I fully honor the decisions he must have made at some point NOT to follow the highly immoral role-models in Christian and Jewish scriptures. He doesn’t act on thoughts of child sacrifice that might pop into his head. He doesn’t murder his neighbors when a voice from above said that their land is now his. He doesn’t own concubines. He doesn’t own slaves. He doesn’t offer to burn his children so that God will do him a favor. He doesn’t offer his daughters to be raped by the locals in order to protect visiting male strangers from being homosexually defiled. He has never slaughtered entire races because they were simply not God’s chosen people. He doesn’t kill the first-born of an entire nation to make a point. He didn’t sacrifice his son to save the world he made…. from himself. My dad is not an egotistical, greedy faith healer or a womans health clinic bomber or a suicide-cult leader, Muslim jihadist, child-molesting priest, or a religious-fundamentalism-guided lawmaker. He shows real love and care for his family and appreciates the natural world. All these things are true because he accepts a common human ethic while rejecting the moral extremities that are often demanded by religion. Through his initial example, I have also learned these same standards, and although someone in his position is required accept these real and tangible actions as an undeniable part of God’s perfect and holy plan for our existence, his actions do not add to this list of atrocities. He is a decent human. For this, he has my respect.

Sorry to use you in my sermon, dad.

Related:
http://notetoself.net/2010/03/04/so-what-prompted-the-change-to-atheism/
http://notetoself.net/2010/03/08/a-personal-introspection-for-my-christian-friends/

P050809PS-0297, originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream.

.. but we all know our Pres is a Reformed Pastafarian and knows the true way is that of the ninja.

- Touched by His Noodly Appendage

• RSS

• Wikis

• Zombies

looks just like what happens in my room.

i imagine that it possibly happened in some of my past relationships too. (ponder ponder)

so, my thought branched to something i consciously decided several years ago when considering my personal state and what i wanted in life. i determined that i lacked one thing i needed more than anything else, confidence. my personality was “nice” but lame without confidence, and that disabled my interactions with others. i wanted to be recognized with more respect, to have the attitude that could get me whatever else i wanted. ……. fast forward, and i have it, and it’s good for me even if i may occasionally come across as an asshole.

then, now what? … what’s the next step that i choose and begin to build? i looked through my files again and my cluttered room and my hobbies and my many unpolished skills, and i instantly knew i needed focus. i know a little about alot, and i’m all for that, but i’m deciding to shift now towards fewer, more concentrated paths. what are these going to be? i have an idea, and i’m watching with all of this in mind. this will be the end of this cycle of the wave. clean out and refresh.

::EDIT::

a friend asked me about how i forced myself to get self confidence. this was my answer.

i’m trying to remember the precise moments that i consciously stepped up…. i definitely did a little focused searching (of the google type). i did some aggressive putting myself out there in challenging social situations to get used to it (speaking with the “upper class girls” without cowering, joining an improv class and several other group classes). investing myself in creative/productive groups like scul and my glitchhouse really helped me understand that i’m capable of designing and manufacturing. interacting with my role-models helped me get over some of the mental block that they’re somehow in an unreachable class of human. contemplating the insignificance of humanity in relation to the universe really helps calm my social insecurities. i’ve been observing and pondering what motivates people in various circumstances. from that, i’ve started consciously manipulating (not in a bad way, really) situations to get what i want. i even practiced facial expressions with a video camera to understand what others see. i, at first, saw myself as embarrassingly affected. i’ve unlearned some of those annoying traits, and i’ve gotten over most of the others since i know that everyone has some.

i think the one most valuable exercise i’ve found is to always be aware of my image when around others. i’m constantly developing control of my presence. i look in the eye of the person whose attention i want, and i give a smug (read “confident”) smile and shake their hand with purpose. whether or not this image is truly what i think it is, i feel like it’s honest, and people don’t seem to question it.

i’m thinking of taking some “communications” related classes soon. maybe i’ll be a vlogger someday. ; )

Bryan, I guess it’s my turn to come visit.

It seems to me that the opponents of this plan are stuck with their party’s generally held ideals that they will be made to pay for the failure of others, when they must realize that they as well will go down with the sinking ship unless we act together very soon.

The new window management features are intuitive and VERY helpful. I would like to see them on my OSX 10.5.6 machine. (catch up, Apple!) It is definitely running faster than Vista at this point (on the same hardware), but I haven’t installed many apps yet. The newly simplified security management controls are much easier to understand and work through. More sections of the desktop have informative right-clickable menus and are more directly customizable than before.

I won’t say yet than I’m a fanboy, but it really does feel solid and looks pretty attractive. (giving Aqua a run) It’s obvious that they took some interface concepts from Apple while giving users more options to customize.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

Thank you, Google. That was not evil.

Apple. please let us connect to more than one Exchange server. Anyone who would also like this ability, please let Apple know here. http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html