Crowded Head Cozy Bed

One, Two, Three, Gone.

2006-12-16T17:11:00.000-05:00

I'm bailing too.

See ya' at WordPress.

My Son Breaks His Hand

2006-12-15T10:51:00.000-05:00

And learns a valuable lesson. Don't punch the wall.

Yep. All pissed at me for grounding him for not doing his homework (again), he took a couple good shots at his bedroom wall. Shoulda missed the studs, son.

I love him. Sometimes I just get frustrated with him, he gets frustrated with me, a lot of shouting goes on, he's 12 and full of new manly hormones (he's even got a mustache going! Shit, I was like 19 before I could grow one!).

We're both doing the best we can to deal with the raging insanity that is the onset of pubescence, but it can be tough.

So we spent a couple hours at the E.R. last night. They put one of those splints on it that's some sort of fiber. When it's dry, it's like the inside of a pillow. Then they wet it, wrap it on his arm, and when it dries it's hard as concrete.

Now I'm waiting for the orthopedic doctor to call back, so we can squeeze him in for a cast.

(sigh)

We had a good time during our two hours at the E.R., though. 'cept we didn't get out of there until almost 1 AM. Lots of silly father/son humor. I think we both feel a lot better, but I wish it didn't take a boxer's fracture of his fifth metacarpal to accomplish that.

Vote For BadAstronomy!

2006-12-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

Dr. BA needs your help to stop the invading squid horde! A vote for Dr. Phil Plait of BadAstronomy is a vote for kittens!

Well, I would have posted this anyway, but Kate has threatened to beat the crap out of me if I didn't do it right away. I really like Kate, but she can be a bit pushy with that damned riding crop of hers.

(Ouch! Quit it!)

Anyway, Kate says that if you don't go vote for the BA, I'm going to be subjected to unspecified torture and beating.

Please go vote for the BA! For my sake!

Janie Gets Picked Up

2006-12-10T08:51:00.000-05:00

So this is pretty cool. Janie's story, which you can read here at UDoJ on Blogger, or here at UDoJ on WordPress, has been picked up by the National Resource Defense Council. In fact, three of her blog posts are mentioned on that page.

Besides that one, there's this one, and this one.

And if you check out that NRDC page, two of their top four (top five, now - one slipped a place) listings are Janie's.

She's got a ton more Blogging Mojo than I ever will, that's for sure.

[UPDATE: She's also been picked up by the San Francisco Schools Blog. Also cool!]

As Philly As Cheesesteak

2006-12-10T08:50:00.000-05:00

Well this is dead on. I was born and raised just outside the city limits.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Northeast
The Midland
The Inland North
The South
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

STS Launch Holding

2006-12-07T21:35:00.000-05:00

At T-5:00 for a weather evaluation....

Guess we'll see about those crosswinds within the next few minutes.

Lou Went To Bob Jones

2006-12-07T19:22:00.000-05:00

Continued from the UD thread at After the Bar Closes.

Specifically, page 292.

My comments thus far...

Yep, Kristine. Women go to colleges like that to get their Mrs.* Degree (as we used to say when I attended Blow Job Bob Jones U.)

They weren't really encouraged to learn much, and most of the ones I knew never bothered to continue once they hooked their man.

They were well versed in setting the table, however.

Out of the four women I actually "dated" (that consists of supervised visitation in the student center and writing love notes through the campus mail) whilst there, none graduated, and none continued more than a semester past their engagement. (One of those engagements was to me, though it ended badly a few months later.)

*Oh, that's pronounced "Em Ar Ess" just FYI.

Kristine -

Lou, did you really go to Bob Jones U? *Horror film shriek*

Louis -

Lou,

You are a graduate of Bob Jones? Well I'll be double dipped in dogshit, and there was I thinking you were human! You seem to have survived the experience all right though. Bravo. ;-)

Louis

Hey kids. Sorry, I was watching the NASA TV update on the water on Mars thing....

Yep. I was a student at Blow Job U....

for exactly one semester, wherein I apparently asked too many questions and refused to accept the answers I got, and just shut up about it.

I was given a personal, face to face invitation to exit the campus at the end of the semester by Dr. Bob III.

It was the beginning of the end of my fundyism.

Soon after, I got laid.

'nuff said.

