I never got around to writing up an entry today, and now it's nearly bedtime, so you're not going to get much more than this.
I know, I know, but somehow you'll manage to survive.
There's not much new or exciting that happened in my life today anyway, so there wasn't much to report.
Hopefully next week I'll be a little more productive.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Uneventful Day or Destroy Her Career Now!
Today proved to be about as uneventful as a day as they come.
I took a shower, got dressed, went out and bought some groceries, and was home long before my hair even dried.
I spent the afternoon reading the last of the Chick tracts and reviews before making dinner and settling in to watch TV for the evening, as Wednesday nights are the nights I actually watch the most TV (Simpsons at 6 and 6:30, Law & Order [reruns on TNT], Smallville, Mythbusters, and Law & Order [new on NBC] ).
(This is totally neither here nor there, but right now “The Daily Show” is on, and I just realized that actor Alan Cumming strongly resembles Andrew Ridgely, the “other guy” from Wham!)
(As another aside, for those of you interested, the trailer for the movie version of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is available for viewing on Amazon.com)
After finishing up with the Chick tracts I read some additional material at the site that had the links and reviews and found a (sort of) transcript of a couple of audio cassettes featuring Chick himself interviewing a woman named Rebecca Brown and her…I don’t know what you’d call her, but her name was Elaine. Rebecca was a former doctor who lost her license to practice medicine, but that’s okay, because God never closes one door without opening another (though frequently that other door leads to the Lake of Fire), and with the assistance of Elaine, a former witch and apparently the ex-Mrs. Satan, Rebecca found a new career as Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Well, sort of. She and Elaine decided to make use of their experiences with the occult to help alert the masses (mostly via Chick tracts) to the dangers of things like rock music, D & D, Wicca, and pretty much everything that Chick tracts were already warning against.
Reading through this interview made it clear just how much of a nutjob Chick really is, as he seemed to quite honestly believe everything he was told about the supernatural world Rebecca and Elaine described, a world in which Satanic priest can own your soul after drinking a thimbleful of your blood, and in which Satan himself once took physical form in order to rough up Elaine.
At one point Elaine even describes how she and several of her fellow witches were astral projecting themselves into the home of one of their deadliest enemies in order to wreak some havoc, but alas, they were turned away by an army of Angels guarding the house.
It’s soon revealed that this house, with its Heavenly security system that puts ADP to shame, belonged to none other than Jack T. Chick!
By the way, in true Chick fashion, his guardian Angels actually tried to get Elaine, in her astral form, to accept Jesus Christ as her personal savior.
What I found myself unable to believe is just how gullible Chick really is...so long as someone is telling him something that he wants to hear.
It was incredibly revelatory that in the course of the conversation Chick decried psychics and mind-readers. However, he wasn’t decrying them as frauds, but as Satanists who actually commune with demons in order to ply their trade rather than relying on leading questions and proven psychological tactics used by scam artists the world over.
I was just stunned by the whole thing. Still, I guess it’s not that much of a stretch to go from believing in a faceless giant sitting on a throne in the sky waiting for his chance to say “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, “ which he seems to say much more frequently than “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” to believing that there are real witches who can move things with the power of their minds (and the demons inside them, of course).
I know that at least some of you are too offended/irritated by Chick to share my enthusiasm/morbid fascination for him and his work, but I think everyone can get a good laugh out of the Rebecca Brown interview. Check it out here.
On a topic that’s pretty far removed from Jack T. Chick, yesterday when I got my issue of “Playboy” in the mail I discovered that former teen queen Debbie Gibson has followed in the footsteps of her former rival Tiffany and has posed nude for Playboy.
As for how she actually looked…she looked okay. She’s aged fairly well, but she was never all that much to look at in the first place (for her part, Tiffany actually looked very good in her pictorial, much better than she had looked when she was still successful).
But how she looked (or how Tiffany looked for that matter) isn’t really what’s significant about this event.
No, there is actually something much more important to be learned from this other than how Debbie Gibson looks without her clothes.
What is the lesson? That starting right now everyone everywhere has to stop buying any albums that Britney Spears releases and work to ensure that every project she’s involved with fails miserably so that in ten years (ideally sooner, but that would require putting out a lot of effort to ensure that her career tanks immediately) she’ll have no other option than to try (just as unsuccessfully as Tiffany did, and Debbie will) to revitalize her career.
You might also start working on wrecking Lindsay Lohan’s career while you’re at it…
In response to the e-mail I got from Wendy I wanted to write a little more about female fandom, and women in comics in general, and also about my own lack of involvement with the convention scene. However, it’s getting late and I’ve probably babbled more than enough today, so I guess we’ll leave that for another time.
I took a shower, got dressed, went out and bought some groceries, and was home long before my hair even dried.
