When I was a mere lad hiding in the shade from the blaring Las Vegas sun, I was seduced by some snake-charmers. They seduced me with fantastic promises of life after death in a crystal world where your body is transmuted from one of blood and bone to one of flesh and bone. They invited me to social gatherings two or three times a week, and made sure that I felt comfortabls as one of only a few whose whole family weren't already members. We always prayed together, before and after every gathering, and five or ten times on Sundays. On special occassions each month, those who were worthy would visit the temple and be baptised in the name of those who while on earth never had the chance. They called this baptism for the dead. It was a neat experience, if mostly because it was one of a very few times we were allowed within the hallowed sanctuary. I still remember the twelve white bison who supported the baptismal font with a mixture of awe and fixation, it was a truly beautiful building.

My stint with the mormons lasted about three or four years, from junior high through about 11th grade. I even went to seminary every school day, forsaking a proper lunch break. I was president of the deacons for a while, and presided over my troop of sacrament handlers with humbled respect. In other words, I was pretty involved. Not that you ususally have much of a choice. Once mormons smell a spiritual vacancy they lunge and its hard to break free once their smiling tentacles grab hold. I guess they're the 4th largest church in America, yet still have more members outside of America than here at home. Though who's truly separating the numbers of true believers in Africa and South America from those who are "members" of any and all churches handing out food? I'd listen to a sermon from a different church every week, if they gave me food and I was starving.

Anyways, I eventually broke free, aided by my own personal failings (from a mormon's point of view at least), and can now live my own life without the guidance of a prophet interpreting god's words for me. Halleluja!

What brought about this whole unanticipated bout of religious remembrance is this news story that I happened to hear a bit from NPR on my way home. The gist is that the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), a group that broke away from the "mainstream" mormons, or LDS, around a hundred years ago, has over the years "exiled" over a 1,000 boys from its communities, mostly in rural Utah, Arizona, and Texas. The suspected reason for these abandonments is that these polygamists need at least three wives to be accepted into Heaven, and the competition for young girls is pretty fierce. "Many of these "Lost Boys," some as young as 13, have simply been dumped on the side of the road..." Truthfully though, maybe they're lucky to escape these weirdos.

This all just makes me more suspicious of any kind of organized religion. It seems anytime you start following a book on how to lead your life, you end up with scholars of this book interpreting it for you (priests), and eventually these scholars just start interpreting however they see fit. It leads to these weirdos, and to Catholic molestors, and to Hindi wife-burners, and Muslim zealots. Every religion has its share. Everyone nees to take responsibility for their own lives. If you believe Christ will help you or Buddha will show you the way, fine. But at least learn to talk to them yourself, and don't rely on middlemen, because that's just what they always are, middle men who in the end are no closer to god than you or me.

...are covering my body. My torso, the crook of my arm opposite the elbow, my ankles (especially when I take my socks off right after work. They don't do much except look ugly and vaguely itch, but...if I so dare as begin thinking about scratching, they start to itch like crazy. Then, once begun it just goes on, and then they become slightly raised and throb with itchiness. Yucky. I like warmth, but this extra-humid heat is apparently overloading my delicate northern European constitution.

sidenote: This now appears at the entrance to the catalog at the library website

The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, SIRSI Corporation and Barnes & Noble.com have joined forces to give you the ability to purchase from Barnes & Noble.com's Stock of more than 1 million titles without ever leaving your library or computer. Now, in addition to book borrowing, B&ECPL can offer you the service of book purchasing, plus access to enriched content not found elsewhere.

Just Click on the "Buy Now" icon to purchase an item listed in the catalog...Buy it now at Barnes&Noble.com
Quoted from: B&ECPL Catalog :: Welcome!

So when you're searching for a book, you get this prompt to "Buy Now" and if you click it you're redirected to B&N website, where you can then purchase the book. Now I know the city is strapped for funds and everything, but this seems a little sketchy. It's basically just an advertisement on our public website. I question how effective it's going to be, I mean if you have the money or desire to just buy books why are you at the library website? Are there really people who are going to be looking to borrow a book who will find, to their delight, that they don't have to stoop to borrowing, they can just buy! Why didn't these people just go to a bookselling site in the first place?

I guess at this level there's not too much harm in it. But these things have a way of taking on a life of their own. Now it's just a hint at the bottom of the page, maybe soon we'll just be redirected to the B&N site, and there we'll find a little link, hidden at the bottom of the page, to check local library listings. You also have to wonder if B&N is getting more than just an advertisement. Are they also buying the most sought after data in internet sales: the targeted sales listings. Do they get to know what we're all checking out and put it in lists and better market to us? Hmmm

I wonder if they'll survive. And where will the go when their legs grow?

