ittmi

I'd like to wish everybody a happy holidays, but that would be bad grammar.

To anybody who is Jewish, Muslim, atheist, or otherwise not Christian, have a nice day off. Sit back with a glass of the finest egg nog, and quickly spit it out because it's no tastier this time of year than any other time. Also, let the Christians enjoy their holiday. I've been wishing Christians a happy Hanukkah(while it was Hanukkah), so the mis-matching of holiday wishes is taken care of for the opposite direction. I did this with my pastor, some other folks, and a guy that regularly uses "Jew" in a negative connotation.

And to any Christians, of course have a merry Christmas, sit back with a glass of the finest egg nog, and quickly spit it out because it's no tastier this time of year than any other time, blessed or unblessed. Also, let the businesses be too politically correct, as you're not their only customers. If the court house won't have a nativity scene in front of it, put one in front of your house. In my opinion, being mad about a government building not having a nativity scene or the 10 Commandments is like being mad about McDonald's not putting them up either. Neither's purpose is to promote a specific religion.


...I'm still programmed to be offended any time I hear "Happy holiday(s)", blegh.
Oh look! Christmas wrapping is done! I haven't examined any of my presents because I know it's a cheapie thing that is taking money away from the utilities. Nothing to get too eager about. I want to be able to afford to give somebody an iPod for Christmas. I'd like to GET an iPod for Christmas! Preferably, I'd prefer to not bother with presents. Really, who knows what someone else wants? Just get something nice for yourself and I'll get something nice for myself. Let's give each other a twenty and call it good.

This video sheds light on some misconceptions people have about Christmas. It's professionally-made by a company that makes videos for churches, and it's very well-thought-out. Anybody familiar with Christmas, not just Christians, will appreciate this video.

I tend to work at places that openly wish their customers a "Merry Christmas". I'm always prepared to offer a "Happy Hannukkah" to someone if they're Jewish. One day, somebody responded to my "Merry Christmas" with "I don't celebrate Christmas". I wasn't prepared for that, for some reason. I think I just wished him a nice day, like any other day(or maybe a happy December?). Now I'm thinking I should respond to that with "Happy Festivus, then".
Yeah, it's not totally widely-known, mostly by Seinfeld fans, but Festivus IS for the rest of us. If he's aware of Festivus, I might have gotten a laugh.

I'm trying to deal with my hateful co-worker, but when nearly everything she says to me is an insult, it's very hard. I try to be nice to her, but she won't be nice to me. I really don't know why she hates me so much. As far as she knows, I'm a heterosexual Caucasian Christian(like her), so I see no possibility of prejudice. I try to only say positive things to her, but if she or someone else blames me for something she did, I have to take the blame off of me. Maybe if I had offered to clean up the stuff she accidentally dropped on the floor, that could have prevented the argument we had tonight, if that was indeed a seed for our spat. I would have mentioned, "I'm not the one that dropped this on the floor, but I'll go ahead and pick it up anyway.", just so there's no blame on me.
What I said COULD be interpreted as an insult, but I was giving an accurate description of how her blaring music makes me feel. I accept that she likes that music, but she doesn't accept that it's annoying to me.

My manager is going to have a chat with us, probably tomorrow. I need to prepare for this so nothing's left out. I want to make it clear to her that I AM trying to be nice to her, but she's making it hard to do or not acknowledging my good intentions. She either thinks I'm stupid or is just using that as an insult. It's just her perception.

I'm looking for ways to be friends with her, whether she likes it or not. One way I figure is finding out what movies she likes. I know we both liked Bolt. We can relate on some movies, I'm sure.
I might ask her if she hates any of my favorite genres of music. I accept that she loves Country. Fine. I love electronica, parodies and heavy metal. If she hates any of those genres, I can certainly accept it. I also SORTA like old country music. They have fewer of the cliches today's country music has, like always mentioning a truck, a dog, alcohol, or having an overabundance of patriotism. The things I hate most about Country music, in addition to those cliches, is the over-done country accent, overabundance of violin or honky-tonk guitar, and a heavy religious theme. CLASSIC country music has none or very little of these aggravations. I should mention that Willie Nelson is good in my opinion.

I wish I was more in touch with emotions. I'm WAY too logical. I'm never offended with the truth. Yes, I'm short, so what? I stutter a little? I agree. I rarely talk? Yeah, although this co-worker would like that. I try not to talk to her as a result. I definitely rarely show emotion unless I'm angry. I don't smile that much. I've tried smiling more, but it's hard around her, and around my fast food job. I do need to find a better-fitting job, but my lack of ambition is a problem as well. Depression will do that to a person.

If you have a zen method of dealing with hateful co-workers, let me know.