Louis -

Lou,

You got booted from BJU after one semester for thinking? Shortly after which you engaged in the game of horizontal table tennis?

Priceless.

Oh dear, I think I've just pissed a kidney laughing! That HAS to be the funniest thing I've read since what Kristine said a post or two ago. You guys cracketh me up.

Louis

True story. Sucky part of that for them is that I was one of the faithful. I really just wanted to reconcile what the Bible was teaching, I wasn't in any way questioning my faith... until I got the run-around.

I was a damned good preacher-boy, too.

It all started with a conversation about the classic "where do babies go when they die?"

I couldn't reconcile "God is Love" with "No man cometh unto the Father but by me". The short answer is they go to ####. There is no "Age of Accountability" in the Bible. That's a feel-good church doctrine to appease the masses.

It was only the first of a list of questions.

It was also the beginning of several years of internal turmoil (not to mention the beginning of the end of my BJU career), for which I am now grateful, but wish never to repeat.

k.e -

LouFCD ( he's not the messiah, he's just a very naughty boy)
Quote
It was also the beginning of several years of internal turmoil (not to mention the beginning of the end of my BJU career), for which I am now grateful, but wish never to repeat.

Indeed, that is the very real turmoil that AFD etc could not possibly stomach, they are that far removed from reality by their Mythology, that they suffer from institutional schizophrenia.

I think Mythology has something to say about that.... somewhere.

Oh yeah ....thats right......it REQUIRES being reborn, who wants to re-live the birth trauma? It could be like a very bad acid trip for the hard core fundamentalist.

Mythology in fact, it is full of such journeys, 40 days in the desert, Job wrestling his demons in his sleep the whole tale of Noah is a tale of rebirth, not to mention most of the tales of snakes in Myth, complete with snakes eating their own tails.

The snake shedding its skin is the archetypal rebirth symbol in Myth since everyone in ancient times would immediately recognize the symbol or sign. Nowadays who has seen a dried out snake skin while out and about?

A very real human experience that at one level works IF the story is taken as true OR is experienced by the journey taker.

Science deflates Myth as true history and for those that are unable to see beyond the words, removes meaning which causes all sorts of teeth gnashing...such as UD Joe's' and AFD's denial.

The real problem is that the clash of science vs Myth produces people trapped in a reality no-mans land.

When objectivist rationality treats Myth as true stories a self created hyper technical h3ll is created where absolutes govern and nuance and subjective reasoning are meaningless.

If Myth were not mythandled by major religions and charlatans like Dembski and his moronic minions but accepted as they were always meant to be accepted; as windows into a magical reality full of wonder and wisdom, though not absolute truths, then there would be no need to have the stamp of approval from science.

Kristine -

[Warning: length]

Unlike Lou I never was a preacher but I was the best student in my Sunday school/Bible classes, even when I wasn’t buying it anymore. (And why were the bored, disinterested students the ones who have hung on to the faith?)

I was talking to a co-worker who has a similar background about how it drives us nuts when believers violate the spirit of their religion in following the letter of scripture (i.e., charlatans). I think that atheists who had a religious upbringing never quite discard that concern for the spirit of what we’ve been taught; I wish the UD folks would consider motivation for our “materialism.” If the church really wants only mediocre minds and lukewarm conformists, that is definitely the message I received. And if it wants people to lie, then who occupies the moral high ground?

Re: Myths. Dembski said in his sermon that moral pain was more important than the physical pain. Whatever you think of that opinion, I haven’t been able to forget it and it did raise a few questions in my mind. Therefore, for the good of his soul, I would ask Dembski, if I could, what sacrifice he would be willing to make in the name of something else he spoke of, love of one’s neighbor. Specifically, I would like him to state yea or nay whether he subscribes to some of the loopier beliefs espoused by his colleagues (denial of the HIV-AIDS link, global warming denial, etc.) and if he would be willing to sacrifice these, at least, in the face of their possible detrimental effect upon other peoples’ lives—and speak out against them.

Also he should speak out against those arguments for intelligent design that he knows are mere creationist restatements. Why would he not do this, if there is scientific evidence instead? ;)

I understand how difficult and frightening it is to sacrifice one’s deeply-held notions and endure the subsequent moral pain of uncertainty, but it seems to me that Dembski is talking about a choice that a lot of us have already made—but he doesn’t see that, since our choices took us away from Jesus. Well, I’m not asking Dembski to give up Jesus; I’m willing to step away from that position, though I retain all the objections to religion that I’ve stated previously.

