lindyhopper

Ahh, el StrangO, great idea, I would if I could.

WG, Seeing that my parents and brother flew off to my other brother's house on Sun. before they all drove up to the Adv. Cl. Special for Thanksgiving, your post brought a small tear to my eye. We did have a dinner before they left, but it just isn't quite the same.

I think I would simply like to erase them from the memory of my family and a few friends.

Don't they have touch pads, like on a laptop, that you can connect to your desktop? Those are pretty stealthy.

Yo Joe! So it must be debil spirits because you knew some african guys that had seen stuff in the motha'land and they told you it was debil spirits? Seems you didn't really answer Oak's question. My vote goes to David Blaine for the guy who probably hears the phrase "Holy ****" more than anyone else.

Of the few things I do know... Now I'm no linguist, but, I have seen enough Hong Kong flicks to know that what Dubofski said about your interpretation being relatively the same length and having relatively the same breaks as your tongue is total bunk. Sum ting wong!

Galen, Did your Northern Maderin speaking friend interpret your tongue by say..."now you said, 'Mow ting dae lo ping', which means My child I love you dearly....etc". Or did he just say, "word for word your tounge meant 'My Child I love you dearly'". In other words, did he speak you whole tongue back to you or just interpret it for you?

I know if I were a country bumpkin that was either scared of SIT or was apparently unable to perform and fell back on the Hebrew that I knew to get by at meetings...(Yes, yes, I do believe it is possible to be both country bumpkin and speaker of hebrew)...and was brought before Ralph Dubofski (is that how his name is spelled) ...Keep in mind this is the guy that taught the intermidiate class with strict "not too long, too short, too may breaks, must be proportionate to sit, must be this, be that, and not that etc etc"... ...also keeping in mind the fear that was instilled in many a "believer" back in our TWI days... I don't think I would admit my fakery in front of him or the two "witnesses" when called on the rug. But then...that's just me.

ant zu vill like it!

did you already do that one? I love that session.

...she opened up her oven and what color were those brownies? That's right Brooowwwnnnie eatin' BROWN!

What is this "Christian walk" your are talking about? If it has to do with living a life according to the principles that Jesus proclaimed, then I would say that I am closer to that today as an agnostic than I ever was as a Christian. I think if I were a Christian today I would consider the things that Trefor and Geoy said. It doesn't make sense that God would have four people work in concert to come out with a few truths that are really not all that important. Not to mention that these are books that were written quite some time after the life of Jesus. Not to mention the time between each book. The comforter was to lead them to the all truth but these gems had to wait a couple hundred years? It just doesn't make sense. Of course if I were a Christian today it wouldn't be too long before I was not a Christian again.

I think TWI gave fear a bad rap. It isn't always bad, in and of itself. It is how you react. It hightens your senses to notice what is going on. I guess you could say that you either allow it to help you see the truth at times, or it blinds you of the truth. It depends on how you let it affect you. Examples you ask? OK The postage stamp. Not the ones you put on a letter, but a giant rock in the middle of the Gauley River. The Gauley River is a class 4-5 River. That means it can get scarey. Before one of the worst shoots, our guide asked if we wanted to do the postage stamp. He explained that it was a giant rock at the bottom of the run and if you hit it right the water would plaster our boat horizontally on the rock. Those on the high side would jump out onto the rock, while those on the low side would stand straight up against the now sideways raft. Once on the rock, the high side guys would grab the low side folks and pul them up and then we'd pull the boat up onto the rock. Then everyone around watching on the shore or down river would cheer. This was a BIG rock with potentially big consiquences if you fell out. Like getting sucked into a small swireling shoot on the right and/or getting sucked down benieth huge undercut rocks, getting smashed against one of those rocks etc. etc.. There was fear. I noticed the rapids all around us, all the huge rocks, where you wouldn't want to go (not that you would have much choice, I listened for the guides calls/instructions more intensely, and did everything I could do individually as a team member to stay in that damn raft. When we hit that rock the boat went skyward. Being on the high side I leaned back and jumped onto the top of the rock. On the low side there was my futute wife looking up at me with her arm stretched out toward me. With one arm on the raft I lifted her up five feet with one arm onto the rock. A feat I wouln't have been able to do. With everyone (but two that fell in) we lifted the raft onto the rock and the crowd went wild. We were one of two, out of 30 or more crews that tried it that day, to make it up. Fear played a part in that addventure. It told me to hold up and think about this and make myself aware of the things going on around me. It gave me that spike of adrenaline to make it thru safely and to hoist my lady up and out of harms way. (So macho, LOL) But it was how I used that fear to my advantage that mattered most. If I did it again I would be afraid again, because you just don't know what might happen. Fear paralized one of our crew members that day. Later on the video you could see how he paused when we hit that rock and that coused him to fall back into the water. He clung to the side of the raft untill he couldn't hold on anylonger. The force of the water was too great and he was to low for his partner to reach him. He went into the water on the worst side and was sucked under a rock and was shot 30 feet down river. He was shocked and startled and a little out of breath but he came out fine. The truth was revealed in each moment as we were forced down the river. If we did what we knew we needed to do, we could do it...if we didn't, we couldn't. I don't know where love fits into these types of stories, other than I LOVE not falling in a raging river. :D--> I think most of the time in life fear is like what we experience that day. It is not about acting out of love or reacting knowing someone loves you, or someone yelling at you later for doing the wrong thing, or doing something or not doing something because if you don't they won't love you anymore or treat you the same way anymore. It is something that makes you think. Then it is up to you how you react to that fear. In that reaction is where the truth lies. The nice thing about that is if you don't like it you can change next time and the truth will change forever. To try and prove any other truth will require more than guessing, hoping, postulating, and faith. For all those things are suspended untill the moment of truth arives.

