new years eve

well, the year is over and here i sit drinking blackberry wine (yuck) and watching the infamous ball drop on television. can you think of a more exciting nite...ha. anyway, i am a stranger and a guest in this town and this unfortunately means i am not participating in the decadence that is new years eve. oh well, whatever, nevermind.

here as promised is the mandatory blogger recap of 2004. actually, i don't have a ton to say...graduation, no more pullman, and the same old president. it was an eventful year but i am glad to have it behind me. join me as a raise a glass of crap, i mean dessert wine to 2005...cheers.

bye bye 2004.

found this online today...true?

Hope you enjoy...

This scene took place on a BA (British Airways) flight between Johannesburg and London.

A white woman, about 50 years old, was seated next to a black man. Obviously disturbed by this, she called the air Hostess. "Madam, what is the matter," the hostess asked.

"You obviously do not see it then?" she responded. "You placed me next to a black man. I do not agree to sit next to someone from such a repugnant group. Give me an alternative seat."

"Be calm please," the hostess replied. "Almost all the places on this flight are taken. I will go to see if another place is available."
The Hostess went away and then came back a few minutes later.

"Madam, just as I thought, there are no other available seats in the economy class. I spoke to the captain and he informed me that there is also no seat in the business class. All the same, we still have one place in the first class."

Before the woman could say anything, the hostess continued: "It is not usual for our company to permit someone from the economy class to sit in the first class. However, given the circumstances, the captain feels that it would be scandalous to make someone sit next to someone so disgusting."

She turned to the black guy, and said, "Therefore, Sir, if you would like to, please collect your hand luggage, a seat awaits you in first class." At that moment, the other passengers who were shocked by what they had just witnessed stood up and applauded."

the beginning of the end

so the year is over soon and i guess i will need to put up some trite retrospective post. but not yet...why do tonite what i can put off till tomorrow.

i have been online all day and have accomplished nothing. kudos to me! i guess that's what vacation is for. unfortunately i have reached the point in my sabbatical when all i can think about is all the crap that is waiting to greet me. why is that? you spend so much time looking forward to an escape. then when it arrives most of it sucks because responsibility looms on the near horizon. the mind is a strange thing and controlling it is difficult. you can't push out the unpleasant at will, you can't quiet your thoughts when grasping for sleep, and laughter seems to overcome you at the most inopportune moments. puzzling! suggestions anyone? hypnosis perhaps?

give all your money...now

hey... to all you who have given your money to places and things that suck, to yacht funds and other peoples second homes, here is something better. if you can spare anything, give to the relief fund for the tsunami. it is sad the amount of devastation this wave has caused, over 120,000 dead and many more missing, unbelievable. anyway, to employ a lame cliche, a little bit goes a long way, and no, your money won't be going to some nepotistic, misguided youth program. so give now!!! http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/my-pay-page/PX3BEL97U9A4I/104-2867334-2853546

another day

shocking! i am posting two days in a row (and aiming to do this more often). this could turn out to be a very boring read because i really have nothing to say. except that i have done a whole lot of nothing all day. how does one begin to write about a day filled with no activities and yet here i go.

i am about to watch "supersize me" again, which brings to mind a great topic. i am surrounded by fat people. now i realize this is a touchy subject and i may be alienating 65% of my readers. but seriously, get up and run a mile or something. granted we all have problems and we can all improve somehow, but i have a bone to pick. for much of my life i have been lectured and reprimanded for my shortcomings by fat people, people who are so proud of the perfection in their lives. always willing to point a chubby finger at everyone else's faults while failing to address one of the seven sins in their own life -- gluttony. so here i am pointing a skinny finger back saying stop eating.

here i go again turning this into rant session. well whatever, its my blog and tomorrow i will try and post something more entertaining. goodnight.

um....

so here i go again; i have been suffering from months of writer's block. actually, as i have previously hinted, i am a slacker. but here i am away from the rush of gotham city with nothing better to do but entertain you with this unique view into my thoughts and what not. egotistical? perhaps. but even the noblest long to express what is on their minds. so bear with me, noble samuel, as i once again attempt to return to the regular updates you were once accustomed to.
here is what is on my mind, and for those of you who don't know me forgive me for bringing this up. i am about to give you text with no context, yet in this case (and many others) ignorance is bliss. wow, that is a lot of disclaimer.
anyway, i cannot seem to shake my past no matter how hard i try. it is like a sore in your mouth that you can't stop licking but it is that very action that prevents the healing. in my head i keep saying, stop licking dammit, but alas, it is no easier than playing pick-up-stix with my butt. still i am saying nothing, my thoughts have not yet been written....i can't shake the ghost of pullman's infamous self-worshipping church. it plagues me in the moments i least expect it, it interferes with many an interaction and comes up in too many conversations. kudos to those of you who have managed to escape the death grip of the intellectual activity this place still seems to require. yet, i cannot leave this confusion...sure there was good but it is not the good the good that leaves the bad taste in my mouth and thus it garners very little of my attention.
the whole concept of this "church" is still too much for me to understand. how does a place that perpetually abuses its members stay around. so many certain successes, beautiful marriages, and happy families have been sacrificed on the proverbial altar of this place. and for what gain? bring us your tired, your hungry, your humbled masses; and we will manipulate them, exploit them, and when they become wise to our violation we will ostracize them. yes, that which they told us in trust we will broadcast to our members as a deterrent; publicly disgracing person after person. please bear with me as i try to put this entire scheme in plain english and i welcome your thoughts and corrections to my interpretation.
lff is some twisted monarchy that rules with an iron fist. somehow people get sucked in (by the friendship of the evangelism department). come to church, and i will be your best friend until i am sure you are going nowhere, then kiss our friendship goodbye. "fake" would be the most fitting word. its all a sham, people pretend to care and that is just where the pretending starts. isn’t Christianity about truth? how about this for truth.

would you like to come to church…here is the fine print. you need to give roughly a quarter of your gross monthly income to us, yes you heard right a quarter after all we need to pay our pastor $140,000 a year because yachts, gaudy rings, and water front property don’t come a dime a dozen these days. we also need you to pull your weight around here. this may include but is not limited to, weeding, sweeping, cooking, cleaning, babysitting… oh wait we forgot to tell you we need you to do all this at our church and our house. in addition, since we are the pastors and very busy with our meddling we expect you to, clean our home, raise our kids, fix our cars and yes, fold our underwear (parachutes.)<---sorry that was low. and to thank you we will tell you how to run your life, because you are obviously incompetent and we, in our non-underwear-folding superiority know best.

anyway, how can people be so blind to the double standards, the utter fakeness of this elaborate counterfeit, the lies, the control, and the nepotism? i am puzzled to say the least…i cannot quite place my feelings. anger? no. but i have not yet become indifferent and that is the problem. how does something like this continue to exist? how do these people delude themselves into thinking they are part of the solution? how can I put this all behind me? i don’t even know what I am trying to say. i apologize for saying so much while managing to say absolutely nothing. i welcome your feedback, help me call a spade a spade and then perhaps i can pull out my spade and bury the hatchet. ha, too many clichés for one sentence.