caught will fall by the sword.

 16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
       their houses will be looted and their wives ravished."

Isaiah 13:18 (NIV) - 18 Their bows will strike down the young men; nor will they look with compassion on children. They will have no mercy on infants.

Hosea 13:16 (New Living Translation) - "The people of Samaria must bear the consequences of their guilt because they rebelled against their God. They will be killed by an invading army, their little ones dashed to death against the ground, their pregnant women ripped open by swords."

Hosea 13:16 (King James) "Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open."

well today i have to get my retainer....greeeeeaaaaaaaat it's not going to be fun wearing it for a while though.....but anyways i didnt go to school friday....lol...that was warrior walk....and it was cold...so me not go....and plus i dont feel like getting sick...lol so yeah well i am bored soo yeah i am out

i see no signs of hope
to renew the light
but still press on
to a brand new day..
in the darkness i lie
praying for the touch of God
but to try and leave would be insane..

They are all around
in twos and threes..
Go alone and you
Shall surely die..
But if you take my hand
We'll run together
Take this darkness
Kiss is it all goodbye...

Take a giant leap
Then a sigh of hope
we're the greatest thing
for we're earth's only hope
let us take our role
with the greatest modesty
then fight
for the world abroad...

im wired and im sooo glad because i gots ton of homework i need to do

So we were cleaning out our garage and putting all my dad's transmissions, cases, crankshafts, etc on racks that a friend gave us and I came across this bumper sticker that is ridiculously true in our family. It said "We interrupt this marraige to bring you racing season." Which pretty much means that during racing season my dad is off at the track with the Nitroplate Team just about every weekend. Second thing that happened was later when I was carrying the transmission cases in from the driveway and I wasn't paying attention. I was wearing flip flops because I wasn't anticipating having to work on the garage and I kicked a Flowmaster. There was a muffler laying on the ground next to the cases and I wound up kicking the end that connects to the exhaust pipe. Needless to say it hurt. My father proclaimed that I should have angereed it by making it an orphan because I have the other Flowmaster in my Blazer. So now my toes hurt like crazy and I've learned a lesson.

Kicking Flowmasters is a bad idea.

hmmmm...

i am very much an overly critical person.

it's so much easier to harp on what's wrong with everyone else than it is to confront my own shortcomings. why do i do that? why do humans as a whole usually do that?

you know, i was thinking today about how accustomed we are, here in the Bible Belt, to church and the Christian-ish lifestyle. like, not a for real, hardcore, sold out Christian lifestyle, but the pop-culture Jesus.

i was watching primetime tonight, and a guy named like, David Kuo or something like that was saying that we've taken Jesus and made him into a precinct captain or a ploy to get votes. here in America, we've made Him, the almighty God, the Infinite One, into some fish outline on the back of our car, or some sort of spiritual vending machine. and that is truly a tragedy. and i am as guilty of this as anyone. it's just sad to me, and i don't know whether it angers or saddens God. i think that people have put Him in this box because when faced with the all-Powerful, perfect, and holy God, they are scared. we find a seemingly weak and pacifistic "religious figure" to be a lot more appealing and a lot less threatening. today i went to a different church with some of my sorority sisters, and i thought to myself, 'wow...everyone here seems really happy-go-lucky and fun'...and then i realized, that it's quite easy to be upbeat and fun whenever you never get convicted about anything or realize the depth of your own sin. that is something that God has really been hammering into my heart lately. the more i get to know Him, the less and less i think of myself, just like how the more i learn about the Bible, the more i realize that i don't know about God. anyways. yeah, kind of a downer. but we need to quit with the euphemisms and just flat-out lies. much love to you all! g'nite---Cari

I've spent the better part of my alone time, ALONE!!!

  I'm not complaining, it's just funny when an introvert introverts and finds themself to be one of those silent types.But then again, they wouldn't be an introvert if they weren't a silent type.

 Why this odd insight? It's all Sarah's fault!! For those of you who had the pleasure of meeting her today may have discovered her penchant for being loud and boistreous. Yes, I do socialize, otherwise I highly doubt any of you would realize I'm currently in existance.

 Seriously, if I didn't talk and just sat in the back with a book crammed onto my nose, you wouldn't see me. Talented little me has a gift for making herself invisible when she wishes, and sometimes when I don't wish it too.

  So now that I've poured out my strange thoughts and ramblings, how's everybody doing tonight?

  Just to make some of you laugh and/or smile.

So I know what I'm aiming for.

I wanna be Olin Britt in The Music Man.

