Is this Christmas morning?

Blood Bank (Spotify)"Blood Bank" by Third Eye Blind.  The ep it comes from is so-so.  That closing track just about exceeds the jaw dropping power of songs like "The Background" and "God Of Wine" (tracks 12 & 14 from their debut).

Explicit lyrics, fyi :-

Hope y'all had a gr8 Christmas.  My heart goes out to those that didn't and rarely do.

As for me, my Christmas was a fit.  I spent most days alone, trying to muster gratitude for God and all that He's done and all that He is and promises to do and be in years to come --- and not really succeeding, probably 95% of the time.

I try to be social and it mostly backfires.  Snippets of conversation that never are followed up with.  I get bored and rush off, not sure if there's more I could or should do to extend myself.

I was going to visit my Grandmother & co. in Missouri.  I stayed behind to simplify and economize the already expensive trip.  My sister was already prepared to pay a decent chunk of money for 3 days of dog sitting understanding that her husband would be unable to get enough time off work to leave the same time she and my mother were planning on leaving.  That pretense was misguided and he ended up leaving very shortly after they did.  So price of dog sitting suddenly went up.  My sister's husband didn't seem to understand the severity of having his parents dog sit my mom's dogs and nobody was in any frame of mind to try and explain it to him.

I wasn't giddy with excitement about going on a 8+ hour drive in the 1st place.

So,

it was a fitting Christmas.

The Great Commission

"Idle hands are the devil's playground"  The truth of that expression does exist, if my experience of having way too much time at hand is any indication, even if The Bible itself doesn't put those words in that particular order to the forefront of one's mind.  Much like "The Lord moves in mysterious ways" is not a Bible verse or a piece of one, but nonetheless is demonstrated to be true, both in a variety of passages within The Bible and the pages of individual people's lives.
The Great Commission is not presented to us because God is incapable of doing it Himself.  It is not because he refuses to do it Himself.  It is presented to us because, with the help of The Holy Spirit, and the knowledge of God's will and the availability of His Word, we have the means to express our Love FOR GOD by participating in the Purpose for which Jesus came to Earth.  The Holy Spirit can and will help us accomplish this and it will help prod the listener in moments galore to follow, regardless of how dismissive or uncaring they may come across at the immediate receipt of Your Testimony.  That doesn't mean everyone will heed those proddings.  There are many people who will perish, either because of Our lack of Good Conduct or because of arrogance or a combination of the two.  I think in many cases, Christians beat themselves up a bit much over not "doing enough", when the fact is, being a "hypocrite", while certainly not an OK way to live, does not excuse another's overall dismissal of The Truth.  It should go without saying that hypocrisy does make your Testimony rather flimsy, since The Holy Spirit was sent to transform us into A NEW SPECIES OF LIFE.  People who are visiting a church at your request and find among you a bunch of people slandering and judging others, backstabbing and engaging in gluttony, are more likely to tune into Atheism Today than The Holy Bible.
The more one is humbled and thus realizes a need to alter their behavior(s), the more they will WANT to serve Jesus.  The Great Commission is a gift to those who want it.  To those that don't want assignment to expand God's kingdom, I would recommend to keep asking God to deliver.  The alternative is to either A) live life believing that death is literally THE END of your cognition (which is technically a possible reality, but I don't see how one benefits in that assumption, especially given the evidence of the contrary)  or B) live life knowing The Truth but not walking in it, and risk losing out on something that you may eternally regret.  I believe we have lots to lose out on.  Most of us, that is.  There are a select few Christians who will receive The Choicest Meat from God's table.  The VIP Rooms of Heaven will be a relativity puny number and The rest of us may someday enter those rooms, much like the luxury cars that come loaded with the newest and greatest features; those features eventually are found in basic entry level vehicles.  While the Common Man is driving what once was a luxury car, the new luxury cars are now loaded with features that didn't exist when the Common Cars' features were only available on luxury cars.  That's not to imply God is going to make up cool stuff to show us when we get to Heaven just to make sure we don't get bored.  All of Heaven exists.  But if we take it all in -- how could we? -- then it'll look rather blurry and fuzzy and nothing will distinctly stand out.
The story of Adam & Eve and the lack of personality demonstrated is intentional, I do believe.  As is the lack of personality demonstrated of God.  We without Jesus and The Holy Spirit are so In The Wrong, and many of us either fail to recognize it or we try downplaying it with extremely weak justifications like "I'm not as bad as That guy......."
We as Christians do not automatically become The New Creation that is mentioned in The New Testament.  We are A New Creation, but it is not a Finished specimen for many of us.
When we among us have become ambassador's of God's desire for justice, we may find ourselves learning more about the ins and outs of God's personalty.  We may find ourselves able to listen to Him speak His mind and provide a window into His sense of humor and His fashion sense and taste in music etc. etc (I don't think He wears clothes, but who can say?)
But we, even those of us in The Christian Life, are not fully in line with God's pursuit of justice.  Many/most of us struggle with greed and bitterness.  I myself confess I do suspect I would be a lot less bitter feeling from time to time if I was more diligent in my Walk with Jesus.  I truly do not deserve Salvation.
  I thank you Lord Jesus, Father God and Holy Spirit for your undeserved kindness and generosity toward me.

Love Is The Law

I may be taking this to levels that even I am not certain of, but this is the impression I get
You see nothing of God's personality in The Bible. 
What you see in The Bible is a burning desire for God to not be so far away from His creations.
What you see in The Bible are the consequences for not allowing God to have the throne of our hearts.
Adam & Eve's personalities are also not in The Bible.  Adam & Eve are not depicted as newborn babies at any point in scripture, but I get the impression from the small segment that illustrates the downfall of mankind that Adam & Eve were unwise.  They were innocent and naive.  They obtained knowledge of Good and Evil by following Satan's advise but they did not obtain the wisdom they'd hoped for.  If they'd obtained wisdom along with said knowledge they would have a much easier time choosing Good over Evil and instructing their offspring in doing the same.  Instead, they gave birth to the first murderer in human history.
God doesn't expect us to be unselfish.  If he expected us to not be selfish, he wouldn't bait us into obeying Him with promises of prosperity and good health.  He would maybe use that tactic to begin with, but he doesn't.  The tactic of GETTING SOMETHING IN RETURN is used all throughout The New Testament as well as The Old Testament.  What God hopes for and seldom receives is a lack of greed.  Greed is when someone has less than you and you do nothing to help despite your abilities.
Enjoying life is not the same thing as Greed.  "Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep".  Obviously, being not in the presence of weepers is not a sin otherwise we'd be weeping all of the time.  On the other hand, if God's people ever had succeeded in fully embracing The Great Commission, we wouldn't have an Earth to harbor weeping.  People would have their tears wiped away and any sadness left in them would be replaced by a warm fuzzy feeling that comes from knowing You care, but instead we go about our day trying to have a little bit of personal space.  Think about it --- why is this Earth still standing?  God doesn't expect it to just go on spinning for no reason.  It's The People on it that He's concerned about.
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."  (NIV; 2nd Peter Ch 3 Vs 9)
  THANK YOU GOD FOR YOUR PATIENCE!!!!!!  When people say "We don't deserve Jesus", I usually intercept that as "We are not designed for demanding anything from God", because we as humans never DESERVED anything from God.  Adam and Eve never DESERVED breath in their lunges.  The angels never DESERVED their Heavenly duties.  We as humans are subject to God's will, even if we rebel against it.  He loves us, and always has. but now that I write this down in that way, it really does resonate in the belittling way that it comes across, and I can't help but tear up in sorrow and regret.  We not only DO NOT DESERVE salvation, but we HAVE EARNED fates far worse than the Promise of Jesus and the fulfillment of it.
I do still contend that God does not expect us to be unselfish.  However, our selfishness will be lavishly indulged when time comes to embrace our inclination to be selfish -- that time, of course, being The End Of Time as we, most societies on Earth, understand the definition of Time to be.

GB3 or whatever it's gonna be called

I guess Ivan Reitman's quoted ETA of summer 2019 was a bit overly optimistic.  Dan Aykroyd said last month it was being written.  Even if it's finished now, it's still gotta get filmed and edited and touched up etc.

Someone asked me if I watched those "ghost hunter" shows, and I said that's no and elaborated by saying that element of the movie (the 1984 original) was not what I watched it for.  I cited the friendly and upbeat atmosphere of the film as reasons for watching it, even though that probably isn't the top reason I have enjoyed the movie all these years.  What I like about the film is the crackling of "barbequed dog hair" toward the end, the rustling of the paper in the opening scenes, the high pitched cello-ish sounding instrument heard throughout much of the movie, the rumbling of foodsteps before Gozer chooses its form for The Traveller, and the concise and expressive way Gozer says "THE TRAVALLER! HAS COME", there's so much to relish in that film after all these things were experienced by me as a 2 year old who had never seen or heard such things before.

The 2016 remake had the comradery, it had the nice interlude shots of NYC (the character, not the prop used for it, which would be Boston -- no need to be an idiot, please), it had the crescendo ending, but the comradery was written into the script, not an authentic byproduct of the cast's chemistry.  Yes, the cast got along.  So what?  It's not unheard of for 4 people to get along with one another.  The shots of NYC and the crescendo ending were mixed in with long drawn out scenes that gave the impression that the story being told was worth a 2 hour running time.  It wasn't.  It isn't.  Ghostbusters lasted 1 hr 45 minutes because they had that much to offer.  Neither film had a great story.  Both films made little to no sense if you consider them for their stories.  However, the ebb and flow of GB'84, the visuals and the sounds, the humor and the enthusiasm that the cast exuded from the screen, made the story somewhat easy to fall into, and be spellbound for that length of time.  I was bored by GB:ATC within 30 minutes.  The only time in GB'84 do I ever get a little impatient (not exactly bored) is when Bill Murray's character is beating around the bush in Sigourney Weaver's abode and doing not much of anything except pointing this gadget around.  That's only because I've seen the movie like 800,000 times and I know darn well there's a much more exciting scene following it up.  It's the same kind of antsyness that causes me to turn off most movies by the 20 minute mark even if I am enjoying it/them.  But I shut GB:ATC off within 30 minutes and never wanted to go back.  I had seen it in theaters and I knew there was nothing of substance beyond where I turned it off (and by substance I don't mean "slime", I mean worthy of attention.......ugh).

