gregorius88

11:22 pm: Thought for the day
Something unsettling occurred to me, about language and how it reflects our society's values.

When we hear about immoral acts, we often use words like "sick" and "stupid".

For example: There was a man in the news this week, who kept his adult daughter captive in his cellar for decades, and raped her, and when she had his children he kept them locked in the cellar too. That's so sick! Then there was a young man who was driving way too fast, smashed his car and killed his teenage girlfriend. What a stupid idiot.

I think the word "sick" implies a mental illness, and that's probably how this use of the word began. But immorality and mental illness are not the same thing, and in fact, it's unfair to people who suffer mental illnesses. Similarly, "stupid" is not the same as immorality. You can't blame a person for having a low IQ, it's not their choice.

It's like we are shying away from identifying immorality, (maybe because it seems nerdy or preachy), and calling it something else. The danger I see is, this not only degrades people who actually are sick or stupid, but it also shifts blame from the person who acted immorally.

08:22 pm: I'm a Latter Day Saint!
I've decided to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. :) I feel like I've known for a long time that it's the only true path to God, but I've been denying it. I feel so happy now that I'm able to come out and say it. I'm looking forward to my first mission.

I hope Jody takes the news ok. I know she thinks badly of the church.

12:47 pm: Back
Well, I took the long way home :|

Rochester to Adelaide .. via Cleveland, Orlando, Los Angeles, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Sydney. That's 7 different flights, over 4 days. I'm kinda sick of airplanes :P

It was difficult to say goodbye to Jody again. We started saying goodbye on Saturday, but we had some time together on Sunday and a few minutes on Monday before I drove to the airport.

The airlines have lost my luggage, again :|

My phone line is not working, so I can't get online at home. I'm using an internet cafe.

I think I'm getting a cold, and it might be from Taiwan or HK.

I miss being with Jody.

09:50 am: Almost over
Only one more day left in NY. Tomorrow at 7pm I fly out of Rochester, and head home again. I don't want to go. I'm feeling down and I don't feel like doing anything fun now, which is a waste I know. I feel like I could live here and be happy.

It's snowing again today, and it's so pretty. Big fluffy puffs of snow are falling gently. I went out in it earlier and let them fall on my face.

I wish I could be with Jody right now.

10:23 pm: Some things I have done in NY
Some things that I have done in NY so far:
I've shopped a lot. I've rented a car and driven it around. I've scraped ice from the windscreen of the car. I've spun the car off the road into the snow. I've watched some TV. I've seen a car yard full of Corvettes. I've been to the movies. I've stayed in a really lovely room at an inn. I've eaten fast food and TV dinners and donuts. I've had many sweet moments with Jody. I've held Jody close and kissed her lips. I've been tempted to give TMI.

05:01 pm: I'm leeeevin on a jet plane ...
... to visit my honey :D
This time tomorrow, I will be on a plane on the way to the USA (via Sydney and China).
I'm so excited, and hopeful, and nervous!

I had a back ache from Saturday until today - now it's just a little niggle that I feel now and then. Thank God that got better. I can't imagine how uncomfortable I'd be on the loooooong flights with a sore back.

I'm gonna squarsh Jody so tightly when I see her on Thursday! :D

02:12 pm: Anti-gay preacher attacks Heath Ledger
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=371907

This guy Fred Phelps has said that it's good that Heath Ledger died, because of his role in "Brokeback Mountain". WTF?

Firstly, I don't agree that homosexuality is sinful. But that doesn't matter because of the "secondly" that comes next.

Secondly, Christians DON'T want sinners to die. Christians want sinners to LIVE, at least long enough to become repentant of their sins. To want a person to die before they've repented is to want them to go to Hell, and no one who calls themself Christian can want that.

Thirdly, where is Phelps's Christlike compassion for Ledger's family? They're mourning, and instead of sending his condolences to them, he insults them. Even if a mass murderer died, a good person would not insult the deceased's family in response. It's just sick.