<emo style="bleh">
Right now I should be finished with a project I have just barely started. Instead I've been dicking around Second Life and now I'm typing this journal. I really lack ambition in general. Those jobs I was planning on applying to? Still haven't applied. Still complacent with minimum wage when I have great technical skills. I should just go out and grab a nice job. Yeah, let me sleep on it for another year. Not even this Monster energy drink helps. If anything, it brings my energy up to a normal level. I just want to sleep all the time. I never feel like getting out of bed, even though my bed isn't that comfortable. Can someone literally be bored to death? I might manage it.
Maybe I should get a job where I get to ride thrill rides. Maybe if I had a job that made me feel useful, I'd have some ambition. Maybe just a higher-paying job will bring me out of this funk.
I'm 26 and I still live with my mom. We're behind on various bills. I hate this house. Mom's tolerable, but handy to have around. When your clothes get washed while you're sleeping in, that's very nice.

Maybe this is what it feels like to have had a dementor suck your soul out. Really I've been like this for maybe 8 years.

I think being dangled by the tail would be kinda fun right now, but I know it would only last for a few moments, then I'd be back to depressed.
</emo>
 
Livejournal: the free psychologist

A teenage co-worker asked me today if I'm a virgin. I told her that's too personal of a question. She didn't see why, & assumed I'm not. She assumed I'm NOT because I refused to answer? I'm flattered, but I'm a 27 year old guy. If I refuse to answer the question "are you a virgin?", that would normally mean yes. Although what I actually meant was, "It's really none of your fuckin' business. Why are you asking, jailbait?".

I'm quite happy that I haven't risked getting STDs or spawned a child that I have to look over for at least 18 years. 

"I can't think of a kid belonging to a religion any more than I can think of them as belonging to a political party. They aren't grown enough to know better." -Fisk Black, from Original Life, drawn by Jay Naylor.

From today's comic, as Fisk and his wife are discussing the grandmother wanting to take the kids to the synagogue.

I found this article very worth sharing. The original page is located at http://avijit.humanists.net/article/top_10_atheist_myths.htm

The Top 10 Atheist Myths

by Dave Silverman

As I have said many times before, the purpose of this column is not to promote the "us vs. them" mentality against the theists, rather to promote understanding and tolerance.

However, we all know that many theists are so closed-minded about us that they won't even talk to us, let alone try to understand us. This is usually not their fault, as they are told terrible things about us by people they trust, their preachers, whose whole livelihood depends on their parishioners staying in the flock.

It is this prejudice and conflict which is one of the main factors keeping atheists in the closet and theists in ignorance. With dialogue, not prejudice, both sides will benefit and the country will become a freer place. In this article I will therefore mention many of the myths about atheists that are popular among theists, as well as my usual responses. With any luck, this will prepare atheists for future confrontations and therefore make them more confident to announce themselves, as well as allow theist readers to better understand the atheist mentality.

( Myth #1....... )

(original article located at http://avijit.humanists.net/article/top_10_atheist_myths.htm)

True story. I drew this right after it happened.
After a reload, it did play, but didn't say anything to the effect of God existing. Instead, it explained why the phrase "God created evil, therefore God is evil" is wrong. It also attributed the explanation to a famous person who never said it(source: a plethora of comments stating this). It also popped ads over the subtitles(not the video's fault).

Link to the video

This drawing reminds me of earlier this month when I was up late working on a church project, and wasn't getting any internet, which was essential to the task. If it was part of God's plan, the plan was to have me be sleepy in church the following morning.

Paid and permanent accounts can now throw Google Adsense ads on their LJ and get all the profits(with Google taking their cut of course)! I've considered upgrading my account sometime down the line when I get my huge project underway. I may go self-hosted Wordpress, but for $20/yr, a paid LiveJournal account is a BARGAIN compared to cheap hosting. Even if I upped my storage space to 12GB, it would still be cheaper than GoDaddy's economy package(& get 2GB more space). A domain name isn't in my priorities anyway. My LJ address suits me just fine. IF I ever get a domain name, it'll be something people can understand verbally, and spell correctly when they type it in.
Getting advertising revenue is a huge plus for staying with LiveJournal, even if Adsense doesn't bring much revenue.

*Huge project may not appear within a year or even a century. I don't know yet what my hosting needs will be(simple blog setup or something more custom?), since I'm still designing the project.

On Nightline tonight, they interviewed Michael Moore, who talked about how capitalism is eeevil. At the end, they asked for viewer feedback. I typed a message on their "Closing Arguments" page, but then decided that I really don't know the nature of that forum. There's likely a lot of trolling, lots of debate, and lots of tempers rising. I know that a lot of people will be using that forum, simply because it's a nationally-syndicated show, so these things are very likely. I'm not going to risk committing myself to any debates that might stem from my comment. I just want to post and be done with it. A one-post stand, if you will. So I'm going to post my message here(expanded a little, since that forum seems better for shorter messages), and you may respond if you want. I'm more familiar with you guys, so it won't be as overwhelming as posting to Nightline's site. So here's my answer to, "Is capitalism evil?":

---

Capitalism rewards good work. Plain and simple.

