The Pub

Back from the Dead

I got back into town on Sunday night.  This has been one of the most tiring two weeks of my life.  I had to put up with far too much drama than is called for in a two week EMT class.  On the upside I am unofficially an Emergency Medical Technician.  I won't get the results back from my National Registry Exam for about two weeks.  This is the hardest test I have ever taken.  I'm not sure I past.  I'm sure I probably did but there were enough bull-shit questions and answers that it is possible I didn't pass.  Anyway, I should be back on the blogging path.  It's taken me a day to re-coupe my lack of sleep, but I think I made it.  Hope everyone has missed me,  I missed you all.

Not for the Kiddies

This post is not for the kiddies.  If you get offended at cursing then you should probably not read the following:

*read the following as if you were very angry*

People are fucking retards.  There are thirty three people in this class and and probably 6-10 of them have an IQ larger than a pile of shit.  Why is this disturbing?  Because this is an EMT class!  These are the people that will be saving your life someday when you get something stuck up your asshole or your kid swallows a chicken head and turns blue (cyanotic).  Most of them are drinking until about 2 or 3 in the A.M. and then complaining because they are tired the next day!  What the fuck did you think would happen you fucking douche?  One guy told me that he believes the bible now because they found an underwater city that was predicted in the bible.  I thought I was dreaming, surely nobody is that fucking stupid and takes classes to save peoples lives.  Barely anyone takes showers, many of them have vocabularies that are made up of mostly "fucks" and "shits".   I don't have a problem with these words, but if you can't say anything else, then I think that is pretty fucking pathetic.  This one guys breathe stinks so bad I think this his mouth doubles as his asshole.  It's mainly dudes and the girls that are here are disgusting (except for one and she is odd).  There is this one girl that I'm not convinced is a girl and she is one of those people that you are 100% sure decended from a apes and is a few stages less removed than the rest of the human race.  There are some people from other countries here.  Now alot of people who don't have accents are starting to talk with accents.  This is fucking irritating beyond words. (except for these)  EMS workers are the most unhealthy motherfuckers on the planet.  Just about everyone here drinks themselves stupid and smoke and eat greese for every meal.  Another kid talks all the time so loud and obnoxious about how cool and tough he is that you just want to end his life.  I know I made a news years resolution to not be violent.  So maybe I will talk someone else into ending him.  The instructors are great, the information is life-saving, the students are fuck bags, and I'm tired.  So if you want to keep your faith in human goodness, don't go to EMT school.  It's all down hill from here.

Thief!

So obviously I have access to a computer up here.  I would normally be happy about that, but someone has stolen all of my cash that I brought.  Almost five hundred dollars.  That leaves me with zero dollars and a credit card.  I'm fucking pissed!  There is no justice in the world!

On Hiatus

I am leaving tomorrow morning to go to Indiana.  I don't think that I will have internet access so I probably won't be posting for about two weeks.  I plan on being back Sunday the 28th. 

My future plans are to get on at either the Broken Arrow or the Tulsa Fire Dept.  and I am going to have to get my EMT either way so that is what I will be doing in Indiana.  Anyway, that's the plans.  Hope everyone is safe and I hope that everyone can survive without my profound insights into life for the next couple of weeks.  If things change, and I get access, I will let you know.  Love yas.

Lenton quagmire resolved!

I was torn on the whole idea of Lent and what I was going to sacrifice for it.  I've heard before that it is a good idea to give up something that isn't beneficial really anyway or something you could continue with afterward.  Last year I gave up red meat.  Did pretty well and I don't eat much red meat any more.  I don't drink soft drinks much and I don't drink that much alcohol (recently anyway).  I only watch a little TV now that God gave me Tivo and I couldn't think of anything else.  I thought about giving up cussing, Fuck that!  I thought about giving up breathing but all the cool kids are breathing so that didn't make much sense either. 