I’d be willing to draw the line behind the ones that I’ve previously drawn; would he be willing to draw the line somewhere? Pseudoscience has real consequences in people’s lives. So does valid science. Isn’t the pursuit of science an expression of love of one’s neighbor?

Quote (k.e @ Dec. 07 2006,11:33)
LouFCD ( he's not the messiah, he's just a very naughty boy)

and two VERY naughty girls...

;)

ScaryFacts -

Quote (Lou FCD @ Dec. 07 2006,08:36)
True story. Sucky part of that for them is that I was one of the faithful. I really just wanted to reconcile what the Bible was teaching, I wasn't in any way questioning my faith... until I got the run-around.

...

It was also the beginning of several years of internal turmoil (not to mention the beginning of the end of my BJU career), for which I am now grateful, but wish never to repeat.

It’s been five years since I left the church (and my 18 year long job as a pastor) and I am still trying to reconcile many things in my mind. You mention you were “one of the faithful.” I prefer the word “sincere.” I see very few in the church who are there for sincere and intellectually honest reasons. That’s one of the reasons I left.

I can readily accept the Bible as errant, but I do believe it is a reliable account of man’s understanding of his relationship with the Judeo/Christian deity. Perspective is everything.

The reasons I choose to remain a Christian despite what I have seen and experienced in the church are two-fold:

First, the principles work in my own life. Keeping a Sabbath has allowed my wife and I to raise two incredible young men—both of whom are sincere, thinking, compassionate and strong. Loving others has helped me to build relationships that are strong and mutually beneficial.

Second, (at the risk of sounding like Zero) I have had numerous experiences which lead me to believe there is a “spiritual existence.” I don’t have a complete grasp of that spiritual “place,” but I am confident it exists. In my own life I have been able to grasp that place through worshipping the Christian God. (That is not to say others may have been able to grasp that place through other means.)

(If anyone is interested I would be happy to post some of those experiences at my blog and we can discuss them. There are hundreds of them documented in my journals over the last 25 years. Some could obviously be subjective, but many are difficult to explain. I am not an evangelist, but I would like my thinking on this matter critiqued and you guys seem more than able to discuss logical fallicy.)

keiths -

Quote (Louis @ Dec. 07 2006,04:50)
Lou,

You got booted from BJU after one semester for thinking?

Ah, the fundies stole his adolescence, so now he's reliving it through JanieBelle and Kate.

Luckily I escaped fundyland at 14, still early enough to sow my oats.

I visited BJU in the 80's. Highlights of the trip:
1) The "dating lounge", where prim couples held hands on sofas under the watchful eyes of chaperones, and
2) The chain-link fence surrounding the campus, topped with strands of barbed wire. You'd have expected the barbed wire to be canted outward to repel intruders, but no, it was canted inward, as if BJU were a prison (which I suppose it was, for people like Lou).

keiths again -

It’s been five years since I left the church (and my 18 year long job as a pastor) and I am still trying to reconcile many things in my mind.

Wow. It must have been wrenching to leave after 18 years as pastor.

Quote
(If anyone is interested I would be happy to post some of those experiences at my blog and we can discuss them.

I'd certainly be interested in reading and commenting on them.

Kristine -

Quote
I couldn't reconcile "God is Love" with "No man cometh unto the Father but by me". The short answer is they go to ####. There is no "Age of Accountability" in the Bible. That's a feel-good church doctrine to appease the masses.

Wow. At least when I finally had the courage to ask about how God could be so mean, killing the Egyptian first-born for what their parents had done, I was told (because my church wasn’t fundy, although some people were) that God sends all children to heaven no matter what they believed, because they were children. But I had already bought out of Christianity at around age nine or ten, anyway. That’s pretty young. Considering that I continued on alone in this for years, I raise the “design” question again.

Quote
I'd certainly be interested in reading and commenting on them.

So would I.

ScaryFacts -

Quote (keiths @ Dec. 07 2006,16:02)
Wow. It must have been wrenching to leave after 18 years as pastor.