I spent the afternoon reading the last of the Chick tracts and reviews before making dinner and settling in to watch TV for the evening, as Wednesday nights are the nights I actually watch the most TV (Simpsons at 6 and 6:30, Law & Order [reruns on TNT], Smallville, Mythbusters, and Law & Order [new on NBC] ).
(This is totally neither here nor there, but right now “The Daily Show” is on, and I just realized that actor Alan Cumming strongly resembles Andrew Ridgely, the “other guy” from Wham!)
(As another aside, for those of you interested, the trailer for the movie version of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is available for viewing on Amazon.com)
After finishing up with the Chick tracts I read some additional material at the site that had the links and reviews and found a (sort of) transcript of a couple of audio cassettes featuring Chick himself interviewing a woman named Rebecca Brown and her…I don’t know what you’d call her, but her name was Elaine. Rebecca was a former doctor who lost her license to practice medicine, but that’s okay, because God never closes one door without opening another (though frequently that other door leads to the Lake of Fire), and with the assistance of Elaine, a former witch and apparently the ex-Mrs. Satan, Rebecca found a new career as Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Well, sort of. She and Elaine decided to make use of their experiences with the occult to help alert the masses (mostly via Chick tracts) to the dangers of things like rock music, D & D, Wicca, and pretty much everything that Chick tracts were already warning against.
Reading through this interview made it clear just how much of a nutjob Chick really is, as he seemed to quite honestly believe everything he was told about the supernatural world Rebecca and Elaine described, a world in which Satanic priest can own your soul after drinking a thimbleful of your blood, and in which Satan himself once took physical form in order to rough up Elaine.
At one point Elaine even describes how she and several of her fellow witches were astral projecting themselves into the home of one of their deadliest enemies in order to wreak some havoc, but alas, they were turned away by an army of Angels guarding the house.
It’s soon revealed that this house, with its Heavenly security system that puts ADP to shame, belonged to none other than Jack T. Chick!
By the way, in true Chick fashion, his guardian Angels actually tried to get Elaine, in her astral form, to accept Jesus Christ as her personal savior.
What I found myself unable to believe is just how gullible Chick really is...so long as someone is telling him something that he wants to hear.
It was incredibly revelatory that in the course of the conversation Chick decried psychics and mind-readers. However, he wasn’t decrying them as frauds, but as Satanists who actually commune with demons in order to ply their trade rather than relying on leading questions and proven psychological tactics used by scam artists the world over.
I was just stunned by the whole thing. Still, I guess it’s not that much of a stretch to go from believing in a faceless giant sitting on a throne in the sky waiting for his chance to say “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, “ which he seems to say much more frequently than “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” to believing that there are real witches who can move things with the power of their minds (and the demons inside them, of course).
I know that at least some of you are too offended/irritated by Chick to share my enthusiasm/morbid fascination for him and his work, but I think everyone can get a good laugh out of the Rebecca Brown interview. Check it out here.
On a topic that’s pretty far removed from Jack T. Chick, yesterday when I got my issue of “Playboy” in the mail I discovered that former teen queen Debbie Gibson has followed in the footsteps of her former rival Tiffany and has posed nude for Playboy.
As for how she actually looked…she looked okay. She’s aged fairly well, but she was never all that much to look at in the first place (for her part, Tiffany actually looked very good in her pictorial, much better than she had looked when she was still successful).
But how she looked (or how Tiffany looked for that matter) isn’t really what’s significant about this event.
No, there is actually something much more important to be learned from this other than how Debbie Gibson looks without her clothes.
What is the lesson? That starting right now everyone everywhere has to stop buying any albums that Britney Spears releases and work to ensure that every project she’s involved with fails miserably so that in ten years (ideally sooner, but that would require putting out a lot of effort to ensure that her career tanks immediately) she’ll have no other option than to try (just as unsuccessfully as Tiffany did, and Debbie will) to revitalize her career.
You might also start working on wrecking Lindsay Lohan’s career while you’re at it…
In response to the e-mail I got from Wendy I wanted to write a little more about female fandom, and women in comics in general, and also about my own lack of involvement with the convention scene. However, it’s getting late and I’ve probably babbled more than enough today, so I guess we’ll leave that for another time.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
The Simple Application of Heat, Yuppy Grocery Stores, and Geek Babes!
So cooking class was pretty much a bust again.
Tonight’s emphasis was on meat and the effective use of marinades.
Because there are some time constraints in the class, basically the teacher just stopped at Wegman’s and picked up some cuts of meat that had already been marinated. She talked a little about the different kinds of meats and how some really absorb flavors while others don’t, and you want to be careful what you marinade them in based on those considerations.
Then each group just grabbed some meat and cooked it via various methods (broiling, frying, roasting).
Once that was done, which was fairly early, class was over.
So, once again, no pictures, as I didn’t see any reason to photograph some chicken that I did nothing other than apply some heat to until it was no longer pink inside. I might as well have just thrown it in the microwave.
