Sing it Loud

Stupid unmarked borders...had to click 3 or 4 times before I could conclude that my keystrokes were resulting in text being entered into this blogpost.   rrrrrr

ANYWay....I was just going through my thoughts and just really got thinking.  An old Facebook friend said his atheism stems from a discomfort in wondering if he was pleasing to God.  I have to say, I sometimes wonder the same thing.  The simple fact, I've concluded, is that most of the time, what I do is not pleasing to God, but it's not necessarily unpleasing to God.  True, there's times I feel like I've overspent my free time on stuff that is by no means productive, but that doesn't mean I'm doomed or anything.  If you truly want to know if you're pleasing to God, A) realize that you ARE inherently evil and everything you do right is going to be tainted in some way B) Read Jesus' commands.  A good chunk of The Old Testament is not meant to be a morality study.  It's essentially THE LAW.  The Jews had an opportunity to adhere to it by the last detail, but they'd chosen not to from the very beginning.  That's why Jesus' plea for mercy was summarized in the famous statement he made: "May he who is without sin cast the first stone".
You also have to pray that God changes your heart and mind to conform with His.  He probably won't do it instantaneously all at once.  You have to be obedient to what you've already been plainly given as commands, so, depending on how obedient you are, or how disobedient you are, you may never see your life utterly and completely transformed by The Holy Spirit.  That's bad news for everybody because this world could sorely benefit from as many manifestations of Jesus as possible.  However, Jesus is not out to punish anyone.  Believers will face a difficult time entering Heaven if they don't trust God.  I get the impression by a couple bits of The Bible that entering Heaven may almost be like LITERALLY being born again, or, perhaps better stated, akin to being pureed, bones and all, and then sifted.  I really have to wonder how that works.  Is that like being half in Heaven and half in Hell?  Does the chaff feel any pain?

"I know the date it happens, IT HAPPENS!"

 "The United States, especially since President Donald Trump entered the political fray, has become fertile soil for conspiracies. Aguirre didn't kill anyone that day, but that hardly means conspiracy theories are victimless crimes."

 https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/17/opinions/conspiracy-theory-houston-ex-police-officer-ghitis/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Top+Stories%29&ncck=9774

 

 The heck?  The definition of conspiracy is not "a crazy idea".  Conspiracies have happened and could very well be happening and continue to happen.  There's no law of physics or human nature that says a conspiracy is impossible or even unlikely.  The problem with many conspiracy theories is you can't prove them.  If a group of people were plotting to do evil to someone and had conspired with other people to make sure they could carry it out without being impeded upon, HOW WOULD YOU KNOW???  If someone did come upon some very convincing evidence of a conspiracy, it would be rare and would be easily dismissed simply because the likelyhood of whatever evidence having been found being strong enough to even indict someone is VERY slim.  At worst, it would be a precedent that might get looked into if someone ELSE ALSO finds equally convincing evidence.  And if one conspiracy were to be partially unmasked twice, I'd say the people involved in the conspiracy could've done better at covering their tracks and will probably get caught as time goes on.
Anyway...   I mean, what are these conspiracies really?  Where does the concept of due process get thrown out the window?  I know very wealthy people and people high up in the political ladder are fully capable of getting away with all kinds of stuff simply because of their ability to bribe and/or intimidate others.  But that's where voters need to be on alert and try to look beyond the surface and scrutinize any gaps in the candidates' claims.  Voters, unfortunately, don't do that most of the time, and after getting duped time and time again, they finally decided to choose a loudmouth superegotist over a coldblooded suit.  It's hard for me to say the political climate couldn't be worse.  I don't think Biden will accomplish much in his Presidency and as long as he doesn't screw everything up, that's fine by me.  It boggles my mind that people keep labeling even the most mundane things "sexist" or "racist".  Soon it's going to be "racist" to have laws outlawing cannibalism; either that OR it'll be racist to say that most cannibals have dark looking pigmentation.  Either cannibalism is socially acceptable or it's a crime committed by white people.  That seems to be the only two options in this "discussion" people are having.
I agree that white people, a good number of them(us) have not given equal treatment toward black people, and there's probably a good number of non racists who just don't understand the problem and have inadvertently contributed to the problem just by being ignorant of the problem.  Part of it probably has to do with the "white vs. black" equation that many people often draw.  It's not a simple matter of being racist vs. not, it's a matter of white people being vilified and that makes a lot of non racist white people lose interest in the matter.  There's also a lot of white people who are racist and simply refuse to acknowledge it.  My grandmother is one of those people.  Most racism is basically a matter of faulty math, i.e.: demographics, which is essentially noticing characteristics that differ from one group of people over another.  The fault in that is not noticing the similarities.  My brother in law says black women are bossy or something like that.  How many black women has he seen that match that description and how many black women has he seen that have an average ratio of demanding?  My mom says I don't let her say anything because I'm constantly interrupting her.  When she says that, I am so struggling to figure out how to get her mind rewound to 5 minutes ago and look back on the following five minutes; how many interruptions in that span of time?  maybe half an interruption where I was about to say something but realized I shouldn't.  Maybe not "five" minutes, always, but multiple minutes, 2 maybe 3 or 4...I usually assume we're having a conversation, i.e.: two people, talking...sometimes that may be an inaccurate assessment.  But if the numbers were more realistic, like it is with most modern racists, i.e." most black women are mouthy" instead of "ALL black women are mouthy", you'd have the same problem.  Maybe 50% of black women are mouthy.  Ok, so if that's true...is that a higher percentage than of white women?  And if it is, so what?  I don't doubt that at least 25% of white women are bossy or in some way demanding.  Sure, they do it differently.  Black people of both("all") genders ("if" they even "have" a gender) tend to have more power behind their voice, even if they're just whispering.  For whatever reason --- I'm not judging, I'm just stating an observation --- black people have more muscle.  Obviously there's exceptions, let's not get nitpicky ey?  There might be 2 out of every 8 black people that doesn't match that description.  If so, I'm sorry for my exaggeration of the facts.  Again, that's something that I probably could stand to work on.  I honestly don't know what the muscle tone of most black people is because I don't survey each person's muscle mass and cross reference it with their ethnicity.  It just seems like something I've noticed, but like I said.........
Anyway.   Kind of got off track.

Ug.

Idk why I'm still typing....I didn't really have much to talk about to begin with except that stupid OPED from CNN.  It's got a good point, overall, but conspiracies are real.  They may not be JFK or X-Files, but then again, the issue is not the conspiracies themselves or weather or not a particular conspiracy is indeed at work.  The issue is making decisions based on the assumption that a conspiracy is in play.  With no evidence, and certainly no proof.  THAT's what's insane about all this QAN etc. garbage.....People basically clinging to their worst nightmares while they're awake (and outside a movie theater).

Childish Gambini

 https://slate.com/technology/2020/12/why-are-the-best-chess-players-men.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

 "The idea that innate chess ability is critical for success—rather than a commitment to studying the game to get better and better at it—might itself keep the participation gap wide in the first place."

Does chess really require that much study?  I, personally, would have to study the game profusely if I were to play it and actually be any good at it, and that's pretty much why I've never played it.  I don't like games anyway, but in social settings like school, where I was encouraged to play games, chess was never the object.
I would think if I were inclined to give a rat's ass about gaming, and was blindly curious enough about such random b.s., that I could study the game and learn how to play it.  But -- and maybe the answer is different than I'm thinking -- does it really require ongoing study once you've figured out how to play it?
I know there are exceptions in all archtypes.  There are going to be women who have more body strength than the average man.  There are going to be men who have less body strength than the average woman.  There are going to be 2 year olds that can read.  There are going to be 20 year olds that can't read.  There are going to be homeless people who choose to be homeless.  There are going to be welfare recipients that can & sometimes even do have OK paying jobs.  There's going to be sunny days where rain doesn't dim the sky at all.  People will surprise you at every turn if you meet enough of them and get to know them well enough.  

  And I don't condone insults, slurs etc., nor do I wish to minimize their odiousness but this article seems to be suggesting that there's something innately wrong with the explanation of biology for win advantages predominant in the chess world.  And I'm sure an amateur chess player does get better at the game as they keep playing it.  But there surely comes a point where one is simply no longer in amateur and you're as good as you're going to get unless the game itself changes...  I mean, people use that logic when evaluating a bands' debut album and it happens to be kind of sub par, not really hitting all the right spots etc., all the while ignoring the countless LEGENDARY albums that were made by a band who had no prior output.  AUGUST AND EVERYTHING AFTER by Counting Crows, CRACKED REAR VIEW by Hootie & The Blowfish, APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION by Guns N' Roses, just 3 that immediately come to mind.  Sure, there are bands/artists who get better with age.  Especially bands who get signed and start recording and distributing at a young age and whose members haven't been playing the guitar since they were 8.  I was reading part of this book titled OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE, and the first section of the book was writing about The Misfits or some similar band.  The guy in The Misfits was essentially am amatuer.  But on the other hand, his amateur-ness was both the bands' claim to fame and the cause for their obscurity.  Nobody likes shit music, but those that do prefer it being dispensed by the likes of The Misfits.

 
I could be way off in my estimations.  I'm sure there is some injustice going on that makes female chess pros less likely to beat a male opponent, thus putting them at a lower rank.  But is every female chess pro the kind of person that shrivels up when faced with animosity?  The odds of a female chess player coming in at No. 1, or even No. 3, based on the data I've read within this very article, seems highly unlikely.  You can't blame all of that on hateful speech and venomous auras.  And what is this about social and economic factors?  Child care is a possible factor in some cases, but really?

