WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BLOG?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?F:KJS LKFJ;djklsadg;lkasjafas;ogie;roitje;rlgjnsd/klbnma/d;lknj'

Looking for criticism of religion in all the wrong places

While preparing my last comment for my prior post, I came across this. And in my mind, simply because Uncyclopedia is an internet satire, it isn't a place I'd be actively looking on my weekly religion crit hunt.

It caught me off guard. Anybody else have any good examples of accidental religious nya nya nya?

This is where we live.

Does anyone else think "World AIDS Day" sounds a little cheery for what it's supposed to be recognizing? Call me a crazy, cynical asshole, but I swear it sounds celebratory.

Ideas for the blog

Hey all,
So this thing has been around for a little bit, and aside from the little hiccup with the ads, I think it's been going relatively well.

I HOPE YOU AGREE.

At any rate, I've been messing around with the layout and the various sidebars. Today I added the RSS stuff at the bottom and the post history on the right. check it out.

One other idea that I had that maybe some people could provide some input on is whether or not we should get a full domain for this thing. It's $10 a year, and familylearningchannel.com is open. $10 isn't too much to really put a damper on the plans, but I thought I'd get some input from you guys before I did it anyways.

If we did that though, maybe we could try the ads again. I think the sex-based ones were primarily because of the semi-sex-based nature of the blog itself.

Lastly, and certainly not leastly, I really would like to hear from you guys if there's anything you want for this thing. Seriously.

I still don't believe you.

Urbandictionary is a vile place full of lying stupid idiots.

Relief never felt so goddamned relieving

This thing has very seriously been sitting on my desk/table since I originally mentioned it nearly two monthsago , although I'm pretty sure it did very little to motivate me. I've submitted my online applications and application fees; today I went to the post office twenty minutes before it closed to get my Penn State application stuff overnighted. Tomorrow I just have to take my Michigan envelopes to the post office and send them off. Next week I have to figure out why my boss hasn't submitted her online letter of recommendation yet, and then it will be smooth sailing until it's acceptance/rejection letter time in March or April. I can breathe again.

I have applied to the University of Michigan and the Pennsylvania State University because they are the only two schools in the country that offer joint Ph.D. programs in Psychology and Women's Studies. I was going to apply to a California school or two, but none of them were a good fit. Even Berkelely, the only UC to offer a Ph.D. program in clinical psychology, just didn't feel right. Their program is much more empirical-research-based and less practice-focused. I didn't get to apply to Wright State University like I had planned because I discovered, at the last minute, that they require the GRE Psychology Subject Test, which I have not taken (because I thought I had checked and that none of my schools required it). I have been considering applying to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln because they have a good program and because applying to three schools will make me feel better than applying to two, but I just don't feel as good about it as I do about Michigan and Penn. Do I really want to live in Nebraska? Could I be happy there? At this point, I seriously doubt the answer to either of those questions could ever be "yes" or even "maybe, sort of?".

So. The enormous weight that I have been carrying on my shoulders and in my stomach for over a year has been lifted, and it will have fallen off completely by December 5th, which is the later of the two deadlines. I just felt like writing this out. I'll refer back to this when I'm writing my tirades about getting in or not getting in to grad school, and I'll have a nice little chain of blog entries past to which I can link.

Also good news: all of my student loans have successfully been put into forbearance, at least while I'm doing AmeriCorps. Now I get to re-learn what it's like to live without the constant nagging pressure of worry and dread. I'm unbelievably excited for the holidays. Too excited to even criticize the Puritan assholes who founded this country.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It's just like Rock Band, except the instruments are real!!!!

I don't really know anything about Rush except that their music is pretty weird, and they have that one song that's in Rock Band. It's kind of cool to watch them play it for reals. Also, the interview is funny.

roflpwn

cool images part ii

these are fantastic.

cool images

I especially like "liberty and justice" on the illustration/stock page.

Oh Abortion, how I love your never-ending controversy.

No God for you, silly Obama voter!
Did someone say something about the separation of church and state?
Seriously?

Ancient Rome in Google Earth

Short post, got to get to work soon, but this came through the trucks (FUCK sorry I meant the tubes) a few days ago, and I thought it worth mentioning.

Check it.

when your best defense is a strobe light attached to your sword?