As an aside about Wegman’s, one of their stores opened near where I live a while back. During its grand opening week I went in to check it out. I found it to be too big and too…well, I thought it was sort of pretentious. It’s very much a grocery store for Yuppies.
Really, it was just too much.
So as I was leaving, without having purchased anything, I thought, “I’ll never shop here again.”
However, there was a group of women leaving at the same time (with full carts), and one of them said, to universal agreement, “I’ll never shop anywhere else.”
I just found it funny to see such an obvious example of how entirely counter my thinking runs to the thinking of most other people.
But whatever.
It was kind of funny that tonight’s cooking class focused on marinating, as right before I left I put some meat in the refrigerator to marinate overnight, as tomorrow I’m making a Korean dish called, bulgoki, bol go gi, or something similar, depending on the source. I think the particular recipe I’m following uses the second spelling.
Basically all that’s involved in preparing it is slicing up some beef and letting it marinate in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, garlic, green onions, and crushed sesame seeds overnight, then cooking it. I usually cook it in my wok, but it can also be grilled or broiled. Then you just serve it with vegetables (I go with carrots and broccoli) and rice.
We used to have it for lunch every so often at work, but the restaurant that we got it from closed down a while back, so that’s why I decided to find a recipe for it.
Apart from preparing the marinade, I spent much of the day reading Jack T. Chick tracts and reviews of them, and watching some more episodes of “Wonderfalls,” which I’ve been enjoying a great deal.
Some of you may recall that a while back I wrote an entry about Red Sonja.
In it, I made reference to writer/artist Wendy Pini, who, back in the 70s, used to dress up as Sonja at comic book conventions.
I also pointed out that Wendy Pini is the wife of Richard Pini, whom I referred to as something like the “luckiest comic book geek in the world.”
I said this not only because he was married to a total babe who looked hot in a chain mail bikini, but because Wendy was much more than that. She was a total babe who looked hot in a chain mail bikini who was also into comic books (BTW, that's the best picture I've been able to find of Wendy Pini as Sonja. Sorry.).
After all, there are plenty of attractive women who show up at conventions dressed as Vampirella, or Lara Croft, or in costumes that have at least tenuous connections to the comic book and fantasy world, but a lot of them are models who are getting paid to do it.
Wendy Pini showed up as Sonja because she loved comic books. In fact, she and Richard got to know each other after she wrote a letter that was published in an issue of “Silver Surfer.” So not only did she read comics, she felt strongly enough about them to actually write letters.
The idea of the “geek babe,” like Wendy Pini, is one of the most cherished notions of geeks everywhere. Somewhere deep in his fanboy heart (and that’s the only part of fanboy anatomy we’re going to discuss here) is a longing to meet a hot chick who’s into the same things that he’s into.
And I don’t mean a woman who indulges him his hobbies, or even half-heartedly joins in. No, I mean a woman who’s just as much of a geek as he is, independently of his interests.
So that’s the “geek” part.
As for the “babe” part, well, that pretty much speaks for itself. After all, geek or not, he’s no fool. When a geek looks for his female equivalent, he doesn’t actually want his female equivalent…
In any case, it’s long been my contention that the “geek babe” is nothing more than a pipe dream. A myth. An urban legend.
In fact, you may recall that I recently wrote another entry mentioning Wendy Pini, this time talking about an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent which featured a storyline involving a female con artist who preyed on various geeks by pretending to be a geek babe.
But real geek babes? Nowhere to be found.
However, yesterday I received an e-mail from a woman who had stumbled across Threshold in the course of seeking out information on Red Sonja. She read about my belief that geek babes don’t exist and wanted to dispute it.
In an odd coincidence, the reason this woman, whose name is also Wendy, which makes it an even odder coincidence, was looking up information on Red Sonja was that she actually dresses as Sonja at conventions as part of an act.
She wanted to set me straight and let me know that for the record there are a lot more geek babes out there than I ever imagined.
So I stand corrected. The myth of the geek babe is, in fact, true, and here are some pictures that Wendy was kind enough to share with me to prove it:
She-Devil with a Sword
Sonja and Friend
Sonja saving the High Priestess of Ishtar from the evil Wizard
So here we see clear evidence that Geek Babes really do exist (and the photos aren't blurry like pictures of the Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot).
As a geek, I can't help but be pleased by this new discovery, so my thanks go out to Wendy for the e-mail and the pics (and for providing me material for this and future Threshold entries).
Tonight’s emphasis was on meat and the effective use of marinades.
Because there are some time constraints in the class, basically the teacher just stopped at Wegman’s and picked up some cuts of meat that had already been marinated. She talked a little about the different kinds of meats and how some really absorb flavors while others don’t, and you want to be careful what you marinade them in based on those considerations.
Then each group just grabbed some meat and cooked it via various methods (broiling, frying, roasting).
Once that was done, which was fairly early, class was over.