We went hiking at the Zoar valley today. Gotta be directions on the site somewhere if you search. Near Gowanda. It was lotsa fun. I just wanted to stay in the water the whole tme. If I glow a little green you now know why. Almost forgot to skip rocks. But made a few across at the end.

I think I may seriously know what I want to do when I gorw up. I want to be a systems analyst focusing on minimizing/eliminating/reutilizing waste. Basically convincing people that waste doesn't exist until you create it. Nature has no waste. Everything is food. Why should a modern manafacturing firm be any different? Or architecture? Or any other number of fields? It sounds like something I am into, and something that people will pay for. It's the best of both worlds. I help people make money and spare the earth at the same time. It's the only way environmentalism is going to get anywhere. If we wait for Congress it's gonna be to late. We gotta get the people who do things, namely the capitalists, to realize that the way they do things now is 1)not going to be available forever 2)is highly inefficient and 3)is using more of their capital (and nature's capital) than necessary to get the same (or often better) profit with improved methods. A couple books I'm reading are really getting me motivated. Yo.

My wonderful aunt Cheryl thought to send me some pictures from my trip to Vegas a couple months ago, what a gal! So without further ado:


My immediates: mommy, Denise, bro, Caleb, and sis, Alex


Us again


Mom replaced with cousin, Britton Ann


Alex (with for-the-camera pouty face) and Britton (with super model smile)


Britton again (Cheryl, the photographer is her mom), Aunt Lovey, and Sis-in-law, Paris


Me with Britton, and Caleb with wife, Paris


The kids tearing into presents. The guy with his back to us is Caleb Jr. (CJ), and this is the only pic I have of him, darn it. The guy on the left is his bro, Aiden. And the lil girl is aunt Lovey's Elizabeth. And of course, Britton. :)


Up close of nephew, Aiden. Such a cutie.


Elizabeth rolling around on the ground, one of her favorite passtimes. See more of her here: [inlink]terry,414[/inlink]


I love this picture. This is me and uncle Reiny (Cheryl's wife and Britton's dad). He is rather right leaning and I'm rather left. After the table has cleared of everyone else tired of hearing our nonstop opinions, this is what we look like. Notice the crossed legs, and alternate hand-waving/crossed arms. The speaker waves, extolling the virtures of his beliefs, the listener sits back and shoots skeptical glances. Much fun.


Here's my cousin Nicole, holding one of her chillins, and her mom (my aunt) Donna. Then my mommy. Then Britton, well duh, and the only pic of my aunt Cheryl, I think I took this one.


This is me, pretty toasted at this point, and Britton. She's almost as tall as me, like 6' sheesh.


Us again, looking happy. And we were.

Born about two days ago. My favorite auntie Lovey's second little girl. How lucky she is for such a cutie. And the first, Elizabeth, is already so darn cute. Here's some pics.


Samantha a couple minutes after birth


Samantha a couple days after birth

I've been home from work for about an hour. This shift is strange. I can't ever just go to bed after work, so always do something first, a movie, a book, a video game, (e:strip)? I just watched a PBS documentary for a half hour or so. It chronicled the adventures of a Vietnamese girl who came for schooling to America. She lived in Georgia. Maybe that's enough said. There was a conversation between her and a friend about gay people and the hickbilly says that while being a lesbian is maybe okay, the thought of gay men is disgusting, just wrong. Maybe I should rejoice that lesbians at least are okay, though I fear some malecentric propaganda is the cause. Anyways, the Vietnamese girl has some money problems (she's going to figgin' Tulane, a school I wouldn't've tried to afford, fer heaven's sake) and is forced to get a job. At first as a farily harmless waitress in a Chinese restaurant, but then as the money situation tightens, she is forced to change schools and move to Detroit where she does nails. The last scene of the program is her doing some disgusting old bag's toenails. The lady calmly instructs her on how best to cut off her yellowing skin and nails, while asking questions like, "so how do you like America?" Then after instructing her that she wants the deep red, "cause it looks like the American flag," she explains that she would feel real bad if the girl had any negative impressions of our country. I'm thinking, is this not just about the worst impression of our country, the foreigner who is forced to scrub nasty women's feet in order to pay for her education? The girl even comments that she never expected to be doing the job of the shoe shiner back home. Ahhh America.

I hurt my back. I think it was the biking-day followed by the canoeing-day followed by the 4-hour nap on the couch (which is not all that big and also housed (e:matthew) at the time). I think it's getting better now, but oh how I hate being a gimp. While I made soup today I was seriously hunched like an old-old man. It's all in the way I sleep. My favorite position is somewhere between side and belly. I start out pure side (which I think is fine for the back) but then my leg slowly crooks and extends, until I am half-side and half-belly, which I think puts strange stresses on my back. I need to do a gandhi-stlye sleep on the floor thing. Tonight, at least.

