Somebody must be reading my brain. (Though I would argue that the Catholic church has produced several products, many of them perhaps unintended...)

Seriously, the salvation I intend to be preaching is going to be a significantly better product, will cost a lot more, may actually ship, and will need to be able to compete with that deadly combination of intensely strong marketing and a glimmering, appealing product that requires no tech support.

I'm having difficulty figuring out a marketing scheme.

lyrics:
Freedom of Choice - A Perfect Circle
Let's Have a War - A Perfect Circle

colors: grey with rainbows

mood: okay. procrastinatey, sluggish

chant/prayer/mantra: all hail the almighty 'product'


pax hominibus,
joel

from: Noah [xhwczk@comosoft.de]

subject:
repeal

body:
shawl
So, creating whole doors out of glass should not be so difficult. All other committments are exempted.
It's interesting that I would get an email from Noah, seeing how he's been playing a minor role in the latest events in my life, including the new Clutch album I recently got in SF.

lyrics:
"Break the glass ceiling and golden parachute on down
The power of the Holy Ghost comes to town
Shadow of the New Praetorian
Tipping cows in fields Elysian
Saturnalia for all you have
The seven habits of the highly infected calf."
-Clutch, Burning Beard

colors: soft pink, orange, white

mood: slo-mo

chant/prayer/mantra: Better get busy.


pax hominibus,
joel

Hello.

This post is going to be about why what happened in Arizona last night (the voters there successfully defeated that state's proposed amendment to deny rights to people who are attracted to others of the same sex) is necessarily exemplary of the future.

From my glossary:
damnation – the act of causing something or someone to diminish in energy or to no longer be in existence

salvation – the process by which a spirit or material item in the world is salvaged, or its existence is continued or given greater energy

Given those definitions, when something or someone is damned, it is to cease to exist, or be greatly diminished in power. For Earth to turn into Heaven, there are certain spirits and practices that MUST fall by the wayside. Those who create human laws that discriminate unnecessarily against others MUST be no more.

Does this mean that the people who vote to keep same-sex couples from having equal rights will physically have a trap door appear under them and they'll disappear? With several million people denied rights in 7 states last night, many might wish the trapdoor scenario on them, I certainly hope that doesn't happen.

My plan is that the unloving teachings, and the people who have been following them, will change - not just their opinions, but their very self-identities. The current Christian identity that caused this travesty will become a memory fading in the distance, and those left behind with the old Christian identity will stand out like a sore thumb. Because our collective salvation depends on it, Christianity WILL change, and will wonder how they made a mistake like this.

In the meantime, some people are suffering.


lyrics: NPR talking, talking, and talking...

colors: Light

mood: gotta hurry

chant/prayer/mantra: the best way to predict the future is to predict it.


pax hominibus,
joel

Okaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy............. Yep. Today at the polls, a majority of the voters in Wisconsin (my old home state) passed an amendment written to severely abridge the freedoms of some people in their state.

Most of those who voted Yes to the question "Shall section 13 of article XIII of the constitution be created to provide that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state and that a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state?" did so because they believe their Christian faith calls on them to do so. Then again, perhaps the problem is that there was a bit of confusion about this amendment proposal (click here, and search on "wording confusion". E.g. - "I voted yes. Was that right? The way it was set up was very confusing. But a friend of mine told me to vote 'yes.' ")

I have some very good friends committed to each other for the long-term whose lives together are going to be strongly impacted in a very negative way, because of the section in red above. To me, these friends exhibit the values of Christ in a way that millions of voters don't understand. In fact, I'd dare say that one of my friends has more Christ in her pinky finger than some Christian churches I've been to, but if you ask her about it, she'd just be all salty about it.

I looked Jesus in the face a few minutes ago, and He just looked away, but I couldn't tell whether it was because of shame or disgust.

lyrics:
"I'm still waiting, yeah, I'm still waiting, and I'm still waiting...
Until REAL Christmas arrives,
With REAL Christians,
With light in their eyes."
-Personal, Unreleased

colors: Red, White, Bluish

mood: mixed. it's nice that the accelerator will be pressed down slightly less now that the the House has flipped over, but I have a feeling that we're going to have another Diebold-influenced (or other unchecked vote-fraud-affected) close race in Missouri, Virginia, or Montana, and we know what that means.... My prediction: one of the three last Senate seats goes to a republican and it's contested, but upheld by the supreme court (or corporate pressure via the media). That makes the senate 50 dems and 50 repubs, and would make Dick Cheney the deciding vote on any partisan split votes. Imagine Dick Cheney getting to be the deciding vote on whether he and Bush get the impeachment vote, for example. And given the recent history on recusal when conflict of interests arise, Cheney would not recuse himself, and vote himself a raise instead, via handouts to his favorite energy corporations. I am not sure if I'm sorry about being so pessimistic.