What confuses me is Dan Aykroyd says he liked the film.  I can see someone not posting 8 different blog posts that regurgitate the same sentiments in different ways, but, I Mean, is this the film Dan Aykroyd was really hoping for after champinoning a sequel/reboot all these years?  They wanted to make a GB3 in 1994 or somewhere aound there.  They were going to do it back in 1999/2000, and almost 1.5 decades later, 25+ years in total, plus the 3/4 of a year they spent filming it and that same time length being shelved with a summer release come hell or high water, they finally have it accomplished.  I can't believe Dan Aykroyd is fully satisfied with the film.  I can see being happy it got made, but being happy with the finished product seems like a bit of an overstatement.  Maybe it's just too much buildup of testosterone, idk.  I did get the sense that the film was geared more toward a female audience.  I don't know how many females were ever really all that gung ho about GHOSTBUSTERS, in concept or in practice, or what about the original film women liked.  All the things I cited above are the very things that movies on The Hallmark Channel and the Lifetime Movie Network are lacking.  And who is the primary demographic for that programming?  Men?  I'm pretty sure not...maybe I'm mistaken.......Rgh.

A Big Deal

Throughout The Bible, God is urging people, literally and figuratively, to humble themselves and worship The Lord.  People who "don't know how to take a compliment" are perhaps more aware of the tendency to become "big headed" and stray from God.
God doesn't expect to be breathing down our necks watching over our shoulder all the time.  He knows we need that from Him, but He also knows we don't want that from Him and most of us never will.  Even in the Garden of Eden, God is not depicted that way.  God came to Adam and Eve while they were desperately trying to cover their nakedness to check on them and say "hi" but instead found them defiled by the poison of the fruit of the forbidden tree.
We need God to keep us from hurting one another, to keep us from depriving one another and being self serving.  "There are children starving in Africa" was once a famous saying given to people who threw food in the trash.  Some of that is due to government oppression and some of that is due to improper farming techniques but none of that is because someone bought a bowl of oatmeal from Starbucks and didn't finish it.  The reason people across the world continue starving is because people are selfish.  Yes, the United States and other governments that are modeled partly based on its at-the-time radical design do not mandate that The Uber Rich solve the world's problems.  The Beauty of BATMAN is not that The U.S. gov't mandated Bruce Wayne use his resources the way that he did.  The Beauty of BATMAN, and any story of a Good Samaritan that you see on the news from time to time, is that they CHOSE to do the right thing.  It's absolutely meaningless if government mandates it.  Christianity is not mandated by the US gov't because God does not want people forced into His kingdom.  God's fellowship is indeed contageous for those who have exposure to it, but there will always be those who simply refuse to partake in it and they are given a time to reconsider their decision.
Humility is not the same thing as low self esteem, but I'd argue that it's better to have a low self image than to boast about your strengths because God is sovereign and he can take away whatever accomplishments we credit ourselves with just as easily as he can dispense them.
As I noted in an earlier blog post, us with much gifted are expected to pay it forward.  I don't think I posted it in that wording, which is a paraphrase of the summary of one of Jesus' parable teachings.  I think that blog post was in regard to a parallel to The wisdom that God granted King Solomon and The knowledge that has been granted to what is now known as The Modern World.  But the point I make here is that you can't give too much.  If you accidentally overgive to God and slip on your mortgage payment, what seems like disaster may rear its head, but will ultimately transform itsself into a blessing.  The ultimate blessing however is far beyond the walls of a six story home with marble flooring and the day to day life that lives within it, with or without your continual presence.
The land will not always be a source of thorns and thistles.  It will not always demand our sweat and blood.  We will not always feel compelled to cry every so often.  You can choose to wait for proof that such Hope exists or you can take the route that C.S. Lewis and Lee Strobel did and come to the conclusions they reached and find true peace in this life as well and in turn find a way to make this world a little brighter for others too.

Bestseller Steven

CD Universe had a banner on their homepage that was recently taken down, a link featuring Stephen King - based movies & TV series on DVD and Blu ray.
It stood for almost a month if not more, and apparantly nobody noticed his name was mispelled.  They had it spelled Steven King.  I finally got around to emailing them about that earlier today and they responded saying that was a typo and they were working to fix it immediately.  They seemed grateful for me pointing it out, but now I feel rather sorrowful that I didn't let them know sooner.  Obviously I was the only one who gave enough of a damn to let them know they'd made a mistake there, but maybe it's not so obvious.  How many people, I wonder, thought they'd entered some kind of Somalian pirate operation when they saw Stephen King's name misspelled?  At best, one might suspect CD Universe to be some brat teenager operating from his parents' garage or something, not knowing a lick about how to efficiently run a mail order retail operation.  I guess The World may Never know.

birth of girth: "I'll fire you tomorrow"

Fire it or fry it...either way.

Been fluctuating weight wise.  I guess that's more than some ppl can say shortly after Turkey day.   I've read more scripture through the month of November than I did in October, which isn't saying much at all, if memory is treating me right.  Still very off course with it.  Need to do it.  Need to want to do it.  Neither seem to be motivating me to action.  At least not in an urgent sense.  idk.  Fooollishnesss!

Got $105 total for my birthday.  I have $2 of it left and I think only maybe $30 of that money was spent on anything of discernible quality.  And that's counting the portion I gave to the church.  It just seems weird that everything I want is either too damn expensive to even consider or it just doesn't feel right for me to buy.

I don't know why I was posting about my ideal bookshelf the other day, the other week, whenever that was.  I don't read much of anything except random stuff I find online while searching / researching products that I might buy someday.  I guess it's like a friend of my mom's once said -- "I think you like the idea of reading more than you like reading"  That's somewhat true.  I do like reading.  I even enjoy reading The Bible when I come across something that doesn't read like The Oxford Dictionary.  Sometimes I find myself having to weave my way into the words of The Bible, like walking through a dense forest and trying not to get my clothing snagged in a throny twig.  The New Testament definitely requires more of The Holy Spirit's presence than I've been asking for.  It reads like a rotating on/off switch.  Much of it is like a Hellfire sermon except it's not directed at anybody in particular for anything in particular.  Which is how any sermon is really.  It's not meant to be personalized down to a T.  Sometimes a specific sentence doesn't apply to you at any given moment.  All of scripture is applicable.  It's not up to the reader to determine how though.  So, enter The Holy Spirit, perfect timing, as the books of The New Testament had not been written as of its entrance to the world.

oh really? I could have done THAT...

..I mean, I was going to...never did, but I would've......

Yeah well someone else -- who was actually able (and committed to doing so) -- actually did it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1948221055/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

One thing noted in the book is that the movie posters and newspaper ads (and subsequent VHS cover artwork) was often more terrifying than the movies themselves could even possibly be and they even sometimes wrote out those claims.
I don't think I ever had htis particular idea in mind.  But it would've been nice if I had enough savvy and knowledge to contribute to a book that contained VHS cover-art.  I was not in any state back in 1988 or even 1991 to have seen the ads that Mr. Gingold the author describes in this book but a lot of the imagery was replicated for the initial home video releases of these movies, so I understand what he's referring to largely.  I was reading a excerpt from this book online and the author noted that there were major theaters, at least in NYC, that played PIECES (1983).  Many people refer to that movie like it's an underground sleazebar movie that you'd have to byapss a street full of drug dealers to see.  I seriously had no idea that PIECES had piqued so much interest from moviegoers.  I always saw it on the video store(s), just figured it was there in lieu of a better movie that didn't exist (Really, how many square feet do you really need to host a collection of movies that people are glad they paid to see after they finally see them?  You can go as far back as the 1940s and you still only have about 2,000 noteworthy titles and most of those noteworthy titles are just a little too noteworthy for the avg person's liking and that's assuming that each noteworthy film has had sufficient marketing so that people know the damn thing exists and can decide for themselves, which is often not what happens, even when a film isn't really all that bad, and then many times people will refuse to see a given movie just because it's old.  My cousin does not like THE BREAKFAST CLUB because the characters' hairstyles are "ridiculous".  Seriously?  And someone was commenting that getting kids of today to see Brian de Palma's CARRIE was like pulling teeth because youth today just assume it's one of those "weird films from the '70's" -- and you gotta admit, the '70's was a rather odd decade for movies.  I wasn't alive then but I can see it's true just by the blu-ray.com pre-order lists.  I was looking at the customer reviews for a movie titled BAD RONALD (1974) that I originally stumbled upon in the pages of the 1999 edition of VIDEOHOUND and, gosh, it's like Adam & Eve, grabbing ahold and biting the forbidden fruit having no idea the ramifications.  Society had its flaws at that time as every society does and always has, but not only has MLK's dream not become a reality...we've lost sight of the Reason MLK was so successful to begin with and we've become so entrenched in our respective atitutdes about sex and sexuality that we refuse to incline our ear toward that Reason, trying to use the failure of humans as excuse to blame God for everything we've done wrong.
I think what's real sad ultimately is that violence has become such a desireable trait in many circles of this nation ("this" nation being the U.S.A., for any one not Americanized at the time of this reading :-
And even people who understand the violence of violence, still don't seem to recognize that violence is not simply an act or a type of act.  It's what goes on in your mind.  It's something that flows through one's veins with the blood, like the strength of a tidal wave.  It's a hard thing to let go of.  At least for me it is.  It's a little easier to ask God to cleanse me of it, but it's not nearly as easy to mean it with all of my heart.  I think that's the state that most people are in.  Thanks to "science", we as modern men & women feel OK knowing that God or any other God-like deity is simply a set of fairy tales that people wrote down.  How do we know this?  Because we don't know there IS a God.  100 years ago television was still in its infancy stages of conception.  Nobody knew TV would exist.  God being unknown to some people does not mean he does not exist.  It simply means He hasn't been discovered.
"The world does not recognize me because the world isn't looking for me" - Jesus, The Christ

some said what

My bookshelf (not counting leaflets and random pcs that I'm not entirely sure I want to throw away)

