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.

Turned out to be a very nice weekend. The first pride not living on or right-off elmwood. I missed the rooftop gathering (and suppose I'll miss them for all the other elmwood centered events), but we still managed to round up a decent sized get together. So hot, though, I was seriously moist the entire afternoon, and not in a good way. The parade and the crowd seems to get bigger every year. Are more people gay every year? I don't think so, just that the overall social climate is moving in the right direction, all those closeted people are more comfortable getting out there. The whole day for me is always spent watching people. So many different kinds of people. Some truly bizarro people. Anyways, it was fun, and thanks to everyone who came over and played.

sidenote: "The Supreme Court ruled today that federal agents may raid the homes of Californians who use medical marijuana, holding that the strict federal drug laws prevail over the state's liberalized marijuana laws." from:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-060605scotus_lat,0,7645103.story?coll=la-home-headlines All those horrible criminals comitting crime like cancer and glaucoma, can no longer hide behind the veil of state's rights to do their illicit activities. Thank god. The strange thing is the justices who voted the way I would have (which is let them have their friggin dope) were the three most conservative. Strange to find yourself in the same camp as Rehnquist, Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas. Though I have to admit that many arguments that real conservatives have (as opposed to the right wing neo-cons and religious freaks) are compelling. Things like local power, i.e. state's rights and fiscal responsibility are sound ideas. It's just the current brand of nuts running our country don't seem to really be conservatives at all, they just use all the rhetoric with a sprinkling of jesus. OK, nuff said, gotta go treat my glaucoma. :)