Sure, there are exceptions. Sure, it's not perfect. But if all was shared equally, a farmer would be complacent with low-quality and low-yield crops. Charity is good, but I can't support a system that doesn't reward people for doing a good job.

The reason I say charity is good, is because if less-fortunate people are helped, there will be fewer less-fortunate people bringing us down. BUT, only give if you can spare it. Don't force others to chip in. Let's keep charity a choice, so people don't become less-fortunate because they gave more than they could. Some people ACTUALLY NEED more money than others. I have simple needs, so I can live on my $12,000/yr salary(can't be very happy on that though). Some people have health problems, or children, or a home business, or do more traveling, or don't have roommates, or really like their Starbucks(blegh, coffee). Let them be happy. If they worked hard for their reliable car, let them use their money on it.

From what I watched, Michael Moore's only complaints were of people taking advantage of capitalism. People will take advantage of any system you throw at them.

Just watched Monty Python's Meaning Of Life. 'twas okay. Like most old movies, it was aimed at the audience of that time.
The part where the church congregation repeats what the preacher tells them to say in a monotone, bored voice is VERY true-to-life. I've been Methodist before. Apparently it's not unique to Methodists.
At the end of the credits, you see the typical "The characters and events in this film are fictitious and any similarity to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental". This is at the end of all movies that feature God, isn't it?

...boy, there were a lot of exposed breasts in this movie.

For anybody interested, I'm now on Facebook and have no friends. Currently a member of the FurAffinity group.
My Facebook Profile
Furaffinity group 



Also available:
Furaffinity
Twitter
Tangle (I don't upload)
YouTube (I don't upload)

At the moment, I believe those to be the only worthwhile accounts to have. I deem MySpace to be worthless.

The weather for today is "Scat storms". Sounds like shitty weather. 

Currently on Twitter, I'm following 21 users, including  @god, @baconjesus, @kingofthejews, @theLORD, @THE_ANTICHRIST, @satan, and various furries. Surely one of them is worth following?

Full list at http://twitter.com/ittmi/friends

Today I found Jesus's business card, pictured below.


The verses on the back basically say, "You're a sinner, sinner, but call this guy. He can help."
In my search for a photo or scan of the card online, I found this:

So, I just got followed by @GOD_HATER on Twitter. His/her bio is "I HATE THE FILTHY LYING BASTARD! HE HAS BEEN THE GREATEST CURSE TO ME MY WHOLE LIFE! HE'S THE ONLY ONE TO BLAME FOR EVERYTHING!"
...Is he/she 13? Sure, I'm atheist, but I'm all for loving our misguided friends and family. All of the posts are very hateful. Not following back. 

My fursona turns 2 years and 1 month today! Maybe on my 3rd anniversary I'll remember.

EDIT: GAH, LiveJournal says this account was created on April 26th, but my first entry is on the 25th! After some verifying, I found that it's definitely the 25th. It was during a Wednesday night church service that I thought it up, and the 25th was a Wednesday. I'm a month and a DAY late!

http://twitter.com/ittmi
Alright, I've gotten addicted to Twitter, and I think I'll give it a try under this identity. I've held off getting an ITTMI Twitter account because one account is enough to keep up with, but currently I have a drawing in progress and I've really been wanting to tweet about it. Now I can. I have the drawing penciled currently, but it requires color, which I won't be able to add until Monday night or Tuesday morning. Can't post a WIP pic on FurAffinity, either, because it just doesn't look right without color. It'll be going on FA probably Tuesday. There was another thing I wanted to tweet(which I've forgotten by now), so I think I might actually use the account.

So far, I'm following 13 people, mostly furries. I'm also following God and Bacon Jesus.
http://twitter.com/ittmi

 *sigh* I'm wasting too much time searching for the lyrics to "EN LA PRESENCIA DEL SEÑOR SOY LIBRE". We've sung it in Spanish church many many times. Found a video, but I've already heard the song a LOT of times. Anytime I get that song stuck in my head it goes, "En la presencia del Señor soy libre... soy libre... SOY libre. En la presencia del Señor soy libre... soy libre... SOY libre. Soy libre [something something something] mi(or de, or el or something else) Señor!"
Then it continues "LIBRE SOY!.... [something something something what]" several times. It's driving me crazy. I'm trying to get something done right now, but I'm obsessed with actually knowing the lyrics to the song in my head.
When we were singing it in church, I wonder if anybody noticed me dropping out on every word I didn't know.

The English translation of what I know is "In the presence of the Lord I'm free. I'm free. I'm free."

On the plus side, I found the lyrics to TWO songs that I recall from Spanish church. I had one memorized, but it's good to have the words.
I might sing some songs online sometime ;°)