I read the following passage a couple of weeks ago and it has stuck with me ever since. It's kinda long but it's worth it.

From: Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

"I hope no reader will suppose that 'mere' Christianity is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of the existing communions - as if a man could adopt it in preference to Congregationalism or Greek Orthodoxy or anything else. It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose the worst of the rooms (whichever that may be) is, I think, preferable.

"It is true that some people may find they have to wait in the hall for a considerable time, while others feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at. I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait. When you do get to your room you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping. You must keep on praying for light: and, of course, even in the hall, you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and panelling. In plain language, the question should never be: 'Do I like that kind of service?' but 'Are the doctrines true: Is holiness here? Does my concience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper?

"When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house."


I like to read the last couple of sentences of a book before I read the actual book.. The end of Mere Christianity is especially good:

"Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, dispair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."

Just a little glance into the mind of Tuck...

I'm a survivor,
I'm not gonna give up
I'm not gon' stop,
I'm gonna work harder
I'm a survivor, I'm gonna make it
I will survive, keep on survivin!

I'm wishin' you the best,
pray that you are blessed
Much success, no stress, and lots of happiness

I'm better than that
I'm not gonna blast you on the radio
I'm better than that
I'm not gonna lie on you or your family
I'm better than that
I'm not gonna hate on you in the magazine
I'm better than that
I'm not gonna compromise my christianity
I'm better than that
You know I'm not gonna diss you on the internet
'Cause my mama taught me better than that

I'm a survivor,
I'm not gonna give up
I'm not gon' stop,
I'm gonna work harder
I'm a survivor, I'm gonna make it
I will survive, keep on survivin!

After all of the darkness and sadness,
soon comes happiness
If I surround myself with positive things,
I'll gain prosperity

I'm a survivor,
I'm not gonna give up
I'm not gon' stop,
I'm gonna work harder
I'm a survivor, I'm gonna make it
I will survive, keep on survivin!

I think I'm going to throw up. Soon. Just wanted to keep you informed.

You're welcome, anytime.

Letting the Cables Sleep by Bush

You in the dark
You in the pain
You on the run
Living a hell
Living your ghost
Living your end

Never seem to get in the place that I belong
Don't wanna lose the time
Lose the time to come

Whatever you say it's alright
Whatever you do it's all good
Whatever you say it's alright
Silence is not the way
We need to talk about it
If heaven is on the way
If heaven is on the way

You in the sea
On a decline
Breaking the waves
Watching the lights go down
Letting the cables sleep

Whatever you say it's alright
Whatever you do it's all good
Whatever you say it's alright
Silence is not the way
We need to talk about it
If heaven is on the way
We'll wrap the world around it
If heaven is on the way
If heaven is on the way

I'm a stranger in this town
I'm a stranger in this town

If heaven is on the way
If heaven is on the way
I'm a stranger in this town
I'm a stranger in this town

GRR it happened again. I forgot that I was still online and, since I wasn't chatting with anybody, I didn't sign off until 12:25, when Anthony IM'd me and told me what a bad Catholic I am... I'm still getting used to this...

RR it happened again. I forgot that I was still online and, since I wasn't chatting with anybody, I didn't sign off until 12:25, when Anthony IM'd me and told me what a bad Catholic I am... I'm still getting used to this...

So, I gave up AIM-after-midnight for Lent. Lent started, uhh, two days ago.

Shoot.

I already slipped. I got home tonight after Onyx House at about 12:15 and the first thing I did was sign on to AIM, completely out of habit. I was only on for about 20 seconds, though, because as soon as I realized what I was doing, I gasped out loud and signed off right away. Sorry, Jesus!

So, today is Ash Wednesday. Being fairly new to Catholicism, I'm still catching on to some of the traditions. This year is full of firsts for me. I've never had ashes smeared on my forehead for Ash Wednesday before, I've never given anything up for Lent before, and I've never fasted on Fridays during Lent before. I'm jumpin' in this year, doin' it all.

It took me a good long while to figure out something I could give up for Lent. It's not supposed to be anything that is harmful to you, such as smoking or swearing (both of which I use in excess... ha, not). It's supposed to be something that you give up as a small sacrifice to God, in order to learn to appreciate more deeply the ultimate sacrifice Christ paid for our sins.

Then, it came to me. What do I do late at night every night? Shut up, get your mind OUT of the gutter. Jeez. ... I usually stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning, chatting on Instant Messenger with friends. Often just one friend (whose favorite number is 15). So I thought about giving up AIM altogether but then I decided that was too extreme. So, in the end, I'm giving up the use of AIM after midnight every night. At 12:00 AM every day for 40 days (until Easter), I will sign off of AIM as my lenten discipline.

Being Catholic is so cool.

[SO CUTE!!]

So, my away message on Instant Messenger this evening read, "Out playing hide and seek with Osama Bin Laden. Dang he's good!" Needless to say, I got some comments, which is always entertaining. One comment in particular stood out.


Josh Kagi, upon seeing my away message, came up with a brilliant idea of how to help do away with some of our national debt. He later wrote the following in his blog:


National Debt Solution

Okay okay okay... I know the perception is out there that Republicans don't give a crap about the National Debt. Well, I do. So, in all my wisdom (with the inspiration of Melissa) I came up with an ingenues way to cut the debt in at least half.

We don't kill Osama when we capture him.

Yeah yeah yeah... I know the troops will want to light him up, and frankly I don't blame them, but they MUST resist. Why? Because we're going to put Osama on a world wide tour!

We will chain him up, set up a booth, and watch the line form.... I can see the sign now! "Kick Osama in the Balls! $10"

I'd spend hundreds! (If every American citizen paid their "portion" of the debt, it's something like $16,000 a piece). So... the Debt won't go away, but a big portion of it will be gone without cutting anything... other than Osama!

DISCLAIMER: The following is a rant. In this rant, I will address topics which may be considered controversial and will undoubtedly offend some people. However, I can write whatever the heck I want.

So.

Through a series of events tonight, it has come to my attention that there is a person who attends our stunningly diverse University of Oregon who claims to be neither a male nor a female. An undecided transgender, you might call this person, although by no means do I claim to be an expert in such terminology. For the purposes of this rant, I shall refer to this person as It.

It is accusing the Oregon Commentator (conservative paper on campus) of referring to It as he, even though It made it clear that It should be referred to using the pronoun zie, or something along those lines. You may notice that I am refraining from referring to It as zie. That is because the pronoun zie is nonexistent, unless you're using some other language, which, last time I checked... we're speaking English here.

You may ask yourself, why is this even an issue? Why the heck does anyone care? Because we are in Eugene, where issues such as these are of great concern to the predominately dirty liberal population.

In closing, I leave you with the following direct quote from Tyler Nachtman's away message:

"I have solved the problem of this gender neutral pronoun calamity. I am going to refer to everyone that wants me to refer to them in some special way as "Douche." That way I am not assuming they are male or female. I know several male "douches" and several female "douches." So if you cannot decide whether or not you are male or female, chances are you are a "douche." In fact I may just start to refer to everyone as "douche," just to be cautious, with the exception of Melissa Tucker, who of course is "the shit" and I will continue to refer to her as such. God I hate the UofO..."


As far as I know, not many liberals read my blog... but to the one who does *cough - David - cough* I can't wait to hear your comments!