" The best female player has always been ranked substantially lower than the best male player and would probably lose to him in a match."

If you tweaked all the data to eliminate the burden of finding or providing child care, took all the hostility out of the equation, by what margin would fact change, ultimately?  There could, in theory, be a championship chess player who might be a female but doesn't exist because she's not a pro and wouldn't want to be, given the hateful attitude directed at female chess players.  I'd say the same is true with men.  I'm sure amazing chess players of all archtypes have refused to go pro for various reasons.  For one thing, there's probably a fee for entering and it's probably not some measily $10 or something.  Then there's things like mental illness and, you know, there are men out there who just aren't interested in competing on a national level regardless of how talented they are.  Stage fright is kind of a mental illness, although it's such a common phobia, it's generally not met with the kind of stigma that schizophrenia or autism is.

Yowza

 Oh, what claws you have, to dig with.
Found this.
4/9 wootwoot!

Thank you, God, for the day

I declare, pleadingly, that I am not as thankful as I ought to be nor as joyful.  Please God, mold my heart, prune me so that I may be what is good in your sight.
Thanks for the fellowship I partook in, undeservedly so, this morning with a handful of men from Providence Duluth (GA) church.  Thank you for the magnificent weather.  I and my neighbors have been abundantly blessed to have this extraordinarily mild weather.  This weather is like a miracle in itself; being not too hot and not too cold.  May my heart grow bolder, as to praise you in all things, even those that seem to be working against me, so that I may be closer to you and be empowered by that closeness.
_

JWC

The Quiver of Death

 https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-end-of-owning-music-how-cds-and-downloads-died

 

"how CDs and downloads died"

I've heard this schpiel so many times, it always pisses me off.  People say this every time something new comes along.  People were saying almost a decade ago that DVD is "Dead" because Blu-ray has arrived.  !  Blu-rays have not replaced DVD, nor has 4K replaced Blu ray.  And they all have virtually the same picture quality, with minor aesthetic differences.  Yes, I know 1000 pixels is more than double what a DVD offers.  What is anyone going to do with those extra 500 pixels?  It's not a night and day difference.  4K is definitely an improvement over DVD, but I wouldn't call it a night and day difference.  And, again, think about it! -- to what end?; What does one actually gain from watching any of the truly great movies in "true" or "Ultra" HD?  I'm not saying anything against bluray or 4k blu.  I don't have anything against people that have the money and don't have anything else better to do with it.  I know there's a buttton of people who are in that financial situation and I also know there's people who have a good amount of money but have different priorities.

As for the compact audio disc, I'm sure it will die someday.  But this article by Rolling Stone was published 2 years ago and it's just as bullschit today as it was then.  This past year, the one that ended when 2020 began, CD sales actually INCREASED from the year before (2018).  People assume that the number is going to CONTINUE decreasing.  Whose to say how many people really do prefer to have cover art and an actual package to show for their musical taste?  It's not like all of the people who still buy CDs are simply unaware of Spotify or don't know how to use it.  Granted, there will be a day when that segment of the population is dead and by that time, who knows? Spotify probably gets bought out by some car company and then sues Pandora for making music too easily accessible, and then before you know it, it's back to hearing used car salesmen and electronically generated boom-voices blasting out of your car speaker every 10 minutes.  NOBODY knows WHAT'S Going to happen.  The trend is less than optimal for CDs.  Let's just enjoy them while they're still here and if you don't want to partake in that enjoyment, quit threatening people over it.  CDs are not dead.  Dying?  Well, duh.  Everything that isn't in the midst of blossoming is in the process of dying.  Streaming media is blossoming right now.  The internet doesn't seem to be going anywhere.  Nobody can force that to last.  Whose to say a "digital detox" revolution doesn't begin that causes the internet companies to raise their prices to the extent that many people can no longer afford internet?  It wouldn't be the first time people cut expenses and in turn made things more expensive than they need to be.  Rich people do that with their stocks all the time.  Obviously that stock becomes less expensive, but the products of the company that distributes the stock increases in price.  Employers do that with the overall economy by cutting staff.  It's not something "rich white men" are the only ones capable of doing.  Of course, that's unlikely because most internet users are under contract with a provider.  There are a lot of people who do pay as you go, just using their phone.  I'm not entirely sure how likely that demographic would be to commit to a digital detox.
There's also the possibility of some intolerant tyrant regime taking over the U.S. and making the internet illegal.  Those are the more obvious examples of how streaming media might become defunct.  I don't have the greatest imagination, so there's probably potential scenarios that I either can't imagine or just aren't coming to mind right now.
aanyway.  I think I'm done typing.  Getting a little sleepy and I supposedly have an email I need to look at.  I think I've covered everything.

hohoho

 https://au-finance-yahoo-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/au.finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/boss-refuses-waitress-her-26-k-tip-but-the-tables-turn-002520952.html?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fau.finance.yahoo.com%2Fnews%2Fboss-refuses-waitress-her-26-k-tip-but-the-tables-turn-002520952.html

Yaaaay!!!!!  I'd read at least one follow-up to this story.  The bit about them attempting to process the check and getting stonewalled by the customers' bank is either a more recent development or was being overlooked.  But I'm glad the owner stepped in.  That was a smart move given how much press this has rcv'd.  There's probably already at least a couple hundred dollars worth of business they've lost from folks who might've chosen to dine there had they not been disgusted by this situation as it was before the owner stepped in.

You want good news, you got it!

 Damn.  Clicked blindly 5 or 6 times before finding the form with which to enter text.  What's up with everyone deactivating their borders?  If this entire mass of white space was the form, it'd make a little sense, but seriously IT'S NOT!!!!

Ok, well.....as I was getting ready to say;

Got a 19 song playlist up & ready on TIDAL.  It was made up of something like 17 songs.  I added like 9 and deleted at least 3.  or something.  You do the math.  Most likely all of the last 3 figures there are off.  Anyway.  It was a really good playlist to begin with, but then I made it like 3x better.  Wootwoot!
Getting my credit cards paid down and learning to live on much less money and also learning not to window shop as much.  I have a little more money than me & my sister agreed upon after she & I worked up a plan of recourse to get away from credit card debt that I've been racking up over the last 2 or 3 months.  Because I have almost double what the standard budget encompasses, I've been letting myself window shop a little more than I should otherwise be doing.  I'm still not just wasting time doing that, like making a hobby out of it like I'd been.  Or at least not nearly as much.
Seems like there was something else too, but my mind is going all over the place, mostly in negative directions, 'cuz....that's just the way tings is.  The destination of my eternity aside, and the indescribable goodness of God, who we as humans are to varying degrees separated from (I probably more so than I should be because of sexually immoral time expenditures), there's not a whole lot I can think of to talk about.  That third thing- which I **might've** already encompassed in what I've already typed - is not coming to mind right now............uhm.mmmmmm..........

Sry,,

more, mooooore!

Georgia Department of Food stamps or whatever the hell they call themselves

 decided to send me a NOTICE OF MISSED APPOINTMENT, saying "recently,... asked for an interview".  Funny thing is, there's no record of when they asked.  Under "my notices" at the FS account website, there's nothing except for the notice of missed appointment and the benefit renewal prompt.  Not entirely sure this isn't some sly method of weeding out dependents.  They do give me at least 2 weeks to get this resolved.  Assuming they cooperate and don't bail out on me and then decide it's my bad.

"No, I'm your father"?

 https://getpocket.com/explore/item/10-examples-of-the-mandela-effect?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

You'd have to be pretty arrogant to "remember" any of these.  There was a time when I'd get the name of Jif peanut butter misspelled as JIFF, and there was probably a time before that when I'd just kind of assumed it was called Jiffy, because that's an actual word whereas JIF is just kinda like what the jiff?

What really gets me is the "Frowning mona lisa"  Mona lisa does have a forboding background, but the facial expression is not a frown.  If I hadn't seen it fairly recently ish, and someone were to ask me what the expression on her face is and I were guessing, I'd maybe say a frown.  That's not a memory.  It's called deductive reasoning.  It's not always accurate, especially when you're trying to deduce art.  Art is not meant to "make sense".  And likewise, if someone asked me if FOTL logo consists of a basket with the fruit, I'd probably say yes, kinda half guessing.  It's not like the FOTL logo is usually big enough to carefully examine anyway.  And so what if H.Lector never said "Hello, Clarice"?  He said "Good morning, Clarice"  Same damn thing!  You look up the definition of "Hello", it just says "a greeting".  At least that's what the dictionary I looked it up under said way back when before I had access to the internet.  And what does "Good morning" mean?  Well, it probably could mean all sorts of things, but it's basically -- "a greeting" --- same as "hello".  So, blow it, you stuphabs.

credit card trudgery

 Finally deciding to get serious about paying down my credit card debt....kinda.  I've been paying on it in spurts as I see money sitting in my account not in any real hurry to be spent.  A few dollars or a few dimes here and there...  This past month I've managed to pay off about $30, well before my minimum payment ($28) was due.  I just got November's money today, so I was able to buy a $25 book and an $8 concert video without really adding to my credit card debt.  Except that's not entirely true.  I'm expecting some refunds over the course of this next week and much of the available funds resulting from those will be going toward my credit card.  My Amazon credit card, I mean.  I also have $68 paid down on my WalMart credit card, $18 of which will be used to bring my debt down to the credit line.  Anoter $12 or so will go to interest generated toward the middle of the month and the rest of it will go toward the principle balance.  yeeks.
Anyway.
...
It's weird b/c from late Sept onto today, including the book and the concert DVD and everything I bought this past week, I only managed to add $55 of debt in total.  I paid down $20 of the stuff I bought today and the remaining $35 will be paid off closer to the middle of the month after all the refunds etc. smooth over.  And I'll still have roughly $18 remaining which I may or may not put toward the Amazon CC.  I should probably put that on the Walmart CC so I'll be better equipped to buy an Xmas gift for my Gramma this year.  I don't want to get her something small because I've been kinda neglectful toward her the past couple + years.  I don't even know for sure if she'll make it through the end of this year.  I'm all the more doubtful about 2021.  I don't think the rage people are feeling is going to be fanned any time soon.  It'll probably continue to get worse.  My Gramma will either be carried away with it and cause her health issues to be exacerbated or she'll be heartbroken by it and that won't help her health either.  And even if things do look up, her health just isn't what it could be.

