DISQUS

You are the Leonardo da Vinci of my friends: pretty good at most everything.

As someone who was also a Witness for far too long, I think it's understandable that your writing was not given a priority. I knew many, many Witnesses who created music, who drew, painted, sculpted, and enjoyed photography (and film-making!)...but I didn't know so many writers. I mean, I'm sure there were plenty of teenager with their diaries, but they never told me about them.
The problem was that, in writing, you have to reveal so much of yourself. As a JW, that's hard to do without causing hardship for yourself. If you write fiction, for example, shouldn't all the characters be JWs? There probably shouldn't be any violence, or swearing, or conflicts or actions that lend credence to non-sanctioned behaviors. I wrote one short story once, and my parents didn't like it because a character was murdered, and they thought it was wrong for me to make killing 'entertaining'. They also didn't like the sci-fi story I wrote that took place in the future, because, after all, we'd be in the paradise by then. Even when I had a blog as a JW, it was tough to straddle the line: I was often worried to write about rated-R films, or to point out something stupid a fellow JW said.
Non-fiction was also difficult: if you write about your own life, how to you objectively/creatively write about your fellow JWs without painting them in a bad light (at least some of the time)? And even if you're just writing a book about, say, growing tomato plants, you might pinched to end with "hopefully in the paradise we'll finally understand all of the tomatoes secrets".
I think I got off topic here, but, yeah, the delay is understandable; I'm glad you want to get more into writing.

Does your pot-growing friend have a blog? Can you link to it?

I'll have to watch his speech online to be certain, but I am sure he preceeded his comment about in utero pain by discussing blastocysts. So, when he compared cows to unborn humans, I assumed he was still talking about the blastocyst stage; i.e., during the fist week after conception and prior to implantation.
I am sure, if we asked him, he would agree that, say, an 8-month old fetus is just as capable of feeling pain as an adult cow.
Oh - and I would like to question Dawkins, too. unfortunately, too many people are too eager to run up to the microphone ahead of me just to hear themselves talk.

I like how there are actual wires connecting your two necks. Very post-mod'.

Oh my God, you guys - get a room.


...oh wait, you did.

Why do you keep giving him chances? Is it because at one time he happened to work with the most brilliant rock musician of our time (Linda McCartney)?

Let him go, man. Let him go.

Nothing trained me to be an apostate better than the Theocratic Ministry School.

My project's theme is going to be "Women aren't as awesome as men" My scriptural reference is going to be Genesis 1:1 - Revelation 22:21.

I think this will make a great follow-up to last year's "God hates babies" project.

Man, I don't know what to say. Not that any of it is news to me, but, you know, when you spell it all out like that, it's so tragic.

It's so impossible to believe you Dad totally shuns you. I know lots of ex-JWs and almost all of them still have some kind of relationship with ther parents. Even my Dad at least calls every few weeks and we talk about our jobs and our immediate families and home improvements and car troubles, things like that. It's so hard to believe because your dad is such a great guy, too. Part of his issue, I think, is the woman he lives with. As you know, she told my sister that, essentially, she thinks God chose your Dad for his special assignment...it's hard to find reasonableness in a woman like that. So, if it's any consolation, I really think your Dad would have a relationship with you if he wasn't married to St. Diana. Since she is not your biological mom, and didn't become your step-mom until after you were an out-of-the-house adult, she assuredly has no vested interest in your life. Too bad she influences your Dad to feel the same way.

It's also so f***ing ridiculous that he doesn't read your blog. I mean, 20 years from now, if my son maintains an online journal, you bet I'd read it. It would be a great way to see what my adult son is doing in his life, especially if we're too busy to see each other every day. I can't imagine purposely ignoring anything creative my own son would do.

I was going to say "they're your family, too", but you already cited that potential sympatheitc remark. But here's the deal: you're totally not invading. Just the fact that your grandma wrote you a letter saying she wants to see more of you is proof of that. (Have you seen the last letter I got from my grandma?) Imagine - and I hope this doesn't seem crass - that your Dad was dead. Then all your uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. would surely want to see you anytime they all got together if for no other reason than that you'd be all they had left of their former Kevin. And I know, I know, your Dad isn't realy dead. But in a way, he kind of is: he's not at their holiday celebrations, he's not at their birthdays, and he probably doesn't 'hang out' with them as a friend. So, in that way, if you were to be there for their Xmas and birthday celebrations, at least then they'd have something from that side of the family. I'm not trying to say you'd replace your Dad, but at least then everyone would think "hey, it sure is nice to have someone from that part of the family here with us today".

Well said, Keith.

Religion continues to fuck up people's lives...hopefully more commentaries like this during the next several years will tilt the balance towards common sense and love.