Ashley and I discovered this: What do Napoleon, Lenin, and Caesar have in common?

Other than being megalomanicas who were a little bit batshit crazy, they all (probably) had epilepsy. It's an impressive list, actually.

An Excellent Punch at Religion

Leftism Versus Liberalism

I was having an argument with a co-worker the other day. It went something like this:

Co-worker: I believe that countries with socialist governments are better off.
Me: A reasonable thesis, what are your metrics? (I proceed to pull up the HDI by the UN)
Co-worker: Well, there are really liberal countries like Norway -
Me: Wait, don't say 'liberal.' Socialism isn't liberal.
CW: Sure it is.
Me: No, socialism might be a leftist ideology, but it sure as hell isn't liberal.
CW: What do you mean?
Me: Well, countries with socialist governments typically have to tax more, which isn't a liberal idea, and a lot of the time they also have to engage in protectionism.
CW: That is being liberal...

So, the conversation diverged and we both decided that the office wasn't a great place to have a political discussion, but I thought I might bring it up here. The left has some great ideas, and I understand why a lot of people get the two confused. But make no mistake, Liberalism is not Leftism.

I've had this discussion with Scott, who, for all his merits, is a Leftist. Liberalism I believe can best be currently summarized by the primary tenet of individuals rights. For this reason, I think we can generalize the Constitution as a liberal document, as (at least the way I have interpreted it) that was its primary focus. Many of the founding fathers did also agree with me verbally on this.

Here are some things that I see as being leftist but not liberal:
• Regulations on Free Trade
• Government Mandatory Union Laws
• Social Security
to name a paltry few. I'm not anti-Union, you might note, and I don't think of myself as a perfect liberal. I do like to think that I try to think about individual's rights when I decide if an idea is worth supporting though...

And what better time to discuss all this than on the heels of one of the most leftist idea's I've seen in a long time. Obama thinks it's a good idea to require high school and college students to work a minimum amount of hours in community service. Hearing this idea made me cringe. America needs a socialist president right now. With the economic recession around the corner and the effects looming, public works are going to be the lifeblood of the country in the coming years. That said, it sickens me to hear that he proposes what is essentially a draft. America was built on the individual's drive for merit. The individual must be given a choice to succeed or fail. Obviously it's not that cut and dry, but the idea is a relative one. To take advantage of the environment and brain that you have been given by 'god' (because I still don't know how we select what body we're put into) or to accept the status quo and allow ones self to be consumed by mere existence. I don't believe humans are destined for any particular situation, but I think the path is clear. Upwards and onwards, so to speak.

No, I will not engage in any nihilistic arguments.

I think the timing of this is doubly interesting as Amanda just posted on Ayn Rand. I think Rand can espouse the individual bullshit I've been talking about here way better than I, and likewise Nietzsche over Rand.

Anyways, discuss further in the comments. I'd like to know what you guys think of all this, especially since I happen to know we're all at least marginally Obama supporters.

Oh, and for the record, I think I'm currently closest to Libertarian.

Photographs. Again. :)

Leaves in my driveway.

I recently got a new camera. It's pretty awesome. (A Nikon D90, for any inclined to research.)

These are kinda in the opposite order of how I wanted them. And this top one is just rebellious? . . . Blogger is a dick, I guess.

I'm really looking forward to next semester when I'll be taking a photography class. I'm excited to actually learn how to do this and get some feedback. Some of these are from before I had my new camera. I'd be interested to see if the quality difference is noticeable to any of you . . .

Winston. He's quite photogenic.

Ginger. 

A really cool pink bus I found around the Dayton area. 

Sharon Woods.

Some graffiti. Along the wall where I found the pink bus.

Leaves in my yard. I'm a sucker for leaves.

One of those fantastic moments of being in the right place at the right time.  This was at Sharon Woods on top of a little waterfall. 

Carmel, California.

Point Lobos, California.

Point Lobos, California.

Point Lobos, California.

Alcatraz Island.

Golden Gate Bridge. As you probably guessed.

Point Lobos, California. Another one of those moments. Dave can attest to how awesome these guys were.

Point Lobos, California.

I had to be the first . . .

 . . . to thank Ohio for not fucking up this time.

Y'all better VOTE, bitches.

Also, free coffee @ Starbucks.