NOT DEAD YET by Phil Collins

SEVEN TYPES OF AMBIGUITY by Elliot Perlman

DAILY LIFE PRINCIPLES by Charles F. Stanley

NAKED SURRENDER by Andrew Comiskey

DEAD DEAD PERSON by Benjamin Weissman

THE LATE WORK OF MARGARET KROFTIS by Mark Gluth

HOLMAN CHRISTIAN STANDARD BIBLE by God

NIV PEW BIBLE by God

STUDY BIBLE (can't remember the exact name of it) by God

Stuff I'd like to add to it

THE DEAD ZONE by Stephen King

CUJO by Stephen King

PET SEMATARY: by Stephen King

IT by Stephen King

THE REASONS I WON'T BE COMING by Elliot Perlman

COWS by Matthew Stokoe

AD NAUSEUM: NEWSPRINT NIGHTMARES FROM THE 1980'S by Michael Gingold

MAKING GHOSTBUSTERS by Don Shay

GHOSTBUSTERS: THE OTHER SIDE by Keith Champagne

GHOSTBUSTERS: ANSWER THE CALL by Kelly Thompson

THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS OMNIBUS VOL. 1 by IDW

Hmmm....

seriously, if I added all those to what I have my medium sized bookshelf would still be halfway empty and beyond.

guess I'll worry about that when (or if) I have an opportunity to do something about it.  Can probably pad it with other stuff, collectibles that are currently on my general media shelf, such as this Ghostbusters coffee mug, boxed, (stupid design although the box is really rockin') and the Genesis Live album box set if I ever get my hands on it.  The AD NAUSEUM book looks really oh so cool.  It's like $25++ tho, and I seriously doubt I'll ever acquire it.  I don't know who on Earth would consider buying it for me.  I'm pretty sure I'm the only one halfway convinced that I'm not promoting Satan by buying stuff like that.  I would be however a very poor steward of my money if I spent the little I have on it.  So there u go.

Hmm...

Q details

I type exactly what was intended and some letters show up as numbers and some numbers show up as symbols.  For instance the ? shows up as +
The 0 comes up / and gmail shows up as g0a53
Amazon gets turned into a0az6n
Is there a setting that i need to change or ....??

Sony Vaoi ancient a hammedon
Built in keyboard
Upgraded to Windows 7 at some point...
Don't know the model # or how to locate it
Updates are possible.  Ask for em.  Hopefully I'll be notified of requests via email as i don't constantly use Quora.

2 x a fyre

I had my daily bread twice this week.   I for wgatever reason have been waking up around 5am.  I set my Daily Bread alarm for 5:45 a few days ago.  I woke up to it yesterday.  I was already a little sorta awake.  Decided now or never.
Managed to do the same today except i was awake before the alarm went off.
Then i had a peanut butter & honey sandwich for breakfast.
Slowly the sparks are rising.

ig gigs agagn

Been using my YouVersion Bible app lately, more so than the One Year Bible.  I'm almost finished with it, after almost 2 years.  Meh.  The app is neat.  I like the print sizing.  It helps a little to have a name for the sections.  It gets me thinking how deeply in tune to The Spirit the people who do that sort of thing need to be in order to do their jobs.  People who read The Bible are allotted the freedom to misuse it, but The Bible is never defeated.  God's Word has stood intact and unchanged for almost 2000 years. 
One can debate the merits of the prophecies and how they prove anything or if they do.  People out of the faith say that The Bible predicts the rise and fall of Alexander The Great with such pinpoint precision that the prophecy must have been written after the fact (which makes no sense, but whatever).  But beyond the prophecies of The Bible, there is absolutely no possible way to refute any of it unless you pick it apart and remove it from its context.  If you are looking to refute The Bible, there will always be someone who is able to come up with a valid counter-refute that neutralizes that argument.  The fact is it comes down to how much you want to stay down and how down you are before you realize how far down you are.  People can sink so low that they can't do anything about it even after they realize what's happened if they ever do at all.  Sure, God can save you, but it's like people who have 150 pounds of weight to shed vs. people who have 50 vs people who have just 10 or 20.  The weight comes off easily if you're committed.  God gives people who choose to lose weight a free pass by allowing them to shed the first half of their excess weight with minimal effort.  But then you get down to your last 10-30 pounds.  Then it becomes a struggle.  That struggle, IMO, is our Earthly payment.  It's us paying our small down payment to get to Heaven, so to speak.  And it's a reminder of our dependence on Him who is responsible for all good things that come to us since we are prone to forget to give thanks and respect to The One True King. 

anyway.  Haven't read any of it the past few or so days.  I read the book of Daniel last week, the whole thing (it's actually a pretty short book) I think...I did start reading it in the One Year Bible and then tried to pick up my place from where I left off via the YouVersion app...not sure if I started at the beginning...come to think of it, I don't think I did...I think I started on chapter 3.  There's like...8?...chapters...idk.
Anyway.  I also read some of the New Testament and then got lazy and just focused on one segment.  That's the beauty of the One Year Bible.  It takes the guesswork of how to divide time between The Old Testament & The New Testament.  There is a lot of parallel between The Old Testament & The New.  But there's also stuff that isn't covered in The Old Testament because mankind was in such a sorry state without The Holy Spirit that being given the advice that is given in The New Testament would have been utterly pointless.

It's hard to believe I hadn't written anything at all in October.

I just finally tried Starbucks' Caramel Apple Spice.  It literally tastes like apple pie in a cup.  The grande here in my outer suburb of Atlanta is $4.19.  A little pricey I suppose.  I definitely don't intend to buy more than 2 more this month.  I might not even have more than 2.  Getting out of the house is a bit cumbersome b/c my sister's 4 month old is still nursing and has to be fed every few hours.  It was a challenge just to get groceries today.  If there hadn't been a Starbucks right beside ALDI, I probably would not have gone today.

The Gala at Galatia & beyond

Did in fact finish the 5 day study plan of Galatians.  I don't think I extracted as much from it as I would have liked.  Between his precision and the out of body existence he lived with..........It's almost like a stream of consciousness writing except it's got some important stuff in it.  In some ways, it reminds me of the Old Testament passages such as the Book Of Job when God was listing various creations.  Not every word in those passages is worth something on its own.  It's not worthless when taken as a whole, and maybe it's worth more than I realize, but that passage, along with others that I've been reading more recently from the prophets, just go on and on, would be much easier to read if it were permissible to read God's Word in an abbreviated form.  For instance, "I created the Earth and everything in it, far before even Abraham's time, how much more before yours.  Can you name all of my creations?  You are foolish for thinking you can!"  See?  A medium sized paragraph.  Instead, The Bible stretches it out over the course of two pages.  I'm sure there's something of value in those two pages, possibly an opportunity to worship if nothing else.  That's actually a passage I read several months ago.  I've read stuff more recently that I don't even recall well enough to paraphrase or cite by book, much less chapter or verse.  So obviously that bit of Job does register with me somewhat.

Ugh.

I've only read one entry of my One Year Bible this week.
Despite this and the last many many weeks/months of similar results, I am fairly confident I will finish the One Year Bible in 2 years, not 3 (or 4, or 5......).  I'm not entirely sure how that's possible.  I must have been doing something right some of this time.  Weird.



In other news, I finished watching THE OTHER WOMAN (2009) w Natalie Portman.  I started watching it several months ago and got through a good chunk of it in one sitting and watched a little more later and just finally got the last half of it watched.  It's a relatively short movie.  COLD MOUNTAIN (2003) was a more "period piece" like movie and was twice as long and was not bad.  I saw about half of it.  Melodramas are good, IMO, but they don't need to be 3 hours long.  THE GREEN MILE was 3 hours long, but it wasn't entirely melodrama.  It had a lot of quant conversational moments.  It was so long because it had a leisurely pace like that of a Stephen King novel.  It didn't rush into the drama.  If it had, it would've come across as rushed and without any frame of reference for the audience to recall.  THE GODFATHER was 3 hours long, but it was not a melodrama.  It was a fictional document, meant to illustrate the eerie bridges that exist between the courts and the streets.  While I don't agree with it, mainly because it fictionalizes the mafia to look good in ways that it never did, I do also agree that the courts have no authority on truth.  They do have the authority however to punish you for not bowing down to them.  They can pull a gun on you and demand you say otherwise, but the truth is not what I say nor is it what someone else says.  The truth simply is.  One's inability to know the truth or comprehend it doesn't change it.  In that respect, the courts rightly refer to THE FACTS.  A fact is not truth.  The existence of a fact that does indeed exist is a truth, but the same goes for the existence of facts that are not documented in ways the courts have the ability or authority to know or comprehend, which the courts do not deem FACT, but rather OPINION, or something else.  A court ruling declaring someone guilty is not necessarily right, but you cannot argue that point without a humongous pile of paperwork filed and submitted.  A casual statement of common sense is enough to get you thrown in jail.