If you've never seen the musical, he's part of a town board who chase the lead character around, demanding that he present his credentials. And the lead avoids them by saying particular keywords, which reminds the quartet of songs that they know, and so they sing the song forgetting about the character.

I want the Bass part.

Danny

I want my life back...

ok....last week i was a lil sick and i got my friend sick....last night was the cornmaze with my church it was awesome...the guy i got sick got me sick again right when i was getting better....now i don't feel good and i have basketball tryouts and open gym monday and tuesday...this sucks.....the cornmaze was still awesome....i had a blast...but it was freezing cold....

o yeah and i can't wait till homecoming.....it's gonna be fantabulous....lol

LoVe...

LB

Is it so easy to see everyone else's faults and deny our own? Gotta love human nature... yeah right... ICK.

So I don't have to go to school tomorrow... yay for Fall Break (however short it may be)!

And I started writing this really awesome screenplay today. Well, the idea is awesome, so let's hope that my execution of the story goes well.

This is it.  The day we check out of the hotel (after nearly 3 months for Decy and the girls) and move into the Palm house.  There is still a gazillion things to do at the house ... and it is only about 1/3 full of furniture ... and has zero nic-nacs and wall furnishings ... and very little kitchen/dining stuff  ... but that is ok ... it is now "livable".  We now clearly have sheets, towels, water, soap, toilet paper !!!!

Sunday was pretty much a day of resting. We all got up ... met up with some of the family and had a late lunch to celebrate Dolly's birthday (one of Decy's sisters).  Then we went to the house with another load of stuff.  While I cooked the shrimp that had been marinating overnight .... Decy did karaoke ... Chely was on the internet (temp dial-up style) ... Thasya worked on her school's "eqyptian history" project.  At one point everybody sang a song or two.  Overall, the shrimp was pretty good ... given that I had to assemble all the spices from scratch (didn't have any shrimp boil) and had to doctor-up the cocktail sauce (much too sweet the way it came out of the bottle).  I think Decy and the girls enjoyed it.

I jumped in the swimming pool for a minute to see what it was like ... very nice ... and will be quite enjoyable when we have some patio furniture and music there.

Today (Monday) after the girls leave for school and I leave for work (not in that order) ... Decy will shut down the hotel ... pack up a few boxes and haul the remaining belongings to the house.  When we all "return" we will return to the house.  Its been a long haul ... and we are glad to be moving on to the next step .... settling in / getting a routine / ironing out the bugs.

... This Friday we go to Makassar ... yeah .. I want to see the place where Decy was born and grew up !!!

ciao ciao 

Hey everybody. DANG!!! I'm finally going out with Emilee Jordan. I don't think it could have taken any longer! Oh well it's just made our relationship better because Weve been waiting so long to go out. I really like her, and if you see her anywhere, tell her I said that. In other news, our team is knocked out of the play -offs. Life goes on. 

confuse me.  I mean I know that  I  (as a male) am not supposed to
totally understand them, but I at least thought simple tasks would be
easier.  I think that an unwritten curse branching from the original
sin was that man would never fully understand women.  Either then or
during the tower of  Babel disaster.  I in no way am or am trying to be
sexist.  I just wish that we could get a deeper look at the opposite
sex's mind processes.  Maybe then I could understand their motivation
or intentions for certain things.  In the same way, I wish that girls
could see my reasoning for telling them or thinking certain things. 
Even this post may be misconstrued.  I can't win.  ;)  Well that's
what's on my mind right now.   

we had a race this weekend in chattanooga. for a long story short we won. it was the most entertaining race of the day. it felt so good to win a gold medal. it's the best we've done, and there's no reason we shouldnt be able to do it at the next race either.

schools crazy. thats about it.

i kinda wish i was at home. i wish i had been able to go home for fall break. maybe i can come home soon though. i miss my friends at home... kinda crazy huh.

i'll write more later. i g2g.

piece

long time no update! so, life's been pretty busy.  trying to get ready for my senior recital on nov 19 - everybody should come! it's at 8pm.  that is assuming i pass my hearing for it. anyways, i've been working MWF 8-5 at doubletree hotel, which i guess is fun. it's money anyway.  i'm on fall break right now and it's been wonderful so far! i definately slept until 1:30pm today, which is quite a bit longer than i wanted to, but oh well. i got back from chattanooga last night; some of my KD sisters and i went up there just to hang out and do touristy stuff. we went to the aquarium and see rock city and ate at big river and i finally used my hotel discount! it was nice to get out of murfreesboro for a while and see something different since i can't "go home" like most of my friends.  steve and i are great - i love him more each and every day! we don't see much of each other because i'm so busy with school and he's so busy with work.  he works at the new schirmerhorn symphony hall.  we usually see each other on the weekends, but some weekends he has to work 16 hour days for concerts and such.  which makes me miss him tremendously.  but he's got a good job within his major which is not something most RIM majors can say right after they graduate so i'm not complaining.  anyways, i just thought i'd toss a little update in here for everyone.  love you all!

this weekend was.... in one word.... AMAZING!.... i dont think i've had that much fun since i went to chuck-e-cheese for the first time when i was like 8 ....but on sunday i must rest... i've had like NO sleep ... and im runnin on empty! hope everyone elses weekend was as good as mine! peace out!