Welcome back (e:springfaerie)!

Welcome back New York trippers!

is that one n or two?

Went on a bike ride with my friend Dave from Lockport and a couple of his friends. Pat and Terri are fun, but they take their time, from skiing to canoeing, they're always "bringin up the rear", as they like to say. Took them on my"hidden trails of B-low" tour, from the park to Grant St. via the Scajaquada trail. We were supposed to make it to the river, but the rain and the dawdling shortened our journey. We went around the Richardson Complex instead. It always amazes me that people from as near as Lockport are ignorant of Buffalo, and it's "sights." Suburbs (not that Lockport can really be described as a suburb) have really become almost fully autonomous, with no need for succor from the mother-city.

We are contemplating going to the gaystravaganza now. If we wait til 2 it's only five bucks. But it's only 12:30 and we're tuckering out, and it's such a stressful fashion-packed event. Maybe we'll make it, maybe not. But I sure will miss Sabrina and Ms. Fantasee-Island if we don't.

Like, right now. I am going to put on shoes, pump my tires, and off I go. Perhaps Forest Lawn, perhaps the park, perhaps the riverwalk...maybe you'll see me flying (or slowly huffing) by.

Literally my neck is red. Too much backseat driving. Vacation is very nice. We managed to get the travel time right this time which is very important. We are far enough away that it is exciting, but not so far that we spend the whole time in a car. (e:southernyankee) is being very hospitable, as tonight is the second time this week that we are sleeping on her floor and furniture. Wish we could get to see her more. I'm sure most of my (e:peeps) agree. She left a hole on the strip that will be a long time healing over.

Camping on the beach is neat. We were only about 50 feet from the beach but on the other side of a dune, so it wasn't visible directly. Crazy thing is that the dune is being re-constructed because human activities have led to its erosion at 10-100 times the natural rate. So us humans, clever beings that we are, have decided to import sand (over 2 million tons so far) and plant new dune grass to re-naturalize the landscape. Of course this involves many big machines. We woke up to a gigantic shuddering and quaking our first morning. It was seriously Armageddonesque. The wind was fierce enough to rip the tent from its stakes. Turned out that the ground was actually shaking as giant earth-moving tractors pummeled the ground in their ongoing attempts to recreate nature. Needless to see we got up nice and early that morning.

K, enough of my boring pictureless journal. Really, how do you compete with the documenting duo of (e:paul) and (e:matthew)? One has posted over 20 journals so far from our half-week long vacation. The other will wow you all with his budding naturalist photography as soon as he can plug in his camera. But, hey, I love 'em so why complain? Just enjoy!

Looking to quench my burning fantasy thirst, which has been reoccurring since early childhood, I turned to Amazon for a suitable selection. I don't intend to actually buy the books, just find promising ones and then borrow from our pretty expansive library collection. It's very handy for reviews and book covers (which usually have so little to do with what's inside, but nevertheless prove crucial) and synopsi and such. They added lists a couple years back where you can read the suggestions of other like-minded individuals (ie: the 21 must-read fantasy books of all time), and now have come up with SIP or Statistically Improbable Phrases. I guess it's a catalog of oft-occurring phrases throughout the book, and extension of their "Search Inside! program" which displays the text of a limited amount of pages. Here's the SIP I got for this cheap fantasy novel I was looking at:

his inner barriers, tiny spiral horn, spear thread, large blackwood desk, shattered crystal chalices, dark psychic scent, communal eyrie, seduction tendrils, landing web, landen village, shattered chalice, gray jewels, controlling ring, jewel darker, gutter son, his dark wings, jewel chips, psychic thread, aristo families, bladed stick, witch storm, psychic tendril, fawn tail, snake tooth, her gold eyesQuoted from: Amazon.com: Books: Black Jewels Trilogy, The

Pretty neat stuff. I love the pure innovation. They got these anomalous phrases by first cataloging a vast amount of data and then isolating the various phrases within each book which occured significantly only within the pages of that particular book. So random yet oddly useful.

sidenote: My reluctance to use dictionaries has once again led me astray. Today's word of the day is ameliorate which I thought I knew. I thought it meant to get rid of or to lessen or something. In fact it means, very logically, to grow better (think Spanish mejor=better). See, the problem is that it's always used with bad things (dict.com's examples include "ameliorate the family's exiguous circumstances" and "ameliorate human suffering") which if they are ameliorated are in fact being diminished or done away with. If I ameliorate my TV addiction I am making it better but it is also lessening. Right? It wasn't like I was misunderstanding the word just misinterpreting it. Yeah.