Anyway.  It probably won't be until January or even March before any real evidence of stability in my credit card charging decisions becomes evident.  I have so many funding sources all scattered about at the moment waiting to come in and until they do, things will continue to be in dissaray.  And by the time December comes and goes out, I still won't have paid very much on either of my two credit cards, at least not compared to what I'm faced with paying off in total.

Heck, even by March I don't expect to have more than $200 paid off ,and that's a high figure.  I owe over $1,200.00  $200 is a drop in the bucket on paper anyway, although it's actually something like 20% which is not a bad #, but it's going to take a good while to get to that point.  Or at least it'll seem that way to me.

WHAT???

 https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/familyhealth/jonny-mccambridge-after-36-years-i-finally-realise-that-ghostbusters-is-terrible/ar-BB1aqDJt?MSCC=1603822895

Ghostbusters was not a kid's film!!!!!   Kids enjoyed it so merchandising was offered for kids to ask their parents to buy them.  It was not marketed as a kids film.  Ghostbusters toys were not distributed to kids during Christmas 1984 or even Christmas 1985 for that matter.  The cartoon was developed after kids saw the film and enjoyed it immensely.  

Smoking was not a big taboo in society back then (although it was beginning to become one at roughly this time).

Also, since when is seduction considered sexist?  There was no neck nibbling as described in the article.  

The only thing that can be said against the film is the sfx were not the sfx to end all sfx nor can anyone say with certainty that everybody that watches the film will like it.  Some material may be unsuitable for young viewers.  Parental guidance suggested.

aigg-2fer

 Was thinking the other day about that movie A.I., after I'd watched collectively over an hour of this past week, not yet finished with it.  It was a really great movie about the purity of True love.  It draws attention to the incompatibility of love to the propensity to doubt and to feel distrust and, later in the film, hostility and hate.  I don't think any non Christian will appreciate these parallels.  Maybe I'm wrong.  I wasn't only not a Christian when I first saw the film.  I was a true non believer aka atheist.  I had no problems with Buddhism because it didn't pose any sort of threat to my existence.  That is one of the reasons I don't believe Buddhism provides any substantial life change.  It gives "hope" of a life after this life, but I don't see people fleeing evil in order to appease Buddha or to get a shot at a better life.  The same cannot be true of Christianity.  Sure, there's a lot of people, mainly in places like The United States, that claim to believe in Jesus and have no willingness to obey Him.  And of course it's a fine line between being disobedient and being willing to obey.  I guess I sometimes straddle that line myself, often losing sight of how it really is, beyond the confines of my skull.  I do Hope to get better at that and I'm very thankful for the friend and counsel I have in a certain person who I don't know if I should name.  He is the pastor at my sister's home church and I've been gravitating to his preaching over that of my pre-COVID19 home church pastors', especially given the weakness of my old home church pastors' preaching in recent as of preCOVID19 weeks.  I was considering making my sisters' church mine but now I don't really go to church at all with COVID19, so I'm still needing to get to the ability of doing that and then discuss with people.  It doesn't look like my preCOVID19 home church really needs me and I don't do much with them outside of church anyhow.  I don't visit anyone or hang out with them except for lunch bunch which is only one time a week immediately following church and usually costs $8 minimum.  (sometimes up to $30 if I was generous toward myself on the food, depending on where we were planning to go x week).

Anyway.
I was certainly able to dismiss my hostility to Christianity as being based on counter logic, but I never was able to be content with that counter logic.  And now I see a whole world of beauty that I was never able to perceive when I read God's word.

On a different note, I don't have the URL and I can't find it doing a general web search, but Google showed me a news story from the WAPO about a cop that got fired for shouting support for Trump over a loudspeaker during a Pro-Trump vs Anti-Trump protest.  Ex-mayor Rudy Guilioni (sp?), who was present as a bystander, was saying he envisioned the scene being a campaign ad consisting of something to the extent of: 'What do we want for the next four years?  These nice Jewish people riding politely in their cars or a bunch of vulgar crybabies?" or something to that extent.  That got me thinking; A) President Trump is a not Jewish nor polite.  B) The raging foul mouths are not going to disappear and they are not all Democrats. 
Something else the article highlighted was the seriousness the NYPD was giving the cops' behavior in being political during his work shift.  WAPO was like "Well, they still support Trump, so why do they care?"  It couldn't possibly be the NYPD takes their job seriously, could it?  I mean, they're all a bunch of racists, so....
Ug.  Really ticks me off when someone tries to be a servant and gets backlash for it.  I'm sure NYPD has its' docket of racism to contend with, even violence/murder that stemmed from it, but does that really need to color the entirety of the PD?  I honestly can't speak knowledgably of the NYPD's integrity but I do know that not all police departments are steeped in racism.  Maybe a great deal of them are.  I know far too many people than I should being alive in the 21st century, creeping in on the middle part of it, who are subconsiously racist.  My brother in law and my gramma are two and neither of them have any real reason to be racist.  My gramma wasn't born in the south.  She does live on the very edge of the south, almost on the border of where the Union territory began, and has lived for some time but why does that contaminate her thinking?  I can only assume it's the influence factor.  Other people in the area have informed her thinking.  People she hangs out with and hears talking.  It's probably the same kind of thing in many/most police departments.  It's sad.  I don't think cops are knowingly racist.  White people do get shot by police officers, too.  It's not that black lives don't matter.  It's that life is not deemed precious by many these days and black people are perceived as a bigger threat than white people.  So while a white person who does a raised hand gesture with a higher octave might get shot by a police officer, a black person doesn't have to completely raise their hand even before getting shot.  That's probably an extreme oversimplification, but that's what I conclude based on the information I've read here and there.

Sorry to all whove been without my wowsings.  Not that anyone is really complaining, but....idk.  I had something a few days ago I wanted to post but I was either too tired or not at the computer..i don't even remember what it was.
sooooooo....idk.  Um...guess that's all for 2day.  Maybe...

He's much shorter in person

I decided to open it.  I bought a 2nd one.  He's still in the package.  It was so cool to feel free opening it although a lot more challenging to actually get him and his accessories out of the packaging than I had any recollection of.  I was afraid I was going to break the proton pack.  Finally got it tho.


 

2021: A Ghostbusters(TM) Odyssey; OR the Return of Ghostbusters merch done right!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hsTK7r7y2g

 

 Finally, someone who knows how to make Ghostbusters toys is doing so. So much of the Ghostbusters marketing has been concentrated to pretentious hipsters. This is where it all began. Glad to see Kenner's initial series of the RGB line of toys also being re-released. I like how these toys are creative molds and not trying to "pay homage" to the old toys from 1986 etc. 

 

I'm sick of these Funko toys, Funko's Vinyl Idols, Funko's Dorbz, etc.......just because you put a Venkman or Stantz nametag on a toy doesn't make it Ghostbusters.  It's practically plaigarism.  H2Ghost and Bad 2 The Bone Ghost from the Kenner line of toys had no direct link to the movie or the cartoon, but the spirit and joy of Ghostbusters was all over those toys.  You can't stand before Squisher or Sludge Bucket and not see glimpses of the film and/or cartoon in your mind's eye.  Those Funko and Loyal Subjects and even the "film accurate" sculps of the actors dressed in their stuff are not true to the spirit of the film.  Yes, the flight suit and proton pack etc are iconic in their own right and if done correctly can really bring out some of the greatness of the film in action figure form.  It doesn't necessarily have to be Bill Murray or Dan Aykroyd's likeness.  What the actors looked like was not essential to the film.  It was their personalities and some of their physicality did lend to the aura of the film, but, really, Dan Aykroyd is not the only actor in the history of cinema that is capable of playing someone very much like Ray Stantz or even Ray Stantz himself.  You could have any number of random guys dressed in a flight suit & proton pack et al and it'd be OK!!  Maybe not necessarily in the film.  There's more to acting than just wearing iconic gear, but an action figure doesn't actually act (ya know?).

CVS and Walgreens are rumored to have some GB:Afterlife candy stick-wand thingies (I've read they're called candy wands).  They were supposed to be kind of in conjunction with the movie, but the movie is STILL such a long way off and it probably doesn't hurt to remind people that it's coming out soon ish y, especially this time of year.

