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Monday, April 30, 2007

Gnashing of Teeth Cannot Be Far Off

PBS TV Stations to Air Three-Part Documentary on Atheism. The series, premiering on public television on May 4, is titled A Brief History of Disbelief. Here's a short promotional YouTube video for this series, which I have no doubt will be a hatchet job on Christianity.


Is it just me, or does that list of sponsors and their descriptions leave you cold? But, they failed to mention the most important sponsor - Satan. I suppose that goes without saying. Still, this glaring omission really should be corrected. Hmmm. Can one get sued for altering a YouTube video?...

Christianity is being assailed at an exponentially increasing rate. I see it. I know it's happening. But yet, it's hard to believe, really grasp, the depth to which this world has sunk. I fear it will be soon enough before the reality becomes more than just something to blog about.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Clothes - Just Another Necessity

Unlike many women, fashion and fashion trends hold very little importance for me. What is this season's trend? Short, long, knee-length dresses, skirts, pants? I don't know and I don't care. I have always had my own style. And shopping for clothes is a despised chore. Mother loved to shop and would often buy my clothes as she knew I couldn't be bothered with it. This is not to say that I am a fashion dud. I know how to dress for the occasion and very tastefully at that.

To look upon my wardrobe, one would get the impression that several very different women are residing here. My clothes run the gamut from very conservative, black, wool, knee-length business suits to black, leather mini-skirts. There is one prominent theme in my clothing - black.

I must have 20 different black skirts, a whole slew of black tops and sweaters, all kinds of black dresses and suits, 20 pairs of black heels, sandals and boots. You get the picture. I like black. And white. Lots of white stuff too. And all the neutral colors in between, like taupe and grey. There are also the odd red and yellow pieces, which look good on me. Pastels do nothing for me. And mostly solids. I'm not big on prints at all. Although, there is one sleeveless black dress with little, slightly raised, white polka-dots that I just love. It has no buttons, zippers, nothing. I throw it over my head and voila! It looks great. I can run to the store in it or dress it up with accessories like a white belt, a string of pearls, red high-heels and purse for a casual, chic look. And it's made out of this thin stretchy, clingy material that never gets wrinkled. Balled up, it fits entirely in my little hand.

As convenient as this material is, it's not natural and I like natural. Give me wool, angora, cotton, cashmere, silk, linen, leather, suede - any animal skin. Raw silk is so nice for summer wear. Linen wrinkles just by looking at it, but I love it anyway.

My favorite winter coat was given to me by my mother. It's a long, grey cashmere coat from Italy with an absolutely beautiful cut. I will wear it forever. Don't need or want another. When it rains, my classic trench coat is waiting in the entrance closet . On those days, for running errands, it's quite convenient to just throw it on and not worry about what I have or don't have on underneath.

I have some pieces of clothes that I've had so long that they're like old friends. One of my favorite sweaters is a grey, Shetland wool, with a big, floppy turtleneck - had it since I was a Freshman in high school. There's another sweater from Argentina that was my mother's back from when she was in her early twenties. I like the classic styles and those never go out of style. And I like quality clothing which last a lot longer than cheap clothing.

Now, shoes are an entirely different matter. I can wear a brand-new pair of shoes just a few times and they will look like they've been through some natural disaster. I have no idea how this happens. The leather on the heels gets all messed up - like I stepped on teeny land mines. If they're made of suede or some delicate material - forget it. Thus, I do not buy very expensive shoes. But whatever style of shoe, boot or sandal I buy, it will always have very high heels or platforms. I'm 5'6" but when I'm out and about, unless I'm in my tennis shoes, I'll be looming over most people at the very minimum of 5'10". It fits my personality...

Stockings, as shoes, have a very short lifespan with me. By the end of the day, my stockings will often appear as if I've been attacked by a pack of wolves - sometimes getting runs even before I leave the house. I don't have luck with stockings.

I dress according to my mood and that varies greatly. This girl, back when I worked at an office, commented to me that she liked the way I dressed, but said that what really impressed her was how different my outfits were from one day to the next. Yep. One day I'd feel like a simple knee-length dress, the next day, blue jeans and a sweater, the next day, a suit, the next day, mini-skirt and leggings, the next day, dressy, linen slacks and a crisp, white, cotton, button-down shirt. One never knew.

Software engineers didn't have to follow any specific dress code. Although, one day we had a meeting and they gave out a dress code. A co-worker, who frequently wore mid-thigh, baggy shorts, which were now not allowed according to this new dress code, immediately complained, "But Taylor's skirts are shorter than my shorts!" Heh. Nobody paid any attention to her...

At home now, living alone, I dress very casually and am always barefoot. If I've worn my tennis shoes and socks too long after finishing my workout, my feet will feel like they're suffocating. At most, if it's cold, I will put on some socks.

Right now, I'm in a pair of maroon velvet pants and a black, sleeveless, cashmere turtleneck sweater - very comfy. The way it's going with me working from home and never getting out, I figure that I have all the clothes that I'll ever need and that's just fine with me.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

VT Afterthoughts

What thoughts I have regarding the Virginia Tech massacre have already been posted or spoken by many others and in a more articulate manner than I ever could so I see no point in reiterating. I agree with the intelligent thinkers. I wouldn't know, but I can guess, what the libs think (and I use the term loosely) because I don't waste my time reading or listening to their bilge. This includes avoiding the predictable MSM propaganda, which has not been easy.