So, once again, no pictures, as I didn’t see any reason to photograph some chicken that I did nothing other than apply some heat to until it was no longer pink inside. I might as well have just thrown it in the microwave.
As an aside about Wegman’s, one of their stores opened near where I live a while back. During its grand opening week I went in to check it out. I found it to be too big and too…well, I thought it was sort of pretentious. It’s very much a grocery store for Yuppies.
Really, it was just too much.
So as I was leaving, without having purchased anything, I thought, “I’ll never shop here again.”
However, there was a group of women leaving at the same time (with full carts), and one of them said, to universal agreement, “I’ll never shop anywhere else.”
I just found it funny to see such an obvious example of how entirely counter my thinking runs to the thinking of most other people.
But whatever.
It was kind of funny that tonight’s cooking class focused on marinating, as right before I left I put some meat in the refrigerator to marinate overnight, as tomorrow I’m making a Korean dish called, bulgoki, bol go gi, or something similar, depending on the source. I think the particular recipe I’m following uses the second spelling.
Basically all that’s involved in preparing it is slicing up some beef and letting it marinate in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, garlic, green onions, and crushed sesame seeds overnight, then cooking it. I usually cook it in my wok, but it can also be grilled or broiled. Then you just serve it with vegetables (I go with carrots and broccoli) and rice.
We used to have it for lunch every so often at work, but the restaurant that we got it from closed down a while back, so that’s why I decided to find a recipe for it.
Apart from preparing the marinade, I spent much of the day reading Jack T. Chick tracts and reviews of them, and watching some more episodes of “Wonderfalls,” which I’ve been enjoying a great deal.
Some of you may recall that a while back I wrote an entry about Red Sonja.
In it, I made reference to writer/artist Wendy Pini, who, back in the 70s, used to dress up as Sonja at comic book conventions.
I also pointed out that Wendy Pini is the wife of Richard Pini, whom I referred to as something like the “luckiest comic book geek in the world.”
I said this not only because he was married to a total babe who looked hot in a chain mail bikini, but because Wendy was much more than that. She was a total babe who looked hot in a chain mail bikini who was also into comic books (BTW, that's the best picture I've been able to find of Wendy Pini as Sonja. Sorry.).
After all, there are plenty of attractive women who show up at conventions dressed as Vampirella, or Lara Croft, or in costumes that have at least tenuous connections to the comic book and fantasy world, but a lot of them are models who are getting paid to do it.
Wendy Pini showed up as Sonja because she loved comic books. In fact, she and Richard got to know each other after she wrote a letter that was published in an issue of “Silver Surfer.” So not only did she read comics, she felt strongly enough about them to actually write letters.
The idea of the “geek babe,” like Wendy Pini, is one of the most cherished notions of geeks everywhere. Somewhere deep in his fanboy heart (and that’s the only part of fanboy anatomy we’re going to discuss here) is a longing to meet a hot chick who’s into the same things that he’s into.
And I don’t mean a woman who indulges him his hobbies, or even half-heartedly joins in. No, I mean a woman who’s just as much of a geek as he is, independently of his interests.
So that’s the “geek” part.
As for the “babe” part, well, that pretty much speaks for itself. After all, geek or not, he’s no fool. When a geek looks for his female equivalent, he doesn’t actually want his female equivalent…
In any case, it’s long been my contention that the “geek babe” is nothing more than a pipe dream. A myth. An urban legend.
In fact, you may recall that I recently wrote another entry mentioning Wendy Pini, this time talking about an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent which featured a storyline involving a female con artist who preyed on various geeks by pretending to be a geek babe.
But real geek babes? Nowhere to be found.
However, yesterday I received an e-mail from a woman who had stumbled across Threshold in the course of seeking out information on Red Sonja. She read about my belief that geek babes don’t exist and wanted to dispute it.
In an odd coincidence, the reason this woman, whose name is also Wendy, which makes it an even odder coincidence, was looking up information on Red Sonja was that she actually dresses as Sonja at conventions as part of an act.
She wanted to set me straight and let me know that for the record there are a lot more geek babes out there than I ever imagined.
So I stand corrected. The myth of the geek babe is, in fact, true, and here are some pictures that Wendy was kind enough to share with me to prove it:
She-Devil with a Sword
Sonja and Friend
Sonja saving the High Priestess of Ishtar from the evil Wizard
So here we see clear evidence that Geek Babes really do exist (and the photos aren't blurry like pictures of the Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot).
As a geek, I can't help but be pleased by this new discovery, so my thanks go out to Wendy for the e-mail and the pics (and for providing me material for this and future Threshold entries).
Monday, February 14, 2005
Forgot To Mention...
Because it's been nearly six months since I submitted a short story to "Weird Tales" and I haven't heard anything, I'm operating on the assumption that it's been rejected (or completely ignored).
So that being the case I decided to send it out again, this time to "Fantasy & Science Fiction." I mailed it out today.
I forgot to mention that in the earlier post.