Thanks Keiths for your kind words. Yes, it was difficult, but (mostly non-Christian) friends helped ease the transition. Now I see it as an amazingly positive step for my family and, surprisingly, my faith.
Quote (keiths @ Dec. 07 2006,16:02)
I'd certainly be interested in reading and commenting on them.

I'll post some when I get a chance and I will let you know.

ScaryFacts, I (or more probably the girls) will be sure to make it 'round your place. They keep me hoppin', though. I'm interested in your experiences.

Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 07 2006,14:34)

Quote
Bad hair day?

No, not at all. Why? :p

I think maybe some church lady might be giving my comment the hate stare.

"Let her comment, Denyse, let her comment, we'll just ignore her. Shhhh. Then when she leaves the table to go to the ladies' room, everyone leave! And stick her with the bill (not that Bill). Wah-ha-ha-ha!"

I'll just put it on my NASA charge. Billions of $$ worth of baby back ribs. ~smack!~

Kristine, I don't know what it was about that, but it absolutely tickled my funny bone. Thank you for that.

Quote (keiths @ Dec. 07 2006,15:41)
Ah, the fundies stole his adolescence, so now he's reliving it through JanieBelle and Kate.

Hmmm... You may be on to something. I got sucked in about the middle of 10th grade or so, just when the pimples started easing up enough to make girls an option.

Quote (keiths @ Dec. 07 2006,15:41)
I visited BJU in the 80's. Highlights of the trip:
1) The "dating lounge", where prim couples held hands on sofas under the watchful eyes of chaperones, and
2) The chain-link fence surrounding the campus, topped with strands of barbed wire. You'd have expected the barbed wire to be canted outward to repel intruders, but no, it was canted inward, as if BJU were a prison (which I suppose it was, for people like Lou).

Coincidentally enough, that's when I was there. Fall '85.

Ahh.. the memories. Beautiful fountain out front, I think they called it the "Bridge of Nations" as I recall.

The dating lounge - you weren't technically allowed to hold a girl's hand ANYWHERE on campus, but with the right monitors on duty there, you might get lucky and get away with it. We weren't allowed to mingle with girls after dinner, except in specified places (the dating lounge may have been one of them - forgive me, it's been a while).

Dinner was a formal affair, and you weren't allowed to miss that. Afterwards, you were allowed to walk a girl back to her dorm (just to the intersection in the sidewalk out front), but you couldn't hold her hand, kiss her, or stop moving. Everyone learned to walk very, very, very slowly, to extend the amount of time you could spend with your sweetie. That was nicknamed "The Snail Trail", and was supervised all along the way.

Freshmen weren't allowed to leave campus, except for church or for outreach extensions supervised by upper-classmen. An off-campus date was unthinkable.

The story with the fence was that it was to keep out the criminal element, but I don't think that fooled very many of us. We knew what it was for.

Well, keeping us in and keeping out the Furman students who would dress up like BoJos (that's what we were called) and try to sneak on campus to raid our weemens. (You always knew a BoJo by his haircut, slacks (usually navy or tan, but never jeans outside the dorm), white dress shirt, and red or yellow tie.) Bastards. They probably thought that was funny.

:D

But for all that, at least two girls I knew (and their paramours) got booted in the semester I was there because they were caught in the bushes around the side of the big Vespers hall. Another girl I knew of but didn't really know personally wound up pregnant and left in shame. She never did divulge the name of her beau, as far as I know. Immaculate conception, maybe.

Kristine -

Don't enable me Lou! Oops, too late.

Louis—BTW—

Was that “crank” call last night good for you? Because it was confusing for me. You sounded like a woman—well, a woman imitating a man, anyway. And you’re so bitter about the Smithsonian. Did you have a film showing there that got yanked?

And when I asked for your address, you got all defensive: “I have a dress! I have a couple of dresses! Okay, they’re in my closet at my place in Canada, but still!” So you live in Canada?

Um. That was you, Louis, right?

Uh-oh. :D

lkeithlu -

"The dating lounge - you weren't technically allowed to hold a girl's hand ANYWHERE on campus, but with the right monitors on duty there, you might get lucky and get away with it. We weren't allowed to mingle with girls after dinner, except in specified places (the dating lounge may have been one of them - forgive me, it's been a while).