I do hope Kenner re-releases the Slimed Heroes and I really do hope they also re issue the Gooper Ghosts and H2 & Bad2TheBone Ghosts.  The Screaming Hereos et al are cool but I always felt they were far lesser than the original figures.  The Slimed Heroes were just freakin' awesome.  I love them more now than I did back then, probably because my life was a little difficult back then, with just about everyone I know attempting to push my love for Ghostbusters to the sidelines.  I don't even think I was allowed to watch the cartoon back then although I could be way off on that.  I think by the time the Ecto Glow figures came out (1991), I was not allowed to watch the show.  I don't specifically remember if I was in 1990 or not.  I used to try to say "Well, the original figures are better because x or y", basically just making shit up, but ultimately it's the time they were made that makes them special to me.  There's not much like being 5, but being 2 years old is an entirely different thing altogether.  Occassionaly I feel sensations that remind me of when I was like 2 or 3 years old, and I feel some strange combination of emotions, not just emotions, but, maybe, but emotions that are so strong they almost feel like something, like, perhaps emotions that I'm not de-sensitized to.  Idk.  All that has little to do with Ghostbusters.  Some aspects of Ghostbusters do bring about those senses from time to time if I'm watching it in the right lighting in the right weather etc.....but overall most of those difficult to describe senses are tied to a song I heard, like various songs from Kate Bush's THE WHOLE STORY, or the synth solo in Genesis' "In Too Deep", or driving along the bridge that leads from Ft Ord, California to Seaside, California and hearing Genesis' "Throwing It All Away", or seeing the old K-Mart logo, before they made it more of an actual logo and it just said "K Mart" on the front of the store (this was before K Mart became a walking punchline), or the back cover art of Toto's IV (1982) or Huey Lewis & The News SPORTS (1983)...or sometimes I even think of the cover art of the VHS of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial that originally came out in 1988, or the 1988 VHS cover-art for MONKEY SHINES by George Romero, or Oingo Boingo's SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET.  There is one memory I walk back to sometimes.  Once my mom was offering to buy something for me at Toys R Us and I swore I saw H2Ghost sitting on the shelf further down the aisle.  She swore it wasn't there and I was mistaken.  But she was headed some other direction and wouldn't let me investigate.  There may've also been a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man there as well, which she swore up and down she could not find anywhere after 1987 when she threw all the toys I had away because they weren't being picked up.  I think this was late 1989 or early 1990 I spotted what I'm just about certain was the H2 Ghost.  But just seeing that big wall of Ghostbusters toys everytime at Toys R Us is just exhilerating to even think about.  Really something.

Did he lose his mind or something? / No, he never had one

 Perhaps you'd know if you knew what I knew, knowing what I know,

 that everything was once -- but not always, just sometimes,

 like times that are time but not time, 

kind of like seas that roll over and fall back into their potato chip bag, 

like it never even happened

You would know,

O

but I see 

that you DO know!

YOU KNOW!

I see it

I can see your heart beat faster

Like Ronnie said

I see!  Do not like, to me.  DO NOT LIE to me!

For I see what I see like I see everything

Do you doubt?

DON'T DOUBT THE SEA!

The sea can see you see it's so

So don't be so

so.....so......      Soapy!  

I know what you do.

You do it all the time and you don't even care

Why?  WHY don't you care?  Do you dare?  Don't!  Don't you DARE!  Do not dare deny a denouncement of apathy!

How could you?

A pleasant surprise despite the 39th parallel view to my madness bwahahahaha......

I received a rarity -- out of print -- movie today -- on DVD -- which I had only to pay a little under $9 to get.  It's not even out on Blu ray, nor was it ever, except maybe somewhere overseas.  It's titled L.I.E. (released in 2001 by New Yorker Video).  The only reason I got it so cheap is because you generally have to lower your expectations when buying from decluttr as you don't necessarily know what condition the item is going to be in.  A lot of their stuff is in really nice condition but some of it isn't, and it's all graded as "USED - VERY GOOD".  If I had bought from a more reliable seller the price would have been AT LEAST $3 more.  And the price overall was actually lower at that time than it sometimes is.  A lot of things are that way.  For instance, throughout the last 20 years or so, Starship's debut album KNEE DEEP IN THE HOOPLA has been a bargain bin find.  You don't normally have to pay more than $5 for it unless you simply choose to do so.  I'd seen sellers offering it for less than that -- with s/h included!  But as of the moment here, the LOWEST I can find it for without missing cover art or blatantly damaged cover art is $6.00.  Locally, if I could get a ride to any kind of "local"ity, I'd pay less, but online the price has skyrocketed.  I almost paid $12 for one yesterday or the day before.  Yikes!  Then I decided against it and seriously contemplated paying almost $10 for it.  I don't even really like the album.  Not only is the opening track and lead single a contradiction of itself, some of the songs are just weak (tracks 4 and 9) and the production is very comforting and nostalgic, but it does leave a bit to be desired, like on the hedonistic track 3, (imploring someone to be unwise for the sake of pleasure, encapsulated in the title, "Tomorrow Doesn't Matter Tonight") there's a sequence of synth noize that seems to be thrown in there without any sense of direction, like it was supposed to be kind of ushered in and held up but just kind of zoomed past without any notice, almost like someone emphatically telling an elaborate joke in a room full of distracted people.  It only lasts a few seconds, but whereas in the past I could listen to that and go "OH ya, that's the stuff!", today I just listened to it and was like "Geez!  Wake up, everybody!" (as if telling someone to wake up 35 years ago makes any sense.....but anyway..)

Anyone who read my blogpost yesterday night and actually understood it will notice that the acquisition of this item, which I'd been expecting for at least 3 days now, satisfies the goal I was considering spending $20/ish on fulfilling and also makes that method of fulfilling that goal counter productive, which might need some explaining for those with limited third eye vision.

First:
Here is a comparison.  Again, they both look way better with LG's lighting filter thingy adding some weird pizazz to even the most mundane photographs.

Old collection.

Today's:

Cool beans!!
To clarify for those who think I'm a complete idiot or have some confusion in their own hearts:
This petty desire was NOT wrong to have.  I confessed and asked God for help because I was getting just about ready to manipulate my budget to buy a semi-expensive item ($20 is a lot of money to me) and when I realized I simply couldn't do that, I started whining and complaining like it was a big deal, sounding and being to some extent ungrateful and caring not that I HAVE all the cool stuff that I do indeed have.

But the counter productiveness to buying MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS on Blu ray would be this:

The situation as it stands is I have a string of Blu rays, ending with The Last Unicorn then two DVDS, one titled L.I.E.  and the other being MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS.  Unless I decided to get rid of L.I.E., the peeve I have of having one Blu ray movie just sitting there looking out of place would be replaced by the following scenario, now that I have successfully acquired a movie that I feel some strange tie to:

   row of BDs, then L.I.E., then BDs of MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS and MY GIRL. 

See?  The problem would be all over again!!  Instead of MHO standing out of place it'd be L.I.E.
So................ya.  I like to thank God for that one, even if He didn't do it...which is perhaps a flawed view, since God is aware of everything in one's life, even the smallest details.  My mom has this belittling attitude about entertainment, like sports and movies and everything are all too trivial for God to have even the faintest of interest in, and I just don't think that's right, even though I think subconsciously that attitude has developed inside of me.  It comes out.......anyway.
So boo the wasteful spending I was contemplating and the whining and complaining that I dished out instead and yay to the problem being fixed, albeit sooner than I even realized.......

The 39th Parallel View Into Madness' Steps

This photo looks like I have absolutely nothing to complain about like "woah, he's got a nice stack of movies". That's the lie that photographs make you believe.  Heck, even I can't help but be in awe of my collection because it's presented in a nice little rectangular view.  But when its in front of you for real it's just annoying.
Most of my movie collection is fairly neat and tidy.  Back To The Future should be in Blu ray format, but that movie is just so darn incomparable in its vision and execution, not to mention it makes no sense and yet you can't help but find the beauty in its' optimistic view and thunder-sized comedic moments.
But then I have Mr. Holland's Opus kinda stuck in the middle between a bunch of Blu ray discs.  It sticks out like a sore thumb.  And it's annoying because A) I bought the damn thing and I know that NObody is going to pay me more than $0.25 to take it off my hands (RRR), and buying it on blu ray would be even more expensive -- A LOT more expensive.  Not like out of this world crazy but for someone who just got a credit card less than a month ago and has already accrued apprx $500 worth of debt, $20 seems like a lot to be spending on something I'll probably end up buying again in a proper edition, made by Hollywood, complete with a 4K restoration, and maybe an audio commentary with the director and Richard Dreyfus and some of the other cast perhaps.  (R.D. is still alive right?  It seems like the dudes who weren't all that old back in 1979 are freakin' ancient all of a sudden; I know I was born after 1979, but I feel like I was a bystander during it all, as if I was born 10 years sooner than the mid 80's time frame that I indeed was and I was just a couple or so years away from being born before The Exorcist came out.)

Yea, I know.  I'm awake at 12:32 AM just to gripe about having an awesome movie collection.  I should quit this!!!!  DIE YOU AWFUL NEGATIVITY, DIEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!  

Please, God, Holy one of Heaven, Creator and Sovereign Eye of the Universe, please, take pity on my wretched self, and cast my petty concerns into the deepest pit of Hell so that my face may cease to be obscured by them.  Thank you for the vast multitude of blessings you have showered upon me both presently and throughout my life history as it stands today.  Please enable me to be Your hands and feet.  In the name and by the mighty resurrection of The Beautiful Lord Jesus I pray all of this.  Amen.