That's interesting. What used to happen in the earlier days of our nation was one person or school of thought would present an idea, then the other side would present an idea. These ideas were many times at alternate ends of the spectrum. With the help of the moderates among them and with the view toward actually getting things done, everyone would comprimise on something. This proccess brought about many of the foundational principles the good ol' USA is anchored to still today. Fast forward to present day were the moderates are the minority. Parties fight to win, and if they don't get their way nothing happens. I would say that today if someone has a good thing going they want the government to stay out of thier business. If they don't they want the government to help.

This movie was hilarious. It did have a few moments of gratuitous gore, which took me by suprise, but the rest of the movie had me in tears I was laughing so hard.

Dorothy, You should see the 96' version. It was a great movie and I personally can't imagine why they would try and redo it. I'm sure the new one is fine, but for those of us who saw the first one, it will probobly take a back seat. The strange and goofy guy in the Japanese version was hilarious. Another funny dancing and romancing movie was the Australian "Strickly Ballroom".

Sky, Surprise surprise surprise! Seeing that your answers are Bible-based and mine don't come from a "faith that I don't have, a reassurance I don't need." You must be refering to a Godly love, right? Obviously, someon alone on a deserted island could still survise as long as they had resourses for food, shelter, and water. You must mean a Godly love...as in, "God so loved the world..etc". Or do you? yet they survive! Holy cow! no wait that's Hindu. I won't turn this into a debate over God, but I will say that I have never said that I think we need to know how all the mechanics work in order to believe in a God, just that those mechanisms exist. thank you for clearing that up for me. ;)--> Actually, I wasn't saying that. I never imply that there is an "all truth" or that truth expands beyond our experience or comprehension, only that it exists in the moment. I won't argue that we all practice some sort of faith, infact I have never said contrary. Actually, I believe I have said that numerous times myself. But it being a "bridge" that spans the "gap". Come on, twi had some good tricks to make us think that faith and believing were some sort of tangible proof. A title deed, even. The problem with this is that the whole point of faith is that it is just a belief, a hope of the intangible, the unproovable, the unknowable. It isn't as concrete as a bridge or a title deed. It doesn't span a gap. If it does you never reach the other side, at least not untill it jumps over and smacks us in the face. It is a mirage that you can't see untill you get there. Once your there it is either reality or more blind hope that keeps you walking on and on just over the horizon. Nicely put. I have said something similar before. It is the faith that I practice every day.

...not that there's anything wrong with that... Sky, You used reassuring a couple of times there. That's what its all about. Hope is reassuring. It helps us imagine that things will get better, death is not the end of life, there really is a God and He always loves me even when I'm a retard. Faith is reassuring. It is really just another word for hope, but it sounds better when refering to beliefs. "I hope there's a God" just doesn't sound as assured as "I have faith in God". Faith is a little more all encompassing and indestructable. Hope seems to be about things we think we know a little less about, but really we don't know anymore when it comes to faith...we just believe we do...or hope we do. ;)--> Love is reassuring. But like gravity, you don't always feel the affects of it everywhere. It requires action to feel it. There comes a point where you are so far from it that you can't feel it anymore...it doesn't affect you anymore. Like gravity, it attracts you, it draws you in, at least in healthy situations it does. Now I won't imply that God is love, because that would require me to have a faith that I don't have, a reassurance I don't need. Love does seem to be something we need, not for survival, but to live the happy lives we are acustom to. That is different for everyone. Love to a middle-eastern woman will be very different from the love that I would like to experience. We've grown up in differnt worlds. Even more than either of us really realise, but we still want love. If there is a god that truly is love, then he/she/it must be much more diverse, much more abstract, much more ambiguous than most Christians/Jews/Muslims paint God to be. Likewise truth must be the same. As far as I can tell, truth is the moment. What we are each experiencing riht now. No wait...NOW. :)--> Everything in the the future is hope and faith, probability, postulating, and guessing. Everything in the past is a memory as intangible as faith. A memory is equally provable and improvable becuase it only exists in our brains...in a box never to be opened again. They are both bits of old truth and fallacy. It is the moment. It is apples and oranges for all of us, as well as tangelos, kiwi, and mangos. Now isn't that reassuring? Well, sorry.