Dinner was a formal affair, and you weren't allowed to miss that. Afterwards, you were allowed to walk a girl back to her dorm (just to the intersection in the sidewalk out front), but you couldn't hold her hand, kiss her, or stop moving. Everyone learned to walk very, very, very slowly, to extend the amount of time you could spend with your sweetie. That was nicknamed "The Snail Trail", and was supervised all along the way.

Freshmen weren't allowed to leave campus, except for church or for outreach extensions supervised by upper-classmen. An off-campus date was unthinkable.

The story with the fence was that it was to keep out the criminal element, but I don't think that fooled very many of us. We knew what it was for."

This was a college????
I cannot imagine treating minors in this manner, much less
adults.

ScaryFacts -

Thanks for the encouragement guys.

Before I share some of the supposed “supernatural” experiences I’ve had, I thought it might be good to think through how experiences can be evaluated.

When I relate an experience, there are several possiblities:

1. It is truly a supernatural experience.
2. It is coincidence/natural process which I misinterpreted
3. I’m lying
4. I’m deceived (either by my own psychosis, my unintentional superimposing after the fact some details that weren’t really present or by other’s intentional plan)

I think that pretty much covers the possibilities, but if there are others feel free to let me know.

Quote (lkeithlu @ Dec. 07 2006,17:27)
This was a college????
I cannot imagine treating minors in this manner, much less
adults.

Not only that, but I volunteered to go there. What the #### was I thinking?

Now, ya wanna know something REALLY F'd up?

The members of my church were sadly disappointed that I would go to such a liberal college as BJ.

That's not a typo.

lkeithlu -

Unbelievable

Arden Chatfield -

Quote (Lou FCD @ Dec. 07 2006,18:10)
The members of my church were sadly disappointed that I would go to such a liberal college as BJ.

I'm scared to even ask, but what colleges did they view as 'not liberal'?

Mr_Christopher -

Quote (Arden Chatfield @ Dec. 07 2006,18:22)
Quote (Lou FCD @ Dec. 07 2006,18:10)
The members of my church were sadly disappointed that I would go to such a liberal college as BJ.

I'm scared to even ask, but what colleges did they view as 'not liberal'?

(Insert pic of SingSing here.)

um... I seemed to have hijacked the thread.

Please return to your normal heckling of UD at this time.

Further discussion should probably be taken up elsewhere, should anyone remain interested.

Probably off-topic for this forum, so we can take it to Crowded Head, Cozy Bed if anyone wants.

Does Shakespeare Have Feelings?

2006-12-06T21:49:00.000-05:00

I mean obviously he can feel pain, and be happy or sad. But sometimes he'll sit beside my chair and we'll just look at each other. I wonder what he's thinking when he looks at me. Anything? Friend? Master? Stupid Human that gets my food?

Sometimes I can really look through his eyes, back into his very being and see that we are friends.

Then he usually bites me.

Fucker.

Two Girls Puking

2006-12-06T12:45:00.000-05:00

Yuck. Both my wife, and now my daughter, have some strange disease where they are spending their days and nights praying to the porcelain God.

So we're not sure what they've got, or where it came from, but it's a nasty bug they've contracted.

And now, of course, I'm starting to feel it creeping up. I'm hopeful, though, because it hit both of them like a truck out of nowhere. There was no lead up, no progressively feeling worse and worse, which is what I've been feeling. Maybe mine is psychological.

Then again, maybe it's a mutated virus about to make me wish for Death.

Is Beating Children Really Illegal, Or Just Frowned Upon?

2006-11-29T16:41:00.000-05:00

And if it IS Illegal, is it a felony or just a misdemeanor?

Ok, the reason I ask is I have a 12 year old son. Need I say more?

Yeah, he's testing the limits at every opportunity. It's a good thing I like the kid, that's all I'm gonna say.

Reminds me of his Uncle Kev.

~~God~~ Disembodied Telic Entity help me.

I Must Be Free

2006-11-28T06:36:00.000-05:00

I was on the verge of infinity when I said that,
And the eyes of a passionate woman who I loved very much
filled with the tears of a broken heart.

L.
11/28/2006

Muscle Relaxers

2006-11-16T13:00:00.000-05:00

Are a wonderful thing...