Difficult softness

DIFFICULT SHAPES PASSIVE RHYTHMS, SOME PEOPLE THINK IT'S FUN TO ENTERTAIN......

This CD is interesting.  It's like soft rock and AOR combined.  Kind of reminds me of a different take on early 80's Genesis, especially their self titled album.  That one wasn't as laid back as this stuff here is, so it managed to catch people's attn better, but when you consider songs like "Taking It All Too Hard" and "It's Going To Get Better", along with random hodgepodge like "Illegal Alien" and "Silver Rainbow", it's got an interesting parallel.  Nothing on this album has the pounding drum machine heard on the bulk of "Silver Rainbow", or the dynamic rhythm of "It's Going To Get Better".

The song "African And White", I've read, was released as a single and it did sorta OK, but not well enough for anyone you talk to at random to have heard it, and even those who did probably don't remember it.  That particular song is probably the most dynamic driving song on here.  But even that one has this just ridiculously laid back feel, that most people in this day n' age just don't want in their music, regardless of whether it's straight up rock or pop.

Aanyway.  

Was doing great on my The Bible reading for about a week or so.  Then just started letting time slip by right before my eyes yet again.  Need to get back into the spirit(!).  RISE!

Ok, guess that's all.  There was something I'd throught to write awhile back, a few days ago?, but I don't remember what it is.

Censorship

It amazes me how people look at the social climate of the '50s and '60s and shake their heads in disapproval over the kinds of things that were illegal or limited in their existence.

For instance; NAKED LUNCH, by William S. Burroughs, among many other books in that general time frame, had to go through the courts to be legally published.  Under what at the time was legally assumed to be common sense, NAKED LUNCH was banned for being "obscene".  
Now people are asking a publisher, Facebook, to basically judge the content that people post on their website and issue some kind of punishment for repeat offenders.  I don't understand why anyone would read something on Facebook if they think it's so unthinkable.  If someone posts content that you think is harmful, cut them from your friends' list!  If your friends are friends with people who post things that you can't stomach, same rule applies!  I have not read any hate speech or bigotry on Facebook, because I am friends with people who are friends of Love.  Sure, there's a lot of anti-Democrat and snide remarks about the gov't encouraging promiscuity by letting people get abortions for any every reason, and I don't expect all the people on my friends list to post flattering remarks about myself either.  And I don't get how you can be so ardently against Mark Zuckerburg about "Misinformation" -- People always think they know something for reasons other than actual knowledge.  People in school get taught all kinds of stuff and because we feel a need to trust, we assume the things we learn in school are true.  People who witnessed JFK's assasination assume they didn't hallucinate the event, which does seem like a relatively safe assumption given how many of them there were -- assuming what I learned in school and the existence of that Oliver Stone movie and several books on the matter are fundamentally true.  I personally think it's virtually a 100% likelyhood, maybe 1 millionth of a % less than, that those media outlets and educational resources that the gov't has provided are not lying or being mislead by some conspiratorial group of being(aliens?The Adjustment Beareu?)

But my point is that there are tons of facts that go way beyond the simple statement that JFK was assassinated in November 1963 in Dallas, TX.  There are all kinds of facts that surround that situation that many people have been informed of and I'm almost positive that at least 5% of the information that gets passed about JFK's death is purely speculation and quite possibly is not true.  But there are people who are extremely arrogant and / or stubborn and they think they know things because they for whatever reason trust the person who told them, even though the person that told them probably was just talking out of their ass for entertainment value, not having much to say elsewise at the moment.

So of course Mark Zuckerberg's publishing platform is going to have misinformation.  Of course people are going to say hateful things as well as things that express hate toward this or that.  Ignorance, hate and bias are going to be in print just as long as humans roam the Earth.

the worm and the heart

 and the worm came upon Jesus and, in awe and adoring, said to Jesus, "Sir, are you my ma'am El?"

Jesus scratched his head.  "Uhh.....uh..hm.  No?..."

Ok, now that I got that out.
Been feeling walled in.  I don't know what to make of it.  I feel like I'm condemned by the people who live with me.  I have a well traversed history of being angry and stating it in an angry fashion.  I'm slowly learning the value of staving off anger and, more so, to speak not of it.  I spoke rather harshly to my sister two or 3 days ago, and I still have not found the will to give any kind of heartfelt apology and I feel like she's just biding her time until I can be whirled up out of her life or something.  I can't afford to move out and she might barely be able to, if she wanted me out badly enough.
I have only a fundamental notion of what she believes and it basically consists of Godly living doesn't cost money and therefore I'm evil for buying things.  I don't set aside money for random emergencies and I don't save up for things like my TV burning out.  Credit cards are evil, so it is imperative that I save up or else I'm a slave to the credit card companies.  My disagreement is insignificant because she has a degree in accounting and I don't have a degree in accounting.  Therefore she's my boss and I don't submit to her authority therefore she's transferring representative payee status to someone else.  This is going to take at least a month (maybe 27 days, same freakin' thing) and nobody has any actual knowledge of what this is going to accomplish and nobody cares because she insists upon taking the general guidelines for being a representative payee to the very last letter and doing so is too stressful for her to carry out.  So unless my psychiatrist signs off on me being my own representative payee I have no idea what's going to come of anything.  As far as I'm concerned I have no money to buy anything.  Hopefully I'll be able to maintain at least paying the minimum payment on my Amazon . com store card and have access to Spotify.  Beyond that, I don't know if I'm going to be punished for tithing.  I'm not planning to buy Christmas gifts beyond what I've already bought.  I have no ability to plan anything.  My sis told me a month or two ago that reppayees appt'd by gov't take a cut of the money.  How much?  I have no idea.  My sister never bothered writing out a lease, so I'm technically not even paying rent.  I'm basically just giving my sister some money to help her out with the cost of things.  How is that rep payee going to respond to that?  For all I know, if (s)he's as tight ass as my sister, I may have my SSI revoked entirely.  DAMN.  I'm thinking that *probably* won't happen.
My mom and my sister talk a good talk about righteousness and a lack of anger, but seem incapable of behaving in a manner that isn't cold and inconsiderate and / or downright infuriating.  I just need to quit expecting anything out of people.  Only God adds value to anything born out of humans.

sure, blame Ronald Reagen for Friday The 13th......

 https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/friday-the-13th-part-3/

Rotten Tomatoes uses this as their excerpt:

"Shot in such a way to capitalize on the brief fad of Reagan-era 3D movies, there's less memorable POV shots from the killer...."

What the heck is the Reagan-era?  People keep throwing that phrase around, which at times makes sense.  Often a movie or musical band or album is a direct response or has a strong association with something thought of as 'political'.  Like, in 1994, Hootie & The Blowfish's CRACKED REAR VIEW was largely enjoyed because of the fuzzy feely vibe people had about Bill Clinton's domestic policies.  

I mean, technically, yes - FT13 was made within a period of time that coincided with Ronald Reagan's presidency.  But...c'mon!  Seriously?  You enter the theater to see FT13Pt3 and you're sitting there contemplating the political landscape?  FT13 pt 3 is a stupid ass movie.  If you don't already know that, now you do.  If you're oh so concerned about the future of your children and the idea that something Reagan / Bush / Trump is doing will hurt them as they get older, seriously -- stay away from comedy.   Stay away from horror. If you're a film critic and just can't get over the death and destruction caused by Hiroshima, maybe you should watch the bleakest dramas imaginable and quit pretending to have any worthwhile to say regarding cinematic genres that are inherently forgetful of how horrible the world sometimes, maybe always, is.

Greatness is pending

From one of the proverbs from The Bible (Proverbs)

 The fear of the LORD is the instruction for wisdom, And before honor comes humility.

Mark 9:35 (CSB)  

Sitting down, he called the 12 and said to them "If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all"