So if you want to, wish me luck. Hopefully they'll at least send me a letter telling me I suck.
Hey, that rhymed, though the meter leaves a lot to be desired.
Anyway...
So that being the case I decided to send it out again, this time to "Fantasy & Science Fiction." I mailed it out today.
I forgot to mention that in the earlier post.
So if you want to, wish me luck. Hopefully they'll at least send me a letter telling me I suck.
Hey, that rhymed, though the meter leaves a lot to be desired.
Anyway...
Happy F***ing Valentine's Day!
So it’s Valentine’s Day. Whoop-de-freakin’-do.
That I’m not a fan of the day should come as no surprise, all things considered.
I don’t get terribly upset or depressed by it either, but it is sort of annoying to have to be hit in the face with a reminder of the fact that, just like last year, I’m still a loveless loser.
Even when I was married, though, I never really did much to acknowledge the day. We decided early on in our relationship that it was just an excuse for greeting card companies to sell cards, and that it had no particular significance for us.
(And yes, it really was a mutual decision; it wasn’t just me being lazy and insensitive and her going along with it.)
We tended to put the emphasis on the days that actually were significant, like each other’s birthdays and our anniversary.
So at least I don’t have any sort of happy memories of Valentine’s Days past that have since soured.
I’ve got that much going for me, at least.
Yep, that and the fact that I don’t have to buy anything for anyone. Lucky me…
Still, in the spirit of the day, I’ll give you all a link to the lyrics of a Valentine’s Day themed song.
I think it speaks very well for those of us who don’t celebrate the day.
So on Friday my Federal refund showed up in my checking account (State had been in last Monday).
I have to say that e-filing, therefore, kicks ass. Just a little over a week between filing my taxes and having the money in the bank. Very cool.
Of course, there’s always a problem that occurs when I have money: I spend it.
I’d really rather avoid doing that, but it seems impossible.
To make matters worse, I just sold some stock options today, so that means I have even more money coming.
The problem is that it’s not enough money to pay much of anything off, or even make a dent in my bills, so really the only options are to save/invest it, or spend it.
I really, really want to save it, but the natural inclination is to spend.
It’s not really quite enough money for me to buy many of the things I want, but it could buy a couple of them (like a new computer, for example, or a new graphics tablet).
I am going to try (though we all know what Yoda said about "trying") to hold onto at least the majority of the money for a while, especially since besides the stock money I have some more extra funds coming down the pipe.
For one thing, I’ve signed up for a couple more training sessions, which means more OT, and in April I get three paydays. That means that, if I stick to my budget, I’ll pretty much have an entire paycheck that I can just sock away.
Even if I don’t stick to the budget, it’ll still mean a fair amount of extra money.
So I’m really, really hoping that I can manage to avoid spending the money.
I did spend a little today, though.
A while back I signed up to beta test a VoIP telephone service. There were some delays in the processing, but today I finally got the equipment.
The equipment is basically just a wired router with two telephone jacks on it that you connect to your Cable (or DSL) modem. You just hook up an ordinary telephone to it, and you’re making free phone calls over the Internet.
At least, in theory you are. In my case there were a couple of problems.
The first was simply that I don’t own a phone. Just as I do now, when I lived in Tucson I didn’t have a land line, using a cell phone as my only phone service. Consequently, I didn’t even have an old phone lying around that I could use.
So I decided to head to Wal-Mart to pick up a cheap phone to use for the VoIP.
While I was there I also picked up some blank CDs and DVDs, a new CD alarm clock, and, because it was on clearance for a mere $60, an all-in-one printer/copier/scanner.
There wasn’t really anything wrong with my old printer or scanner…other than that they were just that, old.
The scanner is a parallel port model, and as such is extremely slow. The printer is fine, but I figured that if I were ever going to get a new scanner I might as well go with the all-in-one style.
And so I did.
I have to say that it’s pretty cool. It’s extremely fast, prints very well in color and black and white, and the ability to just make copies without having to use the computer is definitely cool.
So buying all of that added up a little, but not too much.
I was surprised to receive the VoIP box this morning. When the UPS guy knocked on my door I was more than a little confused, as the last thing I’d actually ordered, my “Wonderfalls” DVD, had arrived via US Mail on Friday.
Throughout the weekend, and for part of today (when I wasn’t messing with setting up VoIP [which still isn’t fully configured on the network side, apparently, so it doesn’t work yet], playing around with my new printer/copier/scanner, or watching “Wonderfalls”), I’ve continued reading Jack T. Chick tracts, as well as some online information about the man.
I continue to be amazed at the level of paranoia that he demonstrates.
In a tract titled “Sin City,” which is not related to either Las Vegas or “Basin City,” the actual setting for the movie Sin City (more on the movie in a bit), but which, in fact, takes place in San Francisco, Chick presents the most warped and distorted view of reality I've ever seen.