It's rainy here, stormy really. Lots of wind advisories and surf advisories and flood warnings and such.

Which helps explain the intense pain I've been feeling today. Of course, it's been building to a crescendo for several days now, so it's not ALL due to the weather. The weather just aggravates it.

A couple of 10mg Flexerils has muted it a bit.

-----

Janie's started a little something with a crazy religious woman named Meg Logan. This will be interesting to watch.

Matt started it.

----

Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars needs a little video help. I've offered my services and linked to Channel UDoJ on YouTube for samples.

Could be fun!

A Hardee's Christmas

2006-11-15T13:25:00.000-05:00

'Twas the night before Christmas,
And all through the store,
Not a creature was stirring,
Not even a whore.

The crew was all gone,
All snug in their beds,
While visions of Hardee's
Danced in their heads.

And Missy on vacation,
And I closing out,
Had just settled down,
To whimper and pout.

When out in lobby,
There arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my office chair,
To see what was the matter.

Away to the counter,
I flew like a flash,
Kicked Mark in the ankle,
And Cecelia in the ass.

The shine of the polish,
On the freshly waxed floor,
Gleamed like a mirror,
Or the chrome on the door.

When what to my wondering,
Eyes should appear,
But a drunken truck driver,
Who'd had too much cheer.

That little truck driver,
Was so lively and quick,
I held onto my wallet,
I knew he was slick.

He had a little red mouth,
His breath smelled like brandy,
And stuck to his chin,
Was a red piece of candy.

His droll little mouth,
Was drawn up in a bow,
And his teeth were the color,
Of dog-peed-on snow.

His eyes, how they swelled,
His stagger how merry,
His cheeks were like sand paper,
His nose like a cherry.

He had a cute hat,
With sleigh bells and red,
But his clothes were all missing,
We had something to dread.

He went straight to his order,
He ordered roast beef,
And fries and a beer,
And tea with a leaf.

Then sticking his finger,
Inside of his nose,
He farted and belched,
And bent over - we froze.

Then up on the counter,
The driver he came,
And he whistled and shouted,
And called us by name.

"Now Missy, now Janie,
Now 'Celia, and Mark,
On Lucy, on Johnny,
Why is it so dark?

To the cab of the truck,
To the last parking spot,"
Then he ran through the door,
And passed out in the lot.

L.
12/24/96

This was based on an actual incident.

Just so y'know.

And Again, The Muse

2006-11-15T07:21:00.000-05:00

I hear no voice but hers.
She calls me silently.
It is dead of night,
but still I come.
Out of bed to answer her midnight summons.
Bleary eyes and tired bones,
Awaken reluctantly to bend to her service.
A mistress cruelly kind,
ever in need
to be heard.
Her soft whisper
a lover's request
silent in my ear,
Her gentle caress
but a passing breeze
across my bare shoulders.
Infrequently at best,
does she darken my door,
or rap upon my window.
But when she appears,
when she graces my heart
with her rapturous presence,
I cannot
I will not
I desire not
to continue whatever I was previously at.
And I stop.
Time and Space,
Matter and Energy,
Stop.
And I make my way
to my keyboard,
And I write what my ephemeral lover tells me.

L.
1/24/96

I am a Thief

2006-11-15T00:15:00.000-05:00

You said no,
I haven't done so,
You say I never will.
But you wouldn't bet me,
I didn't fail to notice.
I only smiled inwardly,
knowing,
I am a thief,
one you're just beginning to know.
The whisper in your ear at night,
The warmth in your dreaming heart,
The gentle breeze across your breast,
is me.
I am a thief,
one you're just beginning to know,
and I am stealing your heart.

L.
11/14/96

My Religion

2006-11-15T00:05:00.000-05:00

(Entropic Myopia)

After much thought,
much consideration,
not for naught,
my deliberation,

Twenty eight years,
of life on Earth,
pain and tears,
laughter, mirth,

Watching sorrow,
hatred, war,
every morrow,
only more,

Joy with this,
coincided,
my religion,
I've decided.

Monday is my
day to be,
a follower of,
Scientology.

Tuesday comes,
and quickly too,
so I choose,
to use voodoo.

On Wednesday morn,
I turn agnostic,
by Thursday noon,
of course I'm Gnostic.