The more I read The Bible, the more and more correlation I see to the Old Testament and the New Testament.  That Proverb I'd read before, but I don't think I ever sat down and really pondered anything about it.  In that respect, it's easier to digest information from the other segments ("books") of The Bible without spending 15 minutes or however long it takes that you're willing to invest asking The Holy Spirit to reveal what ever it may be that He wants you to know after each sentence or X# of sentences (probably depending on the specific passage at hand).  I must admit I have a serious humility deficiency (y'all didn't know that, did you?) and I tend to place way too much dependence on symmetry ; not in the respect that I "give my life" to movies (which I don't believe I really do, although in some sense perhaps that could be said....idk) because of their symmetrical imagery
but symmetry as in the amount of time it takes for () to happen *should! not be added to.
For instance -- the internet; URL takes more than 1.5 seconds or something like that to load, I get pissed.  Not because of that individual time adjustment, but because each URL is a preface to another URL.  When I'm waiting for a page to load, 75% of the time I am not attempting to visit that URL.  That URL is a gateway to another URL.  FOR INSTANCE -- for signing in to Amazon.com URL#1.  Loading.  Finished.  Enter username.  URL#2.  password. URL3.  Home page.  URL4.  PRoduct search.  URL5 Is this the product I'm looking for?  URL6 Continue searching.  URL 7 another candidate.  URL 8.  search cont'd  and it can go on like that for maybe 25 URLs.  Something that should have taken maybe 10 minutes most of which consists of careful reading and scrolling ends up taking closer to 20.  And that's just ONE thing I might consider doing on Amazon.com.  Forget trying to visit another website and doing anything there.  That's another 10 minutes assuming it's a quick visit just checking my bank statement or whatever.  Granted, I am able and free in this moment to spend however much time I want on the internet, but I HATE waiting.  If I had to consistently wait half an hour for an activity to finish, I could go do something else.  Drink a cup of coffee.  Mow the lawn.  Scoop the dogcrap off the front lawn.  Listen to music.  Pet my cat.  Scoop my cat's litter box.  Give my cat a refill on her food.  Look at my toy collection.  Watch a movie.  I don't mind doing any of those things, except maybe mowing the lawn, but just doing routine stuff on the internet gets to be a pain in the AAZZ when it takes 3+x longer for a URL just to load.  I should be grateful to be able to do ANYTHING on the internet since the alternative is to do whatever I get from the internet minus the internet.  Which in reality is not that much.  I can listen to music on CD.  I can shop when I get out to shop.  I can just as easily NOT shop because I don't need diddly squat.  The only thing I CAN'T do is publish my thoughts and musings like it's the NYT.
AAAnyway.  I'm also like that with words.  Words that are not synced up with each other correctly tick me off.  My mom has brain fog from her massive styrm of pain in her shell and COPD which causes 1/5 of the words she intends to put forth to come out as kind of a whisper, sometimes an EXTREMELY quiet whisper, like the kind you have to know how to read lips to hear...so she may have said "I want some water", but I just hear "I want some" and then I'm wondering where the rest of the sentence went.  I'll be standing nearby, like "?"  She'll often lift her water jug at me so it's not even always necessary that she end such a sentence.  Sometimes it's almost like I imagine her saying the last word of that sentence because it's so quiet it's like hearing carpet fibers move at the behest of an ant.  Like "woah, that was some tricked out pudding Mom."
Anyway.  And then when people use words like people wear jewelry that pisses me off too.  It took me the longest time to figure out the logic of saying Amen anytime God's name comes up.  Amen is not even an English word.  It means "so be it" from what I can tell.  I'm not entirely sure that's true, because several people have said "Holy" = "set apart", which is like substituting the definition for a foot note.  Yes, God is different than we are.  He always has been and always will be.  When modern English Bibles say that He calls us to be a Holy people, yes, that means we should set ourselves apart from the calamity and filth of the regular everyday world.  When God talks of Himself being Holy, what He's saying is He's majestic in his power.  He's not only the very intention of Good, He's also powerful enough to Love us infinitely more than we can even fathom and also capable of putting our lives where He wants them to be, because He's omniscient and omnipresent.  Our fruit bearing doesn't get less than A on the basis of our lack of omniscience.  If you get a report card from God with a B-, your lack of omniscience DOES NOT FACTOR into that.  Also pissed me off the other day when I asked my sister what Psalm 139 is referring to as "dark" and she said he means physical darkness.  I asked another question to clarify and her response was "it's called poetic license", which did not clarify a damn thing.  I'm not sure if she thought she was being helpful in some way or what.  I don't see how that's possible.  I guess everyone that night thought they were being helpful with the odds against them.  My mom ever so kindly suggested that I "think of someone other than yourself", which is NOT offensive, because I never think about other people, ever.  To me, reality is just me.  That needs to change.  SARCASM-----           

The reality is none of this should be a big deal to me.  I am not here for other people to give a damn about me or to give thanks to anyone.  I am here because God wants me here.  I either have much work to do for other people that God wants me to carry out, or I am offense to Him in my current state and I need to invest time and energy into communing with God and doing what little I can to step toward the threshold of a New Life.

I don't even know what I was initially going to write about, so if this seems abrupt or unfinished, maybe it is.
towdels.

her Yoko is easy, her Ono is uno numero

 UUMMM...yep - this ain't got skiz to do with Jesus.  At least not directly...uyhm.....anyway

HOW can people say that Yoko Ono is the reason The Beatles broke up?  What are people accusing her of specifically?  Was her relationship with John Lennon not a mutual decision between him and her?  Did she do something wrong in her life that negatively influenced John Lennon?  If the other Beatles couldn't stand her, then John could have dumped her and refused to hang around her (as much).  He didn't.  How is that Yoko's fault?  People treat The Beatles like they're The Holy Grail of rock and roll.  They aren't.  They never were.  So many noteworthy elements of The Beatles music, especially in the later half of their career, were either thought of after someone else had already outright done it, and in some cases done it better, or they were influenced by other stuff.  The Beach Boys PET SOUNDS had a distinct influence on SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND, or so I'd read.  I don't have a tape recording of anyone saying so.  And there was a song by The Kinks that heavily utilized the sitar, but still kept the ROCK N ROLL intact, and then a year or two later "Norwegian Wood" comes out and everyone is like "woah!  What is THAT?" and now that nobody's knowledge is constrained by scheduling conflicts with travel, we all can listen to that song and recognize how FFFFFF n BORING it is!!  The Beatles did do a great job at changing stuff up but people go way too far with crediting them with anything and everything.  Someone said The Beatles invented prog rock. ?QAA!  Can ANYONE, seriously, name ONE SONG by The Beatles that classifies as prog rock?  You know what?  Nevermind.  The term "prog rock" doesn't even mean anything.  I'm sure Genesis' "Time Table" (Track 2 from 1972's FOXTROT album) bears some similarities to many of The Beatles' songs and I'm sure bands like Caravan who have very little in common with ELP and Yes - but are still classified as prog rock for what reason don't ask me - have even more in common with The Beatles.  Someone was telling me because I'm a "fan" of Genesis, I should appreciate that the "genre they exploited" was invented by The Beatles.  Uh...sure.  I don't care what genre Genesis is.  I can't stand other prog rock bands.  I like Camel's pre-BREATHLESS music ok, RAIN DANCES, MOONMADNESS, THE SNOW GOOSE, are all OK albums, and Van Der Graaf Generator is pretty cool.  Can't stand King Crimson, even though Genesis was heavily influenced by them in the early 70's.  By 1974, there were very minimal similarities to King Crimson or even Yes and ELP, although "In The Cage" was an exception.  If not for the bumbling excuse for a story that SUPPOSEDLY connected all of the 23 tracks on THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY there would be no perceived connection to prog rock on that album with the exception of "In The Cage".  THE LAMB... was just as much a prog rock album as WHO'S NEXT by The Who, which as far as I know according to most people, if I'm not missing something, would mean THE LAMB... just was not a prog rock album.  TRICK OF THE TAIL and WIND & WUTHERING, THE LAMB...'s two immediate follow ups, did have more in common with prog, but, especially WIND & WUTHERING, did have a little more of a inclination to pop music than NURSERY CRYME or FOXTROT did.  It was very slight and grew a tad more when ...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE... came along.  People say that DUKE is when Genesis shed their prog rock skin, but I think that's a rather bogus assertion.  The only actual pop song on that album was "Misunderstanding".  "Turn It On Again" was not any more of a pop song than "I Know What I Like" was.  "Alone Tonight" and "Please Don't Ask" I suppose were pop in structure, so if you count those, you have 1/3 of an album of pop music and 2/3 of a prog rock album.  Sure, the sound was a little different.  Genesis never kept the same exact sound in any given album.  FOXTROT was mostly thundering electric music.  SELLING ENGLAND was mostly folky postoral music, while THE LAMB... was glitzy funk rock.  TRICK--TAIL wasn't particularly unique in its styling, although it did have a good chunk of just flat out good songs.  

Anyway....The Beatles broke up.  I can see their contribution to music, both mainstream and not, but I don't really think there'd be any benefit to them carrying on into the 1990s or beyond.  They may have had a few or so more years left in them creatively, but I don't think they'd have lasted beyond 1977 had they not gotten irritated with John Lennon's hanging out with Yoko Ono. 

Truth? What is Truth?