I stink, therefore I am....just try and deny me. Truth is the moment.

wow it really is him. el strange-O That's one of my old friends there in the picture you see when you click on "portfolio". Hi James. "Photographer of the stars" lol That's just bizarre. (((BOWTWI))) Both PAul and his eldest turned out o be real asses. I hope they have changed. Would be nice if some of these old leaders would realise the damage they did while in and make an effort to make amends.

I think it would be fair to say I started watching the debate as anti-Bush and ended being pro-Kerry. I was happy to finally see Kerry get down and dirty. Well, that might be over doing it. But he finally looked and sounded like a valid presidential canidate and not just "not Bush". There were some very telling Bush statements, one of which Kerry capitalised on..."they {Iraq} attacked us". Then Bush came back with that pathetic "of course I know al Quada attacked us....you don't think I know that? It's so funny you think I didn't know that." paraphrased ;)--> Another was when Bush was going on and on about how hard it is being tha dubya and waging a war in Iraq. He said, "I see how hard it is on TV, Its hard work". We need to give this man a break. He has been under a lot of pressure and doing a lot of hard work. It seems, after watching the debate, that it has been a little too hard for him. He needs a nap. I heard someone say, "He got a few winks in during the debate". Perhaps thats what he needs to be doing. I felt uncomfortable for him. It was a mix of laughter and tears at our house. Well, the tears were from laughing so hard, but they were genuine. Don't doubt that. :D--> I think anyone that was watching this debate and thought the outsome was a tie or that Dubya won, has some serious partison issues and needs to seek help. The president in addition to being a tough cammander in chief, making tough desicions, and being personable, needs to be presidential. Not just like one of your friends, not all down homey, not just like one of us. Better than that. He or she should command authority, have a presence, have qualities we would aspire to, be articulate, think on his feet, and control his eye buldges and blinking. ;)--> Bush displayed none of those things and hasn't since I've been aware of his existence with the exception of a few days after 9/11. Even then a mayor out-shined him. The debate made me feel like Kerry would be a much better president. He was presidential. Canned or otherwise.

I think the vision is a few years too late. Aren't visions like this supposed to warn us of the future, not remind us of recent history? Maybe God didn't program Oral's revelation receptors with four digits to compensate for the millenium. So when he realised his mistake he just turned Oral's RRs back a couple of years. That must be it! ;)--> Somehow I get the feeling that I am the only one laughing here. Whoa! heavy revy.

Holy ****, you like Green Day. Didn't imagine that. They are pretty good. I really like the American Idiot song, but I haven't bought an album in a couple of years. Not since the last "At the Drive In" albulm. No, actually I did by Chevelle. Perhaps I will get it. Nice review.

I can't remember now if it has only been 3 years or if it has been 4. I think I have said this many times in many ways. It wasn't a knee-jurk decision. It wasn't the control, although that did have an affect on the timing of my departure. It took a little more than a little infidelity to strip me of my childhood/young adulthood beliefs. It started years earlier, trying to figure out why one would who didn't believe in God decide to believe in Him, if we were to first "believe and then see". It ended in me questioning the existence of God. It was a searching and a journey for truth. It didn't end with God or Jesus. I still would talk to people trying to defend my christian "beliefs", trying to convince them and myself. I remember sitting thru my last Adv. Class Sp. and thinking to myself, "...that is of course if the Bible is the WOG"...."that is of course if God really told Paul (such and such)" and on and on. It was that first session of the class...The integrity of da Word. It just took me fourteen years to figure out that I couldn't answer the question.

Sky,hi. lol Perhaps your statement is more telling than you realise. It has nothing to do with being intellectually challenged....it has to do with the fear of death. It's a hard pill to swallow.