The epistle to the Galatians

I started a 5 day study plan yesterday.  Not sure if I'll be able to finish it in earnest.  Paul(?) uses something akin to calculus to navigate the hypocrisy of whatever it was the Galatians were doing wrong which is not explained.  I'm good with numbers but quaddigitchart xing is intimidating.  I'm not even sure if i can do longwinded minuses on paper.  I manage a budget of $250 per month including food stamps so maybe I'd be less rusty if I was flexing some middke class weight...idk.  But pre algebra and beyond were the iceberg to my titanium; the kryptonite to my Krypton; the "Fine; DON'T just say no!" to the Holy Spirit at work in my soul.
I...might finish it.  It's going to take a lot of chugging and good will to accomplish and sloth is probably my strongest nemesis at this point in time.

Avril Lavigne - round 6

I had read about Avril Lavigne being sick but had no idea she was so gravely ill and that it was such a long standing issue for her.  She published a new song today co written by her.  It's rather good.  It seems a little short but that's better than it overstaying its' welcome.  That aside it's a well conceived and well executed piece of music.  Avril Lavigne i think was responsible for the conceptualization. She stated in a newsletter that a couple BTS bigcheezes in the industry were mostly responsible for the execution of the concept Avril had penned.  I'm glad she realized she's not cutout to write and arrange music on her own.  

It's also interesting that the lyrics really do seem true to her usual defiant self but are directed to God.  She even mentions being drawn closer to Him during the deepest lows of her illness.  So now we the spectators wait an album title and release date.  4/5

About Love, in a time of Biblical thirst

I wrote this here as a response to Michael Tull's post on Quora answering someone's question about morality and religion.

It may not apply in every respect to all of the multitude of people who have similar attitudes about Christianity, but maybe someone will find use from it

•       The different people in this world who call themselves Christians can be summed up with a careful examination of Genesis Ch 3 Vs 4 & 5 — The snake didn’t say one word in there that is an outright lie.  The two first humans did not face the life that they - presumably - would have desired in place of the one they had after they'd eaten the fruit.  To explain further would be to experience the life that Adam & Eve had prior to eating of the fruit.  To date I have not.  Likewise, for God to have clearly explained to Adam & Eve what the consequences of eating the fruit were as a means of keeping them from eating it would require one of two things A) SHOWING them the nightmare inducing wasteland that we now live in or B) Explaining to them something they have no frame of reference to understand even a little.  A would be punishing them for something they'd yet to do and B would be absolutely pointless.
•       Israel, now that it has been re-established as a nation, is free to follow whatever laws it wants. As far as I know it has not adopted the texts of Leviticus and Deuteronomy etc. as their law. So until such a nation comes to existence, there is no need to kill disobedient children. God sent four simple instructions to the early churches and those are documented in Acts Ch15 V19.
•       Slavery was not a problem until the practice of it became more like locking someone in jail and throwing the key away. The Bible clearly lays out a limit of 7 years. And in most cases, slaveowners were not acquiring slaves by means of kidnapping. People would volunteer themselves as slaves to repay debt they had accrued. More info here Does the Bible condone slavery?    
•  “Some say homosexuals will burn in Hell” Saying homosexuals will go to Hell is not necessarily incorrect, but the relevance in saying such a thing is dependent on the context and the relevance of the context is ultimately what people should consider before opening their mouths to say anything, regardless of what it is.  Paul said something similar to the Corinthian CHURCH because they were partying like they were on 42nd Street circa 1980 instead of sobering up like 42nd Street circa Y2K.  42nd Street Y2K is not perfect.  God nor any of His messengers demanded or implied an expectation of that.  "If you love Me you will follow My commands."  The thing is, the love you have is like the water in a vase.  You can fill it halfway and allow the flowers to flourish or you can put just enough in to give the flowers nutrients or you can drown the flowers with it.  We being born dead I don't believe are even willing to drown in love.  Our self preservation instincts kick in before we even take a step toward Jesus.  We must deny ourselves and take that step anyway.  Jesus will run toward us and do the rest for us. Jesus said to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him.  He did not say to pick your dream vacation and throw a rock at some random person so that might see the inscribed on it "Jesus knows what you're doing and you're gonna pay for it"

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE BLU-RAY OCT 23 2018

GREAT NEWS!

Stephen King's MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

coming to Blu ray

Oct 23, 2018

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE PRE-ORDER

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I honestly don't care about the fact that it's 1080p or any of the special features and b.s. like that.

What's REALLY FNNN AWESOME is the Goblin truck shown on the front cover almost centralized as it is.  I mean, as much as I love the Karl Lorimar VHS cover-art from the old video store days of 1987-1992, I gotta say it could have been a little clearer.  The Goblin face does come across as downright blurry even on a near mint collector's copy being sold on eBay.  Sealed copies are very rare and absurdly expensive.  The Anchor Bay 1996 re-issue with similar but inferior cover-art is a little easier to find, but it's vastly inferior, and even if I were to go a little easier on it, it's just not worth spending $15 on a sealed VHS tape.  I'm buying a VHS for either one of two reasons

1) It's going to remain sealed for display purposes, which I can't afford to be utilizing my money on at this point, even if it's 70% off of the alternative of buying what I *actually* want

---OR---

I can buy a sealed copy with the false assurance that the tape is going to playback at a higher quality because of the factory seal not being broken.

Either way, it's a waste.  I don't need to buy a sealed VHS just to watch a movie on VHS.  Cassettes get old.  They just do.  Sealed or not, dust accumulates through the tiniest molecule of torn shrinkwrap and then if you have a TV bigger than 15", you get absolutely no benefit from the "formatted to fit your TV" business of VHS.  OF course, when your wide/flat-screen TV is only 19-22", those black bars can sometimes get in the way depending on how the movie in question was filmed.

AAAanyway;

Er.  Seriously.  There has still **NEVER** been a DVD edition of this movie that featured the Goblin truck on the front cover.  The two DVD editions (in the U.S. at least) that got on the mainstream distribution circuit featured a painting of a truck grill plastered with scraps of human remains.  Kinda gross, fitting I guess, since that's what some people think of when they hear the name Stephen King.  This guy I knew from St. Louis, staying in Cape Girardeau for his college education couldn't wrap his head around my interest with movies that had a melancholy or negative slant to them.  It's not like I watched exclusively horror movies.  He knew this.  I did see some pretty big shockers when I was 14 and 15.  But aside from PIECES and BLOOD DINER, the availability of viable gore clotted rather quickly.  I'm really not sure why I watched so many horror movies when I was 14 and 15.  I eventually realized how pointless it was and gave up.  I did have some intention of writing a book similar to Videohound compiling horror movies and stating noteworthy facts about the movies such as the cast etc.  But that was kind of a fruitless pursuit because I seriously was falling asleep during half of them by the time I got to be 16 and 17.  So obviously my interest in the genre and my limited awareness of what constitutes a "noteworthy" fact in the context of a horror movie was not really fit for a book about horror movies.  I also thought I was going to be in a band someday.  Yeah.  I wonder why that never happened....?...big mystery there, I know, am I right or am I?

Anyway.

Stephen King, especially this particular movie, was not all about gore.  It was almost an action movie in some respects but also a bit of a dark comedy, albeit centered around a world betrayed by its' own creations.  THE DEAD ZONE, like THE GREEN MILE, had some dark and dreary stuff, gore/violence, but was not really a horror film.  CARRIE was almost a Lifetime Movie of the Week, except the gore element really got played up to the 9s toward the end.  SALEM'S LOT and THE SHINING were both very much horror movies, but were rather limited in their gore quotient.  The concept of vampirism was used more as a social commentary about small town idiocy in SALEM'S LOT and THE SHINING seems to be King reflecting on the ways he was failing his family with his drug addictions, framed in the context of the going ons within a haunted hotel in the area's off season.

Ehh (big belly sigh sigh)

Anyway.........

Hmm.

This movie is a little cheaper at a couple other sites.  It might go further down in price at those sites as well as Amazon.  I doubt I'll be able to order it by or before Oct 23.  I saw at a BestBuy a similarly packaged BLOOD DINER with a price tag that wasn't really any better than what you see there --- MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE as of the moment is $32.99, although it'll probably go down to maybe $22.99 and then go back up shortly after to somewhere closer to $25+   It'll probably go down to under $20 eventually, of that I have no doubt).

My wants are piling up, seriously.

Also been wanting IDW's 1st GHOSTBUSTERS hardcover omnibus ($30-$40 retail)

and IDW's represings of NOW COMICS' THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS comics from the mid-late 80's (vol. 1)  ($20 standard retail)

and a sealed copy of the original VHS edition of Wes Craven's THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS (I found one on Amazon, still haven't found the will to jump on it)

And then IDW's GHOSTBUSTERS: ANSWER THE CALL, which is basically IDW attempting to re-write the massive mess that Paul Feig's movie was, complete with a much more compelling story and more definition to the characters.