 JESUS is the truth.  The fact that I'm typing this is also true.  My mom asks "What were doing upstairs earlier?" two hours from now...and I just happen to leave out the fact that I wrote this wAndafulll blogspot post.  Did I lie?  
"It is impossible for God to lie" says Hebrews (ch6v8)
But does God ever deceive or distort?
 Isaiah CH6 9&10 -- which Jesus quoted when speaking of why he'd been telling the truth in a virtually incomprehensible fashion -- seems to indicate the answer to that is yes.  He doesn't say "influence them to pursue ignorance so that they will be excited when Truth resounds."  Nope.  He says "MAKE THEM ignorant" (paraphrase).  If God is commanding Isaiah to let Israel rot, then wouldn't Isaiah be guilty of sin if he had failed?  Yes?  If yes, then God was at work in that act.  Mankind can accomplish nothing without God's help.  God was complicit in this deception.  
But you know what?  I don't give a shit because, as I've ruminated, and possibly posted about on this site regarding, the SPECIFIC sin is not the problem.  The % of sins committed that do not offend God is probably so close to 0.000% that even a 30" LCD display calculator doesn't have enough room for all the 9s needed to completely and accurately reflect the percentage of injustices, private or public, committed against God that result from breaking the law.
God can break the law because He knows what's best for us and the best way to accomplish it.  If he needs to tell the world about the multi-personhood of God's Oneness several thousand years after he could have, that's what he will do.  If a 4th person of the so-called "triune God" (The Bible says nothing about the existence of a trinity) were to make itself known when we get to Heaven, or if God decided to splinter Himself up into a million little pieces and shake hands with everyone (the billion-ity?), whose to argue with that?  And don't tell me "The Bible has everything".  The Bible never had everything.  It still doesn't.  Heaven is not in The Bible.  How could it be?  We have no frame of reference with which to comprehend anything that could be said about it.  God didn't hammer home the consequences of Adam&Eve's sin before the fact to give them incentive to NOT do it, for the same reason.
So, no The Bible doesn't have everything in it.  Not every piece of consolation and affirmation is in The Bible.  The Holy Spirit does speak to His temple and although nothing He says is going to contradict scripture, The Holy Spirit will possibly give you insight into the scripture that is not immediately obvious IF YOU NEED IT, and, possibly, even if you just WANT it badly enough, although God is not obligated or guaranteed to provide everything you want in this present time as a human being on Earth living Life As We Know It.
God is not obligated to do anything for you.  We are all guilty as f--- and some of us, i.e.: myself, are so ffffff (words can't expressssssss; o...) that even if the curtain were pulled back over our eyes and this life faded and we found out that Jesus meant what he said LITERALLY about tossing the hand into fire if it causes stumbling AND IT WAS NOT PERMITTED TO FORSAKE THAT, and, oh, well, I've stolen some stuff through time, even after baptism, and, uh........well, I thought He was speaking in hyperbole, then, you know what?  Who am I to talk back to the clay maker?  I can't.  Jesus' payment for my sins, be it figuratively or not, is my only Hope for eternal life outside of the confines of maxx'd misery.
Arguing with God or second guessing Him is not a solution to anything.
Yes, there's a slim tinsy chance that this Earth is just all random and it just takes care of itself with no cognitive intervention.  Or that one of the Buddahs or some Greek God or series thereof or Krishna or Joan of Arc created the Earth and has been maintaining it.  Apart from the Muslim portrayal of God, which is misogynist and oppressive, and encourages physical destruction and blessings for partaking in that, I am not aware of a view of God(s) that lines up with reality.  Countless people through time and time again have reported supernatural experiences, things that happen that cannot be explained by science.  God made physics.  He can break it and maintain it at the same time or suspend it altogether.  Nobody except madmen who have long been forgotten have made such claims about themselves.  Any other worshipped thing or "person" who has made such a claim has nothing to offer.  God ::IS:: a GIFT.  He is a Hope for a better future.  He is a reservoir of PEACE for those who He delights in, i.e.: those who do His will and WANT peace(!).  No religion on the face of the Earth is both scientifically irrefutable AND offers such a great return on investment.  God commands us to share that gift.  Who doing the will of God and gaining His favor by doing so would be so selfish to let it stop with them??  People say it's about control.  If The Apostles' goal was control, they never attained it.  People had no reason except divine power given to The Apostles by God to be fearful of The Apostles opinion of their actions.  And Paul even went almost his entire ministry living in virtual poverty just for the sake of making it clear that his ministry was NOT a means of brainwashing people to get money from them.  There ARE religious leaders who do that, even "in the name of" God, in contrast to His character and teachings, and of course there are people who professionally teach the word of God, but God even says they shall be held to a stricter standard when they get nose to nose with Him.  It will not be good for those who aren't leading righteously.  It'll be good, to an extent, possibly.  It maybe will depend on HOW FAR off they led their listeners, and obviously the "Church Of" Satan will be exempt from ALL of God's blessings.

The Better Way For Life

 My old pastor from further North in the state of Georgia once said IF GOD KNEW A BETTER WAY TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL, HE WOULDN'T ASK YOU TO DO IT.  Or something to that effect.  Actually I think what he said was IF JESUS' BLOOD DIDN'T NEED TO BE SHED FOR YOU TO BE FORGIVEN, HE WOULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING ELSE.  I think both of those statements are false.  I think if putting up with a sinful broken world is THE BEST thing, then, really, the term "best" should be re-examined.
A) God didn't smite us.  His heart grieves every tumble we take.  He puts up with this ingrained sorrow, some of it too big for us as humans to carry, some of it buried, some of it just lingering with like a ghost..
B) God sent Jesus to die for our sins.  Not everyone will be saved.  Many people continue to dwell in evil, act out of dark thoughts and intents.  Some of them even relish in it.  Many claim to be living in Christ but don't care about Christ or who/what He is.  God still refuses to smite us.  Yet.

Is the pain Jesus suffered really any worse than what God experiences in a daily basis?  Jesus' exclamation "My Father, why have you forsaken me?" was stated in a moment of absence from God's Healing Hand.  He was just as in The Dark as we were at that moment.  He suffered God's absence as someone who Knew God from the Inside & Out, the soul equal of a twin.  Except He was physically weak, with the same level of Need that humans have.  The difference being that Jesus was not accustomed that separation.  He knew fully what He was missing in that relatively brief moment in time.  Each second away from God required concentrated patience.  We as humans are away from God always, in varying levels.  Some of us aim to destroy that which God has called His.  Even those who refuse God and choose against Him are still made in His image and His desire for them to choose Him burns furiously.  I think one could say simply based on Jesus diety that simply getting smacked in the face by the Jewish leaders could have equated the 16+/- evil hours that were delivered to Jesus.  The pain we have and continue to have heaped on God is worth far more than 1 mere day.  But Jesus, despite His human vessel, was (and always has been) a deity and if everyone gets their fare share, Jesus is the definitive exception to that idea, which of course is false.  Jesus death was not fair.  It was an injustice.  But both He and The Father knew not a more effective way to both A) pardon sins B) dwell with His creation.  God could have just dismissed mankind's sin without notice.  He could have sent prophets to announce "Hey, do whatever you want, because Heaven's open for everyone!"  I don't think mankind would take that seriously either.  God would just as much a stranger to Man as he was before the arrival of Jesus.  But God doesn't just want to spare us Hell.  He wants to dwell with us.  He wants us to understand the depth of our sin, or at least appreciate the seriousness of it, even if we can't quite wrap our heads around how bad our behavior really is.  How would he accomplish that without sending Jesus here to prepare the way for The Holy Spirit and show Man the ugly truth of our sin?  I may be totally off mark.  There may be some supernatural power that dried up fossilized blood has against sin.  I don't know.  Maybe I'm only partially right.  Maybe just barely got any of this on the mark.  Maybe.  As for the Great Commission, We Are the NOT the best way to deliver God's words.  God wants us to be on the same team He is on, and delights in sharing with us the Power of Him with others and experiencing their presence and transformation.  God is the Gift, but we are called upon to Give Him to others.  Why would we hold back in carrying out this Great Commission if we truly delight in Him?  Do we WANT anyone to go to Hell?  I'd hope not.  In my case, I think I have some damaging habits that make me somewhat numb to the joy of His presence.  I don't think I've allowed myself to be equipped with the strength and might of God's joy to really feel like I have much to contribute.  If I were a millionaire, maybe, but evangelizing requires fundraising.  The best I can do is work on Myself from within, and Hope that someone notices.

third

My third nephew is almost otp.  He's coming!
My sister is in the hospital and that baby's coming out weather he likes it or not.  Hopefully he doesn't bang her up too badly on the way to The World.

Wanted to type something a few times, my mind has been all over the place.  Darting from blue to pink to red to grey to blue and purple and pink to red again.  Can't seem to enjoy a full length movie to save my life.

Need to read some of God's Word.  Been reading a little bit here and there.  idk, it's weird, doesn't really "Feel" like I've read The Bible when I do so on my phone, although the words are still rich and pure.  Maybe it's all the extra stuff, like notifcations that pop up from time to time etc.  idk if any notis popped up when I was last reading it or the time before that even.  One time they did.  I think I'm just old fashioned maybe.  I feel like I've somewhat accomplished something when I read one chapter but when I'm looking at an actual page, I can see how much "one chapter" really is.  It's sometimes a lot, but not always.

AAAaanyway.  Ug.  Super tired today.  Got about 4.5 hours of sleep last night, more or less in one stretch.  I took another 1.5 hour nap later.  I keep waking up briefly throughout the night.  If that were not so I'd get 5.75 hours or more of sleep + maybe the nap or some of it, but I figure each waking removes about half an hour's worth of functionality from my overall sleep.  I don't know if I woke up more than twice or how long I was awake really.  Seems like I might've been awake for about half an hour at one point, but I really don't remember.  My Mom is doing most of the babysitting b/c nobody trusts me to watch the kids, being of a non-parent mindset, and I have no idea how she's managing to not fall out of her skin or something.  I guess it's the maternal love and the power of God Almighty at work in her.  Maybe the other way around, who knows.

I thinkkkkkkk i'm done talking about anything.  I cant' think of anything and CUT.

Oh, the narrative!

Viola Davis seems to think THE HELP (the movie she starred in, not the book) doesn't tell the whole story which is not something I can definitively argue against not having seen the film but the criticism as seen in the Yahoo! URL above doesn't strike me as a convincing argument against any film.  No film dives deep into any particular story.  There's always an angle with which the story is told a viewpoint from which the scene is filtered.  I don't understand the complaint against "white savior" archetypes.  Mass lynchings didn't end because black people killed all the KKK members.  It didn't end because of Malcolm X or the Black Panthers.  It was MLK's leadership inspired by the might of God's Word along with his team of protestors who began the end of most of the worst of racism.  But if the mostly white media hadn't tuned in, very few would've even ventured to care.  I don't really know the premise of THE HELP.  I know its' characters are maids but beyond that I'm left wondering where's the need of a savior?  Should the savior have been a black person?  If so, who?  How?  If this were a film that took place today yes it wouldn't be entirely necessary for a group of black maids being criminally underpaid or systemically abused by their employers to be saved by a white person.  Idk.  I probably shouldn't be running my big mouth having not seen the movie.