Cheney!!! (Remember to turn off those lights around the house, friends.) BTW, when I was a boy scout, the first achievement award I earned was the Conservation Skill Award.

chant/prayer/mantra: To clarify, my definition of the word "damn" is different than many others. I'll explain it in full detail sometime, but don't jump to any conclusions about what I mean by that title above. But if you're the type that's worried about God damning you, perhaps sweating for a little while might be just what the doctor ordered.


pax hominibus, (eventually!!!)
joel

Tomorrow is election day. I saw the price of gas as low as $2.27 today, down from above $3 a few months ago.

I've had my suspicions, but this(also linked above), and this help clarify what's going on behind the scenes...

1. Major financial player Goldman Sachs is trading petroleum futures at a loss to drive prices down.
2. The Saudi oil producers are producing extra petroleum to drive prices down.
3. American oil companies have made SO MUCH $$ in profit the last few years that they can afford to have a month or two of losing money (or more likely, gaining money with relatively slim profit margins).

Perhaps the professional pollsters and psychologists have already figured out that the effect of gas prices on individual pocketbooks is actually a secret major voting factor... I wonder, America. I wonder where you stand. Corrupt voting tactics aside, are issues of welfare, environment, liberty, and peace as important to you at the polls as the price of gas? After seeing those people picketing gas stations for lower gas prices a few months back, I am left wondering how we got here. No, I think I have a fair understanding of how we got here.

In any case, it will be interesting to see a graph of the average price of gas from June to December of 2006. [emoticon: sardonic]

lyrics:
So I'm born again for the last time
One last stand for this dying man
can we get a round of sympathy
I think it's too late he was never forward or straight
much like the one watching over me
Dizzy with greed now you've got everything you need
as you cling to the one who stands second to none.
-Corrosion of Conformity, Born Again for the Last Time

colors: cornflower blue, and oil-slick rainbow

mood: procrastinatey

chant/prayer/mantra: keep cleaning up. i went to a wonderful museum yesterday with a rock star (who shall remain anonymous) and his family. in one room, there were some 17th-century mirrors on the wall, and i noticed that while they were good enough to see if your hair was combed straight, they looked pretty dingy. today's mirrors, when cleaned so they're not covered in toothpaste flecks, are much more accurate in their reflection. i am thinking that as we have progressed into the information age, the mirror humanity holds up to itself has become more accurate, so that now we can see the human condition more accurately than ever before. then again, we've also been able to manipulate that perfectly reflective mirror (think of the curved clown-like mirrors), so that it magnifies the parts we want to see, and occludes the parts that might be less savory for viewing. perhaps our job as global ministers is to bend that mirror so its as flat as euclid would have it, and to provide all the necessary pastoral care to help people cope with what they see.

of course, we all bend our own personal mirrors as well, and that's probably related as a precursor to the issue directly above.

huh, that post got kind of hijacked from oil prices to mirrors - i think i might be seeing art in a different way lately..


pax hominibus,
joel

We really aren't all that smart in our choices of things to watch out for. (See link above.)


pax hominibus,
joel

A couple college youths stopped by yesterday evening to sell us some books. They were so sweet. I invited them in and we chatted a bit while I picked out a few books that fit. While I was looking through the books I was half-boggled by the goofiness of the process. Each book had a certain number of credits attached to it, and each credit got them a certain amount closer to a thousand dollar scholarship toward UC-Berkeley. And each credit cost some number of dollars, a number which was a bit obfuscated, I'd assert.

In the end, I think I bought about a hundred and fifty bucks worth of books, but they'll turn out handy, I'm certain.

lyrics:

Cloud hands reaching from a rainbow
Tapping at the window touch your hair

So swift and bright
Strange figures of light
Float in air

Who can stop what must arrive now?
Something new is waiting to be born

Crazy Fingers, by the Grateful Dead

colors: grey-green

mood: eh.

chant/prayer/mantra: make.


pax hominibus,
joel

No, not my grade-school paper route for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The last couple days I've been reading about the Cyrus Cylinder, and the biblical books of Nehemiah and Ezra. After all that reading, I think I am moving King Cyrus of Persia up near the top of my list of people I'd like to meet.

Anyway, now I need to write about it to get a little grading and make up for a so-so performance on the midterm.

lyrics:
I've fixed your favorite dishes
Hopin' this good food fills ya
Work my hands to the bone in the kitchen alone
You better eat if it kills ya.
-Cab Calloway, Everybody Eats when they Come to My House

colors: grey, cerulean blue

mood: sleepy

chant/prayer/mantra: dig in and write.


pax hominibus,
joel