George Aar

I dunno ?Childish, silly, demeaning, yeah all of that, but common? So much of WayWorld culture at the time bugged me something fierce. In retrospect, it just makes me ill...

I wanted to show up too, otherwise "Where will I go, what will I do? Well, tomorrow is another day!"

Say the magic words and I'm in. (the magic words being "George Aar, secretary/treasurer") I'm starting out on top this time. I ain't making that same mistake twice...

Yeah, as I remember it we each got our own little holy spirit (custom-tailored I assume) when we spoke the magic words. Then after that we were all at "revelation central", cuz God could now "teach his creation in you - which is now your spirit - and then your spirit teaches your mind". Geeze Pete, how many years has it been and I can still rattle off this crap. Maybe I should save up for a lobotomy?

All things considered, I think I'd rather go to Laleo's church. In fact, I may already be. I find the main proponent of "PFAL is The Bible for our day and time" line of reasoning to be a particularly troubling individual. He reminds me of the guy we see every so often on the evening news, being led away in handcuffs after committing some unspeakable act, yelling indecipherable rants about the "anti-Christ" or God's judgement or other supernatural truths known only to him. I'm sure that guy is absolutely convinced of his doctrine as well. Scary...

Yeah, with '70s-era American cars, I'd say most definitely... (Of course it would never apply to Alfas)

As a born-again agnostic, I find it curious that the believers never seem to want to dig too deep when trying to figure out where things went wrong. The basic belief system must be right. It's just those guys that have been pushing the agenda over the centuries that were wrong. The long line of less-than-wonderful popes (the Borgias et al), Calvin, Joseph Smith, Rev. Miller (and the resultant cults of JWs and SDAs), Jimmy Swaggert, PTL, WWCoG, and the endless litany of conmen and jerkoffs that thump their bibles so convincingly - they're the problem. The underlying tenets of the faith are sound! If we just tinker with it a little more, we're bound to get it right, aren't we? Uh unh... Personally I think the reason amoral hucksters are so often found in charge of religious organizations is because they recognize the limitless supply of credulous marks waiting to be fleesed. But then, I would...

What you seem want to call "sharing my faith" is simply telling how I really am. Something I never quite got around to as a "Christian". The act, the overall phonyness with religion was what always got to me. Maybe I was the only one playing a game and everyone else was absolutely genuine. Yeah, I guess it could have been that way...

This is neither here nor there, but all the talk of Laurel and Hardy reminded me of it. When I was a young lad, maybe 4 or 5, I saw a L&H film short where in the end Stan and Ollie were sitting on a couch with their legs tied around their necks (the culmination of an oft repeated threat of the villain of the show). The look of them and the very thought of it freaked me out so much, I've never really liked them since. Funny how a kid's mind works (at least mine)...

I think Clint may have an "in" with a lot of the Academy bigwigs. Look at "Mystic River" or "Unforgiven". Both pretty mediocre offerings IMHO, yet they both got rave reviews and were lavished with praise as "groundbreaking" or "inspired" works of genius. I think like most everywhere, who you know is more important...

Or "white umbrella" if you're dyslexic and bilingual in Spanish and Japanese. O.K., I should really go get some coffee...

Gawd, me too. In fact, just about any religious and/or superstitious ceremony gives me the creeps. Always has, since as far back as I can remember. Praying, reading some holy writ, "witnessing" (oh GAWD!), or especially some public demonstration of one's "faith" (baptism or reciting some arcane oath or other), all of it gives me the same feeling I'd get if I'd just swallowed a worm or something. Icky, that's the only way I can describe it. Just plain icky. What is the appeal?

Just so you know, Haiku was originally the opening passage of a much larger poem. "Renga" poetry could have many lines, but the opening verses were supposed to be in the 5-7-5 cadence. The opening verses (the Haiku) were usually composed by one poet and the rest of the poem by another. Eventually just the opening verses poem became a form unto itself. BTW, to be a real Haiku, there should be a word that alludes to the season of the year (there's some 50 or 60 other rules for Haiku writing - many contradictory - but I'll spare you). Carry on. Oh, Oakspear, "Star Wars" perhaps?

How many Astrology or Fung Shui classes are running? (Hurrah!)

Oh, and Sudo, that was the line spoken by the lady with the starched petticoat, ne?

Yeah, I found my special purpose too. I'm going to be doing this a lot from now on...

The reality checks I encountered in WayWorld always went uncashed, well, until that last one...

I think that's a typo, just leave off the "og"

Ditto to what Pirate said. Same years in school, same attitude, so, no prom for me. I find the reunions get better each time, though. I didn't make it to the 5 or the 10, but I've heard they weren't so hot. But the 20 was fun and the 30 was a great time. I don't know where all those old bastards come from, though...

Yeah, welcome home Evan. You get my Zebra hide?

Plus the fact that we are usually too close to a situation to look at it in an unbiased light. That and we are generally really poor at comprehending what the "odds" are for certain outcomes. I forget the exact numbers now, but IIRC the probability of two people in a group sharing the same birthday approaches almost certainty when there's as few as 25 or so people gathered. Intuitively, I think most would assume a much higher number...

Yeah, questions have always been a sorepoint with the management at WayWorld. Remember in PFAL we were instructed right from the start to "hold all your questions until the end of the class" (at which point you've probably forgotten them, and with all the frenzy of "speaking in tongues" and the related activity you wouldn't get a chance to ask them anyway). Open and honest debate is always anathema to establishing a superstitious mode of thought.

Geeze Tom, You run to town, pound down 2 quarts of beer and still make it in time for the meeting in ten minutes? Who says you didn't learn a lot of practical stuff in the Corps...

Yes, nice hootage indeed. But getting back to the game for a moment. Ya think maybe the players have all taken one too many pucks to the head? This has got to be the dumbest career move in recent memory. Maybe when they get their new jobs, clerking at the 7-11, they'll have enough time to think over what's really negotiable in their contract. What a bunch of blockheads, players and owners both...

Satori, I guess I don't understand why you want to impose "miraculous" on what may well be simply "random". In any category you'd care to name there are going to be items at the extreme ends, those that are close to extreme, and a whole bunch in the middle. To pick out the extremes and declare them "miraculous" to me seems simply myopic. Why invoke the paranormal when the normal will do just fine?