I have no plans set out.
I have nothing
Absolutely nothing.
Except for School and Work.

how depressing is that.?

Here's a few pics from my trip to mountain brook last week. I finally found time to put them up.


Liz, Sarah and Me

Weird haha

Me and Saruh

stupid is better

Me and Liz

And again..

Sarah playing piano at Liz's house

My future house in Mountain Brook

Me strumming Sarah's guitar

The 2 loves of my life at the airport, when i was leaving.

Yeah, it was awesome.....

I wanna go back...Mbrook =  : ) ..... Mboro = suck

~Garrett

So, for some reason, I'm listening to Audio Adrenaline last night, and now.. I have this new found.. INTENSE.. love for them.
Ahh.. they're just sooooooooo gooooooood :)
Powerful christian messages, with just such.. charisma.. in their presentation of it.  Joy honestly just kind of comes up in me listening to them.
Spiritually edifying, most def.

I'm a man. Overboard.
I'm a man. Overboard....

If it wasn't for the light house
where would my life be?
On a ship bound for nowhere,
On an unforgiving sea.

I thank God, for the lighthouse

Grandma Suzy, there is only one cartridge ... trust me ... its a color scanner than prints only B&W .... urrghh.  BTW, I am NOT lazy !!!! (just a tired old man).

Made some progress on Saturday ... but not much.  Freezer and 2nd water dispenser showed up .... YEAH !!!  And, the workmen were able to drill the well down another 50 feet ... to get to more water .... double YEAH !!!!

However, the maids tried the washer and dryer.  The outlets and plugs were undersized ... thus, when they turned on the W&D ... sparks, sizzle, melting plastic outlets, zip .. zing ... zowwie.  We started the re-wiring last night .... washer is now fine ... the dryer was almost done when we left ... Don't know if they finished rewiring the dryer or not.  Also, I had to explain the exhaust vent for the dryer ... I don't think they realized they need to hook it up .... and they were going to just let the hot air go into the maids area ... instead of being routed outside.

Until the dryer is ready ... maids are washing clothes and air drying ... they realize we need sheets and towels before we can move in.

TV guy never came on Saturday ... urggghhh ... glad we didn't wait at the house for him.  WHEN he shows up he needs to rewire the TV outlets ... they aren't exactly in the right place ... we want one in each of the girls' room, our bedroom, the family room, and living room .... 5 outlets in total.

RE internet access ... Decy will go to the i-net office Monday and try to get that going.  In the meantime, there is a telecom dial up we can use ... I tested in on Saturday ... not real good ... but I think it is workable for a couple of days .... but, painfully slow .. but better than nothing ... COST - 100 rupiah per minute on weekends, and 165 RPM on weekdays ... that notionally 1 and 2 pennies a minute, respectively.

I hear the owner was still out shopping on Saturday ... there is some patio furniture he still needs to buy ... as per the lease agreement.

Owner added another 3 feet to the fence on one side of house ... it looks ok, I was afraid it was going to be ugly.  The back walls must now me something like 20 feet high and the side walls 10 feet ...

I have promised the girls some boiled shrimp when we move into the house ... so, I will try to honor that promise today (Sunday).  Bought shrimp and some seasoning ... couldn't find exactly what I wanted ... but it should work for this first time.

I think we will spend Sunday night in the hotel ... one last time ... then after I leave for work and the girls leave for school, Decy will check out of the hotel ... at least that is the plan.

ciao ciao.   

i want to change my look...what do you guys think i should do? like i was thinking coloring my hair or something like that. i don't know. i need some opinons. i love and trust you guys so give me some input!

Leah 

i want to be there. right now.
i want to hear city sounds.
walk on the side walks.
ride the subways.
be cold. wear a scarf.
sit in the park.
see the lights.
take it all in.



 


my heart is still in nyc.

when you feel like dancing
when youre all alone
when youve got a candle burning
when you feel like youre waiting for something to happen..
when miles davis is putting your mind at ease
and when you just want to go take the first plane to anywhere

And.... once again i am talking to my self! la la la byebye