GB artbook

https://www.amazon.com/Ghostbusters-Artbook-Insight-Editions/dp/1683837274/ref=pd_rhf_sc_p_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=W28FJDJBXC3WTDRPQQR3

I can't believe how many folks have fallen for this pretentious gimmick.  The dozen give or take drawings I've seen from this book are sloppy or very random in nature.  The film's aesthetic was concise and grandiose.  Much of the film looks reminiscent of a painting when you take it apart.  In that respect it sounds like a no brainer that an artbook would compliment the film.  But what do you fill it with???  Genius art doesn't just magically appear when you say Ghostbusters three times.  You can't close your eyes and will it into existence.  So you end up with the crap that graces these pages.  Ug. 

The nature of a check mark; is it real?

Had to finally go ahead and email MyPoints.com customer service because I for the 15th time clicked on a checkmark and was directed to a graph that tells me how far away I am from amassing a specific qty of points with which I will/would earn a bonus in addition to.  The checkmark wouldn't be totally out of place except there's another aspect of MyPoints.com where you complete a specific set of task and regardless of how much or little you earn from those tasks, you get a bonus.  It used to be called "Daily 5", but it's now being referred to as "to-do list", which makes their use of the checkmark even more ridiculous.

OH well.  Was going to include the email I sent, see if I could garner a few laughs, but OK.  I copied it into my clipboard, but then I unwittingly inserted a screenshot into my clipboard.  Gysh!  Why can't screenshots be way more concise??  Ya know?  Like: CLICK! Done!  WThk?  They gotta make everything so damn complicated.

where's the bap?

Garg.  I'm up still, 3:37 A.M. + the time it takes to type this.
a little sleepy.  not a lot.

Wednesday was a definite improvement mood wise over Tuesday.  Felt nauseous and had a headache most of Tuesday and I was still sucked by Monday.  Today I don't know what to think about it.  I have an appointment with head pastor at a church nearby that I'd visited a few+ times.  It's at 3pm so if I'm awake by 1pm I'll be OK.  I just need to go to sleep no later than 7am.  And then I'll probably go to bed at 8pm and wake up at 2am.  Grr.
Been watching way more forbdn entrnnt than I really feel is even understandable from God's perspective.  I'm just way too out of it.  I kept meaning to read some of His word this past day, but never got around to it.  RRRR (yy!!!!!!!!).  It slips so easily.  Just a little distance and BOOM!  I need to do better.

Of course, watching 9or9 is only a side effect of the reality of my spiritual condition, which is my own doing,un.  I need to un-un-do it and keep it that way!!!  AAAYY! 

Ug.

idk if or when things will truly improve.  I anticipate wanting to crawl under the floor at about 3pm ish.

Yday was evil

I got pissed off ay my sister yesterday.  Then she got pissed off at me for being pissed off at her and her solution was to not talk to me. I'm still pissed off.  Nothing matters.  So I don't know what the benefit of going into specifics is. 

words + exaggeration = racism?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/arizona-councilman-sparks-backlash-after-saying-i-cant-breathe-at-anti-mask-rally/ar-BB15XCFi?OCID=ansmsnnews11

The phrase "I can't breathe" has been adopted as the chant of the anti-police brutality demonstrations that have been happening across the nation, but apparently people forgot that those words actually mean something.  The dictionary's definition of "I" "can't" and "breathe" have not been changed since George Floyd's death.  Exaggerations have not been outlawed either have they?
 Yeah, it's vaguely possible that Guy Phillips could have been mocking George Floyd by using that phrase, but....I mean, is it really necessary to assume the worst about every thing that gets said and done?  I think people should be more offended that he's not willing to cover his face when he goes about.  I just sneezed the other day.  It happens.  My first thought is not "I have COVID-19".  My first thought it someone else might be freaking out about the possibility that I have COVID-19.  How many people have 2 or 3 symptoms of Covid-19 and are not wearing masks and aren't in isolation?  I don't think I have COVID-19, and I think I'm smart enough to assert that in a fairly even light, but how many people are dumb as a doorbell and still think they can diagnose themselves?  There's people around who still think the virus is a media hoax because they don't know anyone personally who has it.  Freedom of opinion is one thing.  Clothing is not a constitution matter.  It's not a state or city legislation matter.  If anything, the government's right to regulate clothing has precedent.  Ever heard of "indecent exposure"?  Saving lives by wearing an extra (non-electronic at that) piece of cloth (of which you can pick your own style etc.-- lots to choose from now) is not unconstitutional.  In an alternate universe where the last words in a sentence are key to understanding it, you could read  LIFE , LIBERTY , and THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS as "be happy no matter how many people I maim or oppress"  The pursuit of happiness does not supersede LIFE.  It does not supersede LIBERTY either, and LIBERTY also does not supersede LIFE.  POH and Liberty are not equal in their value.  If you can't be happy without potentially spreading a virus that has thus far caused half a million people to leave behind a guestimate of at least 2 million loved ones to grieve then your happiness and/or the pursuit thereof is simply irrelevant.

Chaynge The Wuurld!

Was reading some of Ephesians yesterday.  Really got my heart pumped for God and the promises The Holy Spirit.  Was like yellin' "Yeeah!", except, ya know, inside....then I resumed normal living.  My sister proposed the idea that facing my sin for all that it is is probably what's holding me back.  I don't know what to do about that.  I guess God will deal with that in His time.  If it never happens.....idk.  I just think I'm not committed enough.  Not sure if that lack of commitment will have any harsh consequenes for me.  I don't expect to remain in ignorant bliss eternally.  I'm sure I'll get a real long hard talkin' to when I get to Heaven.  "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE DONE????" and I'll be like "Um...." and He'll be like "LOOK!" and I'll be like "AAAGH!", but it'll be over at some point, and he'll probably be wiping my tears away and trying to calm me down.

Man.  Lots is riding on me.  I really should try harder.  Irrg.  idk.  It's too hard.  Ayrg.

oook.....not sure what to write about elsewise.  Mm.

figured I should post an update since it's been almost 2 weeks....don't want to turn that into 1 or 2 months...........

let's go to the mobies

Also check out Psycho Stick's debut "We Couldn't Think Of A Title"
I didn't know what Antebellum meant before Lady Antebellum changed their name from that to Lady A (What does the "A" stand for?  "Uhhm...none of your business!")
https://www.rt.com/usa/491567-lady-antebellum-name-change-slavery/


 I understand not siding with racism.  I understand that racist cops exist and its almost impossible to weed them out.  Cops need to have each others' back, but they need to uphold the law.  This whole mess of cops committing atrocities, and then weeks later, they finally lose their job AND their pay, and no charges are filed, is disgusting. 

However, I really don't understand why everyone is so hateful of police in general.  Thousands upon thousands of police departments, and how many cops per department?   There probably is a lot more corruption in most police departments than their should be, coercing of witnesses, tricking confessions from people...That stuff pisses me off.  There's nothing I can do to prevent that from happening to me except remain silent.  The police don't want to protect the innocent.  They want to punish the guilty.  If someone dies and you're the last person in their circle to speak with the person, the police don't assume you might be innocent.  So if you're in that situation, you need to call for a lawyer, because the interrogation room is probably the closest thing to a trial you will receive.

Because most of us aren't doing government for a living, it's easy to think there's something wrong with the police.  There isn't.  We are all corrupt on some level.  None of us can walk away from our homes and say that we've acted fairly toward one another in our assumptions or perceptions about every person place or thing.  One guy I went to class with back in high school said The Cure sucks.  I said "What songs by them have you heard?  He said "I haven't.  I just know they suck."  Then he balked at me being confused about that.  "Aren't I entitled to an opinion?"  I told him he had nothing to make an opinion from, so why does he have one?  I can understand having a low opinion of an individual or a style of music, but this guy mainly listened to rap and heavy rock.  It's not harmful to have a negative opinion of music, but if we as humans aren't practicing fair judgement on art, then how can we be trusted to treat each other well?

I'm not saying everyone is a hypocritical scumbag.  Many people do try and make an effort to be just and kind, but even such people have their weak spots or moments.

The link I posted above near the top says that "liberals" are saying Hollywood shouldn't make movies where the police are the protagonists.  Seriously?  We are all human.  Police deserve to be honored for their good works as much as any civilian.  Richard Jewell was exsonorated (spellcheck, you evilfffff!) by both the government and Hollywood.  That doesn't mean the cops didn't do a decent investigation and use common sense + scientific reasoning to get the job done.  It just means they got the wrong guy and as I said in one of the above paragraphs, if you are in an interrogation room, it means the cops already decided you're guilty and are only interested in evidence that supports that thesis.  Answer their questions, sure.  Don't keep answering the same questions or start yacking about random stuff.  Ask for a lawyer and shut up.  They really should say that to begin with, instead of waiting until you're charged with something.  But the same facts remain "You have the right to remain silent.  Anything you say can & will be used against you in a court of law.  You have the right to an attorney..."    I'm not saying the police didn't make mistakes in the R.J. case.  I'm saying the average person probably wouldn't have done a better job.