Fourthly, he is doing unimaginable damage to the reputation of Christ. Uneducated people will hear him and blame the Christian Church as a whole for his horrible views. They'll think the Bible is a handbook for some nazi-like hatred of humanity. Imagine how much good-news preaching has been undone by his words.

Even if you consider homosexuality to be a sin, Phelps's actions are a hundred times more sinful, a hundred times more anti-Christ than homosexuality. He needs to go back to Sunday School for a few years, and learn the basics of the Bible.

03:57 am: Creme Brulee ice cream
I have a tub of creme brulee flavoured ice cream. Oooohhhhh, Divine!

10:17 pm: Cloverfield!!
http://www.cloverfieldmovie.com/

I saw this movie a week ago, opening day jan 17, and I loved it! I'm still fascinated by it :D It takes some time at the start of the movie establishing the characters' back stories, and that's kinda dull, but knowing what is to come I felt juicy anticipation and tension. Once the monster arrives, the movie is so tense and panicky and scary the whole way through right to the end! Warning, it gets your heart racing with terror, it has some gory bits, and lots of people die violently. Some parents brought their kids to the theatre I was in - I felt bad for them, because it was definitely not appropriate for kids.

The monster is cool. If you don't want to know about it, stop reading here. It's different, that's for sure. They don't reveal where it came from - I think that's cool. It's enormous, but I wish they had made it bigger, it doesn't quite tower over the buildings and that's what I wanted to see. You don't see much of it for the first 2/3rds of the movie, but they do show you some good views later on. I think it looks like a bat, with no skin, fur or ears. Have you ever seen footage of a bat walking with its wings? that's how this monster moved, on bizarre long front legs, with no back legs, only a long snakelike tail. Very weird looking.

It was in the theme of Godzilla, but it did so much better than that movie staring Matthew Broderick - and I loved that movie too.

http://www.1-18-08.com/ - weirdly unusual site related to the movie

06:09 am: Agnosticism
I was thinking about Agnosticism today. The point of view that God's existence cannot be proven, and therefore should not be believed.

I like to challenge myself sometimes by debating religion in my imagination, against some of the persistent anti-religious arguments that I've read and heard. Crazy, I know :P I used to go to TheFourcorners for that kind of stimulation and outlet, but not anymore.

So, today, I was having an imaginary debate with an imaginary agnostic voice in my head, which argued "You can't provide physical proof that God exists. I won't believe until I see Him for myself." My reply was:

"I can't provide physical proof that my mother exists, either. I could ask for witnesses who saw her giving birth to me, but they would be like witnesses of Christ's presence in our lives - only subjective evidence. We could ask her for a DNA sample, which she may not agree to and then we're stuck. If we did get a DNA sample, and got results from a lab saying that mine and hers match, you might consider that to be proof. But, you see, that is an assumption that the lab technician is telling us the truth, much in the same way that I assume the Bible and the Church are telling me the truth. You could spend a few years studying advanced biology so that you know for yourself all the scientific basis for how a DNA test is conducted, and then perform the test yourself - but even that is an assumption that the biology you were taught is not a lie. Before I can prove to you that I am the offspring of my mother, you must retrace the steps of Biological research, and perform every experiment in history for yourself that has led to the discovery that DNA testing reveals the parent/offspring relationship, so that you know first-hand that it is a reliable method. Until then, you are unable to witness the proof for yourself. By that time, maybe you will have heard God's voice speaking to you."

It occurred to me then that I have no proof of where babies come from! I have never seen a child being born for myself. And of course, I have never seen the moment of conception. I've seen mothers' bellies growing week by week, but I have no evidence on hand that it is because of the babies inside them. I can only go by what other people have told me about how babies are made - that the egg and sperm unite, the cell divides, the fetus grows within the mother's uterus, and finally emerges from her after nine months - so they tell me, and I trust them, and I know it's true.

If I were agnostic, though, I might decide that I can't know that the miracle of childbirth is the truth.