Friday's fluid,
I think I'll say,
I'll be a Druid,
(and on Arbor Day).

On Saturday,
I won't be chicken,
and on the Sabbaths,
I'll be Wiccan.

On Sundays I'll be
Irish Catholic,
Because they have such
cool churches and stuff.

(Yeah, well YOU make the damned thing rhyme!)

L.
3/21/96

The Muse

2006-11-15T00:02:00.000-05:00

I am drained,
My brain is a deserted street,
Empty but for the billowing scraps of paper.
The Muse has left,
And there are no more words to write.
Exhausted am I.
She is a ghostly mistress,
Coming like lighning,
Escaping like the wind,
Leaving only dust.

L.
4/5/95

Home

2006-11-14T23:57:00.000-05:00

On the windward side
of the Horsehead Nebula,
Beyond the great red giant star,
Within reach of a comet's tail,
Beside a stunning gaseous planet,
with water clear as crystal,

Alongside a station,
where strange new people live,
Close aboard a ship of light,
A day away from nowhere known,
Is where I'll find my home.

L.
10/4/95

Complete Works of L.

2006-11-14T23:27:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about Kristine's poetry thread.

Back in the mid '90s I wrote a crap-load of poetry. Most of it was bad, looking back, but some of it may have had some literary merit.

I once compiled into a little book, took it to kinkos, and had a hard bound copy made. I loaned it to a fella I knew who never gave it back (I think his name was Todd), but I still have an unbound copy in a folder.

I think I may start posting it here, just for my own gratification. Even the bad ones.

The title was

The Complete
(for the moment)

Illustrated
(in your mind)

Unedited
(Don't you dare!)

Works
(uh-huh)

of L.
(that's me.)

Thanks for the Tweak

2006-11-14T10:19:00.000-05:00

Matt, from Pooflingers, just sent me the tweak to remove the "Read the rest of my thought" link from posts that don't actually have a "rest of my thought".

Just wanted to thank him. It had been a minor nusance at UDoJ for quite some time.

An Essay on Freedom

2006-11-13T14:10:00.000-05:00

Ex-pastor, ex-wife, ex-christian

Theresa Frasch writes a wonderful essay on her journey from Catholic child, to fundy young adult, to freedom from religion.

I was a pastor’s wife. I lived a Christian life. I did the Christian things. I believed the Christian doctrine. I did it all. I believed it all. Now I am not a pastor’s wife. I do not lead a Christian life. I do not believe the Christian doctrine. This is my journey.

Funny how this story resonates with me. A closely parallel journey to my own. Theresa's essay is worth the several minutes it will take you to read and savor.

I was afraid of what people will say if I threw it all away. I was afraid to admit to myself that I wanted to throw it all away. I called it god but with little letters. I didn't use it for anything; I never took it out of my pocket. If somebody questioned me I said I've still got it. I chose to hang on to that part for awhile. I chose to believe in god for a little longer. But certainly not the GOD of before, the GOD of rules and regulations, the nosy one, the all involved one, the one who makes men weak.

I chose to believe in a force outside of myself that kept things in motion from afar, one who set up the rules of the universe and lets us play them out. But then I saw that yarn hanging out of my pocket and I pulled out the last bit.

It is a wonderful place to be, free from the guilt and burdens of Christianity. I live my life fully and without question, enjoying the process of becoming who I am.

When that string, that last little thread, is finally gone from your pocket, the feeling of freedom is strong enough to make you cry with happiness. Nearly everyday I look back and wonder how I wound up in those chains, and I am ecstatic that they are gone.

The Laptop Battery

2006-11-13T10:42:00.000-05:00

has pretty much given up the ghost. That's a bad thing for me.

Worst Pain of the Moment: Right lower back, right leg.
Current Mood: Bored

I can't sit in one place for very long, so I have to get up, move, adjust position, lie down, etc.

I'm getting about 1/2 hour out of the battery on full charge these days. Guess I should get another one. Two this time.

I keep the charger at my desk, and it's all plugged in way in the back, so it's sort of a permanently fixed charger.

I had another charger, that used the wall AC, or the car, or a couple other means of charging, but Shakespeare decided that the cord was worth chewing on.