Apart from San Francisco, the title also refers to the Sodom and Gomorrah, with which “Bob,” Chick’s godly protagonist, is able to draw many parallels to Frisco.
In the story, a lone, “good” man protests a gay pride parade and is soon beaten thoroughly by the police and arrested for committing a “hate crime.” Bob then visits him in a hospital, where a "liberal" (read: homosexual) minister is trying to get the hapless Christian to accept a more watered down version of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and to realize that God loves all of His children, even the snappy dressers.
Luckily Bob arrives just in time to chase away the demons clouding the Christians mind, and informs the gay evangelist that Christ was God (a fact that, thanks to the Jesuits, the minister was unaware of), and points out that yes, God does love homoes, but he hates the things they do (and we're not talking about the campy, annoying things that Sean Hayes does on "Will & Grace"), and if they don't change their wicked ways and accept Christ as their personal savior these queens will soon be flaming in the Lake of Fire.
The Perverted Preacher soon sees the error of his ways and, not for the first time, drops down on all fours, though this time it's to speak the all-powerful "sinner's prayer," which frees him from the shackles of his biological wiring and makes him straight.
I just can't get over the scenes of the protestor being beaten by the Gay Police (Seriously; the cops are wearing make up. Then again, maybe they weren't really the police. Maybe they were just part of a "Village People" tribute.).
The ability that fundamentalist Christians have to paint themselves in the role of victim is astonishing. Sometimes I think the worst thing that ever happened to Christians was to gain worldwide acceptance and to stop being fed to the lions. I don’t think they ever figured out how to live without being persecuted and forced to die for their beliefs, so they started manufacturing enemies and distorting reality. “Christian Bashing,” for example, hasn’t ever really caught on in the gay community in the way that that Gay Bashing has caught on in the Christian community. And even in SF I can’t imagine too many people getting arrested, let alone beaten to within an inch of their lives, for simply protesting a parade.
Also, the whole reason that the the gay minister shows up is to tempt the righteous man into sin, as "they" (Jesuits, presumably) have worked out a deal with the DA to drop the "Hate Crime" charges if the victim of mob violence will just recant his hateful beliefs.
Apparently it's all part of the modern Spanish Inquisition that is being waged (Bet you didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition. That's okay; nobody expects the Spanish Inquistion.) on all of the righteous people in the world.
It's interesting to see that Chick believes that "the enemy" engages in the exact same tactics that he and his protagonist Bob engages in; finding people who are in a state of physical and psychological turmoil and trying to brainwash them (In other tracts, Bob has done things like visiting burn victims in the hospital and explaining that they've gotten a taste of the fire that's waiting for them after they die in their sins.).
But of course their are more of "them" and not nearly enough of "us" (faithful Chick tract readers).
Honestly, these are exactly the sort of paranoid delusions that make Chick tracts so damned funny.
As much as I disagree with his worldview (and it seems clear that Chick honestly, and earnestly, believes what he writes), I would love to have the opportunity to talk with him.
I wouldn’t bother trying to debate with him, or to get him to change his views, but I would really like to hear him expound on them (the tracts, after all, only allow him to say so much, as they have to be short and to the point), and to have him answer some of the questions I have.
For example, it’s Chick’s assertion that the Vatican has a “huge computer” which is used to keep a list of all the Protestants in the world, presumably for the purposes of targeting people to prevent them from accepting Christ as their personal savior (or, as Chick would have it, “saviour”).
What I wonder is how well they keep that list updated.
I mean, I was raised a Lutheran. I went through First Communion, and eventually Confirmation, at which point I became a full-fledged member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
However, at this point, and for many years now, I no longer even consider myself a Christian, let alone a Protestant.
So is my name still on the Vatican’s list? Is there a footnote, or checkmark of some kind indicating that I’m no longer among the saved?
On that point, though, Chick does teach a “saved once, saved always” philosophy that indicates that once you accept Christ as your savior, believe that Christ was God, and that He died on the cross for you, nothing will keep you out of Heaven.
So, while I no longer accept Christ as my savior, nor believe that he was God, or indeed, that there even is any sort of god at all (or that if there is that he/she/it is automatically entitled to my love and worship), am I still saved, because I once did?
I honestly don’t think he could answer these questions, though, because I don’t think it even occurs to him that there can be any questions.
I guess I’ve babbled enough about good old Jack for now, but on the topic of meeting him, here’s the blog of someone (a Catholic, in fact) who did just that. It’s a great read.
Today I found out that the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly features a cover story on "Sin City!" It features some pictures of the cast and asks “Is this the next Pulp Fiction?”
My answer? No. It’ll blow Pulp Fiction away.
Not even Samuel L. Mother Fuckin’ Jackson himself would last five minutes in the back alleys of Basin City. Check out the pictures here.
The April 1st opening of Sin City is drawing ever nearer. Of course, that also means that my 33rd birthday is that much closer, too.
