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"