So I'm tied to the desk to do my surfing. That means computer time gets limited quite a bit. And that really sucks, since there isn't much else I can do to entertain myself.

Batteries ain't cheap, either, which means I can either get a battery or feed the kids. How long can a teenager go without eating, anyone know?

Here's Something Interesting

2006-11-12T19:31:00.000-05:00

Before I can even get this blog set up...

Did you know I was mentioned in Nature? Well, sort of.

I was looking at the numbers for UDoJ a few minutes ago, and noticed a bit of a spike on November 3^rd. So, just curious as to which posts in particular caused that spike, I discovered that we had been bookmarked by Declan Butler, Senior Reporter for Nature. How did this happen, you ask? I'll take you through it.

First, I looked at the posts for the day of the spike, and saw that the one that seemed to have drawn the attention was Operation Yellow Elephant.

One of the commenters to that post was Tribune7, a fella with which Janie had had a bit of a row a while back. As can be seen from the comments, I had looked him up, and discovered that he was a mod or admin or something over at the FreeRepublic. (It's a fundy right wing nut job site.) So Trib was a Freeper.

Well today, while reviewing the thread, I wondered what may have been said over there, if anything. So I did a Google search for "udreamofjanie" "freerepublic".

Hmm... A site named Connotea has a user named Declan, in whose bookmarks we appear for the Tripoli Six. (Here's the post that was bookmarked, The Tripoli Six Need Your Voice.)

Clicking that link, I found Declan Butler's bookmarks for the Tripoli Six story. UDoJ is way down the page, amongst a ton of bookmarks. But it's there.

Well, of course I wondered "Who the hell is Declan Butler?", so I clicked his user name.

That took me to Declan Butler's Connotea Profile which indicated that Mr. Butler is in fact a Senior Reporter for Nature. Yes, THAT Nature. Wow.

A link there took me to Declan Butler's website, and a link there took me to Declan Butler's blog where I found his blog entry on the Tripoli Six.

It mentions that he wrote an article in Nature about bloggers on the subject.

And finally, Declan Butler, of Nature writes a piece on the Tripoli Six on Sept. 25.

And that is how the simple son of a carpenter very indirectly, and in a very round-a-bout way, wound up influencing an article in one of the premier scientific journals in the world, just a little bit.

So his article, when you see the "s" at the end of the word "bloggers", you know he's referring to me.

That's too freakin' cool.

About This Blog

2006-11-12T14:58:00.000-05:00

Sometimes there are things I want to address, but outside the context of UDoJ. I've been thinking about setting up a separate blog for that.

Here it is.

I suppose instead of just writing this damned post out, I'll let it evolve. (I'm a highly skilled procrastinator.)

About me...

First of all, I was going to say that I'm the author of UDoJ. But the truth is the girls have taken on such a life of their own that I'm really just the secretary that takes dictation.

In the meatoverse, I'm disabled. I wrecked my neck in a fall at work back a few years ago, and I've been a fairly useless lump since then.

I've got a lovely second wife (who also happens to be my first wife). She's the lucky lady who gets to listen to me snore, gets kicked out of bed because I can't sleep well and I toss and turn, and puts up with all my whining about my neck, back, arms, and legs that never work the way they're supposed to.

We were married the first time back in the late '80s. We were way too young to be goin' around all married and crap. We wound up divorced in the mid '90s, though we remained best friends. Fortunately for me, sometime around the turn of the millenium she realized the error of her ways, and knew she just couldn't live without me. So we reunited, and after much begging, I agreed to marry her again.

(Alright, this is MY blog and I can remember things any way I want, reality be damned.)

Two great kids from the first time we were married. Their idea of a good time is trying to see who can make me insane the fastest. They're rather accomplished in that regard.

My aging but active Pop lives with us, and shares coffee and conversation with me in the mornings. Then he goes off and does whatever it is old farts do.

We've got a fairly recent addition to our little family who seems to have a foot fetish. Shakespeare is his name, and chewing any type of footwear is his game. Born in mid-July, he's a Golden Retriever, and he's a handful to keep up with. It's like having a toddler in the house again. Pain in my butt. Good thing I like him.

About this blog...

Like this post, I suppose I'll just let the blog evolve. I'm kinda shootin' for a more mellow tone here than at UDoJ, but we'll see what happens.

Cheers.