Those 3 GB items alone are like 5 years worth of birthday gifts, as if I have any business hoping for anybody to buy me anything for my birthday.  For crying out loud --- I'm 34 years old and the only accomplishment to my name is providing minor small batches of assistance to my mom when she babysits my two nephews.  And my mom knows me enough to suspect when it's about time for me to up and go home and just waste my day down and away.  My sister was kind enough and financially blessed enough (more so the former than the latter I think...) to spend almost $100 on dinner out to an Italian restaurant in celebration of my 34th year of existence (granted, some of that $100 was for her and her husband, as well as my mom and my 1st(and@thetime only)nephew but still....)  Just sayin'...idk......I don't know why I'm so antsy about it.  I'll probably (although it's by no means a guarantee) get $20+ circa Christmas and then in January I can whittle down that list a little.  It's really not important.  If it were, I'd be dead or have done it already.  I don't need "my" books to be healthy or happy.  It just seems like if I were going to spend money, why not in that manner?  What do I spend money on instead?  Little spots of insignifance...idk.  Like I can't stand having money but I don't want to spend it unwisely....yet I somehow trick myself into thinking I've reached a compromise and really I just downright waste my money.   Ibought 3 CDS from FYE about a week ago.  I sold one of them at CD WArehouse a couple days ago during my psychiatrist appointment to get a refill of RX and the other one I tried to sell to CD Warehouse but they wouldn't accept it (not sure why).  The other CD was not yet received because they somehow didn't include it in the shipment, and I didn't know this until the package came.  Now I gotta try to sell that one.  It might be maybe worth keeping if I hadn't already bought that album on digital.  But really, half the songs on it (LAST YOUNG RENEGADE by All Time Low) are just filler.  "Dirty Laundry" and "Good Times" are the two standouts, although there's nothing really all that great about those particular songs.  The title track is OK.  It sets the tone for the album.  Their collaboration with former Indie rock it darlings Tegan & Sara was also really good.  I never can remember what it's called.

I also bought 2 DVDs and a CD from SecondSpin.com and I now intend to sell the DVD that I haven't yet already sold and the CD I'm keeping, although I don't listen to it that often and am kinda trying to suck as much out of Spotify before my 2 free months are up on the 3rd of September.  I have enough CDs to go a month without Spotify.  I need to save up some money for Christmas.  I didn't get anybody squat last year except maybe my mom and my sister.  Not sure if I even did that.  So I need to get at least a little bit of some gifting done for my adopted family consisting of my Gramma Della and her two sons and biological granddaughter (my two uncles and my cousin).  They really have been great at welcoming me and my mom and sister.  I really never fully realized how much they cared about us until we got ready to leave Missouri and they each threw us a going away dinner gathering.  That was real cool.  I really had no idea my sister and my cousin were that close until my sister got invited along with me to her wedding and my Gramma was explaining their relationship and I was like "Yeah, I can see how that would mean something", but I figured those days were gone and the days themselves were just kinda there in the first place.  I don't personally have a whole lot of preference about people individually.  I consider human companionship to be a blessing, but who my friends are is really just a toss of the dime and friends really should be a dime a dozen and I don't expect anything out of anybody except to help when I need help, as outrageous as that may sound, I realize that's not a realistic expectation, but we're not meant to just let people drown when we spot it.  Many people more and more think it's OK to do that, and that's been going on for the past 40+ years, and some day it'll get just flat out weird if someone does stop to help someone that is clearly very much in NEED of help.  I don't expect favors granted me.  If I can get help with some small insignificant thing great.  But if nobody wants to, I'll get by.  Friends are just people you haven't met.  Unless they decide to be your enemy.  They may be your enemy, but you should be an allie to all people, through prayer.  Jesus did indeed say that and a lot of other things you can read of in THE HOLY BIBLE.

idk.  I'm probably not articulating half of what I'm saying here as well as I should.  Hhrrrrrrmmm.

MY MIND MAKES NOISES (2018 perfected)

These last few years have seen almost a torrent of bands trying to successfully tow the line between slick pop and indie rock.  The turning closer to slick pop and away from indie rock became almost official with 2008's OCEAN EYES by Owl City but then got toppled in 2013 with THE BONES OF WHAT YOU BELIEVE by CHVRCHES.  Just when I thought it couldn't get any better than perhaps another album by CHVRCHES, this new band Pale Waves shows up.  Spotify has 10 songs by them, six of which are on their upcoming CD titled MY MIND MAKES NOISES.  The other 4 are part of an EP titled ALL THE THINGS I NEVER SAID.  They sound very similar to a band called The 1975, except this Pale Waves does it with more consistency in their quality of songwriting.  Most albums have a little bit of lull here and there, like filler that can still be satisfying in its own way.  For CHVRCHES, that was "Lungs" and "Science/Visions", but these guys have no lull.  In light of a recent playthrough of their 10 songs on Spotify, I can tell you there are some songs that are indeed stronger than others.  However, when six singles all manage to hit the spot, the remaining 8 from the upcoming LP have got to be WTF awful or this band is just really that freakin' good.

It comes out the same day as The Story So Far's new album.  But I'm kind of annoyed with that band after them taking all damn year and beyond to get stuff off the ground and their style was always a little obnoixous, and what the heck is this he's singing about Opiods?  Is he abusing prescription medication and singing songs bragging about it??!!!!?  I probably will buy it eventually but I had an order for it and the Pale Waves CD placed together at bullmoose.com, and decided to cancel the PROPER DOSE (SSF) portion of that order.  It seems weird breaking it up like that but I really need to trim things down.  I cannot really afford to pay for so much b.s. all the time for the rest of my days.  What I really need to do is focus on Jesus more and less on music and the other blessings God bestows upon us.  I need to take the advice that was spoken of on the radio -- be there for those that are important to you.  I get bored doing that, but it's not really that much of a chore really.  It's probably just as much of a chore doing that as it is sorting through stacks of music figuring out what if anything I want to listen to, full knowing that what I want to listen to I probably haven't even heard yet and whatever song I haven't heard yet that I want to hear probably sounds a lot like some other song that I may never even ever hear since all music borrows from itself, sometimes intentionally and other times not so much.

Not to mention life just resonates better with God in it.  I read The Bible Sunday and Monday last week, 3 total entries and everything just felt better.  I felt like I was in 3-D more so than usual.  Since then I've read one entry of my Daily Life Principles Bible edited/annotated by Charles Stanley, and it just isn't enough.  I had a psychiatrist appointment that took up 5 hours of the day between the drive to (45 mins apprx) and the drive back with a couple stops on the way (2 hours).  The waiting room took 1.5 hours.  I spent some time hugging my ill nephew (he's OK, just a little icky feeling) and for that brief moment I felt like I was fulfilling the entertained notion of presence purported by that guy on the radio I just wrote about a few lines up ago.

But I still neglected to read God's word.  It's not as if I didn't have time.  Sure, I had less time than I would have liked to have.  5 hours going to and from the psychiatrist and in between..... and 2.5 hours babysitting does cut into that but it doesn't make it some insurmountable feat.

Try again next time, if God wills a next time.  

THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS (1991) vs AVATAR (2009)

I found AVATAR rather annoying in the way it portrayed the success of the goody good lone wolf up against the behemoth of evil that he was up against.  This film, unlike that movie, is not based on a large chunk of one facet of US history.  This film is based on a long standing problem that far predates US history and is told in the most outrageous way possible.  It's over the top in the depictions of evil, and the "good guy" is less of a saintly type than the character in AVATAR.  More to the point, he's a child, and he has his convictions about morality, but he's still a child -- which means it's easier to talk him out of those convictions and get him entrenched in this twisted rabbit hole he ends up stumbled upon.  The film is basically a fairy tale.  The sleeping beauty of sorts whose stuck in the high tower waiting for her prince charming is indeed a Cinderella type, constantly walking on egg shells to avoid facing the cruelty of her parents, and is indeed rescued by an actual human being rather than a "fairy godmother" (whatever that is...).  A real whopper of a movie.  Sure, it's not a cure for poverty.  Wes Craven, regardless of his religious faith or lack thereof, should know based on his Biblical teaching that the poor have no savior except surrender to Jesus and that salvation is not in this life but in the next, for those who accept the terms laid forth in The Gospel.  AVATAR, on the other hand, made me yearn for a time and place where being gung ho about your beliefs was enough to keep you alive in your physical shell as it is currently known and not get struck down any minute by a giant robot.  People read the story of Daniel in the Lion's den and think the moral of the story is that God will keep you out of trouble if you pray to Him.  The fact is there is no moral to that story.  That story was a piece of a much bigger story.  And that much bigger story was a piece of an even bigger bigger story.  But I'm getting sidetracked.  Anywayyy.  I'm probably too tired to bother writing this anyway, although not tired enough to sleep I don't think.....maybe I'll edit this later, I might not.

The Story So Far -- newness coming Sept

So far two of the 11 songs on the album are already available.  2nd single was released a few+ days ago.  Just got through listening to it.  good stuff.  Their 1st single was good.  This is more my kinda thing, but both are what I'd expect from this group of pop punkers.

CD edition not yet available for pre-order via Amazon.com.

mp3 edition is only $7.99 so I assume the CD edition will be slightly more, maybe $9.99 (+tax).