The most disturbing aspect of this incident was not the psycho's actions. Psychos, by definition, are expected to behave outside the norm. We know they exist. We know they can be very dangerous. And we know there is nothing that can be done to prevent another determined psycho from going on a similar rampage. What disturbed me most were the reactions of the students, more aptly, their non-reactions. I'm reminded of 9/11. Scared shitless, young, strong, able-bodied men allowed one, ONE! untrained lunatic to calmly walk around and take them out like he was at target practice.

I blame our culture, shaped (deformed) by liberalism and feminists, for producing this generation of young men - men who play tough warriors in virtual reality but are impotent little cowards in reality.

While we have been blessed (so far) in this country to live in tranquility, we should be prepared to fight and defend ourselves and each other whenever necessary. Instead of promoting promiscuity by teaching our children to put condoms on a cucumber, classes in self-defense are what our schools should be offering our children. After all, you can't have safe sex if you're dead. But then you wouldn't have dependent and manipulable morons if you taught them to be self-reliant.

It is becoming painfully obvious that our enemies have nothing to fear.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Paraskevidekatriaphobia Anyone?

That little word means the fear of Friday the 13th. Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. Here's some info about the origins of these superstitions. And from another site:

Friday the 13th phobia has its roots in the early days of Christianity. There were 13 people at Christ's Last Supper before his captivity, and then He was crucified on a Friday. Since number 13 is regarded as an ominous and unlucky. The latest example of ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission, which was, aborted en route to the moon in 1970 because of a fuel cell in the service module. The flight left the launching pad at 13 minutes after the hour on April 13.In China also, 13 was regarded as a number of obstacles.

In the ancient religion of Mexico, number 13 were considered the most fortunate number- since it symbolizes the Sun, the male and positive energy. In the Cabala, 13 are not regarded as unlucky. In the second book of the Moses, one can study of the 13 attributes of God (Exodus34: 6-7). In numerology, it is a number of practical, alert, and intelligent. Those born on this date are very successful in scientific research and development. Their interests in religion and philosophy can bring them great fame and siddhis/ riddhis (powers that are believed to be supernatural)

Are you more adamant about your fear of number 13? Would you consider living on floor marked 13 in unit 13? Most of the scientist world does not offer you any solid proof, but stating it is simply a superstition phobia. For centuries, the scary combination of Friday the 13 has portended misfortune to many across this world. The number 13 by itself have led many high-rise buildings to number of their floors 12 to 14. Although the West is famous for scientific technological wizardry and education, the number 13's superstition still has a powerful hold on many aspects of everyday life. It seems to be that even concern authorities and governments recognize the power of this number and willing to bend the rules. Perhaps numbers do have their strengths.

I suffer from neither of these phobias nor have I ever been superstitious. I'm not sure about luck either, although I have known some people who seemed to be either extremely lucky or unlucky. These concepts are totally un-Christian and illogical. What's up with breaking a mirror? Seven years of bad luck? That's an awfully harsh sentence just for being clumsy. I do believe that we can psyche ourselves out and influence an outcome because of a strong belief - ergo the placebo effect.

There are groups of people who appear to be particularly superstitious. Sports figures and sailors immediately come to mind.

Superstitions are an attempt to have some control over what happens to us, realizing how truly powerless we are to influence events that could make our lives either very happy or very unhappy. At best we can control ourselves. Everything else is seemingly up in the air. I have no idea whether all things that occur to us are random or controlled by some divine equation of reality.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

SBD: Stupid Bitch Diplomacy


Wednesday, April 4, 2007

A Shrouded Mystery

Earlier, as I was channel surfing, I ran across the last half hour of a presentation on some Christian channel. They were talking about the Shroud of Turin.

This historical and controversial artifact has always fascinated me. The facts presented on the show certainly make a good case for the shroud being an authentic mystery as yet unexplained by science. Even the Carbon-14 dating that they performed in the 1988 scientific study of the shroud, which dated it only to Medieval times, has now been proven to be inaccurate.

A website I just found, The Shroud of Turin Story, appears to contain a great deal of objective information about the shroud and regarding this Carbon-14 dating, it says:
Then in 2005, two scientists, working independently with different technologies, showed that those tests were wrong. Both found that the radiocarbon dating was performed on a repaired section of the cloth: a mixture of older and newer threads. There was enough newer material to skew the results by a dozen or so centuries. Moreover, micro-chemical findings clearly showed that the shroud is much, much older. The Shroud of Turin could be 2000 years old.
Also, according to a forensic pathologist, the image on the shroud is consistent with a man who suffered all that what we know our Lord Jesus suffered. Here is a site which has a report similar to that which the pathologist on the show presented: An Autopsy on the Man of the Shroud.

Here's something new to me that I learned from The Shroud of Turin Story site. The face on the shroud is not actually as gaunt as it appears. This is an optical illusion caused by "random plaid patterns in the cloth". The illusion is explained here. The images below show the face without filtering and with filtering to remove the plaid.


Non-Christians will write off The Shroud of Turin as a hoax, of course (but we ALL know that the pyramids had to have been built by aliens from outer space ). And Christians don't need any such object as proof of our risen Lord. Yet, it does lead one to wonder. Did God leave behind one last piece of evidence of His Son's first visit to Earth?

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Now I Know

Your Brain is 27% Female, 73% Male


You have a total boy brain

Logical and detailed, you tend to look at the facts

And while your emotions do sway you sometimes...

You never like to get feelings too involved


What Gender Is Your Brain?

The Keys to Your Heart


You are attracted to obedience and warmth.

In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored.

You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was insecure and in constant need of reassurance.

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.


What Are The Keys To Your Heart?