I figured it out though.  Today while I was at work I remembered my new years resolution about violence and not objectifying women and I remembered that one thing I do that contributes to both of these is listen to rap/hip-hop music.  This genre consumes most of my listening even though I think most of the subject matter is appalling.  With the exception of a few artists, and a few songs by otherwise corrupt artists, hip-hop is pretty much racist, misogynistic, violent, greedy, and altogether promotes an agenda that I would consider immoral.  There is just something about the beat and the rhyming that I like a lot.  But I can't see any down side to giving this up and I will definitely miss it.  Besides, I've really wanted to expand my music world so if you have any suggestions of good artists with thoughtful music (no country music damnit!) please feel free to suggest.  I look at the music on a lot of your blogs but I'm not sure where to start. 

Happy Lenton season (can I say that), to all of you.  I hope that it is meaningful and rich as we all participate in Christ's vision together. 

Something Wonderful

If you don't already read Real Live Preacher you need to.  His most recent post What Children Bring to the Table is so amazing.  Please take the time to read it.  You won't regret it.

Super Bowl blues

I was really hoping that Philadelphia would pull this one out.  It isn't that I don't like New England, its just that I get sick of seeing the same people in the super bowl several years at a time.  But my hopes were crushed, and I attribute this to two people.

One, Bill Belichick is freakin Genius.  I know that he has a great staff with him and that he has been getting some criticism as of late about whether or not he will do as well without them next year.  But my contention is Yes!  His offensive coordinate Weis had another obligation at Notre Dame that took up much of his time during the later part of the season and they still continued to dominate.  Philadelphia simply got out coached.  Sure Brady is fantastic and so is much of his supporting cast but the coaching is really began to shine when they starting getting plagued by injuries and still came out on top.

Two, McNabb was a choke artist that game.  He got pressured a bit but his throwing was shitty at best.  His only two good throws were the ones for touchdowns.  All of the others looked like ducks and his throwing under pressure made him look like a first year player.  He has a decent receiving core and Owens amazed everyone at how well he played on that ankle.  Westbrooke takes second place, dropping passes right in his hands and catching a pass for no gain on their own 7 with no timeouts and 30 seconds left on the clock.  Gotta be smarter than that.  The coaching staff comes in third.  They had no idea what to do with New Englands Offense after the first have.  There clock management at the end of the game was atrocious and I don't think I've ever scene a worse hurry up offense.  They should have won that game.  Too many mistakes.

Oh well, I'm not too heart broken about it.  Neither one of them are my teams.  Although my team, the Bills, have had there share of my disappointment as well, they are improving and I'm hoping to see some real progress in the next year and maybe even see them get a piece of the super bowl pie as well.  I know, I'm a dreamer.

Give me give me give me!

First Baptist Broken Arrow sent me a pledge card yesterday so I could commit to give money to their new Gym/Basketball court/education facility.  This is the next phase of their multi-million dollar building project.  This phase is projected to run about 4.5 million to build and God knows how much to maintain and run. 

The pledge card was sent to anyone who has ever been on the mailing list at any time at the Church.  The card was to be presented to the church at some formal service when they would show their faithfulness to God through giving.  They even ended the card with this, "For God so loved the world that he gave. . ."  AHHHH!  What!  That is unbelievable.  He have his SON not U.S. Currency.  He came to show us how to live, not to show us that bigger is better or how to use religious literature to guilt people into giving money to basketball courts. 

Although this is not the first of these monetary manipulations.  I know personally of stories where certain people in charge have contacted people in the congregation who were well know to have money and tell them they need to give more to said project than they are.  Members of my family were "dismissed" from their teaching positions because they weren't giving regularly to the church.  (They were, it was just one large sum at the end of the year instead of every week, but no matter)  I must have missed the part where Jesus said, "Blessed is the church politician who uses strong arm tactics to get money for a building that will be considered far more important than any person in it".  But then again, I haven't done my quiet time in a while.

Religious ground Zero!

I live about half a mile from the largest Southern Baptist church in the Tulsa area.  I also live directly across the street from one of, if not the, largest charismatic churches in the nation. 