Is it time to cry "peace and security" yet?









How about now?

According to the Onion, Obama's campaign also bought ad space on the side of McCain's tour bus.

In the 4th picture down, it looks like Syd is holding a gun...at the airport.

"I can’t imagine what would make him hand the kid an Uzi."

...Natural selection.

Also, she's right, McCain is not Buch. I don't know what "buch" is, but I can tell you McCain is not it.

Does McCain's platform include removing "In God We Trust" from our money? Because I can't think of a better reason to base my decision on this year than some unheard of and enormously insignificant change to the paper I stick in vending machines.

I think Martha's nickname for George was "pounding father".

"Grand Orwellian Party"

...heh heh. I love applying 1984 to absolutely everything I can.

I'm not sure how that site was supposed to show if I was registered to vote. It asked my name, address and email and then it just took me to an FAQ page. Nothing ever told me if I was registered or not.

If he doesn't fix his site, I'm voting for McCain.

...And Florida governors are experts at foreign policy due to their proximity to Cuba and the Bahamas.

...And Maine governors are experts at foreign policy due to their proximity to Canada and St. Pierre.

"He's more machine now than man."

...crossing Alaska off my "Places to See Before I Die" list...

One thing that bugs me about people like Bush is that they are out of touch with 'regular' Americans. I think it's safe to assume that Bush has never pumped his own gas, or bought a loaf of bread, or turned down dinner at a restaurant with friends because he couldn't afford it. So, I actually like this woman for being 'regular'.
When Wellstone died, Ventura made a remark that he might just pick someone off the street to fill in the remainder of Wellstone's turn, and I was excited at the prospect. I think it's just fine if Palin's only been governor for two years, and if, before that, she had regular jobs.
The only way I could see being a mother would get in the way, is if she had an infant (which she does), because that takes too much time to also try running the country.

Hmm...how to respond to this without sounding like I'm just trying to make you feel better...

Nope...nothing's coming to me...

...Still nothing...

...Oh, wait:
It's funny, you know, how we (meaning all humans) simultaneously applaud and disdain differences. This occurred to me one day when, while having dinner as a teenager, my sister and I made fun of my mom for not adding sauce to her spaghetti (she just put some butter on it). Later that night, at the meeting, someone gave a talk wherein they said it will "sure be nice in the new system when everyone's the same", and I balked at his phraseology. But then I realized: hey, why was it "bad" for my mom to prefer a different style of spaghetti, and also "bad" when someone insinuated we'd all be the same one day.

Where was I going with this? Oh yes, I would agree that you qualify as "different", but you are also the same person who taught me that that was a good thing. When I look back on our youth, I am hard-pressed to provide the name of a peer who we could consider "normal"; the benchmark that determined everyone else's weirdness depending on how far they deviated from him/her. When I mention people like Rhett, Chad A., Ryan A., Bobby, Tim G., Reed, Chad L. and you and me (to name a few we both knew), I think a case can be made for each one of them that they were a typical, normal teen. Likewise, I could present evidence as to why they were among the biggest oddballs I ever knew.

Your difference, your feeling "left out", possibly also stems from your being a visionary; you always seemed to be the first one interested in something. You were the first of my friends to know about computers and you championed nerd-dom long before "geek-sheik" was coined. During the first few years when I got to know you, I got this idea that anything you were interested in was, by definition, cool. When you extolled the virtues of Hitchcock, Lennon and Mason Jennings (for example), I thought, "Well, those things must be cool if Ryan thinks they're cool". I remember Chad A. once asked me to recite the lyrics to "American Pie" for some reason, and my response was: "Well, Ryan thinks that's a dumb song", as if I was embarrassed to be a fan of something that you had publicly lambasted. (God, I love the word "lambasted".) And one day, when you were talking about "Joe and the Volcano", I thought: "Hm, I saw that movie, and I didn't think it was anything special, but I must be wrong." And when my grandma told me my cousins were taking piano lessons, I said: "Do they write their own music and record their own albums?", because, to my 16 year old self, anything else would have been lame. In fact, I think it's safe to say no one has influenced me more as to what I've read, watched and listened to besides you (well, except my wife, parents and sister, but they all have the advantage of having lived with me for years).

I'm probably totally off topic now. I don't even remember what the topic was. Man, it's great to be drunk at 10AM on a Friday.

I know several good drummers, unfortunately, they all have the same prerequisite: Their prospective band mates must agree with them on absolutely every theological point.

I'm sure you understand. It's perfectly logical.

Thanks for clearing that up - your last paragraph about physical and psychological pain makes the Buddhist route make more sense.