Was feeling really frustrated yesterday or one day not at all long ago about the lack of things that I want.  Well, I guess God decided to throw me a bone.  Thanks! //    It always seems weird that I have X amount of dollars and can't think of a single thing I'd be happy to find in my mail box.  The only things I ever consider are things I've already "been there done that".  How rediculous is it to depart with something only to find it swim to shore again?  At $7+ a pop, to boot.  Crazy.  It's now almost a miracle if I can find a CD that costs less than $5 that isn't cheaper or just as cheap locally.  If it's not cheaper or just as cheap locally, then Amazon or WalMart are offering it BRAND NEW for the same price as the lowest priced used copy.  Mailing a CD via USPS First Class used to cost $2 apprx.  Now it's over $3.  And Amazon's marketplace fees have seemingly skyrocketed, and they were never all that low to begin with.  There's this band of shady pawnbroker types selling under the name Decluttr who also have their own website.  I've never had any problems with them.  Whenever I have had problems, they rectify them quickly.  I've read many a horror story from people who have sold stuff to them and claim to have been ripped off.  These stories usually surround stuff like smartphones etc.  I've only heard crybabies complain about selling physical media to Decluttr.  One guy took an issue that was his own making --- attempting to sell an item to them that did not meet the condition guideliens --- and turned it into an enormous conspiracy theory with an even longer tirade that morphed into 3 or 4 mini tirades.  Other than that, and people who probably sent in scratched CDs without looking at them to see if they were scratched and felt cheated that they didn't get the amount they were promised..., I haven't noticed anyone cite them for suspicious retail practices buying up media.  I think the smartphone issue might be just a tricky thing to get resolved.  I myself would not do a factory reset on my phone and then sell it to somebody.  There's probably a good amount of scrubbing involved in eliminating your personal data and even if you pay for a software that promises to get that accomplished, I don't see how you can know that it did what it was supposed to do UNTIL you try selling your phone to someone via the mail service.  And that's on top of the fact that phones do get damaged in transit and customer service representatives often don't have adequate information to give to customers seeking explanation, as infuriating as that can be often times.

but in any case, decluttr's prices are generally rock bottom, even on Amazon, but they're even lower on eBay and their own retail website.  So it's not *always* a high price to pay to re-buy something I want, but it does seem extremely wasteful nonethess.

I really don't think I need to give every dollar I have to the church or some other charity.  I don't think it's my place at this time to be doing that given the reckless way I eat and sleep and do everything else I spend my day doing and not doing.  If my monetary giving lined up with my physical health which lined up with my spiritual health, I wouldn't feel so bad about it, but I feel it's a dangerous path and a path I would regret, however selfish that sounds because of the truth being what it is.

Honestly, I have about $20 circa August that isn't budgeted for and there's nothing I haven't already owned that said $20 can buy me.  At least nothing that is edifying to the soul and pleasing to the mind.  Sure, I could probably find some dumb piece of music that I don't even like or subscribe to Hulu or something....the household shares Netflix, so it's all good on that front.  I don't like Amazon Prime because they have a ton of nothing.  75% of their stuff is now original programming and most of that is a bunch of junk.  They offer little snipps of greatness but 2 or 3 movies worth watching doesn't equate a worthwhile service.  Hulu is basically an assortment of TV shows with a random assortment of movies that generally line up with Amazon's Prime offerings.  Amazon has what they describe as "channels".  Collectively, the channels have a good lineup of suff and if I could get them in a bundle, that might make Amazon Prime altogether worth about $20 a month when you factor in all they have to offer aside from movies.

Anyway.

They updated their Roku app to reflect the Prime member music available selections and the Amazon Music Unlimited streaming catalog.  This was much needed good news as Roku only had Spotify and then Spotify left the Roku platform and apparantly has no interest in coming back.  Rhapsody is still available on my LG Blu ray player, but it wasn't working the last several days I had access to it.  I think it might've been something about the weather at the time.  I might re-subscribe to that.  But honestly I'm almost not sure why I even have a blu ray player.  GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) is one of my favorite movies by default, a lifelong companion so to speak, and I don't own it on Blu ray or DVD.  I have it on streaming and my Roku does it really well.  If my LG player could do Pandora the way it does Rhapsody (now known as Napster powered by Rhapsody, if anyone is confused..), then I wouldn't need a Roku, but Pandora is almost more fundamentally necessary than any on demand streaming service could possibly be.  Streaming services are good for playlists that you can fall asleep to.  Something about the unpredictability of radio -- even a station that is often guilty of lacking variety -- just adds something to the experience of hearing music.  On the other hand, that unpredictability can be extremely annoying when you know you can't sit there and listen forever and some song you really hate is taking 6 minutes of your time loudly and proudly not crawling in a hole and dying.  Well, actually, radio doesn't play 6 minute songs -- except with online personalized stations i.e.: Pandora, if you like 6 minute songs........... -- at least not 6 minute songs unedtied.  Well, sometimes they do I suppose.  I think the radio edit of Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" was apprx 6 minutes.  If you wanna balk at that, just change the station already.  It's a freakin' awesome song unless you just don't want beauty in or around you.  The stations that play ugly music are somewhere further over yonder.  Well, that's not necessarily so.  There's a station in my old hometown that played a genuine MIX of genres and it was always an annoyance when they'd play a really really really good song and then follow it up with some "I'm too sexy to care about you" type song.

Man, this blogpost is never going to end.  Y'all still reading it?  Ugh.  Sorry.........

wiseguys

There seems to be a parallel between wisdom and folly in The Bible and even in the present world of today.  God forsaw this with the Tower of Babel and put an end to it.  He had high hopes for Solomon, and they were dashed, although Solomon did eventually realize the error of his ways.  Now we have a world filled with every kind of abundance one can think of and freedom to enjoy it, and arrogance against God is at an all time high, at least as far as since the gift of God's Holy Spirit. People blame the freedom that we have as a country, but forget that this freedom we have was not a problem until people started distancing themselves from God.  It's kind of similar to the Israelites' insistence on having a King rule over them.  God was their King but they didn't want God as their King.  They were given stern warning of the consequences of having a King, but they were stubborn and didn't listen.
I do wonder about the people who die every day without the ability to read God's word or even hear about it and I do not hesitate to help out charities that work to spread The Gospel.  I can't say I have enough Love for my fellowman to risk my position in the world to go to these people and there's no justifying that.  It is a little worrisome to think that any minute/month/year(?) now, the whole world will have access to God's word, as many organizations are ramping up efforts to distribute it, since anytime after that is when the Antichrist will come and have 7 years of reign and The Bible does not provide any clear cut indication of weather there will be any Christians in the world when The Antichrist comes.  Jesus speaks to the Apostles and tells them that the leaders of the world will persecute them in His name, and that in the midst of the persecution, they will be a witness of Him and in the same paragraphs he speaks of climate change and political distress etc.  It's hard to know if he's speaking of day to day variances of these things and trying to tell them not to take them as signs of the End Times or if he's speaking of a marked increase of these things that indicates The End Times.  I'll have to go back and read what he says again.  I do remember he says stuff about rumors of war and not to be deceived etc....
I probably worry too much to be taken seriously as a Christian, in general.  I think I worry significantly less about the Antichrist's coming than one would ordinarily expect given that worrywart fretting I'm often wasting my brain on, but it's hard to know what exactly to expect.  Will there be any indication that I can detect?  It may not even happen in my lifetime anyway.  I have to resist temptation to fall back on that, but at the same time, it's not happening, to my knowledge, and as far as I know it hasn't happened.  So what's there to worry about?  The danger of a perished soul is a imminent threat right now as I type this.  There really shouldn't be any time to devote to thinking about The End Times, but somehow I find room to do so and still enjoy food and music and sleep overtime mostly out of boredom (it's called unemployment/retirement -- mentally disabled).

SIDE/EXTRA POST (Off topic):

Not sure if I need to go on and say this, but being mentally disabled doesn't mean my mind isn't valuable.  It just means the value it has to people who have the position of employing people is slim to none.  I am scatterbrained and emotionally convoluted.  "Well what does that mean?"  You don't know what it means because you don't have experience with it.  If I said I was happy to someone who had never experienced happiness, firsthand or secondhand, I'd get the same response.

 Furthermore, even a part time job puts me at risk of losing access to my antipsychotic medicines (I take 2), and there's no job I'm qualified for that pays enough to cover the expense of those.  The government may have overstepped its boundaries in deciding to step in and keep people such as myself from living in the streets, but this is the same government that everybody whines and cries to for every other societal ill that plagues humanity, so if welfare is a societal ill, I'm sure someone can get something done about it.

On a similar note, I thank God for my sister and her husband & their commitment to industrial and social excellence and for allowing my sister to bring her husband to God instead of the other way around.  And I thank my sister and her husband for their generosity in spirit toward me and my mom, who both live by the dollars of taxpayers.  And to the 45%(?) of voters who would rather not be paying for welfare -- you're not paying for welfare.  Less than 20% of tax dollars are spent on general welfare.  Taxes fund a huge variety of goernment operations.  So just think -- you're paying for the stuff that matters and your Democrat neighbors are paying for the other stuff.  This IS a Democracy, after all, inasmuch as China are Communists (Democracy, Communism, and Capitalism do not exist in the purist forms although capitalism did at one time exist prior to the Antitrust act that was passed long before minimum wage).
END RANT

END POST 7:09AM

Passionately sleepy

Watched about 25 minutes of THE GRADUATE (1967).  Not sure why the movie was such a huge topic of its day.  It's a really good movie, in the way of conveys what little story there is and draws you in to the character's mindset and it has a nice kind of metallic tranquality to it all.  Rather melancholy.  I'm not sure how that translated into the box office and critical smash it was and has remained.  I guess people in 1967 were yearning for a film that exposed some raw emotion to reflect what was going on in the hearts and minds of the nation's people.  Not many films have succeeded in that front in recent years, although that may just be me.  Sheelane Woodley was asked why THE FAULT IN OUR STARS was such a smash success and she remarked that there's at least one element in the film that everybody can identify with.  Everyone but me, I guess.  I felt the first 5 or so minutes of the movie could have been greatly expounded upon without all the nonchalant cool.  I guess the film was shying away from all that because so many people go through that themselves or have watched someone go through it and didn't need it replayed in a motion picture.  Hence, the movie was lost on me.  I knew a guy briefly who was in a Bible Study Group that I had recently started attending and he passed on.  I can't say I grieved his loss.  It was a little of a shock seeing him go on from here.  What shocked me more is the lack of emotion I felt toward it.  I am happy for him, that he is now in the arms of The Father.  I'm sure there are those in this world who sorely miss him.  Another guy in my men's group was good good friends with him and really had a bit of difficulty getting on without him.  I'm not sure what his relationship with his family was/is like.  But anyway.