If “Sin City” is as good as I hope it will be, though, that’s a small price to pay.
For those of you out there who don’t work with me and are interested in finding out more about the poor souls who do have to bear that burden, check out Brian and Kathleen’s journals, here and here respectively.
At the very least you can give them your sympathies for having to suffer my presence for 13 hours a day…
That I’m not a fan of the day should come as no surprise, all things considered.
I don’t get terribly upset or depressed by it either, but it is sort of annoying to have to be hit in the face with a reminder of the fact that, just like last year, I’m still a loveless loser.
Even when I was married, though, I never really did much to acknowledge the day. We decided early on in our relationship that it was just an excuse for greeting card companies to sell cards, and that it had no particular significance for us.
(And yes, it really was a mutual decision; it wasn’t just me being lazy and insensitive and her going along with it.)
We tended to put the emphasis on the days that actually were significant, like each other’s birthdays and our anniversary.
So at least I don’t have any sort of happy memories of Valentine’s Days past that have since soured.
I’ve got that much going for me, at least.
Yep, that and the fact that I don’t have to buy anything for anyone. Lucky me…
Still, in the spirit of the day, I’ll give you all a link to the lyrics of a Valentine’s Day themed song.
I think it speaks very well for those of us who don’t celebrate the day.
So on Friday my Federal refund showed up in my checking account (State had been in last Monday).
I have to say that e-filing, therefore, kicks ass. Just a little over a week between filing my taxes and having the money in the bank. Very cool.
Of course, there’s always a problem that occurs when I have money: I spend it.
I’d really rather avoid doing that, but it seems impossible.
To make matters worse, I just sold some stock options today, so that means I have even more money coming.
The problem is that it’s not enough money to pay much of anything off, or even make a dent in my bills, so really the only options are to save/invest it, or spend it.
I really, really want to save it, but the natural inclination is to spend.
It’s not really quite enough money for me to buy many of the things I want, but it could buy a couple of them (like a new computer, for example, or a new graphics tablet).
I am going to try (though we all know what Yoda said about "trying") to hold onto at least the majority of the money for a while, especially since besides the stock money I have some more extra funds coming down the pipe.
For one thing, I’ve signed up for a couple more training sessions, which means more OT, and in April I get three paydays. That means that, if I stick to my budget, I’ll pretty much have an entire paycheck that I can just sock away.
Even if I don’t stick to the budget, it’ll still mean a fair amount of extra money.
So I’m really, really hoping that I can manage to avoid spending the money.
I did spend a little today, though.
A while back I signed up to beta test a VoIP telephone service. There were some delays in the processing, but today I finally got the equipment.
The equipment is basically just a wired router with two telephone jacks on it that you connect to your Cable (or DSL) modem. You just hook up an ordinary telephone to it, and you’re making free phone calls over the Internet.
At least, in theory you are. In my case there were a couple of problems.
The first was simply that I don’t own a phone. Just as I do now, when I lived in Tucson I didn’t have a land line, using a cell phone as my only phone service. Consequently, I didn’t even have an old phone lying around that I could use.
So I decided to head to Wal-Mart to pick up a cheap phone to use for the VoIP.
While I was there I also picked up some blank CDs and DVDs, a new CD alarm clock, and, because it was on clearance for a mere $60, an all-in-one printer/copier/scanner.
There wasn’t really anything wrong with my old printer or scanner…other than that they were just that, old.
The scanner is a parallel port model, and as such is extremely slow. The printer is fine, but I figured that if I were ever going to get a new scanner I might as well go with the all-in-one style.
And so I did.
I have to say that it’s pretty cool. It’s extremely fast, prints very well in color and black and white, and the ability to just make copies without having to use the computer is definitely cool.
So buying all of that added up a little, but not too much.
I was surprised to receive the VoIP box this morning. When the UPS guy knocked on my door I was more than a little confused, as the last thing I’d actually ordered, my “Wonderfalls” DVD, had arrived via US Mail on Friday.
Throughout the weekend, and for part of today (when I wasn’t messing with setting up VoIP [which still isn’t fully configured on the network side, apparently, so it doesn’t work yet], playing around with my new printer/copier/scanner, or watching “Wonderfalls”), I’ve continued reading Jack T. Chick tracts, as well as some online information about the man.
I continue to be amazed at the level of paranoia that he demonstrates.
In a tract titled “Sin City,” which is not related to either Las Vegas or “Basin City,” the actual setting for the movie Sin City (more on the movie in a bit), but which, in fact, takes place in San Francisco, Chick presents the most warped and distorted view of reality I've ever seen.
Apart from San Francisco, the title also refers to the Sodom and Gomorrah, with which “Bob,” Chick’s godly protagonist, is able to draw many parallels to Frisco.
In the story, a lone, “good” man protests a gay pride parade and is soon beaten thoroughly by the police and arrested for committing a “hate crime.” Bob then visits him in a hospital, where a "liberal" (read: homosexual) minister is trying to get the hapless Christian to accept a more watered down version of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and to realize that God loves all of His children, even the snappy dressers.