First Baptist Broken Arrow is the poster-child for SB church politics.  There is more fundamentalist ass-kissing going there than almost anywhere I've ever been.  The pastor of that church just recently headed up an anti-homosexual rally.  Their new facility is going to cost them about 28 mill when everything is said and done.  But the worst part is that the music minister has one of those fakey smiles on ALL THE TIME!  He would smile and say stuff like, "I'm going through some of the hardest struggles in my life right now".  This guy can't be for real, or else they throw in a bonus for him if he can hold the smile for the whole service. 

Rhema Bible Church is the epitome of pop-charismatic Christianity.  They own about half a square mile of land and have buildings that take up most of that space.  This is the home of the famed Kenneth Haggin and I think his son has taken over now that he is dead.  So much for the "Lord coming back before I die" prophecy.  They also have a bible school that operates during the week.  They teach everything from theology to economics using the bible as the main text.  So you see why this school is among the academic elite.  Most of the people that I have talked to that go there are usually good folk.  But they are almost always under-educated and/or borderline hypochondriacs.  On top of their main worship center there is a giant shield that said FAITH across it.  This has cast a dark shadow on my life (literally) ever since I can remember.  On the upside, they have a great lights display at Christmas.

So I live in the middle of two extremes that are constantly firing arrows over my head at one another.  Neither one of them have anything productive to say about the other but it is easy to target them as enemies because they are both fighting over the same local territory and they view each other as "the other".  When humanity is dismissed this easily, just about anything is fair game.

I always write in my blog at Panera Bread Co. which is close to my house and the silent tension persists even here.  The groups get together here all the time to espouse their religious views to each other.  As I speak there are two ladies sitting next to me stringing out a long line of "The bible says . . ." and "Jesus provides everything you need" cliches.  One of the ladies even has "My Redeemer Lives" as her ring tone.  From time to time I hear a group of SB get together to talk about hating gays or liberals or something of that nature.  I've yet to hear a productive conversation yet and all the excessive extremists Christianity is starting to make me ill.  I miss the conversations with The Parish in the city where I was held accountable for what I thought and did on certain issues.  Sure we agreed a lot but unlike here, we didn't spend the whole time making each other feel good about how much this, or how much that we were.  It makes for an intellectually dis-interesting place to spend my time.

New Years resolutions and tomorrow.

I think I have finally decided what my new years resolutions are going to be.  A couple of them are more vague than I would like but they are more like "New years resolution principles that I am going to take seriously".  Here goes.

1) Principle #1 = I am going to do everything in my power to not participate in, or encourage violence of any sort.  This is important for me given my group of former frat-boy friends.

2) Principle #2 = I am going to do my very best to find and eradicate all of the ways that I continue to objectify women.  I'm as much as a feminist as the next guy, but I know that I still participate in this sometimes.  The more I find myself around intellegent, thoughtful women (unfortunately most them are old or married) the more I see why objectifying them is disgusting.  I'm going to stop this.

3) I am going to surround myself more and more with thoughtful people.  I know there are many in Tulsa, but I'm going to find them and spend time around them damnit!  I need that sort of accountability.

4) I am not going to get shit-faced drunk any more.  This has only happened to me a couple of times and everytime I know it was irresponsible and I feel like dog shit the next morning.  Plus I read recently about the health effects of binge drinking.  Not Good!

5) I am going to find something I enjoy and get good at it.  Along with that I am going to start deciding what things I like and don't like.  Time I start living in my own shoes for a change.

6) I am going to communicate with my father better.  He is a good man and I think he can teach me alot if we can learn to talk to each other without totally missing what the other person is saying.

7) I am going to drink more wine, more good beer, and less crappy beer.  This is a biggy.

8) I am going to move into my own place withing the next two months.  Guaranteed!

9) I am going to read at least three chapters of a book per week, I want to read more but I need to be realistic

10)  Finally, I am going to work out at least three times a week.  I feel better, have more energy, etc. when I am working out and that is good for me. 

That is all.  Nothing too exciting but they sound kind of realistic to me.  I'm sure I'll fail at some of them, but no New Years list is complete without a failed resolution or two.

P.S. My birthday is tomorrow!  That's right, I'm getting old folks.  So wish me a happy birthday, it will make my endorphin levels rise and I consider that Christ like.