When I think of films (more recent ones) that stir up emotion, aside from the 2-3 punch of FORREST GUMP and MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS, both now "old" movies (really, I'm not old, but I am getting there sooner than I tend to want to admit to myself), I think of MYSTERIOUS SKIN (2005 -- again, I swear I'm gonna be an old fart in another 15 years...geesh!).  But the subject matter of MYSTERIOUS SKIN alienates (no pun intended --...) much of the audience that it might have if it were some other movie............

I ordered THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK.  I started watching that movie when it was on Netflix a couple times but didn't get far through it.  From what I remember of it, it seems like it'd be a good film to watch while trying to get to sleep.  It seems to have this wintry chilling effect.  Maybe I'm wrong.  It's interesting that the movie landed Al Pacino his permanent status as Hollywood legend via Francis Ford Coppolla promoting him to star in THE GODFATHER based on having seen him in it.  Just kinda weird.  It's like FF Coppolla was the only one who saw the movie until news broke out that Al Pacino got hired b/c of his work in it.  And I'm certain most people who saw and enjoyed THE GODFATHER still don't have much if any interest in seeing THE PANIC IN THE NEEDLE PARK.

Mmm...odd place to end this post.  Seems there was more I had to say on this train...maybe.

I started typing this a few days ago on my phone.  Just couldn't figure out where I wanted to go with this.

xx

bad things

The heart is deceitful above all things
and exceedingly wicked

I am not a slave to sin, but I am free to choose sin over good and vice versa.
That's free will, I guess?  Does this mean those from before the time of Jesus had no free will?

Confusing.

Anyway...so many Earthly, petty, things that dance affront my eyes awaiting possession unto me.  It's easy to find ways to justify decreasing my giving to the church on God's behalf, and I probably wouldn't be damned to Hell I reckon for doing so but does it really benefit ME **or** anyone ELSE?????  No.  Really, it doesn't.  Some tiny short term goal is reached.  Then there's some other b.s. that comes my way.  And this life will end any moment.  As I write this, it's a good ways off, assuming I don't die in some car collision or of some freakass medical condition, but as I write this, minutes are passing, and hours upon hours will pass before I realize they've been wasted by a bunch of nothing.

Thank You Lord for your everlasting lovingkindness and mercy.  I am not worthy, but you have made it possible to come before You, the Great I Am.  Please move my heart continually closer toward you.  I am sorry for the wounds I've added to your Beloved Son Jesus Christ, King of Kings.

Worrrd

SILENCE!

I'm constantly so pulsating with energy that the thought of reading The Bible makes it hard to find the will to hold His Word in my hand and read it.  But I did read it yesterday and although I don't feel I learned anything in particular I did somehow feel a lot better after doing that.  I'd gone several days without it and it was a good mood booster.  It somehow provided me with a sense of comfort, which is in part due to the prophecies of Jesus that I read of and the gentle but firm reminders to Timothy about how to conduct one's self in a position of leadership.  Odd, how that worked out, in that particular instance.  Usually you hear about the Old Testament being all about how to do right and the New Testament being about how we're all forgiven etc., but in these two entries that I read of my Daily Life Principles One Year Bible (annotated by Charles Stanley) (from the books of Jeremiah and 1st Timothy, I think...not sure, might be 2nd Timonthy....) it seems to be something in between.

Basically, Love is the law.  We as Christians should love each other and others so much that the rest of the world cannot help but seek out Christ Jesus.  We all fall short of the glory of God and we deserve a pungent death that exceeds what Jesus undertook.  However, it is also a matter of choice, so although we are guilty of not accomplishing the task of discipleship to its fullest, the fact is many people just do not care to be disciples.  I have to admit, it can be an ugly business.  Jesus tells his crowd of followers that they need to get rid of their belongings if they're to be his disciples.  That box isn't checked on my list.  If your eyes are causing you to sin, you need to get rid of them.  I haven't checked that off my to do list either.  I'm hoping the fact that I'm single will give me a bit of leeway in that one since this culture we currently live in does not auto-wife men like the one Jesus lived in.

In fact, those boxes will probably be the very last ones to be marked off, if they ever are.

One thing I struggle with is the right to eat.  Paul says if you don't work, you don't eat.  There is, like, REALLY no excuse for me to be overweight.  Not like I thought I did have an excuse before reading that.  Yesterday was a bit of an oddity, but it's way more common than I sometimes give credit to.  I'm not even sure I should put a number on it, it's somewhere between 3K and 5K calories, much of which was sugar and fat.  Most days I'm estimating I had between 2200 and 2400 calories, which is not working for me -- not at the rate I exercise most days, and given the content of those calories, it's that less likely 2000++ is at all recommended.

Anyway...

I still struggle to understand the concept of "Free will"...I mean, what is it exactly?  People talk like its this thing that people generate on their own.  That makes no sense to me.  How do you generate your own desires and how can you be faulted for them?  Maybe someday I'll understand.  After this current existence, if not sooner.

Lg k30

My sister and her husband bought me a new phone to replace the one i had that was on its last legs and never walked too good to begin with.  A big shout out to them😀
A little late posting this.  Ive had the phone for like...a week?  Um...anyway.  Peace!

Serious Hits...Live! (1990) by Phil Collins

Standard 🇺🇸 edition has the cheapest and most flimsy excuse for cover art.  Minimal if any credits or liner notes.  The European edition has a 24 page booklet and slightly different cover art.  Its the same primary image but somehow it's easier to appreciate with a larger contrast in color.  The U.S. edition pits the main image against a background of very similar colors.  I really have to squint to see what it is Im looking at.
  The sound quality is top notch.  "Something Happened On The Way To Heaven" opens the disc with a thunderous jolt of energy and is immediately followed by the quintessential Collins ballad "Against All Odds".  The 💿 alternates between fast and slow up until track 8, "Separate Lives", which follows the somber midtempo classic "Another Day In Paradise".  Tracks 3 4 & 5 are all from the sfx heavy album NO JACKET REQUIRED.  The sfx are somewhat replicated on stage but it just isn't as interesting.  The musuc itself is ok.  The seminal ballad "One More Night" fares best of tge three.  The other two are kind of goofy and just pass on as background noise for this here dude who's heard this album about a million times by now...Oddky enough, "Sussudio" might actually surpass or at least equal it in qualitt despite the song being kind of dumb to begin with and overly repetitive and extended here into a SEVEN MINUTE track(!) 
"Take Me Home" is one of my personal favorites and lingers on about 2 minutes longer than necessary in this recording.
I bought the European edition yesterday for $8 with shipping arriving from Germany.  I got $1.25 of that refunded by requesting it ship without jewel case.

Fear vs. fear

Seriously.
If I were running for my life as if I were FOR REAL being chased by an axe-wielding hockey mask wearing person, such as the FICTIONAL (characters/people) in many of the Friday the 13th sequels, yes, I would have to say a criminal complaint on the terrorist/serial killer would be very much in order.
But I was never in danger of anything while watching that stupid cheap ass horror movie FOREVER EVIL that aired on USA Network's SATURDAY NIGHTMARES block circa 1989/1990.
I was never in danger of anything while watching HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS (1988).
I was never in danger of anything when I woke up at 11am and spent Halloween Day 1999 sour as a lemon after watching SLEEPAWAY CAMP (for some reason that film, the weather that day & the late rising just left me feeling really odd in a way I'd like to spend less time thinking about).

Yes, GHOSTBUSTERS II was a little scary  I commented as much after leaving the theater in summer 1989 at the age 5.  Does that mean I didn't enjoy the film?