Luckily Bob arrives just in time to chase away the demons clouding the Christians mind, and informs the gay evangelist that Christ was God (a fact that, thanks to the Jesuits, the minister was unaware of), and points out that yes, God does love homoes, but he hates the things they do (and we're not talking about the campy, annoying things that Sean Hayes does on "Will & Grace"), and if they don't change their wicked ways and accept Christ as their personal savior these queens will soon be flaming in the Lake of Fire.
The Perverted Preacher soon sees the error of his ways and, not for the first time, drops down on all fours, though this time it's to speak the all-powerful "sinner's prayer," which frees him from the shackles of his biological wiring and makes him straight.
I just can't get over the scenes of the protestor being beaten by the Gay Police (Seriously; the cops are wearing make up. Then again, maybe they weren't really the police. Maybe they were just part of a "Village People" tribute.).
The ability that fundamentalist Christians have to paint themselves in the role of victim is astonishing. Sometimes I think the worst thing that ever happened to Christians was to gain worldwide acceptance and to stop being fed to the lions. I don’t think they ever figured out how to live without being persecuted and forced to die for their beliefs, so they started manufacturing enemies and distorting reality. “Christian Bashing,” for example, hasn’t ever really caught on in the gay community in the way that that Gay Bashing has caught on in the Christian community. And even in SF I can’t imagine too many people getting arrested, let alone beaten to within an inch of their lives, for simply protesting a parade.
Also, the whole reason that the the gay minister shows up is to tempt the righteous man into sin, as "they" (Jesuits, presumably) have worked out a deal with the DA to drop the "Hate Crime" charges if the victim of mob violence will just recant his hateful beliefs.
Apparently it's all part of the modern Spanish Inquisition that is being waged (Bet you didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition. That's okay; nobody expects the Spanish Inquistion.) on all of the righteous people in the world.
It's interesting to see that Chick believes that "the enemy" engages in the exact same tactics that he and his protagonist Bob engages in; finding people who are in a state of physical and psychological turmoil and trying to brainwash them (In other tracts, Bob has done things like visiting burn victims in the hospital and explaining that they've gotten a taste of the fire that's waiting for them after they die in their sins.).
But of course their are more of "them" and not nearly enough of "us" (faithful Chick tract readers).
Honestly, these are exactly the sort of paranoid delusions that make Chick tracts so damned funny.
As much as I disagree with his worldview (and it seems clear that Chick honestly, and earnestly, believes what he writes), I would love to have the opportunity to talk with him.
I wouldn’t bother trying to debate with him, or to get him to change his views, but I would really like to hear him expound on them (the tracts, after all, only allow him to say so much, as they have to be short and to the point), and to have him answer some of the questions I have.
For example, it’s Chick’s assertion that the Vatican has a “huge computer” which is used to keep a list of all the Protestants in the world, presumably for the purposes of targeting people to prevent them from accepting Christ as their personal savior (or, as Chick would have it, “saviour”).
What I wonder is how well they keep that list updated.
I mean, I was raised a Lutheran. I went through First Communion, and eventually Confirmation, at which point I became a full-fledged member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
However, at this point, and for many years now, I no longer even consider myself a Christian, let alone a Protestant.
So is my name still on the Vatican’s list? Is there a footnote, or checkmark of some kind indicating that I’m no longer among the saved?
On that point, though, Chick does teach a “saved once, saved always” philosophy that indicates that once you accept Christ as your savior, believe that Christ was God, and that He died on the cross for you, nothing will keep you out of Heaven.
So, while I no longer accept Christ as my savior, nor believe that he was God, or indeed, that there even is any sort of god at all (or that if there is that he/she/it is automatically entitled to my love and worship), am I still saved, because I once did?
I honestly don’t think he could answer these questions, though, because I don’t think it even occurs to him that there can be any questions.
I guess I’ve babbled enough about good old Jack for now, but on the topic of meeting him, here’s the blog of someone (a Catholic, in fact) who did just that. It’s a great read.
Today I found out that the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly features a cover story on "Sin City!" It features some pictures of the cast and asks “Is this the next Pulp Fiction?”
My answer? No. It’ll blow Pulp Fiction away.
Not even Samuel L. Mother Fuckin’ Jackson himself would last five minutes in the back alleys of Basin City. Check out the pictures here.
The April 1st opening of Sin City is drawing ever nearer. Of course, that also means that my 33rd birthday is that much closer, too.
If “Sin City” is as good as I hope it will be, though, that’s a small price to pay.
For those of you out there who don’t work with me and are interested in finding out more about the poor souls who do have to bear that burden, check out Brian and Kathleen’s journals, here and here respectively.
At the very least you can give them your sympathies for having to suffer my presence for 13 hours a day…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
