The Story So Far -- newness coming Sept

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway.

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

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

wiseguys

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

SIDE/EXTRA POST (Off topic):

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

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

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

END POST 7:09AM

Passionately sleepy

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

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

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

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

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

xx

bad things

The heart is deceitful above all things
and exceedingly wicked

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

Confusing.

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

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

Worrrd

SILENCE!

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

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

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

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

Anyway...

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

Lg k30

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

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

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

Fear vs. fear

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

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

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

An outer world

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

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

Define proof(?)

God is the beginning.  He is The End.

Satan is a wannabe God.

God says "No, we can't BOTH be the beginning"

Satan says "Well, IT and PET SEMATARY both their own separate beginnings"

God says "No, they both have THE SAME beginning; me!"

Satan says "But everything has a predecessor!"

God says "I AM Everything!"

Satan says "Waaat?  No, you're not!"

God says "Are you calling me a liar?"

Satan says "So what if I am?"

God says "Then PROVE it!"

Satan says "Alright I WILL!"

God says "Ok then"

Satan says "Ok!"

God continues reading

Satan says "Well?"

God looks up "You're still here?"

Satan says "Don't you love me?"

God rolls his eyes