Kids like being scared.  It is not a criminal offense for a kid to be scared.  It is not a criminal offense to scare a kid. 
Obviously, there are situations where it can be considered a criminal offense.  If you're scaring a kid and the kid seriously thinks they are in danger, then yes, you are guilty of child abuse.  If a kid is scared of a movie that is playing in the other room or a room they are in, they either need to understand that the movie they are hearing and/or seeing is a projection of someone's creative mind before you begin playback or you need to turn the volume down to a low enough volume that the kid won't wake up while sleeping.  Most kids by the age of 4 these days I would think would understand the difference between real life and something happening on a screen.  Hence, no danger is involved if the kid is sitting in the room watching something scary unfolding on the screen.
Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule.
CRIMINAL MINDS (the TV show on CBS) depicts REAL situations that can be damned disturbing for even the likes of myself to even consider.  For any good natured boy or girl, it can indeed be traumatizing.
GHOSTBUSTERS II is not a real life situation.
FRIDAY THE 13TH PT 4 is not a real life situation.
HALLOWEEN VII is not a real life situation.
Yes, people getting stabbed does happen.  Personally I was expecting a lot more out of FRIDAY THE 13TH when I first saw it.  I was extremely surprised as to how it became such a classic that is was at the time considered (late 1990s/most people in this 4K video game world would probably call it "Old school horror" since independent cinema is so much more easily accessed with the likes of Netflix and even mainstream horror movies are much more gory than they were in the 1980s and the decade that followed it).
BASKET CASE (1983) does not happen.  Big globs of human flesh with a telepathic brain hellbent on revenge do not actually exist...not as far as I know.  Revenge does happen.  Blood spilt does happen.  Brotherly love does happen.  Deformity does happen.  Plastic surgery does happen.  There is nothing specific in BASKET CASE that is a complete fantasy.  But nothing specifically happens in BASKET CASE.  The manner in which the main "monster" kills his/its'(?) victims is not even clearly conveyed.  The deformity of the "monster" is not even very clear.  Is something like that even scientifically possible?  Maybe.  Maybe it's not only possible, but a very real situation that some people deal with.  I can't say.  I don't think anyone dealing with such a situation would appear on Oprah and say.
And there's nothing in GHOSTBUSTERS that I can say for a fact *does not happen*.
But both films - as well as FRIDAY THE 13TH - convey their respective stories with a grain of salt, tongue planted firmly in cheek, to where you'd have to be digging pretty deep into the realm of someone's closet in order to know just how real a lot of these things are or might be.  A 5 year old does not believe in ghosts unless they have parents that tell them to believe in ghosts, just like kids don't believe in Santa Claus. unless you tell them to believe in Santa Claus.  And even serial killers are practically a product of someone's crazy mind if you aren't warned to be on the lookout for a serial killer.  I mean, even adults tend to be rather blase about the possibility of car theft, leaving their cars unlocked not only occasionally but routinely.  The idea of something far worse happening is not even something many people even entertain the slightest notion of.  And why should we?  How many people born today are likely to die because someone else was born?  The stats are pretty consistent.  For every birth that eventually becomes a serial killer there's several hundred million more, 99.999% of which will survive said serial killer's birth and subsequent behavior.  Granted, I haven't looked this up.  That's a rough estimate.  But honestly -- have you ever met someone who died because of a serial killer?  Cancer, perhaps, most likely, if you've lived for any length of time with a social life bigger than mine, or perhaps child abuse and the emotional damage that causes, or perhaps HIV/AIDS or some rare blood disorder or something, but a serial killer?  Some people reading this might be able to say they know someone who had a friend die at the hands of a school shooter or a terrorist or a basic serial killer, and maybe 1 or 2 out of the 15 or so people that read this blog actually did have a friend or relative that was murdered in cold blood, but even that's unlikely, although I don't intend to downplay the grief of knowing such carnage.  I'm not saying we should all be carefree and act like the world's just dandy because most of us know that it isn't and we are if anything acting overtly in accordance with that fact.  But the fact is you don't go to bed expecting someone to appear in your window with the intention of abducting you and never letting you see your parents again.  You go to bed and you scare yourself with shadows knowing damn well that they're just shadows but getting the chills nonetheless.

An outer world

I cannot believe this.....actually, I don't know if this is anything to "believe"...
When the heck did I last have the computer on?
It seems like I might or might not have had it on Friday.  I don't even remember what time of day I turned it off last.  Somewhere between 9 & 11 p.m.....maybe....seriously not real sure.
But I kid you not ---
Ok , ok.
***MAYBE*** in the early part of Saturday I had the computer on.....I can't swear to that being true or untrue....
HOWEVER
at least 75% of Saturday including sleeping hours was computer free
And I did not have it on at all Sunday NOR did I have it on Monday.
And I didn't turn it on today until close to or after noon.
So that's like.........insanity!  No, it's even weirder than that.  It's REVERSE insanity!  It's something that I'm not sure I'm really comfortable with getting used to...I guess you could call it a 3 days fast?  Uh...that's not exactly what I was intending
and it's not like the computer itself is anything special.  My smartphone does almost everything my PC does, just not as smoothly.

I think I'm going to forgo signing up for Rhapsody (they've re-braned themselves "Napster", but I say that's a bunch of bullschit bc it says right under it "powered by Rhapsody"....eeeirk!) ANY WAY!------I have Pandora and I don't even use it that much.  I've been a-ok with the ads on Spotify.  They're generally minimal and/or non invasive.  I don't know if they're just that infrequent or they've gotten better at timing them.  It used to be kind of an issue, especially on albums where half the songs kinda flow into each other.  I think some of it is an improved user experience.  Their ads are not intended as a threat.  They're intended as a source of revenue for the site and the content providers (artists & producers etc.) on the site.  If an ad is annoying, it's probably not doing its job correctly.  Car commercials and commercials for household cleaners are ***annoying*** Why?  Because I don't give a lick about cleaning my house and I'll be born, dead and ascended 100 times before I ever buy a new car -- OR A USED ONE for that matter!  Sure, there may come a day when my sister wants to buy a new car and ask for my input but the hell if some stupid commercial has any bearing on that input.  Especially since all car commercials are exact same thing.  "Hey, ya know, it actually IS polite to stare!" or "Hey, show your macho side!" or "Be macho AND suave!" or.....something along any combination of those ideas.  Stupid.  The only thing I ever gleaned from a car commercial is that my sister's 2012 KIA SOUL uses 1 gallon every 30 miles apprx vs. some "super fuel efficient" vehicle that Ford introduced around that same time frame that has a 36 mpg fuel efficiency, which I thought was impressive based on my mom's car at the time, before she decided to give it up, which had a 20 mpg fuel efficiency....granted, that car was made in the late '90s, '96 or '97, before gas prices started climbing the empire state building.  And then of course, global warming hadn't quite manifested itself in such obvious ways at that time either.  I think it had maybe started to, but it was nowhere near as severe then as it's gotten.  I honestly don't know if I've ever witnessed planet Earth without the effects of global warming.  I was born in 1983, late in the year, and I certainly don't remember much about the national weather forecast of that month and 10 days that I was alive that year or the year after then or even the year I went to see GHOSTBUSTERS II in theaters -- 1989 (summer).  I might've caught part of a newscast that year.  If I did I don't remember it, at least not now.  And of course, duh, global cooling is what is happening here in North and South America, but it's not called North and South America warming.  North and South America are two of 7 continents and China, part of Asia, just in itself, is bigger than the United States as far as land mass goes.  I suppose the United States including Alaska & Hawaii might be able to fit 3 billion people within it and not require a complete infrastructure overhaul...like, ya know, instead of houses that are 2++ feet apart, just build a giant sardine can with beds that everyone lays in 24/7 while connected to a computer......idk....I mean, seriously...I saw a tiny clip from the news as part of some piece invovling China's pollution problem...demonstrating how people often walk around wearing face masks, this person was walking out of a giant building that looked like it was a bank or something, and of course it wasn't busy or she would not have had nearly the freedom of movement she had, and I'm sure that becomes a little of an issue when you have everyone chomping at the bit to get home or to work or whatever....but back to my primary point, China is not just a huge case of overpopulation.  It's a HUGE LAND MASS.  The contiguous United States is also a HUGE land mass and thankfully we aren't nearly as overpopulated as China, but nonetheless China is bigger.  And that's only part of Asia.  And then you also have Europe and Africa.  All 3 of those continents are on whole different side of the Earth.  This will all trickle down to Australia eventually, I would think..........I shudder to think of living in Australia.  How do they survive?  I mean, it's expensive enough importing goods from overseas to the U.S.  Exporting to Australia?  In exchange for money, i.e.: capitalism?
Gosh, their citizens must do a good job at harvesting their own grain.
Of course, music CDs and clothing and stuff are probably not in need of being imported.....I know SONY-BMG has a headquarters - division in Australia.  Probably ditto for other big players in the Entertainment industry.  Oddly enough, a LOT of real good music comes from and to Australia.  Dumb as it is, the only example of music from Australia that is coming to mind at the moment is Men At Work, who are not my favorite band or anything near that, although they did crank out some good tunes.  They have an odd taste in music tho, it seems...KISS' CD UNMASKED (1980), a serious underperformer in the world at large, did exceedingly well in Australia.  And 80's new wave band The Motels had a lot of success in Australia.  Actors galore keep popping up from Australia.  And again, only one specific example is coming to mind (Nicole Kidman).  And there's this newer actor who was in a Coke commercial that aired during the super bowl.  Can't remember her name.  I don't know if she was in any movies or not.  I read about the commercial and watched it for reference, but I don't recognize the face.  But then again I hardly ever watch movies.  I went back to THE CONJURING and am slowly re-watching it.  I rented it when it came out to video initially and got like halfway through it.  I'm still working on getting to where i left off at and have to say, it really is an intense movie.  I can't say I'd suggest a PG-13 rating vs. an R rating.  But I can't say a PG-13 rating would've been unfit.  I think the difference between PG-13 and R is kind of minimal.  Some kids watch R rated movies without their parents distinct permission before they're in school and others can't even watch PG movies without express permission from their parents until they turn 16.  PG-13 movies are often "glamorizing" self destructive behavior that teenagers often engage in, like drinking and casual sex etc..  And of course, being young & free (& dumb, largely) teenagers do those things in excess rather than as needed.  Which just increases the destructiveness of it all.  Adults do both, legally, but they have to balance that stuff with work, and sometimes family, responsibilities.  Even those who are OK with the world at large dying of hunger as long as it doesn't encroach on their personal freedom still have things to do to get their end goal(s) accomplished.  And until personal responsibility becomes some archaic thing, so the desire to "settle down" and grow roots will also remain.  There does seem to be less personal responsibility ditto with the desire to grow roots etc., but those ideals are not gone.  According to some kind of poll that CBS 60 Minutes cited when I was watching said episode, the % of people who think marriage is outdated has only doubled from 1979 to 2009.  That's THIRTY YEARS!  And you know what double looks like?  Ok, ok, I don't remember what the # was, I can't say specifically.  But it's less than 30%.  So it was a little high considering in 1979.  And it hasn't grown nearly as much as you would think in that span of time, given how rampant divorce is.  People have hope and good things in mind, somewhat.  It doesn't negate the foul stench that permeates the uncircumsised human heart, that many people just blindly accept as part of reality, with nonchalant shrugged shoulders, but it does show that things in this world are not too far gone to be restored.  A revival is possible.  All things are, with God.
O/O